It's Dead, Jim

Yesterday, I went out to my car and it didn't start.

I put in the key and there was no chime telling me that my seatbelt wasn't fastened.  There were no dashboard lights.  I tried to start the car and there wasn't even a click.  Nothing.  It was DEAD.

I had no idea why.  None.  I called upstairs (I was at work) and asked my brother if he had jumper cables.  Then, remembering that I had class at 5:00 and not wanting to take chances with a vehicle of possibly unknown reliability, I had my brother take me home and I drove our "spare" car back to work.

After class that night, I went back to the car to see if I could figure out what went wrong.  It should have been the first thing I checked:  I had left the lights on.  Oy...

I have an excuse.  This particular vehicle is 14 model years old now.  Sometimes, when you take the key out of the ignition, it sticks and the chime sounds when you open the door because the car thinks the key is still in the ignition.  So when the chime was sounding telling me that my lights were on, I assumed it was the other chime telling me that my key was in my ignition.

Ok, so it's a lame excuse.  I'll pay more attention to the stupid chime next time.

At any rate, a quick jump start got the battery charging again and by the time I got home, it had charged enough because it started right up this morning.

I'm just glad it wasn't something more serious.