Several months ago, my son began gathering pieces to put together his own computer. We ordered one piece each paycheck and then had to wait until all the pieces to arrive to begin to assemble it. He and my husband spent about a week doing just that. Only it just wouldn’t turn on. So we called my brother who knows more about this sort of thing. He and my son tried to troubleshoot via Skype but were unsuccessful.
One morning, we stopped by this guy who knows more about electronics and he said he’d take a look at it. So we fired up the truck and brought the pieces to him. Only my son had left the manuals and the computer fan behind. Leaving him to start work on the computer, we headed back for those.
On the way there, the truck suddenly stopped. Since we had just put some gas in, we knew it wasn’t that. I spent the next 15 minutes pushing the truck up and down the road to see if it would start. It didn’t. Azul the vet happened by. After another 15 minute round of pushing, he took my husband home for the motorcycle. Then we took the pieces back to the repair shop to see how things were going.
There were still some problems with the computer. We decided to try and fix the truck while they continued working on it. My husband stopped at a mechanic and described the problem who diagnosed it as the pastilla and gave my husband an old one to go and buy the piece. So to the auto parts store we went. The piece was $230, but I only had $215 in my pocket. The register lady said that was fine.
Back to the truck we went. It was now high noon and hot as the blazes. My husband climbed under the hood and went to work. It took about 45 minutes to get the piece changed. Meanwhile, the guy who helped move my piano upstairs happened by. Once the piece was changed, he took over my role of pushing up and down the road until the truck started. Then he followed my husband home to to leave the motorcycle and brought him back to the truck.
Back to the computer repair shop we went. The repair guy said he did everything he knew how to do and took us to someone who knew more about computers. Immediately upon opening the case, the repair guy #2 found the problem. Of course, the most expensive piece was damaged. It could have been damaged via shipping. It could also have been damaged when my husband and son were trying to assemble it. It might even have been damaged when my son and the repair guy were working on it.
Repair guy # 2 said that he would work on it a bit and to come back in an hour. We came home and my husband fiddled with the truck some more. The timing was still off and it was bucking quite a bit. He got it more or less right and we headed back.
Repair guy # 2 had bad news for us. While he was able to repair the damaged part, there was additional damage that he hadn’t seen right away and it couldn’t be fixed. We would need to order a new piece.
My to my son’s disappointment, I didn’t have enough money to do so and told him he would have to wait for the next paycheck. We asked how much we owed repair guy number 2 for his time. He said we didn’t owe him anything.
Then we went back to repair guy #1 to pick up the computer monitor. We showed him the damaged piece and asked how much we owed him for his time. He and my son had spent about 4 hours working on it. He also didn’t charge us. Home again we went.
My brother saved the day. He sent me enough money to order the replacement part and it arrived in about a week. My husband and son decided that they would get repair guy #2 to assemble the computer components this time. So they did. He charged $200 pesos and it was ready in about 2 hours. My son was ecstatic!
I also had some repairs that needed to be done. My treadle sewing machine was giving me problems. The thread kept getting tangled in the bobbin. My husband spent several hours trying to fix it. We even bought a new bobbin in the hopes that was the problem. Nope. We went to a repair shop in town. They said that a repairman could come to the house the following day and take a look at it. He neither appeared nor called. I was a little short on cash with the unexpected repairs to the truck and computer, so I had to wait until the next paycheck.
This time we took the sewing machine to another repair shop. He said that he’d look at it and to stop back the next day. We did but he hadn’t had time to fiddle with it. So he said to come back the following day. So we did. And he still hadn’t had a chance to work on it. He said he’d do that right that moment and to come back in a few hours. This time he’d fixed it.
So we took the machine back to the base and tried it out. The first few stitches were perfect than wham–it jammed up. After about 15 minutes, my husband was able to get it working again, but it seems like this will be a reoccurring problem. Sigh.
Then the puzzle I had been working on got wet in the last sudden rain shower we had. The colorful top pieces came off about 50 pieces. I bought some glue and my husband started in on repairs. It took him several days to fix that.
The last repair was to my favorite picture frame. While we were installing the solar system, it fell off the cabinet. Fortunately, the Vidrieria (glass store) will cut glass to size. So when we went for the glass to cover my now repaired puzzle, we also got a replacement glass for the frame.
With the repairs done, it was time to work on getting the upstairs plumbing fully functional.
Surviving Mexico 