Thanks for all the tips and suggestions. I'm going to send the thread to my husband who is lurking at school (everybody wave!) He knows more about this than I do and can perhaps get some ideas from your suggestions.
Thanks again.
Well, he was paralyzed waist down and knew exactly what the problem was. I threw some electrical tape around his battery-to-starter cable and he was very thankful. We were both on our way in less than five minutes. Sucker for brunettes?, that's me.