I bought one at Walmart a couple of decades for $10. It has saved me more than that in checking batteries alone. It’s one of my more useful tools.
@Bracken_Joy You once posted Sir B’s multimeter. Yes it is a very nice one, and not a cheap tool.
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Sure!
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Oh he has several multimeters I was thinking of his cheaper one 
He recommends the Fluke 101 for home use. $45 on Amazon right now.
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I have a story about batteries, for the journal…
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I have a $10 multimeter and it works great. A normal non-professional person doesn’t need more than that.
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Not-so-fun fact I learned while doing electrical work last fall: my electric panel doesn’t have a whole-house master switch
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I keep meaning to “accidentally” swiping my dad’s when he comes to visit. It tells you if a wire is hot and has a fancy doodad you can plug into an outlet if it’s not working and it will tell you which wires are connected wrong.
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How many times do you come and go a day from your house?
I know this is classic nosy suburban mom behavior, but I can’t help but notice that a lot of my neighbors come and go (car of course) like 5-10 times a day? And that’s just what I notice. They’re often very short trips, like 15-30 min? And this is day after day, so not just an errands day. Given the specific neighbors I’m sure it’s not that they’re driving for Lyft or something. So like… what are they doing? I leave zero to 1 times by car any given day. Just trying to like… puzzle this out.
And my brain has nothing better to do apparently than speculate on my neighbors lives on this front
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Omg live for a low stakes mystery. Probably not kid drop off and pick up, because you would have noticed that already? Moving kids between activities?
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Two of the families in question are in their 60s or 70s, their kids don’t live at home.
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My house is really weirdly positioned, and has a ton of windows, so I can see like 14 different peoples driveways depending on where I am in my house. I swear I’m not just a mega creeper
ETA that was a good guess! I walked and counted, I can easily see 15
Second edit- that’s just downstairs. I can probably see more like 20 driveways if I include the upstairs. CREEPER CASTLE.
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Oh, then my money is on perfectly timing errands! My retired parents have a perfect system for the best time to go to the grocery store for their daily trips, etc etc.
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So they run a single errand, come back, and leave again 30-60 min later? Why not just stay out?
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My dad is in his 70s and always has tiny outings. He likes gas station coffee and to see what the lineup at the gas station is like, etc.
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Hmmm I will do research with the [last name redacteds] and get their take.
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This would fit with the couple across the street very well. They prompted the question today actually. He’s in his 70s and always puttering on something. She comes and goes a ton too. I could totally see him checking a gas line, coming home, and going back later
My parents do lots of weird errand stuff, but they live so far out of town that they make a day of it most days.
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I do one big trip with different stops for all the errands. Spouse will do several trips (which I consider to be inefficient). But not 5-10 trips / day.
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My parents do this. Especially my dad because he can’t plan anything. But my mom will go to the bank, come home. A little later go to get a few things she needs to cook supper. She might get bored and drive to the park to take a walk somewhere different, and then come back. My dad might be in the middle of a project and forget he needed nails, etc. Come home and an hour later realize, oops he also needed caulk, or some odd thing. They also live within 1-2 miles of a lot of places, so it’s a 5-10 minute drive and low stakes if they end up needing to go out again…it does baffle me though. I leave the house in my car 2-3 times per week, at the most. I do all of my shopping for the week in one big loop around town and cross my fingers I didn’t forget anything because it will just have to wait. I also live 20-25 min from most “big box” stores and the grocery stores I like, so I really have to plan my errands efficiently.
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Yes this is us! We’re 10-15 min drive from two Kroger affiliates, a Walmart, a Costco, a bunch of stuff. I guess I just have intense activation energy for driving places in general, but the tot doesn’t help with that. and with like 6 of the minutes just being getting out of the neighborhood basically it feels crazy to me.
I also just can’t really think of like 20 trips I could possibly need in a week, but maybe if I never bought anything online or combined trips?
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I love this tiny mystery.
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