Medicada

Domingo 03 - Sábado 09 Noviembre   This was Carmen's birthday week, and as usual (as she recalls) it turned out to be a bad week for her. The dizziness she had suffered has not gone away. Monday morning she woke up with a puffed up left arm, sore and red around the elbow. Fortunately, we already had a family doctor's appointment that day. Dr Rendon examined the swollen arm, which had no apparent insect/spider bites nor abrasions – simply no problem visible from the outside. He gave her antibiotics for the infection in the arm, and more meds to control the vertigo, dizziness. On wednesday Carmen had her six month appointment with the rheumatologist in Orizaba. Dra Estevez felt the arm was a complication due to scleroderma. She wrote out ongoing prescriptions for the year. Included was a course of a powerful antihistamine for the swelling affecting circulation for the inner ear, which is probably causing the vertigo. She gave us a referral slip to take to the Cordaba central IMSS facility, for an appointment with an otorrinolaringologo (ear, nose & throat) doctor there. Soonest this doctor could see Carmen is 19 noviembre. Meanwhile, a medicada (medicated)dosed up Carmen can seldom stay awake, and has napped a lot this week.

Our flower starts man, Carmelo, has been here several more times. Carmen worked hard at potting everything up, with most of the acquistions hanging either on the north end of the front porch, or in shallow planters (the succulents) going up on the terraza in shallow planters. Up there, we noticed that our little potted payaya tree, which we started from a sprouted seed found in a fruit, while it's only about a yard tall, is already starting to form real bark on the truck near the base, and has the smallest of fruits developing near the top.  Whether these will actually ripen into something edible, we're waiting to see.  We're running out of garden space for plants we actually want to put in the ground, so we think we'll have José Luís come back for a day or two, after the rainy season finally passes, and do a bit more work for us, including laying a pathway thru the north side of our front yard. We ordered the additonal 54 adoquines (concrete pavers) when we drove into Cordoba monday. We will then remove the tiny bit of grass we have and let it all become a flower garden. It seems the passers-by enjoy our flowers almost as much as we do.

When we went to Orizaba on wednesday, we visited the espuma (foam rubber) shop that we had found way back when we thought we'd need a mattress built for us. Parking spots are at a premium on the narrow streets of old Orizaba, but luck was with us, and we found a spot only two blocks away. We need a foam cushion made for the bench seat in the closet area Dan built in our bedroom. The ownership had apparently changed from father to son, and he no longer will make finished items. He recommended a few tapicería (upholstery) shops a few blocks away, but we never found them. Looks like Carmen will have this task – shouldn't be much different from how she made the futon cover. We'll buy just the piece of foam when we next have a chance.

Next we drove to the big Plaza Valle shopping mall which we had heard was in Orizaba, but had yet not seen it. The parking area was enclosed and gated. We drove up to the entrance and while Dan was studying it to figure it out, a person the next gate over told us to just push the button and take the ticket and drive on in. There were no explanatory words or symbols on the ticket machine. We walked thru the mall, a location for many expensive stores (Liverpool, Sanborns and the like) and a multiplex cinema. Back to our car, we now had to figure out how to exit. The bars across the gates are of course all down. We drove up and put our ticket in the most obvious slot, but the gate would not come up, and the ticket was ejected back out of the machine. There was no slot to put in any money. Meanwhile other cars were exiting as the bars raised and lowered. Hmm. We tried another gate. Still no luck. We backed out of the gated exit area to watch what others were doing to get the gate to raise. It looked like we were doing it right. Finally Dan walked back into the mall and asked a fellow near the door how the ticket could be used to exit. He was directed to a little vending machine under the stairs where he could put the ticket in, put coins in a slot, and receive a validation stamp on the ticket. We assume that there might be a way to get one's ticket validated if one were to make a purchase at one of the bigger stores, but otherwise the parking cost MX$10 per hour. As we drove out we decided we will never have a need to go there again – not our style or budget, thank you.

We had a late lunch at the Chinese buffet restaurant near Chedraui grocery store. We park in the store's sizeable underground parking lot. After lunch, Dan did buy a couple items there. Home before dark. The remainder of the week was pretty low key, with Carmen catching up on reading and a lot of meds-induced napping. Saturday was a busy day, with the frontgate buzzer ringing at least a dozen times as various itinerant vendors and others made their presence known.

So far, we have mostly been putting in temperature and currency equivalents when we post someting here about the weather or costs. As we get more accustomed to thinking in Metric, Celsius and Pesos, we'll probably do this less, so we have included some tools at the bottom of this page you can view to convert some numbers to make better sense of what we are experiencing.

Idas y vueltas

(Domingo 23 - Sábado 29 Junio ) 

Not much happening around here this week, but it seems like there were a lot of idas y vueltas (comings and goings, literally goings and returns). Sunday, after hanging up a full load of laundry on our new pullied clothesline off the terraza, we walked to the nursery where we bought a couple plants, to take another look and ask the name of one of the plants we had purchased last week. Then later we walked into the center of Fortín for a pineapple paleta for Dan and a arroz con crema (rice pudding) one for Carmen, and to enjoy the spectacle of families enjoying Sunday evening in the park.

Monday morning we were at the Córdoba hospital shortly after 6am for labs for a thursday doctor's appointment. All labs are done between 7-8 am., first come, first serve. So no matter what time you arrive, you have a long wait. Next we waited for the x-ray department. Here Carmen went into the x-ray room after Dan had talked to the technician. She could certainly handle that by herself. The technician asked her if she spoke Spanish, to which she replied no, and he made a quick dash back out the door to haul Dan in to support him. It seemed rather comical from Carmen's point of view. Usually she is the one to panic over language issues.  We noticed that all the Hoja santa bushes are flowering now, and sure enough, when we checked ours the long white spadix, a floral spike similar to those on anthuriums, at some of the leaf nodes, were there.

Tuesday we visited Home Depot and spent quite a long time there buying odds and ends for various planned projects. When falling asleep that night, Carmen suddenly remembered that we were supposed to pick up the lab results, so we made an extra trip into Córdoba the next day. Fortunately they were still filed at the same office, and hadn't been mailed out somewhere. We shopped at Walmart and tried to stop by the place that sells large ceramic items, but it was closed up tight (vacation or illness in the family?). Hope we find it open soon, since we expect to buy some large flower pots there.  The views this week of el Pico de Orizaba, freshly snow-covered, 40 miles northwest of us, were spectacular.

