Wipers are on the cowl...how???

Keep in mind that you might have an intermitnant issue that you "fixed" by bumping a wire or connector, or the wiper motor itself.

That occurred to me as well. It's been my experience that things don't magically "fix" themselves by doing nothing to them, and there certainly was a lot of jostling of the wires and the motor definitely got bumped a time or two. Either way, new wires and possibly a motor refresh are on the list. These wires are not in great shape.