I know things

I think that my sweet ever lovin' sometimes thinks of me as a dilettante. The truth is far from that, though I will admit that given the choice between manual labor, and looking at a Picasso, I will take the Picasso (even his later, throw away art) 99 times out of 100.

So when events conspired to have me fix my sweet ever lovin's car this afternoon, I think that she was surprised that I could do so.

It all started because of some tremendous thunderstorms in Houston. It started raining about 3:30 this afternoon, and the storms continued through the rush hour. Now, I only live about 15 miles from work, but the Transtar website was telling me that it would be at least an hour and a half drive home if I when my usual route.

So I plotted my alternate route, which takes me up US 90 through the Medical Center, past my sister Ree's neighborhood, and right past Hermann Park where MSEL works.

So imagine my surprise when I get a call from her as I am about 2 miles from her park. Her car won't start. She describes the circumstances to me, and I immediately diagnose a dead battery. Well, we'll see, she says.

I get to the park after more terrible traffic (2 miles? 20 minutes) and pull up next to her car. I turn the crank and get some juking noises. Bummer.

So, I just happen to have jumper cables in my trunk (Oddly enough, I was going to pull them out this weekend. Fate! Twice!). We connected the cars (both cars have their batteries in the trunks. So you have to find the little + terminals under the hoods) and still nothing.

Going back to my ill spent youth, I wanted to make sure we had spark. Touch the jumper cables together and what? Nothing. Re-attache the jumpers and touch them again.

Spark!

We got juice, and guess what? The car starts right up.

I know things.