We Got The Truck Back!

 And I found my shoes. I have one of those wire holders for hanging on a kitchen cabinet door for holding foil and plastic wrap. It doesn't fit these cabinets so I hung it on the side of a wire shelf in the closet, and stuffed a pair of shoes in it. Today I pulled out those shoes and low and behold, my little black tennis shoes were behind them.

We were happy to get the truck back. The little Ford Escape was fun to drive. The seats were uncomfortable and hard to adjust because they were manual. They didn't charge for all the extra days but we did need to pay for a new battery, because our insurance didn't cover that. Our service advisor took a picture when the truck was all apart.

Dash removed and sitting where the seats were, center console out, steering column out, seats on floor somewhere outside the truck.....=:o

We are having some nice warm weather. I even put some plants out! Tuesday night is supposed to be 37 so I brought some back in, well, it's still mild out but they were saying strong storms and wind. Here are some pictures from today. I can't tell you how happy I felt seeing my plants out there and enjoying the fresh air.

Just a few for now

I love this Silver Squill. It will grow more compact soon.

My sedum saucers are recovering from the squirrel attack

I planted some semps in there

This weekend hubby and I had fun. We bought some ginormous strawberries at Woodman's and ate them with sugar free whipped cream. Well, hubby mashed his berries into those strawberry shortbread cakes lol. Woodman's almost always has a great deal on strawberries.

My dessert

Hubby's creation

Monster berry

Normal berry

That's all the news for tonight.

What Now? Burn The Truck? Oh....Thank God We Have a Service Plan

That's what was going through my mind when our service advisor called us over to his computer so he could show us the pictures on his screen and the two page printout of all the codes the diagnostic spit out. I think it was the PCM (Powertrain Control Module), but don't quote me on that. It's a box under the hood and it has an electrical harness attached to it. The plug inside it, a complicated plug with lots of connectors, is corroded. The only way it can be corroded is by water leaking in. The box and the electrical harness needs to be replaced.

Cost: $4,000.00

Plus car rental at $40 per day, time needed, two days.

We have a Ford maintenance plan. Can you run it through the insurance? 

Oh, great news! It's covered!

But it doesn't end there. We need to address the leak. 

"The windshield has been replaced," he said. 

Yes, but that was before we bought it (it's listed in the CARFAX records). 

"I would like you to take it somewhere to have it re-sealed. Call around, try a local place, not a chain."

In the meantime, we were told it's safe to drive like we have been doing, disconnect the battery to turn off the lights. So we came home and started making phone calls.

Safelight and other national chains will not re-seal a windshield, only replace it. We finally found a local company that will carefully remove it (hopefully it doesn't break) and re-seal it. Price, just under $150. However, if it breaks during the removal process, they are not liable for that and we will need to have a new one installed, for $658. Having a new windshield installed is close to the same price. We are scheduled for that service on Monday, March 31st. 

The parts for the $4,000 repair are on backorder, so maybe that will be done during the first half of April.

Our Ford Protect Service Plan is active until the end of this year. We bought 3 years and paid it off in two at the rate of $156 per month. We have used it several times. Two wheel bearing replacements ($100 co-pay on each), other stuff I can't remember right now, and this, so it paid for itself and then some.

That's all for today. I have been working on my plant shelves. Will update soon.

Oh Blinkin' Lights and Blaring Horns

Our truck's electrical system must have gone haywire. Friday hubby called me from work. He was on break and notice the blinkers were on. Then he noticed the horn was honking. He rushed over to the truck to find that the doors were locking and unlocking by themselves, ALL the warning signals were flashing on and off and the ear-splitting horn wouldn't shut the f up. He was kind of freaked out, and going deaf from the horn. By now I was freaked too. He disconnected the battery and all the noise shut off. Of course he had to leave the truck unlocked, because now the key fob had no effect. 

He was able to drive home without the horn going off again. He disconnected the battery and left it as is for the rest of the night. Saturday morning I called Service. I called Ford Service everywhere and NOTHING was open until Monday. 

Hubby watched YouTube videos, consulted the manual, and decided to pull the fuse for the horn, because who wants a horn loud enough to wake the dead honking continuously. We decided to stop at Auto Zone so they could diagnose it. Battery was ok. No codes were picked up by the handheld tester they use. The Alternator seemed to be questionable.

We have a service plan with excellent coverage, but service must be performed at a Ford Dealership. I was able to make an early appointment for Wednesday.

In the meantime, hubby figured out that it was fine to drive, but when parked, he had to disconnect the battery in order to shut off the lights. If we were only going to be walking around for a few minutes, we figured it was fine. For any extended time the battery would need to be disconnected and the truck would be unlocked. That was ok for work (parking is fenced in) or here at the apartment (nothing so far has happened).

We did drive around over the weekend and checked out some parks. They will be pretty once they start the green up.

We got as far as Kaukauna before the rain and sleet started. What an interesting town. They have preserved many old buildings and factories and converted them. We want to go back when the library is open. It used to be a paper mill. Here is a picture.

The Ahlstrom-Munksjo Thilmany paper mill is down river, in this picture. 

The river is wide and swift in Kaukauna. I looked it up. There is a 50 foot drop as the water races toward Green Bay. So the water runs north out of Lake Winnebago and into the Fox River. For some reason I thought it flowed the other way. Kaukauna generates electricity from the river.

On the way home I started to smell something. It smelled like dog poo. Just then hubby asked, what's that smell? Just then I noticed he had opened his window slightly. I also noticed we were downwind of the paper mill. 

It's the Paper Mill!!!! Your window is open. He promptly closed it. After we were down the road more, hubby opened his window again to let in some fresh air. Honestly, it was like sticking your nose into a bag of dog sh*t.

I always heard people say, don't live downwind of a paper mill. Sometimes the wind shifts and there's nothing you can do.

I looked up the paper mill's page, out of curiosity. Headquarters are in Finland, the mill has Swedish owners. They have quite an operation. The smell is explained, and they try to vent it out away from town, but sometimes the wind shifts. 

We got home just as it started to snow furiously.

I will update Wednesday, after we find out what's wrong with the truck.