For me, 2009 ended with a whimper! Me whimpering as a developing cold sufferer.
My cold made itself known after supper and by bedtime (yes, 10 on New Year's Eve) I was wondering if my coughing would keep both of us awake. I did manage to stay asleep until one and woke every hour or so after that.
There went our three-day weekend at our cabin. No way did I want to keep my wife awake with the shaking of the smaller bed every time I coughed. And there was no escape to another room to muffle the worst of my coughing.
2009 also ended with a whimper in that my wife's car wouldn't start. We did jump start it and she ran an errand or two. But then it died again. Jump starting a Prius is not much fun because the battery is buried under a bolted-down cover.
On Saturday when I was feeling better we did go shopping, including for a battery charger.
As you can see from "Stopped in our tracks" Sunday was better.
But Monday was downhill again. On the first of several errands, somebody noticed that the spare tire was hanging wrong. Oh, boy, back home right away. I read the manual about accessing the spare, but nothing seemed to work to raise it or lower it. I tried three times, coming in when my fingers got cold. The third time, I called the dealer for a service appointment for Tuesday, today. But by the time I called I was sick again with cold. It took to bedtime for me to feel half-way decent again.
Of course, I was sick with worry a good part of the night figuring out how I would get to dealer without the spare tire falling all the way down and doing who knows what damage.
Before the appointment I hooked a nylon tow cable to the wheel of the spare and wrapped and wrapped the tow cable around the trailer hitch. For extra security, I wrapped and hooked a bungee cord on top of the cable.
I drove normally to the dealer but I kept hearing a ping. When I pulled into the service area I saw my securing of the cable had worked fine. But the hook came out of the spare tire wheel and was dragging on the ground!! At least the spare tire wasn't scraping on the ground.
For $33.68 I was told that the tire had been stowed upside down. Having somebody else stow it correctly in a warm place was worth it.
Tomorrow we jump start my wife's car and she takes it to a dealer to have the battery checked.
Maybe then we can start a normal new year? Whatever normal is.
