She's Baaaaaack!

A few weeks ago the engine on our car died. We had taken it to the mechanic to replace the starter a few weeks before that, and when we asked him about the rattle the car was making, he told us it was the "Death Rattle", meaning that something in the engine was loose and would eventually kill it (aka throw a rod or piston or something). There's really nothing you can do except get a new engine, so we decided just to wait until it died. We were nervous and tried not to drive the car any great distances, but Cody had to drive to The San Gabriel Valley for school stuff. While he was there, he met up with our friend Eric's step-dad to get Eric's car, a '95 Talon, that we were to baby-sit while they live in Texas. Well, the day after Cody got the Talon, the engine died in my Honda...thank goodness for loving and generous friends, because Cody was able to get home in the Talon and use that to get to school and back. We debated for a few weeks on what to do with the Honda...give up on it? Get a new (used) engine? We just didn't know what would be cheapest and best for us. I told my mom what had happened, and she talked to a guy at her work who knew how to get a used engine for CHEAP and could install it for us...he had just done the same thing for his car, also a Honda. I guess in Japan it's the law to replace your engine after 30,000 miles, so there is a warehouse in North Hollywood full of engines from Japan with only 30,000 miles on them! So we hired Andrew to fix our car. He did it within a week (during his spare time, as he works full time), gave us a very reasonable price, and we just got it back Sunday...he even delivered it to us because we were with the kids. What a great guy!
I am so happy to have my car back! She's old, but she's gotten me through the last 6 years, and is a pretty dependable ride. There's quite a few things wrong with her (minor things, like the windshield wipers are touchy), but that's just because she's 13 years old! Now with an engine that only has 32,000 miles on it, she is good to go for a few more years...I hope!
I'm so thankful to have friends, family and their connections when we get in little binds like these. Thank you to Eric for letting us take care of the Talon and use it, thank you to my dad & Jill for them letting me borrow their Ford to get around whenever I needed it (which was a lot!), thank you to my mom for her great connections to mechanics at her work, and thanks to Andrew for saving our car! I just don't know how I'd get through life without such kind and generous people!