The cold got to us. Ellie told me yesterday that the car wouldn’t start and she was going to walk to work. Fine, I thought, the temperatures were hovering at 5 or 10 below all Sunday night. We’ll just need to warm up the battery and it will be back to normal.

No dice. Ellie did get the car running after she got home but she drove it front-ways into a parking spot and didn’t drive it around. So it moved, but didn’t charge and wasn’t in a position to jump it. I took it out of the car and brought it inside when I got home. Our realtor picked us up for a house showing.

When I tried putting the battery back in, after an increase in voltage from warming up, I got a bit of crank out of the engine, but still no start. I called Joe and he took me to Wal-Mart for a new one.

So hopefully the battery will last a few more winters in Wisconsin. Before it dies, we hope to have a garage to park it in to keep it out of the cold and therefore preserving the life of the battery. At the very least, it will be a bit warmer for me to work on the car when it’s zero degrees out. Really, that’s all I can ask for.