Ladies, Start Your Engines

Well, today was another interesting day with unexpected activity. I was rushing to do errands, make my 10:30 chiropractor appointment, then drive to Multiplaza (Mall) to have lunch with a new friend. I drove downtown Santa Ana, parked my car, went back to it and it would not start. Deader than dead. With no warning.

Fortunately, I was diagonally across the street from a gas station with a mechanic, so I got three of the guys to come over and figure out the problem. They tested the battery, the fuses, then figured out that the problem was with the starter. One of them hit the starter with a screwdriver and then the car started.

The only English-speaking mechanic told me to go to the central car parts place to buy a new starter. So I went to Don Esteban and asked for a starter. They needed to know the Spanish word. I didn't know the Spanish word. After much discussion by everyone in the parts shop, the guy waiting on me called someone to get the phone number of the bilingual gas station guy, Ernesto, who helped me, to find out what I needed. Turned out I needed un arrancador (starter in Spanish - remember this word; there will be a quiz). The guy looked up the arrancador for my car, but he didn't have one in stock. Meanwhile, a mechanic named ChiChi who was at the parts store told me he could fix my arrancador today for $35-44. I waited to hear what a new arrancador would cost if he could get one: $300. !Ay caramba!

So I followed ChiChi around the corner to his shop. There was an English-speaking customer just leaving who vouched for ChiChi's work, so I left my car there. "Come back in three hours," he said. Okay, that would make it 2:30. The shop was around another corner from my chiropractor's office, so I walked over there, and Dr. Jim took me right away (I've had a headache for two days and I needed an adjustment). By then it was 11:35 and I was supposed to be at the mall to meet my friend who has no cell phone five minutes ago. I knew I couldn't make it to the mall in good time if I waited for the bus, so Dr. Jim called his favorite taxi driver and I ended up paying $4 to get to the mall. There has been construction going on for the last several months to widen the highway, and some offramps have been closed, including the one to the mall, so Weymar had to drive all the way around the mall to get me to the front door.

I found my friend and we were just washing our hands before we sat down to have lunch, when my friend, Maria, walked in with a friend of hers. I told Maria about my car, and she offered to drive me back to Santa Ana after my friend and I had lunch, which was a godsend because I didn't know where the bus stop was anymore since the offramp was closed.

So my friend and I had lunch, then Maria and I did a little shopping. I finally bought a rice cooker, which is supposed to cook perfect rice every time (unlike my soggy or stuck-to-the-pan rice). Then Maria and I headed to Santa Ana, where she dropped me off at the mechanic's place.

Of course, the car was not ready. "Ahorita," ChiChi said, which can mean in just a minute or in just a few hours; in other words, tico time. Then he said 20 minutes. Of course, being a gringa, I thought he actually meant 20 minutes. I walked around Santa Ana, did a little window shopping, stopped at the post office, then arrived back at the shop in 30 minutes. Nope, not ready yet.

Summer has finally arrived, which I didn't even realize because inside my apartment it is cool; so cool, in fact, that I still wear socks and long pajamas to bed at night. Walking around the hot and dusty town made me thirsty. So I walked down the street to a new German restaurant and had a cold soda. This time when I got back, the car was ready. It started up right away. And the price: only $31.

Can you say "starter" in Spanish?