Jeff Wisnia wrote:

Yes, the "nebish" guys wander around the parking lot asking, "Anybody
got any jumper cables?".

The smart ones, fewer in number every day, have a set in their trunks
and are usually willing to stop and help the suffering.

(But rarely need them to start their own cars because they keep their
vehicles maintained and remember to shut lights and stuff off.)

Yeah. And they make sure that their wives and daughters
have jumper cables and know how to use them safely.

There was an interesting post on the Subaru newsgroup
about synthetic oil and dead batteries. The gist was
that cars with synthetic oil crank a lot easier in all
weather and as a result, you don't know that your
battery is getting weak. As a result, you come out
one morning and it's totally gone instead of giving
you a hint for a month....

I change mine every 5 years, minus a year for every
time it gets deep-discharged, which has only been
a couple of times over the last 10-15 years.