We’ve had mice before in the detached garage. They made a heckuva mess, ate a mattress…
Our cats need exercise.
Well, so we need to clean up the mess out there and make it kitty-safe.

This turned up the fact the Prius’ battery is dead. Mmmm. Well. So we CAN’T leave the lights running. Manual says so. But now what?

Mmm. And there’s Jane’s car, which has been deader ‘n the proverbial mackerel since the trickle charger fell off the shelf last spring.

So we call AAA. Bless ’em, we figured how to jump a Prius. That was a good thing. On newer models, there’s a cap on the 12-volt battery that rules ’em all, and you take it off and follow the diagram in the manual.

Sucked it up, bigtime. Instant. We think it’s ok.

Then we attacked Jane’s car. Couldn’t find the key, finally did. Turns out the battery (bless you, Mike’s Towing, as honest guys who didn’t try to sell us a new one) is live. Just needs a charge. We got it going, got the thing running—and slammed the door on ‘lock’ with the key inside. Spoiled by the Prius, which beeps at you if you try to leave a key inside, and won’t lock the door.

We now know how to get into much more modern cars illicitly, but before we could quite complete the operation, Jane found the one other key, and we got in.

We believe we have both cars now running. Morning will tell.

This was one of those nights when it’s hard to remember it started a year ago with mice in a mattress.

We ordered pizza for supper.