I was in a scramble to get everything lined up. I was taking the wife to her annual week in the Sierras camping - and with this truck by now - I sure owed her. So I flew through the ordering and rushing of parts to have dropped shipped to my guy. By the time I got back, we would have the sending unit, tank, new lines and associated sundries all installed. I figured that if the deliveries went through, I would be driving the truck when we got back.

Guess what? ...

Half of the work is done. All the parts came in but my buddy deferred finishing the work until he could ask me one really important question.

• Do you have the ignition key?
  

Honestly, I had no idea how to respond. It ran through my head how that truck had been in his shop for the last six months. No one had ever removed the key. There was no reason to. I myself had only ever touched it once - about a couple of days after delivery to start and check the engine operation. After that I never even thought about it. Then he asked me another question.

• Maybe it fell out?
  

It was the best laugh I had all month. I almost split my side laughing, imagining that little lonely key with nothing attached to it suddenly popping out like like a wet bar of soap in the shower. Not bloody likely.

I figure the guy at the frame shop took it out by habit. The upshot is that, it's still not running, it can't run, and he's buying.

It is actually more interesting to me how stuff like this pops up when trying to get a project of this magnitude done. It is sooooo unpredictable. You just can't make this stuff up.