thanks for the "good thoughts" on the thumb. It seems to be healing fine - I changed the bandage last night and I see that the cut was actually at an angle - which probably saved me more severe damage; it was a long cut but not as deep as I feared.

I guess this is "things going bad but aren't as bad as they look" week. On Monday I also cut myself - I was doing the blowing-up-sugar demonstration and the potassium dichromate had gotten all caked in its little flask, so I whacked the flask against my hand to loosen it - and the flask broke and cut my hand (that was a shallow cut and it's almost totally healed.)

Then, this morning, I took my car in for routine maintenance (oil and oil filter change plus a "multipoint inspection.") Took almost an hour and a half - on a Friday morning that's neither the first of the month nor right before a holiday weekend! Then, driving back to my office, I'd get a horrible burning-rubber or burning-insulation smell every time I stopped at a stop street. And when I parked and got out, I could tell the smell was coming from the engine compartment. So I called the dealership, the mechanic I talked to said, well, if you said "oil smell" I'd say not to worry, but because it smells like rubber or insulation, you better bring it back in.

So I did. The office manager was kind of unpleasant about it. I told him the problem and he gave me his "stupid woman" look and said, well, we didn't cause it. And I gave him my sternest, despite-the-fact-that-I-do-not-change-my-own-oil-and-am-female-I-am-not-an-idiot-about-cars expression and said "It did not smell like burning rubber before I drove out of this dealership. And I do not stop hard nor do I accelerate fast." So he grudgingly took it in and I braced myself for a long passive-aggressive-generated wait.

So I went and sat (luckily for just five minutes this time). The mechanic who had checked it out came in and told me that because the oil filter is right above the catalytic converter, sometimes dirt and things fall on the catalytic converter when the filter's being changed, and that was the source of the burning odor. He said it was no major danger but he had cleaned it up so it shouldn't smell any more. He also said that it was a poor design to have the filters above the catalytic converter, but "that's how Ford does it." He thought my complaint was totally reasonable.

It interests me that the mechanic came in to tell me and to give me the keys back - every other time the office manager has come and talked to me and returned the keys. I wonder if he was embarrassed to face me after pooh-poohing my complaint?

They say things happen in threes, so perhaps I won't have any more false alarms for a while.