So here we have a picture of my 1990 Jeep Grand Wagoneer. Woody for short. Great car. I drive it on occasion. Primarily when fall is in the air and I’m feeling rugged. Anyway, 2 days ago was one of those days.

I drove the Woody to my office in downtown Franklin, worked for a few hours and then headed to a meeting in another part of town. From there I had to go pick up my daughter at a friends house and meet my wife and other daughter at the movie theater where we saw a premiere for a movie about my very talented friend Harris III.

The movie was great, we saw a bunch of friends the night was going well. We walked out to the parking lot to get in our cars. Sydney and I jumped in the Woody to head home and. . . nothing. Completely dead. Seems I had left the lights on.

No problem, I had jumper cables in the car and Amanda was there with her car. We could take care of this in no time. Called her on the phone, she came around and parked next to me, I popped the hoods of our cars and easily connected the cables to her clearly marked battery. Red Positive. Black Negative.

I then proceeded to attach the cables to my not clearly marked battery. It was dark, there was no light under my hood and so I guessed. I want to encourage you to not do this. However, like I said, I guessed and I guessed wrong. Connected the negative to the positve and the positive to the negative. Now, to me, that shouldn’t be a major problem. It just shouldn’t work at which time I would realize the problem and switch them right? Wrong. It seems when you connected the cables backwards, a wire running to the battery can actually catch fire. Yep, smoke and fire coming from under the hood. Once again, not a problem. Just unattached the cables and connected them the right way. Once I did that, the smoke cleared, the fire died and the battery charged. It was a weak charge but enough of one that as long as I was hitting the gas we were in good shape.

So, we headed out of the theater onto the highway. As we were driving, however, my lights started dimming, the car started sputtering and eventually we were dead again. However, now we were on the highway. Not good. I was able to pull off a little on the shoulder and had Amanda pull up nose to nose with me. Popped the hoods, jumped the battery (connected the right way this time) and decided to just drive the short distance to the nearest mechanic. I would leave the car there overnight and deal with it in the morning.

Made it about 100 yards before we had the same problem, battery was on life support. Lights weren’t working, however, as long as I just kept pumping the gas pedal it stayed running. Barely. I pumped and pumped and pumped praying I would make it to the mechanic. We almost made it and then.. . dead. About 100 yards short. So, called Amanda again. Had her come up behind me, bumper to bumper and push me into the nearest parking lot where we made the transition from our car to hers and headed home.

Unexpected adventure complete.

Now, here’s the deal. I really wish that all hadn’t happened the other night. . . Kind of. There’s another part of me that loves that we shared that experience. Yes, we got home later than we wanted. Yes, it’s a pain to have to get it towed and fixed. Yes, it’s a little embarrassing. But seriously, what am I going to do, get mad? Have it ruin my night? Uh. . .no.

I’m learning (very slowly) to just roll with these unexpected events. Five years from now we won’t talk and laugh about the night that we went to the movie, had a good time, got in our cars and drove home. The night that everything went exactly like it was supposed to. We WILL talk and laugh about the night that my car caught on fire, we jumped it barely on the shoulder of Mack Hatcher and Amanda pushed me up Cool Springs Blvd into the parking lot of My Second Home.

Like I said, I’m glad that we shared that experience. . .kind of.