La bodeguita

Domingo 09 - Sábado 15 Feb 

We've generally had high overcast skies since our crew was here.  But, sunday and monday were sunny again and our laundry was on the line by eight am.  We did not want laundry hanging while the work was being done on the house. With the sun, the days are near 80ºF, but the nights are still cool.  Tuesday it rained and was foggy all day. We need weather like this on ocassion, to keep our various cloud-forest plants happy. The plants then love the sun when it come back.  We find this area has just the right variety of cool-warm, cloudy-sunny, wet-dry to keep us (and our garden), contented. Carmen did not need fresh flowers this week, but when she saw what our flower man had in his arms, she just had to have some of those gorgeous snapdragons!

We bought some salt cod a couple weeks ago. It is usually available in the US only around Xmas, but it's in the stores all year here. One of Carmen's favorite foods that Dan puts up with. It smells the house up when cooked for hours to tenderize it before making into a white sauce gravy to put over potatoes, so she waited until after the crew was gone to prepare it. Delicious as usual!  Our doctor last week told us to come to the clinic tuesday and the papers for our eye exams would be ready. Surprise surprise, they were not ready -- they said come back friday, and maybe they will have been processed thru.

Carmen finished the ground prep for new plantings along the new front yard walkway. Took her two days to dig up and pull apart all the dirt to a shovel's depth, trying to get all the grass roots out. Had a mop bucket's worth of roots to discard, and this was after our crew had stripped all the sod off. Next Dan rototilled after Carmen added sand and sawdust to the soil. Lastly we added commercial planting soil from Home Depot and lightly tilled it in. People walking past were fascinated with our small Ryobi tiller. Carmen has put over 50 small plants in this ground, all with a goodly amount of fertilizer at their base. She figures we have ground space for 20 or so more plants from Carmelo. We have high hopes for a beautiful flower-filled yard.  Colyn, who walks by at least once a day, said she has rarely seen flower gardens around here. She is right (although, with so many homes surrounded by high walls, it is hard to tell). Many flowering trees and shrubs, but not many smaller blossoming plants. Wonder which plants the insects will devour first? It would be quite a job to dig in systemic bug killer around every plant, which is what she does with all the potted plants.

Gardi cat has had a smoke gray cat visiting him through the gate, and now a short haired calico has come calling. They talk very quietly. The gray cat actually gets into our back yard area somehow, and leaves footprints on the top, windshield and hood of the car. The other, thinner, cat has been trying to squeeze thru the fencing out front, with no success. We bought a length of metal shelving to attach to our high wall at the spot where Gardi walks around on a narrow ledge to get to the neighboring roofs. Drove down to the Soriana hipermart and bought some Chinese meals for lunch. Still no more of Scoop Away litter at WalMart. The shelf is still bare after two weeks, and we hope it will be refilled before we really need it. Carmen always insists on being ahead on a couple of all important items, like her favorite cat litter.

There is a visible security presence here, with frequent police patrols thruout town.  Pickup trucks have two patrolmen in the cab, and two to four standing in the back with their semi-automatic rifles, continually driving around. Some of the trucks have a protective barrier around the (often masked) police standing in the back. They pass our house several times a day, and not at the same times every day either. Plus a few motorcycle cops sometimes pass by. A few days ago we were out front when we heard tires squealing going around our corner. Police in a hurry -- wonder what they were after? Recently we saw some new transito police vehicles in town – bright green three-wheeled motorcycles! Sure looked snazzy!

Mauricio was here tuesday and wednesday doing measurements for our new bodeguita (little storage) cabinet out front at the end of the porch. While we were out shopping Dan bought the two locks needed to weld into the cabinet doors.  Mauricio did the door and panel framing and skinning in his shop and then the final fitting & assembly here. Everything will be primed and then it is our responsibility to paint, at which time we will sand and repaint some spots on our other cabinets, stairway and fencing that he made for us earlier. He made it back with the doors to install, friday morning. Lots of noise from the porch, with the drilling, welding and hammering! He does great work! While he was here he replaced the mirador's ridge-cap piece that we had lost to a high wind many months ago.

We found some toasted salvado de trigo (wheat germ) at Walmart this week. What to do with it? For lunch one day we had pan-fried patties made of a mixture of diced pork, egg, salt, pepper and wheat germ -- very tasty. Next, oatmeal cookies were made with the wheat germ as half the flour. Oil in the cookies instead of butter. Yep, the raisins were pre-soaked in rum.

Recently, while Carmen was selecting thru the huge bin of fresh mushrooms at Walmart, another woman was standing next to her, examining the 'shrooms.  Carmen filled her bag and walked away a couple of aisles.  The lady followed her and started asking her questions about how to cut and cook mushrooms. Carmen did her best to explain, in her poor spanish, and answer the questions. The woman seemed happy and went back and filled her bag.

Carmen painted the insides of the new porch cabinets the same color as our upstairs railings and stairs up to the mirador. Sort of a deep reddish brown. Dan built and installed the wooden shelf needed inside the cabinets.  We'll finish the painting, and filling up the new bodeguita, next week. The front garden has come together nicely, and Carmen dressed it up with a covering of pinebark mulch.  Looking pretty nice out there!  

Toma de protesta

Domingo 29 Dec- Sábado 04 Enero   We continued enjoying the children coming by in the early evenings, entertaining us with their El Viejo dance and song celebrating the end of the year.  This all stopped on New Years Eve, when firecrackers galore exploded all around until 2:30am or so.  ¡Feliz Año Nuevo a todos!  Opportunity to dispose of leftover fireworks kept the neighborhood noisy in the evenings, for the rest of the week.

The 31^st we walked into town and watched and listened to the toma de protesta, the swearing-in ceremony for the newly-elected mayor and his city council members. (Protesta in this sense is an oath, so this means a " taking of oath.")  We have tried many times to be at the plaza central or city hall for various events, but this is the first time we did it right – all because Dan can now better understand the news on the XHFTI-FM, the Fortín radio station, which we listen to each morning. There was a huge video screen on the front of the city hall building that showed images of life in Fortín. A big covered stage was set up on the city hall front steps, with lots of people in attendence.  The sun shown down and the clouds just held off long enough for it to be a very pleasant time.  Lots of policemen about, as is typical, but this no longer bothers us.  At least the local cops don't mask their faces, as do the Policia Federal, purportedly to protect their identities and families from the criminal/gang element they have to deal with.

Thursday was our big day away from home. We were at our family IMSS clinic in Córdoba at 8:30am for our monthly appointments. We forgot a watch, so we do not know how long we waited, but Dan finished the book he took along. We then discovered that our usual doctor was on vacation, but we dealt with a very thorough young female doctor. She took a really long time with us, even reading our care summaries we brought down from our doctors in the US, in english.  Dan's labs came in with no flagged numbers.  He did get a prescription filled for prevastatin, but learned that it would only be provided this one time, as it is expected that once LDL levels are lowered they can be maintained there by diet/lifestyle.  He's been self-medicating with half the dose prescribed in the US, and had expected to continue at that level.  But, IMSS will only dispense statins if regular blood tests show that one has persistent high cholesterol.  Doctors here reject the premise that a low maintenance dose, for the rest of one's life, is called for.  The only way around this is a cardiologist's order.  Lastly a fairly quick stop at WalMart, and back home to stash our purchases.

