The Odyssey just had a dead battery yesterday. Thats permissible, it’s cold out, she’s taking a lot of short trips (out getting last minute gifts on the big retail stroad), and the battery is 5 years old.

The battery died in the movie theater parking lot (getting gift cards), and that’s how we found out that the only way to get it into neutral was to turn a little knob under the air filter with a pair of pliers, and hold it in place while moving the car.

Otherwise, the car must be running to shift into neutral. Who the fuck came up with that idea. Like, I understand the brake-shift-interlock. This was a push button shifter, and this was the override they chose.

So it was either wait for everybody to finish the Sunday matinee of Wicked so someone can move their car and I could slip in to jump it from mine…or buy a battery and get tools and replace it there in the parking lot.

I chose the latter. Didn’t want to drive all the way home, though, and I “knew” I was missing all my 10mm sockets…fortunately BJs had a nice DeWalt mechanics toolset on clearance, and that plus the battery cost less than just a battery at the parts store.