Examen ocular

Domingo 23 - Sábado 29 Mar 2014   Carmen wanted to go to the Lebanese restaurant in Orizaba to celebrate her cumpleaños (birthday), but for one reason or another we never did it until today, 4½ months later.  Sunday is the day when they have their full buffet, and since we had talked about our positive experience there, Ania and Frank decided to dine with us. Oh so scrumptious! Authentic ethnic restaurants here are few and far between. After overstuffing ourselves from the buffet, the owner gave us some Lebanese special desserts that were not part of the dessert table. On the way out, Ania spied some items to buy. The one was a kilo-sized bag of semolina, which is rarely found in stores here. She shared with us. Carmen had been longing for the taste of cream of wheat for a long time...

We received an email from a friend who has been involved in rescue/recovery efforts, about the devastating mud slide very close to where we lived for many years in the US. Since then, we have been following the local news on the NWCN website.  The landslide, a mile wide and pushing mud & debris about a mile from the hillside that gave way, covered 59 lots and about two dozen houses, and has blocked the state highway and clogged the Stillaguamish river betwen Oso & Darrington, in the state of Washington. The rain-soaked hillside north of the river, perhaps undercut by the flowing water, came down as a rush of mud, rocks, trees and undergrowth, crossing the river and covering the little group of houses that had been built in a flat ox-bow loop on the south side of the river.  Rescure efforts were hampered as the mud was like quicksand, and due to constant rain it was feared that the hillside had not yet stabilzed. As of saturday 18 bodies have been recovered and 30 are still missing and may never be found..

Another jigsaw puzzle was started and finished. Only 1000 pieces, but harder than the last. It is a golfing "Where's Waldo"-type scene, with hundreds of tiny people golfing in the most unlikely situations. In trees, cars, trains, planes, canoes, and over cliff edges.

Tuesday Dan finally had his examen ocular (eye exam). His experience was the opposite of Carmen's.  Dan had Dr Ferrón, a male doctor instead of the woman Carmen had. This fellow enjoyed talking with us and opinioned that Obama should take over Mexico and make it part of the US.  He could not imagine any one leaving the US and moving here. He said he would gladly trade our US house today for his. Dan's eyes are in good shape, no changes since his last exam two years ago, and he was given some eyedrops in case he ever had need of them.

Mangoes, guayabas, apples (at US$0.60 cents a pound), pepitas (pumpkin seeds), spinach (two large bunches for US$0.14) and good looking pork chops were our buy today. Strawberries fresh on a corner in downtown Fortín for US$0.35 a pound. These are easily as good as the berries grown in northwest Washington, and are not the huge, watery, weak-flavored berries that are shipped around the US from California. Yes, another shortcake! Apple pie soon too, with MaryLou's recipe. Often our evening cena (dinner) is a half apple and piece of cheese each.

Tuesday thru wednesday we received a light steady rain. Posies perked up! Our gorgeous hibiscus suddenly showed us that it is suffering with root wilt. We followed survival info from the internet. Took it out of the pot. Threw the dirt away. Rinsed the roots in chlorinated water. Put it in new soil which we then watered with an anti-fungal solution. Wondering if we have saved it. Probably not, but Ania says they are pretty resiliant. We also have a couple other plants with a fungal problem. We have sprayed and watered them with a sulfer-based fungicide. Apparently this fungal wilt was the cruel killer of our goats foot pink orchid tree.  We saved some pods from this tree, planted them after losing the tree, and so far eight have germinated. Also the piece of our vanilla orchid which was accidentally broken off a year ago, has started to grow again. Yea!

Gardi spotted a butterfly (black with orange triangle and white spots around the edge) on it's last legs. At least it was unable to fly. He did not touch it, until it crawled upon his tail, at which time he gently removed it and sat watching it, the last we saw. Smij is becoming less fearful of her world. She even occasionally lets someone passing outside the fence actually see her, the least scary people it seems are mostly men with soft voices. She will study them before dashing inside.

We presently have copper-colored chrysanthemums on our dining table and red carnations of cream & deep red petals in the living room. Our  miniature roses are blooming: red, white, peach and yellow. Think they will be small bushes. More orchids blooming. Speaking of copper – the back portion of Carmen's hair is rather copper-like – the front being light gray. Weird for some one who formally lived with ash blonde.

Friday was not as expected. We went to IMSS hospital to do a quick pick-up of papers at the clinic head's office to get Carmen's next eye appointment. The tonometer (machine for testing internal eye pressure) had been broken when Dr Vera had examined Carmen, so the doctora had written up an order to send her to another hospital for the test.  This is the same machine that tested Dan earlier in this week!  Now, it seems that the clinic chief, understanding that the machine was fixed, wanted to avoid sending folks elsewhere for the testing. Apparently they had to wait for Dr Vera to personally check and OK the machine. Two other ladies were there waiting for the same issue. Turns out that the doctora never showed up  for her shift and we are to return monday. This next time we will not forget a book. We were there for four hours!   While waiting, Dan's sore throat got to the point where he was barely able to squeak sounds. Since we are to take in a fecal occult test monday, we can take no vitamin C – which is our favorite “get rid of colds and sore throat” treatment.

Mid-day temperatures went above 90ºF. Used our car airconditioner driving home from IMSS, for the first time since arriving in Mexico. This evening a gray-haired lady rang our doorbell. She carried an old five gallon bucket, and asked for some food. She gave us so many blessings of thanks after we handed her a container of milk, that we felt we should have given more. We are not the only house she will stop at however. Some folks specifically ask for tortillas, which we have only frozen. The younger folks get a juice box, and one really starving elderly man also gets cookies or part of our recent meal.

A favorite tv show at the moment is “The Renovators” from 4:30 til 6pm, five days a week. Takes place in Australia and was filmed in 2011. We had missed the first few shows, but luckily after the last show, the series started again. It starts with 26 people and ends up with one, renovating six rundown houses around Sydney. Friday evening a strong wind storm, with giant rain drops, blew in from the northwest. Carmen had to fight with the strong rachas (gusts), to get the windows closed. The floors and chairs on the north and west were soaked with driven rain. We have never before had forceful winds from the west, and we had not had rain blow inside since we put the plexiglas panels part way up outside our windows. The storm was relatively short – but soaking. 

Our breakfast bananas have gone squishy – banana muffin time. The neighborhood gray sleek female cat can get thru our narrow barred gates. Yesterday she was found sitting with Gardi under our car. No fighting – merely enjoying the companionship! Probably Gardi will invite her into our house some day. Then what?

No specific pictures illustrating the week's activities, so we have selected some images of our cactus & succulent collection to place here.