When we got home, we found Carmelo waiting for us. We took care of him, buying a few new plants for our growing collection. We immediately headed out to Orizaba. We got there about two o'clock and by that time we were starving, so we popped in for lunch at the Chinese buffet. Then we shopped for a few grocery items at Chedraui, where we had parked the car. Carmen went back to the car and took a wee nap while Dan walked a couple blocks to a large Aurrera supermarket to check it out. The main reason we drove to Orizaba was to make an appointment with the IMSS hospital's rheumatologist for Carmen's six month scleroderma check up due in April. We had a long wait. Dan tipped his head back and got his nap. We finally got home at 4:30pm. A long, tiring day...

Saturday Carmen potted up some new plants, and transplanted others. Dan shopped online for his tax prep software, and paid all the outstanding taxes and bills he had been putting off until the new year arrived, and started downloading annual mutual fund reports.  It feels like our winter weather has arrived and the next cold front (#24) is supposed to be here in two days. So far the early-AM night temps have not gone below 50, but this time it will probably go into the 40s.   Time for heavier comforter on the bed.

Manifestación

(Domingo 11- Sábado 17 Agosto)  Sunday we awoke to the songs (?) of guinea fowl. We assume they are living in the forest, free, a block away, because they seem to wander a fair distance. Yesterday breakfast was steak and eggs, pastry, yogurt and fruit to build up energy lost friday. This morn we indulged in our regular oatmeal with banana and yogurt, plus a half cup of either tea or coffee. A bit of cleaning, not much. Made and baked a small batch of chocolate chip cookies. Then a spanish lesson on the terraza off the bedroom.  The mandevilla vines are providing lots up color up here.

After about five minutes of study with flashcards, we saw Juanita and her daughter, waving hi to us, walking past down on the road. They live five houses south and we had not seen them for awhile, so we dashed down stairs and out the front door in time to say hi and meet their small dog. Juanita was wearing a most beautiful long dress. It was a white cotton with many levels of embroidery. She invited us to walk on to her house with her. She wanted to show us some of her plants, of which she has many fantastic ones. She also had two bird cages and one turtle which was meandering about in her paved front patio. She kept giving us plants to bring home. She had one giant yellow-orange stalk of flowers. Most amazing! After coming back home and spending an hour planting, we got back to the spanish lesson. This time Smij kitty wanted attention and gave us a great amount of pleasurable help. Gardi was napping downstairs.

From early morning til late afternoon, we heard most enjoyable spanish music playing. Probably emitted for and by the mechanic working on a truck, but a half block away on edge of the street. It's very typical to hear music from a radio or other playback gear in the wind, and nobody thinks that they might be playing too loud. So it helps to appreciate the same sort of stuff that your neighbors do. Usually it's cumbia, ranchero or norteño, and sometimes classical, so we have no complaints yet.

Carmen spent the afternoon sewing, making tie-backs for the curtains, and then napping. Dan spent his afternoon constructing a cantilevered platform for the 32” flatscreen TV, hung high off the shelf/closet unit in our bedroom, and getting in a nap also. Unhappily, we did not receive a single skype call today.

Since we finally have our Residente Temporal cards, monday morning Dan wanted to walk into town to see if we could get our INAPAM (National Institute for Seniors) cards, which will grant us dicounts on fares, entrance tickets and such. He got all the paperwork together while Carmen hung out two loads of laundry, totally filling our lines and getting all our jeans and other heavy items cleaned. The sky looked a bit iffy, but we took a chance. Seems that we must go back to the DIF (Integral Family Development) facility next tuesday with our papers.

On we walked to the bank ATM, to the hardware store for tubing to make three more curtain rods, to the paint store to ask why some of our house has the new paint going blotchy whitish (they said we must put another sealer coat on and then another coat of paint), to an office supply store to ask where we can dispose of a printer that needs repair that Dan is unable to fix and is now surplus for us, and finally to the flower market. No the true citronella plants have not been found yet. Couple blocks further and a motorcycle pulled up next to us. This happens amazingly often with vehicles, wanting directions. This rider happened to be our mailman. He had two magazines for us.

As we are now only three blocks from home, we passed a block from a dentist that Carmen wanted to try. We walked down the hill, rang the big bell at the door. The dentist had 45 free minutes. Okay, that should be enough time for a good cleaning. The IMSS dentist, where Carmen has gone for dental care this past year, just plain does not do much for the teeth. Not only did this dentist do a great job, but she speaks english! Seemed expensive, compared to the dentist Dan has been having cleanings with, but she did do a good exam too. With the type of fluoride treatment that was used, Carmen could eat or drink nothing for an hour. Also this dentist explained how to brush the teeth differently because of so many crowns.

Finally home and started some chicken and veggies cooking to which dumplings were added. Hanging the wet clothes out earlier was successful. The laundry was back inside before the rain started about 2:30p. Dan spent much of the rest of the day preparing all the paper work plus a letter to take to the aduana at the port of Veracruz tomorrow. This needs done to make our “temporarily imported” car legal for another three years.

Late in the day, after the rainstorm, Cosme stopped by with a large white anthurium, plus a Polka-dot plant (Hypoestes phyllostachya), which is green with pink or white dots and tiny pink flowers. We had run out of rotting leaves to plant the anthurium in and he was horrified when we had to plant it in soil. It will be a few days before we can give the plant what it wants. We will carry our rake and a plastic bag around a few streets and rake up fallen leaves.

Our orquideas pleasure us when they send out long stalks and flower -- they don't all do this at the same time and it's a surprise when all of a sudden another blooms forth.

Down, down and away towards the coast tuesday morning. Couple of quick stops first. One to see if our vacuum cleaner was repaired – no it can not be repaired, but it wasn't ready to pick up. Walmart was second for mosquito repellent refills for the plug-in gizmo, cat food & litter, and an mini addition to our cellphone minutes. We hardly ever use it, but it seemed wise to have it functional since we were taking a trip into the unknown.

We opted to take the autopista, the toll road that goes right into Veracruz As we progressed down from our elevation of 3000 to sea level, we passed thru a very green and lush landscape of rolling hills where lots of corn and sugar cane was growing. Closer to the coast the vegetation is more low jungle, with less visible agriculture. Our round trip to Veracruz was 158 miles, so about 90 minutes down and the same amount back, barring any unforeseen stops.

We were concerned about being able to find the aduana adminstrative office where we had to renew our car for staying here another three years, running concurrent with our new Residente Temporal permits. No address available, so we sort of went by what Frank could describe from years ago. Ah – thought we found it on Google maps – and so easy, it's right downtown opposite the wharf area! After driving into the port area, we could find nothing relating, so we asked a lady at a gated entry. Seems it had been moved since Frank was last there. She told us to go left on the next road and follow the road over a bridge and past a water company and the next turn would be what we were looking for. We drove for some time, finding no water company, but there, finally, was the main entrance to the port. At that gate the attendant told us to turn around and continue on down the road we had been on, just past a sewage plant (aguas residuales are treated there).

The next turn again looked like the right place, so in we turned. The guard said yes, just park in the lot and go to the last office in the modern new structure. Confusing. The actual “last” office seemed to be in a secured area. Again Dan asked where we needed to be – assuming we were in the wrong place again. But no, we only had to walk back a couple doors and talk to the lady in charge of admittance to the facility. Whew, we made it, and it was not all that difficult, thanks to Dan's understanding of spanish. Oops! Apparently there are very few people at this port's office trying to renew their TIP (temporary importation permit). The lady had to make several calls to find out how to process our request. She had us fill out and sign in a registry book. She then gave us visitor badges which allowed us into the next building. She kept some of our documentation, which made us a bit nervous. Must say – everyone we encountered here was extremely pleasant and helpful!

