A Girl and Her Car: A Life Together

Today has been a hard day. The upstairs neighbor decided to leave on foot at who knows what hour early this morning (I'm guessing around 4 or 5). The door to leave the building is very big and heavy and has to be unlocked from the inside and relocked from the outside. It also happens to be in the same wall as the head of my bed and about 6 feet away. There's no way for anyone to enter or leave without waking me up. Then there is the garage door. It runs on a bicycle chain and is super loud. There is no pedestrian door. He left and returned I'm guessing around 15 minutes later so I got to hear everything twice. Then, probably around 6 or 7, he left again, in his car this time. 

In addition, Denny Crane decided he didn't want to sleep last night, but wanted to groom himself instead. The sound of his licking is extremely loud and obnoxious when I'm awake, let alone when I'm trying to sleep. I finally got up around 2am and reprimanded him in person and told him to knock it off and go to sleep. When the neighbor left the 2nd time Denny Crane woke up and started shaking himself and moving around in his little house bed, making sufficient racket to prevent sleeping until I got up at 8:30. 

Needless to say, when I got up I felt like I was sleep walking. I was so tired. I knew if I sat down to write or work I'd fall into a fitful and restless sleep so I decided to walk to a couple of stores. I acquired most of what I wanted and returned home about an hour later. 

To stay awake I decided to call my bank and get some business conducted. I fell asleep waiting on hold. 

So instead, I got up and moved around to try to wake up and did fairly well until around 5pm when I was sitting working on my computer but my eyes kept shutting. I'd force one open at a time to find weird webpages open when my hand had rested on the touchpad. Good grief. I decided to lay down on the couch for a half hour and take a nap, but of course and soon as I moved into position I was wide awake and just laid there unable to sleep.

....Then my phone went off with a message notification.

My precious car (for those that don't know she has been with me from the beginning and we are the tightest knit girl and car that ever was) is in the shop for some repairs. Nothing horrible. Until today.

My mechanic messaged me a video of my intake manifold leaking. Now, if I was in the USA, this wouldn't be a huge deal. I could buy a new one for a good price or even get a used one from a junkyard. There are a plethora of Aleros in junkyards now. But only in the US. The car does not exist in Mexico. Which means no old parts nor new parts if those parts are not used in other cars sold in Mexico. (hint: intake manifolds are not available here)

So now I'm contemplating my future. How will I be able to fix my car? How much will it cost? How will I be able to get back to the States to visit? 

There are a lot of 'how' questions and not a lot of 'how' answers. 

A girl has never loved her car and bonded over the 300,000 miles of travel together as me. The thought of losing her here is devastating. She was my kitten, my cat in crime, and I've lovingly cared for her as she's aged as best I could. I've lived in her, slept in her, and trusted her with everything I own. She has kept me warm and safe and waited for me to return from other countries for 20 years. She has been my one true constant in my ever changing adult world.

I want nothing more than to return to the mechanic and hear her gentle purr, feel her strength under my foot and her eagerness to roam the streets once again with me, and sense her protection around me once more. 

I actually have a whole album of black & white photos of her that I took and developed myself the first year I got her, but this is the most recent color photo :)