Finally, some content

Thanks for waiting.

The eight weeks running up to Christmas is a pretty busy time, and it gets to the point where I'm simply not home during daylight hours. I have a lot of fun but Stuff Gets Put Off. Things happen like I forget I have a pool.

So today was the day to deal with Jessamy's car. It got broken into the day after my birthday and it needed a window replaced. :-( So last night I pulled it into the garage and helpfully vacuumed up all the glass I could find in the car and I tried to get the window mechanism to go back down into the door. To do this I had the ignition turned on. This morning I called around and found a shop that could replace the window same-day. The price was pretty good too. I was supposed to be there at 11.

About 10:40 I go out to the garage, move Sharon's car out of the way, and get into Jess's car and turn the key.

Nothing happens. Not even a click. I had left the ignition on all night.

So no problem, I'll put the car in neutral, roll it out of the garage and jump start it. I put my hand on the shifter and press down on the button.

It doesn't move. You need to have the ignition on to shift the transmission.

OK. Hmmm. I open the hood. Except it only opens about six inches. The car is parked with its front just under the workbench at the back of the garage. The workbench blocks the hood from opening. I can see the battery...

So I prop the hood open with a plastic peanut jar that's holding a bunch of drywall screws. That's just enough so I can reach in and clip the jumper cable clamps onto the battery terminals. I pay out the rest of the cable and it reaches not quite to the rear bumper.

Hmmm. Maybe I'll take the battery out of one of the many cars we have and use that to jump...

So I go wake up Andy and ask him if he has jumper cables, which I then locate and clip onto the end of the OTHER jumper cables as a MacGuyver extension cord. I get Sharon's car in position and open the hood and connect the cables.

So since I don't think it would be prudent to try to start Jess's car with extended jumper cables, I just switch the ignition on so I can put the transmission in Neutral. That works.

I put away the extender cables, remove the original set of jumper cables, remove the peanut jar, and close the hood. I move Sharon's car back out of the way. Then I can take off the brake and use my left foot to push Jess's car backwards out of the garage.

Holy mother of god it is hard to steer a modern car while you are rolling it slowly and there is no power steering.

I finally get the car rolled down the driveway so it's about even with the front of the Suburban. Once again I connect up the jumper cables (just one set this time) and try to start the little blue car. I needed to start the Suburban to get enough voltage to start the Honda.

After the Honda was started up, I put away the cables in the trunk so I could use them again if needed, closed up the Suburban, closed the garage door, and got on my way.

The window got fixed, rather uneventfully, and all was well.