We applied for the Amazing Race about this time. I got in an auto accident trying to deliver the application video on time. But that wasn't the end of the bad news...

My current car (the Prizm hatchback) needed new front tires, to the tune of $100. They found a broken CV joint, for $200. They also discovered that the rack was leaking, and needed to be replaced. That would have been $1000. One of the tie rod ends was worn, but I couldn't afford to replace that, either. I needed a replacement car.

The motor adapter, which we had ordered at the beginning of December 2004, still had not arrived. They had originally estimated 4 weeks. It had now been 2 months. On March 4, 2004, I sent an email asking what had happened and found that a bout of the flu had halted production; they expected to have my adapter ready in a week. Nathan thought he could finish up the car pretty quickly after that, so we'd have it be Thanksgiving, or maybe Christmas.

Meanwhile...

At work, they moved me to the project I had been competing against. Everyone expected me to be all happy. :-O

My kids got sick, and spiked fevers of 103 degrees.

My wife's web store was floundering.

At least I found information on Honda Civic Wagon suspension components in the friendly Honda Civic Wagon.com forum.

Nathan and I spent the week figuring out what to do with the suspension. Then we spent another week. Just when I was starting to get concerned -- March 24, 2004 -- ElectroAutomotive explained that my adapter had "reached the top of the work queue" and was "in progress". But they had experienced problems with Hondas before, so they wanted a paper tracing of my transmission housing.

Tranny Tracing

Nathan was upset. Why couldn't they have asked earlier, when we were waiting? He sent the paper tracing anyway. And it was a good thing, too; their patterns didn't match my transmission. They needed the tranny and flywheel to design a new adapter plate.

Nathan was incredulous. Couldn't they use the ID numbers we'd sent? No, it turned out, they couldn't. Nor was anyone on the EV list close enough to pull a junk tranny for me and hand it to them. We drained the fluid we had just put in and shipped the tranny UPS for $105. At least they offerred to pay the return shipping.

It arrived at ElectroAutomotive on April 15. The kids were feeling better. Maybe things would improve from here.