(no subject)
As it turns out, cleaning my car can be an extremely interesting experience.
Thursday:
So my car has been making somewhat strange noises, kind of squeaky ones anyway. It was bothering me, so I decided to have my parents weigh in their opinions while I drove it around in the driveway. It was making the noises, so then we decided to do it with the hood up. And the first thing we find is a bird's nest. Yes, a bird's nest inside the hood of my car, right next to to the windshield wiper fluid. Including 4 eggs. However, the bird had almost certainly been long gone, and it was certainly not the culprit in terms of the squeaky noises. I guess it must have gotten in there while we were on the trip to Florida, and made a nest and everything. I don't know why it would make a nest there, I guess it was a sparrow or something. Weird stuff. So I decided to take some pictures, and I did, which I'll probably post, or just say I'll post but never get around to it at some point or another. And of course during this time I managed to find out that my hood locking mechanism was busted or something, or at least the primary locking mechanism. The secondary one still worked, so the hood would come up just a little bit, and then stop, where you would normally reach in and pull up the tab to get it all the way open. So I could still drive and stuff, but it would come up a little bit and anyone could get into my engine whenever they wanted, which is probably not a good thing. The main problem was that the cord around the wire that attaches to the tab you would push and pull to open and close the primary mechanism (it works just like a bike brake) was frayed, so that when you pushed it in it would just move the whole cord, not the wire inside the cord. So me and my dad tried to fix that with duct tape and peices of aluminum foil, but that didn't work.
Friday:
This was the day I was supposed to wash, vaccuum, and wax my car (in that order). I suppose the washing wasn't very eventful. Actually the only exciting part of any of this is the bird's nest, so I'm really not sure why I'm continuing the story. My car was much cleaner after I washed. Then came the vaccuuming. Actually in between the washing and the vaccuuming came a half-hour nap, because I was tired from the 18:34 5k I ran at Cass that morning. The vaccuuming was somewhat exciting, mainly because my car is (was) so completely full of crap. Included among the objects were a removable pink fingernail of unknown origin (actually now likely traced to my sister), and an invitation to Sam's grad party, which didn't have a picture of Sam, something I'm only bothering to say because he apoligized for it on the invitation or something. Anyway, that got thrown out (sorry Sam) because the number of times I lost my wallet under my seat and then had to dig for it while stopped at an intersection even though I knew full well it was right there and it couldn't have possibly gone anyway else didn't warrant the number of times I used the map to Sam's house in the past year (total = 0). All this ended up with my car being somewhat clean, although I still have the pieces of the paper crane that me and Mike made in Ms. Hardy's class (I think they might be as faded as they can possibly get, which I guess was the goal). And some random maps I decided to keep, like the one of downtown Toledo I printed off of Google Maps, and the address of Kaitlyn's house, which I will never, ever be able to remember. After vaccuuming, the car was waxed. There is no way I can draw that out. Then me and my dad messed with the locking mechanism some more, deciding that the spring constant of the spring that was suppose to make this one part swivel back into place was too low, and that the spring might need to be replaced. WD-40 was used. The problem wasn't fixed.
Saturday:
My dad fixed the problem while listening to The Very Best of Meat Loaf tape, that he taped off of my CDs that he got for me for Easter. The spring was actually fine, it was just that the aluminum and duct tape fix wasn't good enough, so he drilled a hole through a broom handle and made a slit in the side, and then clamped it around the cord. Then everything worked again, and no one can get into my engine unless I want them too (so don't try).
Thursday:
So my car has been making somewhat strange noises, kind of squeaky ones anyway. It was bothering me, so I decided to have my parents weigh in their opinions while I drove it around in the driveway. It was making the noises, so then we decided to do it with the hood up. And the first thing we find is a bird's nest. Yes, a bird's nest inside the hood of my car, right next to to the windshield wiper fluid. Including 4 eggs. However, the bird had almost certainly been long gone, and it was certainly not the culprit in terms of the squeaky noises. I guess it must have gotten in there while we were on the trip to Florida, and made a nest and everything. I don't know why it would make a nest there, I guess it was a sparrow or something. Weird stuff. So I decided to take some pictures, and I did, which I'll probably post, or just say I'll post but never get around to it at some point or another. And of course during this time I managed to find out that my hood locking mechanism was busted or something, or at least the primary locking mechanism. The secondary one still worked, so the hood would come up just a little bit, and then stop, where you would normally reach in and pull up the tab to get it all the way open. So I could still drive and stuff, but it would come up a little bit and anyone could get into my engine whenever they wanted, which is probably not a good thing. The main problem was that the cord around the wire that attaches to the tab you would push and pull to open and close the primary mechanism (it works just like a bike brake) was frayed, so that when you pushed it in it would just move the whole cord, not the wire inside the cord. So me and my dad tried to fix that with duct tape and peices of aluminum foil, but that didn't work.
Friday:
This was the day I was supposed to wash, vaccuum, and wax my car (in that order). I suppose the washing wasn't very eventful. Actually the only exciting part of any of this is the bird's nest, so I'm really not sure why I'm continuing the story. My car was much cleaner after I washed. Then came the vaccuuming. Actually in between the washing and the vaccuuming came a half-hour nap, because I was tired from the 18:34 5k I ran at Cass that morning. The vaccuuming was somewhat exciting, mainly because my car is (was) so completely full of crap. Included among the objects were a removable pink fingernail of unknown origin (actually now likely traced to my sister), and an invitation to Sam's grad party, which didn't have a picture of Sam, something I'm only bothering to say because he apoligized for it on the invitation or something. Anyway, that got thrown out (sorry Sam) because the number of times I lost my wallet under my seat and then had to dig for it while stopped at an intersection even though I knew full well it was right there and it couldn't have possibly gone anyway else didn't warrant the number of times I used the map to Sam's house in the past year (total = 0). All this ended up with my car being somewhat clean, although I still have the pieces of the paper crane that me and Mike made in Ms. Hardy's class (I think they might be as faded as they can possibly get, which I guess was the goal). And some random maps I decided to keep, like the one of downtown Toledo I printed off of Google Maps, and the address of Kaitlyn's house, which I will never, ever be able to remember. After vaccuuming, the car was waxed. There is no way I can draw that out. Then me and my dad messed with the locking mechanism some more, deciding that the spring constant of the spring that was suppose to make this one part swivel back into place was too low, and that the spring might need to be replaced. WD-40 was used. The problem wasn't fixed.
Saturday:
My dad fixed the problem while listening to The Very Best of Meat Loaf tape, that he taped off of my CDs that he got for me for Easter. The spring was actually fine, it was just that the aluminum and duct tape fix wasn't good enough, so he drilled a hole through a broom handle and made a slit in the side, and then clamped it around the cord. Then everything worked again, and no one can get into my engine unless I want them too (so don't try).