Still no recluses! Is that three days in a row sans new 🕷️ in the traps?
After several days in a row of spidies, it’s nice to feel like I’ve got them under control. I might just be fooling myself, but it seems like I’ve definitely turned the corner.
🤞
Anyway, I slept in a little bit. I think maybe 9:00? Somewhere around there. It was another wonderfully cool night. Super enjoying this weather. Tomorrow is actually going to be a high of 74 now!
🥳
Saw my mom driving away, so I texted her to come back and get her and Thomas’s share of the money from the job box that I got sold. We all chipped in for the job box, so we all get our portion back out of it.
She swung by, and I gave her the money. She had one of the catch-and-release mouse traps with her with a little fat mouse inside That was looking for food in her basement. She was trying to let it go in a field near here, but she couldn’t get the trap open. I told her I’d take care of it, so I took charge of the trap with the little mouse inside, giving it a little bit of water because it probably hadn’t had water all night. Cute little guy/gal.
So I drove over to the Pea Ridge military Park, to the same place where I let the possum and raccoon go. The mouse didn’t want to leave the trap, afraid of me, so I had to sort of shake him out, after which he ran and then jumped super high into the weeds.
After that, I headed over to the AutoZone in Pea Ridge to get the spark plug situation figured out. I called the Ford dealership parts department in the meantime get the official specs on the spark plug because none of the predetermined gaps from AutoZone matched what identifix said the Gap was supposed to be. And identifics didn’t agree with itself. It had two different gaps listed.
So Ford gave me the range that was acceptable, and that allowed me to know that the spark plugs that I had gotten originally would indeed work. They damaged out the one that was damaged when I was checking the gaps. Fortunately, the spark plugs didn’t come gapped with the Gap that AutoZone said they were supposed to be gapped as, So I was able to return the damaged spark plug as a damaged return instead of having to eat the cost myself.
I also bought an ignition switch for my truck. It’s been shifting badly, shifting hard into gear lately, but the codes that I have are most frequently caused either by an issue with the wiring to the transmission or because of a bad ignition switch. With the ignition switch only being $22, plus tax, and being a relatively quick install, I decided to guess and hope the problem with the ignition switch.
Fingers crossed. 🤞
As I was coming out of the AutoZone, I looked under my truck and saw big puddle. I had been sitting there with the AC on, so I was hoping it was just water from the condensation dripping down. But I decided to check just to be sure, and lo and behold, it was a big puddle of oil.
Guess that oil leak has gotten a heck of a lot worse. 😅
So I put some oil in it, and I drove home.
I took the spark plugs over to Jim’s truck, and then I installed the ignition switch in mine. I found out that someone I know is now separated in their marriage.
That’s super tough.
I’m grateful that I’m not in a similar situation. I guess that’s one perk of being single. There’s no risk of your marriage ending.
I am devastatingly lonely, though.
I’d rather be facing the challenges of marriage than be alone.
I’ve always wanted to face those challenges.
😞
The puddle under my truck jumped the oil pan gasket repair to the top of my list. Maybe it doesn’t need to be. Maybe sorting and going through everything else should still be on the top of the list, but I’m not ready to sell that truck. I’m driving it regularly Right now as I’m doing the different things that I’m doing, so it just needs to be fixed. I had the parts. I’ve just needed to actually fix it.
So I decided today was the day. I crossed my fingers and hoped that it wasn’t going to be a massive job.
I hoped in vain.
😅
It’s been leaking oil for so long that oil covered pretty much everything under there. It was a dirty, greasy, filthy, nasty job to do.
I started taking everything apart, and it fought me a little bit here and there. Eventually, though, I was able to get the oil pan out. The pan itself was caked in crap. Kudos to general motors, it’s a 2003, and this is the first time the oil pan gasket has been changed. I know that because the original gaskets come riveted on to the oil pan itself, and this gasket was riveted on and had to be drilled out to get off. So, though I don’t normally have much good to say about general motors, 20 plus years is pretty good for an oil pan gasket. Granted, it’s been leaking for quite a long time, but still, that’s pretty good.
Let’s hope I can do the job well enough that The new gasket lasts similarly, or at least as long as the truck lasts. 🙃
Anyway, I got everything apart, I got the oil pan cleaned up and cleaned out. I got the block cleaned up and wiped down, the mating surface that is.
Though it was like an 12% chance of rain today when the day started, That 12%, or whatever it was, managed to swing around our way, and with a yard sale’s worth of crap all over the place, it began to rain.
I was… very unhappy.
That’s an understatement.
I don’t like what I see from myself anymore. 😕 I disappoint myself. I’ve lost respect for myself.
😞
I’m just so completely broken.
Mostly I hate life and just wish for relief from all the pain.
Sorry… non sequitur squirrel. 🐿️
I rushed and got everything that I didn’t want to get wet put into ET. The rain stopped basically at the point that I had everything in ET. Once again, everything’s piled up, and I’ll need to take it all back out to go back through it again.
My choice. It was either work on the truck, or finish going through everything that’s spread out all over the place. I chose the truck. I thought I could get the truck done and then get everything else done before the end of the day, but… No dice.
