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Work 4 Peace,Hold All Life Sacred,Eliminate Violence! I am on my mobile version of the door-to-door, going town-to-town holding readings/gatherings/discussions of my book "But What Can I Do?" This is my often neglected blog mostly about my travels since 9/11 as I engage in dialogue and actions. It is steaming with my opinions, insights, analyses toward that end of holding all life sacred, dismantling the empire and eliminating violence while creating the society we want ALL to thrive in

Tuesday, June 01, 2021

Veggie Oil Blues

 Our fridge is full of yummy food - after the filters are in place I go back to the near-by rest stop and cook us a meal while Mujasi explores the grounds - and looks for a wifi signal I'm sure. Usually I have a audio books ONLY rule when he is traveling with me, but my energy is focused on making it to Philly on a healthy veggie oil system so I let him slide.

We enjoy our meal, clean up and then hit the road again. 

Or attempt to hit the road again. 3 miles out on the highway, I switch to veggie oil and almost immediately the truck engine begins to hesitate and threatens to die. I quickly exit the freeway while Mujasi immediately switches our fuel to diesel but the engine still protests. I pull to the side of the road as the engine dies.

I try to restart the engine but it just cranks and cranks and cranks without catching. I let it sit for a few minutes to try again. No luck.

It's over 90 degrees and probably 90 percent humidity but fortunately, I ended up stalling under a large tree and just past a right-hand turn only lane so no one bothers us.

I pull up the cab and try to figure out why the engine won't kick on. Finally I give up and because I'm supposed to be in PA this evening, I start googling diesel mechanics. I ask a few people if they are local and if they know of any diesel mechanics and come up empty.

After calling a couple shops, finding out they charge over $100 just to come out and then two hour minimum labor at $100 per hour, I call my daughter to ask her if she has that much money in her account.

Trying one more time, I find another mobile provider who tells me he just charges $95 an hour, no service charge, no minimum and is pretty confident he can fix her in less than an hour. And he is right. When he arrives, he doesn't bat an eye at my truck but goes right to work.

Of course he does - he's male but not white.

He believes there is air in the engine and suddenly I'm remembering I didn't fill the pre-filter with oil nor did I fill the main filter all the way up so of course, there's air in the engine. He primes the line - a thing I tried to do but couldn't figure out (actually forgot) where the damn primer was/is. He uses a can of smelly ether or something in the air filter and she starts right up. I think the engine doesn't sound exactly right so I ask him to drive around and follow me in case it stops. He does and the engine doesn't stop so off we go.

I'm resigned to running on diesel only, as I do the math in my head. I'm on a strict budget and can't afford to keep buying diesel. I still am almost 500 miles away so that's at least two tanks of diesel...grrrrr

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