Fixing the Truck: What we ate and how we spent our time.

I woke up at 4am. I read for a couple of hours and went back to sleep at 6am. I woke up again at 8:30am. Angel was just waking up. She has had a fever the past couple of days. I checked her and the fever was gone. She still wasn’t hungry but wanted lemon water to drink. I got her some lemon water and made myself some herbal tea. She played on her leap pad (normally leap pad is limited to car rides but I made an exception since she wasn’t feeling well) while I sat on the front porch wrapped in a blanket, drank my tea and enjoyed the birds.

I was having a hard time getting into a peaceful place because the truck needed worked on and I kept thinking about how to do it. Finally I decided to just get started.

I went out to the truck and got to work taking the starter off. The truck has been making a funny noise when starting it up. Then yesterday it wouldn’t start at all and just make a click when turning over. I researched it and figured it had to be either the starter or the battery. I had the battery tested yesterday and it was good. So I estimated it had to be the starter. I had just replaced the starter 2 years ago and thought it a little soon for it to go bad, but sometimes those things happen.

It wasn’t too difficult getting the starter off. First I unhooked the battery, then I squeezed under the truck to get to the starter. As I was crammed under the truck, I sure wished I had a hydraulic jack to lift it up. I thought about buying one but decided to just get it done since I was already under there. Breaking the bolts was the hardest part especially because one was especially hard to get to. My arms got sore and cramped from being held in the air for so long, plus they were getting bruised up from banging into things as I worked on getting the bolts out. It was great practice to breath through the pain. I got it off though and it only took an hour! Yay!

I woke up Savana and asked her to watch Angel while I took the starter to the auto parts store to get it tested. At the store they tested it and said it was good. I told them what the truck had been doing and didn’t know what could be wrong with it if it wasn’t the battery or the starter. The guy said it was probably the fender starter solenoid. So I bought one of those.

I went back home and worked on putting the starter back in while Savana’s friend Tyler took off the old fender solenoid and replaced it with the new one. My arms were really sore after that from holding the starter in place while trying to get the bolts started. By the time I got the starter back in, my arms were shaking. When everything was back in place. I hooked up the battery and went to start up the truck. There was no power at all. No lights, nothing.

I tried figuring out what the problem was. I checked all the connections. Maybe the battery wasn’t good after all. I took it to the store to get it tested again and make sure they tested it with a load. It was a good battery. I came home and did some more trouble shooting. The battery terminals were a little bit corroded, so maybe it was that. Maybe it was the relay. I went back to the store and bought new terminals and a new relay. I came home and replaced those. Still nothing. I checked all the wiring to make sure it was in the right place. I took off the new fender solenoid and put the old fender solenoid back on. Nothing. I put the new solenoid back on. Nothing. I noticed a loose wire on the starter solenoid. I tightened that up, in the process 2 connecting wires came apart. I couldn’t get them to go back into the metal crimp. Tyler found a new wire crimp in his car and got the wires connected again. Still nothing. I checked all the fuses. Nothing. I walked to the hardware store and bought a voltage reader. Then couldn’t figure out how to use it…did some things only light up if the engine was on? Tyler didn’t know how to use it either.

It was now 3pm. I hadn’t eaten all day, I was exhausted, I was out of ideas. So I gave up and started crying. I went inside and washed up. I had some smoothie left over from yesterday. My arms were shaking so bad I could barely lift it. I drank some smoothie. Savana came in and said she would keep watching Angel in the RV while I rested up. I was very grateful for that. I then called a mechanic. They said they would send someone over to look at it. I got in the shower and cried some more. I got out, put on clean clothes and sat down to drink more smoothie when Savana came in and said there had been a guy out looking at the truck but he left. I jumped up and ran outside to the truck. I couldn’t believe I had missed the mechanic. I called the mechanic shop and they said he was there and couldn’t get an answer at the door but got the truck running. Wait…what? It’s running? I started up the truck. It started with no problem. I asked the lady on the phone what the mechanic did? She didn’t know. I asked what the charge was. She said he didn’t say but there probably wasn’t a charge and they would send a bill if there was. I couldn’t believe all the hours I spent trying to figure why the truck had no power and the mechanic fixed it in 5 minutes. 5 MINUTES!!! I want to know what he did!!

I went back in the house and made another smoothie 64oz. With 8 bananas, a head of romaine lettuce and sunflower seed milk. I was so hungry. I drank it all within a half hour. Savana came in with Angel. Angel was really fussy and not feeling well. She threw up some water. I gave her a warm bath and that seemed to help. After the bath, she had some smoothie, then she fell asleep in front on the heater in her towel.

I went in the kitchen and made a salad of just green leaf lettuce and a tablespoon of tahini dressing. It tasted amazing! You could barley taste the dressing and the lettuce had an incredible flavor.

Angel woke up while I was eating and she ate some salad. She was eating super fast. I knew she was hungry after barely eating for 3 days but I was trying to get her to slow down so she wouldn’t throw up again. She wasn’t having it though, she was shoving salad into her mouth as fast as she could. After we finished the salad, she wanted smoothie. I got her to wait an hour and made her a smoothie. She drank 16oz. and then seemed satisfied.

I called my mom, my sister and my boys and talked to each of them for a bit. I call them every weekend just to keep in touch. Angel played with her stuffed animals and read books. She seemed to be feeling much better.

Angel and I snuggled and talked for a while, wrote our gratitudes, then we went to bed. I tried reading but was too tired. I went straight to sleep.

Thank you for reading my blog and being a part of my life. I appreciate y’all.

With love and gratitude,

Victoria