What I don't need

[rsc]

OK, jwg and I have been trading snowstorms -- he had a bad cold during the first one, then my back went out for the next couple, and now he's laid up with a sprained ankle sustained when he fell on a patch of ice on Friday. So yesterday I was careful not to try to do too much at once, which meant it took me three sessions to get the walk done. Fortunately, our next-door neighbor, who shares our parking area in back, hired (or drafted) a healthy young man to dig it and her walk out, so all that seemed to be left to do was brush off and move the car.

We;;, I went out after lunch to do this, and discovered that said young man had not cleared our side quite as far over as I liked, and also that there was a lot more snow than I had thought on our back porch and steps. So I dealt with those two issues -- this is getting to be borderline impossible, because there's basically no place to put any of it -- and then took a break before dealing with the car itself. This gets us to about 3:45 this afternoon.

The idea was to brush enough snow off the car so it could be backed out and the front end cleared off, as well as dealing with any snow that was under it, so I did that, and shovelled away the snow that I'd brushed off, and got into the car...

And it wouldn't start. It tries, not very enthusiastically, to turn over, and then gives up. I wondered if the problem is that the grille is buried in snow, or that it's just too fucking cold, or something more dire than either of those. Unburying the grille would be a major operation, and I was out of shovelling energy, and I don't even know if it would help, so I decided to put it all off till tomorrow (when, of course, we're supposed to get more snow).

We don't actually need the car to go anywhere until Sunday morning, but it's going to have to be dealt with eventually. And I am, as they say, out of spoons.

Comments

[susandennis]

I was actually kind of hoping (with each news report of Boston) that the two of you were safely off on some Caribbean adventure or at least somewhere other than home. So sorry. It all must be just beyond old by now.

[rsc.livejournal.com]

Our Caribbean adventure (not really an "adventure", since we're going to the same place we've been going for three decades) is scheduled to begin on Feb. 27. We're kind of wondering why we left it so late.

[susandennis]

... timing ...

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

Have an icon.

[rsc.livejournal.com]

On reflection -- including remembering that the car radio went silent during my attempt to start it -- I've concluded that the battery is dead. Assuming I can clear away enough snow to make the hood accessible, I'll call AAA for a jump and then drive it to somewhere to get a new battery.

Because I needed something else to do.

[rsc.livejournal.com]

And in case anybody cares how this turned out, all is now well. The young man who's been hired or recruited by our neighbor to clear out the driveway was there when I went out to clear the front end of the car, and immediately pitched in and got it cleared much more efficiently than I would have done on my own. I then went back inside and called AAA, eventually learning that someone would be there sometime between "now" (approximately 11:00 AM) and 3:30 PM. It ended up being just about the latter time, jumper cables did the trick, and I then drove the car a few blocks to Advance Tire on Broadway (having previously called to make sure they had an appropriate battery) and got a new battery installed. I still have to reset the radio station pre-sets, which apparently got lost while the battery was out (I took care of the clock).

Side note: I was on hold with AAA for about 15 minutes, during which I got to listen to a fairly decent reproduction of the Beethoven Piano Concerto #2. I don't approve of hold music as a general proposition (and, since other music was on the radio, this didn't exactly work), but if one is forced to listen at least it's nice that someone does it "right".

[maxauburn.livejournal.com]

I have been reading how tough it is there.

Wish I could help.

I have physical issues that make it very difficult to shovel snow, myself, so I understand.
Tell JWG to get all better soon. :)