Mueble nuevo

(Domingo 25 - Sábado 31 Agosto) 

Dan started the week putting up the wood shelves all along the perimeter of the railing around the mirador. He drilled 72+ holes thru the steel tubing, and had very sore hands and one broken drill bit when he finished Carmen worked on mending, or more accurately, she finished hand sewing a backing onto one of Dan's mom's pillows, using the last piece of the purple fabric we had for chair seats. She then hemmed three pairs of Dan's jeans. They were too long since he's lost weight. Also she made and sewed a piece of material that he attaches to an inner safety pocket for his cash and ID, into many pairs of his slacks. Carmen carries her money in a wallet in a pants pocket secured with a safety pin.

A monday morning with sprinkles. So much so that Carmen had to use an umbrella (a first since living here) when she walked to the dentist for a teeth whitening. So nice to have a dentist who speaks enough english that Carmen does not need Dan along to communicate for her. There is a beautiful large mimosa tree in front of the dental office. In the tree was the yellow-breasted chat, a bird we've spotted before in the neighborhood. Carmen also saw a woodpecker, which we think was a pico mexicano (Picoides scalaris, or ladder backed woodpecker) with red on the back of the head, while she was walking up the street.

Our mueble nuevo (new furniture) was supposed to arrive from the carpentry shop in Peñuela today. And it did, at 7pm, on a pickup truck with six fellows! Couldn't figure out why so many helpers were needed until they started to carry in the queen size bed frame, and then the head board! It was quite a feat going up and around our staircase. The six natural finish dining room chairs look really great with our marble-topped table. The bed however was somewhat disappointing in that the color is much darker than we had ordered. The color we showed the company on a table they had in the shop for a sample, was stained “chocolate,” however what we got looks like black. Also, the boards that the mattress sits on were so rough that Dan had to sand them down so that the mattress would not get torn up. Plus, the lower shelf on the head board is really rough, such that Dan will have to sand it and refinish it. Oh well, the price was very good and structurally the items are sound and the wood strong. Bed and chairs were built for us from xochicuahuitl (Cordia megalantha, tropical black laurel) a local wood that is resistant to termites, and used here for the best furniture.

Since the city now has their part of the sewer connection finished (a mere eight months after we requested it to be done), Dan called our crew in for tuesday. They all four arrived at eight am the next morning. Before they arrived, Carmen was bustling about getting a laundry hung outside and watering plants, hoping not to be in their way. In her hurry, she forgot that she is no longer as agile as years gone by. She hopped up, or tried to hop up on top of a couple milk carts to water some plants near the ceiling. She fell backwards and landed on her head, right hip and rght elbow. She immediately put a bag of frozen cut nopal on the big bump on the back of the head. Nothing broken. Thankfully she has very strong bones. Pretty sore for over a week though.

Dan gave Jose Luís the list of things to do. They worked right along, but needed more cement and sand. Dan ordered it first thing and it was promised to be here by noon. By 2pm they were out of cement, having finished the registro (sewer connection box), built forms for the steps at the end of our sidewalk (where the city had destroyed them) and a few other areas we wanted repaired, so they had to finish the day with some painting. The cement and sand arrived well after they left at 6pm, with no real explanation about the delay.

This is the first day, in a week plus, that it has not been raining by the middle of the afternoon and it did not rain until late at night, so the paint had a good drying day. They finished the painting and left at 4pm. The painting was to put another coat of blue where some of the walls were turning partly white for some unknown reason.. They had been painted earlier, but perhaps the last coat had been skipped in these few areas.

Dan sanded the new bed mattress support boards and then cleaned up the mess and we made the bed up. Gardi cat has decided that this is his bed. The quilt Dan's mom had made for him (she did a lot of quilting) was put on the new bed. Not wanting kitty foot prints and fur all over it, we put a large sheet over it and then a big towel in his favorite spot, which is up against the pillows. When he is not there, we find Smij cat happily stretched out there. Cats do love new things. The termómetro only climbed to 79ºF today. We find that we get chilly at about 72ºF now. Our blood seems to have thinned.

