So I may have jumped the gun when I counted Little Blue out last week

For a number of reasons I'm too exhausted to go into, I did not go car shopping with The Brother today and Little Blue Corolla has in fact been towed and repaired and gifted with a new alternator and battery recharge.  It will have to hold on for at least a couple more months.

Oh who am I kidding - this car will probably outlive me.  One of the things I've learned about Corollas over the years as an owner: Mechanics love these cars.  They love them.  In fact, when I went to pick the car up and gave my mechanic my tale of woe, he told me to let him know when I was ready to sell it.  He even Blue Booked it for me on the spot.  And the guy from Auto Club who towed it told me his wife had owned a Corolla and they sold it to their mechanic.  2010 Corollas at Carmax are priced in the $13k range, the same price my Dad and I paid for mine in 1994 (it's a '93 and had spent the first year of its life as a rental).  They are truly the best cars for the money.

After a lot of recent nonstop piling on, I've actually had some things work out the past couple of days (in addition to bringing Little Blue back from the dead) and may actually get my late uncle's Orange County apartment cleaned out by the drop dead date.  Then I can concentrate on paperwork for both his and my Dad's estates and maybe someday, even get back to my own life.  I've been needing and wanting to get a new car and new apartment for years now, and it's actually looking like I might be able to do so one of these months or years.

It was a beautiful day in the Southland today and after hitting the post office to pick up a package and mail a couple of estate and family drama related items, I just couldn't bring myself to go home.  I ran Little Blue to the car wash, then headed over to The Grove, where per their automated parking machine I spent 2 hours and 8 minutes blissfully wandering through Barnes & Noble, Farmer's Market, Anthropologie and Cost Plus.  I didn't buy much, but it was just so wonderful to be out and about on such a beautiful day.  Yesterday, after picking up my newly repaired car, I made much-needed runs to Target and Costco, and Little Blue has fired up every time since the latest repair.

Blue skies and my Little Blue Corolla, shining on me...