It looks like we’ve got to get a battery for the freaking car.  The battery in there now has been there for about two years.  The car is only five years old.  The original battery croaked in a typical 3-year span, so I slapped the Optima from one of the project cars in it.  That Yellow-top is probably eight years old, and has been in at least three cars (that I can think of ) now.  I knew that we were going to have to replace it, but I really wanted to put that off until after we had paid our taxes.  But, alas – its time in this world is quickly drawing to a close.  My connections are clean, and it runs down within minutes of the headlights being on even if I have trickle-charged it for a good 24-hours.  It’s a lot worse in the cold than when it’s warm outside.  This morning, I forgot to turn the lights off when I stopped for gas.  Approximately five minutes of gas-pumping is all it took to discharge it to the point that the keyturn produced one, mournful “rurch” of a crank.  I had to ask for help from a complete stranger in the not-so-good side of town.  Fortunately, the guy who I asked was willing and compassionate to my plight.  I think I’m going to get a new battery just down the street from my workplace at the battery store.  I really didn’t want to be out the money right now, but that’s what happens when we let these things plan themselves.  I don’t want to put it off for so long that it kills my alternator as well.  Those Nissan alternators are NOT CHEAP!