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 😂

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!

A New Set of Wheels

Relax! It's only a new set of two wheels, not four. My car is still in the shop.

In my new quest for fitness, sports, and most of all, independent local travel, I purchased a "new to me" bicycle! It is frustrating that I have bikes in the USA, but when I drove down over a year ago, the car was packed and I chose to wait to bring one until I returned a few months later for the remaining orchestra gigs I had contracted. But then covid came and the borders closed and the gigs cancelled and I was unable to return to the USA to retrieve it. Now that I "could" return, my car is unable to make the trip and the border has become a haven of bandits looking to rob incoming cars regardless of driver nationality or luxury car model (so I could theoretically leave Mexico safely, but who could say regarding the return). New-to-me bike it is then, after impatiently complaining for over a year that I miss my bike. 

Ironically, the new-to-me bike is the same one I have at home. That wasn't at all intentional, but is kind of funny in after sight. It's a different color with slightly different components, but it's the same brand and the same model and some of the same components. Luckily for me, I paid less than half of what I paid so many years ago, which I see as only befitting since the bike is now that much older. It's still a fantastic beginner bike. 

Technically I'm no beginner. I've logged many many hours on that bike, crashing and burning, nearly dying, and always leaving with exciting stories to tell, or at the very least, extremely muddy, sometimes bloody, and very dirty. There was a period of time I spent 3-4 hours a day on that bike hacking away at various technical difficulties on the Austin Greenbelt. But hey, I still like the bike even if I have outgrown it's capabilities and I'm happy to keep riding another one vs not riding a bike at all or riding a poorly constructed one.

Considering the old bike has withstood the test of time (i.e. it is Ronda proof-thank you Trek!), I'm looking forward to battering this one hard and reselling it in a few years when my visa expires. I'm very happy with the deal I got so hopefully I will recoup much of what I just paid for it.

I'm also very excited to now have the freedom to go much further, must faster and spend less of my day walking. Not that I don't enjoy walking, but I'd like the option to choose whether I spend hours walking to the store or not, or have the ability to be gone for hours and go to many stores vs just one.

The next weekend is the Easter celebration weekend. In Mexico it starts the Thursday before Easter Sunday, so I'm praying that brother Murphy goes on vacation early so I can get my car back in good working order and go mountain biking!

Here's to getting back in the saddle soon!

Meet my new Trek 4500

Sitting pretty in the sunshine.

Of course 😂 Denny Crane got to ride along. I finally used my Timbuk 2 San Fransisco backpack for it's actual bike-riding purpose!
Don't worry, Denny Crane was safely secured inside and as far as I know, he didn't cause any rubbernecking accidents!

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!

Biking in LA

Today almost had me in tears by the time supper arrived, but it turned around for the better. Started out expecting to be able to rearrange the storage shed in the back yard and then unload my car, but the landlord ended up leaving for the entire morning which I wasn't expecting. So nothing was accomplished this morning other then applying to a couple more jobs. Finally I got to leave on my bike to go get my phone charger. It was about 15 miles away with a good 2/3rds of that being bike trail. Got all the info from google maps and set off, excited to discover some of the trails around the area. Was planning on taking a different way back in addition. Well, got about a half hour out and discovered the trail was closed. That was after I had to ask multiple people what trail I was even on because there were no signs :(  I took the detour but the signs fizzled out and so I ended up in a big circle not being able to recognize any of the roads I crossed. So back home I came frustrated yet again.

My landlord was kind and offered to drive me out to get the phone charger because he needed to also go to Walmart so I decided that while he got ready I would ride to the local bike shop to pick up a map that might help me out on my next venture. I've gotten lots of maps from many bike stores in quite a few states and NEVER been charged for them. The store wanted to charge me $8, so I said thank you and walked out empty handed. Denied again.

So on the way to Walmart and the phone charger I asked if we could stop at a GNC to pick up my fasting diet stuff for next week. It's on sale so I really wanted to get it now, but of course, to go along with the rest of my day, the store was all out. Damn. This just was not my day.

But as I said earlier, it did end well.  I successfully found my friend with my phone charger!!! My phone died several hours earlier but it's fully charged now :)  Then, it was a successful trip to Walmart for my much needed allergy medicine. And then we stopped at another GNC that was nearby and they had two containers of what I wanted! Yea! So then we came home; I walked the dog, made a light dinner and we watched a funny movie called Daddy Who?

Update on my accident healing: my movement is still limited and I have very little strength yet in my right arm. Getting dressed and undressed is not fun and still the most painful activity of my day. But the surface scar is healing nicely and soon no one will understand why I'm wincing in pain or doing something awkwardly with my left arm. Haven't picked up my violin yet, starting to feel lonely and naked without it. But at least I can ride my bike on the road again! Time, time, time. It's taking so long.

Well, I'm barely getting the post today in before midnight. It's bedtime and tomorrow hopefully the car will get unloaded! 

Food Stamps

I did get much done today. Got to the library, the bank, and completed the application process for food stamps. Also managed to apply to a couple jobs as well as put together a to do list for myself when the landlord is gone of things I'll have to manage. Did not get everything out of my car or get anything in the house organized. Did make dinner and walk the dog. Feeling good about it all.

Tomorrow might be even more venturous. Left my phone charger at my friend's house and of course I'm not willing to go buy a new one and none of the old ones will work so I'm planning on biking for about four hours tomorrow to get that damn cord. At least it will be good exercise! I'd also learn some of the nice bike trails around OC.

progress with no progress

I'm not sure whether today has made progress or none at all. Set out to get a library card. Had already got a computer card and was just going to update it to the full fledged library check out card. Took my rental receipt with me and got turned down. Only a drivers license, utility bill (but not rental receipt??), or postmarked mail (Hello, it's a paperless society. The only mail I get is W2s).  So, I now have to waste 0.44 to send myself my rental receipt. Alas, no classical music, no casual reading books, and no website writing books.

So after I failed at that I decided I would venture out on my bike again (yes, the same one I just crashed on a week a day ago), but on a paved trail this time. Rode 2.5 miles to the metrolink station to get some maps and time schedule because trying to read them online is a mind boggling headache. But, the station had no maps for me so I just rode back.

Now I'm tired and my shoulder hurts a bit although I rode most of the trail with no hands or just one hand. Still, I feel nothing was really accomplished today.

Going to have a nice dinner tonight though so that's a plus and I'm watching the Steelers and Broncos game and relaxing now. All will be good. It always is.