Thursday we had a long day in Orizaba, the city to the west. We go there the "back way," the old road which avoids the tolls on the autopista, enjoying the green vistas that the route affords.  We were at the Soriana store by 9am, right in the center of old Orizaba, hoping to find some molasses. We had read on a Mexico forum that one could buy it there. None there today, but their annual big sale was going on so we slowly walked around, checking prices and items available, and stocked up on things. Walked to a small store catering to carpenters, but did not find any oil-based (“Danish”) finishes, so I guess this is another thing impossible to purchase SoB. Not many stores around here where one can buy materials for projects made of wood, and selections of hardware, even with what Home Depot stocks, are just not what Dan is used to having available for his projects. We left our car parked in the underground parking at Soriana, where two hours were free when you shopped there. Parking is at a real premium in the narrow streets of Orizaba.

Next we drove to the Chedraui supermarket, where we parked under the store. Grocery shopped for staple goods since we are now a bit ahead of schedule. Leaving our car there, we walked out looking for a restaurant, since the foods offered in the Chedraui cafeteria looked like yesterday's. We planned to eat at the Chinese restaurant a block away, but it did not open 'til 12:30p, so we walked on. Another block was a nice bright clean place, Yam-Bo's, with a good sounding lunch menu posted up in the front window. We sat down at 11:30a, planning to have lunch, but all they served until 12:30p was breakfast. So, another breakfast was what we had. Next Dan drove to the hospital for Carmen's appointment with the rheumatologist. We found a parking spot but three blocks away. Pretty lucky. We arrived at the hospital waiting room two hours before the doctor arrived, and still there were two people there before us! We do like Doctora Alma, who is monitoring Carmen's health with very apparent professional interest and knowledge about her condition and its treatment. She is one of the few rheumatologists in the area, and has a private practice with offices in both Córdoba and Orizaba, as well as serving with IMSS.

Stopped by the Chedraui supermarket after leaving IMSS, for stuff that would have heated up in the car during the afternoon: frozen, produce and meat. While we were there, we picked up a roasted chicken for supper, a MX$70 deal complete with fixings (rice, tortillas, sliced jalapeños and a 2 liter mandarina pop). When we got back we were astounded to find 41 tortillas in the package—enough (for us), for a LONG time.

Friday Carmen noticed that a small chirping bird has a nest under our corner capping tile on the roof. Should hurt nothing there and we will get mortar into that spot eventually. This morning we mounted a staghorn fern on a board with bark behind it, held in place by hardware cloth, then prettied up with some coconut fiber. Hope it will be happy. Artemio, who would like to be our gardener, gave us a heliconia about six feet tall a week ago and after seeing it rather wilted today and after comparing our planting to another similar, we dug part of the dirt away. We think we do not understand these tropical plants and their wants yet Guess roots do not go as deep here with all this heat and moisture, as they do in cooler dryer areas.  The bloom from this plant is sitting in a vase in the living room.

Dan is starting to build a closet area in our master bedroom, a project that will take several days worth of cutting, fitting and designing as it progresses. Lots of sawdust and dust from the anchor holes in the wall. Noise too. Carmen gets to paint it when finished.  

Cortinas

Domingo 03 – Sábado 09 Marzo 2013.  (Dom 03^rd) Sun, sun – oh beautiful sun, back after a few darker days! (On the other hand, we wouldn't enjoy the sun so much if there weren't days to serve as a contrast. So, when the days cloud up, they're appreciated too.) Carmen is anxious to start making curtains, but she can't stop cleaning today. Since we now have a concrete slab instead of dirt outside our back door, there should not be so much filth tracked in, should there? Put out a large laundry this morning. Gardi was outside with us in the front area. Both Carmen and Gardi gave Dan a shock. This fellow walked buy, who speaks english. Carmen yelled SIR SIR, 'til he looked back at her, and she proceeded to ask him his name. Gabriel. She told him she really liked his puppy, to which he answered that the puppy belonged to his brother. Oh! This could be why she did not exactly recognize him. He does look much like his brother. Now to find out what the brother's name is, since he always speaks to us in english. These two guys run a car wash a few blocks north of here. They would like us to stop by, but Dan washes our car.

Shortly after this happening, Dan says: “Gardi is outside the gate.” Oops! The little rascal. He tried to get back in thru the front gate, as some people walked past, but then he remembered that the gate is blocked off with tighter fencing. Luckily he did not run across the road as he considered. At least he does not run from us as our other cat, Smij, would do. Once we got the gate unlocked and open, Gardi ran to go inside our door which was closed, so he laid in the sun and rested til we were done with wringing out and hanging laundry. Will be good to be able to hang laundry out back when the construction is finished.

Noontime, Dan called Mauricio, our ironwork man. He came over shortly there after, to bring the window bars he had finished, and to measure for his next jobs. Dan also called Melitón, the cabinet maker, to come measure for the bathroom cabinets tomorrow. Dan washed the car and had to call to Carmen to help dry it, since the sun was drying it so fast, and that leaves water marks.

Ania's birthday is today. She invited us over for the evening. She gave herself a wee birthday celebration by making two flans (date & almond) and a cake, plus coffee and lemon grass tea. Also there were her daughter and her husband from Veracruz, her in-laws from Cordoba. The suegro (father-in-law) of her daughter is a doctor in Córdoba. Also there was a couple from Mexico City, the god parents of Ania's children. Ania's mother was still here from Warsaw, Poland. Polish, spanish and english were spoken, sometimes all at the same time. Most interesting. Was great to be included in a family happening. A few days ago, we had sent Frank home with a fossil-filled rock for Ania, from a beach in California, so she treated it as a birthday present and was proudly showing it to all. Otherwise, she does not expect birthday or Xmas presents.

When we arrived home, Dan had an 'urgent' skype messeage concerning taxes, from one of his clients in WA. He spent an hour with the person, using skype. Carmen was wanting mexican hot chocolate. That is made with the cocoa that has cinnamon in it. Yumm. And don't forget those lemon flavored marshmallows!

