April 24, 2006

April 24, 2006

Kingston, Ontario

YEAR 2 DAY 311

 

Today was raining and cold again.

Last night in bed I was reading the new truck's owner's manual. I discovered that the Cummins turbo diesel engine requires 10,000 km. of driving to be "broken in", and you must not tow anything with the truck for the first 1000 km.. Well, I certainly didn't know that. If we had bought a brand new truck, as planned, we would have been driving circles around this campground for 1000 km. before we could have hitched up Harvey and headed for Ottawa. Buying a slightly used truck with 17,500 km. on it has actually avoided a problem. Win some, lose some. It's about time I "win some" !

I spent all of the morning and much of the afternoon on the phone, making calls back and forth between my investment broker in Ottawa, Belleville Dodge, Village Insurance in Lorette, my sister in Lorette, and Van & Truck World in Kingston. I arranged to sell $45,000 worth of investments and have the money transferred to my bank account. I arranged to borrow $45,000 for 3 days, until the investment sales are completed and the proceeds are in my bank account. That ensures that the money will be in my bank account when I need to have a certified cheque prepared in a few days to pay for the truck. I bought the extended power train warranty offered by Chrysler Canada. I have never believed that extended warranties are good value, particularly those purchased through "after market" warranty companies. But after the horrendous repair expenses I have incurred on Dee-Dee in the last 2 years, and particularly in the last 3 months, most of which were "powertrain" repairs, and considering that the extended powertrain warranty is simply an extension of the Chrysler new car warranty, I decided to buy it. Especially after I was able to negotiate a discount from the dealership's business manager. I still got it ! Negotiating skills, I mean. I arranged for registration and insurance with Village Insurance. I arranged for Sharon to take care of the registration and insurance, and most importantly, sending the documents back to Belleville Dodge by overnight courier. I arranged for Van & Truck World in Kingston to remove the fifth wheel hitch, the trailer brake controller, the fifth wheel electrical connector wiring, and the aluminum tool storage chest tomorrow, and reinstall them all in the new truck on Friday. I also arranged for the purchase and installation of step tubes / running boards with Van & Truck World. I got a quote from Belleville Dodge on the installation of "factory" step tubes / running boards, but the after market product from Van & Truck World is a lot cheaper. The height of the door sill on the new truck is ridiculously high. When I was leaning into the new truck taking a look, the door sill edge was above my knees ! SHEESH ! I wonder how long do one's legs have to be to get into a truck like that without step tubes / running boards ?

After we had lunch, and I had finally finished all my phone calls, I took a long, well deserved nap. After napping, I removed the old shower faucet set and installed the new one I bought the other day. That should solve the flow problem created by a worn out vacuum breaker in the old faucet set. I sawed a cedar plank for barbecuing, in half. Then Joanne and I worked on removing everything from the bed of the truck, and finding places to store it all for the next few days. We removed the trailer spare tire and large plastic waste holding tote we carry in the back of the truck bed. We removed the large Rubbermaid tote that I use to store truck fluids, chemicals, emergency diesel fuel, axle jacks, and other truck related stuff. It's attached in the back of the truck with Velcro. It's pretty worn out, including having a hole punched through the lid a couple of weeks ago by hail in Tennessee. Gee, Tennessee wasn't kind to me, was it ? ! ? I'll look at Van & Truck World tomorrow for some kind of a new tote that might be better suited to this kind of application than Rubbermaid. I hauled garbage to the dumpster, then came inside to resume making phone calls.

It was 4:00 P.M. and Belleville Dodge had not yet called to verify that they had faxed all the documents to Village Insurance, I left a message for their business manager to phone me. A few minutes later Sharon phoned, concerned that Village Insurance had not yet received the documents from Belleville Dodge. Joanne made me go outside with her to move Dee-Dee, and stomp down the deep ruts I had made in the lawn behind the trailer, driving Dee-Dee across the lawn. I had forgotten how soft and soggy Eastern Ontario's grassy areas become during spring rains. Shortly after 5:00 P.M. I phoned Belleville Dodge and verified that they had faxed everything to Village Insurance. The I phoned Village Insurance and verified that they had received everything they need to register and insure the new truck. The pieces are falling into place !

Joanne thinks we should call the new truck "Blackie". I don't know. At least I won't have to be referring to it as "that ******* piece of crap" like I have been for Dee-Dee.

Just before supper, I had another round of phone calls with Village Insurance and Belleville Dodge, working out details of timing regarding insurance. If Village Insurance had completed the processing of the documents today, as we had been working on, it would have invalidated Dee-Dee's insurance immediately. We arranged to delay the final processing of the insurance and registration until Thursday, when I'm actually at Belleville Dodge picking up the new truck.

I repaired a pair of Joanne's shoes. I cleaned and polished a pair of my shoes. We had supper.

I spent the evening reading the new truck's owner's manual.

DSK