I got paid on July 2nd, but I put off writing about what happened because I was still recovering from my illness/injury. I'm ready to tell you about it now because a similar event happened today.
While I was laid up in bed, my car was parked in its usual place in the driveway. My son had left some paperwork in the glove compartment that he needed to turn in at the college the next day (he rides a Jeepney to the Freeport zone and then a shuttle to the college). He got the papers out of the car and came back in the house with my keys.
On the morning of the 2nd, I went out to the car and attempted to turn the car alarm off. Nothing. No beeps. The driver door was unlocked. I climbed in attempted to start the car. Again nothing. Not even a click. I started asking questions. My son said he got the papers out and hit the lock button on the key. I asked him what the beep sounded like when he locked and he didn't remember. A successful lock emits a different tone than an unsuccessful one. I asked others in the compound. My brother-in-law, June, said that he had seen a light flashing inside the car a couple of days prior to this and had opened and closed the door. Why didn't he tell me about it?
So I called the only other relative with a vehicle, my sister-in-law's husband Gerri. He has a van. I asked him if he had jumper cables and he didn't know what I was talking about. I explained what they were and he said, "Oh, alligator clips!" Whatever! Anyway, I had him come over, take me to the bank and he bought jumper cables while I was inside the bank. I had him take me to the barber shop on Magsaysay Drive and then back to the house. We connected his battery to mine and a half hour later, my battery was charged enough to start on its own. When we first connected the cables, the windshield wipers started moving. Jon (my son) must have hit the lever on the way out of the car. Well, I and June then headed to the Freeport zone to do the grocery shopping in it, pay the DSL bill, and pay the tuition at the college. No problem — the car started right up after each stop.
On the morning of the 7th, I and my son headed over to the Freeport zone to eat at a place called "Meat Plus" and had old-fashioned cheeseburgers, fries, and soda. Big cheeseburgers! Then we went to the Freeport store nearby to get things that I missed getting at the main store on the previous trip. After we were done, we got in the car, started it up and headed home. When we arrived at home, I grabbed the stuff from the trunk and headed down the stairs (my driveway is on the second level). June, who saw us come in, grabbed half of what I was carrying to help me out.
Well, apparently whoever attempted to close the trunk didn't close it all the way and the rain over the last few days caused the trunk lid to come up enough to have the light come on and stay on. I went to check on the car right after I was done with my last post and the beep for unlocking the car was weak. I thought, "Uh-oh, what happened this time?" I found the trunk lid open and up a little and the light inside barely glowing. I closed the lid and then got in the car to start it. It made that rapid click noise that means there's not enough juice remaining to fire up the starter.
Again I asked questions. Nonoy, my nephew who parks his motorcycle next to the car in the driveway every day, had seen that the trunk was open but didn't close it. I asked him why. He said he didn't know why. Anyway, I'll have to have Gerri come back over before I have to go anywhere again (probably August 1st) to jump the battery again.
All of this is my fault. Since no one in this compound has ever owned a car, they wouldn't know what to watch out for even if they were paying attention. The incident with my son, well I took care of that by teaching him how to lock and unlock the car and to check everything before leaving it. The trunk thing? Well, I didn't check and I should have, even though June and Jon were both behind me when it was emptied and I was headed down the stairs.
The ignorance of the people living in this compound is rubbing off on me. In my defense, however, is the fact that I only drive the car once or twice a month as opposed to driving daily when I lived in the US. You can get away with draining the battery a little overnight but not for multiple days.
On September 24th, I took the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx) to the Northern Luzon Expressway (NLEx) en route to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Manila in order to drop my wife off for her flight on Philippine Airlines.
Yes, we're having a tropical heat wave and it's not nice like the song "Heat Wave", written by 
