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!

Beef. It's what's for dinner.

I'm slipping aren't I? 

It was posts every day, then every other day, and now I'm down to every couple of days. Apparently life is getting boring.

I recently revealed that I bought a new-to-me-bike, and with the "semana santa" or holy week about to start here in Mexico, I was really really hoping to have my car back to hopefully go mountain biking. 

It's been one uphill, no breaks, and no flat stretches with this car in Mexico. It would never have occurred to me that getting parts for a GM product would be so difficult, but it is!

Anyway, I was finally willing to just plunk down some money I don't have just to get it back and in working order (even though I don't need a new air conditioner). Spent the time online searching for parts and the mechanic was as well. For days, nothing. Finally today I went to Auto Zone to see if I could just buy an outright new part for the car. I had suggested bypassing the air conditioner compressor, but we weren't able to find the right belt to do that either!

Lucky me, today, after a whole day of more stress trying to figure out if I'd have my car for the holiday or not and basically giving up that I would, the mechanic told me (after I contacted him with more questions this evening) that he had forgotten to call me, but, did in fact have a solution and was able to get the compressor fixed. Hallelujah!!!

It won't be ready tomorrow, but he said it should be ready Wed. I sure do hope so because Thursday is the first day of the semana santa vacation and I want to use every bit of it I can to hit the trails. 

But I'm not holding my breath. I've been told for over a month now that my car will be ready the next day and I am still waiting. If nothing else comes up or breaks or makes funny noises though, maybe, just maybe, I'll be back driving my girl down the road soon :)

To make my day even more exciting, I got to clean my washing machine. Why? Because last night I had a horrific nose bleed that gushed out before I knew what was happening. (It hasn't rained since last year so the air is extremely dry and I would love to purchase a small/cheap humidifier for my bedroom, but they don't seem to sell them in Mexico, alas.) I happened to be lounging on a pillow (that belongs to the landlord of my furnished apartment) so I immediately tried to take out the stuffing so I could soak and wash it. The blood stain was a good fist size plus several smaller droplets from when I got up before realizing it was blood. 

Turns out cheap pillows in Mexico are filled with the remnants of scraps of foam from other pillows. I'm talking less than 1" squares of foam. WHAT A MESS! After getting out what I could from the pillow (much of it was actually stuck to the sides somehow), I plopped it in the washing machine to soak and then run on a short gentle cycle hoping that would get it all clean. 

When I checked on it this morning, there was still evidence of blood. I don't think the landlord would have noticed, but because I knew it was there I clearly saw it so I thought I would run the soak/cycle again, but with stronger soap. Early afternoon I heard the ding of the washing machine signaling that the time was up so I went to check on the pillow and to my miserable surprise, a seam in the pillow had unravelled and the teeny tiny pieces of foam that I couldn't get out were now all over the inside of the washing machine. Oh yea...Now I get to clean the washing machine. 

It was all up the sides too, which is hard to see in the photo.

Trying to pick out every minute piece of foam is not fun, albeit necessary, because I do not want that foam on my sheets, towels, or clothes, nor do I want it plugging up the washing machine pipes. I cleaned the filters too. I'm hoping I can hand stitch the pillow back together in a non noticeable fashion before stuffing all the rest of the itsy bitsy pieces of foam I collected back inside.

Yeah, it was a fun morning. NOT!

But, I did get a good run in. My pace isn't very good yet, but I was able to do a 5k (that's my goal for now) so I'm happy about that. Trying to get back in shape enough to start Insanity again haha! Those months with my back out really cost me.

Denny Crane and I also walked to the corner carniceria/market. He got to sniff all the recent smells along the way so that a 3 block walk took about a half an hour. But he enjoyed it. Then he got breakfast of fresh cut raw meat. He loves it and seems to be doing very well on a half diet of raw meat now. The little guy is a porker and weighs a ton for his tiny size! I've learned that biking with him in his backpack is extra hard work. Biking is now a workout and I can't always keep up my usual pace with an additional 10 pounds lugging me down haha! The people that run the little carniceria like him though and the meat butcher knows us both by name :)  Denny Crane is a celebrity anywhere he goes!

Beef. It's what's for dinner!

Down the Car Repair Rabbit Hole

I've been postponing writing more about my car repair progress until I had more news. It took me this long to get more news. (Mexican time lol)

I missed the phone call from the mechanic yesterday. Tried calling him back twice to no avail and texted saying to call me anytime. 

Didn't hear anything this morning, so I finally tried again at noon. 

Funny thing: I apparently want to get my car back bad because my phone dialed the mechanic after I went to bed! He told me his wife was really mad that I called so late and so I looked on my phone records because I was confused how that could have happened, but indeed, there it was. I had "called" the mechanic after midnight. Oops!

Luckily he wasn't too mad at me today when we chatted and he told me there is a new problem. Down the rabbit hole I'm falling.

The intake manifold from Mexico City arrived, in worse condition than described, but in better condition than mine, so it's hooked up and running.

But now...now there's something wrong with my ac compressor and pulley that is making a terrible racket. 

I was supposed to hear back today as to how much it would cost to fix or if I just want to bypass the whole thing, but, Mexico time....I never heard back. 

So now it's continuing the waiting game for yet another part in my car (You guessed it. The part is hard to find here...). Who knows if I'll ever get my car back. In that thought, I've started aggressively bike shopping HAH!

On a happier note, I've been making great progress with my back pain. There is rarely a time I feel it now so I'm taking more risks lifting heavier items. Also started running again. Boy am I out of shape. Hoping in a month I can get the extra weight from the previous months back off and get my bikini body ready for a covid summer indoors....hip hip hooray...

But I'm very happy that my back is not talking back every other thing I try to do these days so I can get back to being me. And who knows, if I can actually find a decent bike, maybe I'll be able to go out and hit some trails this summer. Boy wouldn't that be grand?!

Denny Crane is always happy when I get back. It's nice to always have a welcoming committee!

Drawing a Creative Idea Blank

I'm exhausted, so not much to write tonight.

This morning the mechanic took my car to the welders. I thought things were looking up until he messaged me late this afternoon that there is another leak in my intake manifold. It's just not worth continuing to solder.

So now I don't know how long it will be before I get my car back. He's checking to see if he can find another intake manifold here in GDL, but chances are low. Shipping one isn't viable.

It's been a long day of frustrating ideas.

On the upside, I had a great morning before I received the 2nd message. And I got lots of reorganizing and cleaning done in the house since I couldn't focus on writing today. 

My head hurts from trying to come up with creative solutions.

Will try again tomorrow. 

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 :)