We were escorted to another office upstairs. Here were four ladies. Only one knew what to do with us. The others just sat there and ate candy – a meringue that looked scrumptious. Yes, to her surprise, all the papers we needed were there in the packet, plus we had the extra copies needed. Dan is so great about researching everything as thoroughly as possible. Still – you never know. Upon Claudia's approval, we were escorted to the final office in the building, the buzon (mail room). Here the clerk checked all the papers again, stamped everything and informed us that everything was correct and one of the copies would now be sent to Mexico City. He returned the other stamped copy to us as proof of submission. From there we would, presumably, receive notification later that all was in order.. When? Who knows? While we stood in the office a hard hard rainstorm passed over.

We are now relieved of the tension from this morning's searching thru a strange city. Sat in the car and drank some water and ate our morning donut. On the way back, Dan decided to take the drive thru the city instead of the more direct route. We did see the beach and ocean, plus the historic downtown. The massive well-cared for buildings are the pinks and yellows with a spanish/caribbean flare. Very busy streets, being about noon. After a few tries we found the main route out of the city. This is Mexico's largest, oldest and most significant port. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veracruz,_Veracruz

On our way out of the city we saw a Little Caesars pizza restaurant. Stopped, ordered a deal which included one to go. The clerk gave us one. Dan understood it was the one to go and a fresh one would be served to us for there shortly. Meanwhile many pizzas left the kitchen. Finally we decided something was wrong. We opened the box we had to start in on that and found it not cut. Hmmm, must be they do not cut the ones to-go. Dan took it back to the counter and found that he had misunderstood. They gave us two fresh pizzas, both cut into wedges, and we ate a bit and got back into the car with Carmen driving for the first time today. Dan was very thankful that he got some relief from being behind the wheel and could stretch out. We had just remarked that we'd be home shortly, when Dan suggested rather strongly that we get off the thruway and take the local road. No, Carmen preferred to stay on the autopista until we could get off in Córdoba near Home Depot. Carmen doesn't like driving in traffic if she can help it.

She did remark that there were suddenly a lot of trucks and they seemed to be slowing down though. Well they were slowing down all right! To a dead stop! Here we were just beyond the last exit before Córdoba, and were stopped with almost no cars and hundreds of trucks, bumper to bumper. Saw a couple small trucks and cars drive across the rough median, which hours later we finally checked out, but felt we might get stuck in the mud, so stayed in line. About once an hour for the next SEVEN HOURS we were able to drive forward for a distance of a truck or two, no more! While here there were two torrential rain storms. It meant closing the windows and suffering great amount of sticky heat. What could be holding us up? Heard no sirens. Finally a couple ladies walked by, going back to their car, with food. Dan asked if they knew the cause of the traffic jam. Yes, they did know. It was some group manifestación, a group action trying to prove a point. There was a continual flow of people walking past selling treats – you know – those deep fried goodies, dried bananas. a few with beverages. Luckily we had that extra pizza and a large bottle of sidral (apple soda pop) which was part of the “buy 2” purchase deal. Also had a few cookies and a small bottle of water. Though we rarely drink soda pop, it was wet, and the sun would have been much hotter, but thankfully, there were many clouds.

As darkness came on, the air started cooling. We had no blankets or warmer clothing and started to now worry about that situation. Also, all the truck drivers were getting out of their trucks to pee. Not so simple for Carmen. Much longer and it would have happened though. About nine o'clock both lanes started moving slowly. Carmen told Dan, back in the driver's seat, to quickly change lanes so that we would be in the right hand lane when the first available exit came up. Dan got half way over when a dead stop in traffic occurred, with us straddling both lanes and unable to move. Now we were in a pickle! If left lane moved and the right did not, we would be caught blocking both lanes. Come 9:30 both lanes started moving, though the left moved first. People behind us started tooting horns before the right lane moved enough for us to finish our move into the that lane. Now you understand, the windows are steamed up and the rain is coming down in this pitch darkness, with tail lights blinding us. As we drove a bit further, we discovered why we had been able to move a wee bit now and then. We thought a couple vehicles were being let through, but no, there was a large pull off on the right and trucks were pulling in there to sit out the wait, thus leaving a space to be moved up into.

We have never been so glad to get off from a highway and have no desire to get back into our car for a while! We had wondered what it was like for those folks who got caught up in one of these traffic stops. Now we know! If onlys. If we had not taken the tour through the city. If only we had not stopped for the pizza. Dan's “if only” is – if only Carmen had taken one of those exits he wanted. Well, would we have wanted to miss this new adventure? YES!

There were good times in our long wait. We were forced to just sit and relax and we had nothing with us to read. We both had naps. At one time we were parked next to a field of long grasses with butterflies fluttering about. The sky was fantastic with such a variety of clouds and colors, when not raining. Even the huge rain drops were intriguing as they landed on the windshield and ran down it, but the din of the drops on the roof was almost deafening at times. We inched past a tent of sorts where someone must be living or storing stuff. Across the highway were some chickens pecking for yummies and a long-necked white goose strutting about. The tree varieties across the hills and valleys were interesting, and yes the birds were singing, announcing each time when the rain had stopped! The big plus – we had each other to be with and talk to. Everyone needs a time like this on occasion.

During the hours in the car, we attempted to find news on the radio to explain what was going on, to no avail. The next day's newspaper revealed all. A year ago, a bridge on the federal highway thru Coscomatepec, a town 20 miles north, washed out. The residents there have had to detour around the spot, and were getting fed up with the lack of action repairing the bridge. More than a thousand of them traveled down south tuesday morning, and started a manifestación that blocked the autopista at the toll plaza at Fortín at about 8:30am. They also blocked the free route to Orizaba, at the intersection a few blocks west of our home. The result was no east-west traffic thru the entire region for 11 hours. Late in the evening a representative of the federal transpo department signed an accord with the group, promising that repairs would start on the bridge next monday. At 9:30pm the blockade was lifted, letting the 20km of stopped vehicles, in both directions, to move. Apparently, vehicles were still crawling thru the toll plaza at 2am, as it took over three hours to clear out the 12+ miles of stopped rigs. We were fortunate to have been able to get off at Córdoba when we did. Turns out that our extra time in Veracruz didn't result in getting stopped on the highway, as we would have been just as surely caught, just a few miles further along had we gotten out of the city earlier.

Needless to say, we slept in wednesday morning. Work was done on filling, sanding & staining the upstairs TV shelf, curtain tie-backs were put in place, bug spray was applied about the place. A day of odds and ends. About noon the city crew arrived. All the sand they had left on the road to continue with cement work, had washed down the road with the torrential rains that happened the past few nights. They worked for a couple hours and ran out of supplies and left for today so have to return, tomorrow?. Still wondering if they plan to rebuild the stairs on the sidewalk that they tore out for repairing a water pipe.

Friday we had another one of our whirlwind days. Did many little chores, leaving home early with the car. Drove into Fortín where we went to the Banamex bank to get some pesos. Since our present auto insurance (purchased in the US when we crossed the border last september) expires in a few weeks, we are shopping for a replacement policy. Santander bank offers it's autocompara service with multiple insurers, so we stopped there to give them our info and will return for the quotes next tuesday. Could have done this online except the website doesn't recognize our model Ford. Drove a few blocks more to drop off the printer that Dan can't make get past an error message—if they can fix it they can perhaps resell it. Next stopped at the city flower market. The lady there thought she might have the citronella plants by saturday. Across the street for gasoline. Next stop was to pick up our vacuum cleaner that apparently can not be repaired here, due to Hoover not having repair or parts service in this country. Next vacuum we buy will be made in Mexico, probably a Koblenz.

