Friday, January 30, 2015

Car repairs

I guess the powers that be got tired of hearing me whine about our transportation problems because we now have both cars sitting in our parking area, raring to go.  After a couple of false starts, the Trooper clutch seems to be cooperating.  Smooth!  After thinking he had a new valve body for the Tundra pickup, Chindo found another used one somewhere, and fixed it just for the price of the parts.  Sure can't complain about that.  We'd already dropped a chunk of change with him for the initial work on the transmission, so this sure made us happy.  After over a month of dinking around with not being able to trust the truck, it's great to have it back. 


I have to say that living here can be a challenge to our patience, but the other side of that coin is that we've also met lots of really nice people. 

Monday, January 26, 2015

I'm back with a new (to me) computer)

I've been so frustrated since my previous computer died.  This makes three in five years.  The humidity is a killer.  I was so fortunate that my dear friend, Diane, had an old Dell laptop that she wasn't using.  I had to have some work done on it, but was able to limp along.  I just checked an realize that I already regaled everyone with my computer issues.  Anyway, I'm now in possession of my slightly used Acer, which was carried down by another dear friend.  When you buy on eBay, from a pawn shop, I was worried I'd be disappointed.  I'm so excited that it's even better than I hoped.  The price was great and it's in terrific shape.  I just wish my signal was as good, but when you live on the fringes, you take what you can get. 


We're still struggling with car problems.  After spending a bunch on the Tundra transmission, it's worse than ever.  There's only one shop in Cayo that works on transmissions, and he's frustrated about getting the parts.  He now thinks it needs a "valve body".  He located a used one in Crooked Tree, which is north of Belize City and had it bro't down.  Wouldn't you know, it was for the smaller Tundra.  Pooh!  Now our truck is up on a hoist and it may never come down.  I was almost in tears when the clutch gave up at the same time on our old Trooper.  It now has a new main cylinder, but, it just locked up on me again.  Can you hear me screaming up there in the States?  I managed to get it back to the shop where they bled the brakes (???) put in more fluid and it's working for now.  I just had to attach a hanging bit on the bumper with a zip tie, but I'm not complaining about it's looks or dependability.  With 300k really hard miles on it, you have to love the poor old thing.  We're all getting old and worn, but we just keep trudging along. 


Bailey update.  For those who know and love our dear old dog, I want to let you know that he's made a huge improvement.  I was preparing myself to have to say goodbye to him, but he's responded even better than we expected to the treatments.  He's actually more like he was when he was a lot younger.  He's ragging on the pups, chasing his tail (what's left of it) and being much more active.  He's still losing dead hair, but I can tell it's because the new hair is coming in.  A month on an antibiotic, vitamin C and a daily dose of Cod Liver Oil seems to be the answer to his immune system failure.  Whatever, we're so thankful.  It's going to take a few months for him to have his beautiful coat back, but he's beautiful to us.  Blessings