auto adventures

So yesterday, Holly went into the garage to move Jen's (roommate from last year who went to China for the summer) car so that we would have room in the garage to put boxes etc. during The Big Moveout/in. Only turns out Jen's car won't start. (We were supposed to take it out and drive it occasionally, so really this should've been discovered sooner). So today, Ashley decides that she's going to try and jump start the car so that we can move it. After a few minutes spent hunting for the key, Ash goes down to the garage and attempts to put the car in neutral so we can push it out of the garage.

This is where we run into problem #2: The shifter is locked. But we are Tech students/graduates, we can figure this out. Ash gets a screw driver and pries open the cover of the lock, then I took the key and pushed it down in the hole and got the shifter to move. Excellent. So we push the car out of the garage (much easier than expected), and Ash brings her car around to jump it. After consulting the instruction on her cables and her dad, Ash hooks up the cables and we try to start the car. No dice. (It should also be noted that the batteries on Jen's car are rather corroded and her car hasn't been moved in several months - we were a tad nervous). We decide that maybe Ashley's car is too small, so we bring my car (boat) and it's V8 engine around back and hook it up. The car starts on the first try. And there was much rejoicing.

But see, the story does not end here, no indeed. Ash decides we should take the car out for a spin since it's been sitting in the garage all summer. It needs gas and maybe a car wash. So we head to Ponce and drive along looking at gas prices. Now when we got in the car, I rolled down my window. As it turns out, this was not the best of ideas as I discovered a little later that the window would not roll back up. I was of course concerned because this not only eliminates the car wash objective, but I don't want to have broken Jen's window. Ashley didn't seem very worried, which I wondered about, but then she realized that the car wash was no longer a possibility - heh.

So anyway, we pull into a gas station and fill up. But when Ashley tries to restart the car, nothing happens. (It was pointed out by Lauren later on that we should have let Jen's car run off of mine for longer.) We look for Ashley's cell phone to call Lauren to come jump us, but turns out she left it at the house, and I don't have mine, and neither of us knows Lauren's number. Oh, and during this time, Ash opens the change drawer and it falls off. By this point, we are laughing partly out of frustration and partly because this situation has become a bit ridiculous.

So I go inside and ask the manager if he can jump us. He pulls around his truck and the engine starts. So we head back home and pull the car in backwards into the garage, because we'll probably have to jump it again. And the window still won't roll up. So the whole point of getting Jen's car to work (so we can move it out of the garage) has just become moot. Oy.

(But we did get the change drawer back in at least).