Oil Changing Adventures.

So yes, I can change my own oil. But please do not make the mistake of thinking that I actually know that much about cars. I had been planning on changing my oil for a little under a week, but it had been rainy and fixing cars in the rain is just miserable. So Yesterday was the first sunny day in far to long AND i didn't have work. It was awesome. So after a morning of laundry and tidying the room i make a run to the tech shop to see if they have some scraps of 2x4 they didn't know what to do with, because the jack I bought last year was a very very nice jack however it doesn't jack up my car high enough to get the jack stands under. 2X4's make my jack high enough I can get the jack under but low enough I can still fit the jack under the car. I first attempted this feat of changing my oil by myself...quickly realizing that this was an incredibly stupid idea. (working on cars alone is dumb on many levels, just so everyone knows) I decided that I needed a spotter to come make sure that a car didn't fall on me, and no offense to any girls I know I didn't know any girls i trusted enough to hold the jack while I am under the car trying to get a jack stand under it. Thus I decided that it had to be a boy.
Now, all the boys I know pretty much don't live in Logan anymore. And of the boys i do know that still live in Logan, I only have about four of their numbers. Chris was in star valley, Justin was at work. That left Mike and James. I text both of them as i'm walking back inside. Neither of them answer but i get on facebook and Mike is on. So I ask him if he is busy. He's in class (in other words yes he was busy) but it was going to be over at around 3 and he didn't have another one until 4:30. So the incredibly kind person he is walks over to my place after class and spots for me.
So we start trying to jack up the car but the 2X4's I have aren't quite long enough to set under the jack (the jack starts to roll forward when the car gets up higher) and at one point the jack slips off the wood crushing my fingers between the jack and the wood. (which really really hurt) so after mumbling some gibberish so avoid swearing i re-evaluate the way I've been jacking the car. After re-positioning the wood to a much safer way of jacking up the car i finally get the jack stands under the car. And using the same tools I used last time I get under the car to change the oil...and I can't get the nut or the filter off, which is making me angry cause i can't figure out why its not working. And my largest socket on my ratchet is just barely to small. So after much deliberation and feeling horrible that Mike walked all the way over from campus and I didn't even get my task accomplished I let my car down, drive Mike back to campus and make an Autozone run. (yes, it was probably a little cheaper to buy tools at wal-mart or Lowes, but at Autozone no one judges you when you walked in covered in grease and wearing what I loving call "grease monkey" clothes.
So after purchasing my new sockets and filter wrench and calling to mom and venting a little bit I head back to my place and text Justin because Mike said that Justin should be getting off work soon. Justin says that he'll help me (i just basically have great guy friends, I don't know how I've gotten so lucky) I drive over to his place, we again jack up the car, i get under and this time the oil dripping everywhere is hot because I've been driving and I go to put the socket on and...its still just barely to small, i guessed the wrong size. (don't judge me. and just so everyone knows, the correct size for the nut on the oil pan in a '98 mazda prtog`e is 11/16)
At this point I was NOT making another Autozone runs, for a few different reasons, biggest one being that i didn't want to spend more money. I call my cousin Michael who lives in North Logan to see if maybe they have a wrench I could borrow (wishing I had thought of that before I bought my new tools) and no one answers at their house. So I'm sitting their in the gravel wishing I knew someone else who may have tools when my friend Jessica pulls into the parking lot with her friend Bill.
She sees me and asks me how I'm doing (as I'm covered in grease) I look at her and say "I've got a random question for you, do you have a wrench?" She doesn't but guess who just happens to have a ratchet set in his truck? Her friend Bill. He pulls it out and we get the right size socket and i get under the car excited that i finally get to change my oil and...I couldn't get the stupid socket to move. At this point i figure out why nothing had been working. I wasn't the last one to change my oil. I almost killed my car back in January (don't judge me) and when they fixed it they changed my oil. And they had the nice air pressure tools that put things on ridiculously tight. So Bill actually has to get the nut off and he helps me get the filter off...I have been sufficiently humbled. And guess what else Bill has? FAST ORANGE!!!! For those of you who don't know what that is (and thats probably a lot of you) It's this amazing soap that take grease off. So he lets me use some and then I decide I need to go home and shower before FHE. So Justin asks me to look at his tires really quick, (again, please don't make the mistake of thinking I actually know anything about cars. I just make educated guesses, but I don't exactly have a great education..yet...someday I will)So I look at his tires, give him my opinion and then I head home, thinking about how i need to go find out what battery I need for my car because I need another one of those too. (it was covered with erosion when Mike came over, but I cleaned it off before I went to Justins, because I was thinking about it. But basically my car wants to die...and I keep nursing it back to life somehow.
So i get home and shower, and the shower after working on a car is one of the best showers in the world. Just so you know. It is absolutely wonderful the feeling after you get out and back into clean clothes. AHH! Wonderful! Anyway, so now I have a car with changed oil, some sore and swollen fingers and a couple of cuts up the arm, but otherwise no worse for the wear. And now I've re-learned a couple things about changing oil. So despite being sufficiently humbled and a little sore, i love working on cars still and I can't wait till the day I'm actually an auto-mechanic.