(Lun 04^th) Last night dipped to 48ºF. Day warmed quickly to mid-80s. Busy around here today. Our carpenter arrived about 9:30am. Dan and he talked about Dan's design for the bathroom cabinetry. Then Frank and friend came to talk to the carpenter about doing a project for him at his new house. Meanwhile, we discovered that Luis's birthday is today. Carmen had planned to make chocolate chip cookies, so she made a huge one and wrote Feliz Cumpleaños Luís on top with frosting, and stuck a candle in it. Presented the cookie at lunch time, along with a normal-sized cookie apiece. Turned into six fellows for lunch on our front porch at our small table there, because one of Luis's brothers and one helper are doing a job couple houses south of here joined them. Soon we will have three fellows. Seems that Frank needs one of the helpers now, and we will not need four guys every day, as the tasks wind up.

Our garafon of drinking water was delivered and the two men each got a cookie too. Also all our visitors today got cookies (the carpenter, then Frank accompanied by Salavador visiting from DF, and they took along with them a pack to take home to Ania). Carmen spent awhile with plants out front today. She let Gardi cat loose out side with her. He did sit on the wall edge where he could have gone thru to the outside, but he apparently still remembered his fright from being caught out there the day before. He made no attempt to leave the yard. Don't expect that goodness to last. Dan spent some time on the porch bench reading. Much warmer outside than in today. Gardi got to go out a second time and he was ready to come in and take a nap in a sunny window before Carmen finished cutting back and transplanting stems of fuchsia starts, along with sweeping the porch. Dan had a woman stop along the sidewalk and admire the flowers along our fence. Wonder why more people do not grow flowers? Though there are many flowering bushes, vines and trees. Saturday we saw a huge tree loaded with large yellow sprays of bright yellow flowers.

(Mar 05^th) Carmen and Dan cut the material for the medium bedroom curtains. We carefully folded the full length that we purchased, and cut it into four equal parts. So smart, rather than measuring and cutting each piece. Right? Carmen finished two panels. One complete window. Now should she finish all the other two panels, or put these up and admire the work? Put them up! Thank the heavens that we chose to do this. The curtains were several inches different in length! Apparently our perfect cuts were not so perfect! Now, all the tops are finished, and the two bottom hems had to come back out. But, the two panels not hemmed yet were of equal length – what luck! Luckily Carmen was in a very good frame of mind today, so this hem removal and re sewing the hems did not bother her today. She said the fabric is beautiful and luscious to work with.

Dan spent some time painting the bottoms (where he won't be able to reach once they're installed) of the new window protections, basic gloss black. He also did some tax prep work.

Our crew worked on a final plaster wall coating. Most interesting to watch them preparing all the different mezclas (mixes) of cement, lime and screened sand as determined to be needed for each task, flipping the plaster onto the walls, then spreading and smoothing it all. Melitón the carpenter stopped by to measure for the cabinet behind the toilet and under the sink. He left with Frank to discuss Frank's project. He is unwilling to move his equipment to Frank's place and work there on an hourly basis, so Frank did not hire him.

(Mie 06^th) We walked to the store to order more cement and sand to be delivered. Turned out that FortiFerre, the place we had been buying it from was closed. At present, it seems they are out of business, Luís says from extending too much credit when they first opened last year, and not being able to collect those debts. Too bad for them, so we went to the Torralba Ferreteria, a nearby place where we had shopped several times before, and which also deals with block, cement and the like, along with a good line of hardware.

On our way home we stopped at our neighbor to the west. He works different shifts, but we heard music coming from his house. Dan talked to him about us refinishing his side of our wall, and attaching our fences securely to the poles we put at the top of the ten foot wall. Luís, our foreman, arranged to have his guys go over there when the neighbor, Valentín, is at home. Two of them worked there until 1pm today, and will continue to do so until the job is finished. Probably a week for all, including plastering the bare bricks, painting the wall with impermeabilizante and finally stretching the cyclone fencing in place. They had to first of all cut back our bougainvillea and hang protection over Valentin's plants. Will look good when finished, the sealer, from Fester, is a deep terracotta color The other crew worked finishing walls, the sink base counter and the seat in shower. SO GOOD to see these things happening. So much of the tedious work doesn't show as much time involved, but of course is most time consuming.

The welder dropped off some of his finished window and door protections, and took measurements for the next job of the stairway going up to the top of the roof. He said he has built lots of stairways, but not like this one. He needs some time to figure out exactly how he will construct it. Luis immediately cemented installed the protection bars over the window in the shower stall, and one door.

Carmen finished the cortinas (curtains) for the medium sized bedroom. Dan helped hang them just before he had to take the crew to catch their bus home for the day. We now have curtains instead of blankets on the windows of the room we presently are sleeping in. Dan again is enjoying his tax work.

(Jue 07^th) Bathroom wall tiling started today. More decisions. Being that there is a slight pattern in the wall tiles – which way to orient them? Final decision – sideways to make room appear wider, rather taller. Also the basket weave trim tile is oriented that direction.

While hanging laundry out – always an eventful time – a fellow stopped and started telling us where he was from, etc. Then he started weeding outside our gate, along the sidewalk. He did not ask for anything, just kept talking and weeding. What to do in cases like this. We did not ask him to work for us. Dan gave him a bottle of Ensure nutritional drink. This is what we intend to continue giving people who ask for food. Seems to be one or two a week. One fellow a couple weeks ago asked if we did not have any tacos. Pretty fussy?

Smij cat seems to want to go outside. She is so terrified of all, and she won't let us pick her up when she is scared, so she is certainly not allowed outside without a halter and leash. Gardi was on the front porch and she sitting inside the screen door watching him. Carmen showed her how Gardi gets picked up to go in and out the door. Next we got her a halter that we had been using on Gardi for his first outings (now he goes out with no attachments). Smij has a much deeper chest so we had to loosen it. When we felt the harness was ready, we next picked her up to put the harness on her. Ensued was a battle of the wills, which Carmen won. Smij now in halter and leash was carried outside. Interesting, but terrifying. Unfortunately, Carmen had not thought this thru about timing. The people for the office next door were just arriving for the day, so lots of foot and auto traffic. We attempted two brief Smij's outings. She did however have a bit of a look about. We decided to leave the harness on her a few days, and will give her some more outings. Want her to be familiar with what is outside the door – just in case she gets out accidentally. She, once inside with leash off, ran part ways up the stairs and sat there and cogitated about her adventures for awhile.

