Stuck starter

This afternoon I decided to return some of our leftover materials from the workday the other day. We had 5 sheets of siding, 2 boxes of screws, and a few other odds and ends. I hadn't had the truck out on the road for a long time, and I wasn't sure if she was up for a trip or not, but... what the heck. Sometimes you gotta live dangerously.

I was especially concerned on the way down, because even though it wasn't a huge load, it was still a bit of weight; and 2 of my tires are dry-rotted all the way around. So I took back roads down to Lowe's in Bluffton. It ended up being a nice drive with no problems.

I unloaded the stuff, took it inside, then headed down to the return counter to get my money back. I had 2 different receipts, and the kid rang it up, put it back on my credit card, and I headed out the door. But it was only for $84-something. So I whipped my receipts out again, and sure enough he failed to ring up the other return - the big one. So he did that, and I ended up getting just over $199 back. But that's when the trouble started.

I headed back to the truck, feeling good that I had made it there, and saved the church some money, but when I hopped in and turned the key... nothing. It was deader than a doornail. So I got out and took the screwdriver to the solenoid. That didn't do anything. So I kinda just stood there. It was hot. 84F. And I had a longsleeve black shirt on. I prayed, and thought about how much my back suddenly hurt. Finally an employee walked by and I asked if he could maybe give me a jump. He seemed more than happy to. So I got my cables out, and he pulled up, but it didn't do any good. I thought maybe it was my cables, because I wasn't getting any spark. He said he didn't have any, but said he would go check if anyone else did.

I waited some more and a young guy came wheeling up. He got out, put his cables on... and it still didn't start. So he beat on the solenoid with his ice scraper. Then he crawled under the truck and beat on the starter with his ice scraper. Nothing. Then he got a crowbar and beat on the starter with that and... presto! It started. I tried to give him $5, but he wouldn't take it. He was very nice. So I headed for home on the main road.

I didn't have anymore problems, but when I parked and shut it off... it wouldn't start back up again.

I knew I should have sold it when I had the chance.