Jump start

On Wednesday last week, Rachel drove the kids to mutual and everything went fine. But when they got in the car to come home...it wouldn't start. So Andrew drove down to the church to rescue them. Fortunately it was a battery thing, so he gave them a jump and Rachel was able to drive home just fine.

And she went to seminary the next day. And the next. And then on Friday she drove to Athens and home again. And on Saturday she drove to Andie's house (to get a ride to a dance). And then drove home from Andie's house after the dance.

And then drove to seminary on Tuesday. 

And every time she turned on the car, it started a bit rough. It was just a little...hesitant to actually start...which was concerning. But we had a plan in place to fix it...but not until Wednesday. 

We just had to get to campus on Tuesday first...

So on Tuesday after Rachel got home from seminary, we hopped in the car, which choked to life, and started on our way to campus. 

We had to stop to fill up on gas, choosing a different gas station than we ordinarily do because...

Well, there's this very conveniently-placed gas station on our way, which we've been using every week, but which I cringe over because it's priced significantly higher than the surrounding stations. We're talking 5¢ to 10¢ higher! 

"But this gas station is easy to get to!" Rachel complained on one of our earlier trips to campus, so I figured—who was I to suggest we go elsewhere? Surely it was worth the couple extra dollars if it was where she was comfortable going. 

I'd occasionally point out the price of gas, like, "Wow! Look at that—we got gas for 2.97 and this station is only 2.75!" But I never put my foot down like, "Hey! This is a really expensive gas station. Let's go somewhere else!"

On Friday last week, Andrew drove me to Athens early in the morning so that Rachel could do the seminary driving she needed to do (she gets paid to take a kid in her class to his school after seminary). She and Miriam drove into Athens later in the day to pick me up all by themselves.

Along the way they stopped at Rachel's favourite gas station to fill up with gas, but with no mother to hand her a credit card, Rachel had to use her own money and—for the first time—gawked at the price.

On the way home from campus she said, "You know, I've been thinking...you know that gas station we go to? It's much more expensive than the other gas stations around. Maybe we should try a different one..."

And I was like, "Hallelujah! I've been low-key trying to get you to do that for months!"

She was like, "Yeah, I didn't really notice how much more expensive it was until I was using my own money..."

We really aren't sure why that gas station in particular charges so much more than everyone else. But...it really does!

So on Tuesday we stopped for gas at a different gas station. And when Rachel went to turn the car on again...not even a sputter.

We got out our little portable jump starter (it's like $40 and I highly recommend it) and connected it to the battery and turned on the car...but then we really weren't sure how to disconnect it. Rachel insisted you had to turn the car off to disconnect things. I thought that sounded crazy—because then how would we get the car started again? 

Eventually a landscaper came over and even though he didn't speak English and we couldn't explain car stuff in Spanish...he reached over and just disconnected it for us. And we even made it to campus on time for my 11:00 meeting (just barely).

Here's Rachel reciting how to connect the red clamp to the red node and the black clamp to the black node before hooking anything on:

We charged the portable battery on campus so it would be ready for another jump on our way home, but fortunately the car started just fine for us.

And it started for seminary this morning. And it coughed and spluttered but started when it was time to come home from seminary.

And then it started for Andrew, who drove it to get a new battery installed...but when he was asked to bring the car into the shop...it coughed and spluttered and would not start...so they jumped it...and got it into the shop.

"Yeah, that's a dead battery," the guy who replaced the battery said.

So now we have a nice, new battery!