12° of jumper cables and snow faces

The things I do for love…

Love of my God, love of my family, love of my church, love of my friends, and the love of my food. I’d say I’m joking about that last part, but I once took an hour ride for a Cinnabon.

First, let me start out by saying that today is the first day of the fast my church is on. A twelve hour fast for twelve days. We did something like this last year too. And interesting things happen during these fasts.

With today being King Day (which has it’s own special history for me now), not only was I home, but due to it being a federal holiday, I didn’t have any work to do. And I was okay with that. I stayed in my room, watching movies and wasting time on the Internets. I had plans to watch HIMYM. But then I got a call…

My mother hadn’t been feeling well the past few days and she’s normally my dad’s right hand man. A regular his girl Friday, if you get that reference. But I would be second in command, and my role in the family is the go-for. One thing I hate doing: driving the church van. But if they need me to do it, I’ll do it. And I’ve done it a few times already. But due to my mother feeling ill, she called me in to take the van to the church in place of my dad’s car. They had more people at church than they expected and needed a larger vehicle to get them all home.

I gave a sigh and put on my coat. I checked my phone to see how cold it was outside: 12°. Yikes. Actually, I didn’t say that until I got outside. But then I went to start up the van. Not even the click click click of the ignition. Dead. Great.

My first thoughts were, maybe I can get out of this? But then I said, no… that wouldn’t be right. So I first informed my mother, and she informed my father, and I went to work doing what my father taught me: the jumper cables.

I have a healthy fear of jumper cables. It’s more of a respect than actual fear. My dad has some rusty cables that once hooked up to the live battery, he’ll bang the other side together which would make sparks fly. I was never sure why he did it then, but it always made me cautious… hey, these are live wires here! That and the fear of accidentally making a battery explode let alone getting myself electrocuted.

But I swallowed that nervousness and went to work. Fortunately, my dad parked the van with the engine facing in. I always park my car so I can easily drive out. I was also parked in the garage where there used to be a cat… but that’s another story. I pulled up a few feet to meet the van and began the hook ups… ever so carefully… not to let any… of… the… clamps… touch.

After a good 5 minutes of worrying, which I later learned wasn’t needed, I hooked up the van. The total time was about 15 – 20 minutes until the van got a steady enough charge to run on it’s own. I brought it to the church and came back home with apple juice (again, another story).

I told you that long story just to tell you what these pictures are all about.

This is the first face I made...

I was feeling a bit more creative here...

I was going for something else but kinda screwed up. Now it looks like commas and a parenthesis

This guy said something that resulted in him getting slapped.

By the time I finished “Slappy” (the last one) the van was ready to go. I told my mom how cold I was and she asked me why I didn’t just sit in my own car since it was running.

Sometimes I miss the obvious. Anyway, mission accomplished.