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Crush

So a week and a half ago I was driving my wife's Subaru out to the Porterville pioneer cemetery. It's a beautiful place, sacred and lovely. Sadly, on the road out there there was a fairly significant dip in the road, and I didn't see it. Further, there was a large rock on the uphill side of the dip, which I also did not see. The oil pan hit the rock and immediately began to leak (huge hole). Sigh.

So I get the thing home and crawl underneath it. Right near the oil drain plug there was a hole that looked like someone had driven a 16d nail into the pan. I needed a new one. The local auto parts store didn't have one, so they had to order one in. It came in on Friday.

Remember, we'd wanted to head out on Saturday morning, early, to be in Amarillo Saturday night...

So I get started working on the thing at about 2 PM Friday. It's quite a process, made worse by the fact that the oil pan sits just above a structural cross beam, and there are four bolts that are nearly impossible to access. You have to jack the engine up, which gives you about an inch of space to work with. I had to use a couple of these:


Which is alright - I know how to use them. It was just tricky and took WAY too long.

About 10 PM I'd got everything back together, only to realize I'd not put the dipstick tube back in. Which meant I had to take the whole thing apart (again!) and put the silly thing back. I was SO frustrated...

So there I was, fingers wedged in that 1" gap, trying not to curse as I finagled these small bolts into place, when my knee hit the floor jack that I was using to hold the engine up. My fingers were caught in the tiny space that was left. I let out a good scream, as my fingers were being crushed by the weight of the engine... Alas, it was about 1 AM and everyone else was asleep.

Then, somehow, and for some reason, I was able to pull my fingers out. Like, I just slid them out. I don't know how this happened - after I pulled them out I tried to squeeze them back into that gap, and they wouldn't fit. Not even my fingertips would fit into the space. My hand was not mangled, nothing broken or bleeding, and I was able to finish the job (although I was a bit shaken...). I finished up at around 2 AM, and then woke at 6 AM for the drive to Amarillo (which went just fine).

I'll write more about the trip later (it was awesome!). But I feel very blessed to be able to write anything at all - it probably should have gone a lot worse for me. Clearly someone was looking out for me. I'm very grateful.

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