(More) Adventures in Vehicular Mismanagement

 This is one of those posts that will make all of you who don't own and drive cars rather glad that you don't.  

My story begins this morning, when I arose early, got in my car and drove to campus at 8:30 AM in order to get some schoolwork done.  It was a foggy morning, so I turned my headlights on.  I got to campus, found a parking spot with ease, and proceeded to start my day's tasks.  About 10 hours later, I had accomplished as much as I could and was getting hungry, so I headed back to the lot.  I slid into the driver's seat, put my key in the ignition, turned it, and...nothing happened.  Nothing at all.  I tried a couple more times to the same result, sit back, stared at the dashboard in puzzlement, and that's when I noticed it: I had left my headlights on.  All day.  So my battery was dead, completely drained.  I'd need a jump.  Inconvenient, but no big deal.  That's what I have a AAA membership for.  The tow truck got to me about 15 minutes after I called and used a handy portable battery charger to get my engine going again.  Simple enough.  The driver then gave me some pretty standard advice: to let the battery charge completely, I should drive around for at least 15 minutes at 45 mph with nothing extra turned on.  Okay, no trouble.  Except...there kind of was.  

See, by now it was nearly 8:30 PM.  The sun had set and light was fading.  In order to drive safely anywhere, I needed to have my lights on.  And the lights were powered by the battery.  This little piece of logic didn't assert itself to me until I was many minutes down a stretch of highway and my headlights and dashboard lights started flickering.  Then they went out completely.  And it was now definitely dusk.  White-knuckled, I flicked my lights on and off for the next mile or so, trying to keep them on, until I found a gas station.  I put the car into park, turned the headlights off, and sat for five minutes with my foot on the accelerator.  I guesstimated that I was a solid 10 minutes away from my apartment at this point.

 

After six minutes of revving the engine, I drove back out on to the road, ready to make a beeline for my apartment.  Unfortunately, I had taken a slightly different route for my battery joyride than usual, which added a couple minutes to my drive.  For a few minutes, everything was okay.  Then the lights started failing again.  They flickered and faded for four more miles until I could get off the highway (driving on the empty exit ramp with the lights off to conserve them--which I really don't recommend when it's almost totally dark) and to the parking lot of a Rite Aid, where I parked and revved the engine for 10 minutes this time.  That top-up got me mostly through town, but I hit traffic lights and it was slow going.  I had to make one more engine-rev stop before I finally made it home, headlights stlll dim and flickering.

 

In all, my 15-minute battery joyride took me an hour, and the battery didn't get fully charged.  It ought to be enough to get the engine going in the morning, after which I'm making a 3.5 hour drive home for the weekend.  On highways, in full daylight so I shouldn't need the lights at all. So, hopefully this is the end of my tale.  Make sure your lights are off and your keys are in your hand, and if your battery does go dead, pray to the heavens it doesn't happen at night!  You don't realize how necessary headlights are until you don't have them, and until you cruise past a cop car, breathing a huge sigh of relief that they didn't choose that exact moment to flicker.
 

(Another) Tale of Vehicular Mismanagement.

 I had a beautiful post written, and my freaking internet connection ate it!  Rargh.

I had another vehicular adventure today.  I spent 10 hours on campus doing schoolwork, so I had to get on campus early.  Early enough that it was gloomy and foggy and I needed my headlights.  Apparently, I forgot to turn them off once I got to campus.  So they were on, ALLLL DAAAAY.  Needless to say, when I got back to my car those many hours later, hungry and grouchy, the engine did not start.  This necessitated a call to AAA, who helpfully sent a tow truck with a guy in it who had a portable battery charger with him.  He got my engine started again, and then gave me some pretty standard advice: to let the battery finish charging, I should go for a 15 minute drive at 45 mph.  Easy enough.  So I tried to.  I got some miles down a stretch of highway when I realized I had a problem.

See, it was now about 8:30 PM.  The sun had set.  I had my headlights on.  And the headlights were powered....by the battery.  So they started to fail.  To dim and flicker.  And then go out.  Nothing like driving along at almost sixty miles per hour in the deepening dusk of night and suddenly have your dash and your headlights die on you.  White-knuckled, I made it to a gas station, where I parked the car (lights off) and revved the engine constantly for about five minutes, hoping that would give me enough juice to see my way home.  It didn't.  I had to park and rev the engine twice more as I hurried home, through town and past cop cars, my headlights flickering and dimming all the way.  I finally got back to the safety of my apartment lot, the engine smelling hot and me feeling frazzled and very, very nervous.  My 15 minute joyride cost me an hour, and the battery never got fully charged.  It should do well enough to get me started tomorrow morning, and after that I'll have a 3+ hour drive home for the weekend in broad daylight.  

Hopefully, then, this is the end of my hair-raising little tale.  Don't let your battery die at night, watch your speed and always have your keys in your hand so you don't lock them in your car.  Or, you could just not be as ridiculously stressed out as I must be, to have the number of vehicular incidents that I have since January (speeding ticket, locking myself out, and now leaving my lights on).  Whew!