That title’s an amalgamation of the only two things I really did today: play on the Wii and jump the Olds.

As I often do, I got up with Milly this Saturday morning to let Amanda sleep in a little.  She got up with her yesterday, afterall.  We decided to eat what we had left over from yesterday’s breakfast.  They weren’t leftovers, but unused/uncooked portions.  Any time you have a breakfast of eggs, bacon and apple sausage, it’s going to be a good thing.

Amanda felt like going out and doing something, but it was really cold outside and we couldn’t think of much of anything to do.  We probably should have put away the Christmas decorations, but we didn’t.  Instead we pretty much just played on the Wii all day long.

Later in the evening I decided to try jumping my car, which has been dormant for… a while now.  Jeez, I don’t even know how long it’s been.  I haven’t been able to start it for a while now, and only Bonnie and Dave across the street seem to have jumped cables that work for it, so I borrowed cables from Dave.

Of course it couldn’t be that easy, and when I pulled the lever to pop my hood the plastic peg that pulls some kind of wire to do the actual popping snapped.  I went to take the cables back to Dave but he decided to come out and help me.  We were able to pop the hood by pulling the wire with some pliers.  From there we hooked the Jetta up to the Olds and revved it for a few minutes before it finally started.  Dave suggested that I leave the car running for a while before taking it out for a drive to charge it up more, but it cut off when I turned the heat on, so we had to jump it again.

I left it running for about 15 minutes then drove around for a while.  Dave said as low as it was I should probably drive it for about 45 minutes or so.  I rode around looking for free air for my tires (which were pretty low) before stopping by my brother-in-law’s apartment.  I had called him earlier because Amanda wanted to borrow Rayman’s Raving Rabbids, a party game for the Wii.  He and Jenn were watching Signs.

After that I got my air, which I paid for because all the places it was free were either not strong enough to pump up my tires or the hose was broken, then stopped by Lowe’s Food to pick up some Goldfish for Amanda.  Of course the car, which had been charging for over an hour at that point, didn’t start.  It didn’t take quite as much to jump it this time though.  I called Amanda but she was putting Milly to bed, so I was heading inside to ask the management at the grocery store if I could get a jump when a couple was coming out.  I asked them and they happened to be parked right next to the Olds.

Once I got home and parked the car I tried, just for, as Amanda calls it, “grins and giggles,” to start the car again.  Nada.  Not as dead as before, but dead nonetheless.  I told Dave about it as I was returning his jumper cables, which he told me to hold onto just in case, and he said that the problem was probably with the battery.  Probably a dead cell, he said.

I think it might still be under warranty.  I should find that out sooner than later.

Zach Dotsey

Jumped car, still didn’t work