Cosas del horno

Domingo 02 Mar - Sábado 08 Mar 2014   Why is it that Carmen gets into a cleaning mood on sundays? Plus she weeded the front flower garden, while Dan did much watering. Also there was an unusual two layer birthday cake made. Both layers were our banana muffin recipe, plus grated carrots. The bottom layer became spicy with cinnamon and cloves, plus dates and pecans. All put together with a huge quantity of glaseado real (royal frosting). While making the frosting, Carmen did not put her glasses on 'til everything was whipping in the bowl. Oops, it looks much too wet! On with the glasses. Too much boiling water, so the whole recipe had to be doubled. Thankfully the frosting is not a really rich thing, lacking the butter most icings contain. It does not freeze well, so it was all spread on and around the cake.  The horno (oven) was busy with things all afternoon, as rolls and cookies followed the cake.

Monday was Ania's birthday and she and Frank came for a 5pm dinner of tilapia filets and chicken thighs smothered in a west African peanut sauce accompanied with a brown rice combined with cubes of yam and also fresh ejotes (string beans), left long. Carmen carefully put stems of fresh mint where she was filling the plates, to be sure she would not forget to garnish the plates. Yep – at the end of the meal she remembered the mint! She did remember to put the salads on this time. And the homemade dinner rolls both plain and some cinnamon sugar sticks, both of the same dough. When the first slice of pastel (cake) was cut from the end, the whole of it was frosting! That is how thick the frosting was! Careful though Carmen was in de-pitting the dates, Ania got a pit in her piece -- something special for the birthday girl. Carmen had also baked Ania some oatmeal cookies, all packaged up to take home, as she likes them so much. After dinner we played rummy cube. Each of the four of us won one set and Dan won the total by points. The perfect game when everyone wins.

Some needed rain arrived over night. Tuesday at our monthly doctors appointment, Dr Rendon's nurse, Luz, said that she could read english, she just could not understand it when spoken, just like Carmen and spanish. An appointment was made for Carmen's last mammogram, which would be at the hospital in the afternoon the next day. Gracious, she has reached that age already? Since she also had a wednesday morning eye exam, this seemed quite convenient.

The oftamologa (opthamologist) was two hours late arriving to her office. Possibly a staff meeting ran late (as we have seen happen before)? She, the doctor, perhaps was not happy that Carmen did not speak spanish, or was she just having a bad day? She was certainly professional, and had no trouble reading the eye care history Carmen had brought from the states, but she was just not warm like most everyone else we meet. This is the first experience we have had with anyone here who was not totally pleasant. Carmen wanted her eye pressure checked, but as one might guess, this facility lacked the equipment for this, and we'll later get an envio for another appointment elsewhere.  The uncomfortable time with the doctor and this last hassle caused Carmen to start thinking of moving back to the US. There Dan would not go to the medical appointments to talk for Carmen. While mentally listing all the positives and negatives of living in the two countries, that was one of  the few pluses for the US. If only Carmen's head would give in and learn to communicate in spanish. We now had a three hour wait until our next appointment.  We considered walking around town and perhaps having a lunch at a reastuarant, but we decided it was too much so we drove home instead..

One most embarrassing thing happened while waiting for the eye doctor. There were a dozen folks waiting. All the sudden, a lovely looking medical assistant stepped right in front of Carmen, bent down to where her face was smack in front of Carmen's. Now what! She proceeds to tell Carmen that she looks like a princess. Her daughter wants to looks like a Disney princess, and Carmen looks just like one, as she lightly touches Carmen's face and hair. Well – that woke up the dozing waiting folks and put smiles on their faces! The lady never knew that Carmen could barely understand her – though enough to know what was going on! Nor did Carmen think to tell her that she had wished for the beautiful darker complexion that the medical assistant had, when she was growing up.

We drove back to the hospital for the 2pm mammogram . First we went upstairs to the lab to clarify something – did not help. We still do not understand. Next we went downstairs for the mammogram and found ourselves 45 minutes early, and fifteen minutes before they closed for lunch break. Nevertheless, we handed in the exam order form, and low and behold, Carmen was immediately taken. Much too much pressure used, though Dan did not have to come in and interpret. After all, these tests must be the same all over the world.  We drove further east to the Soriana store to buy our favorite oatmeal. Don't know why, but theirs tastes more oatmealy. We also amongst other items bought a bag of their spicy tortilla chips. That evening Carmen asked Dan to check in the car for the chips, since she realized that they had not been unpacked. No chips any place, not even on the receipt. We know that we both handled the bag and put it in the cart. Hope who ever got them, enjoyed them, since we obviously put them in the wrong cart.

Across the street one afternoon we saw five huge turkey vultures. The dead cat is now gone. Never saw a turkey vulture that close before. They certainly do look much the same size and shape as wild turkeys. It is good to have something to clean up the decaying flesh. Lots of butterflies fluttering thru our flowers – to Smij's delight. Gardi pays less attention to them. The geckos and grasshoppers are more his thing.   Woolen socks were put away, which of course brought another cold front thru. Seems anything below 60ºs nights or 72º days is a bit fresco (chilly) to us now. But the orchids (and the cacti) seem to love the cool mornings and moderate days, and are beginning to bloom now. So far only tiny flowers. Still hoping that we have an orchid that will produce large flowers.

Another warm morning came along. We took advantage of it and dined on our breakfast of huevos escalfados (poached eggs) on toast out front on our porch at our table for two. No different than eating outside at a restaurant we tell ourselves, as folks walk by, saying Buenos Días, while we are sipping our fresh squeezed orange juice and local coffee.

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!  

Soldando

Domingo 02 - Sábado 08 Feb   Sunday we did a good cleaning of our upstairs terraza with the pressure washer. Wanted it to be clean of the accumulated rain-speckled dust and cane soot when our crew had to work up there. Dan worked the pressure washer, whilst Carmen maneuvered a stiff bristled broom. The next good day for canefield burning will dirty it up again. The soot is not all bad – it makes a good fertilizer for our plants. Seems like we are seeing more cane on trucks that has not been field-burned. The refineries pay a  lower price when the leaves are with the cane.

Last week's concrete shelf work fixed the position for the new water heater, enabling Dan to drill the holes thru the wall for the various pipes.  At one point, when drilling the holes thru the walls, it required two hands inside at the very back of the corner cabinet, lying on the fixed upper shelf in the cabinet.  Once in there with the holes complete, the opening was so tight he just could not back out.  As he struggled to worm out of the tight space, Carmen had to grab him by the back of his belt and pull him out.  

