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Finger Injury / Update

Last Friday I had an accident. For months, my dad has been researching new grills to buy. He finally decided on one and bought it. It arrived last Friday. This is no ordinary grill that you buy at the Home Depot. It is a DCS and its solid stainless steel. With its cart, it weighs approximately 200 lbs. That evening we were assembling it and needed to move it. I went to get a good position and had to readjust my hands to keep them from slipping. The spot my fingers found when the lifting began somehow inside a louver. It was sharp here and the weigh, lifting and sliding cut my fingers like a knife. Lots of blood began flowing and we made a prompt visit to Urgent Care about 3 blocks from my house. The dogs were happy to clean up the blood that was on the floor.

We arrived at Urgent Care 3 minutes before they closed. For the first time I could see the severity of my injury. I had deeply cut my middle, ring, and pinky fingers on my left hand. They made me was out my cuts and then the worst part of numbing them came next. After that, six stitches went in. I received two stitches in each finger. The entire process took about 15 min. After this, we went to the Culvers car shot right across the street. Below is a picture of what my fingers looked like 24 hours after the stitches when I was changing the dressing. Some people had requested the pictures after hearing about what I did.

It is good to be done with school. Everything ended up great. I was very satisfied with my grades for the semester. Microsoft Office 2007 finally came into the campus bookstore and its great to get the Enterprise edition for only $15.

The first week off from school Aaron, Ryan, and myself finished the ChristmasLux project. More on this later but the project now has its own blog. Look for more soon. http://liquidretro.net/lightshow/

The second week off I detailed the Ferrari extensively. It now looks like a completely different car.

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UNL Rifle Club Fun Shoot

Yesterday I went out to Broken Bow, Nebraska to participate in the annual fun shoot. I had a very good time shooting all of the guns. I shot several guns that are normally only seen in the movies and video games. Some of them included a 50 caliber Sniper Rifle, an AL-47, A Tommy Gun, and others. Below I have posted some photos and videos of me and some friends shooting all of the guns.

Facebook users please view page on my actual web page to see the videos. www.LiquidRetro.Net/Blog

Group Photo

Me with the AK-47

Ben with the AK-47

Me in the classic dictator pose with the dictators favorite gun.

Amber with the M30

Videos

50 caliber Sniper Rifle. I hit the metal goat at 600 meters.

My Dad with the Sniper Rifle. He also hit the Goat.

Me with the Tommy Gun

Ben with the AK-47

Ben with the Sniper Rifle

Ben with the Tommy Gun

Amber with the M30 Machine Gun

Loading of the AK-47 Golf ball gun. This was a cool gun. After a golf ball had been loaded by shoving it down the specially made aluminum tube a blank cartridge was loaded and the gun was fired. It shot the golf ball well over 100 yards.

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Shells Ferrari Commercial

I found this commercial someplace on the web and really liked how it showed the evolution of the Ferrari Formula 1 car through the years and around the world. The best part of this commercial though has to be the the sound of all of these wonderful engines. Make sure you speakers are on for this one.

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Spring Break Overview

As Spring Break ends tonight and Classes begin tomorrow morning I think about what I have done the past week. My dad and I drove 2800 miles in 6 days averaging 467 miles a day. This was actually more fun than it sounds. We got as far south and east as Tallahassee Florida. With the exception of adding 1 qt of oil the A8 worked wonderfully. I came to realize that some of the stereo types that are though of about the south sadly still exist today.

It was amazing to me that the speed limits meant nothing to the persons driving on the interstate. A speed limit of 70mph really means 80mph and if your doing 80mph your in the slow lane. Traffic moved between 85-90 and at times faster. This combined with the very fast lane changes leaving little room for error makes me think that everyone thinks they are a driver for NASCAR. Lets just say that the German A8 had no problem keeping up with the NASCAR fans.
Stopping in Memphis on the way home was fun. I took a tour of Gibson Guitars and saw how they were made. I always love to see all that goes into a product or item. I also took a tour of Sun Studios. This is where Elvis, BB King, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee and many other artists recorded at. It was neat to see all of this because I had learned about it in my History of Rock and Roll class this semester.

Here are some photos of the trip. Facebook viewers you must got to my webpage to view the photos. Http://blog.LiquidRetro.Net

Here is the route of where we went.

Miles

The Quitman, GA office.

