Lily is the name of Violet's 2000 Nissan XTerra. (She's blue). Yesterday Lily wouldn't start. This is not good for a 39 week pregnant woman with no real food at home and a hospital that is farther away than the front door. It seemed to be due to the battery not having enough power. Some lights flickered dimly, but not enough to start the car.

Not ever having got around to buying any kind of jumper cable kit, I stopped at Sears on my way home from work, but I didnt care for their choices. I went to Home Depot and picked up one of those units that uses the 12v DC adapter in your car instead of needing to use cables connected to the battery. Unfortunately it wasn't portable like I thought. It plugged into the DC adapter all right, but I then had to plug the other end into a 120v wall outlet, and THEN it still took 5+ mins to charge the battery enough to attempt a start. Bleh.

After going online I decided I wanted the Simple Start™ Vehicle Battery Booster, from Black & Decker. Pretty slick little device, small enough to fit in my glove box or rear compartment, starts the car via in-car DC adapter in a few mins, built in LED, DC accessory outlet, etc.. Nice feature list. Although Home Depot lists in on their website though, my local store didn't have any. It was close to 10pm, closing time, so my choices were looking bleak.

I did some searching online and discovered that Wal-mart also carries it. Most stores close at 9 or 10, but I called by local store just in case, and lo and behold, they're open till midnight every day of the week. Score! I ask if they have any in stock, and they do! and at 8 cents below MSRP. SCORE AGAIN! I race down there, buy it, and discover that it has to charge for 15 hours before I can try to use it. Bah!

So Lily didn't get fixed last night.
Today I got home and tried the device, and after 15 mins or so of trying to boost charge, and the car not starting still, it just wasn't working out. I kept getting beeping noises and LEDs indicating some kinda warning. I followed the instructions to the letter. I was about to go buy a new battery when I decided to unplug the device and yet again and try the headlights. They came on for a second. So I tried starting the car (without the device attached) and it started fine. Maybe the device boosted it and I need to disconnect it before I tried starting the car.. I dunno. We drove to DQ and back in order to ensure the alternator was charging the battery OK. We just got back and it seems OK right now.

I suspect that the very short distances Violet travels (< 2 miles once a day or two) isn't enough to charge the battery with the AC, radio, lights, or whatever else on. I hope the car starts tomorrow morning.