Oil pan, meet rock. Rock, oil pan. "Howd'ya do?"

Ok, so I haven't written in a while. I guess there just hasn't been anything hugely stressful in my life that I've had the urge to share with the entire online community. But, alas, here I am, writing once again.

Well, if you can't tell from the voice of the post and the title a terrible thing happened today. I was in Toelle County helping out a friend with his Eagle Project. No one told me there would be off-roading involved. I made it up there in one piece. Except that I heard 3 very distinct *THUDS* and felt them too. No permanent damage done, though. On the way back down, on a different trail, there were two.

I was trying to ride on the top of the rut, off to the left, so my right wheel was on the high point and my left was off the side of the road, essentially. Well, apparently I was not enough to the left. I caught the first rock, which I didn't even see coming, with the suspension on my right tire. Load thud, big jolt, and my car pulled the rock right out of the ground. No permanent damage done, except a scar on my car. The second rock I hit avoiding an even bigger rock. It apparently caught my oil pan straight on. No leaking, just a HUGE dent.

However, we get to the bottom of the trail and my oil light comes on. Oil pressure is very low! So I added some oil, light goes off, I continue to drive. I had used all my oil reserves, so I dropped into a convenience store and bought three more quarts. Put them all in (as I was a bit low on oil). As it turns out, I wasn't that low. I have about a quart over, but as I have an oil leak, that will sort itself out.

Put two of the quarts in, the light turns off. Drive for 15 minutes, light comes back on, put in 3rd quart. Light goes off. Drive for 5 minutes, light comes on. And guess what, no cell phone service! Bad situation, meet worst case scenario. My friend Tommy was following me, so I had a backup if need be.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I decided to cross my fingers, grit my teeth, and hope that because the oil light was flickering on and off sporadically that my car was ok. The good news is that the oil light turned off when I was almost home (after driving it for almost an hour) and hasn't come back on yet. The bad news, I probably did some serious damage to my engine.

All in all, though, I had quite a fun time with everything and hope to keep it that way. If my car dies, well, I'll bike to work until I buy a new one. I have school tuition to pay, then I'll have enough for at least a down-payment (if I decide to take out a loan) after another month. Loosing my car would, however, greatly inhibit my plans to move back out. We shall see... Keep your fingers crossed.

Future, meet Lady Luck. Lady Luck, Future. I hope you two become best friends.