Now for a fun stop. Visited Dr. Soley, the dental surgeon who did the work on Carmen's teeth. He had asked to borrow some books to read to practice his english. We took him four all different types of stories and writing. He can tell us which one he likes best and we will then know what to take to him next time. He had no patient at the time we were there, so we spent an hour chatting. He always likes to chat about his and our lives in general. Next a visit to IMSS to get Dan's consultorio assignment corrected. He was supposedly changed to the same as Carmen's, consultorio 5, last April, but when there this past month the doctor could not get Dan's file to come up. We had to take our paper work to two different offices, but did in fact get it straightened out.

Now a stop at the CarneMart, a commercial meat market where all the packages are larger and cheaper than other stores, packaged for institutional use. We found arrachera (a marinaded beef flank) and a block of chopped pork, all prepped for stir-fry type use. This got repackaged into seven meals for us, then refrozen. Cost us US$1.43 per a meal for the two of us, or 72 cents each. Home Depot next. This is a good place for a nice clean modern toilet stop. Bought two cuna de moises (“Moses' cradle,” we know this as peace lily), a cyclamen, a romero (rosemary) herb plant, a nerve plant which had actually five plants in one pot, plus an Aloe vera which is now planted inside the house in a long narrow ceramic planter that will later also hold some cactus and succulents. Yes, also purchased some parts for projects and hardware for the installation of the upstairs TV.

Finally to the Soriana grocery store on the east side of Córdoba. We discovered that the store brand of oatmeal is better than other avena we have purchased here. Dan found some pepitas (dried pumpkin seeds), and we picked up some odds & ends we had been looking for without earlier success, like food coloring. Dr. Soley had talked about loving pancakes, with syrup, so Carmen bought some syrup to go with pancakes for breakfast tomorrow morning (and some cajeta, caramel cream made from cooked goat's milk, for Dan) – we usually just use honey or jam.. Just beyond the check-out counters, there are a variety of fast food take out facilities. We had seen the chinese foods last time here that had looked really fresh and good. So at the KungFu shop, we each selected three entrees plus rice for 60 pesos each, or US$4.65. This is giving us at least four days meals, such huge servings we got! Finally home!

The end of the week was filled with laundry, sewing, installing upstairs television, only to have the computer we were interfacing there fail after doing an online update. Gardi had a great day friday. Eight children, perhaps a class with a woman monitoring them, stopped at our front gate and Gardi did his best to entertain them. Next a man with his small boy stopped at the north end of our front porch. They spent a long time with Gardi, petting and talking to him thru the fence as he rolled around and purred for them. Our shy Smij cat has actually let a few people see her when she's outside the building, as she is getting greater confidence that our yard keeps others (dogs, vehicles, rambunctious kids, etc) out unless we choose to let them in. Previously she's run inside when there was any passing activity of any sort.

Still getting hard rainstorms with much rolling thunder and sudden temperature drops from eighty – five to seventy degrees, in the evening, though the plastic panels we installed outside the windows, have stopped the rain from blowing inside. Also the large gutter out back is doing a marvelous job of keeping a lot of rainwater off of our bedroom level deck. Oh, when we got back from our travels friday, our electricity was out. After waiting 'til nearly dark, Dan found an emergency number in the phone book and dialed it, using the cellphone. Of course he was put on hold for some time. Finally gave his message – well he got his name and address out, when the cell phone that we had minimally charged but two days before, told him he had no time left. After another hour of reading 'til nearly too dark, we walked down the street and found Carlos, who lives but two buildings down, and asked if he had electricity. No, the power lines further south were being worked on. We stood there and chatted for awhile, during which time he invited us to his church, which is non-catholic. Dan was also invited to his house for a men's church group once a week. Women also have get-togethers. He assured us that if we attended, we would be getting lots of dinner invitations from all the new friends. Perhaps this might happen, IF Carmen ever learns to understand spanish. Who knows what tomorrow may bring?

Residentes!

(Domingo 04 - Sábado 10 Agosto)   Dan finished up with the router, finalizing some brackets for the terraza railing, and with the bulk of the woodworking done, proceeded to break down his temporary shop. Yes, his shop in our medium sized bedroom is now a clean bedroom again! We drove to Penuela, town just east of Córdoba, and ordered a queen-size bed frame to be made for the now empty guest bedroom. A US queen, the mattress we brought down here, is 4” longer than the queen-size made here, so we adjusted the dimensions on the order. We asked that the platform height be adjusted a bit to allow rolling plastic storage bins underneath. Also we ordered the chairs to go with our marble-top dining room table. We picked up some utilitarian stools for our breakfast bar from Home Depot, as having viewed and priced custom-made ones in Penuela, we knew the steel ones would be less intrusive and a tenth of the price of wooden ones. In a of couple weeks the wood furniture will be delivered and we can put our plastic cheapo chairs up-upstairs on the mirador instead of in the dining room. We must decide on the color and fabric for the chair seats.

The banana field to our north has been cleaned up. All the dead and lower branched leaves were removed, and the weeds growing between the plants were chopped down. Certainly looks different. The plants are about 20+' high now.  Miracle of miracles! The city water crew dug the ditch, laid the 4” pvc sewer pipe on monday and covered the ditch the next day! Later in the week two men returned and worked on reconstructing Valentin's driveway entrance, which we thought we would have to do.

Monday afternoon we attended a birthday party for Tim, whom we had met before. He lives north of here in Coscomatepec with his wife, where they have an avocado farm. He is from Orange County, California and his wife is from near here. Ania prepared another fantastic meal, of baked fish with tomatoes and herbs, stuffed peppers of two varieties, carrot slaw, hard rolls, and homemade ice cream. We came home with an eighteen foot piece of cured bamboo tied to the side of our car. This we plan to attach to our southeast garden wall for our now seven foot high vanilla orchid to grow on. It should climb to the top, and at that height begin to set vainas (vanilla pods). Also brought back enough snake plant from Ania's to fill a planter to sit in the living room behind the chair, between two NW corner windows. Looks great! Also got some other plant starts to put outside. We are truly getting low on planting space unless we remove the grassy area in the front yard, but we can always squeeze one more pot in on the porch, patio or terraza with little effort. We discovered in the evening that something we brought home had been near poison ivy or sumac!

While Dan was on the top of a ladder, with Carmen holding onto the bottom, he installed the last plastic panel on the outside of the north master bedroom window. While up there, he pruned the tall spreading bougainvillea, one of three on the north side of our yard. Carmen last week pruned the northeast plant in the front yard. She also cut back the blue flowering plumbago, and trimmed all other plants in the front garden, plus planting a few more purchased from Home Depot. In this hot weather, outside potted plants all must be watered once daily and some as much as three times. She has learned that the shrimp plant and the hibiscus must be watered with fertilized water every day to keep the blossoms coming! Care for plants here is a bit different for the same plants in the northern climes.

Monday we stopped at the flower market to see if our citronella plants had arrived. The lady at the shop we had ordered them from was on vacation. We went back tuesday and she told us that her brother was going to Veracruz wednesday, where he had an opportunity to locate these plants. Friday we stopped by again and she told us that they had not yet arrived, but not to worry, she would put three aside for us. We are nearly out of the Raid mosquito deterrent liquid that gets plugged in at night. The other citronella wicks we ordered thru a home delivery catalog still have not arrived. Thought we have searched out all water spots that might grow mosquitoes, but they still are prospering, but many fewer are around.

