- ONE MORE PARANOIA (Prospecting) Dec 4, 2019 (in Gimli)
My van wouldn’t start on Tuesday. A turn of the key created a click followed by a fluttering sound. I wasn’t certain it was the right dead battery sound. I had an appointment, or thought I did with a my General Practitioner at 10:40. Turns out when I showed up I was a day early. I had walked over without any mobility aids and was happy to get back again, but ignored the situation with the van until Wednesday morning when I called CAA. Responding to my call, Jeremy remembered me from the summer when I was beside myself because I could not find my keys. He figured they might still be in the vicinity of my parking space, possibly my van. I had a food …good look so said I. Moments later he pointed at the junction of the wind-shield and the dashboard and there they were. I was so relieved having developed many catastrophic scenarios in the hour I had looked for them.
Wednesday, by time the CAA responded and Jeremy appeared a half hour later I was convinced someone had stolen my battery… It had been replaced just over a year ago, and the sound was different than I remember as the sound of a dead battery. So I imagined what I turned…heard at the turn of the key was no battery. I left the van door unlocked so was punished by the loss of my battery.
After my CAA call in I was hoping to open the hood. I’ve never had a problem, having figured out how to pull the lever in the van under the dash to loose the hood. The hood made the appropriate, “I have been released,” sound. But I could not open the hood. Clearly the hood and its latch had been broken to steal the battery. I was not in full panic mood, only a bit agitated, but ready to exclaim, Oh My God, someone stole my battery, when Jeremy from CCA lifted the hood. I was winding up, and stopped myself, all the same Jeremy figured my “Oh My God! (hesitation) There’s the battery!” a little excessive. A boost was all I needed. I thanked him again and he seemed almost as pleased as I was.
I couldn’t leave the van, and best to be driving so I cruised Gimli, my morning meds completely forgotten. My appointment was at 10:40, and we’ll leave that story for another time.