The next day our crew was here before 7am. Yesterday they had to walk thru knee deep water (near their village) to get here, but today the flooding had gone down. The concrete work this second day for the crew included a new area where Dan has constructed a curtain-wall to conceal some wood storage and a pad below the water faucet in the backyard, filling the stairstep forms and paving the street gutter area above where our sewer pipe was connected, plus a gallon paintpail of cement with a rebar piece sticking up to provide a base for the bambu pole that will support the growing vanilla orchid vine. They worked fast and finished by midday. It was good to have them here for a bit, we miss them. We left our car outside the fence for the night since there was new concrete at the entry to our parking area.

Thursday was a shopping day, at Home Depot and Walmart. We saw for the first time around here, a concrete pumper. Usually the concrete is either made by hand at the edge of the road, or in a cement mixer, and then carried by five gallon bucket, rarely by wheelbarrow, to the needed location. The nearest readi-mix plant is in Veracruz city, 90 minutes from here, so we assume the pumper unit also had to come from that distance. On the drive home, we saw a traffic accident, actually it occurred in a parking area just off the road. A pickup truck ran into the rear end of a taxi and then sped away – the driver at fault didn't want to get involved, and probably be hauled off to jail. Lots of glass flying about. Thankfully we did not see the whole happening, because we surely did not want to get involved. We believe the taxi was backing out as the truck swung into the area, and they collided.

Next day, while Dan was removing the forms around the cured concrete, Carmen saw Josefina, who is probably about our age, walking up the street after her young dog, leash in hand. This dog likes to slip out their gate when it opens, and he tends to run up the hill towards our location. Doggie ran into the new roadway next to the church contraesquina from us. Josefina was looking exhausted and every time the dog got almost close enough to be grabbed, he of course dashed away again. He thought it was a little game for him, it seems. After watching this for a few minutes, Carmen took a tiny piece of carne (meat) across the street, showed it to Josefina and held her hand out to the dog. Poor puppy fell for it. He was caught and the leash was attached. Dan came out and talked to Josefina, knowing that she and Carmen could not really communicate much. Josefina liked the herbs growing inside our fence and asked if she could have a start of the salvia (sage). She is the lady who gave us our piquin pepper plant, which is growing well. So now we finally gave her something back, which felt good. She also told us that the big tree next door to us in Valentin's yard is a guanabana (soursop), which grows huge spikey fruits the size of bowling balls, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soursop  Later in the day we put up the little curtain wall near the back gate, giving us a spot to store lumber for projects in an out-of-sight corner.

Wherever we have lived before, the nuts in many desserts are walnuts. Not so here. If ice cream or other item says nuez (nut), there will be pecans in it. (If they're peanuts, it will say cacahuates). We have thus far not found walnuts anywhere, although one can also find avellanas (hazelnuts/filberts)and almendras (almonds) in the stores. Another confusing thing:  look up walnut OR pecan in a Mexican dictionary, and they both translate to nuez.  Look up pecan tree and it translates nogal, which is also the word for walnut.  Just another item to add to out “Can't Find Here” list, and perhaps stock up on next trip NoB.

Saturday was a day of many door bell ringings. Or just voices raised in a Buenos Dias, trying for our attention. Today we had at the backyard gate – Dan was out there working away – Artemio asking about possibly more plywood, a person with a car asking directions, and the mailman, delivering two magazines. The cartero rides a motorcycle with side bags, and he nearly always hand-delivers rather than putting the mail in our box, and takes the opportunity to chat. Most days we have one or two people at the front gate, and this day we had: a man selling fresh-dug potatoes, a woman selling homemade foods, a man selling cut flowers, and a man asking for mexican money or food, (he must have been from south of the border). It's rarely this many. Well of course Gardi had his friend, Mayra, give him some pets thru the fence, usually once a day or so.

We read on the MexConnect forum today that Rolly Brook, at 82 years old, has retired from moderating the posts there. We, along with many others, will miss his inputs. His website, www.rollybrook.com, is one of the most valuable for information about how to move to Mexico, and was a real resource for us in our planning to live here. Dan would like to get more involved on the web, sharing information that others might find useful. At this time, Dan really does not do much more than monitoring his favorite forums, and occasionally posting. This blog is all we seem to be able to manage now. Maybe it would be good for him to take the time to become more involved – we really have nothing pressing here that can not be put off for a few days. But, it seems our tasks will never end. Not complaining - we enjoy the keeping busy.