It’s been a few days since my last post, and it’s been a busy few days.

You never realize how much you depend on something until you suddenly don’t have it. Since my wife’s car is still with my daughter, we’re down to just one vehicle. That means choices have to be made, schedules have to be adjusted, and everything takes a little more planning. My daughter is still looking for another car, but she’s waiting on the insurance check before she can buy one.

On top of that, life doesn’t slow down. I’m going to physical therapy for my back twice a week, and my wife has therapy once a week. This coming week I also have two doctor’s appointments, and my wife has an appointment on the very same day. I think we’ve worked out the logistics, but if one appointment runs long, it could throw our whole schedule into chaos.

Today was my second physical therapy appointment. Unfortunately, I had already spent part of yesterday doing yard work, so I was pretty sore before I even walked through the door. After an hour of stretching and exercises, I’m even more sore now. The therapist warned me that I’d probably feel it for a couple of days because we stretched muscles that haven’t been worked like that in a while. My next appointment is Monday morning.

Tomorrow I’ll be heading back to my parents’ house to cut their grass again. I’ve already loaded my mower and weed trimmer onto the trailer. Last week I didn’t have time to do any trimming, so it’s really needed now. The biggest question is how my back is going to handle sitting on the mower for four hours. It may take me longer than usual because I’ll be stopping often to stretch and give my back a break. I’d rather take my time than pay for it later.

Speaking of my mower…

It’s about four years old. After I finished mowing my own yard yesterday, I drove it over to my outdoor hydrant to wash off all the grass clippings. I do that every single time I use it. I think it looks better when it’s clean, and maybe—just maybe—it’ll help it last a little longer.

When I finished spraying it off, I climbed back on, turned the key…and absolutely nothing happened.

For the next hour, I started troubleshooting everything I could think of. Eventually, I convinced myself the starter had gone bad. I began pricing replacement starters and quickly discovered they aren’t cheap. I finally found an aftermarket one that appeared to fit my mower, but something kept nagging at me.

“What if it’s not the starter?”

I’ve been down that road before—buying parts I didn’t actually need. I’d hate to spend the money, wait for the part to arrive, install it, and discover the mower still wouldn’t start.

So I called my dad.

He suggested I try one more thing before ordering a starter. I’m glad I listened.

Earlier in my troubleshooting, I had tried jump-starting the mower with my jump box, thinking the battery might be weak. It still wouldn’t even try to turn over. I checked the battery with my meter, and it showed what appeared to be enough voltage, so I ruled it out. Just to be safe, I put it on the charger while I went inside for lunch.

After lunch, I spent a few hours doing other things around the yard before checking it again.

Surprisingly, the battery voltage had actually dropped even lower than it was before I put it on the charger.

Well, there was my answer.

The starter was fine after all—it was the battery.

That meant another trip to the auto parts store for a new battery. While I’m certainly glad it wasn’t the starter, I still wasn’t thrilled about spending money on a battery that I hadn’t planned on buying.

Sometimes life has a funny way of piling things on all at once. Between juggling one vehicle, therapy appointments, doctor’s visits, back pain, cutting my parents’ grass, and now replacing a mower battery, it has definitely been one of those weeks.

Hopefully next week will be just a little less eventful…but somehow I doubt it.