... I hate to think what Monday was like around here.
Woke up a bit after 0300, still being somewhat on Knoxville time but having gotten to bed way late last night. Said good morning to the cats, and let them out to the garage. Ambled into the Interim Office to peruse the 'Net.
After a while came a great crashing noise. Next-door neighbor moving something heavy around early, or Huckleberry up to some deviltry? Check garage: nothing obviously amiss, at least not of sufficient magnitude to account for the noise. Hm.
Eventually have breakfast: a big pancake made from just-add-water mix, water, and an egg (using the bagged mix because there's, obviously, no usable milk in the house, and adding the egg just because).
Then, what the heck, off walkies. Walk up to vintage Prius, push button on keyfob, get half-hearted semi-klunk from the door lock. Try again: nothing. Door remains locked. Presumably the 12V auxiliary battery is dead.
Oh, and that noise earlier? Was a big branch of the street tree in the neighbor's yard coming down. In his driveway. Blocking it quite thoroughly (good thing he's retired), and touching (not obviously damaging) his daily driver.
Look around for the car battery charger: 'tis nowhere to be found. Foo. Borrow Joy's car to drive to the hiking grounds and a quick shopping run.
Back again. Apply voltmeter: battery is pining for the fjords. Ponder battery chargement. Decide to try a redneck - well, silicon valley redneck - approach. Drag a bench power supply out to the car, set for a bit over 12V and no current, connect to the battery terminals, turn on, crank up the current....
I can feed it about 1 Amp, which gets 4.8V or so. More current, and the voltage bounces around, with clicking sounds. Leave it on 1 Amp for a while; the voltage fails to increase. Clearly, the battery is not charging, and this particular power supply does not possess suitable characteristics for the task at hand.
Ponder some more. Try the same thing again, only using a Xantrex XFR 60-20. Note that plugging this particular power supply into an ungrounded extension cord while standing barefoot on damp concrete seems inadvisable. Set voltage to 12; start cranking up the current. This, too, goes into bouncy-bouncy mode at bit over 1 Amp. If I persist in turning up the current, the clicking sounds get louder, and eventually turn into the horn beeping... like the alarm is trying to go off, but can't quite draw enough current.
Growf. Did the alarm get triggered and not shut off, and that's what flattened the battery? Anyway, pushing buttons on the keyfob while this nonsense is going on seems ineffectual.
Well, maybe I should try a real battery charger. The one in the garage still hasn't appeared. Borrow Joy's car again, and off to the one remaining car-parts place anywhere vaguely nearby. Procure one-each rather overpriced computerized battery charger / tender.
Hook it up; it complains that the battery is sulfated, and doesn't seem to be doing anything useful. So....
Find a more-or-less suitable wrench, and disconnect the ground lead. Connect the charger directly to the battery terminals. Still says sulfated. Leave it for a while.
Unplug the charger and apply the voltmeter: a bit over 12V. Hey, maybe it's working? Start the charger up again: now it says it's a bit over half charged. Leave it a while longer, until it shows maybe 65% charged.
Disconnect the charger, put the ground lead back on: alarm. BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! Push the unlock button on the keyfob: presto! Alarm goes silent, and door lock makes unlocking sound.
Tighten up the nut on the ground lead. Try to start the engine: YES! It starts, and runs, and... oops, runs very rough for a moment... but then returns to normal.
Button everything back up. Set the clock. (I don't have any presets on the radio, and for all I know this replacement radio may have nonvolatile storage for such things.) Note that the gas gauge is showing one bar, blinking. I don't remember it being low when In parked it... is this a side-effect of the power cycle?
Drive to a nearby gas station. Note that the gauge goes from one bar to two early in the trip. Put in about half a tank worth; gauge goes to n-1 bars. Return to base; along the way, the gauge goes to full. Which seems to indicate that it's quite pessimistic after a reboot.
Anyway. Assuming it's still working tomorrow, a new aux battery goes on the at-next-service list, along with that brake job.
Then there's dinner to be fixed. Hmm. Not feeling inspired. Have chicken thigh meat (boneless, skinless), leeks, baby carrots, sugar snap peas, and whatever long-shelf-life stuff is handy. Take one large pan; put some water in it; add a bit of salt, some avocado oil, balsamic vinegar, tarragon, thyme, the chicken thighs, the leeks (chopped) and the baby carrots (quartered). Cover and simmer for, I dunno, maybe 45 minutes? Then uncover, turn the heat up, stir while the excess water boils off, and serve. Comes out tasty.
And now, in what should be my after-dinner unwinding time, I need to address a new issue sent by ToasterCo. 'Tis a fair simple question, but one that requires re-acquaintance with the details of some Verilog code from four years past.
Also: Joy's car has its TPMS light on. I got out the bicycle pump and a tire gauge and pumped the one low tire up to spec, but the light remained on. My father's car also has its TPMS light on. My car is old enough not to have a TPMS light in the first place (there being no great need to monitor the pressure in the logs).
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