I got everything ready to put back together, and then I realized I didn’t have the right gasket maker. It was starting to get late by that point, the sun starting to go down, so I wasn’t sure whether I was going to keep working on it.
I drove back to Autozone in Pea Ridge. I bought The right gasket maker for it. I also bought the AC fitting that I need to fix the leaking high pressure port. I don’t need to do that right away, as the cap is holding the refrigerant in for the moment, but eventually it’s going to leak back out, and it’ll be time too change the port itself out so that it doesn’t leak.
When I got back, it was late, and I wasn’t really in the mood to try and race to put everything together before it got completely dark.
I chatted with one of my brothers about the car he was working on. He’s been working on his stepdaughter’s car all day, I think, and I was able to help him at least a little bit, I think.
I looked at the weather, and it’s supposed to rain for the next 2 days, so my truck is going to be out of commission at least until Monday, maybe Tuesday… maybe Wednesday.
I probably could have gotten it all put back together tonight, but I just… ugh. Too much.
I hope I don’t regret it.
I got my sales tax stuff for the month of June submitted today. Normally it’s due on the 20th, but when I submitted it, it said it wasn’t due until the 22nd. Maybe they’ve changed the date that things are due now.
Either way, it’s done.
I wasn’t quite ready to jump into the van for the rest of the night, so I just stayed outside in the dark on my phone for a little bit.
Eventually, I decided to go ahead and get in the van, and I climbed in and began to do a thorough tick check. I’ve been lying on my back sometimes in the grass, sometimes on a blanket in the grass, kneeling in the grass, etc etc.
I pulled one tick off of me that was crawling up my leg. But there was a pretty good chance that I had multiple ticks on me.
The tick check yielded one tick on each leg stuck in my duct tape bands at my ankles. But miraculously, I didn’t find any other ticks. I can’t see everywhere, but I take video of some of the places that My eyes can’t see, and I came up clean. Haven’t felt anything in my hair, and no itchy spots, which usually happen immediately as soon as the tick makes the first bite. I’ll feel an itch, we’ll find the tick, and get them off. I haven’t found a tick on me fully latched on in years, I don’t think. At least not one of the ones that’s large enough to see easily. I’ve probably had some of the little teeny teeny tiny baby ones that are about the size of a grain of sand, but I don’t really count those.
After doing all of that, I remembered that the fuse box cover on my mini excavator had fallen off, and it was going to rain, and I didn’t want rain to get in the fuse box, so I retaped my ankles, crawled out of my van, drove up to Mike’s shop where he parked this mini x after he used it, and I put the cover back on, taping it on with some duct tape because it’s not staying on by itself right now. Apparently, the rubber has shrunk or deformed itself enough that it won’t stay on by itself.
But it’s safe from the rain now, so that’s what’s important to me. Hopefully the mini ex is okay. It’s a little nerve-wracking letting other people borrow really really expensive stuff.
It’s almost 1:00. I should probably do some gratitude stuff. I don’t really want to. But I probably need to.
- I’m grateful that putting the new ignition switch on was relatively straightforward and didn’t take very long. Since everything is torn apart, and there’s no oil in the truck, I haven’t yet tested to see if replacing the switch solved the shifting issues, but I’m hopeful. Cross the fingers.
- I’m grateful I was able to be helpful to one of my brothers. I’m grateful to have access to the information That’s also helpful.
- I’m grateful that though this oil pan gasket job is taking a heck of a lot longer than I wanted it to, I have made good progress. I’m more than halfway done, at least so it would seem, and I’m hopeful that it will be able to be done relatively quickly come the next time it’s dry enough outside to work on.
- I’m grateful that I’m not covered in ticks, at least I don’t seem to be. 🙃
- I’m grateful for whoever it was who mentioned using duct tape to keep ticks at Bay. I know it wasn’t my own idea. I know I got it from somebody, but I don’t remember who, so whoever it was, thank you thank you thank you. It’s been an absolute lifesaver to be able to have that duct tape barrier. And since I started attaching my socks to the tape itself, getting ticks at all has become quite rare, comparatively.
You know, something that’s kind of funny, I’ve been in the South long enough now that apparently I’m starting to get some of the southern accent. I didn’t mention it, but when I was talking to Jim yesterday, when I had completely fallen to pieces, the only words that I could manage out of my mouth were coming out with A strong Southern twang. 🙃
Apparently it’s easier to speak with a southern drawl/twang when you’re crying so hard you can barely speak.
I think I’ve noticed myself slipping into Southern when I’m angry, as well.
Funny.
I’m sad right now.
Mostly I’ve been just totally overwhelmed/discouraged/ angry, but right now I’m just sad… a little heartbroken.
Life is hard.
Never in a million years did I imagine my life like this.
But I guess I get to see what I’m made of as I walk this road.
Mostly I’m disappointed in what I see… but neither have I given up yet.
So… that’s at least something.
#nevergiveup
I’m trying not to, at least.
~ stephen
Lift the World 
#nevergiveup