Day 37: A Girl's Guide to Jumping a Car Battery

Yesterday, both Henry and Charlie fell asleep in the car on the way home from dropping Bryce off at school for his last day of "work."  So when I got home, I carried in Henry first and then went back out to get Charlie.  My hands were full, and I left the rear sliding doors open for about ten minutes as I was getting everyone settled.  Our van has automatic headlights that stay on when the doors are open.  Unfortunately, this drained my battery.  Even more unfortunate: I didn't discover this until the boys were loaded back up in their car seats and I was trying to leave to pick Bryce up from school.  Jared was working out of town, and my Dad was still on his way home from visiting the teens at camp, so I was on my own.  After some scrambling, I got Carrie, my sister-in-law, to go pick up Bryce and bring jumper cables with her so I could get the car started.  (Of course, this happened on a day when I had 25 places to go and things to do!)

What followed could only be described as laughable.  We were definitely out of our element.  We had just enough knowledge to be dangerous.  I knew black/negative and red/positive (although I double checked that with Jared first) but I wasn't exactly confident in the process.  We were both on the phone and texting with our husbands during the whole process.  Her battery only had one post, which threw us both for a loop.  So I learned a few things I'd like to share in easy to follow form.  I will pin this myself so others may be helped in the future :)

1. Turn off both cars (well, one is obviously already dead)
2. Place the red cable on the positive battery post of the dead car
3. Place the black cable on the negative post OR on a piece of metal from the frame or engine block-this is the ground
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 on the healthy car
5. Start the healthy car
6. Start the dead car
7. Remove battery cables, being careful NOT to let the ends touch
8. Leave formerly dead car running for 15 minutes or take a little drive to recharge the battery 

I failed to complete step 8 yesterday.  I only left it running for about 5 minutes.  So when I went to leave that evening, I once again was stranded.  Fortunately my neighbor was home.  I knocked on his door and asked if he could jump my car battery.  It literally took him maybe 3 minutes from start to finish!  Next time, ladies...