Cute as a bug's ear

What have I been working on?  I'm not sure I can tell you.  I little of this, a little of that, but managing to stay busy.

Friday morning, I woke up to a flat tire.  I called Roadside Assistance.  I told them I don't have any tools ... just the jack.  I was aware of this because when Katy got her flat tire, I was going to help her but realized I didn't own a jack handle or a lug wrench.  RA comes out, and they are unable to lower my tire from under the truck bed because ... I don't have the jack handle that I told them I didn't have.  The guy tells me I should have the truck towed.  I said, "No, I'll figure it out."  So I called around to find a jack handle and lug wrench.  Schucks do not keep them in stock and would need to order them.  The junkyards don't inventory them, so I would need to go there and look through vehicles for something that is surely not there.  So I called the dealer.  They have them, but they want me to buy the jack, the tools and the bag ... for close to $170 dollars.  Um no.  He finally got authority from his boss to break up the set and just sell me the tools I need for $60.  Fine.  I put it on a credit card, and the salesman who sold me the truck several years ago lives near me so he took the parts home for me, and Janie drove me over there Saturday morning to pick them up.

I get home with my new tools, and I call Roadside Assistance to come change my tire -- again.  It's raining.  My RA expires next week, and I might as well use it since I pay for it.  So the guy comes back out.  When he called me to tell me he was on his way, he asks me if I got the tools.  I assured him I had.

He gets there, jacks up the truck with his own jack and then puts the jack handle together, and is looking around the bed of the truck for where to put it ... the wheel well, under the truck, etc., and is not figuring it out.  Standing under the eve of my house while it continues to rain, I tell him that the place to put the jack handle is somewhere right over the license plate.  I leave him to do his thing. 

I check on him a few minutes later, and he still has not gotten the tire lowered.  He tells me that the hole isn't lining up and he can't get the tool locked on.  I asked him, "So they sold me the wrong thing?"  He said, "No, but it's not working.  You're going to have to have the truck towed and see what one of those tire places can do for you." 

He left.  I looked at Kirk (who had shown up just a few minutes prior) and said, "Looks like I'll have to do it myself."  So Kirk and I went to Walmart and bought some stuff, and then came back to the house.  He was going to go back to his house because he needed to pick something up that he'd forgotten, when he looked at the back of my truck -- right near the license plate -- and, pointing at a little round thing with a keyhole in it, said:  "What's that for?"  I said, "I don't know."  I took my truck key, inserted it, turned it, and lo and behold, it turned and the little cap popped out with nothing behind it.  I looked into the hole, and imagine that, it lines up to the area where you put the jack handle in to lower the tile.  Ford made it so no one can steal my spare.  I can understand Roadside not knowing every little thing about every vehicle, but like Kirk pointed out ... this is all in something magical called an "Owner's Manual" ... that RA never asked me for!  He would have had me tow the truck.  Wow.

So Kirk went back home and I changed my tire myself.  Consulting the owner's manual, I was able to figure it all out.  Whodathunkit?  A little wet, a little dirty, I was none the worse for wear.

The electrician has finally finished all of the work I was having him do.  There are now flood lights over the lambing pens, over the backyard, and over the dog run.  I have a porch light!  And there's a motion light in the driveway.  I bought a new fan/light for the living room that's bushed nickle with dark wood fan blades.  The brushed nickle matches the curtain rods.  I was looking for a little chandelier for the dining room, and Home Depot had them for a couple of hundred bucks.  I wasn't paying that.  I found one on Craigslist for $20 ... and it's brushed nickle!  Woo hoo!  There's also a new ... very bright light in the kitchen.  And we moved the old brushed nickle kitchen fixture into the dining room.

Here's some photos.

The dining room:

Here's the living room.  That's the pellet stove sitting in the middle of the room.  The tile pad is almost done, and then Kirk will stall it.  Can't wait!  It will totally make the room!  (The curtains are the old panels I used in my rental.  Janie's making the new curtains.)

Here's the light in the kitchen.  Sorry about the photo.

Janie made my kitchen curtains for me last night.  I love the material!  We left the edges frayed and it's such a great look! 

Kirk also hooked up my sink.  I just tied the curtains back with hair ties just to see what it would look like.  The sink needs a really good scrubbing.  It's got quite a bit of paint on it, just like everything else I own.

I also bought a little freezer to store meat and stuff in.  It's an older freezer, and I plugged it in and it works great.  It makes quite a bit of a humming noise, though.  Does anyone have a chest freezer?  Is it supposed to make noise?

That's all for now ...

Jodi