Friday we had a long whirlwind of a day. Oh, when will retirement ever start? We set the alarm so as to be sure we'd get an early start. Dan had a dental appointment at 11am and we wanted to purchase the material to cover the bar stools and a small table cover before this appointment. This will be the same material we will have put on our new dining room chairs. We had decided to buy a rich deep dark blue. Well – after visiting four very large fabric stores in downtown Córdoba, almost running from one to the other since we wanted to be finished before the appointment, plus the shops were blocks apart, it was sadly discovered that blue is simply not an “in” color this season. We settled for a rich deep purple instead. Still has the flavor we were after, an irregular pattern that wouldn't show an errant grease spot very much. Has a very muted snakeskin-like pattern. Also bought some grosgrain ribbon to make strips to make hold-backs for our curtains. We saw a first on one of the Cordoba city sidewalks – a man laying flat on his stomach. People giving him a wide berth as they walked around, so we did also. Felt a bit guilty. What if he was not drunk, but having a medical problem? Bad us – like the rest of the world, we were in a hurry----------also afraid of the unknown.

We actually had twenty minutes extra and were but a block from where we could check on our residency permits. We decided to take a chance on them being in, though we had not yet been notified on the INM website. Up the three flights we dashed. One of the staff there recognized us when we walked in and without asking what we wanted, proceeded to get our cards – which had supposedly just arrived. She finalized the paper work for us, including stamping the transmittal letter with the current date, to hopefully facilitate our dealings with the aduana (customs office) for the car – all in our few extra moments! These Residente Temporal cards are good for three more years.

While Dan was in the comfortably cool dentist's office, Carmen chose to sit, or rather lean back, in the car for a siesta. Sure was hot, a sweltery day like we rarely get. After the dentist we drove to Penuela to give the carpenters the info for the fabric they needed to buy for our chair seats they will have done in a couple weeks. This town has many carpentry shops and is but a few miles from Córdoba. Now a stop at Walmart where Carmen shopped and Dan stayed in the car since there was some wood purchased at Home Depot sticking out the window and we did not want it to leave the car with an open window while unoccupied. It was now 4pm and we'd had nothing to eat since an early breakfast . Dan had mentioned earlier that he noticed this morning when at the bank in Fortín that the new Subway shop next door had a special on 6” subs – yep, one last stop and we each had a MX$20 6” sub for our meal of the day. Actually we also finished off with a piece of lime meringue pie that Carmen had made the day before.

One item purchased at WalMart this week was a package, frozen, of over 200 baby clams. The fresh ones are more expensive. These cost US$2.50 and were tasty. Dan so enjoys the clam nectar left after cooking these morsels, reminding him of clambakes on the beach in Connecticut when he was a youngster.

Since our welder again did not show up as he said he would, Dan tried bending heavy galvanized bars for the big gutter which will keep part of the rain water off of the deck outside the bedroom door. Using the bench vise we had brought down from the US, a heavy hammer and visegrips, the bending (multiple bends, curves & twists) went far better than he expected, so the next thing we knew, we were installing the gutter, with both of us up on ladders, stretching, pushing, pulling, and voila! It actually went easier than either of us thought it would, as we had anticipated needing the crew here to get this part of the job done. Ever so glad to have it up at the edge of the roof. There have been a couple heavy rains since the gutter was installed. It works just as Dan designed it to! But of course!

One day this week, we discovered our back outer gate had been left open. Had we gone out when Gardi was hollering to us telling us of the problem (from his perspective), we would not have later found him across the street. But he was keeping his eye on the house, perhaps making sure that we did not close him out? He happily ran back to the house when we called him. Thankfully he did not become a grease spot on the road.

The city crew discovered a huge water leak coming from our neighbors hookup, or perhaps they caused it with their excavating. The leak was directly under the cement steps going from our property down to his sidewalk. They tore out the steps to repair the leak. They have since then totally repaired his driveway that was cut away to connect our sewer. We expected that we would have to repair that with our crew, so we now hope they also plan to rebuild the sidewalk steps. All houses in town here must have banquetas (sidewalks) at the road edge.

Dan had promised some leftover plywood to both of the gardeners, Artemio and Cosme, who come here trying to sell plants or labor – of which we have used both . This is the plywood from the liftvans, the shipping crates from our move here, stored under the gateway portico and used while we did various projects. Dan held back a few sheets, but he did in fact let the rest of it go at a very modest price. We now can see thru both sides of our backyard gates. The reserved plywood now sits against the wall in the smallest bedroom, which is the room Smij cat hangs out in, also being Carmen's sewing & puzzle room, and a guest bedroom for one. This is the only room Carmen still needs to make curtains for – both for the two new small north-facing windows, after Dan gets the curtain rods cut and installed, plus a curtain to help keep dust out of the storage area along one wall. Things are coming together here, poco a poco.

Un año más

(Domingo 21- Sábado 27 Julio )  One day this week we headed into Córdoba to pay our annual voluntary IMSS medical insurance fee. You might recall we first signed up in July 2012 while we were down here for several weeks getting the house ready for our move last September. Our benefit year started on the first of August, so each year in July we have to pay the annual cuota for another year. The whole process took about an hour or so, and was much easier than the initial sign up. The lady who processed our paperwork remembered us from last year, and typed up the few pages we needed when we told her there were no changes, including an order to a bank to receive and deposit our funds to the IMSS account. Documentation that was need this year was a fotocopy of the first two pages from our original inscription, plus a fotocopy of the receipt we would get from the bank. We headed further east down Avenida 11 and over to Avenida 1 to the Banamex we had located the year before, and paid our premiums for the year, MX$3733.30 each (about US$300).

When we finished at the bank, we took advantage of being near the new Soriana HiperMart, and did some shopping in the huge new store. Bought some Heileman's Old Style beer which Soriana imports from the US and sells for MX38 per sixpack (US$3). How Mexican supermarkets can import beer from the US (and Guatemala), and sell it for less than Mexican brands, we haven't figured out. Along with some other groceries we found and bought a virtual clone of the RummiKub game, so Frank & Ania don't have to bring their set over when we have game night at our house.

Early in the week two young fellows from the city came around taking a census of household pets. Turns out there is a new city law that is supposed to safeguard the care of family dogs & cats. The were handing out 12-point reminder cards of how to be a responsible pet owner, all of which we are already doing. Dan told the guys that no hay problema, our two gatos were being treated like rey y reina (king and queen) in our household.

In projects around the house, Dan finished up the slotted shoe shelf for the new downstairs closet, and Carmen finished, and we hung, new curtains covering up this area and the things stacked above the bedroom storage areas upstairs. Dan had installed rods (using pieces of metal electrical conduit) up near the ceiling for these new curtains. He really likes other-purposing stuff he finds in the hardware store, so to come up with inexpensive substitutes for fixtures and gear that would otherwise cost more pesos. A fierce wind occurred early this week, blowing in the evening's rainstorm. The next day Dan found a piece of ridge cap from our new polycarbonate mirador roof on the patio next to the car. A repair job to add to the list.

