Today’s Random Adventure: So, following my morning doctor’s appointment (hey, insulin refills are a thing!) and getting no horrible news about Herbert (sick doggie) I decided to grab subway before heading into work (no, this is not about my sandwich). On my way out I spied a little older lady sitting in her car with the hood up. Seeing her grumpy/flummoxed expression I couldn’t just leave her there so I asked, “is everything okay, ma’am?”. Unsurprisingly, her vehicle wouldn’t start. I listened to the whirr-click as she tried to start it and went into the back for the jumper cables. Then after realizing the cars were about 6 inches too far apart for them to reach (dammit) I moved the jimmy closer. I hooked up the jumper cables, gave it a couple minutes, then she tried to start it again….whrrr-click.
“hrmph” I said, ever so eloquently – then tested cables to see if they sparked…nope, no sparky, “hrrrrrrrrmph”.
Called boyfriend to confirm he hadn’t done something weird to the battery and/or cables and he said, “yup, I tried the cables last week and they didn’t work.” Continuing my streak of eloquence I replied, “hrmph”.
At this point, Little Older Lady decided to walk to gas station next door to see if they had jumper cables to buy or to use….fyi – no. they don’t. that would be silly.
Thankfully, by the time she had gotten back, I had thought it through and while mumbling very important electrical words along the lines of, “mmm hrmph mumble complete circuit mmmm hrmph insulation hrmph” I used my handy pocket knife that I keep in my (often handier) insulin/med pouch to strip the insulation on the bad negative sides of the cables, reconnect them to the other side of the clamp, and use Bashkins (the teeny tiny sledgehammer that has lived in the car since the fuel pump started going out (now replaced) and we had to bang on the fuel tank to get the fuel pump to get started – shut up. I love the jimmy – it runs!) to bend the connectors to fit. Then I reconnected and got the tiny little old lady’s car started. After it was all over we exchanged names (hers: Barbara) and she was very thankful. It felt nice to do something good for someone as well as to use some basic electrical knowledge to MacGyver some jumper cables.
Aside: Her car, I would like to point out, *is* rarely driven but she starts it once per day and only drives it when she has to go put fuel in it. I checked her oil and he other fluids were all at correct levels. The engine looked amazing. I am only saying this because I thought that the little old lady car that is perfectly well maintained was just a used car unicorn myth! today, today I saw that unicorn!
