Another Not-So-Calm Day

It started out as another quiet day at home. The only plans I had were to take a shower and then drive down to the nearby Haggens grocery store to drop the bills I had written checks for in their mailbox. I also needed to pick up some Half and Half for when I get inspired to make an onion pie out of the Walla Walla sweet onions sitting on the floor in my kitchen.

I got the first part done without a problem. We've been showering over at Daughter Mary Mae's as we don't have a sewer hook-up here and are conserving the amount of water we use. MM and the GKs were on their way to the library when I came over, so I had the house to myself. Forry came over after I did and got his shower as well.

Then it was time to go to the store. But when I got to Toad II, the clicker key thing didn't open the door. It didn't even make a noise of the locks unlocking... Thinking the battery in the thing might be dead, I opened it up (there is an actual spare key inside) and used -- for the first time ever -- the key to open the driver's side front door.

Got in and tried to start the car. Nothing! Put the key in the ignition and turned it, still nothing! (Normally if you have the key in your pocket, that is close enough to turn on the ignition...) At that point, I went to get Forry, who proceeded to try everything I had done all over before deciding that Toad II had a dead battery.

Now there is only one keyhole on the entire vehicle -- the one on the driver's door! You cannot open any of the other doors when the battery is dead as they all operate electrically. Fortunately MM had a pair of jumper cables in her van because there was no way we could get into the back of Toad II to get at ours (just a matter of lawn chairs and my trike in the way...).

I went back to Auntie Violet and let Forry and MM deal with jump-starting the rig. They got the job done; Forry drove it down the road and back; then let it idle for a while to charge the battery. It seemed to start fine at that point, but a light came on that said "status check." I looked all through the manual and couldn't find anything that said what that might mean!

I did make my trip to the grocery, feeling a bit nervous about turning Toad II off while I went inside. But I had no further trouble. Maybe tomorrow I should call the former Suzuki dealer in Spokane and find out what that persistent light means...?