Stranded

Watercolor painting of a landscape scene with mountains in the distance and a marshy area with a stream in the foreground at sunset.

It’s Monday, and I’m waiting for a call from the Mazda dealership to let me know the car repairs are done, and we can go pick up my car. Will this actually happen? It should, but we are doubtful. We dropped the car off last Wednesday, and it was supposed to be done the following afternoon except on Thursday after planning our day around having to head over to pick up the car in the afternoon we got a call a little after four to let us know they needed another day.

Friday was almost an exact repeat of Thursday except when we got that 4 p.m. call we were told they wouldn’t be able to get the repairs done until Monday. The dealership did offer us a loaner car for the weekend, but that would mean having Ron’s dad drive us over to pick it up, and it’s about an hour round trip. So, we decided we could live without the convenience of a car for one weekend. (Technically there are multiple vehicles at this house, but mine is the only one that’s actually able to be driven on the road in any sort of practical way.)

In case you were wondering, this repair is not anything remotely complex, and it’s for something that so far hasn’t affected the driveability of the car in any way. One of the four wheel speed sensors has gone bad and needs to be replaced. (Look, I’m old enough to have owned and driven numerous cars that never had a single wheel speed sensor, and have lived to tell the tale.) Apparently wheel speed sensors for a 2014 Mazda CX-5 are a rare and precious item, or maybe someone at the dealership forgot to order the part on time. Who knows? Not us, that’s for sure.

Being stranded in 2026 is not quite the same as being stranded twenty or so years ago. Also, I should point out that we do live next door to Ron’s parents who have a working car, and if needed his dad could drive us anywhere we needed to go. But we don’t need to go anywhere. Target gave us a free one year membership to Shipt, which they use for their same day deliveries. Normally when we run out of a grocery item we can make a quick run to the little market down the road that’s just over a mile away. Theoretically it’s within walking distance, but the roads to get there aren’t especially pedestrian-friendly. This weekend when we noticed we were out of a couple of grocery staples, we made use of that free Shipt membership to get some items delivered. Then there was a delivery from our pals at Home Depot for the ongoing project here.

Ron put off working on the project on Thursday and Friday because we were expecting the call that the car repairs would be done, so he decided to make up for that lost time over the weekend. I spent our stranded weekend writing a short story and doing some watercolor painting. We’re hoping that they’re finally done with the minor repairs today, but even if they aren’t it’s no big deal if we’re stranded here another day.

—Alissa