Un problema automóvil

Except for a little sprinkle, it has not rained since the Brunt family arrived. The last 2 evenings, it has clouded over and there was even distant thunder and/or lightning; however, nada rain. Tarra has expressed a wish to experience a good thunderstorm. The forecasts keep promising a thunderstorm, but not so far. They have another week before they return to Halifax.

Yesterday, I went out to start the car and nothing happened when I turned the key. At first there was enough power to lower windows, but an hour later, the battery was completely dead. I had seen an ad talking about Subaru, so I tried to call the number; no answer. I then decided to walk to the address given. I walked all the way to the other end of Riberas de Pilar (about 5 kms) in the hot afternoon. I could not find any sign of the either the establishment or the address. By the time I got back (I took the bus for part of the way), it was too late in the day. Today, I called what looked like a relevant auto shop speciallizing in electronic aspects and is very close in San Antonio. He came right over. Giving our car a boost, it started right up; however, he took it to his shop to diagnose what was wrong. It turns out that the voltage regulator was bad and it ruined the battery. That happened to me with another car. Anyway, we have the car back, but I’m not sure that Subaru will honour the warranty when we are in Mexico. Not having the car, we had to revise plans for the day and did not get far from the house. Jeff and Tarra have booked a room in a local B&B called, Casa Eucalytus, for 2 nights next week. It is only a few blocks away from our house, but it will give them some time by themselves. We are going to try to look after Aiden. They are really looking forward to that.

The pronunciation of automóvil is almost exactly the same as in English. My Spanish/English dictionary gives 3 other terms for automobile, 2 of them being cognates of English words as well--un auto, un carro and un choche. Learning Spanish is fun.