A 1991 Cold Snap, Part 2

             This story is a continuation from yesterday, read that blog first.

    I decided I would just stay home from work for a couple of hours to give the car’s block heater time to warm up the engine.  During that time I fed the goats.  My wife, who was also wondering how she would get to work, called a couple of neighbors to bum a ride.  One of the neighbors was having a similar problem getting their car started, but my wife did eventually arrange a ride with a neighbor.

    At 9:00 I went out to try to start the car again.  I learned that and hour and a half was not sufficient time for a block heater to warm up an engine at -33°F.  I tried again at 9:45 and got a similar result.  I was sure that by 10:00 I would be successful and almost was.  I turned the key and the engine almost caught, so I tried it again, again, it almost caught, again, again, and again.

    “Dammit, come on, come on.” I said to myself gritting my teeth, but it was too late, the car battery had just used up all of the power it had.  I was snookered.

            By this time my wife had caught her ride and was on her way to school and I thought I should probably use the same tactic, so I walked up to the road hoping to flag down a ride to work.  The sun was starting to shine over the trees and as I stood beside the road I could actually feel some warmth radiating from the sun, but after about 10 minutes without a single vehicle coming by, I gave up on a ride and went back down the driveway, thinking I should give the car one more try.  Instead, I decided to take the battery out of the car and put it into the house so it could warm it up, thinking maybe that might give it a bit of power.

    I opened the hood of the car, and with a wrench in my gloved hand, I started to loosen the bolts holding the battery cables.  As I worked, I happened to look up to see our friend Linda go by in her car, heading for town.  “Damn,” I  thought, “I could have caught a ride with her,”  but that ship had already sailed.  

    Two minutes later as I was lifting the battery from the car, I heard the sound of another car going by—my neighbor, who had evidently had more luck getting his car started than I had.  I had forgotten that he was still at home.

           The ordeal continues on tomorrow’s blog.

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