Monday weather report: Drippy
Mar. 12th, 2018 09:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jadesfire1. It was one of those weekends where I just couldn't get my brain to connect to the world, so although we got things done, I still feel like I largely wasted time. Being impressively ill on Saturday night/Sunday morning didn't help, and I couldn't sleep last night, so am still blurry today. I'm fighting not to go mad on the coffee front, because it doesn't help!
~
2. On the plus side, we are now competent to jump start cars \o/ On the downside, we are dumb as a bag of rocks and it's a good job we know how to jump start, because we need to do it again, only this time with someone else's jump leads.
Maybe I should start this one at the beginning.
Last year, we decided to do what we've been talking about for years, and buy ourselves a convertible car (as a second car). It's a 10 year old Mercedes SLK, and while I love it very much, it's not quite the right car for us for all sorts of reasons. But you only figure this out after you've bought it, of course. Hey ho, we decided, we'll enjoy it for a while then sell it on again. Just one of those things, and it's already lost most of the value it originally had, so while we'll lose a bit of money, it won't be catastrophic (yes, I'm aware how crazy-lucky we are to be able to do this!).
In October, once the weather turned, we started using it a little less, and I suggested we should make sure we use every month or so, to avoid the battery dying. I don't think that's a problem, says he.
We went to start it in mid-January, having not used it since late November and guess what?
Being aware that you need to run the car for a while after jump starting, we left it until this weekend, when we had the time to take it for a run. We watched a lot of videos, found the jump leads and - to our utter delight - managed to get it started. Great, we thought. We will put the jump leads in the boot, along with some food and water just in case, and take it out. Because the video told us to, as did the RAC, we'd turned the engines off before disconnecting the leads.
Except it turned out that while there was enough juice for the internal lights etc, there wasn't enough to start it again, we were reluctant to just jump start again in case we killed the battery on our main car. Never mind, says us, we'll leave it until next weekend, after J has driven the main car for a week and recharged the battery.
Back up to the flat we trudged, and a few hours later, when J was getting ready to go out, he realised he'd left his bread rolls in the boot and went down to get them. At which point he found that there wasn't actually enough energy any more to open the boot. Because it has an electronic lock.
Never mind, says us, we will retrieve them when we jump start the car next weekend.
With the jump leads.
That are in the boot.
That won't open.
...
There are days when I think we shouldn't be allowed to adult unsupervised.
So J's first job this morning is to find someone we can borrow jump leads from at work. And we talked to a mechanic friend who said that, while amateurs are advised to stop the engines before disconnecting, pros rarely do. It's because you need to remove the cables confidently, not tentatively, and so armed with that advice (and borrowed leads), we'll sort it out on Saturday.
I'm sure there's a sitcom of some kind to be made from our lives, if only I was a script-writer.
~
3. This week is going to be mostly about getting myself back on my feet, so that I can move forward again some time in the near future. We had a long, useful chat last night about Stuff, which I hope will help, but I'm taking it one day at a time. The problem is, sometimes several days attack me at once. Still, I feel a little more ready for them this time. I'm armed with a list and an online calendar. CLEARLY NOTHING CAN GO WRONG NOW.
~
Hope everyone had a good weekend. Monday has dawned grey and dribbly, which sort of feels appropriate right now.
2. On the plus side, we are now competent to jump start cars \o/ On the downside, we are dumb as a bag of rocks and it's a good job we know how to jump start, because we need to do it again, only this time with someone else's jump leads.
Maybe I should start this one at the beginning.
Last year, we decided to do what we've been talking about for years, and buy ourselves a convertible car (as a second car). It's a 10 year old Mercedes SLK, and while I love it very much, it's not quite the right car for us for all sorts of reasons. But you only figure this out after you've bought it, of course. Hey ho, we decided, we'll enjoy it for a while then sell it on again. Just one of those things, and it's already lost most of the value it originally had, so while we'll lose a bit of money, it won't be catastrophic (yes, I'm aware how crazy-lucky we are to be able to do this!).
