Dead Battery

Outside my door in the pre-dawn nether world of workday morning ritual, any slightest change or unexpected variance is completely unwelcome. I get into the jeep, I toss my briefcase onto the passenger seat, I insert the key in the ignition, I turn the key...

The jeep is supposed to start.

Not today.

Y'know how it goes...

All the warning signs had already made themselves evident long before this morning. The hard, slow starts on the coldest mornings of last winter, the crud that had built up around the battery terminals which I noticed every time I opened the hood and checked the oil... these telltales were there all along.

The jeep is like a cat. It purrs if I don't neglect it.