The next morning when I went to turn the car on, nothing. I thought maybe I had damaged the ignition the night before, but the lights wouldn't turn on either, so I decided that something must have drained the battery. It wasn't until later that I remembered the dome light being on.
After that unpleasant discovery, I called my manager and work and informed her that I would be a few minutes late. I pulled on the only waterproof footwear I own, red wellies with little moose all over them, and began the 1.841-mile hike to work.
The car is parked in such a way that it would be very difficult for another car to give us a jump unless one of our neighbors were gone. James searched online and found a box (essentially another battery) that we can charge up and use to jump our car. It was relatively inexpensive and has the added benefit of not forcing us to ask a random stranger for help in case this ever happens again (which knowing me it will).
Fortunately I get to walk through a very nice neighborhood, which is actually a wealthy, independent village surrounded by the rest of Madison (kind of like Ottawa Hills is to Toledo). I brought my camera with me on Saturday and took some pictures along the way. They are pretty terrible because I felt kind of weird taking random pictures, and I didn't want other people to notice.
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| Inappropriate footwear |
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| Snow-covered path out of Eagle Heights. Super creepy at night. |
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| If you're from Northwest Ohio you're probably like "what's this." It's called a hill. |
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| Outdoor ice skating rink. It's right next to a school. |
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| Random park right before the running path/glorified sidewalk that follows some railroad tracks. |
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| A picture of the mall where I work from across the street. And some guy. |
I haven't been working out much lately, so it has been nice to get outside and get at least some exercise. I only wish I didn't have to spend eight more hours on my feet after I got there.
Today I finally broke down and got some winter boots when I was at work. They aren't exactly perfect, but they are comfortable. And furry.
As I was walking home tonight I decided to find a route that would not require me to walk up a creepy path through the woods. At the top of the big hill (third picture) there was a path that looked promising, so I followed it. I took the same one last night as well, but I thought it just led into another part of the neighborhood, so I went down the hill a different way and walked up the creepy wooded path to my apartment. Tonight I was feeling a little more more adventurous, and I noticed that what I thought were houses were really apartments and that the path continued through the apartment complex. Some of the buildings in Eagle Heights are joined together on the second floor and form kind of a covered patio/storage area on the first. The sidewalks that go between different buildings pass through these covered areas. The path I followed came out into the covered space of building 919. It was actually kind of surreal, sort of like Alice going through the looking glass, or children stepping out of a wardrobe and into Narnia, except kind of opposite. One moment I was walking through a completely unfamiliar apartment complex, that I had no idea existed, and the next moment I stepped through an opening in a fence to a place I recognized. I did not take any pictures of my return trip because I was carrying a pizza in one hand and my cell phone in the other.
Tonight when I got home, I saw that the car jumper thing had come in the mail, so hopefully this means I will be driving to work tomorrow.
