I went to a pub ~3 miles from home and had a beer, so it was similar to
the shopping center situation in that the car sat for a while. When I
came out to go home, it was totally dead at once. Again, someone gave
me a jump, and the car ran fine. As I write, it's sitting and idling to
charge the battery. I probably should have been keeping an eye on the
voltmeter after the first time, but it slipped my mind.
Something occurs to me: the car sat, and the battery went totally flat,
from 11/96 to 11/97. (It had failed smog and I couldn't afford to get
it fixed during that period.) And the battery wasn't brand new when I
took the car off the road. In fact, I was crossing my fingers that the
battery would still be OK when I put the car back in service, but it
seemed to be. Could the current problem indicate a battery on the way
out? TIA