Oh Yeah!

I decided to be bold, to be daring, to do some minor car maintenance myself.

The blasted air filters. At my last oil change, they bring them in to me in the waiting area, I see how badly they need to be replaced, but know it's quite a bit cheaper to do it on your own. Armed with specs for both my cabin and engine filters, I ventured into an auto parts place, suppressed the urge to give a manly grunt, purchased both air filters, and returned home.

I tackled the cabin air filter first. The owner's manual does a grand job of describing where said filter lives in my car and how to access it. After completely removing my glove box, it was quite easy. After consulting an online video, I found where my engine air filter was. There is a lot going on under the hood of a car! For those who are unfamiliar with the anatomy of a 2004 Toyota Corolla, the filter lives under this plastic box looking thing, on the driver's side of the car.

I opened the lid, took out the grungy old filter and peered into the box. You'll never guess what I found. Sand. Yup, I'm still plagued by sand from Cape Hatteras. I had a run in with some of it working on a different project, not related to my car, last month. I got the vacuum out, cleaned out the tub, and replaced the filter.

I felt so accomplished. I'm sure most if not all of you have changed your own air filters before, or have significant others who do it for you, and so this is nothing exciting. It was definitely cool to me. I came inside and decided to paint my toe-nails, something I haven't done just because I felt like it (no party, prom, wedding, etc) since I can't remember.