Early morning charge

11/15/09 Car-to-car charging cable, given away

Sometimes I get to turn downsizing into an adventure.

While rooting around in the basement, I found a car-to-car charging cable. It HAD to have been given to me by my grandmother. It had the tell-tale Nanna sign: the "AS SEEN ON TV!!!" stamp on the front of the box. It actually looked like a neat device: rather than pulling out the jumper cables when your battery is dead, you connect the dead car to a working one through the cigarette lighters.

Does it work? Who knows.

I threw it up on the free section of craigslist which meant I needed to wait about twelve seconds before I had three different emails from people interested in it.

The first person to contact me wrote that she was working the night shift at the local Big Apple/Dunkin' Donuts until 7AM the next morning. She asked if I'd be willing to bring it down to her.

"Hey, Joanna, you want to go down to the Big Apple tomorrow morning before seven?"

"Sure, it'll be an adventure."

The alarm buzzed at 6:30AM on Sunday, and we crawled out of bed.

"It feels like we're going on some kind of drug-run," Joanna joked as we climbed into the car.

At the Big Apple, I filled up with gas, we handed the Car Charger to Louann, and purchased some delicious coffee and treats at the Dunkin' Donuts counter.

Joanna suggested we drive down to the Naples town causeway and drink our coffee as we watched the day dawn over Long Lake. A water bird (we had a big debate about whether or not it was a loon) swam around right in front of us as the fog lifted.

It was only 7:15AM and we'd already had a busy and delightful start to the day.

Fortunately, after drinking our coffee, the car started again. If I'd had a dead battery, I would have really regretted giving away that car charging cable...