so this morning i discovered why one should not procrastinate when it comes to needing a new battery for their car.
i’ve known for a couple weeks now that my car battery was on its last legs. the car was sluggish to start in the mornings, and especially in the evenings after sitting outside in the cold all day…not to mention that the battery was more than five years old to begin with (which is definitely approaching the lifespan of a battery anyway). but i procrastinated.
so this morning i walked outside, hopped in my car, turned the key and…zzzzt. nothing. the battery wasn’t totally dead because the console lights came on and my headlights worked (albeit quite dimly), but there wasn’t enough juice to make the engine turn over. i quickly realized my weekend error…er, or my idiocy.
see, i spilled some water in my trunk and wanted to let it dry out. so i left the trunk open in my garage all weekend, totally forgetting that this would mean the tiny little trunk light would also be on all weekend. on a good battery, i doubt that a day and a half with the trunk light on would have been enough to drain the power to the point where the engine wouldn’t start. on an already weak battery, though…
anyway, i was lucky enough to catch debbie still at home, so she brought her car over, i managed to shift mine into neutral and push it out of the garage so that my jumper cables could reach from debbie’s car to mine, and jump-started ol’ vic. he was quite sluggish to charge, but finally had enough to allow me to drive to firestone and immediately replace the battery. i didn’t get to work until 9:45, which sucks because now i have to stay until 6:15 to get in my 8 hours! yuck.
and batteries are expensive! ugh. well, merry christmas to my car.
