Well, new to me, anyways. :-)
My grandpa was selling his 1999 Ford F-150, so I went down to Cleveland (MN) and nabbed it today. It's only got 28k miles on it, so it's got a ton of running life ahead of it.
It's in good running condition. The only things I need to do with it are: add a decent radio in it (this one doesn't even have a tape deck) and add more refrigerant to the AC system (it's blowing a bit warm). It ran like a champ all the way home, and I'm digging it. :-)
Boy, Cleveland was a mess. The tornado sure did a number on the country side. My uncle Larry's house was hit, but it's still standing... sort of. The garage is knocked off its foundation, and the house's foundation is entirely cracked. The living room ceiling is sagging. And there's no trees left... And the shed's roof is missing... And the deck is detached from the house... Aside from that, it's great. ;-) They did get off lucky in that they still have a (condemned) roof over their heads. But at the same time, it also sucks because it takes longer for the insurance company to figure out what to do with the house. If there was no house there, it'd be easier to start moving on. But as it stands, they have to send out various people like structural engineers to state the obvious and it takes a few weeks before they can begin moving on.
Greg's old farmhouse (the one my parents lived in when they were first married) is entirely gone. The whole farm was levelled except for one room in the house. The lost the barns, two houses and a number of sheds. All 600 head of cattle (which were left; about 200 died from what I heard) had to be shipped off to other farms in a night, which amazes me. How the hell do you unload 600 cattle in 8 hours? All in all, the storm could have been worse. It was an F3, instead of an F4 (which is what hit in 98), and only one person died (90+ years old; tree fell on him in his bedroom). Plus, since it hit the countryside instead of the town, there were less families affected. But it still sucks.
While I was down at my grandparent's farm, I went over to Brad's farm to watch them pour a cement slab for their machine shed floor. Then I went over Larry's house and help move stuff out of the garage. My family rocks. At Brad's place, I saw Greg, Larry, Mark and Randy helping to put in the floor. Then from there, everyone went over to Larry's to help move stuff. It's nice that everyone lives so near to one another that they can all pitch in for stuff. It's just the way my family's always worked -- when you have so damn many relatives, it's easy to find laborers. ;-)
Now I'm just waiting the rain storm out here at home (you can see it brewing in the background of the last picture) before I take the neighbor's dog out for a walk. I'm looking forward to the long weekend too... nice to relax a bit. I hope everyone has a safe and fub labor day weekend -- don't labor too much!
I'm glad I don't live in tornado country! The only potential natural disasters around here are sever ice storms, but those don't happen very often at all (last time in 98).
BTW, jpegs are smaller than pngs: 92k instead of 1.3 MB for that last picture. I'm not on dial-up anymore (thank god!) but 1.3 MB still takes a few seconds to load. Especially when there are three of them and you don't make real thumbnails ;-)
Last time I had JPGs up, I was yelled at about not being lossless and how terrible the quality was. So I've decided that since I have unlimited bandwidth, I can solve this issue easy enough. Esp since Vista defaults to PNG. ;-)
And around here, we have to worry about blizzards and tornados. But not hurricanes or volcanoes or earthquakes. The occasion plague of locusts maybe, but only if we've been bad....
Dude! Nice Truck!!!
Very nice truck! What do you plan to do with it?
Bahhhh... it's just a Ford :)
I have a BIG RED Chevy so .... :)
Does look well cared for.
Enjoy. It's nice having a truck EXCEPT all your friends and friends of frinds will now want you to help move them :) Learn to like pizza and beer !
We have tornadoes here infrequently. But we do get big hail storms from time to time. We can usually see them coming across the foothills.
And we do get snow storms at odd times of year though but those are rare.
No earthquakes, volcanoes, or hurricanes.
The occasional plague of Americans and while they used to migrate here for Calgary Stampede then head home they seem to have taken up residence year round now.
Some crap about oil or something and us having a lot of it :)
Man! Your neighbourhood has sprung up quite a bit since you took the last photos when you were still working on the house.
It's funny - we Brits wouldn't call that a truck, we'd call it a pick-up. In South Africa they'd all it a 'Bukkie'.
This isn't my first truck guys, so I am used to being the go-to guy for moving and stuff. ;-) I'm selling my Dodge Dakota Sport (1998) once I have it detailed, in case anyone's in the area, reading my blog, and looking for a truck. I plan to use the Ford for the same things I used my Dodge for. Light duty hauling of stuff when I need it, and just general transportation.
I've always been the go to guy for moving as well until I got rid of my truck. I've had a couple small SUV's for the past few years. And we just bought the truck this year and I've already lent it out twice.
It's a tank. Literally. Chevy Silverado Quad cab short box 4x4 with a 6.0 litre V8
Can haul about 10,000 punds (nearly 4000 in the truck bed)
Enjoy the truck. it looks like it's in nice shape. Maybe even good eough to get yer butt up here for Stampede next year ?! :)
I actually have a Dakota sport '95...still (mostly) ticking away minus the A/C - which really sucks here in S. CA. Did yours die on you, or just moving on?
What is this Stampeed thinger? Mom and dad mentioned it when they went up to Banff, but I never got a clear understanding of what it's all about.
And I plan to enjoy the truck every bit as much as I enjoyed the last one. :-) It's going to be strange though... I've driven a manual for the last decade, and this is an automatic. My left foot still reaches for the clutch constantly. :-P
@Chad B -- just moving on. The Dodge has 120k miles on it (or so), and the Ford only has 28k miles on it. The Ford is one year newer. So after checking it out on consumer reports, I figured the Ford would just be a good truck to pick up since Grandpa was selling it so cheap... the Dodge is in perfect working order (heck, I just put brand-spanking new tires on it).
@Charlie,
In Australia it's called a "Ute".
Stampede is the world richest outdoor rodeo help annually in Calgary
One huge party for 10 days every July
As for the clutch ... I still go for mine from time to time and I haven't had a manual shift in 5 years :)
have fun with the gas prices!
@Steve -- I drive so little, they really don't affect me. What's more, even though it's a bigger truck, it gets the same mileage as the Dodge (actually, a little better, but not by much). :-)