Tubería para Gas y Cables Eléctricos

Domingo 10 – Sábado 16 Febrero 2013.  (Dom 10^th) Between yesterday and today, we watched 11 hours of the show, 'Fringe'. We missed the first two hours on saturday, of what proved to a maraton of the entire last season of this intriguing show we had watched religiously NoB. What a show! This was fourth and final year of the series, and at the end all those questions about alternate universes and time line changes were finally answered. We did our periodic moistening of the roof slab, so as to slow the cure a bit. Other than watering plants, both in and out of pots, we did very little. Good to have a day like this.

(Lun 11^th)  Crew of only two today, and they had to leave at 3:30pm, so they had an eight instead of ten hour day. Really hot in sun today. The final dozen planks for the mirador deck were delivered, which gave our guys a ride from Cosco, where they all came from. Luis had worked about 2.5 hours over the weekend giving them their first rasping. This day was spent ripping, sanding, and cutting them to length, then applying a coat of festermicide, a termite and rot preventative, and a coat of tinted Thompson's Water-Seal. They did the job of watering the roof, and Dan talked to Luis about some additional electric conduit runs, including one forgotten in the slab. We took the guys to the bus drop spot. Then stopped by the CASF water office for Dan to let the engineer know that we would be ready to use our new toilet in a couple of weeks, so would they please tell us where to connect. Went to the public market to buy a bag of oranges, and pulled some pesos from the Banamex atm. Next was a stop at the grocery store for some ice cream, vanilla the choice today. With this flavor, Carmen finds it necessary to make hot fudge sauce, and Dan likes to put a locally made coffee liquor over his. Perhaps Carmen could cook all the alcohol out of a homemade caramel rum sauce, when using the microwave, so she can enjoy it.

First thing this morn, Luis was inside talking to Dan and Smij came down the stairs far enough to meet Luis. Not to touch – just to say hello' He likes cats.

Dan had to do a bit of redesign on the electrical runs, and marked spots on the walls where the blocks will be carved away for the switch and outlet boxes. He spent time catching up on his favorite web forums and reading the final book in Stieg Larsson's posthumous trilogy. Carmen is struggling with a puzzle that is an image of a tiger, with obviously some pieces missing. The worst kind of puzzle with all the pieces looking the same shape and coloring. Makes for (wo)man hours of fun? Dan washed the car, since we have been lately embarrassed driving by the local friendly backyard auto lavado down the street, and never stopping, tho' we look like we should.

(Mar 12^th) Today our crew of two, chose to work on top of our roof in the burning sun. They put down the final floor boards for the >mirador. We both traversed the ladders to visit them. What a view from up there, with 18,000' Citlaltepetl in the distance!  Later in the day, we got a surprise visit from the city! Two men were walking the streets, looking for building projects that needed permits, and they found us. We had to go to the ayuntamiento (city hall:  foto in this paragraph taken in the park just beside the municpal building), drop off a croquis (sketch ), copies of our escritura (title) and ID papers, and pay about US$24 for the permit, which we can pick up next monday.  Dan created a little sketch and rounded up copies of the other papers, and we got to the building department shortly before they closed at 4pm.  The price of the permit is based on the number of square meters of concrete slab we are adding to the building. Inspectors will come by later this week to check it out. We presume all will be OK, except the sketch omitted the little trapezoid of walkway added to the upper slab, going from the bedroom door onto the terraza.

When we drove the guys to their bus, we did another bank stop, and spent some time in the park in the center of town. We saw a 30 foot white bird of paradise plant. What a beauty, proudly sitting next to city hall.

A White Bird-of-Paradise (Strelitzia nicolai) is a huge plant often planted when it is small and cute. It is a clump-forming tropical plant native to the forested coastal regions of eastern South Africa. The plant's banana-like leaves with winged stems clasp to a trunk that is hidden until exposed as the plant ages and the older leaves fall off. They are dark green, 4 feet long or more, at least 2 feet wide and easily tattered by strong winds. Exotic foot-long flowers appear from between the leaves on long stems. They are borne in mahogany-brown to indigo boat-like bracts and produce many petals that are white to mauve and a dark blue tongue. The fruit which follows the flowers is a three-celled capsule which splits to expose seeds with orange arils.

Afternoon was pretty hot today. Near 90ºF. The evening brought a strong breeze and cooled us down into low 60s. Actually the hot time of the day seems to be only from 11 to 5.

(Mie 13^th) Ash wednesday and there were indeed ashes in the air from sugar cane burning.