(Vie 08^th) We walked into town to go the atm and to pay our electric bill, and had a little set-to with the machine in the CFE lobby. Carmen insert two bills into the slot, but only the second bill was receipted. Dan went to explain the problem and a tech came out to open the back of the machine to release the other bill, which he then reinserted to pay our account in full. Live and learn! Also had to pick up another gallon of impermeabilizante at the Fester store. Later, while Carmen was out watering plants, the other brother from the carwash from up the street walked past. Turns out his name in Christian, and he and his brother were born, and grew up in, Houston,Texas. Recently, their parents were expelled from the US for being undocumented, so the whole family moved back here to live.

Today Dan worked on year-end accounting & tax prep tasks, and Carmen finished a hard jigsaw puzzle. Meanwhile, our crew worked on wall tiling in the bathroom (looking good) and finishing the west wall, making it ready for painting. Near the end of the day they installed the protective gate in front of our laundry/shop door. They will not be coming in tomorrow because they will be rewiring the church in their little community.

(Sáb 09^th) An adventure today! We took the bus round mid-day to go to Orizaba to attend a fair, their annual ExpOri. We love the ride from Fortín towards Orizaba along the winding hillside road through bamboo groves and jungle-like foliage. Many huge trees were in full bloom at this time. One in purple, another in orange, some white, some beige. Of course the pinks and yellows. Beautiful!

We knew where we were headed for, north of the main cemetery at the city fairgrounds. The only problem was that we got off the bus waaaaaaaaay too early. Had to walk several blocks in the 1pm sun. The event had many booths selling handicrafts, displays set up by local companies, plus all sorts of carnival rides & eat-from-the-hand foods. We were too early for the entertainment we had hoped to see – the voladores (fliers), men from Papantla who twirl down, suspended by long ropes from a rotating platform atop a high pole. The entertainment was oriented more for the evening hours, and even many vendor booths were not yet open, and the carnival rides not yet functioning. Having visited everything we wanted to see, and since we did not want to wait around for the crowds to show up, and darkness to arrive, we headed back to Fortín.

On the way back, in Cuautlapan, we counted 136 large huge stake trucks in lines eight deep, full of raw sugar cane, waiting for the El Carmen refinery to allow them in across their scales. The bus we returned on was destined for Córdoba via Fortin. We stayed on it thru the town to see where it went, planning to get off near the park downtown. Oops! No center of town stops anymore. So, we traveled five blocks beyond where we wanted off. Actually closer to home than to the bank where we needed to go yet. After a quick bakery stop at the panaderia, by the time we walked back we were ready for a quiet evening at home.

Muchas Compras

Domingo 13 – Sábado 19 Enero 2013.  (Dom 13^th) What a way to start a new week! Though if sunday is the last day of the week – the day of rest, perhaps we ended our week with this happening. Our neighbor Juanita about seven houses down gave us some of her homemade special gorditas, in the style of Guanajuato, where she is from. Our favorite filling in these small tortillas was a potato blend. There was also one of green chilies that was hot, but not too hot, one of a meat with red sauce and one of tripe, which Carmen just would not put in her mouth, but Dan enjoyed. (In return, a couple of days later, we returned her bowl filled with homemade snickerdoodle cookies, since that was the current kind of dough in our freezer. When Carmen makes cookie dough, she always freezes part of it instead of baking off the whole batch. So very nice to bake a few cookies at a time in our toaster oven.)  Again we say that people here are really friendly. Maybe it is just that we have time, without working, to be more friendly to all around us?

Dan worked on flashing the wood subroofing on the marquesina over one window. Testing the sheet-metal channel piece we found at Home Depot, to see if we are going to do this to all our windows, and all along the roof edges. Trying to prevent rot around the exposed wood there. The beams are not structural at least, but they do look nice. Later in the day we walked into the center of Fortín to get a sunday periodico. Carmen sputtered about this long walk, assuring Dan there was a closer place to buy a newspaper – we just did not know where. On the way home, there it was – papers being sold at a small store but two blocks away! Dan does pick up good info from reading the paper here. This is where he discovered that we could get a discount on our property taxes. This week he learned that we could get an annual pass for the Fortín autopista exit at the booth north of town. This would be great if we commuted on this route, but paying the about US$14 per year does not make sense for our rare if ever use of the highway, since we travel around on the libre roads between the communities here.

We are still debating whether or not to get the special card that allows us, as retired people, to get discounts on all public transportation and museums, etc. We sometimes are given discounts on buses anyway – think it is our gray hair, or maybe our increasing wrinkles, so Carmen is using this as an excuse to keep her hair gray, though Dan prefers her as a blonde. And let's face it – the saying goes that blondes are supposed to have more fun. We are definitely having a most enjoyable time here as it is. The velador stopped by today as usual to collect his 15 pesos or US$1.13 a week for his night time block watch job.

(Lun 14^th ) A full day out and about, first in Cordoba and then in Orizaba. Arrived at Home Depot by 7:30am, trying to decide on the bathroom floor tile, to see which coordinates best with wall and trim tiles we have seen elsewhere. Some decisions are much harder than others. We have not seen any tile for our floor that we especially liked, other than at Home Depot. There are three here that might work for us. We snapped pictures of these on the digicam to take with us on our searches elsewhere. While here we did purchase electrical boxes and water seal for our wood beams.

Carmen had to be at our IMSS family clinic for another nutrition consultation at 10am today. The nurse in charge of this specialty had been in a meeting since 8am and finally arrived for the office appointment, only an hour late. We at least had comfy chairs to wait in. We have still learned nothing new from her. We already know all about it – how and what to eat, exercise required, etc – most of which we do anyway. She would like Carmen to continue losing weight, however her doctor in the US told her not to lose any more at her age. The IMSS nutrition specialist is hoping that more weight loss will bring down her cholesterol counts. Always good to hope.

