Motorhead

 Tim got his 'new' old truck a few weeks back. My suggestion was to get a newer truck without mechanical problems but he really wanted this truck. He wanted it so badly that he did not bother to discuss it. He just hopped in his car and drove an hour and a half. 

He came back a few hours later and told me he bought the truck. He raved about how great of shape the body was in. The truck was from California. The underneath was solid. The fellow had put new fenders on it. The guy knew how to do bodywork the right way.

I was not fooled. I said, 'How does it run, though?' 

He gave the not too reassuring response: 'No way to know that until I drive it a while.'

The thoughts I thought are best left unshared.

And sure enough, driving the truck home he discovered 'a bug'. It gave a little jerk from time to time. He was pretty sure it was no big deal. the truck did not stall out or anything. He dragged his little code reader out of its little suitcase and got a read out that indicated oxygen sensors. 

So he sent off to Rock Auto and got all new oxygen sensors. While he was at it, he got a fuel pump for the 'last' old truck. 

When everything arrived, he replaced the oxygen sensors. 

The truck still jerked from time to time. So he got the idea to replace the fuel filter. Still there was that jerk. Not bad. It always started. In never stalled out. He decided to put the fuel pump that he'd gotten for the 'last' old truck on the new old truck (they are the same year.) 

After several hours of work, he started it up and honest to Pete, it sounded worse than ever. When he came into the house, I said, 'I am sorry...' but ever the optimist, he said, 'it is a lot easier to diagnose a problem if the vehicle does it all the time,' and back he went to the internet to study the situation some more.

So far he has replaced the cam sensor, the crankshaft sensor, the rotor something or another and the spark plugs. Probably not in that order. If I got something messed up, it is because I do a lot of 'nod and smile' when he explains. In 27 years of marriage, he has not noticed that I could not care less.

If Glen Moon was here, I am certain that the two of them would happily spend hours down in the garage. Bless their hearts. So Mary, if your husband has any ideas, pass them along. 

The good news is that he bought another fuel pump for the last old truck and got it installed while he was waiting for another shipment from Rock Auto. That truck runs perfectly at least. 

I will give the man credit: he has an awful lot of patience with his tinkering. I would have run the thing off a cliff by now.

Actually, that is not true. I would have spent the money to get a newer truck. Even though "it is all computerized and has to be taken in to be repaired because it is all a plot to move vehicle repairs from a home garage to dealerships."

Anyways. Steve Reed showed a picture of his flowering cactus. 

This is my great grandmother's cactus. Then my grandma got it. Then my mother got it. Then I got it. After 10 years in my care, it inexplicably began to die. I felt terrible about it. After reading and trying everything, I gave up. I just set the dead plant out in the unheated mudroom for the winter meaning to dump the dirt in the garden in the spring and save the pot for something that was willing to put more effort into living.

And in the spring, when I was pulling out all the dead growth, square in the middle of the pot was the tiniest bit of green. It was brought back inside and despite my tender care, it lived.

I finally moved it from the old house, where it has been sitting alone and neglected since July. Proving once again it doesn't need any help from me, thank you very much, it was covered in blossoms.

You know what doesn't thrive on neglect? Trucks. Just a thing I noticed.