Furd Ignitioon

There’s times recently these past few months (and beginning last year actually) when the 94-thousand-mile F-150’s key required a few repeated twists to get the spark flowing, and that had become more increasingly frequent – until today when it wouldn’t do a damn thing.
And we were parked miles from home at the Outlet Mall in Folsom.
Which fortunately is only a mile or so from Folsom Ford… Not that I like them so much, they’re an industrial bureaucratic combine branch-office run by AutoDrones and Press-#1 for English Secretaries with poor communication skillz, so I usually take the truck locally to Ponderosa Auto Express, where they guys are honest and trustworthy. Which is not to cast aspersions and say that FF isn’t also, but I feel it’s a pretty alien environment and there’s lots of opportunity for getting screwed over by Big-Dealer Network paper-shuffling.
So I called my new neighbors up in Sly Park and they came down to get us, and meanwhile managed to get a tow-company to arrive sometime to do the hook and pull, which they did Thank-You Placer Towing!
So now I gotta deal with Dealers and the Fog of AutoWar.
My old ’94 had an ignition that you could pull the key out of while it was running (in Park, or otherwise) and with it still running go do things and then slide it back in. It was a Ford too.
Maybe there’s a recall I don’t know about. If there was one I wouldn’t know about it that’s for sure. Buying a used vehicle is fraught with unintended anticipations. Still from 20k to 94K with no problems is a blessing.

UPDATE: The aftermarket chip-key I had been using took a dump. Somewhere in the moving and driving and switchig around the original Ford key had been left at the Low Granite Airport Outcropping – and I had been using a cheap-chip duplicate, which had failed. When we drove down there with another set of keys it fired right up and we were not charged a thing (besides the tow-company), so with gratitude for not being screwed-over, some Order was restored along with a measured reduction in Dealer Animosity.

Land of Eternal Sun

We awoke above the inversion to fading pinks and blues in the south that simply gave way to brilliance.
She wakes up an hour before me for alone-time and exercises, and hibiscus tea that’s good for blood pressure.
I hear the microwave ding as boiled eggs are cooked and I start to stir. There’s a load of whites in the dryer and a load of mixed colors in the wash that I need to advance. And email.
Outside it’s about 70-degrees and she is already moving some rocks from underneath one of the stumpy-pines, each bucket of medium-sized rocks weighs about 15-lbs. Exercise! I go to repair/fix a drip-line fixture by the Red Rocket (aka Lagerstroemia indica, aka Crape Myrtle) that is unnecessarily complex and stupid.
There are a tangle of four different lines that fork off a main and wrap around the plant like a crazy letter “F.” I cut it back and re-route and simplify to a “T.”
We decide to tan-bark the rock circle underneath the stumpy-pine, and I go under to get more rocks get moved out of the way. She goes to trim the bushy-branches up inside the other stumpy-pine, and winds up with pine-pitch in her hair – always wear a hat!
We finish the outdoor chores and it’s hot and sweaty up on the exposed rock outcropping, time for another shower (me) and a bit of scissor-work on the pine-pitch hairdo – curly hair hides a lot of flaws. Lunch at the Diamond Springs Hotel beckons.
After lunch we take the old beater 530i out for a spin to make sure the trickle battery-charge is holding. It also needs the tires’ air checked, it feels funny I am told. And they do – the rears are 30 and should be 41, it’s wallowing – but the charger is working OK.
She regains confidence in the vehicle and it’s not jumping out of 2nd anymore – needs a firm hand there with the new flywheel $$. The shocks are at 100K+ and probably will be the next thing to depart for the Great Wrecking Yard in the Sky. High clouds have drifted-in causing some glare, and the sun is well past the apex but the deck is nice and the warmth is welcome.