Last week Dan worked soldando (soldering) up most of the sections of copper pipe/fittings to make the connections to the new heater.  Now before proceeding we had to remove the existing stainless steel sink, to provide access for final assembly and re-route the cold water to supply both the sink and the new water heater. Not as easy as it sounds. The back lip of the sink was under the wall tiles and there was a bump of concrete on the front of the hole in the countertop that had to be chipped off before the sink would slide/lift out at an angle that cleared the backsplash tiles. Hopefully with the reinstall and new caulking, there will be no more water leaks into the undersink cabinet. While sink was out, Carmen painted the cabinet interior white to make it brighter. She is considering painting inside the rest of the kitchen cabinets. She  also scraped, sanded and painted a bottom wall in our small "powder room."

Dan pulled out our cook stove to connect the propane to the new hot water heater installed on the front porch. The last hole drilled, thru the brick wall by the kitchen range, was for the flexible gas line, extended with a tee from our kitchen stove propane shutoff valve. We took advantage of having the stove pulled out to clean the grease off the stove sides. Also touched up with appliance paint on the sides of the stove where it had been scratched from sliding it in and out of it's space. 

Our crew of four were here at 7am monday. They worked three days this week to finish all their jobs. The crew removed the forms for the concrete shelves on the porch outside of the kitchen, and then tiled the the surfaces. Luis certainly does beautiful  tile work. The round hole in the shelf  thru which the heater flue will pass was plumbed and a matching hole was cut thru the roof directly above it.  Heri had the job of patching some corner spots where the rejas (steel security bars) had loosned up at the corners.  Carmen caught him about to paint one spot that he had not yet sanded smooth!  The whole crew worked on sealing up the other side of the south party wall.  At the end of the last day for the crew, Luis, Alfonso and Dan connected up the new water heater and tightened all the threaded joints to stop a few leaks.

Unfortunately Dan had a dental appointment tuesday morning and then wednesday we both had our doctor appointment (cita). We hated to be away, always so many questions to be answered by Dan, but, that is the way of life. We do trust them, so that is not a problem. We just missed some of the time with them. They are such happy fellows full of smiles and singing, even at the end of their ten hour days. Amazing!

With the sink out, Dan was able to finish up the new water line runs. One problem we wanted to fix, was to reverse the cold and hot sides, which were originally plumbed to the wrong sides.  Since the two supply pipes and the 2" drain line were installed very close to each other, with the copper pipes extending only a few inches out of the wall surface (with compression x npt valves attached there), working space was tight. It all worked out fine, with the new pipes up close against the back wall, one installed over the drain pipe and the other below.  Bringing the cold water over to the other side necessitated a lot of fittings (and 18 solder joints within 8" between the heater supply shutoff and the supply to the sink). He reused the sink valves, only having to buy a new shutoff valve and a (compression x compression) union to connect the cold water to the new lines.  The final solder joints were in the back of the corner cabinet where the lines right-angled thru to the corner of the porch.  He had to use a cookie sheet for protecting the wooden shelves and the electric conduit strung back there while using the torch.

The rest of our week seemed pretty quiet. Carmen worked digging up the soil around the new garden pasarela.  We got the the sink back in, all nicely caulked. We both worked and got the 4" flue pipes up thru the roof.  Next the big moment of turning on the water heater -- up to this point we had been running just cold water thru the lines. The electric ignition did not work – we will have to call a technician to repair it under its warranty. Dan took the burner cover off while Carmen held the match, and the pilot did ignite. We were happy to see that there were no water leaks under the sink and we had hot water! That is, until we went out front later to find hot water on the porch!  Oh darn, a leaky solder joint (the only one out of more than 50) -- not evident until the hot water had worked it's way past the paste flux. Thankfully it was outside.

Needless to say, the joint would have to be removed, fittings un-soldered, cleaned and then re-soldered. But, Dan had planned ahead and thankfully installed threaded unions (just so the heater could be removed without disturbing any solder joints) so the next day it was a relatively quick thing to detach that 3/4" section (between the heater and the flexible hot water line connected to the pipe going thru the wall) and make the fix.  It is good not to have to wait a long time for hot water at the kitchen sink anymore!   Back to washing a couple dishes at a time instead of stacking them up until there were enough to make the wait (for hot water from the distant main heater) worthwhile.

Albañiles trabajando

Domingo 26 Ene - Sábado 01 Feb   Sunday Colyn came for dinner and we had a delightful chat. Yes, we had the pork roast recently purchased. It was without a doubt the best pork roast we have had in years!  Since we now have our new Koblenz wet/dry vacuum cleaner, Carmen has been super cleaning one room at a time. Took three days to finish ridding the house of the soot we get from cane burning. Of course we could keep our doors and windows closed. But, who wants to do this when the sun is out and the air is warm?  On tuesday and friday Dan had the next couple of tooth-whitening sessions at the dentist.  Each session involved being fitted with a device designed to hold his mouth open, putting a protective coating on the encias (gums), painting a light-reactive bleach-like substance on the teeth, and then having a clip with strong blue light set in front of the teeth to activate the whitener for a period of about 45 minutes. 

Thursday morning, bright and early, our renovation equipo (team, crew) showed up.  Dan talked to Luís, the foreman, about raises for the crew, as the federal and Veracruz area minimum daily wage went up 3.9% this year (to MX$67.29, or US$5.18, per day). As skilled workers, our guys get about 3½ to 5½ times this minimum, for a ten hour day. There are also IVA tax increases on some critical things (gasoline, bus fares) that will affect our albañiles, who travel from Coscomatepec each day. Luis said it did not matter, but we felt it was our responsibility to recognize that they had higher costs this year, so we added a peso to all their hourly rates, plus an additional peso increase for Luís.

They are putting in a pasarela (walkway) on the north side of our entry in the front jardín similar to the ones on the south. We were going to keep grass there, but we have real dislike of using the weedeater to cut the small bit of grass there. After all, doesn't being retired mean you don't have to cut the grass any more? The worst part is the cleaning up of all the thrown-about grass. Already we have many plants just waiting to fill in the new planting areas that will border the new walkway.

Among other projects saved for the crew are: 1) Building a storage cabinet topped with a concrete shelf on the south end of the front porch for holding the new small hot water heater and garden stuff, which will be eventually enclosed with metal cabinet doors made by Mauricio.  Dan will be drilling holes thru the wall to make pipe runs to take cold water from the supply point inside under the kitchen sink to the new heater and a hot line back from the heater to the sink. In the process the sink will be reseated (fixing the constant leaks we've had there).  2)  Ceramic tiles (we'll use up our leftovers from the bathroom project) will be set on top of  the concrte shelf on the porch, and to seal and finish the floor of the base cabinet under the kitchen sink. 3) Redoing a couple of terraza tile joints above the new bathroom at both the east and west ends, where small leaks are staining the walls. 4) Addressing moisture problems on the outside of the party wall south of our house, to keep moisture from damaging interior walls on the porch and in the bath & upstairs medium bedroom. Seems the sealant on the south-facing wall has bubbled so it must be scraped off and re-done. The neighboring house is just finished on the first floor, with its second floor unfinshed brick walls in place with no roof.  The unfinished state of things is allowing rain to soak thru into our house walls. Our crew will reseal the joints and create chaflanes (bevels, sloped concrete joints) where exterior vertical surfaces meet horizontals.

