Settled In

Ever feel like the moon is getting mixed up and pulling you back and forth instead of the tides? Yeah, me too. This has been quite the past few weeks of settling into San Diego. First, let me say that we love it here. So far, the weather here has made me wonder whether Kiersten and I are mistakenly in Camelot (which Kiersten and I happened to watch this past week). The weather has been amazing! Never going above 80 and never going below 60. And every single every day sunny!

In the midst of this heavenly beauty, though, our car decided to have trouble, ending in a mechanic quote of at least $1500 to fix it (the timing chain). That was a slap in the face. For the first few days, Kiersten and I spent every waking minute looking for a possible replacement. However, with the budget we had (not a lot) and the condition of the cars that we were seeing, we were not happy. You know it's not good when you get out of the car you just test drove, step back into your own car that needs a $1500 repair job, and feel like you have stepped into heaven.

So, what did we do? Having seeing the options, Kiersten and I decided it might just be worth it to invest in repairing the car, especially since we had little hope that the replacement options would last any longer than our current car. The sun rose early Labor Day morning, and we were grabbing the keys to head over to a mechanic recommended by a new friend in our ward, when a quick phone call told us that the mechanic was closed on Labor Day.

That was music to my ears. Kiersten doesn't get many days off of her internship (her Christmas break doesn't start until December 27), and the thought of spending her day off at a car shop was not a happy thought. So, we packed ourselves some sandwiches, spotted a section of the beach we'd been wanting to visit, and biked nine miles (we didn't dare drive the car) to the beach. I must admit, I am in love with San Diego beaches, and our recent find of Bird Rock has made my beach visits paradise. If anyone loves tide pools and shell searching, then this is the place to be. On our way back home, we stopped by the Mormon Battalion Visitor Center (I was in desperate need of a break before the big hill). If you come visit us in San Diego, we'll have to take a swing by there for a wonderful experience. The day was then topped off with hot dogs grilled on a George Foreman, watermelon and chips and dip. A much better day than expected!

Tuesday, however, was not to be spent at the beach. Slowly I drove to the mechanic shop some fifteen minutes away. The mechanic was just as friendly as my friend had said, and he estimated the repairs at only $980, but somehow I didn't feel any less at ease. The repairs were expected to last all day, so I walked to the bus stop for what ended up being a two hour ride home. And there I waited for news on the car. You can imagine my excitement, then, when Joe (the mechanic) called and said there was good news. The timing chain was fine, and all that was causing the problem was a bad guide. Suddenly the $980 estimate became $360. And to think that we almost replaced the car!

Sadly, the car then decided to fail the smog check (good ol' California), so Wednesday morning I was back at the shop handing the keys off to Joe. This time, instead of riding the bus all the way home, I decided to only go halfway home and spent the morning and afternoon at Bird Rock scavenging for shells. The only replacement needed on the car was a vacuum tube, the car passed the smog check, and I could hardly conceal my smile as I said bye to Joe hoping that I would never see him again.

And now, life is back to normal. We have a car, it works, and maybe now we can finally go and get that trash can for the kitchen. Life is good. Very good. And did I mention that San Diego is heaven?

In short, there's simply not
A more congenial spot
For happily-ever-aftering than here
In San Diego-lot.