Thanks all for your help and replies! You're all correct - the diagram showed exactly what I was facing, which was the lift holders were on the far left side of the engine which is the actual point you're probably supposed to connect the black negative jumper cable to, but these 2 foot (really just 1 foot per cable) doesn't reach there once the positive red is connected to the car battery..... and the suggestion to follow the black negative cable to where it is grounded to the fender is what I settled on, and it was tucked underneath some sort of plastic vent thing that I was able to pop off to get kind of off to the side of the battery down low. ....and yes - I did feel like it was a great way to 'create' a spark, right near the battery (the concern! haha)...... but in any event - the little Schumacker portable battery jumper thing was able to connect to that ....worked on the first try!

I can't see any reason to NOT have one of these in your car with a charge on it at all times if you're concerned about your battery being dead when you're not near any sort of an AC outlet or with no other cars possibly around to get a jump from. (say a parking lot at night after hours, or in a remote area)

Thanks all for your help and insightful input (without bashing me for being a little clueless since I don't work on cars really ever myself so much!)

 

Hey, most of us remember when we started out being clueless. Some of us have funny stories about how we learned things the hard way!

 

That is true. My funniest is trying to change brakes for the first time 20 years ago. My brother and I still laugh about that until this day.