We got home about noon, after a quick stop at Metalurve for caulk. Had lunch and then drove west – Cordoba is east – to Orizaba, where we hoped to find more alternatives for floor tile (loseta), and for the walls and trim (azulejos). What a time we had there. Never saw sooooooo much traffic with no parking spots available – even blocks away. Orizaba is a beautiful city, but it was laid out before the automobile age. So it's attractive, and interesting architecturally, but best visited when you're not responsible for driving thru it. Finally got lucky, finding a parking space adjacent to the large Alameda park on the west side of town center. What a beautiful park this is. We saw a group of folkloric dancers entertaining on stage here two Novembers ago.

Okay – so we had looked in our trusty phone book for tile stores. Four possibles within several blocks of each other and all along the wide Avenida 6 from fourth to twelfth street west. The weather was good for strolling thru the maddening crowds. We then drove to another tile store a ways off from these four, right thru the narrow streets near the public market. Positively no parking here, but by then it was after 2pm and things were shut down for the two hour lunchtime break. We still have not found exactly what tiles our hearts desire. Stopped at the Chedraui on our way out of town, heading back towards home. They make most delicious donuts, so planned to stock up. Only a few there today, plus not the ones we prefer, so that stop was disappointing!. Left our car in their underground parking area and walked a block to a Chinese buffet. Really great variety and good today.

On our drive home, we were just too tired to stop and buy a pineapple in Cuautlapan, even though they were being sold right off the trucks along the road and they did look especially sweet. When we got back just before the end of the crew's workday, we found that the roof tiling was finished, and they had been cutting up some of the remaining tiles to cap our property walls (muros). The mirador is just about ready for the beams and wood decking.

(Mar 15^th) Dan and Luis went to Frank & Ania's house over on Calle Paraiso to borrow his table saw. Manuel and his wife were working there. They had to disassemble the saw to get it to fit into our car.'s trunk The crew needed to trim the vigas (beams) and tablones (decking planks) that will go into building the roof top mirador. Overriding Dan's hesitation, Luis insisted we borrow Frank's belt sander from the new house site too. Luis and Jose worked on processing the wood while Heri and David worked on the laundry roof, cutting channels in the walls for the security fence poles, and they also cut the parapet wall to create a wee passageway that goes between the laundry room roof and the eventual terraza over the bathroom.

While Dan was gone, Carmen scrubbed the kitchen floor, so that it would be clean when the cabinet maker arrived. She just had a feeling he would be by today – and he was. Got a good price, we think, on the cabinet, and he will rebuild the window for the office also. If all goes well, we will next ask him to build two more gabinetes for the bathroom. He also made a quote on refinishing all the cabinets in the kitchen – a job we did not ask for or want done, plus it seemed high.

Luis informed us that today would be Jose's last day. Did not understand exactly why. Seemed that he could not work so far from home and continue with his schooling. Glad to hear that he has these priorities. Luis has another fellow he will bring into the crew tomorrow. A 17 year old named Alfonso, who he has worked with before.

(Mie 16^th) Alfonso joined the crew and they ripped and sanded roof deck boards today, and worked more on the laundry roof. Dan ordered block & drain pipe from FortiFerre, to be delivered tomorrow. Today has been light drizzle and a cold 50 degrees, then it started to seriously rain. Guys are too cold to work all day, so they decide to leave after eating lunch. As Dan took them to the bus stop, he and Luis decided that they might not be in to work tomorrow if this weather continues, which it is supposed to do, so they stopped by FortiFerre to let them know that they should not make the delivery unless Luis called them in the morning, since Carmen and Dan would not be home to take the delivery.

On the way home, Dan stopped by the Fester store to buy some backer rod – a flexible closed cell foam extrusion, to fill the cracks around the windows where cold air was infiltrating. We spent the next hour sealing windows and it has really helped.

(Jue 17^th) As expected, no crew today as the weather is worse, colder and rainier. We left home at 7:30am and got home again at 5pm after many stops and lots of money spent. After finding some needed sanding belts at El Clavo, we headed immediately to the El Gigante store in east Cordoba. We had scoped this store out earlier, knew their selection of azulejos and today made our purchase, which they will deliver next week. We took one only of the walls tiles to match against the floor tiles we liked at Home Depot.

Carmen spent two and a half hours in Doctor Soley's dentist chair, with work done on the second root canal. We bought the Brother printer at Ofix that was ordered some time ago, and then headed off to Home Depot. We shopped hard here, eliminating two of the three floor tile choices,comparing them to the wall tile sample we had with us. Choose a water-saving toilet (sanitario) and handsink (lavabo) set. We will use the mirror and sink, then adapt the included cabinet for bedroom use. The azulejos and bathroom appliances will be delivered to our house tomorrow.  

(Vie 18^th) Spent lots of time trying to get the authorizing papers for Carmen's appointment with the IMSS reumatologist in Orizaba. We waited in one line where we learned she had been denied, so we had to stand in a second line to talk with the clinic chief who could contact this hospital clinic again. The clinic head was at a lecture, and didn't get back to her office until one hour before she was to leave at 1pm. Fortunately we were in the head of this line. Altogether, four hours at IMSS. Supposedly her paper work will be ready next wednesday. Another visit to Home Depot where we selected faucet sets for the shower and sink, safety grab bars and pricey stuff like that. We headed home with another stop at Metalurve to buy the wall mounted flex-hose shower set that will go with our new faucets. – buying more good things for our bathroom that is about to be started.

