Ecency Discord Topic 41: OFFLINE ACTIVITY

This week's "offline activity" starts with a backstory. Sure, I could tell about the activity in ten words with no backstory, but what's the fun in that?

Three weeks ago, a friend of mine celebrated her 80th birthday. She lives in another town, a little over an hour's drive from where I live, and where a small gathering had been planned by some of her local friends. To get there, I had to drive over a mountain range and down the other side.

There had been no problems with my car lately, but the steep mountain road brought one concern — besides the big "OIL" light that most cars have (which comes on when the oil is dangerously low), my car also has a "oil gauge"/meter that shows the pressure in the oil system. There is a small LED light that flickers when the pressure is unsteady and stays on if the oil pressure drops below what it should be. As my car climbed up the very steep mountain road, the oil pressure light began to flicker, off and on a bit, then went out again. It repeated this all the way up the mountain, and periodically came on and remained lit, steadily, for several seconds before going off again. I was concerned that I might need to cancel the trip and try to return home.

I finally decided to wait until I reached the top of the mountain. If the problem continued once the roadway leveled again, I would definitely return home. But, the problem abated on level road and as I began the descent on the other side. Still, I stopped at a small store way down the mountain and bought a quart of oil, just in case. The rest of the drive to the venue was all downhill and then through some rolling hills to the town. The oil pressure remained steady and good, thankfully. On the return trip, I had no problems except on the steepest sections of road near the top of the mountain range, and I arrived home safely with no problem!

^{~ Beautiful evening cloud, seen as we were leaving the restaurant after my friend's birthday dinner~}

The next day, before taking the car to the mechanic, I backed the car out of the garage a few feet and then went back in to look for an oil leak on the floor. I found one, so I took a photo of it. Then I drove to the mechanic and he confirmed that the oil level in the car was slightly low, so he topped-off the oil system. While on the excursion to see my friend, the odometer had passed the marker for the routine oil-change, so I made plans with the mechanic to bring the car back in a couple of weeks for that, as well as some other routine maintenance.

^{~ the icky oil leak ~}

So, this week, my "Offline Activity" was taking the car to the mechanic. They were unable to find the specific point of the oil leak, but it's such a slow leak — and an older car, where such things often happen — that it's perfectly safe to drive it. They changed the oil, replaced a couple of 'wheel cylinders' (part of the braking system), replenished the brake fluid, rotated the tires, checked tire pressure, checked all fluid levels, and cleaned the engine. It cost me the equivalent of about 211 HBD for the work (which I thought very fair). And I feel secure knowing that my car is good shape again!

Now, wasn't that more fun than a dBuzz post saying: "My car was in the shop" ??? 😁