Five Hundred - Plus oil changes!

a few hours ago, lying under wifey's car, changing the oil while cold wet muck dripped upon my partially balding head, I wondered how many oil changes I have done in my life -- just as a guess -- and using 3K intervals until around 2005, I am thinking the upside of 500 oil changes.

That got me thinking about all the things that could go wrong and did go wrong -- as well as the price of oil changes.

Back in the day -- a quart of Shell X-100 30w was about .39 cents. A filter a couple of bucks. So under four bucks if I did it myself. I seem to remember gas stations were doing them for about $10 (mid 1970s?).

Fast Forward to the year 2020 -- even the cheap places are charging $30 -- more like $40 -- and real garages are fetching $80 for an OC. And, of course, the hassle of taking it in for service.

Doing it myself now costs about $15.

So, somewhat interesting things that happened during changes:

!) Was living in an apartment complex in Covina (a town outside Los Angeles) about 1980. We were all assigned "carport" parking spots. Used to leave my oil "draintainer" in the carport until it was filled and then take it to Chief's Auto Parts to dump. Could count on once every few weeks -- at least for the first several months I lived there -- that some knucklehead would "steal" this valuable prize and realize a block or so away that there was only dirty oil in the container (container was purchased from Sears, of course). I always found it in the same vacant lot. AND I STILL HAVE IT AND USE IT.

2) So, in the mid-1980s, married. Living in Palm Springs, Calif. Changing oil on a 120-degree day in July. Have to admit, drank "a few" Buds. Drained old oil. Changed filter. Poured new oil into Toyota Tercel. Then I realized I was standing in a puddle of oil. Thanks to my "Bud," I had forgot to put back the drain plug.

3) A catchall category.....must of been at least a dozen times when I "forgot" where I put the oil cap -- you know the thing you take off to put in the oil. NOW, I always put it in the same place.

Any great OC stories out there?