Riding the Roller Coaster of Car Part Mayhem

My days have been a roller coaster of waiting for the top of the hill and then the subsequent plummet afterward. Up and down, up and down. If I come out of this without high blood pressure I'll consider it a win.

All that to say, I'm still carless in Guadalajara. 

Thought we had it all figured out only to turn around and find out that all the different parts of the puzzle to get the compressor to me quickly have fallen apart. 

So I'm back to square one it feels like. I can't believe how frustrating this all is. It's not just frustrating trying to get the ac compressor for my car but it's also very frustrating to not have my car for over 2 months now. 

Who could have known that finding a GM ac compressor in Mexico would be near impossible....or as it looks at the moment, actually impossible.

If anyone is in the interest of driving to Guadalajara muy pronto or is feeling generous to mail a car part to Mexico, I'm open to suggestions!

Really, the prices are so high for this part (in my opinion), that buying one in the USA and shipping it seems crazy, but that's my only option so that's what it will be. By the time this car is fixed I'm anticipating many many more road trips and a big celebration when I pass the 300,000 mile mark!

Since I purchased a bicycle, I'm much happier. I love bikes (although I prefer battling rocks and trees to cars). Luckily for me there are protected bike lanes in some of the larger streets :) It's given me the freedom to travel a lot further and get to more places without losing half or more of a day to do so. And it's good exercise to boot. I put the extra Denny Crane poundage on my back and settle into gear 24 and pedal my way through the city streets.

I was ever so hopeful that with the holy week vacation (now a couple of weeks past), I'd get to go mountain biking, but wouldn't you know it, that is when a gigantic fire started in the nearby forest. They brought in helicopters and ground crew and are still working on it. Needless to say, it was closed for the general public, so I was unable to go mountain biking :(

Denny Crane had a lovely Semana Santa. He got to investigate new places and smell all sorts of new smells. Unfortunately there weren't any doggie friends, but he did try to befriend a cat. The cat was not so trusting although the curiosity of the cat was extremely entertaining to watch!

I can't believe Denny Crane is still kicking along so well. He's 16 as far as I know and his blood work is good. Incredible. That boy follows my every step (literally). I think he needs some new friends lol, but he's a really good dog, gotta say. 

And...I've recently learned that I'm identified in GDL as Denny Crane's mom as opposed to Ronda. The dog is a celebrity and I'm merely the handler 😂

A new chapter in Till Eulenspiegel?

Regarding the title...Till Eulenspiegel is a prankster that is set in a German storybook and also to music by Richard Strauss. It occurs to me that maybe the book is missing a chapter because I certainly feel like I'm being pranked with all the funny car business that keeps happening.

If you have been keeping up with my blog at all, you will know that I've been running the gamut with my car trying to get it fixed. I've been told several times the car would be ready the next day and so far, the car is still in the shop. Sigh.

The latest development is with my ac compressor. 

The ac compressor has a pulley attached to it that the serpentine belt runs around. Technically, I don't need that pulley and can get a shorter serpentine belt that skips it so I can still use my car, but the ac wouldn't work. What fun for 90 degree weather all summer long in the city....not....

But, I figured, I'll deal with it. My car is old and I don't want to spend more than I'm already spending. 

Well, turns out the mechanic can't find a short belt to fit the car. He told me he tried at least 10 belts and none were correct. 

So he found another ac compressor that has different bolt holes and so he can't connect it to my car, but the components are good except for the coil (the part that actually makes the ac). He phoned me to find out if I was ok with this because he told me he'd gone to so many junkyards and called so many places, and nobody has the exact ac compressor I have. Even the Alero 4 cylinder car doesn't have the same compressor.

I told him okay. Fine. I'll suffer without ac and you can mesh the two compressors together and I'll get my car back...finally.

Oh, if it were only that easy.

Apparently (from what I was told), when the car was started with the "new" ac compressor in place, the pulley on the outside that the serpentine belt goes around is wobbly. The mechanic is not okay with me driving the car around as such so he's now literally looking at ebay in the USA for this part and trying to find out how much to ship it to MX. 

What an inconceivable mess.

So all told, now I'm sitting at home, still carless, and carless for the foreseeable future. 

Boy it's a good thing I got a bicycle!