Tuesday was Dan's birthday, not just a regular año más, but the big 7-0, and Ania & Frank came over to celebrate with a special meal Carmen put together: Roast pork, mashed potatoes & gravy and fresh broccoli, washed down with some Zinfandel and followed by a carrot cake made even more scrumptious by the addition of dried Michigan cherries. He is thankful he still has (most of) his hair (only partly gray), his good health, and an active interest in this new life in Mexico. Both of us are benefiting from the improved diet due to the great variety of inexpensive fresh, local foods, with Carmen approaching the same weight she had in high school, and Dan not far behind the same goal.

Saturday we went to the local flower market so pick up some Citronella plants that were going to be there, only to find that they only had the geranium of that name, and not the plant related to lemon grass that we expected. We bought only one, because the leaf was so interesting, but don't really expect it to repel mosquitoes. If we can find the true citronela (it's grown commercially here in Mexico, used for extracting the essential oil which is used in mosquito repellants), we will keep a plant in a pot by each doorway. Out in the front yard, our piquin chili plant is covered with tiny fruits, many of them bright red, almost like LED xmas lights hung on the branches. These are 40 times as hot as jalapeños on the Scoville scale – not something we'll use too much unless very diluted in some salsa, but they look great on the plant.

En tramite

Domingo 07 - Sábado 13 Julio )  To start off the week, Ania and Frank were here for a few hours sunday for an early evening meal and a round of RummiKub. Ania brought a bouquet of ginger flowers from home. What a fragrance! Much like gardenia, or perhaps jasmine.

Despite Carmen's earlier thoughts about not having any houseplants inside, we broke down and bought two large decorative feature plants for the corners of the dining room. A large Dracaena reflexa and a multi-stemmed Schefflera arboricola (aka “Dwarf Umbrella Tree”) – both need little care and presumably will cope with the indirect illumination from the skylight above. Each cost about US$12 and so of course we needed two more large pots from the ceramic store. With the pots, under which we put casters so they can be easily moved (as they are very heavy), they stand six feet tall and spread four feet wide. It's nice to have some greenery inside.

We seem to not be getting our electric bill inserted into our street-side buzon (mailbox) with any reliability, since it should have been read the last week of June and no notice had yet arrived. Dan went online to the CFE site and found we could print out our bill there. On the way back from a shopping trip into Córdoba, we stopped by and paid our two month bill of 250 pesos, or about US$20. Seems that there was a rebaja (reduction) for about 800 pesos of our bill because we are in the low usage bracket!

Dan was finishing up constructing the new storage area in the master bedroom and Carmen finished painting the window and door lintels dark brown. We also cut more bamboo from Frank and Ania's property, plus pulled up some snake plant and wandering jew ground cover. They were gone that day to Oaxaca city. Planted those along with much dwarf mondo grass, in our back two planting areas. The bamboo is for trellising the passion fruit vine on the upper patio.

We had no problem with mosquitoes 'til a week or so ago. Finally discovered that one can not keep trays under outdoors potted plants here since it rains nearly every evening. The rain keeps the trays filled with water to make perfect mosquito breeding areas. Also our close neighbor's roof was not draining and therefore it was another breeding area just level with our second story patio (his home is all on the ground floor). We told him about this problem and he did climb to his rooftop and unclog his roof drains. His roof dips a little in the center so there is still an ongoing problem there until dryer weather prevails. We bought some liquid insect killer and can now spray his roof de vez en cuando. We are tired of fighting mosquitoes and the itches from bites!  It all should end once the early summer rains are past.

One evening we were looking out the kitchen window when it started pouring rain, and there was Colyn stuck in rain standing under our portico in front of the house. We invited her in and she chatted with us until the rain let up. She then continued to the store for something for supper. We offered to give her whatever she needed, but it seemed that she really wanted the walk.

Monday, tuesday and wednesday went by with no one appearing from the water/sewer commission showing up to put in the new drain line they had scoped out late last week. So, thursday, Dan decided we needed to make another trip to the office to push things along. The architect was at his desk and there sitting on top, was our sewer line work order. He calculated the costs and said we could pay it in plazos (payments), but we chose to pay it in full, about US$250. Now there should be nothing left but for them to send out a crew. Wonder when we will see them?  (Here's a view to the north, from our rooftop mirador.)

We have heard nothing by phone or email from the immigration office, and the website where we can check things consistently can't find our paperwork which is supposedly en tramite (in the works). Our current permiso expires on thursday, so on wednesday we decided to visit the office in person to see what was up – maybe our cards were waiting for us! Turns out they were just holding everything, pending some additional information (which we had already provided the year before) before working on our papers. Can't say why they didn't ask those questions when we were in last time, or communicate with us in some way before this, as we could have come in at any time to move things along without delay. This time the documents were finished up, we signed on the dotted lines, and full sets of finger prints were obtained (again, they already had them on file from last year, so why was the new set needed?). All this could have taken place three weeks ago – now we will have to wait up to another month for our permit cards to be ready. This wait could make us late in renewing the car documents with the aduana (customs) office, which might prevent us from being eventually reimbursed the US$400 we paid for the car entry when we arrived here in September, since it is attached to our visa period. Plus, will we need to have those cards in hand when we go to pay up for another year of IMSS medical coverage, which we must do this month?

So, it's now a bit over a year that we have been Residentes Temporales here in México. All in all, it seems like it's been a very good thing for us. We're eating better, get more exercise and have no complaints about the health-care choices here. The climate at this elevation enables us to be outside in short-sleeves practically every day, and sleep comfortably every night. Windows are open most of the time, letting in the birdsong and the sounds of friendly community life around us. Flowers bloom year-round.  It's costing so much less money than it did in the US, for the same quality of life or better. Now if it only were easier for our relatives and NoB friends to drop by for visits, things would be excelente (copacetic).  Y'all come down!

When we arrived here last year, we learned that Fortín, as a community, had been celebrating Earth Day, for years, with a community-wide interpretive walk along the old railroad grade down and across the Metlac river canyon west of town. We learned that the “Melacton” this year wouldn't be on Earth Day, but instead would be celebrated on Arbor Day, so we wrote it on our calendar to be sure we would take part in it this year, joining the 1000+ neighbors who would make the walk in 2013. As it were, the day after Arbor Day, we remembered to look at our calender. We can hope we do better next year, as this is something we really look forward to doing.

Neither our welder nor our carpenter were here this week, although both said they would show up for some little projects that need finishing up. Bummer. Otherwise, life is oh so good. Well, Dan is concerned that Carmen is making little progress in learning spanish – so he will try to move forward on that a bit a little bit more each day, making it as painless as possible.

Plantas en las macetas

(Domingo 30 Junio - Sábado 06 Julio )   A new week! Lots of gatherings for many candidates running for offices. The corner we live on seems to be a favorite for the parties to gather and start their parades. They have all asked us if they can put signs up on our expanse of blue wall, and will we support them. The answer is always no, because since we are not Mexican citizens, we can have nothing whatsoever to do with voting and campaigns. Gives us lots of excitement though!

Sunday late afternoon we walked into town for our paletas, knowing there were to be big rallies in the park this day. We passed dozens of parked buses. They must have brought hundreds of folks into town from the outlying villages. As we walked out of our chosen ice cream parlor (there are five around the park), the first thing we saw was a group of vaqueros riding horses down the street. One man was showing off his horse doing the sidewards dance. Always an enjoyable sight! Sprinkles started shortly after we got there. We stood under various overhangs for a couple hours, and on some park benches under protective trees, enjoying the music and people-watching. There were people by the hundred still walking into town into the early evening! We found a break in the rain and hustled the 15 blocks home.

