driving schools and squirrels

[Brett Dikeman]

At 11:41 AM -0400 7/24/02, Mark Trank wrote:

>My assistant's daughter has been in several accidents,
>the most recent resulting in a reckless driving citation
>


-the keys need to be taken away.

-she needs to work off(through a real job) the ticket, the cost of
repairs/premium/whatever

-she needs to take a defensive driving school...at her expense(inline with #2)

...so she learns her lesson.  Obviously the experience of an
accident(or two) wasn't enough of a lesson; were there any
consequences from the first 2 accidents?

   Once she gets the keys back, at least a few months before anyone is
allowed to ride in the car with her save siblings or parents.
Period.  Any bitching can be very quickly dismissed with "this is
accident number THREE.  You've had two more chances, now you're
through."

I seriously doubt a defensive driving school, -by itself-, will do
jack, since teenagers know everything and most "driver ed" schools
are taught by people who command little respect(my friends used to
joke that the smartest thing between the car and the driver ed guy
was the clock in the dash.)  She'll blow off everything the guy/gal
says, and end up at accident #4.

  Also, Quattro club events won't help; they're for teaching how to
handle the car at speed, not for teaching judgement, respect, and
maturity.


>Is there something about engine fluids that may have
>seeped down there that it attracting them?

Sweet smelling coolant is my vote(weeping from the aux radiator.)

>   I crawled underneath and found no nuts, seeds, or other obvious
>squirrel attractants (sp?).  Anyone every experience this?  What's a
>good repellant?

My guess is the coolant he was licking/eating will kill him soon
enough, if he's not dead already...the stuff is very bad for
animals...even large dogs.  Hell, it's bad for humans, too...coolant
vapor is carcinogenic and one of the very good reasons why leaky
heater cores should be fixed ASAP.

I'd check for signs of where the coolant is coming from; maybe in the
meantime just clean up the area with a light cleaner like simple
green and some water, might make it easier to spot fresh residue?

Brett
--
----
"They that give up essential liberty to obtain temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Ben Franklin
http://www.users.cloud9.net/~brett/
http://www.apple.com/switch/