And the verdict is in

The battery was bad and has been replaced.

The battery light on the dash is still on, so there’s another problem somewhere. They went ahead and did a fuel-injection cleaning and changed out my air filter and miracle of miracles my "Check Engine" light is now off and the engine idles a lot more smoothly. I also have a vacuum leak, and that may solve the rough idle problem completely, meaning it wasn’t a coil pack and I probably could have been getting much better gas mileage for the past year if I’d just taken it in when the light came on. I"m going to stop by the local Wal-Mart on the way up to my folks’ place in the morning and see if they have something I can use to fix the leak. I just need a short (three or so inches) length of vacuum hose but the stuff I bought at Advance is way too stiff to go over the fittings, and one end of the hose with the gash in it seems to be stuck in place, so I may try electrical tape around it and see if that will hold for a while. I’m wondering now if the internal diameter of the fittings is small enough I can put some aquarium tubing in there before I tape the gap shut and the tubing won’t get sucked into wherever it is the hose goes… I wonder if it won’t get too hot though. Hmmm. Or I could get automotive tubing that’s big enough to go around the damaged piece but still flexible enough to clamp down air tight…

Where’s my dang Swiss Army Knife when I need it?

We’re thinking that the rough idle caused by the leak is affecting the charging system of the car, making the battery light come on. The test equipment they used to check the battery in place wouldn’t work due to "System Noise" even though the only electrical device drawing power was the light under the hood, so they suggested I fix the leak and then take it to a local auto parts store that has better equipment and doesn’t charge for the test and it would let me know for sure if the alternator or something else was bad or if the idiot light on my dash was just being stupid.

Of course if I have to get the alternator replaced or repaired I’m stuck. I may be buying one of those solar panel charges after all.