Well – we had almost a year with our beautiful wall to the north. Someone has taken it upon his- or herself to decorate the wall with, what? Probably a name written in a fancy script to make it basically unreadable. We also saw the same tagging in the same color paint on a wall near downtown. Sort of like an animal marking it's territory? Our crew will re-paint the wall  -- we have LOTS of leftover blue paint we can use.. If it gets to be a problem and we get tired of overpainting with blue, we have considered just leaving it be and imprinting flowers overtop the graffiti to obscure and disguise it's message.

Our dearest kitties are closed into their small room upstairs so that the crew does not have to be careful when going in and out the doors and gates This also being the sewing room, Carmen spent time with them while she made heavy cloth sacks for a couple games we have, figuring it is better/quicker to mix the tiles in a bag, than on the table. As soon as the crew leaves at 5:30pm, we let the kitties out of their room and the first thing they do is to run down the stairs, after a quick check upstairs, and out the door downstairs to check out all the new changes. It is amazing to watch. One would not think they would care about such things. When the crew is not here, Gardi will go out front and sit on the porch bench about 4pm, and meow until Carmen comes out and waters plants, if they were not watered earlier that day. Whenever it happens, Gardi supervises -- seems like it might be his favorite time of day. Smij is getting braver every day, but will have no part of the watering. Dan waters the back area and we sort of take turns watering the upstairs terraza off our bedroom.

Our crew changes clothes in our laundry/shop at the beginning and end of their workday. There is a window/pass-thru between the laundry and our new bathroom. To give the guys more privacy, Carmen gave Dan a curtain and he installed the rod to hold it.  It looks good, and also finishes off the bathroom nicely.

The exposed other side of our south wall was worked on this week. The guys scraped off the bubbled impermeabilizante (underneath the paint there is an additional tarry coating) and discovered the wall has a few tiny cracks and one major horizontal one across it.  This was perhaps the major causes of the moisture in the upper wall, causing the interior paint to peel off. They are chipping out loose stucco, re-sealing the tar layer with the propane torch, and will be installing expanded mesh (metal desplegado) and stuccoing over the horizontal crack. 

The nights have been in the low 50ºFs and the days sunny (except for one rainy day) and below 80ºF. Our tall indoor dracaena has decided to lose leaves. Why? It is insect free, so is it due to too little or too much water, temperatures briefly below 60º, too little light or possibly a draft when the back door stands open? Can't think of anything else!  Our cut flowers which were purchased this week at the front gate are long stemmed as usual. Gorgeous white double daisies for our tall vase and delicate pink carnations for the table. The two-week old orange and green carnations still have some fresh looking blossoms so they were put in the vase with the new pinks, which have many buds so should last three weeks. All indoor vased flowers get fresh water, a rinsing and ends cut off every few days to prevent the putrid smell they would otherwise get.  Outside, we lost two plants to the cold nights.  We have been leaving our vanilla orchid wrapped with plastic sheeting when we get a period with nights below 50ºF --  with this extra care we hope to not lose the growing tips like a year ago. 

After three days of  trabajando (working), the guys have nearly finished the walkway. Hopefully all the grass roots were dug out. Perhaps we'll wait a few weeks before planting with the hope of getting any remaining grass roots killed.  We bought a couple bags of potting soil for the area on both sides of our new walkway. That side area was low and the new walkway was built the height of the center walkway, which of course means more soil is needed at the sides. Bought hopefully the final plumbing fittings for the kitchen sink and small hot water heater. Dan has been drilling holes thru the walls to connect water and propane lines. Also been doing much soldering of many little pieces in preparation. The base cabinet to the right of the sink needs to be empty (as the pipes will go thru the walls there and run along the back into the space under the sink).. Carmen did this plus a yearly cleaning there.

The newest food that we like is jicama (a brown-skinned, white-fleshed tuber) and Dan has been enjoying fresh guayabas (guavas).  Peeled and cubed, jicama is much like apple when put into a Waldorf-like salad, or with tomato. Also very inexpensive and full of vitamin C. Actually we have eaten it before, just never learned to like it.  When we think of it as a "fruit" it is much more appealing.

Pay de mango

Domingo 19 - Sábado 25 Enero 

Sunday what did we do? Packed for our trip to Veracruz and caught up on some reading. Dan printed off many maps to help us to find our way. We fed Shattuck's miss kitty, who was oh so happy to see us! She ran back and forth from her food dish to our laps.  A great sunset tonight.  They are rarer than we like, as we are backed up on the west with hills and mountains.

Monday we indeed did pick up our paperwork at IMSS, our envio, to go to the hospital in Veracruz. We thought to come back home before the 90 minute drive, but since the car was all packed, we choose to drive onwards. We decided on taking the toll autopista there and the free highway home. The drive went well, until we took a wrong turn just going into the city, in spite of all the maps!   But, we got to where we hoped to end up with no real difficulty. This being the inexpensive Hotel Merida with inside parking Dan had chosen from the internet. It was about 12 blocks or so from the hospital. The drive had of course exhausted us, so a nap was in order before we went out for lunch. We walked around several blocks near the hotel to get the “lay of the land.” Found no enticing restaurant, as this was very much a working neighborhood.  We had planned to drive north to find a good parking place near the hospital (so we wouldn't have to scope it all out early the next morning), so we thought we'd keep a lookout for a restaurant for lunch on the way. The route we took had us stop for a long freight train going back and forth, near a large railroad yard. Nope, we did not want that route the next morning. Turned out we found no parking near the hospital, so we parked at a large shopping center (lots of space here) about four blocks away, just over an overpass spanning the rail tracks.

The shopping center housed a huge Mega supermarket, a multiplex cinema and a smaller mall with shops and two restaurants.  We ate at the California Buffet here, but at twice the prices we are used to. The food was a good selection of Mexican fare, all quite tasty, including the best mashed potatoes ever.  After overstuffing ourselves, we walked around the mall, then drove back to our hotel room, which had only one small outside window. There was an overhead fan – really loud and one speed – fast. The room started out overly warm and stuffy, but the temperature soon dropped and we slept very comfortably. The water for morning showers was hot, hot, hot.

