I went out to the Jeep in plenty of time, loaded it up with empty water bottles and gas cans, and then found that I had stupidly left the switch on and the battery was dead. It was in fact so dead that the machinery wouldn’t have behaved any differently if it were out of the Jeep entirely.
This is a problem, because my Battery Minder really doesn’t know what to do with a completely discharged battery – it treats any voltage lower than 3 volts as a malfunction, throws on a red light and refuses to play. Happily – the only happy thing about this problem caused by my own carelessness – I finally got a chance to use that 12-volt cable I bought for the Honda generator going on two years ago. The Honda’s 12- volt outlet isn’t sufficient for charging the Lair’s batteries, but it’s perfect for a small auto battery. A couple of hours of quiet generator time – and I look for chances to run it anyway, since it’s not currently in mothballs – and bob’s your uncle. Whatever that means. I’ve got the BM on the Jeep’s battery now, so it’ll start at least one more time.
That poor battery was getting old and tired before this latest mistreatment, I was thinking about replacing it before winter, so I’ll plan on pulling it at D&L’s next time I go to town with them, and bring it in for a replacement core.
It’s a good thing you have a plan B, Joel. An ebike ride into town can only get so much done.
Like you, Joel, I use the phrase “Bob’s your uncle” not knowing the history behind it. So, I took a look…
It seems like the expression arose after Conservative Prime Minister Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (“Bob”) appointed his nephew Arthur Balfour as Chief Secretary for Ireland in 1887, an act of nepotism, which was apparently both surprising and unpopular. Whatever other qualifications Balfour might have had, “Bob’s your uncle” was seen as the conclusive one.
https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/bobs-your-uncle.html