We had no sooner got into the house, when the heavens opened up! Booming fireworks went on 'til the partying broke up near midnight.  This kept all the barkers in the neighborhood going crazy.  With all the dogs in this area, we never, until this past week had dogs barking in the evening and into the night. Now there must be a new dog about a block away, and every little mouse or strange sound makes it bark, and that of course starts others joining in. The fireworks just added to the din.  Hope it quiets back down soon.

Monday morning Carmen had a 9am appointment with the IMSS nutritionist. Just one of those things the doctors put us thru here. But the nurse is happy with the recent blood test numbers and weight loss, so a followup appointment is not needed. Then wednesday morning we were again at IMSS at 7am for an 8:30am appointment. This is just the routine monthly appointment to get prescriptions refilled free at the IMSS pharmacy. No matter what time your appointment is, you are taken according to the order in which you arrived at the clinic, hence our idea of getting there super early – staff doesn't get in place until 8am or so. There were 24 folks already waiting by the time we arrived, however not all for our doctor's office. Turned out that five were ahead of us. Then for some reason a white haired lady got taken first and she came in way after us. We had noticed that Carmen's booklet was kept separate and wondered why. Well, she was called in second. We finally figured that ancianos (oldsters) seem to get priority. We will check that theory out next month—seems like having gray or white hair has it's benefits.

Extra times are being filled with Carmen doing odds and ends of painting. One day Carmen went down memory lane with sorting and filing many photos into albums. Dan is busy working on the storage area in the master bedroom. He misses his radial arm saw that we decided not to bring since he “would not be doing much carpentry” that requires it, and storage of an item of that size is a problem here. He is making do with various jigs and work-arounds using the circular and sabre saws.

And what does Carmen miss? Hmm. There must be something. Ah yes – the clear colored dust instead of the charcoal colored dust! However, truth be told, there is now far less dust on surfaces than a month ago. Why you ask? Because of no masonry construction/renovation or cane burning. As we drove past the El Carmen ingenio (sugar refinery) in Cuautlapan last week, there were no trucks waiting to be processed. In fact, there was no steam or smoke coming from the factory at all. The zafra (sugar harvest) is over, marking the end of the dry season, and indeed the afternoon and evening rains have been pretty regular of late.

Is there a ghost in the house? Carmen says she has sensed a girl about five years old in ghostly attire. Tuesday Dan was working between our master bedroom where the new closet is being built and his current work area in the medium bedroom. He was in the master bedroom and Carmen was downstairs. Suddenly his electric sander, in the medium bedroom, started up. All by itself?

Yes, we had another bedroom flood. This time, a sudden really hard rain and wind came up and before we could get upstairs, our north master bedroom window, that was closed but not latched tight, blew open. The curtain got soaked and water soaked the floor – half way across the room!! What is there about this room that attracts water so?

Still the ceramic shop is closed. There are flowers in the front – as if there was a funeral in the family? Eventually someone will return, if only to dispose of the inventory with a sale, so we'll keep checking here every time we head down the Fortín-Córdoba bulevar.  The kitties have gotten into the habit of going out back for a while as soon as they finish their breakfast, just to check out the day We keep telling them it is okay to use the bit of dirt out there for their potty area. No luck so far though.

Friday morning fourteen city workers showed up about 9am, three trucks and one excavator. Wow – is the city actually here to put our sewer line for the new bathroom in? Seems that the architect and the engineer still do not agree on which direction the drain should go. At least the engineer looked at the project and he said it was a real reto (challenge). No, they accomplished nothing but to take one measurement, but did get us a bit excited. Dan moved our car out of the way only to see all the crew and machinery leave. Just another disappointment. At least they are thinking about us...!

About 4pm Friday a crew returned from the water/sewer department. It seems at this time that the decision was made to drain our sewage across under the road into the stream at the foot of the hill, along with other neighbors along the avenida. This is instead of connecting into the larger/deeper main sewer line which runs along the calle, and which dumps into another creek much farther south of here. So much for water quality concerns, vs. the huge expense of putting in a sewage treatment plant. Without a reliable taxation system in place, it's amazing that any public works get done. Be that as it is, thank goodness for daily heavy rains. The men spent some time trying to find the entrance to the sewer line from our closest neighbor.'s house Our registro (sewer junction box) was enlarged by our renovation crew several months ago, but the engineer now wants it even bigger, plus a bit reshaped. Guess the city can put their pipes up to the registro at the edge of our property, and when some of our crew can come back for a few days, they can rebuild the box and connect things up.

 

Since we had to start the car to put it away, we drove to the ceramic shop again – just in case by some chance it might be open. Miracles do happen, turns out the folks were on vacation! We now own five large decorative macetas (pots for plants). We talked the owner down twenty percent from the asking prices, which were already good. We think we are happy! We can now plant our shrimp plant and the Pata de elefante, plus, we can buy more large plants for inside or outside!

Carmen baked homemade bread for the first time here. She has not lost her knack yet, though the cinnamon rolls needed more sugar and butter to become stickier. Well, the rolls could have been lighter in texture too. The problem with homemade goodies is that we do not stop at one piece. Saturday, the last day for electioneering before tomorrow's regional voting, saw the end of loud-speaker equipped cars touring thru the neighborhood touting candidates for political office. Carmen got the plants into their new pots, and also transplanted some out of plastic pots into the new bigger ones, and Dan progressed on the new bedroom storage unit, completing the hinged bench seat with space underneath, with a start on installing the Home Depot cabinets in the structure.  

We note that the hot spell just experienced by the western US brought the temperatures in our old home town Anacortes, in Washington State, about to an even match with those we have been enjoying here in western Veracruz state for most of the time we've been here.  We have lived thru many summers up in the Pacific Northwest when only a week or so in august would see hot days and sleep-under-only-a-sheet nights, so that brief heat wave this week was probably perceived as a welcome surprise for our friends and relatives still in the homeland.

De lluvia y flores

(Domingo 16 - Sábado 22 Junio ) 

Isn't life great when you are busy busy busy! Sunday morning, and Carmen wants to buy plants and make our small garden areas beautiful! Ania had said that she would give us a start of an asparagus fern, so we called her and invited ourselves to their home to get this plant, in spite of the fact that she had a bad cold sort of thing. We just knew that she would feel better with a visit from us, though this might not have been the case. Turns out that the best fern was amongst poison oak. No thank you, but there were more. We ended up soaking a pot (so that we could pry the plants out) that had both the Sprenger's fern that we wanted for a hanging basket in our new bathroom, plus a lace fern that is now outside near the car gate, plus a Murraya paniculata (mock orange, orange jasmine,) which is now happy planted in our petite front yard. We also got Trevetia ahouai (Nariz de payaso or Clown's Nose plant, aka Bishop's Balls) which is not doing well, plus a ground cover, Saxifraga stolonifera, that is actually potted near the asparagus fern in the bathroom. Dan built a shelf for plants, near the ceiling under the skylight for a small Cabeza de Negro, which will send it's leafy vines up into the skylight well.

On our way home we stopped by a little nursery that sells trees and shrubs, plus ground covers. Here we bought a four foot tree with longish branches and covered with the most beautiful flowers. Turns out this is a Bauhinia monandra, down here called a Pata de cabra for the shape of the light-green leaves (“goat's foot”), but you might know it as an Orchid Tree. Also we purchased a small Pata de elefante plant (Beaucarnea recurvata), which you might know as a Ponytail Palm, although it's not a palm at all. These grow slowly can can become very large, but can be maintained small when potted.  We were back home we then realized it was Fathers Day, but no one had called during our outing.

