Would've been funny if somebody'd tried to steal it, though

    Yesterday, the much-beloved '94 Camry attempted suicide. I went out for the first time in the early afternoon, planning to run some errands and go for my walk. But the old fellow wouldn't start. All I got was a clicky noise. Having had this happen before, I called brother William (first hero of the story) to come and give me a jump. He did and I set out to drive around on the expressways to charge the battery up again. This was problematical, since I was also nearly out of gas. However, I went 3/4 way around town and stopped for gas. Filled up and started up again without incident. But that was all the luck I would have yesterday.
    Dad called to ask me to take him from Margaret's to his own house to get some more stuff. I also needed to look over his computer and see if I could figure out how to connect him to Margaret's Roadrunner connection. I could figure out the wiring part, but not the getting it to work part. Called sister Anne (the second hero of the story) and after a certain amount of sturm und drang (all on my part), she figured out that if I disconnected the Roadrunner modem (or whatever they're calling them these days) and waited 10 seconds it would reset and be good to go. This proved to be the case and Dad was again on the Internet. Yay!
    So we set out. All the way to the car. Clicky noises again. So I called Bill and he gave me another jump and took Dad to the house instead of me. Margaret called her grandaughter's husband Rick (who owns a battery/starter garage, and who is the third hero of the story) who was willing to come in from the lake to the shop to give me a hand.
    It turned out that I just needed a battery. Unfortunately, once it was in, the car's idle suddenly went down to zero. I had to keep a foot on the gas at all times or it would stall out. Sort of like a manual transmission. The big problem is that you have to have the brake depressed to be able to move the car out of Park. So it was a matter of two-footed driving, but I was able to back out to the street after a couple of tries.
    I went with Rick to the office to pay for the battery. (The shop specializes in starters and batteries; they can't do anything about drivability.) When we got back to the car, I realized I'd left it unlocked with the batteries in. I noted that it would have been funny if somebody'd tried to steal it.
    I have a mechanic over on this side of town. I didn't have any major difficulties getting it across town, though this did give a new meaning to stop-and-go traffic. Eventually I realized that you can still start a car in Neutral and that made the going a lot easier. However, turns were very exciting since it was near impossible to execute one without stalling out and when you stall out the power steering goes away which makes the turn a little more challenging. But I got there, parking pretty easily despite one last stall.
    I walked the mile or so home, then got Bill to pick me up again so I could borrow Dad's old Crown Victoria. It, too, has seen better days, so I hope the mechanics can find and fix whatever's wrong quickly Monday. I stopped on the way home from Dollar Tree to get myself some more fake flowers. It had been a rough day.