I heard back from Landon's today about my truck. One of the glow plugs backed out of its hole, which explains the oil leaking from the valve cover. A $13 part came loose, and the Ford dealer in Orem wanted to replace my entire engine! I'm so relieved that it was such a minor problem, but I'm very disturbed about Allen Patch Ford. I'm going to send a letter to both Allen Patch and Ford's Customer Relations department letting them both know what an awful experience it was, and how badly they tried to rip me off. I thought Community Motors was the worst Ford dealer ever, but it turns out that I was wrong.

I feel like my entire life is on hold until I get my truck fixed, and it's really starting to suck. I don't dare spend a dime on anything non-essential because I have no idea how much it's gonna cost to fix.

I'm having the truck towed back to Price, and I'm sure as hell not working with any Ford dealer ever again, at least for repairs--their parts departments haven't done me wrong (yet). I talked to Landon at Landon's Diesel Service today, and he said they'll be able to take a look at the truck in a week, and if it's something as serious as a bad piston, it should only take 1½ to 2 weeks to fix. I really really hope I have it back before the Potter's Ponds get-together. I'd sure hate to haul my trailer up there with my '79 Ford. Hell, if I don't sell that truck by then, I might just have to give it away anyhow.

So, looks like the engine in my truck is shot. The Ford dealer says there's a hole in one of the pistons, so the pressure is blowing back into the engine and apparently blew an oil seal, and that explains the vibration and oil leak. Of course, they want to sell me a brand new engine, but I'm looking into my options for a used or remanufactured engine. And if there's no damage to the engine block, I don't see why they can't just replace the damaged piston--I'll have to look into that as well.

My experience with this dealer, Allen Patch Ford (now known as Legacy Auto Group, but their website doesn't reflect the change), has been dismal. The details are long and boring, but suffice it to say that it's nearly impossible to get ahold of somebody on the phone who knows what the fuck is going on. And even on the rare occasion that you can talk to somebody, they'll eventually tell you that they'll call back, but they never do.

I'm going to take my time making a decision. The way I see it, I've got two options: (1) sell the truck as-is and use that money to pay off part of my loan (which stands at $7,000 right now), or (2) get an additional loan of $2,500 to $3,500 for an engine, and hope I don't have any more problems with this truck.

I'm also open to suggestions from readers of this website. If you have an idea that I haven't thought of, I'd love to hear it. I'd like to avoid making a big mistake this time around.

So, besides my shitty luck yesterday, the day otherwise went well. Most of the road on Reservation Ridge is above 9,000 feet in elevation, and it was pleasantly warm (as opposed to the blast furnace of Utah Valley later in the day). I got FTF on two new caches up there, and found two others that have been around for quite a while. Didn't see any bears this time around, though I was hoping to. In fact, I saw very little wildlife--just birds and squirrels. When I drove along the same road three years ago, there were quite a few deer and no people, but this time it was the opposite.

I'm glad my truck didn't die while we were up in the mountains--that would have been an even bigger nightmare (breaking down in south Provo is no picnic anyhow). I still don't understand why it let go when it did--if anything, all that low-speed driving in the mountains, up steep hills, etc., should have done it in. We made it from Soldier Summit to Spanish Fork with no problems (doing about 65 MPH the whole way), stopped to eat lunch at McDonald's, then got on I-15. After about eight miles of 70 MPH, the engine suddenly started acting up.

I was pretty down yesterday, but today I've decided to adopt a new attitude--fuck it all. I don't really care what happens, and I'll just have to learn to live with it.

I have got to be the luckiest person alive. The only downside to being so lucky is that all my luck is bad.

The engine on my truck shit out on me today. We decided to drive over Reservation Ridge and then spend the night in West Valley anyway--whatever it was that Michael had, he got over it very quickly. On I-15, just north of University Parkway, a vibration started, and I was hoping it was something simple like a driveshaft or wheel. I got off the freeway at the next exit (Provo Center Street) and pulled off on a side street. After speeding up and slowing down a couple of times over the course of the next two blocks, I realized that it was the engine that was vibrating--even when I pulled over and put the transmission in Park, the engine kept on shaking. I shut 'er down, did some thinking, and eventually called a tow truck and the Ford dealer in Orem. The engine was running roughly, there was a loss of power, and oil was leaking from somewhere on the top end--my guess is that it's a head gasket.

John (of John and Julia) saved our asses and picked us up, then put us up in their house in Lehi for a couple of hours while my mom made her way up from Price to save our asses even further. I really don't know what to do now. The last time I had a truck with engine problems, I spent $3,500 rebuilding the engine, and it turned out being one of the biggest mistakes of my life. The difference this time is that I owe $7,000 on this truck, and I can't afford not to fix it. This is going to be a big decision, and I'll have to take a few days to think about it. The service department at the stealership doesn't open until 7:30 Monday morning, and I doubt they could even look at my truck for another couple of days after that, so I suppose I've got some thinking to do in the meantime.

I've completely lost any respect I had for Subaru:

WTF is that? Blech.

This heat is stifling. I haven't even been able to water my lawn until after dark because I like to do it after the temperature drops down below 90°. It got up to 100.9° yesterday, but it only got up to 100.8° today.

I just came in from working on the truck--I was dripping sweat the entire time. When I bought it, you had to pull the inside door handle on the driver's side really hard in order to get the door to open, even though opening the door from the outside was very easy. Last week, I was getting out of the truck and yanked on the door handle to open the door, and the handle broke completely off. I finally got around to buying a new one today ($14 at the Ford dealer), and found a few other problems while I had the door panel off. I managed to fix everything, but I spent two hours doing it and probably lost a few pounds worth of fluids (including a little blood from a hacksaw incident) in the process. I took the slack out of the cable that operates the door latch from the inside, and that fixed the problem of having to pull on the handle so hard. Someday, I'll have to do the same thing to the passenger door, but it's not quite as bad as this one was.

Traci and I made plans to drive along Reservation Ridge on Saturday, and when we returned to the pavement near Soldier Summit, we were going to keep going north and visit Mike and Allie. But, for the second time in a row, Michael got sick and it doesn't look like we'll be able to go, if for no other reason than so we don't get their baby sick (if Michael's feeling better by then). Last time, he had a fever, cough, and nausea, but this time it's just fever and nausea (so I think we can rule out pneumonia this time).

I love to see my name in the news, but this hurricane Dennis has got me laughing at some of the headlines. Dennis grows, poses N. Fla. threat. America's wang has nothin' on me. Weary residents concerned about Dennis. Must be talking about my neighbors. I still hate those douchebags. Take proper caution while battling Dennis. Damn straight.

I've got lots of stuff to do in the next couple of days. I've got to get the truck and trailer ready to go camping before I go to bed tomorrow night, 'cause I'm getting up early Thursday to haul it up Huntington Canyon. Traci and the kids are staying up there Thursday night, but I've got to work so I'm not going up until Friday.

I'm also going to try to get new tires and a front-end alignment on my truck tomorrow, but I'm not sure if I'll have time. I set aside some money to get it done when I bought the truck, but just haven't gotten around to it yet. We're also going to try to refinance our mortgage tomorrow--should be a fun day.

I poured the new sidewalk in the front yard on Sunday, and it turned out perfectly. I wasn't really confident of my ability to do it right. I've never worked with cement slabs before, just small rocks and pathway stones that I used a mold to pour and shape. The mail carrier damned well better appreciate it. :)

It's been a busy weekend, and I am so not looking forward to returning to work tomorrow morning. I should have taken tomorrow off, 'cause I spent this evening like it was a Friday night.