I spent some of time at the corner of 98th and Bancroft Avenues today. More time than I would have liked, there’s a school and a park there, but still not a fun place to hang out. I did get to block traffic for a few hours and the tow truck driver warned me that it was a bad neighborhood, but more on that later.

I rode my motorcycle to Oakland this morning and bought a truck. I’m still not sure if this was a good idea, but I found a 1988 box truck for sale on Craigslist and figured it would be the solution to all my problems. The master plan is to skip the normal storage and moving expenses by just buying a truck. We’ll stick all our stuff in the back, park it somewhere while we’re gone, and then just drive it to our new home next year. This way we don’t have to rent storage space, or rent a moving truck when we get back. AND I can sell the truck when we’re done with it and the whole thing is basically free.

The purchase process was relatively painless. The truck started up with no problems, I checked the oil and other fluids, and everything seemed to be running fine. I had to go across the street to the post office to get a money order (where the postal clerks were protected behind bars) and completed the sale. We managed to get the motorcycle in the back of the truck using a ramp made from an old iron fence and some scrap lumber. I started driving home, but less than a mile later I was out of gas and stuck in the front of the right turn lane at the previously mentioned intersection.

Yes, I did notice the tank was on “E”, but I was in a residential neighborhood and figured I could make it back to the highway (less than a mile) to fill up before heading home. I walked to a gas station and returned to the truck with 2 gallons of gas. On the way, Heather called to see how I was doing, which conveniently used up the last of my cell phone battery. I dumped the gas in the tank and turned the key, it started, but died as soon as I let off the gas pedal. In the process of trying again I some how got the key and shift lever stuck. The key wouldn’t turn, or come out, and the truck was stuck in park.

Back at the gas station, the man behind the bullet-proof Plexiglas fortress said he wouldn’t let me use the phone. Luckily I found a more helpful person at a tire store. I called AAA and went back to the truck to wait for a tow. A half hour later, he shows up and immediately starts shaking his head. This can only mean more bad news. It turns out that my new truck is classified as a commercial vehicle, which is not covered by AAA. Apparently this also applies to any of those extremely large pickup trucks, with the dually tires in the back, consider yourself warned if this applies to you.

Lucky for me, the driver knows a guy that can help, only it will be at commercial prices for my commercial vehicle. Also, before leaving he is able to un-jam my shift lever and get the key out of the ignition. This probably sounds like good news, but it just reveals another problem, the key turns now, but it turns all the way around – 360 degrees without doing anything. Another hour passes, and tow truck #2 shows up. On the way to the AAA recommended repair shop, the driver mentions that the mechanic there is kinda grumpy and often refuses to work on vehicles older than the mid nineties. Lucky for me, the driver knows a guy that can help.

We are rerouted to the mechanic that fixes the tow trucks, he is a little grumpy too and says he’ll call me when he figures out what’s wrong. After explaining that I am over an hour drive away from home with a cell phone that doesn’t work and I have no where to go, he agrees to work on the truck right away. He removes a bunch of parts and eventually decides that we need more gas. The key is now working fine, as is the shift lever, and he’s got it running but only in first gear. We fill the tank at the nearest gas station, and on the ride back he decides everything is working fine. He fiddles with something transmission related and all three gears are working, we take a test drive on the highway and everything is running great. Back at the shop he puts everything back together and I finally get to go home. Just in time for rush hour. It turns out not to be that bad though, the mechanic told me not to go over 55mph so I was stuck going sorta slow anyway.

So I’m back home safe at 8:00pm, the new truck is working, and it turns out all I needed was a full tank of gas. Maybe if the guy who sold the truck had left me more than a teaspoon of fuel I could have done something productive with my afternoon. The end result is that I spent about $300 more than I planned today, but I did get the new truck inspected by a mechanic (also unplanned, but good to know there are no major problems). We’ll see what kind of trouble is involved at the DMV tomorrow, but for now I’m happy to be done with it all.

Oh, and as a fitting end to the day, I snagged the TV cable line while pulling into my driveway. We didn’t loose signal though, so I’ll just nail it back up tomorrow and pretend that didn’t happen.