We thought it best to dash out to the floral market area in town right away for a quick trip to be back home by the time Dan's daughters might be calling. Several purchases here. First we spied a passion fruit vine (Passiflora edulis), with it's most beautiful delicate purple-blue blooms. (We inserted a picture of this flower in the last post.)  Dan had been searching for one for a while, and is already anticipating having his own crop of these tasty fruits (around here called maracuyá, but in Guatemala he bought this refreshing fruit as a granadilla, “little grenade”). Next were purchased two Mandevilla vines, one white (aka Chilean Jasmine) and one a rosey deep pink. All three of these vines are potted on the bedroom terraza level to climb the walls and fence.

We spent a long time deciding on which hibiscus to purchase, which for some reason here in Mexico is called a Tulipán. However, if you look this word up on the internet, all that shows are tulips, a bulb flower we are very familiar with, grown in the Skagit Valley of Washington, and Holland, of course. We finally made a decision, only to have a man pick up the plant just as we were reaching for it. No other of that color. Bought our second choice and so far our chosen spot has not made it happy. Maybe it's in too much sun, or too dry? The bloom is 6.5 inches across, pale magenta with white-orange fringes, with a vivid red-yellow stamen.

A lush lavender-bloomed Plectranthus mona is planted between our palm and plumbago out front. The Pachystachy lutea or golden shrimp plant is still in it's pot. We have high hopes of a finding a special new ceramic pot for it, and will be set on top of our back area grill until it gets big enough to plant behind the car, where we can see it from the living room. We see these wild in the forest edges and they can get up to five feet tall. Then of course there is Carmen's favorite of the moment – the Clerodendrum thomsoniae. This is the Bleeding Heart vine with white flowers with dark bright centers of red. It was a very popular plant in 19^th century Mexico, for it's tri-color appearance of the country's flag. It grew out of favor due to being difficult to maintain in other parts of the country, as it requires shade and lots of water. Hopefully it is happily planted near a north window to grow up on the fence there.

So far the sweet corn we planted does not seem to want to grow. Only three of the nasturtiums have sprouted and the sweet peas are being shy. Our carpenter was here tuesday, thursday and friday, finishing his work. Removing and then refitting our laundry room door after taking it to his shop for painting, fitting & attaching all the various trim pieces that were left off the doors and windows waiting for the walls to be painted, and putting up a shelf in kitchen over the refrigerator space.

A lady came to our gate with a few plants for sale. We really did not want the orchids she had, but she looked so down-hearted, that we bought two. Then Cosme showed up with his glorious mischievous smile with two large bags of plants! What can we do? He laid them all out on the porch and explained the beauty of them all. All 20 or so. We only bought fifteen. Now you must understand that these are very small starts, all epiphytes (manydendrobiums), plus a dark red anthurium. We paid cash for part of them and the rest is credited towards the plywood he will get when we are done with our projects. It was raining the whole time he was here, and he travels by walking and bus! He tied all the orchids that were not already growing on sticks of wood, into the branches of the bugambilia where they look like they took root naturally.

Wednesday we went to the INM (Instituto Nacional de Migración) office in Córdoba to hand in the papers for our permiso to be residents in Mexico. We decided to pay for the next three years at once, which will save us from making two more annual visits like these, and one full year of fees. The fee amounts to about US$150 per year, per person, to be deposited to the INM account at any bank. We did this at the Santander bank but a block away. Went back and handed our papers from the bank to the lady at Migración, only to discover that Carmen's last name was spelled wrong on the receipt. We had to go back to the bank and get that corrected. Back and forth up/down the three flights of stairs, plus stops at the Ofix store across the street for copies, but it all was done in about an hour or so. We assume it will go well, and when we are notified by computer, we will go back to the office and get our plastic coated ID cards. Then we will have 15 days to get to the city of Veracruz, or any other country border entry point, to get our car permitted by the Aduanas (customs office) there for the same period of time. After leaving the immigration office, we went to our family IMSS clinic to get lab and x-ray orders stamped validated (vigencia) for next Monday's hospital visit.

One night we had gone to bed and heard a loud crash. Discovered one of the planters we had hung from the upstairs patio, had fallen onto the ground onto the patio a story below. It was raining and the now wet dirt was everywhere. The plants seemed to be okay so they got replanted the next day. Turns out the weight of the pot, plants and wet soil had sheared off the screws holding the planter braces to the steel railing. Back to the drawing board on that idea!

Talk about lluvia (rain), then there was thursday night! It had been raining for two days, rather steady and at times quite hard. Around nine pm, just having commented on the downpour outside and how pleasant it was inside, dry and in bed reading, when Carmen noticed Gardi cat, who was lying beside her, looking over the edge of the bed. Assuming she would see a bug, she also stretched her neck that way. And much to our surprise, it was no bug! It was a rapidly rising covering of water on the floor!!!! The water was just about to go down our inside stairway, and was in all three bedrooms and bath. Actually we got the long squeegee from downstairs and Dan, at this point totally drenched from clearing the outside drain, ran back and forth pushing water out the door, back onto the terraza. Furniture that we could lift got put up on wood slats to help dry. Thank goodness for our curious cat! Dan had discovered that the drain on the deck outside the bedroom was covered with a plastic plant saucer, so the terraza had turned into a small lake, backing up the slight slope and into the bedroom! What a mess, but at least the floor got a good mopping!

The rain was so hard that it absolutely took one's breath away to be out in it to clear the drain, and to squeegee the water across the terrace towards the drain! Seems that we experienced our first real tropical storm – Barry! When constructed, Dan's idea for the terraza had been to build that surface one step down from the bedroom level, but interfacing everything with the existing levels in the laundry room and lower floor door & window lintels, moved that surface, when the slab was poured, to almost the same level as the bedroom,. This works fine as long as the drain across the deck is not covered or clogged. We did bring some empty “flood bags” from the US, to fill with sand and use at our front entrance where we had seen water pouring down the roadway. Maybe we had best get some of them filled, though the front yard was in okay shape after the storm, to use in the future for emergencies like this. And maybe a small sill in the doorway would be a good idea? Or a scupper off the terrace to complement the 4” floor drain?

Saturday started with sunny skies, the first we had seen for days. We had been cooped up, so we decided on a shopping trip thru town – on foot – looking for a flower pot or two for a couple of the plants we purchased this week. There is a sizable shop with large ceramics near where the railroad track crosses the Fortin-Cordoba boulevard, but we feel they are costly there. When we visited it a year ago, the lady tending shop apparently thought us to be dumb tourists who would pay outrageous prices. At any rate, we walked around Fortín, from the southeast corner where we live, around and about to the northwest corner just short of the autopista, and back of course, in search of large ceramic flower pots. Did not find any. We did stop at the gate of the nursery again, but it was closed. Also strolled all the passageways thru the public market, the small and large stalls stocked many things, but no garden items. We saw and spoke to our welder, who was having a chat with friends on the other side of town. Our only purchase this day was at a coffee roasting company that we found NW of downtown. One the way home we chanced by a lot where some trees had been cut down.  Here we found some branches from a bougainvillea that we lugged home and wired up to one of the concrete porch columns.  We tied many of our small epiphytes here, a good home for these blooming air plants.  Was perfect weather for such a stroll and a bit of garden work! But, the leftovers from tropical storm Barry poured down again in the late afternoon and off and on into the night.

Dan has been making a list of plants on this small piece of property (family, latin/english/spanish name, characteristics, location, link to webpage). It will be interesting to see how many we can squeeze in!