Sylvie's New Best Friend

Almost exactly six months after I brought home my gorgeous little Mazda 3, I was backing out one Monday morning and...crash. GAH! I hit the passenger side mirror on the wall of the garage. I got out to survey the damage and found that I'd cracked the casing pretty good, and drove to work feeling like a moron.

Later that day, I would arrive home to have Mom tearfully tell me, "I have to have Duckie put down."

In other words, it was kind of a shitty day. Add to these things a lingering, frustrating back pain, and that night found me tearfully texting my frustration to the ever-patient Matt. "I can't even squat. And Mom's cat died. And I hurt my car."

So his natural response was, "I'll help you stretch tomorrow. I'm sorry for your Mom. What happened to the car?"

Before he was a trainer, Matt was a mechanic. He is a self-professed "car guy." He was almost as excited for me when I bought Sylvie as I was, and that's saying something.

I sent him a picture, and then he texted the magic words back:

"I can probably fix that."

It's only taken us three weeks or so, but today, he made good on his word.

First, I had to make time to get to the dealership to get an estimate and the part numbers. I walked out of there with a promise of, "We can order the parts and get you out of here for only $421!"

"Oh, I can save you some money," was Matt's reply.

So he got to work, calling in the help of a friend of his who frequents auto junk yards, and looking for a passenger side mirror for a 2016 Mazda 3. He found one with a white casing (Sylvie is...well, she's silver, naturally). Fortunately, the silver casing part of my mirror was intact, and riding in the back seat. Matt took that and spent some time last weekend fitting it to the mirror he'd acquired. On Monday, he proudly showed it off to me, and we agreed to set up a time later in the week for him to dismantle my passenger side door and install the mirror.

Today was the day, and I held my breath at the crunching/ripping noises coming from the door as he pried the panel off, but I was also oddly fascinated. I've never actually seen the inside of a car door, and it's got all kinds of wires and such for the power window, the lock, and, of course, my mirror, which can be adjusted from the driver's side.

Poor Sylvie, she spent three weeks with this eyesore.

Matt: "Yeah, that's the hard part for most people, watching
the panel come off."
Me: "I trust you...I trust you...I...trust...you..."

Some of Sylvie's Innards (that's the old mirror still on, you
might be able to just make out the massive crack on the
top of the black plastic). 

Funny how small the hole is for something as large as a
mirror.

Getting the panel back on proved to be the most difficult
part. "This is usually the EASY part," according to Matt.

New mirror, panel replaced, just need to put the door handle
back correctly.

Hooray!! Good as new.

All told, I ended up spending $100 on parts, and nothing on labor. My offer to pay him for his time was met with a small scoffing sound, and, "That won't be necessary."

"Then I will bring you lunch."

"Lunch would be appreciated!"

So I paid him in tacos (homemade, of course) on Wednesday, because, as I told him, "You fix my car, I fix you tacos."

And Sylvie, of course, is just happy to be back to her stylin' self.

"Zoom-Zoom, baby. Zoom. And. Zoom."
Girl's got sass.