Happy Hump Day everyone! Hope your week is off to a lovely start. We’ve been getting the most delightful weather the last few days (low 70s), which has put me in an especially good mood. Last Thursday to Sunday, however, I was the opposite of that, because what I thought would be a one day water outage, turned into four straight days of not having water from 9-6 PM. And while we’ve dealt with plenty of power outages in the past, this was my first experience with no water for an extended period of time. Because of that, I’d never stopped to think about all the ways I use water in a day, but this definitely had me taking note because we couldn’t do laundry, clean the floors, cook messy food, wash vegetables, wash dishes, run the dishwasher, water the lawn, wash our hands, flush the toilet or take a shower or bath. It was a huge inconvenience and I’m told it will happen on and off throughout the spring and early summer due to shoddy pipes that need replacing after winter. Oh goody. At least now I know to fill the bath tubs in advance so we can have some water to dump down the toilet…
In happier news, I finally took the plunge and drove here! Almaty has terrible traffic. Not quite as bad as Mumbai, but at peak times it can take an hour to go a few miles. Turns are the worst. For some reason they didn’t build turn arrows into their stoplights, so only a few cars get through each time when the light goes from yellow to red. There are also traffic cameras everywhere that automatically send you a ticket if you go 8 km over the speed limit (which is usually between 40 and 80 km per hour). I think even the most diligent driver will end up with tickets here. Thankfully, they’re not expensive. But still!
On the plus side, most drivers follow standard road rules which are similar to those in the United States. They also drive on the same side of the road that I’m used to, which makes things so much easier. However, despite our car arriving in November, I was nervous to drive because we only have a 2WD car and they don’t de-ice roads well here. But even more terrifying is how aggressive the drivers are. No one lets you in and if you don’t move the minute the light changes, you’re honked at. This probably sums it up best: my friend’s #1 driving tip was to NOT put on your turn signal before you change lanes because when people see you do that, they immediately speed up so you can’t get in. Instead, she told me that you need to start the lane change and then put your signal on halfway through. Crazy, huh?
Speaking of cars, our little Rondo is getting old. She’s a 2009 and despite her low mileage, she’s starting to have issues. This week, when Nia tried rolling up her back window, we heard a loud ‘twang’ and then discovered it was stuck in an open position.
Nick’s been extra stressed with work lately, so I said I’d take care of getting this fixed, even though that seemed like a daunting task. I got a recommendation of a body shop from a friend and showed up there late Saturday afternoon. She’d told me to ask for a certain guy, but when I found said guy, he said they didn’t fix electric stuff, but his friend did. Given my limited options, I handed my phone over, and asked him to put the address in the map app. All this in broken Russian and pantomiming, mind you. I am a world class pantomimer now, by the way. :)
Address in hand, I continued my wild goose chase, hoping this would be the last stop of the day. When I pulled up to the address though, I didn’t see anything that resembled a body shop, only a car wash. I was not giving up so easily though, so I went exploring and wandered into what looked like an empty garage stall. When I went in farther and turned the corner, I found one guy and auto tools. Woohoo! A sign sure would have helped, but whatever, I found it. We did the song and dance again of me attempting to explain the problem, at which point he said he could fix it. Huge win for me! I was ecstatic!
The bizarre part came when I asked him when I should return for the car and he said, “Sit down. I will fix it right now.” There were no seats in the shop though, so by sit down, I figured he meant in the car that he was about to work on. I decided two things at that point: 1.) That I should text my husband my address in case this went south (it was just me and him in a tucked away garage, after all) and 2.) that if he was going to have me sit in the car, then I was most definitely going to watch because who gets to see a car taken apart?!
He wasted no time jumping in, starting with unscrewing the inner frame of the door. It was fascinating to see what was behind. Check it out!
Just so you have a visual, at this point, I have my driver’s seat reclined all the way back and I’m awkwardly twisting to the side to get the best pictures for you all because I knew you’d want to see this too! He didn’t seem to mind, so I just kept taking photos. :)
Next he dislodged the window from its down position and brought it all the way to the top and taped it there. He then took off the inner panel, but needed to disentangle the wires from it first.
Here’s what was behind that layer!
Then he took the panel he’d just removed over to his workbench and turned it over. On the back was a white sliding mechanism (the part that holds the window) with a wire that retracts via motor. The ‘twang’ we heard was the wire disconnecting from the sliding mechanism. The motor still worked, it just didn’t make anything move anymore. So next he cut new wire and wound it up and connected it to the slider. He then reinstalled all the panels, reconnected all the wires and had me try the automatic window button.
It worked! And all that in only 45 minutes of work! Things were going so well that I was almost afraid to ask for the price, but my guy came through for me with a $45 price tag. Awesome. I love it when things work out. Sure, this was weird, but surprisingly efficient. That is rare to find. So there you have it. My latest fun Kazakh experience…