In October, once the weather turned, we started using it a little less, and I suggested we should make sure we use every month or so, to avoid the battery dying. I don't think that's a problem, says he.
We went to start it in mid-January, having not used it since late November and guess what?
Being aware that you need to run the car for a while after jump starting, we left it until this weekend, when we had the time to take it for a run. We watched a lot of videos, found the jump leads and - to our utter delight - managed to get it started. Great, we thought. We will put the jump leads in the boot, along with some food and water just in case, and take it out. Because the video told us to, as did the RAC, we'd turned the engines off before disconnecting the leads.
Except it turned out that while there was enough juice for the internal lights etc, there wasn't enough to start it again, we were reluctant to just jump start again in case we killed the battery on our main car. Never mind, says us, we'll leave it until next weekend, after J has driven the main car for a week and recharged the battery.
Back up to the flat we trudged, and a few hours later, when J was getting ready to go out, he realised he'd left his bread rolls in the boot and went down to get them. At which point he found that there wasn't actually enough energy any more to open the boot. Because it has an electronic lock.
Never mind, says us, we will retrieve them when we jump start the car next weekend.
With the jump leads.
That are in the boot.
That won't open.
...
There are days when I think we shouldn't be allowed to adult unsupervised.
So J's first job this morning is to find someone we can borrow jump leads from at work. And we talked to a mechanic friend who said that, while amateurs are advised to stop the engines before disconnecting, pros rarely do. It's because you need to remove the cables confidently, not tentatively, and so armed with that advice (and borrowed leads), we'll sort it out on Saturday.
I'm sure there's a sitcom of some kind to be made from our lives, if only I was a script-writer.
3. This week is going to be mostly about getting myself back on my feet, so that I can move forward again some time in the near future. We had a long, useful chat last night about Stuff, which I hope will help, but I'm taking it one day at a time. The problem is, sometimes several days attack me at once. Still, I feel a little more ready for them this time. I'm armed with a list and an online calendar. CLEARLY NOTHING CAN GO WRONG NOW.
Hope everyone had a good weekend. Monday has dawned grey and dribbly, which sort of feels appropriate right now.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-03-12 03:52 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-03-12 03:55 pm (UTC)Also, it wouldn't be so bad if we'd had half a brain and kept the damn jump leads :D
(no subject)
Date: 2018-03-12 08:46 pm (UTC)Hopefully you can retrieve them at the weekend. Good luck!
(no subject)
Date: 2018-03-12 06:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-03-13 11:21 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-03-12 07:29 pm (UTC)Good luck getting the car sorted. <3
(no subject)
Date: 2018-03-13 11:21 am (UTC)Our jump leads are a bit ancient but do the job. When we can get at them ;)
Thanks!
(no subject)
Date: 2018-03-13 01:55 am (UTC)This sounds like the time I learned that you can't open the trunk of the car with the unlock button on the dash if you've broken into the car to get to the button. And if you try, the alarm will go on and won't stop until you pull the back seat out of your car and reach for the goddamned keys that you've closed in there like an idjit. :( Lessons learned and all that.
♥♥
(no subject)
Date: 2018-03-13 11:22 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-03-13 03:34 am (UTC)My grandmother once told me a story about her brother buying a new expensive car that he was very proud of (a BMW, I think), accidentally locking himself out of it one weekend, and deciding to leave it to deal with on Monday - forgetting that there were groceries in the trunk. Including meat. In 40C Oklahoma summer heat ... yeah, it took awhile to get the smell out.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-03-13 11:23 am (UTC)Oh good grief, that's... Yeah. Wow. At least we're only going to have to deal with stale bread rolls!
(no subject)
Date: 2018-03-13 09:26 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-03-13 11:24 am (UTC)I think we might look at one of those plug-in, or even transportable packs for the car. Having to do it twice is bad enough!