15 June 2012

After morning cat duty, backed the Ranger down the hill by Kate & Dan’s fire pit, preparatory to disassembling that portion of the wood stairway on our property that used to lead from the Glassner’s (now Kate & Dan’s) house down to what was then their, and is now our, waterfront.  Went to reposition the truck slightly and figured I’d better use the 4WD, as the slope was a bit steep.  No 4WD!!!!  #$%@&^!!!!  The truck was well and truly stuck and going nowhere without assistance.  Fortunately, our neighbor across the road, Dave Todd, soon arrived with his real-man sized pickup (that likes to swim, but that’s another story) and a long chain.  A gentle tug and the Ranger was back on reasonably level ground.  An irate phone call to Junction Auto followed… as they had just had the front end of the truck apart for wheel bearing replacement and the 4WD was working just fine before their ministrations.  Appointment at 2, so started taking apart the stairway, lugging the wood by hand all the way to the top of the hill.  Great exercise… and you wouldn’t believe how heavy that pressure treated lumber can get after a few trips.  Got two sections (of eight that need to go away) removed by time for a late lunch… and delivery of some fresh-baked thank you lemon bars to the Todds.  After an hour at Junction Auto (mostly spent talking on the cell phone to Lowe’s, ordering low voltage lights for the walkway), was informed that, yes, an o-ring needed to seal the hub (the 4WD engages with a vacuum system) was not installed with the new bearing on the right side… but the left side also wasn’t getting good vacuum, cause unknown and no time to investigate this late on a Friday afternoon.  So drove my now-2WD-only truck back to Fern Lake and took out my frustrations by destroying another section of the stairway… and another inch of Black Lable.