{May 13, 2011}

Friday the 13th wasn't very good to me. Ian had a doctor's appointment today at 1:40. At 12:30 I got up to do some work and realized that I needed to pick Ian up from the high school in about 30 mins. Problem is, I hadn't showered or eaten lunch yet. Ensue mad dash all over the house. Showered, fed, dogs put up, I rushed out the door to my car. I should note that I had not driven my car in about 2-3 weeks as I've been driving our new (to us) Jeep given to us by my amazing dad (THANKS DAD!!). However, the Jeep was at my dad's today so he could do some service stuff on it. Yesterday I told myself, "Self, when your husband comes home for lunch tomorrow you should totally start your car while he's here to make sure it runs. That way, if the battery is dead, he can jump the battery and all will be right with the world." Given I had forgotten to both shower and eat, as well as forgotten the appointment, you can see where this is headed.

Put the key in the ignition, turn it, it makes a noise but it won't catch. Three attempts later I'm now on the phone with my dad who is telling me he'll be at my place in a few minutes. I call the doctor's office and let them know we'll most likely be late. When my dad arrives I tell him I don't think the battery is dead as I can roll my windows down, etc., so he has me pop the hood. "Laura," says my dad, "You might want to come look at this." Tentatively I walked towards the front of my car. Looking down I see tons of paper, leaves, feathers, and other random pieces of material all neatly formed in to a large nest. Needless to say, it was the last thing I expected to find resting on my battery...let alone in my car. Course, I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised given the mechanic found a large nest in my air filter when I had it serviced last year. Apparently my car is prime real estate for the critters of our woods. Sigh... I was just glad there were no mice babies in there as I would have felt bad for disturbing it.

As we clear out the nest and start charging the battery my cell phone rings. It's the doctor's office and they're telling me the day is incredibly booked. If I can't get Ian there within about 5-10 mins. of the scheduled appt. time, they won't be able to get him in. Rather than chance it I opt to reschedule.

I still have to clean out the rest of the crap the rodent brought under the hood of my car, lest I risk a fire while I'm driving. Lovely. I wish I could figure out how to keep these guys out of my car, but for now I'm planning to start it at least every other day and let it run for a bit in hopes of deterring them. We'll see how that goes...

Taken with my iPhone and edited using the Photoshop app.

On to the pic...{click to view full size}