Who wants to get really, really rich?

Because it's that time again here, for yet another world premiere of an idea that you can take to the bank — after you do a little work.

As always it starts with a problem, progresses to an (in retrospect) obvious solution and ends in tears.

Of laughter — as you choke and splutter thinking about yet another half–baked idea emerged from my dysfunctional kitchen of a brain.

But I digress.

Long story short: Friday afternoon after I got back home from getting my car inspected I couldn't find my credit card.

I knew I'd just used it to pay for the inspection, which included an oil change, replacement of a dead light bulb and repair of the driver's door lever.

$72.86, in case you're interested in how much the automobile–related expenses were.

So I turned the car and the house upside down looking for the credit card but couldn't find it.

Oh, well, I figured: maybe tomorrow my brain will recalculate the world and this time include the credit card.

Which it did this morning.

The card was under a chair in a room I occasionally walk through but rarely use.

How'd it get there?

Doesn't matter: it was in credit card hyperspace overnight and then it came back.

But when I went out to my car to drive down to the 7–11 a mile and a half away, down Barracks Road, I saw that I'd left the ignition key in the switch — in the "On" position" — yesterday afternoon after moving the motorized seats around looking for the credit card.

And what with the temperature at 7:22 a.m. being 38°F I knew not a lot would happen when I tried to start the car.

Got that one right.

No big deal, I've got plenty other stuff to do (but different from the day before).

Then, while I was on the treadmill reading the morning papers

it suddenly occurred to me: I'm not the first person to have accidentally/inadvertently drained their car battery in their own driveway.

Why, I'll bet there's even a joehead out there — maybe three! — who've done the very same thing.

And maybe, like me, you don't have a second car to jumpstart the dead one with so you either have to call AAA or a friend to get going.

But then the penny dropped.

Why isn't there a transformer/charger device that you can plug into any electrical outlet and then into your car's cigarette lighter socket to charge your battery enough to start the car?

I mean, power is power regardless of the form it takes — it's all energy in the end.

Here's a tip to help you get started: make sure to offer the device with optional cord lengths, all the way up to 100 feet, because there are many people who don't have an electrical outlet anywhere near their car.

There is a fortune at the end of this rainbow for the joehead who brings this to market: "ka–ching" is the sound I'm hearing in the background.

So there it is: money for nothing.

Shows there's no truth in common adages like, "You get what you pay for."

Doesn't it?