We arrived at the hospital, a large central unit housing regional specialists, at 8:30am, a half hour before our appointment. We were taken on time! We had three doctors and one nurse occupied in the otoneurology department. The one doctor did speak some english, and Dan was there to translate and answer questions, plus we had Carmen's symptoms and history all printed up in spanish.  One would expect many varied and exhaustive testing procedures, but to Carmen's disappointment, all was completed in two hours.  They checked her hearing in a soundproof chamber, then her eye responses to a special set of quick changes in position. The diagnosis was that she was suffering from BPPV and minor age-related hearing loss.  The problem of dizziness is believed to be from calcium crystals breaking off in the inner ear. She was given some eye & neck exercises to do several times a day. This is to re-train the brain to respond to balance cues in new ways.  That is, she can hopefully train herself out of experiencing the frequent disorientation and loss of balance. No other tests were done to find an organic cause, as the tests showed that there was no neurological basis for the sensations. She would really like to get the cause definitely discovered. How disappointing--could it all just be old age deterioration?

We walked back to our car, where we dined on the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches we had with us. Now drove south into and through upscale Boca del Rio, the city just south of Veracruz, where we connected with the free road back west to home. Both highways between home and the coast were in great condition, though lots of slow trucks (fully loaded with sugarcane) on the return free road.  The countryside was farms and hills instead of the flat sugar cane fields on the more northerly toll road.  Lots of bucolic smells too, as there are many cattle and chickens raised here on the flat coastal lands. The trip on the free road is more interesting with many small towns and took us two hours to traverse.  We purposely avoided the bypasses around the few larger towns, and drove straight thru the town centers of Cuitlahuac and Yanga, as we wanted to see of what these pueblos consisted.  Cuitlahuac, especially, is a neat, clean community devoted to servicing it's surrounding agricultural and ranching population.

Which is better, raw or cooked wild salmon from Alaska's coast? Gardi will eat only raw, and Smij will eat only cooked. That is what we had for dinner one day. Amazing to find such a treat down here, at US$6.25 a pound!  Wednesday, Carmelo told us his house had suffered wind damage the night before, so he was out selling plants to buy some lamina for repairs. In the evening, a lady stopped at our gate to ask for any old clothes or shoes we might have – her house burned down last night. Luckily Carmen had already packed up some clothes and had them waiting by the door, for just such a happening.

Oh horrors, our beautiful papaya tree has zillions of black insects under the leaves. Hope the little buggers enjoyed the special spray we put on them. Also our orchid tree looks like it is dying, but it may just be losing this year's leaves -- info is conflicting on the internet. We have spent hours searching the internet for the problem, but have come up with nothing. Nights have been in the upper 40Fs and days low 70Fs.  Carmen warmed the house with baking thursday morning. Mango pay (pie) – following her recipe for peach pie, and chocolate chip oatmeal cookies.

Friday we took the test results from Veracruz to our Cordoba ENT specialist. Finally the meds Carmen has been taking are being cut back. Just do the exercises and return in two months. Since our dentist is but two blocks from the doctor's hospital office, we walked there to see if the dentist by some remote chance had an opening. Not til the next day, saturday. We walked back to the car which we had parked near the CarneMart store, which carries only large institutional packages of frozen meats, along with odds and ends like onion rings, all at better-than-supermarket prices. IF our home freezer was bigger, we would have bought a bag of onion rings, however we purposely bought a refrigerator with a smaller freezer so that we would go shopping more often. We did however buy a four pound bag of diced pork which we have purchased there before. It is very good and oh so useable. Also tilapia fish filets and a three pound pork roast. Now our frig is full of thawing meat, as the roast is destined for a meal early next week. The diced pork gets repacked into meal size portions and frozen solid again.

Saturday Dan went to his cleaning session with our dentist, Doctora Gwen Contreras -- long overdue since his last appointment was in August.  After the cleaning and polishing, she suggested he followup immediately with a whitening procedure to improve the appearance of his aging but still strong front teeth.  The best time to do this is right after all the plaque is gone, so he agreed and underwent the first of three or four sessions that morning.  

Cuidando las orquideas

Domingo 12 - Sábado 18 Enero  Sunday morning seems there are many men taking their young children for a walk around the neighborhood. An enjoyable sight to see and hear!  We started our week by going to Shattuck's to feed their kitty, hoping to find her home. Thankfully she was waiting for us at the top of their driveway! After feeding her, we sat and held and petted kitty for a while. She was happily taking a nap in a sunny spot when we left. What a beautiful setting their home is in.

No, we did not go to a church this day. We instead took a walk, at the south side of town, thru God's beautiful countryside. Our preferred way of spending sundays. We saw butterflies, tall sugarcane in bloom, and gorgeous trees with old leaves off and new ones beginning to grow. The sky was blue, temperatures in the mid-70s F, and birds were chattering. Looking north towards where our house is, we discovered that many new good looking houses are being built inside a walled and gated area on the south east corner of town. These are in the Las Villitas development that is due south of the new rental home Ania & Frank built at Los Encinos.

We found a gnarly tree, trimmed, cut off with a saw and discarded with some building materials along the old railbed, so we wrestled it back with us and stuck it thru the car's trunk to bring home.  Once home, we found the perfect spot for it and Dan installed it next to our front gate. It is already home for a few orchids that we had elsewhere, and waiting for more. We took the time to re-hang and surround the bases of other orchids with the spanish moss that we had purchased at Xmas time, to improve the immediate environment around the aerial roots.We are still learning about cuidando (caring for) las orquideas, as each type seems to want it's own micro-environment, some potted, some attached to branches and a few in the ground.  Some like it cool and shaded, others don't mind some sun. So much to learn.

It's yearly bill paying time. If we pay property tax, refuse/recycling and water bills for the year in january, we can get a 50% discount because of our age.  Monday morning we tried to pay the water bill. The attendant said we needed our social security number, to prove we were retired. This was not needed last year, now why would that US number be needed in Mexico?  Since we were out we went to the post office and asked that our mailman would please stop at our house for his Xmas gift, then headed home.  Later in the day a couple of city sanitation workers came to our door collecting for our refuse/recycling service--no problem with the discount here, and we paid our fee, equivalent to US$12, for twice weekly pickup.

Tuesday we looked for the ss card and realized that it is in a safe deposit box in the US. Now what? We did locate a medicare card with Dan's number on it and decided to try it. and so we went to the water office again. The lady was happy with the number we showed her, and collected the discounted amount (~US$25) for the year. Next stop, the property tax office which was temporarily set up in the city sports arena. After waiting in line two hours we paid our tax bill, discounted with no problem.  The ~US$24 we paid would easily be sixty times higher in the US.