At 10am the temp is a perfect 72ºF with a light breeze. Crew of two is working on the mirador again. Finally the man arrived, with a helper, to re-plumb our outside propane lines. He immediately made us a shopping list for his project. Luckily the hardware in town had all we needed, beyond what Dan had anticipated and had already. Also did our bank atm stop for the day. The next couple weeks we will be paying out lots of dinero – dentist, propane plumber, steel worker, Our atm draws are limited to about US$300, which in reality nets us more like $230 with the present peso exchange rate, since asking for 4000 pesos puts us over the top, so the 3000 peso choice is the highest option on the atm screen which is accepted). So this means we have to stay on top with frequent visits there.

(Jue 14^th) Day started misty and 65ºF, a couple of hours later it was raining. The guys were working mostly inside, taking down all the slab formwork. While we waited in line for a half hour at IMSS, the rain outside stopped. We discovered that we had misread our note from last week. We were a week early to pick up the paperwork for the Orizaba appointment which, yes, is next week friday – not tomorrow.

Did our weekly fresh foods shopping at Chedraui today, since we drive past there going to Home Depot, where we bought various little items. Dentist by 11:15am – he wished us well on this day of love and friendship, in the name of San Valentin. Bite impressions were taken, plus lots of poking around. When finished, Dr Soley did not seem in a hurry for the next lady waiting. Maybe she was early. At any rate, he sat at his desk and we all discussed various lands we had toured, and the foods from those places, plus foods we enjoy most. We happened to see a Mediterranean restaurant today and had asked if there were any German or Greek restaurants around. Nope.

Shortly after we arrived home, the propane plumber finished his job. He also said he fixed the problem with the hot water heater that caused it to “backfire” on occasion. Lots of hammering away in the new construction – opening up ranuras (channels) for electrical conduit runs. The procedure here, aside from conduits embedded in slabs, beams and columns as they are poured, is to put up the walls and after they are cured, to open up channels, using an abrasive cutter and then chiseling out the waste between the cuts, to run orange plastic conduit and inset the boxes, which are all mortered into place.  After everyone had gone home, Dan discovered that our propane man had taken Dan's roll of solder home, so he was called and promised to drop it off the next morning.

(Vie 15^th) Sure enough, the solder was returned this morning. Our crew is four strong again today, however no one will be in tomorrow. Seems that our foreman has planned a family day of planting corn and beans. Luis told us that they have to leave home by 5am to be here by 7am. Then they work a ten hour day, before we put them on the bus running north. Next, further travel time getting from Coscomatepec to the outlying village where they live. A long day!

They are doing additional conduit runs—we walked into town (20 blocks one way this time) to buy a special size of flexible conduit that was needed to make a run that had been forgotten when the slab was poured. We tried all the hardware stores in town first and finally at the fourth store, specializing in electrical goods, we got lucky. Figured that in spite of the high cost, it was about the same as driving to Home Depot. Plus we got some exercise.

Up on the terraza, Luis embedded a small wash basin, and located water, waste and electrical lines for a small work counter up there.  We can hook up a hose to irrigate plants, or wash hands with cold water from the hose bibb/faucet here. In the new downstairs bathroom, the brick interior partition that wraps around the shower area is being plastered and reinforced, in preparation for cutting channels and a space for the shower control handles. Luis would like to pour the bathroom floor next week. This way the concrete mixer can be returned as it is taking up a lot of space in the back yard and is cramping the work area. Usually the floor would be finished much later in the project.

(Sáb 16^th) Quiet rainy day, part of which we spent in the clouds. Our home here is at the southern edge of the small cloud forest bioregion. We put up with a little rain and frequent afternoon clouds in exchange for the lush landscape, free running streams, and of course the orchids and other flowers that grow so well here.

We have been reading about nopales, the fresh or cooked vegetable prepared from young prickly pear cactus pads, not too common here but grown for market all over this country. This sounds like a magical food for both of us, a good source of fiber and a nutritious way to maintain low triglycerides and lower LDL cholesterol.. Problem is – when cooked they are slimy like okra. Carmen does not like the mouth feel of such foods. Maybe we will try to learn to like it, and come up with some acceptable recipes, for the sake of our bodies. It is also available here as an inexpensive food supplement prepared with flax seed and senna leaf, Nopalina.

Dan worked on our tax returns, caught up on our personal bookkeeping, reviewed a data file sent by a former client in Anacortes, and emailed a few others who had contacted him. Carmen started reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. And coincidentally, we recorded the swedish movie (subtitled in spanish) Män Som Hatar Kvinnor – the original title in swedish (“men who hate women”) that appeared on one of the cable channels, for viewing after Carmen finishes the book. Watching tv with spanish subtitles is one of the ways we increase our vocabulary. Subtitled movies we see down here are often in english, but german, french and chinese are also pretty commonly shown too, along with other european languages. Can't remember when we had the opportunity to view a subtitled movie back NoB – is lack of these films in the US media just another reflection of national hubris?