It's tough maintaining an old vehicle, especially if it's your sole source of transportation. The speedometer says over 248k, but that's wrong. I've compared mileage on my more accurate GPS and determined that my truck speedometer was losing a tenth of a mile, every ten miles, since she left the factory.

I don't know if that was intentional on Mazda's part, for some reason, or they just didn't have the tools in 1988, to be more accurate.

I just ordered a quality fuel pump from Napa, for $50, be here next week. Daniel and I could tackle it, but maybe my mechanic Thomas can come in with a reasonable quote, and I'll swing her by his shop.

I have so much new stuff on my old truck, tires, brakes, drive system flushed, new plugs, new cap and rotor, new distributer, rebuilt the Weber carb, and shortly, a new fuel pump. I've done 5% of the labor and left the rest to the pros. I can do simple things like swap a fuel filter out and recharge the carb filter.

I've spent thousands on my little sweet truck since I bought her off of Riley about a dozen years ago. All money well spent and we've had amazing adventures together.

To have her go into cardiac arrest like yesterday, was something I take personal. She's my girl, I love her and take care of her, and she takes care of me. Her name is Jill, btw.

She got the name from the affair she had with my 1978 lifted Silverado named Jack, on our back forty one Summer in Idaho. It carried on for a couple of years.

Big ol Jack was a hell of a truck, they should have had children together...

The roots of the Jack & Jill story are in France. They are said to be King Louis XVI – Jack, who was beheaded (lost his crown) followed by his Queen, Marie Antoinette – Jill – (who came tumbling after). So they were beheaded lovers.

Jack blew his engine as Riley pulled our moving trailer into Oregon. We had to transfer everything into a UHaul van to complete the move to Idaho. Steph and I were up at Grand Targhee ski resort having lunch with my sister when the shop called and quoted $5k for a new boxed 350 engine. Sis didn't hesitate, fed her card numbers to the shop over the phone, and a week later I pulled him into town, with a new crown. She was a co-owner at that point, but never played that card. Thanks sis!