Okay, sit down, everyone. Just sit the HELL down.
Are you ready for this?
I went out to the car to go pick up the pizza we're sharing for dinner, and .....
my car battery is dead.Fortunately, I figured out what ran it down, and I need to avoid letting this happen: The car has an automatic light shutdown that kicks in when the car is turned off but the headlights (for example) are left on. After several minutes it turns them off to protect the battery. I know that works, in fact, because I inadvertently "tested" it once.

But that protection apparently doesn't extend to little interior lights, and I have found the culprit.
Tuesday night, arriving home after rehearsal, I'd shut the car down but I wanted to look for something, so I turned on the two little "map lights" above the dashboard, found what I wanted, and blissfully got out and went inside. Next day I drove around on some errands just fine. What I didn't know was that those lights, unnoticeable in daylight if you aren't looking right at them, were still on. But the battery hadn't died after only one night, and it was getting nicely recharged since I was driving again. But then two days went by without me using the car at all, and another 48 hours of those little suckers being on is what it took to drain the battery.
Dumb, dumb, dumb. And now we'll be calling AAA for our second battery charge this year. Oy!
BK:
um...(ahem)... I'll take a link to that charger you bought, if you don't mind.
