In keeping with the events of the last few days, I went to start my car to drive home for Christmas today and I got an error that it was not connected to the network. Went out to the car to find that it didn’t even have enough power for interior lights. It has been about 4 and a half hours and so far I’ve gotten the lights to work in the attempts to get it started. I have both my jump starter battery pack and the neighbor’s battery charger involved at this point.
Update: Shortly after that, it had trickle charged its way up to 13 volts and started. I then drove it around a bunch on the way to get gas, then drove to West Fargo and back in hopes of charging up the battery. I was certain that wasn’t going to be enough and I’d likely end up plugging it in again in the morning. I got home and there’s a vehicle in the driveway. Thought maybe it was my friend Jo, I was annoyed, but no big deal. I get in the house and my roommate’s mother is here and I just lost it. There was no yelling, but I made it clear that they should not be parked in the driveway and that I was NOT made aware that she was coming with the tone that screamed “this is not ok” and they of course hustled to move it and then I had to restart my car and move it. In hindsight, this extra starting may in fact be the reason why I had to jump start the car in the morning even. I’m not entirely sure where they left to go exactly, but they left shortly after and I know they’ve been back at least briefly since, just not while I’ve been here. As they’re leaving, I notice the thermostat is at 74 degrees. Now, we live in a pretty cold area. It’s -10 outside. I have it set at 72 as a bit of a compromise, if you will, while I die of heatstroke anytime I do anything other than sit around the house. I grew up with 68 and would prefer 70. There’s ice forming on the kitchen windows, so I really shouldn’t have it set this high. It’s bad for the house. Fortunately I have somebody going up in the attic today so if there is mold/moisture happening I’ll hear about it. Anyways, my roommate pays a flat rate for rent. As such, I control the house temp 100% – with some consideration, of course, but it’s not ok to just change the temperature. When I was gone on Friday and Saturday I got the alert from the thermostat twice that it had been raised and I dropped it back down. Rarely am I actually home when I discover the change so this was new for me and I was able to say “please don’t change the thermostat” angrily. “But it was cold.” The fuck you say? It’s 72 degrees. I don’t care how skinny someone is, it’s not cold at this temp unless you’re trying to run around the house naked. Put some clothes on or something.
The two things I’ve had the most issues with, not just here but all roommates ever, are parking in my spot and temperature disagreements. In college I had a roommate that before she’d go to bed she’d crank it way up where I’d die and couldn’t sleep in the top bunk, so I’d crank it way down before I’d go to bed and she’d wake up freezing. We didn’t have fancy thermostats, just a knob under the register that you couldn’t really see to set the actual temp unless you tried.
Fortunately, in the morning I was able to get my car started after jumping it and spent some time with the Maas family for Christmas. We ate way too much and got in at least a few rounds of Pit before the baby had to go down for a nap, so I’d say it was a success. 🙂 I was pretty sick for most of the day though and it was quite a drive back home .