This is the coolest lightning video I've ever seen. I could watch the first 5 seconds over and over and over and over and over... and over again.
You get extra points if you know why the main bolt strikes from the ground up.
Friday, August 8, 2008
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Revenge of the Car!
I'm sure Ryan was biting his nails for our entire trip to Indiana with the check engine light on (see previous post and comment). Not to worry, we made it just fine. I even forgot to bring our spare jug of oil, so the engine was making some great rattling noises for the last state or two. But, because my car loves me (I get along great with inanimate objects - like cars, calculators, and Rubik's cubes) it toughed it out and took us to my in-laws.
Once there, it finally got some tender loving care. My brother in law popped the hood and showed me some things - like what a valve cover is and where my fuses are. We decided to change the valve cover gasket in case that's where the oil leak was coming from. We looked at the muffler bracket and sure enough, it was broken off with no good way of fixing it without a welder. We also checked my brakes - which some guy told me a year ago had only a month left in them - and decided that we might as well replace those too. A trip to Autozone got my check engine light read. Apparently, my engine was occasionally misfiring, so we decided to change the spark plugs too.
We headed on down to NAPA and used my father-in-law's fireman discount to get crazy discounts on all my stuff. Then we put the car back together. The new muffler bracket didn't fit, so we jimmy-rigged a wire sling to hold it up, but all the rest went together like a champ. Tada! my car's all fixed! The gas mileage is slightly improved, probably because the engine is no longer misfiring, and I don't have that annoying check engine light on any more.
So why did I name this post "Revenge of the Car?" Because I wanted to give Ryan some sense of satisfaction that my inattention to my car's needs led my downfall - before I dash all his hopes in the justice of the world and tell him that everything turned out alright due to sheer luck. OK, I guess the car still leaks oil - happy, Ryan?
Once there, it finally got some tender loving care. My brother in law popped the hood and showed me some things - like what a valve cover is and where my fuses are. We decided to change the valve cover gasket in case that's where the oil leak was coming from. We looked at the muffler bracket and sure enough, it was broken off with no good way of fixing it without a welder. We also checked my brakes - which some guy told me a year ago had only a month left in them - and decided that we might as well replace those too. A trip to Autozone got my check engine light read. Apparently, my engine was occasionally misfiring, so we decided to change the spark plugs too.
We headed on down to NAPA and used my father-in-law's fireman discount to get crazy discounts on all my stuff. Then we put the car back together. The new muffler bracket didn't fit, so we jimmy-rigged a wire sling to hold it up, but all the rest went together like a champ. Tada! my car's all fixed! The gas mileage is slightly improved, probably because the engine is no longer misfiring, and I don't have that annoying check engine light on any more.
So why did I name this post "Revenge of the Car?" Because I wanted to give Ryan some sense of satisfaction that my inattention to my car's needs led my downfall - before I dash all his hopes in the justice of the world and tell him that everything turned out alright due to sheer luck. OK, I guess the car still leaks oil - happy, Ryan?
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