The Ocean

Gibson Guitars

Gibson Guitars

Gibson Guitars

Sun Studios

The Million Dollar Quartet

The vocal Mic that all of the Sun artists used to record

The Audi A8L in Color

The Audi A8L in B&W

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Road Trip Day 2

Day 1 of the road trip went well. Lincoln, NE to Saint Louis, MO. Nothing too eventful happened. We had a great dinner at “Tony”

Day 2 started off well after a good nights sleep and a great breakfast at the Embassy Suits Hotel. South of Mount Vernon, IL the Audi warned us that its oil was low. After stopping at a gas station a manual check of the oil confirmed that it did indeed need some. But not every truck stop stocks synthetic 5W-30. After a quick call to Onstar to locate a auto parts store and short drive to another town we purchased a quart of full synthetic oil and the car was happy for the rest of the day. Its getting great gas millage 23.8 mpg through the mountains at 80MPH.

Stop for Oil

Mountain Driving

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Audi Saga Part III

Well I have an update. The car was taken to the doctor yesterday and I must say service is very good when you drive in with the flagship car. It seems the dealer is the only one who actually know what the car is.

He called today and said that the reason the check engine light came on again was the catalytic converters were blocked with carbon. The reason for this was because the car was driven approximately 500 miles with the bad ignition. The dealer said he also suspected that the previous owner or the dealership we bought it from did not always burn premium fuel in the car and this led to the failing of the ignition coils.

Audi is replacing the cat’s which cost $1800 a piece under warranty. He said if the car was not under warranty he would of said it will burn off if you drive it. He also said it is a very long process of replacing them and the mechanic would spend all day or more on this. He also said that the car looks great and is in great shape and should have no more mechanical problem and he hopes not to see it back till it needs its normal service.

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Audi Saga Part II

Well last Thursday the car arrived on a flatbed truck from Topeka, KS having been repaired. The issue was the ignition coils. This problem plagued many earlier Audi/VW cars but not the A8L. With only 5 miles on the car sense repair the check engine light came on again. This is a rather concerning issue. The Audi dealer in Omaha does not have time to look at the car till the later part of this week. After talking with him he thinks that it would be very rare to actually have something mechanically wrong with the car. Instead he thinks a wire was not fully pluged in or something jiggled loose. I will keep everyone updated with this situation as it progresses.

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Audi Saga Part I

Saturday

Yesterday my dad and I flew from Omaha, NE to Houston, TX and then this morning we picked up my dad’s 2005 A8L with only 22,000 miles on it and started to drive home to Lincoln, NE. Before purchasing the car had been to an Audi Dealer in Houston to be checked over top and bottom. It passed everything beautify. Before getting out of the dealer at purchase, the automatic trunk would not stay latched. This problem was supposed to be fixed before the car was purchased. Once out on the freeway we noticed that the check engine light had came on. We need fuel so we pulled over and got some fuel and made sure the gas cap was on tightly and that the tires were inflated and that the caps under the hood were tight. The light was still on and with 880 miles left to travel, we called Audi roadside assistance. They said that the car needed service and that it was ok to drive it as long as the light stayed solid. This was all with in the first hour of travel time. Skip ahead about 550 miles and several hours of peaceful and uneventful driving the check engine light began to blink. The car lost power and began to run very roughly. As soon as possible, we pulled off the interstate and found a hotel.

Audi Service so far is fantastic. Audi’s 24 hour roadside assistance program is towing the car on flatbed truck to Topeka, KS to the closest Audi dealer tonight at 11pm on a Saturday. The car will not be serviced until Monday. While at service, they will fix the engine and trunk and then they will deliver the car to my doorstep in Lincoln when it’s fixed. They are also paying for a rental car so my dad and I can get back home tomorrow morning. As well as a the hotel for the night.

The tow truck driver was extremely happy to get up out of bed and get payed at least double overtime to drive the A8L to Topeka, KS at 11pm. It was about a 2-3 hour drive. He was glad to help us out.


Therefore, after a long day of driving I can conclude that this car is clearly a piece of classic German engineering. You know this is the case when you’re in a small town in Oklahoma and while your eating supper people look at the car going around back to look what it is or while people are taking a smoke break they trace the cars body lines with their hands. It’s a real head turner. A great looking car works well for the most part. The DVD navigation is fantastic. It guided us through Houston, Dallas, and every other town with 100% accuracy. Now if it only had an engine that worked well.

Sunday

After catching a cab to the airport to pick up the rental car we discovered that the largest available car to rent in Wichita, KS was either a Ford Taurus which my father refused to rent or a Toyota Camry. We chose the Camry. It was fine and got us home. Along the way we had a fantastic Sunday lunch with appetizers, drinks, and dessert all complements of Audi. I will write another post when the cause of the problem is determined.

Here are some other images of the car as of Saturday night.