Souvenir Photo Studio, by Al Bourassa: Monday December 21, 2020 KIA

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Monday December 21, 2020

I made it to the KIA dealership in time for my 7:30am warranty check appointment for Lizzie after rushing through my chores. The whole point was that, because I had to wait for it (no sense risking buses or taxis back and forth), they were to rush through my service for me by being first in line. Well, even a rush job in Colombia is 3 hours, even with the intervention of the GM.... The manager is Luis who worked in Montreal for 12 years and speaks some French even though both our French languages are mixed up with our Spanish now.

This dealership also sells JAC trucks but I was shocked to see them bringing in several Hondas to display, like a loaded Accord for 159,000,000 pesos or over $46,000 USD. Surprisingly, all the Honda products had Automatic transmissions, definitely oddities in this country..

I owned an Accord back in the 80's, I think it was a 1977, that I had bought at an auction for $250. It sounded good but the CV joints were clacking on turns when I exited after paying for it. Drat. The dealer said to replace with cheap screw-on CV boots and re-pack the CV grease heavily, so I did that. Later, I discovered that it had one bad cylinder that would shoot oil into one valve causing it to smoke blue every couple of months... A spare spark plug solved that problem. I drove it for 3 years and sold it for $300, definitely my best bargain ever.

So, to kill time I looked at the Hondas and their used cars. I came across a 2014 Kia Cerato Pro Sport outside, ugly grey, but in good shape, loaded, automatic with cruise, no sunroof, with 89,000 kms. I had no idea if it had been reconditioned or not,.. likely not, because the tires were thin. Anyway I enquired about a trade for my car (2019 with 22,500 kms). Typical dealers still wanted me to pay 9,000,000 pesos difference (about $2,650 USD)! Of course that wasn't going to happen.......... It was worth exploring to get a bigger car, automatic, cruise, and be able to maybe get some cash back and cancel most of the insurance......... but, the status quo remains.

I came back home and we rushed Zorra to the vet for another injection. Strangely Cristina doesn't want to do the injections and asked if I wanted to do them... They have been injecting easily into Zorra's thigh and she doesn't even react, but I am not sure how I would react if she showed discomfort or moved against the needle. I am usually the one holding her and consoling her while the shot is given. If they OK'd the shot into the piched upper back, I would be OK with that.

Then we bought some fruit and brought some over to Victor Hugo because he is apparently on a diet.

We are having a gas supply problem to our stove of late, then we got or bill with a 50% increase.... Something is wrong so we are attempting to get the gas company to investigate. I think their website says we probably have a wait of up to 15 days... No evidence of a gas leak, or smell.

I got the following note from my cousin Harvey Bourassa in Saskatoon:

"Our cousin Hector Jalbert from Calgary is in a care home several months ago in Calgary. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. He was also tested for COVID-19 recently and was tested positive."

This is sad news as Hector and I go back to 1971 when I was cruising the Glenbrook neighbourhood for a place to rent and I saw this curly-haired guy in a yard and immediately knew him to be a Jalbert relative. I moved into a complex next to his home for 6 years and even worked with him one summer. He has had it tough, losing his wife Maxine, and 2 of his 3 boys.

I hope you enjoy the pictures, all taken with the Lumix today. That was the day’s excitement.

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