I have very limited number of leave of absence days so I must use them wisely. This morning though, instead of enrolling my kids for the following school year, I had to help one of my bffs because her car wouldn’t start after it was left unused in her garage for several months while she was in Belgium. I had to come to her without showering first because I know I’m going to be messed up after jump-starting her car.

I pushed her car out of her garage while she steered so its nose would be near my car’s nose. I pulled out my jumper cables. Pulled out my phone to review a Youtube video about jump-starting a car. With the help of an Italian neighbor, we tried jump-starting it… But the cables started smoking! I quickly took off the cables and my car key. Thank God my car is fully manual, its electricals didn’t get fried.

Went to some auto shops to ask if a mechanic can come with us to help jumping the car. We hired one, who pulled my car battery to bring it close to my friend’s car battery and powered the latter with a pair of wrenches. It worked but we had to recharge the battery by revving the engine. It slowly recharged but the power was not enough to start it again and again.

In the end, bff had to call Motolite for a delivery of a brand new car battery. The car battery guy told us that we won’t be able to recharge her car because the voltage was so low or zero, it may have become damaged. You do not let your car battery go zero.

I told bff she or somebody may have left the interior lamp/light left on for a long time and drained the battery the entire time she was in Belgium.

A high school classmate whom I called for help also didn’t know how to jump-start. After some time searching in the interwebs, he found the reason for the smoking jumper cables: I left my car key in the ignition. There shouldn’t be a key in the ignition when you are placing the clips on the battery terminals.

Ugh. I cannot emphasize this enough—being fully manual lets me live longer. No short-circuits. 🥹

After the dead battery drama this morning, I brought Kimchi to the vet hospital to have her anal glands expressed because she started getting stinky again.