Auto-Tec called this morning; they’d run comprehensive diagnostics and the codes in the car’s computer pointed to the 12-volt battery being the likely cause of the problem. That made sense; after all, the battery was nearly 5 years old, and I’d had battery-related codes pop up twice in the last year (June and November). They replaced the battery, and everything seems fine so far; they also installed a trickle charger so we can plug the car in when we go away and prevent the battery from draining itself. Here’s hoping….

We’d gotten a note from PG&E telling us that they were going to turn off our power today so that they could replace a power pole (this was the third attempt; the other two got rained out), so we went up to San Francisco to see the “Sargent and Spain” exhibition at the Legion of Honor. It was very nice and only a little too crowded for comfort; I’m glad we went today instead of waiting for the weekend.

The fan installers arrived a few minutes early (just before 8) and got right to work; that was the only thing that happened quickly today.

I’d decided to have AAA tow Diane’s Prius to Auto-Tec rather than driving it; I placed the request about 8:45am, and their system told me a driver should arrive in 30-45 minutes. About 30 minutes later, a person from AAA called me and said that they were running late, but I should expect the driver in 30-45 minutes. 30 minutes after that, I got an automated call and an alert telling me that the driver was on the way and would arrive in about 38 minutes; the alert even gave me a URL to watch the driver’s progress on a map.

The driver was in Castro Valley, which would be a 47 minute drive down 880 if there was no traffic. It took him 90 minutes to get to our house, and he wound up driving across the Dumbarton Bridge and down 101, 280, and 85 before finally reaching us.

But once he arrived, it didn’t take long for him to load up the Prius and take it to Auto-Tec. I got it there too late for them to squeeze it in today, so I guess we’ll get the verdict tomorrow.

In the meantime, the installers did their work, and now we have a brand new Airspace whole house fan and a new QuietCool attic exhaust fan (with Bluetooth). And we needed them – it was the hottest day of the year so far, and the house was open all day while they worked!