(Dad passed away last week. Therefore, he will probably show up more than usual in my posts here. That’s just how it goes.)

Dad apparently did not believe in jumper cables. When grandson/nephew #2 showed up at the door this evening with a flat battery in his van, I was sure I could find a set of cables in the garage. No such luck.

I do remember from years back in the past, that he had some kind of home-built gizmo that plugged into the wall and would charge up car batteries, whether the car was still attached or not.

Unfortunately, this gizmo no longer exists – and the van was down the road a ways anyhow, so this solution probably wouldn’t have worked. 

Thanks to his decaying, home-built arc welder that I decommissioned last week, I actually had all the parts needed to construct a nice set of jumper cables on hand. It would only have taken 30 minutes or so – less if prevention of catching fire wasn’t a concern – but before I could put this plan into action, he’d called the AA.

So, I’m scoring this one point to Dad; no points to his grandson.