When I woke up this morning it was seven degrees. The wind-chill
put the temperature well below zero. I knew it would be especially cold
out this morning so I made plans to let the car warm up outside while I
stayed inside and sipped coffee and watched news for ten minutes. I
dashed outside and went to start up the car but it only responded with
a vicious series of clicking noises! Yes, “vicious” was the right word.
It seemed intentional and very very angry. In any case, I’d heard this
noise before last January when I parked my car on top of a parking
garage near the ocean for five days while I was in Atlanta.
My battery had died in the night.
I
went back inside and called triple-A because although I *could* have
figured out how to perform the jump-start with my own two cars I didn’t
want to. That is, I’m not befuddled by jump-starting a car. The problem
is that my driveway is very narrow and I would have had to have pushed
the car through the snow and ice and in to the street before I could
get the van out of the garage.
*damn*
My single set of
jumper cables is too short to go from the van to the car, but I have
two sets. I could have used one of them as an extension for the first.
Dumbass. Ok. Instead I sat inside for a while and had a cup of coffee
and waited for the tow truck to show up. I shuffled around the house
opening blinds and tidying up because I wasn’t sure what else to do.
The
tow truck gave me a jump and I drove the 30 minutes to work without
incident. After I shut off the car, for no good reason I tried to start
it again and only got the angry clicking again! DAMNIT! The battery
clearly won’t hold a charge any more. All at once! There were no
warnings I ignored. It just happened all at once.
Now I have to find another jump-start so I can get over to National Tire and Battery (NTB) on Rt.114 to get a new battery.
Liz
is having an awful day too. I think she’s very stressed out over my
parents and grandmother’s pending visit. They arrive tonight. And she
was so upset with Chloe this morning she was in tears at 8:30am when I
spoke to her. The dishwasher is on the fritz. The repairman is due
between 1pm and 3pm which would normally be a problem because she has
to go get the kids from school. Luckily her friend decided to take the
day off and will be bringing our kids home for us. So at least now she
doesn’t have to go out. She’s still certain that she won’t get
everything finished.
I had a great idea. I called up a place
in Melrose that she’s been in the past for a massage. I figured that if
she felt like it would keep her from getting her work done she wouldn’t
go because she would feel so lousy about leaving work behind. So I
managed to get an appointment for her at 6:30pm! That way she has
plenty of time to get the majority of her work done. And anything
that’s still left I can finish! By that time of day she’s usually
winding down anyway and I thought this would be a great stress reliever
just when she needed it most.
I was very proud of myself.
I shouldn’t have been.
I
wanted her to be able to look forward to it so I told her about the
appointment. She burst in to tears crying and saying “no, no, no”. I
guess I screwed it up. I don’t know what about it was such an awful
idea but it seemed to push her over the edge and frankly her reaction
made me pretty angry as well. We didn’t argue, she just hung up on me.
So
I let her go and have been trying to think about work instead of the
crappy reception my terrific idea got. I have to run a workshop shortly
and then I have to get the car fixed at NTB in a short while. I’m too
simple to be able to focus on so many things at once so I will wait
until after lunch to cancel the appointment — maybe she’ll change her
mind.
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