Miss kitty was no place to be found at Shattuck's again wednesday. We did our usual tour of our favorite stores before coming home, and finally found the copper fittings he needed at a plumbing speciality house. Later Dan soldered the fittings together for the water heater to be installed at our kitchen sink. Carmen made some healthful oatmeal cookies, and by the way warmed up the house. Oil instead of butter and all whole wheat flour. All had cinnamon, and some also seasoned with clove. The cinnamon-only ones had either raisins or dried apricots. All yummy.  Carmen bought green carnations plus orange ones this week. Big splurge of 30 pesos!

Finally we have an appointment for the inner-ear tests Carmen needs in downtown Veracruz city, the 21st of january at nine in the morning. We will have to pick up the paper work at the Córdoba hospital the day before. Since this out-of-town appointment is the same day scheduled for Carmen's next ENT appointment, we had to go into the hospital and change this local appointment. It will  now be the 24^th, when we should have testing results in hand.  It will be good to find out if Carmen is to live with her situation of continual dizziness and nausea.  With a firm diagnosis in Veracruz, we hope improvement will be a matter of course.

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.

Un gran almuerzo con amigos

Domingo 08- Sábado 14 Diciembre   When shopping this past friday, we had purchased for the first time a vacuum-sealed package of big white corn grains used for making pozole. This is large-kernel cacahuazintle maiz which has been subjected to a special tenderization process.  Having never used it before except when purchased cooked and canned as hominy in the US, Carmen had boiled some to see what it was like. Hmm, it smelled and tasted pretty sour, almost vinegary, to her. Actually the 'nixtamalization' process to which the corn had been subjected is a treatment with strong alkali, not an acid at all.  She dumped the water off and did this three more times, to finally end up with a delicious product!  The idea was to use some in the chicken stew we had that Saturday.  About two pounds of it was left over, which went into the freezer. But, what do do with it, short of saving for a later stew?

Sunday is always a good day for a special breakfast, and any day, it seems, is a good day for experimenting with a new food for us.  We started our morning with a desayuno of a scramble of bacon, onion, panela (a soft, low-fat cheese), egg and a good amount of the pozole-corn kernels. Plus toast, grapefruit and coffee. A hardy meal for the gray morning we were experiencing.  Turns out it's a great staple and carbohydrate that will be useful in many meals.  For tuesday's dinner she browned some with onion in butter and olive oil with a dash of garlic salt, and then at the last moment she added chopped fresh tomato and fresh home grown oregano. A quick stir, sprinkle with parmesano cheese, and yumm. Always fun to try new foods and make whatever seems right! Not every experiment turns out perfectly (it's still a learning process to deal with new foods), but most of the time, delicious!  Our Kalanchoe blossfeldiana (Flaming Katy) is right in season, bursting with blossoms, which is why is sometimes called a Christmas Kalanchoe.

By mid-morning the sun appeared, but the air was still a bit cool, so mostly we kept the doors closed.  About 10:30 we heard a tiny quiet "miau" coming from out back. Went to check on it and low and behold, Gardi cat was on the outside of the gate asking to come back in. Fortunately non of the neighborhood dogs were about, as he would have no escape options back to safety in the yard.  We do not know when he exited from the house, nor how he got outside the fence!  Dan suggested that perhaps we feed Gardi more so that he cannot fit through whatever spot he found. If it can be done, Gardi will do it!  Sunday afternoon our electricity was out for a couple hours. Not a problem, we read. It happened again on monday, probably due to repairs going on. This time we played mexican train with our new double-domino set, an enjoyable time.

One evening while Carmen was standing on the terraza watching for birds with the binoculars at her eyes, Dan saw a yellow bird (probably a chat) fly a foot over her head, swoop down beside her, then up and away! Carmen never knew it was there.  Last week we had hoped to buy spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides), which is sold at this time of year for seasonal decorating purposes) at the local grocery store, but the big bin was empty. Tuesday, a man stopped at our door selling mosses out of two large bags. We bought all the spanish moss he had. We need it for potting up our orchids, as it's a good substitute for fibrous spaghnum. Wonder if the man was happy with his big sale, or disappointed to only have a bit of the green musgo (moss) to peddle yet.  One of the most unusual native plants we've come across is Dorstenia contrajerva.  A member of the fig family, what appears to be a fleshy green "flower" is actually a fruiting body, like a fig but turned inside out, with the seeds exposed on the surface.

While many of the trees seem to be be green all year, there is some evidence of seasonal change with some of them, as dried leaves seemed to be building up on some of the roadsides in the past few weeks.  We need to go out and bag some up for later flower-potting use, before they're all gone.  The leaves are growing back already -- as there is no long dormant winter season here.  We are fussy. We do not want the really large leaves. The two trees we used to get them from have been cut down. Carmen planted all our newest plants we purchased from Carmelo. Only nine this week! She also moved some to new spots. Carmelo forgot to bring us the one Ania ordered, this morning. Dan told him that we really do not want any more until January. It would be good to have our patch of grass gone and the new pasarela (walkway) installed in the front yard before buying more plants to fill in around the pavers.  Any plants we are not able to pass up will just have to sit in their little starter containers until the front yard is eworked in January.

Wednesday morning it was arranged that we go up to Coscomatepec with the Shattucks -- this would be their first visit to the properties there since returning from vacation. We connected there with Tim & Tamara who are living at Shattuck's avocado farm house, while theirs, next door down the road, is being re-built. We walkedf over to the construction site for a tour.  Old walls have been torn down and the house is being totally reconstructed on a larger plan, including a commercial kitchen for preparing their jams & other food products.

Dan had called our foreman, José Luís, early that morning, arranging to meet him at home, to pay aguinaldo bonuses due for the year.  Carmen came along on this side trip, since she had not visited Frank's hilltop kiosko (hexagon cabin) there in Huapalco in a long time. Our crew lives right in that little hillside community, and it was good to see Luís after all this time -- he has a 10-person crew working on three houses, all due to be turned over to the owners by Noche Buena (Christmas Eve).  A busy man!  Dan told him that we had some work for the crew in January. Carmen has traveled a great deal around the US, thru lots of back country rural areas, and no place has she seen countryside and roads as rough and rugged as this area where our crew calls home. It is hard to believe that they willingly make the Huapalco-Fortín-Huapalco trip six days a week to work!  At the kiosko cabin we dug up some loose soil under the trees for Ania to use in her garden at home, and harvested some very mature chayote from the vine growing over the carport, before heading back east into Cosco, where we picked a couple of pollos rostizados from a stand where the roast chicken is cooked over a wood-fueled fire.

our crew the

Back at the house, all six of us dined together.  The gran almuerzo (big lunch) felt like thanksgiving with the variety of foods and friends.  It was a day with glorious weather, but by the time we got back home in the late afternoon, cooler temps and clouds were rolling in. On the hour-long trip back towards home, we met bumper to bumper traffic coming the other direction, with highly decorated vehicles full of people, on their way to Xalapa, where there is a shrine to the Virgin de Guadelupe. Also there was frequently a person running beside the decorated vehicle, carrying a lighted torch. The folk here take honoring Mexico's patron Saint very seriously.  From Shattucks properties we returned with mature chayotes and aguacates. 