Really a week of heavy-duty shopping (compras).  When we got back we found that Home Depot had made their delivery while we were gone, and oh yes, to find out that the borrowed sander had burned out. Dan had to immediately go back out in the car to try to find parts to repair it. The crew left at 5:30pm as usual and had to walk to their bus stop. Dan finally returned home after a 2 hour search to the far edge of Cordoba, visiting more than ten stores and repair shops, finding no brushes that fit the very rare Oakland belt sander. He did find some too large that he hoped could be reshaped to fit. During his absence, someone came to the door to ask something about pintura (perhaps he wanted to paint the house—at least once a week someone stops to offer their services for jobs like this), but Carmen turned him away unable to understand what the message was. What a day!  While we were gone today, the guys had hoisted the support beams up to the roof, and the mirador substructure is now fixed in place.  Dan had persuaded Luis to wrap the beams in pieces of asphalt roll-roofing, and pin them into the concrete walls for a secure foundation for the deck.  Looking good

(Sáb 19^th) Luis spent some time with the sander brushes trying to fit them, and did get the maquina working. But now he called Dan over to listen to the sounds it was making. They determined it was a main bearing going out. We already know that this rare brand is unknown in all the repair shops in the city. Finally it was decided for Luis to take the sander home with him and ask a repair man he knows to try to fix it if he can. We took off for Home Depot and made a sander purchase. The previous sander used was a belt sander, so the crew is not too happy with the random-orbital sander we purchased. but at least the work can continue

The Sayer paint that was supposed to be here this past wednesday, was delivered today. Dan was not home yesterday when they brought it by--so that guy who we thought wanted to paint the house was actually trying to deliver and collect for the paint. Sunny day today! The steel pipe fence posts which will hold the chain link fencing up around our laundry building parapet and property walls, were concreted into place, and Dan cleaned up all the clamps. A roll of fencing, the galvanized pipes/poles and a box of fittings were left here by the previous owners, so we decided to use them in our project. Maybe we can later persuade some flowering vines to use this fencing as a support of climbing up high. We removed the glass bottle shards that had been installed in the concrete on top of the walls, so things are definitely looking nicer out there.

Conexiones

Domingo 21 - Sabado 27 Octubre 2012.  (Sun 21^st) Dan thought we might go out for breakfast, but Carmen would rather go to a Chinese buffet restaurant next time we are near one (there's one right up the street from both of the Chedraui stores) on some future shopping day. So, we indulged in waffles at home. Today Carmen reorganized the bathroom items, where she found the missing new faucet handles for the kitchen sink. We also put our living room TV in place on the newly varnished and now well-dried shelves and supports. This was after about a half day's effort for Dan splitting the cable signal and wiring in all the components (receiver, CD player, VCR, two DVD recorders, plus allowing for a computer and the Wii to be put in the mix too). He's so happy that the cable here is still analog, which means all the internal tuners in the devices will work independently for timer recordings. If you opt for digital service, it means all the content comes in only on Channel 3, so you must have an intermediate cable box (for each machine, generally rented from the company) to select the actual program channel that's visible to your recording device. The time/channel setup features of your recording device no longer are of any use. The option to get some free music channels seems to be the only advantage to a digital conexión, just not worth it when compared to the loss of utility in so many of our components.

In the late afternoon we walked to the park. Then a half block further and had a pizza. Enjoyed the park for awhile. Clouds started rolling in. Rainbow across the sky. Birds singing, children playing, adults strolling. Sprinkles came. People started leaving, booths were taken down, so we went to one of the corner ice cream stores. Dan got a yellow paleta of nanche. ( “Golden Spoon,” or Byrsonima crassifolia)...Carmen thought it tasted of melon, and Dan thought it to be more like pumpkin. It had a few large seeds. Carmen had an arroz con crema paleta, like frozen rice pudding on a stick, with frozen strawberry jam down one side...scrumptious. Meandered home by way of the grocery store for milk. Lightly rain sprinkling all the way. Watched some TV and then read in bed a bit before falling asleep. Another good day.

(Mon 22^nd) Dan has been trying to install the almost new HP monitor, which worked just fine in the US. However that is not the case here, when connected to any of our computers, as some interference pattern displays on top of all the screen content. Sending a duplicate signal from the video card to the VGA input on the TV allows him to make output adjustments, but the HP monitor refuses to clear up –he's extremely frustrated. How does spaghetti sound for lunch? Or, is it dinner, since after breakfast we usually have but one large meal a day, in the late afternoon. Actually there is the pan dulce (pastry) or dona (donut) at mid-morning, and then maybe some fruit, vegetable and/or crackers & cheese in the evening. We are still losing weight slowly, or at least not gaining. Very soon we will reach our goals where we will try to stabilize. Then we will have to somehow adjust our eating habits, because we are quite satisfied the way they are at present. Today Carmen baked some peanut butter cookies. The sugar is different here. More crystalline, and it makes the cookie texture different.

Bugs etc. Always wanting to live in the tropics, one hesitates because of the insect problem. We must say that they have not been a major problem. Few flies and mosquitoes. An occasional cockroach. Thousands of ants but we are getting along – sort of. However, when we took a pan out of a cupboard and thought that some how a piece of banana was on the pan and it turned out to be a dying slug, now that just got the best of us. Last evening Gardi was excited about some tiny something that was along the floor. Finally he got it by Dan's feet. Carmen got the flashlight to see what kind of spider it was and it turned out to be the tiniest cricket ever seen. A foot immediately stepped on it and Gardi spent quite a long time trying to find his new friend.

(Tues 23^rd) Watched the presidential debate last night. Dan has connected the internet to our large TV, with wireless keyboard & mouse used from the comfort of the futon couches. Makes for more enjoyable browsing. Carmen spent the day upstairs reorganizing a wall closet of storage items, and Dan worked on stowing away all the audio and video media in our entertainment center and emptying the last few boxes downstairs. For lunch we rolled a fish filet in rice flour with fresh grated lime rind and some garlic salt. Fried in oil. Then poured lime juice over it. Wow! Most delicious. Found a small zucchini in frig, frozen. Turned up the temperature control a bit. Fried it in the fish pan. Also cooked potato and then when nearly done, added fresh cauliflower. Drained when done and put a bit of butter on it and hard cooked for a minute. So good to have a more special meal sometimes. Now it's evening and time for some TV. The two small dogs next door are exercising their lungs...a street dog must have walked past, as they don't usually bark at people. Dan was able to connect with his brother, Burr, on skype today. Always good to talk on skype.

