10,503 steps
We had a "what can we eat for lunch?" moment. I proposed that someone buy corn tortillas so we could make quesadillas, since we had just about everything else on hand (queso fresco, sharp cheddar, sour cream, black beans, 3 kinds of salsa, hot sauce, etc.). Zari volunteered me to go and Ivy was happy to come along.
We lost our neighborhood Mexican grocery store a few years ago, but in the past two years we've gained 2 new ones, both within easy walking distance. I can't tell you how thrilled we were when we found this out! All other grocery stores are on the outskirts of town and only accessible via car.
We bought corn tortillas, limes, cilantro, pumpkin seeds, and baking powder (I was out). When we were checking out, I was chatting with Ivy in French about how it's so weird to go into stores and not speak French or say "bonjour" and "merci."
The woman at the counter said, "Vous parlez français?" in Spanish-accented French. We had a nice conversation en français. She recently moved to our little town from Cancun, where, like us, she had lived very close to the beach.
Who would have thought?
Oh, and you've got to hear about my visit to the mechanic. My normal mechanic is away for 2 weeks, and I wanted someone to give our car a check-over. Despite not being driven for 20+ months, our car has been running great. I've already had the oil changed, tire pressures checked, etc. But we have noticed a kind of low-pitched rattling sound that seemed "off." So I phoned up a new mechanic (good reviews on Google) and made an appointment for this morning.
Bonus: his shop was only about 6 blocks away from our house. The outside was completely unremarkable, old and ugly and out of the way. The inside had been remodeled when he bought the shop this past year, and the decor was...well...unsurprising but also kind of entertaining in a "I'm not in Kansas anymore" way.
Close your eyes and imagine a black & gray speckled Epoxy floor...grayish barn wood on the walls (okay, it was fake and probably made of vinyl)...black curtains...a "Man Cave" sign that said something about "doing manly things"...corrugated steel decorating the sides of the counter...lots of vintage oil & gas paraphernalia...and to top it off, a MAGA hat adorning a bottle of engine oil. The owner and his employees were all ginger-haired men, most of whom were also bearded and tattoed.
I might be persuaded to use this new mechanic as a) he's close enough that we can walk home after dropping the car off and b) his prices seem very reasonable. $25 for a checkup and his quotes were competitive.
There's nothing to prevent us from our road trip, but we do need to replace the brake pads and the front struts, which are leaking. Not bad, considering the car is 12 years old and we haven't needed to do anything in the 9 years we've owned it except change the oil and replace the tires. It helps that the car still has very low miles.
My goal is to keep it going for another 10+ years...as long as possible, basically. I suppose we won't need a 6-passenger car 10 years down the road. I miss our VW Golf diesel TDI that got 45 mpg and that we converted to run on used vegetable oil. That was the best car ever.
We're mostly all packed and ready to head out. Eric bought lots of food to eat in the car and on the first day before everyone arrives. We've all tested negative, even Dio, so I think we're cleared for human interaction. We've got neighbors and our former tenant keeping an eye on the house.
My doctor brother (who treats Covid patients so has some insight on this) says we could have caught some other respiratory illness and Dio may just have had an unrelated asymptomatic Covid infection that got picked up on his antigen test. Or I suppose he could have been a rare case of a false positive. It's not impossible, although relatively unlikely.
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