The little lawnmower that could

Last night as I was driving to Sandi and Doug's for an evening of house-sitting I decided to stop by Sonic and pick up some dinner. I was really craving onion rings, and it's been ages... probably somewhere along the lines of a year since I've had them. I don't think God wanted me to have onion rings.

I ordered my food and turned my car off while I waited, but had it turned so I could still listen to the radio. They delivered my food and I went to start my car and... nothing. Nada. Zilch. The car wasn't wanting to start. In the past I've experienced some issues with my battery connection, so I figured this was probably the problem. I popped the hood and got out of my car and jiggled the connection like I've done in the past. I got back in my car and went to start it and it made a very tired sound and did not want to start. The man beside me commented that it did not sound very good... and then drove away! Thanks for that, mister.

I called my parents so I could ask my dad what the best plan of attack would be. We both decided that it would be good to find someone who could jump my car off because the battery was probably just dead. I walked up the car on the other side of me and asked the couple if they by chance had jumper cables and if they would be willing to jump me off. They were more than happy to help.

The guy got out the jumper cables and went to hook them up. I should have known it was going to be bad when the sparks started flying. It wasn't until I saw a smoking battery and my horn started to continuously blow that I realized this was definitely going to be bad. My car completely died. No lights. No beeping when the key was put into the ignition with the door open. No automatic door lock. I thanked the guy for trying to help and called my dad back. We agreed that I should wait until the morning to get my car towed since the mechanic wasn't open on a Sunday night at 8 pm. Sonic agreed to let me leave my car there over night, and Bunker drove to come pick me up so I could go by Sandi and Doug's and check on Miamao and then go back home. It turns out that particular parking spot seems to be cursed: 2 people have broken down in that same spot the two nights prior to me!

I arrived at Sonic at 7:45 am after my roommate Candice so graciously agreed to get up early this morning and to drive me there. I used my trusty AT&T roadside assistance and got a tow truck, which was naturally delayed an extra half hour so I was waiting at Sonic for a full hour. We took my car to Cutler Automotive and Victor has been working on it. He called me a little after lunch and said that he's going to have to replace the battery because it is not holding a charge AT ALL. I asked him if this could have happened if the guy hooked up the jumper cables wrong and he seemed to think that the battery just suddenly died. I don't remember when my battery was changed so I asked if he could tell me how old it was... he said he would have to clear all of the dirt off first before he knew. When I called to my dad to get an update he said he was pretty sure that the battery was the ORIGINAL that came with the car, making it 10 1/2 years old! I'm okay with having to replace the original battery after 10 1/2 years and 244,000 miles.

We will see after Victor gets the new battery on if there is anything else wrong with my car. He thinks he will have it ready for me by the end of the day.... keep your fingers crossed that my little lawnmower is okay!