(Wed 24^th) Today we drove to Orizaba to search for a carpentry store that Dan located in the yellow pages. Carmen was handed the map and asked to get us there and locate some parking. The parking being the difficult part. The store was near the river and the streets were parked full. Carmen directed Dan to the west side of the river and we found a lovely large parking spot, but three blocks from the store. We walked back and crossed one of the bridges over the river. There is riverwalk access along the river at this bridge crossing, with a habitat/display for some cocodrilos. We have walked along the river before, but not at this area a bit south of the center. On to the Carpintodo store, where for the first time here, we actually found what we were looking for, some trim to use for additions to our kitchen cabinets. Retail wood items are rare here, and so are good carpenter's tools. They also had a great selection of cabinet hardware. A few blocks in this downtown shopping area are closed to auto traffic. We checked out the large Soriana supermarket, while the clerk at the woodshop held onto our purchased trim piece. Lovely area to walk in on this perfect weather day. Since we were parked but a block from the big alameda park, where we had seen an outdoor concert last winter, we walked around there and sat down to absorb its ambiance for awhile. Certainly is designed for children, as well as adults. Full of trees and flowering shrubs.

Next we drove back towards Fortín and stopped at the Chedraui store. Bought various things, then left our car in the parking area under the store, and walked down a block to a Chinese buffet for lunch. Then on to a Waldos dollar store. Back to the car, and one more trip into the big store for perishables. On the way out of town we stopped at the Maderas de Orizaba, a lumberyard. The lumberyard in Córdoba stocks only large pieces of wood, and one must special order anything, which they'll cut to order to your dimensional requirements. Here in Orizaba there was a selection of plywoods from Boise-Cascade, plus some pre-cut dimension lumber & trim boards (all, however, rough cut, as carpenters here must supply all the sanding & finishing labor). A good find for us, and they will deliver to Fortín for a 50 peso charge. Got a fillup at a convenient Pemex station, where the ladies gave the windshield a cleaning too. Shortly thereafter, Dan stopped by the curb and suggested to Carmen she should take a turn driving. He is afraid she might forget how, and not feel comfortable driving here. He had just run thru a light turning red, with a cop standing at the corner and thankfully, not watching.

With Carmen behind the wheel, a few blocks later, there was a light at an intersection that seemed not to be working, at least no colors could be seen on it with the low western sun shining into it from behind us. Carmen was about half way thru the junction, along with a car in the right hand lane beside her, when from the street to the right came barreling out two rows of traffic with their horns blaring! Guess their light was working, and they nosed around the two cars until the light changed again. On we came towards Fortín and in Cuautlapan there beside the road was a lady selling pineapples. We think we could smell the ripeness of the pineapples driving by on the road. No traffic behind, lots of parking area and good entrance and exit, so what could Carmen do but whip the car right around the stand and park. We bought three good sized ones, at about US$0.75 each. Talk about sweet!

Down at the Metlac river bridge we decided to take the old back road into Fortin for a change of pace. As it's always fun to do and see something different. Actually this used to be the only access into town from the west, but a less steep new road is now the main ruta libre from Orizaba, now coming up into the south end of Fortín. We had walked down this old road a couple years ago with Ania on a hike into the Metlac canyon. The road surface has suffered due to lack of maintenance, and it was difficult to avoid the potholes. Now, we did not remember quite where it came into town, which proved to be at the far western end of Avenida 1 which runs along the northern edge of the park. Stopped to check on our paint order and no, it still was not in yet.

(Thurs 25^th) Dan spent most of this day with personal finances on the office computer and Carmen did a major deep cleaning in both bathrooms. Oh my! What be this? Another new born besucona (“smoocher”) or gecko, with its egg sack still attached.

One of Mexico’s most endearing reptilians which was snuck in cargo ships from Asia and now lives wild, ranging from South America to central Mexico residents is the gecko, known as guerita (blondie) in the coastal towns and villages where they are common. When you hear their homey clicking sound (for which residents affectionately call them besucona, the “kissing one”), don’t be alarmed. Quite the contrary, for each home cannot be without its resident gecko to properly cleanse it of gnats and mosquitoes.

Check this webpage:

http://www.vallartaonline.com/information/SpotLight/TheKissingGeckoFriendlyAllies/

(Fri 26^th) While on our almost daily walks into town, we had a realization. Mexico tries very hard to make certain that all adults are registered for elections, and actively promotes voting in public service announcements and on billboards. It seems in many ways to be more democratic (small D) than the US, which holds itself as the paragon of free elections. We have been noticing two vans parked at the edge of the park – sole purpose is for voting registration. Now isn't that a bit different from the US, where our two major parties are sparring over who gets to vote?

Our paint order has still not arrived at the Sayer paint store. We finally checked at the other four places in town that sell paint and no luck there either. We are trying to buy an acrylic enamel and a clear varnish for outdoor use (water cleanup, low VOC's and easy on the environment & our lungs). Picked up another lock that we had left at the locksmith's a few days ago (for our back gate), plus had hopefully our last needed key made, for a bedroom this time. We have certainly given them a lot of business. Meandering home in the heat of the day, we purchased some red ripe tomatoes from a tiny stall in front of a house that always has a nice little selection of produce.

We spent some time cleaning the floors. Discovered that the few shiny tiles in the dining room need dried with cloth after mopping or they leave water spots. Gardi cat had to walk on and check out every wet floor. Dan moved some tool boxes from dining room to hall and kitchen, in preparation for building the cat walk near ceiling and rebuilding the cat tree we brought along. Carmen fertilized the rhododendron out front and Dan cut the lawn since Carmen assured him it would rain during the night. Finished the day with a movie. Seemed to be a Chinese movie with English, dubbed in and Spanish subtitles,

(Sat 27^th) Rained last night! This morning Carmen finished cleaning the floors upstairs and cleaned some windows, while Dan pulled more nails from our salvaged liftvan lumber. Then we put four 2x4s in the car and drove the nine blocks to Frank's construction site. Here we used his table saw, since we did not bring our radial-arm saw down with from the US, and he didn't want to make a possible mess of it with our hand-held circular saw. Ripped the boards into 2x2s in preparation for building a cat walk high along the wall above the living room windows. Ania and Frank drove up just as we were about to leave. Ania gave us a tour of the construction and pointed out all the little things one might not notice. Really will be a lovely house when done. We finally wore out, after a week of non-stop projects – nap time, after a tall fresh orange juice. Ania had told us that we have a hierba santa plant out in the backyard and that it can be used as a wrapper around baking fish. Today was the time to try it out, and we can now report it was truly delicious.

