other dog

Well, we drove this truck home. Neither of us had ever spent that much for a vehicle before, but it has a 5 year 100,000 mile warranty plus the lifetime engine and transmission warranty. And it's a really nice truck too, might as well say new, a 2022 with only 14,000 miles on it.

Looked at this one, I drove it around. Used, but only 14,000 miles. I really liked it.

Zina has today off and I'll use some of the PTO that I've built up to go to Lynchburg to look at pickups today. As much as I hate to, because it's such a great car, I'm going to sell my 2016 Impala and we're going to trade her Honda in. It's a 2022 with only 28,000 miles on it. Figured we might get the best deal on it at the Honda place, and they have several used 4 door pickups. A couple of Dodges, an F150, and a couple of Colorados. I really like the Silverado 1500s myself, but if the Colorado has a big enough back seat it might be OK. Anybody have any thoughts, suggestions?

I talked to a man today who said his wife was going to get the arthritis "scraped from her hands" because she couldn't open her hands completely. I didn't even know they could do that, but mine are the opposite - I don't have any problem opening my hands, but I can't close either one into a fist, not even close. That's why I've dropped so many cameras.

Holy mackerel!

Well, I spent hours filing every tooth on that flywheel. Maybe twice, I think I might have missed the mark I put on it when I started. I didn't put a spot of paint, but I did what I thought was just as good- I scratched a smiley face around a hole in the flywheel. But it started right up, twice, no issues after I put the starter on. Hopefully it'll be good for a while.

Ouch! I thought a starter was about half that much. I thought a file would be a couple of dollars...

I have a flat file, but It's a big one. Probably too big to fit between the teeth. I'll see if they have a small flat file at NAPA when I get the starter. Or Tractor Supply. Better to spend some time doing that than having to pull the transmission. I'd have to pay someone to do that, I couldn't handle that by myself on the ground. I'd pull the transmission out of my Nova and put a clutch in it in an afternoon, by myself. Did it several times, but that was almost 50 years ago!

There was no shims on this one. I was happy to find just 2 bolts. When it wouldn't move I was afraid there was a third bolt back there by the engine block that I couldn't see, but nope, just those 2.

Oh, for sure, I was dreading the thought of possibly having to do that! So, if I took like a three corner file and tried to clean those teeth a bit, is that what you mean? I used to have several three sided files, but I don't know where one is right now. I guess I can find one somewhere though.

I decided to not be too much of a wimp today and went and took that starter off, on the ground, in the heat. It didn't come off too easy, even with the bolts backed out it didn't want to budge until I pried on it with a large screwdriver and got it to move. I could see the problem when I got if off, the teeths on the flywheel looked pretty chewed up, and I'm pretty sure that's what made the starter hang up. I'm going to try a new starter and hope for the best, but it really needs a flywheel. I expected a starter to be about $40, but I'm out of touch with reality apparently. A starter was $90, with exchange. Supposed to be at NAPA in the morning, so I'll go put it on and see what happens. I sprayed some brake cleaner on it so it looks pretty.

I tried to reply to this topic the other day, and it said replies had been cut off. Are replies "cut on" now, or was mine not allowed because I agreed with what Paul said?..hmmm... Well said, I agree 100%.

I'm glad y'all said that- I'm the same way! I told Zina I'd rather pay somebody else to work on that truck than be up there laying on the ground taking the starter off. But I might though, just to see if the starter is even the problem.

Well, I hope it's the starter, but... I tried to turn the crank pulley with an adjustable wrench a while ago and it would not budge. At all. I'm going up there tomorrow with some tools and a breaker bar and see if it'll come unstuck.

That's what I do on the computer, I always smallerize the pictures before I post them, but I don't know how to do it on the phone, or if you can. I can crop them, but they still seem to be just as big. I kind of hate to delete pictures too, but when it's a picture of a goat that I posted in 2014 I figure nobody is going to look at it now anyway, so off it goes. The only ones I haven't been deleting are the "a girl in a car" pictures 😂.

We decided yesterday that what we really ought to do is trade both of our cars in and get a GOOD pickup. Zina's been talking about getting something bigger for a while, since we haul 3 dogs around most of the time anyway. Her CR-V is almost new and my Impala is a 2016, but it's like new. We just don't need it, and it only has 77,000 miles on it. A 4 door pickup would be nice, but as we all know pickup prices are just crazy high! I looked yesterday at some local dealer websites and a half decent used truck was like 30 to $40,000. Crazy! Anyhow, here's a girl just waiting for a hood to sit on.

It has a four speed in it, but I couldn't get up enough speed to push start it. The parking lot was too flat, I only managed to get it from one parking spot to the next. I thought maybe that might at least unstick the starter, but it didn't. Neither did tapping it with a hammer. Come to think of it, I better check to see if the engine locked up, maybe the starter is good. But the starter acted like it was hanging up once before though, then it finally started, and it hasn't happened since, until yesterday.

Stuff happens. Could have been worse though, it could have been yesterday when it was sweltering hot. We went to the Home Depot store to pick up a freezer that we got last night and the starter locked up on the truck. Now we're waiting on a ride because there was no room in the rollback truck. $120 to tow it from Lynchburg to Concord.

These guys barked at a squirrel. I can hear Zina yelling at them from her desk all the time. She had me put these bird feeders on the window where she can see them from her office, and the little squirrels can jump from the deck railing onto the feeder. They're so high off the ground I had to use the stepladder to put them up there. She yells at them, I think it's hilarious.

That's just one of my poorly photo-chopped pictures. The grill in the back is real though, that's when I took it home and before I painted it and put the chrome stack on it. I used it for a grill before, but I had taken it down to Moore's Machine and had a lid put on it. They put the offset fire box on it too, but it's only good for a shelf. It's way too small and placed too high to actually work as a smoker. It's still my favorite grill though.

When I was deleting pictures today I ran across these. I was wondering how I moved that grill before, this was pretty smart thinking- I took these wheels off of 2 old garden tillers that I had in the junk pile and clamped them to the grill's hind legs. Or it might have been the front legs, I don't know. But I don't have any wheels in the junk pile now, or even a junk pile, but I'll figure something out. It's the grill I use the most.

My current situation -

Yes, him and Mack were barking at it at first, I don't think they'd ever seen one before.

That's the truth Bob, they worry about going electric, they keep on trying to get SOMETHING, ANYTHING, on Donald Trump, and they keep trying to figure out a way where everybody else has to pay for the student loans, they worry about everything except what they should be concerned with, God and country. Do they care about the good of the country? Doesn't seem like it. Are they really worried about fentanyl? Why then do they continue to let illegal aliens pour in unmolested? I jokingly said Jimmy Carter used to say after Obummer that "well, at least they can't say I was the worst president ever anymore", now sleepy joe comes along and says "y'all ain't seen nuthin' yet- hold my beer!"