A Moment of Panic

This is such a restful view - it's hard to imagine that anything could cause a moment of panic, but I had one yesterday. I went over to help Debi with some computer issues and drove our newly repaired Rav4 to her house. The a/c was really cranking out the cold air, so much so that my glasses fogged up when I got out of the car at Debi's house. It's been so hot and humid with lately and no breezes.

After a successful resolution of her computer woes, we decided to hop in my car and go visit the vegetable truck in West End. We locked up the house, hopped in the car, turned the key and....nothing. Nada. Zip. What now!?!

We got out, raised the hood and looked under there. Looked at the new battery. "Why won't you start?", I asked. Carlos (who works for us part-time and Debi part-time) came over and looked under the hood with us. We indicated that the battery was "muy malo. No trabaja." Carlos jiggled the battery cables and I'm thinking "he's 18 years old, he's never driven a car, his family can't afford a car; wonder if he has any idea what he's doing." I tried to start it again. Nothing. 

We looked to see if I had an battery cables. No. We looked to see if Debi did. No. We called Marco over and asked if he had any cables. No.

Bob wasn't home to assist us.

With that we closed the hood and went in the house. 

I took a deep breath, exhaled and called Don. I asked if he was sitting down. No. I suggested that he might want to. I explained the problem and what we had tried. He took it fairly well, I thought. I suggested that he call Fredy and see if he could come out and look at it. He finally agreed.

Debi and I sat out on the deck and played a came of cribbage to pass the time while we waited.

Bob came home, so I called Don and offered to come pick him up. Turns out that his phone quit working right after he last talked to me; he hadn't been able to call Fredy or me. He did want us to come get him so he could try a couple of things before calling Fredy.

So we did and he did and the solution was so simple. The battery cable was loose!

Who knew?

(Perhaps Carlos did know something after all, but with the language barrier wasn't able to convey it.)

Why was it loose? Who knows.

The moment of panic had passed.