Ania and Frank gave us a beautiful Delftware coaster which was created by the master craftsmen of Royal Goedewaagen, Holland, a souvenir from their Holland-America cruise around the southern tip of south america. They said inspite of being the summer down there, it was cold!  This week we purchased white with pink alstroemeria (Peruvian lily) from our fresh flower man. A different man came by with fresh cut glads to sell. We think that one of the plants Carmelo sold us this week is a small, but well filled out gardenia plant. Also we bought a chenille plant, and Dan arranged a hanger for it along the west backyard wall, where it will get morning sun but be protected from the hot afternoon rays. It is very hard to turn down new and different plants.  Seems like there's always a spot to wedge in another, at least while they are small.  Surely the collection will change over time as we lose some and some are crowded out, but the garden-gone-wild look it one we both like.  We have never had luck with roses so we have kept away from them here, except for our thornless miniature pink rose in a pot on the terraza, which is blooming away, quite happy with it's surroundings.

Días grises

Domingo 01- Sábado 07 Diciembre 

The week started with a day in multiple shades of gray. Dan hung a large prayer plant in our bedroom, where we hope it will be happy. Three teens rang our bell. Dan was not able to go to the door at that moment, so Carmen went out. She dutifully asked them if they spoke english to which they all looked horrified, shaking their heads no. We know that english is taught in school here, but few students choose to actually practice it when given the opportunity it seems. They rattled on in spanish as Carmen told them no hablo español – in spanish. Obviously they did not believe her. She understood the word for woman and sick, plus they carried a plastic glass with coins, stretched out towards the gate. Carmen excused herself and came inside to get some coins to put in their glass. Always wonder if the malady is fact or is it just a way to collect money...but then, what seems like a lot to them, is so little to us. The area velador (night watchman) who walks the streets after dark was here to make his weekly fee collection, as he is every Sunday morning, just before 11am.  The gray weather doesn;t seem to bother the plants.  Lots of our orchids are looking really healthy, with lots of white root tendrils reaching out to grab on to something (like this Oncidium), and the pseudo-bulbs filling out.  Good portents of lots of blooms.

Monday we both had IMSS clinic appointments around eleven am. Dan to get lab orders for blood/urine tests before his next month's appointment, an annual checkup. And Carmen for her monthly meds plus the dizziness and elbow problems. Our appointments were fifteen minutes apart with the same doctor, to be sure Dan was there to talk for Carmen. We arrived a half hour early and knowing that our doctor leaves near one pm (patients are set up annually at the clinic for morning or afternoon assigned doctor shifts at one of eight consultorios, so you always have the same doctor), we started getting very anxious when 12:30pm arrived. Dan asked at the desk when we were to be taken, as we had already seen the nurse for the weigh-ins and BP checks. At this point Dan was informed that he had to go down to Consultorio Uno because our doctor was running out of time. Carmen was to see Doctor Rendon in Cinco as usual. Dan had to leave Carmen on her own, or miss his appointment. After another hour of waiting time in the chairs at Uno, Dan (worried all the time that Carmen would get called in and have issues talking to her doctor) had no problem getting his lab order, written out by a young and pleasant doctor. (Invariably, we have had only favorable interactions with IMSS staff at all levels.) Then he rushed back to see how Carmen was faring.

Here is Carmen's story: After waiting that extra hour or so, she became very nervous that the doctor would have to leave and she would be shuttled elsewhere, to someone unfamiliar to her situation. Knowing that she really needed to see the doctor this day, she practiced what to say to the receptionist in her mind, then bravely walked up to the desk and informed the lady that she did not speak much spanish, and would she please let her know when to go into the office. Seemed that all the other folks sitting about waiting were most interested in what Carmen had to say. Apparently the receptionist understood, because she walked up to Carmen to tell her when it was her turn. Carmen went into the doctors office and found no doctor there, so she sat and waited expectantly.

Meanwhile a fellow came in asking where the doctor was. It was discovered that this fellow spoke more english than Carmen did spanish. Carmen asked him if he could help her if needed since her translator (Dan) was sent down the hall. He did in fact hang out by the open door until Carmen was almost finished, until the time Dan arrived. This fellow had needed to talk to the doctor about some X-rays that Dr Rendon returned with.

Ok – here goes: Dr Rendon always speaks a few words of english to set Carmen at ease – “hello” and “how are you today,” not much else. Carmen first of all told him, in spanish, she was sorry that Dan was not there, and yes he knew that Dan had been sent to a different doctor. We had prepared & printed out several papers to give to Dr Rendon describing what was going on with Carmen (we find this much more efficient, doing the technical translating at home, rather than Dan trying to relate everything verbally) plus exam reports generated by the rheumatologist in Orizaba and the ear, nose and throat specialist she had been to since last coming here to our clinica familiar. He read everything and asked a few questions. It was really not too bad. Dan then showed up and the doctor informed Dan of all that we had discussed and gave us the needed prescriptions and off we went back to his nurse to get our annual influenza vaccine shots. What we learned today is to never accept an appointment late in the morning, but to choose another day when earlier appointment spaces are still open. We don't like seeing doctors that might not be familiar with our situation (although the doctors we see always type up everything that transpires in each session into their computers), and it is hard on both doctor and Carmen when traductor (translator) Dan is missing from the room. She is on antibiotics again for the swollen elbow.

Before going to the clinic, we had stopped to check on the status of our vacuum cleaner order and special paver blocks. Also a stop at Office Depot. Only needed a grocery stop on the way home. Walmart was in chaos, moving big areas around, making room for all the extra Xmas goodies. Seemed that not much restocking had been done the night before. Most unusual for this store. And guess what new item we found there this time – Temptations! Finally we have found our cats' favorite treats here! Wondering if all our emails to mexican Whiskas finally convinced some area stores to handle it? Now if only other Walmart customers will purchase these Temptaciones regularly, so the restocking will continue. When we first arrived here, WalMart was the only place that carried Scoop Away cat litter (our favorite, because it works better and lasts longer than mexican brands), but the store only had a box or two at a time. It now gets it in by the pallet load.

