"I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversations." - George Bernard Shaw

I'm bad at math; we established that a long time ago. Which is why I thought Thursday was anniversary #34 when it's actually #33. Not that it makes any particular difference, including to us. We normally go out for dinner on Thursday night and we might go someplace special this week.

They did a story on the news about the skyrocketing price of bacon thanks to some disease that's killing off baby pigs at an unprecedented rate. It's now up to something like 35 cents per slice. So I've cut back from four slices to three.
The sacrifices we make.

Her new, abbreviated schedule at the hospital has Pam working M, T, W, of one week, a 12-hour shift, and Th, F of the next week, a 12-hour shift. Not only does that represent a 25% reduction in her hours (and pay), it has her working three 12's in a row, which is exhausting. Not good.

The government set up a site for us to visit that shows how our money is being spent. That required that federal agencies covered by this new system report what they were spending. Between bad reporting, bad software, and bad management the site has lost track of $619 billion. This says something disturbing about our govt. I go crazy when I lose $5 and they're not going ape over $619 billion.

I have what I think will be an interesting lunch meeting tomorrow. I'll let you know in tomorrow night's post.

I started on the engine's bottom end this morning. The engine stand allows me to rotate it so the oil pan faces up...and the oil left inside drains out the top end onto the floor. Oh well; that's what rags are for.
I don't know if you can see it, but the oil pan is smashed in at the lower section to the right. These trucks were well known for smashed pans because it stuck down lower than any part on the frame. So when the time comes I'll try to find an un-smashed pan.

Took the pan off and found everything in order. Not much can go wrong because it's all made out of really hefty cast iron. That disk on an arm to the right is the pickup for the oil pump. It sticks down into the deeper portion of the pan, picks up oil through a filtering screen, draws it through that tube, and pumps it throughout the engine. It has to come off before I can get the crank shaft out.

I couldn't figure out any way to get that pump out. Yeah, there has to be a way, I just can't see it. The shop manual is NO help. It talks about a retaining screw but there's no screw in sight, and they don't show it on their exploded view of the pump. So I posted a question on the classic Chevy truck site and got an answer two hours later. Buried down inside, covered by the crank shaft unless it's rotated to just the right position, is a bolt (not a screw) that holds the whole assembly in place. By then it was too late for me to tackle; already well into the morning's study. But I went out this evening and in five minutes had the oil pump off. I also was drenched in sweat from the heat, the reason I'm at work on the truck at 5 a.m.