While visiting the Children's Museum a few days back, we discovered upon entering our van in the parking garage that the battery was dead due to the fact that an interior light had been left on. I think our van may have been able to cope with this dilemma, except that the very same thing had happened the night before.
So there we were not able to receive any cell phone coverage in the parking garage and the van having given up the ghost for the time being.
Earlier in the day, we had run into two families that we knew at the museum, so we hiked back into the museum to see if we could find some friends.
The main reason that we were leaving the museum was to get something to eat, so the kids were chowing on bananas and grapes at the entrance to the museum when one of the families we knew walked out. Happy day!
These people were neighbors of ours and when I asked her for a jump, she was gracious enough to say yes. She asked me if I had ever jumped a car before. I had not by myself and neither had she.
I dashed off to the van so I could study the owners manual and was glad to be reminded that if done wrong, jumping a battery can," cause serious injury to anyone in the vicinity."
Well, as long as there was no pressure to do things just right.
The van was locked in between two other cars whose owners may not come back for hours, and a cement wall. Obviously, the van needed to be moved so we could jump it. I had to steer. So, Chance, his brother and my neighbor pushed the van back up the slight incline and out into the main passage way. Now we were blocking traffic some, but we had to get enough room to get another car by the van to jump it. I was hoping that people cruising around the parking lot would notice that the van was stalled since it was at a weird angle and I was standing beside it, but no such luck. People kept trying to squeeze by even though there were several alternate rows to drive down.
Now during all of this, I am trying to keep my kids out of harm's way. I would give instructions to the kids about what I was doing and where their little bodies needed to be. I realized after all of our excitement that I had not had to focus on Chance so that he knew what was going on. When I told them all to get in the van, Chance got in the van with them. When I told the kids to stand over against the concrete wall, Chance went over and stood by them.
In the midst of our adventure, a car with two men pulled up and asked if we were o.k. I was feeling fairly confident with my ability to follow the instructions in the owners manual and not maim anybody, but why risk it? I asked these gentlemen if they had experience jumping a car and since they had, we let them lead the expedition. They were done in about 2 seconds and provided humor along the way. Thank you to the two nice gentlemen!!
It was comforting to have Chance be able to follow directions in such a situation and not have to be overly worried that Chance would be hurt because he did not know what was going on. I did have to look right at him a few times since there was noise from cars, people talking, echoes from doors slamming, idling cars and lots of extra activity swirling around us. I just wanted to make sure that Chance did hear what was going on. He does need to be focused on sometimes so that he hears what is said in such noisy situations as you would expect. But overall, I was amazed at what he could just hear on his own. My main concern did not have to be that Chance would be wounded while not knowing what was happening. Chance just rose to the occasion and used his muscles to push the van so it could the help that it needed.
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