On Saturday night I carpooled with some friends to San Francisco to see the Giants play the Rockies. It had been in the 100's all day, and I was running a little late to the meet-up spot.

Fast forward, the Giants won, we had a wonderful time. But as we approached my car, I could tell that some lights were on, and you guessed it, my battery was dead.

(Earlier that day, I had thrown jumper cables into my trunk that had been laying in my garage. Weird huh?)

But, we were out in the middle of nowhere, just far enough away from a freeway overpass, to have almost no light.

I went to my trunk for my "emergency" flashlight, and the battery was dead.

We ended up connecting the jumpers to a Priuus, (which is a little tricky,) to my car, using only the light from a tiny LED light on a keychain!! Without that, we would have had to call Triple A.

So, the next day, I went out and bought four LED flashlights powered by LITHIUM batteries, with a ten-year shelf life. They were in a locked case. But if I can help it, I want to do all I can to be sure I'm ready when there's a real emergency. This was just a fire drill that proved to me that regular batteries just can't be relied upon.

I now have one of these LED flashlights in my glove compartment, desk drawer at work, and earthquake supplies.

good job, Sk8888!
it's weird that there was a battery ad at the bottom of this page when I was reading your post!

Be prepared! It's no coincidence that you put the jumper cables in that day, ya know....

Great idea on the batteries! Good thing you had the jumper cables!

It's funny, I have a car battery story also. Last week I went out to my car after work and it wouldn't start. After much panic, I realized that my headlight switch had been turned on, and so the battery had drained. Since I'm still getting used to my car, I must have bumped it when I got out. I was profoundly relieved that it was just the battery and not anything worse!

The next step was finding someone who was still at work on a Friday at 5pm who had jumper cables! One of my co-workers had some, but she didn't know how to use them, and I didn't either. However, DH talked me through it over the phone, and we got my car started. I feel so empowered now that I know how to use jumper cables! I want to buy some for my car in case it ever happens again, plus I can help someone else if they need them.

I heard that Target sells a "car emergency package," so to speak, that contains jumper cables and other things, like the stuff you can squirt into your tire if it loses air. I have to check it out, but I want to get jumper cables and flares, and now definitely some LED flashlights! I have one in the car, but with just the regular battery. I have an LED flashlight on my keychain, but I imagine that would be extremely difficult to fix a car by!

Thanks for the story, Sk8888! I'm so glad you were there when the Giants won!

Maybe we should call this the survival thread?

I think the flares is a great idea too Wee. (Glad to know that DH could walk you through it.)

I really do feel a lot better when I have the jumper cables with me. The security guard in my building has borrowed them a couple of times for others, and given the stress of a dead battery, it always makes me feel good to know that they are one step closer to getting their cars started.

As an aside, I've created a bit of a local lithium battery/LED flashlight shortage, since co-workers thought they should go out and buy three or four for different spots.