Cenas de Navidad

Saturday, 24 Dec.  Chilly cloudy morn.  Dan was hoping to go to Orizaba for the second time.  By the time breakfast was finished, the sun was out and the weather looked perfect for the journey.  We walked a block and a half to catch the bus.  Should perhaps have waited for the next bus, as this one had hard no-cushion seats.  Carmen decided on this trip that when we have visitors, we will take them on this trip.  It will surely give them a thrill.  The fast ride around the curves of this hilly ride down across the green Metlac canyon and up the other side are quite exciting, as we said before.  As we passed thru Cuautlapan, we saw off to the south a factory with tall smoke stacks.  Some puffing dark grey and some white smoke.  Turned out to be the El Carmen sugar refinery (ingenio azucarero), the destination for all the trucks we have been seeing, loaded with the harvest from the cane fields.  Weird for Carmen to be around all these places with her name.

As we got into Orizaba, we debated getting off the bus earlier than last time, and taking a different bus into the town center.  Nope, we decided to continue on the same route which again dropped us off at it's journeys end in the middle of the city, about ten blocks from downtown, across from the huge stadium.  This time we walked along a different selection of streets, to learn more about the city.  Once we hit the central downtown area, the streets were mobbed with pedestrians and vehicles.  Not a fun town to drive in, as the streets are narrow.  But for a pedestrian the very clean streets are great, with smooth sidewalks and helpful whistle-toting traffic controlmen to smooth the flow and allow walkers to cross safely.  We saw many city signs saying the pedestrians came first.  We walked thru the central market which took a whole city block.  Then across it to the Palacio de Hierro (Palace of Steel), the former city hall which was assembled here from 600 tons of Belgian steel.  There were musician groups playing beautiful marimba music with percussion & trumpet.  We sat in the park at the palace and enjoyed the music, people and beauty of this place.

Orizaba's downtown is truly beautiful.  The palace, sheathed and partitioned with distinctive steel plates, houses the tourist office, a restaurant and a number of free museums.  First we visited the museum of Mexican presidents, containing flags, photos & history of each leader since the first.  Dan snapped images of the display of the president who had held his daughter, Harmony, when she was 10 days old, at Los Pinos, the presidential residence at Chapultepec in Mexico City. (Just think, she could have had dual Mexican-US citizenship, had things played out just a little differently.  But that's another story.) Then an interactive science museum, a beer museum, and a geology museum. There is also a football museum, this last which we didn't enter.

We got maps of the area and the riverwalk, which is something the city is very proud of.  We found the nearest stairway down to the walk, which follows the course of the Rio Orizaba (the city name derives from the nahuatl word Ahuizapan -- place of happiness).  Along this walk are various clustered areas of cages, a zoo of local wildlife species.   This riverwalk also seems to be a lovers lane, as we passed several couples discreetly embracing under the trees. There is a waterfall and seemingly ancient buildings towering above the edge of the watercourse.  Most picturesque.  We crossed the river on a swaying bridge, Carmen first, vocally castigating Dan behind her, thinking he was not walking gently behind her, as the bridge swayed a bit more than she liked.  Turned out to be a fellow behind him.

What a sight to see. In a street corner shop open onto the street, was a large bar with hundreds of bottles of liquor lined up high, and mixed drinks being whipped up to order.  No tables. Women generally don't go into most cantinas here, however nothing stopped them from lining up along with the dozens of men at this open hard liquor bar.  Now just why would so many people need a drink during a gorgeous day.

From here we hoped to find an Arabian restaurant that we saw last time we were in town.  Even knowing how we seem to misplace buildings, we had good faith in our directional ability today.  So we walked thru Parque Castillo at city center then east along Avenida Colón.  And we got lucky and there was Restaurante Biblos.  It was having a buffet this day.  And what a buffet we had!  Every single item was just plain fantastic to our taste buds!  We were the first to dine this afternoon, and while eating, several parties came in, walked past our table and very enthusiastically wished us Buen Provecho!  Needless to say, we left the restaurant very satisfied, terribly overstuffed, and all we had was one of each thing.  We definitely will be returning.  The family was from Lebanon, and the special Christmas Eve day buffet was a great introduction to all sorts of good things from their ethnic cooking traditions.

Now we had to find a bus back home.  We decided to walk back to the street where we got off the bus.  Was a good decision.  After getting on the bus, we found where it then went to, so that we can get onto it closer to downtown next time.  This bus - perhaps some of the gears went out on it while going up the last hill near Fortín.  It chugged and sputtered it's way up the hill.  We smartly got out where we thought the bus turned from the direction of our motel, only to discover that the bus then turned towards our motel.  We could have walked fewer blocks.  But in all, what a marvelous day this turned out to be.

Sunday, 25 Dec.  Cooler this day.  Plus much dense fog.  We laid in bed late, and watched a movie on TV, passing up a dubbed version of George C Scott playing Ebeneezer Scrooge.  Finally, after a leisurely brunch, we walked up to the park.  Stood in front of the church with some of the overflow crowd long enough for a Christmas blessing.  The fog gave a certain beauty to all.  We were very damp when we returned, as the fog was actually chipichipi, a light sprinkley type rain common to cloud forest areas such as this.  Coming in after the walk, our faces were moist and hair wet on top, with the whole effect like having come inside after having walked through a light snow storm, except we were not chilled, as the temperature was in the lower 60's.  How good it felt!

Our chuckle of the day turned out to be our main meal.  We decided not to go out and cope with the wet weather some more, just to get to the restaurant for the Sunday paella, since we were still being overly satisfied with yesterdays buffet dinner.  So what did we dine on?  In contrast to our grand meal the day before, we dined on left over thick homemade soup made with our lamb bones, rice and cabbage, along with a bolillo. For dessert, one of those Noir extra dark chocolates, from Italy (silky smooth fondant with bits of carmelized cacao nibs)--well worth waiting for.  Such a Xmas meal we have never dined on.  Next came a long Spanish lesson for the both of us.  Carmen's pronunciation kept Dan on his toes, but she is doing great at discerning the meaning of lots of vocabulary..  Now a bit of leisure reading-----------