Move things around just a little bit. I did this when my wife visited her family in Indonesia. I moved wall hung pictures an inch or so, switched things from left to right, moved the couch, etc. When she came home, she immediately asked me what I did to the house. Nothing, babe, why?
It just about drove her mad. I even moved her shoes around a little bit. She knew I did something, but because she had been away for two weeks she wasn’t sure what I had done. When I finally told her, she didn’t find it as funny as I did. It really was funny.
Go buy some sexy panties. Make sure to keep the receipt. Place a few where they be found shortly “accidentally” after she gets home. Take pics of you in said panties for a plausible alibi. Get a good divorce lawyer just in case.
So, yeah… She took the Prius. I was going to use her Tacoma to go to Seattle today, but I decided to drive the Jeep to see what kind of mileage it gets nowadays. (Less than the Tacoma, and a lot less than the Prius. )
Hey, as long as I’m downtown I may as well run it through the Elephant Car Wash. I left the office about 15 minutes early, and I was able to drive right up to the vacuum station. I paid for the wash, and went to wait. Hm. Nobody on the other end, except for that one Ford crossover SUV thing. Why is it just sitting at the end of the tunnel?
Someone had locked the keys inside. With the engine running. It would be half an hour before the locksmith got there.
After having cooled my jets for 15 minutes already, I decided to get a refund and leave. When I went to the Jeep, I discovered that they’d left the engine running after moving it out of the vacuum station. :rolleyes: So much for my mileage test. (FWIW, the econo-meter said 20.2 mpg when I pulled into my driveway.)
The SO just called. She’s refuelled, and was surprised that it ‘only’ cost $32. (I paid three times that, filling up the Jeep on Thursday!) She said she’s glad she was filling up in Oregon, because she didn’t know how to open the fuel hatch. (There’s a lever under the seat. Neither her Tacoma, nor my Jeep, have a hatch release.) She’s right next to the freeway, and should be home around six-ish.
For my part, I’ve been to the hardware store to get my free Craftsman bottle opener and a few other things, breakfasted on haggis and eggs, hand-washed the dishes (she hates it when I do that!) and put the dishes that were in the dish washer away, assembled two complete Model 601-type (early style M16/AR-15) lower receivers (hoping to finish them in 2014), got the laundry out of the dryer, asked about my kayak dolly tires and received an answer, fed the cat, and changed the cat litter.
I have five hours to shower, run into town for errands, maybe have the Jeep washed, buy gasoline for the mowers, pick up something for dinner, and make dinner. (Hm. She liked the meatballs I made last month. Maybe spaghetti and meatballs are in order.)
I went to drive the car yesterday, and all I got was a lit-up instrument panel. The SO got home before 1800 on Saturday. Apparently she didn’t ensure the car was powered down, so it sat there 43 hours with the engine off and the electrical system on. I’d heard about this happening to people, but since I always ensure the car is properly powered down, it has never happened to me.
I checked the engine bay, and there was no battery to be seen. I got out the manual and found the emergency jump-start terminal. (The battery is actually in the back, under the floor, and the terminal in the engine bay is there in case you’re completely out of juice and can’t open the hatch.) I put a charger on it for about 45 minutes, and then flipped the switch to the boost-start setting. I tried starting the car a couple of times in the meantime, and the annunciator lights grew fewer until it finally had enough power to start. A 25-mile trip to town seems to have charged the auxiliary battery, and it started for the return trip.
Could have been worse. This could have happened when she was in Portland. Perhaps I should have warned her to check that the power is off; but the possibility was not even on my radar.
Wait - you have to do something special to “power down” a Prius? I’ve got a hybrid Escape, and we just have to turn key to “off” and leave it. What do you have to do to the Prius?
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