Our front porch area is really clean at the moment. Carmen watered flowers there and laid the hose down for another watering later before winding it back onto the wall. Some how, the hose was left running. Now, did Carmen space out turning it off, or is our little ghost playing tricks on us? Dan squeegeed the water off. He had earlier swept off the porch and cut our spot of grass in the front yard. Tuesday evening we went for a short walk down to the end of the street and back up the next one over, and found that street being black-topped. It had been dirt, gravel and cobbles. We assume that the trucks loaded with sugar cane that crossed over by our house this week are using this route since the other road was being resurfaced.  These are huge open-bed semitruck loads!

One morning a man with a sizable bag of really filled out orchids rang our bell. This was the same fellow from a week ago who we had bargained down significantly. Dan limited himself to only three, and he gave us one extra (since we're “buen clientes”), so we got all four for MX$150 (about US$11). We have misgivings about buying wild orchids that may have been stripped from forest trees (we'd never do this ourselves, and try to discourage itinerant sellers by saying we'll only buy blow-downs), but with the plants there, jammed together in a big bag, we feel that nurturing them here is better than them getting dried out and discarded should they not be sold.  Dan tied them up to a piece of bambu, here they will eventually grab ahold and flower for us for years.  We are very much enjoying the opportunities here for year-round flowers, and note that our mornings for the most part are about 35ºF higher than the frigid temps now being experienced back in the maritime pacific northwest.

This has been a crashing week. First Carmen dropped and broke a dish from the new set we purchased here a year ago. Next while in bed one night, we heard a crash and it turned out to be the light bulb falling from the ceiling fixture over our upstairs shower. Dan has now replaced the fixture, which had threading so minimal as to not grip the screwed-in bulb firmly. The weather has been quite chilly for us this past week. At six am wednesday morning a strong wind came up along with many degrees warmer air. Yea!!!! On this really windy morn, after talking to the fellow selling us orchids, we left the front door open a bit for our cats. As we were taking our shower, there was a horrific crash. Dan feared some of our roofing above the mirador had blown off. Turned out to be just the door crashing closed, driven by a gust passing thru the house. Luckily Gardi cat was all the way outside, so he did not get flattened when it closed. He was meowing to come back inside by the time we got downstairs. Kitties did not like the strong wind.

We often water our plants in the early evening, and we have discovered that our terraza outside our bedroom is a great place for bird-watching at this time of day. Two green parrots flying past several times. One orange Altamira or Black-throated oriole flying from one fruiting tree in the neighborhood to another, eating oranges. A flicker pecking away in a tall palm. The cooler cloudy weather has reduced the number of butterflies we're seeing.  The fruit on the Easter eggplant is almost ripe enough to pick, having changed color from white to yellow, and lots of lavender color blooms means more fruits are on the way.

Dan made and installed a rack to hold our brooms and mops in our water heater closet, which is in our new bathroom. He also worked on the faucets in the upstairs shower again, repacking the valve stems. Maybe this time they will not leak after a few uses. He is of course spending time at his computer, copying more music, of which now 2/3 is finished. The hour in the day that flies by the fastest, is the 6-7pm hour when the show, “Teen Wolf” is on. This and a good many other tv series and movies, are in english with spanish subtitles. The tv station that had all the cooking shows in english, has recently changed to mostly telenovela (soap opera type) shows in spanish. No all-english channels are available from Cablecom, our packaged tv-telephone-internet service.

Thursday, Colyn, the lady from Santa Cruz, CA, stopped by to give us a book. She said she was moving, probably to Oaxaca, because her insect allergies are too bad in Fortin. What a shame to lose a friend who speaks english. Then as Carmen was laying in the hammock, on the front porch, reading, this green noisey vocho (vw beetle) parked right in front of our gate again. We have often seen it parked there and thought the driver was with the social action group whose office is next door. This time the man got out of the car, started to walk past, and backed up. Yes, he actually walked backwards. He said hello and asked if we are the people from the US. His name is Juan Carlos, and he teaches english in the bilingual school here in Fortín. Carl, as he is known in english, turns out to be the father of Lewis, the teen age boy who used to stop and chat a bit, from Los Angeles, CA. The reason we have not seen Lewis lately is that they have moved a few miles away, over into the residential area behind Walmart. We also found out that two other english speaking men and their families who moved here from Houston, have moved to Tamaulipas state Bummer. So – we have lost four english speakers from our neighborhood. However, Juan also told us that a woman who is in a wheelchair and lives a block away, is from the US. Also Juan said he would bring Richard, another man from the US, to meet us. Richard and his wife own a rental house a few doors from us (where Colyn lives now), but he lives in downtown Fortín. Juan is giving private english tutoring to the teenage girl (and possibly her mother Nancy), who lives with her husband Oscar two buildings south of us.

On our walk into town friday, we spied and bought the first fresh strawberries of the season, also a pineapple. Both could have been better. The grapefruit we had for breakfast, however, was one of the best ever! On walks we always see something new. The house we considered our second choice when we were house-hunting has been sold and has been repainted, and has been having masonry work being done out back. On another street, avenida 9, we have been wondering about one large structure that had much rubble in the front and bare walls, plus some walls & roofs missing. The rubble is now gone, outside walls plastered, and the yard in the front cleaned up. Also the large field next to it where we have often admired all the wild flowers, had been cleared. Wonder what will happen there? Seems like there is always evidence of growth and change in the neighborhood.

There was a long line at our bank's atm machine. We will go there another day. Checked for a specific o-ring at two hardwares and shopped for fresh veggies at the Super Ahorros store. We saw Ania shopping there, and firmed up our invitation for their visit saturday. The menu was a fresh vegetable salad, chicken stew with dumplings, and peanut butter cookies for dessert. When that day arrived, Ania and her mother, Wanda from Poland, and Frank came for dinner and a chat. The ladies toured and admired all our plantings. The guys ended up at Dan's computer. Always an enjoyable time and we hope to see Wanda a few more times before she goes back home. She is truly a delightful lady!

Oh yes, friday night at 2am we were awoken by a flatbed truck of mariachis & brass serenading someone who was having a birthday that day, down the avenue a block away. Dan opened the window so we could enjoy the music. After two selections they were gone and we got back to sleep. Mexico is a country where people enjoy and live their music. One of the abañiles (masons) across the street loudly sings throughout his work day. Great voice!  Where the new house is being built, is a huge pile of freshly delivered arena (sand). We looked out to see an unusual sight! On the very top lay two dogs, seeming to enjoy the view and soft surface to take their ease. They were kings of the mountain, and in fact two more dogs happened by and the ones on top barked possessively to drive them off.