Casi Navidad

Domingo 15- Sábado 21 Diciembre 

Sunday we insulated our windows with foam backer rod, as a sort of temporary, later removable, weather stripping along the middle stile join, and edges where there was space.  Another cold front had swept down from the US. Also covered our vanilla orchid again with plastic. That front did not hang around and it turned out that the rest of the week was delightfully pleasant, with nights only down into the upper 50s and clear sunny days that briefly broke into the 80s.  However, cold fronts will come thru for a couple more months.  Dan has been considering how to convert our very attractive but useless fireplace into a heat source to take off the de vez en cuando chill when the temps dip and we need a spot of medium heat for several hours.  90% of the heat from an open fire goes up the chimney, and anyway, we do not have a source of leña to build the large fires that would be needed.  He has been researching "rocket-stove" and masonry heaters online, pondering possible variations and sketching designs.  Unfortunately, most of the development work on such efficient heating comes from cold climates where much more heat is demanded from stove designs, and ambient interior/exterior temp differentials are much greater. A good look at the issues involved is in this publication from the good folks at the Aprovecho Research Center, a group that traces it's history back to the 1976 Guatemala earthquake, and based in the Oregon Cascades.

Monday we met Ania and her mother at Sam's Club warehouse store. We do not yet have a membership there. Come next May, Ania's current membership expires and we plan to go in together on her renewal at that time. This means we will share the MX$450 membership fee and each have a card, and if we shop together we can split the larger quantities that are mostly sold here, much better for two small households. This day we bought a pressure cooker, and some other goodies. We had earlier seen real fruitcakes there but they were now sold out, so sad.  Actually, a just-before-Xmas fruitcake purchase was the main reason we asked to meet Ania there, so we could make that anticipated buy. We both love fruitcake and they are not normally available in Mexico.

It's hard to believe it's casi (almost) Christmas is almost here, what with flowers still blooming and plants to be watered and tended outside in the garden.  However, Monday evening Mexican children started making their pre-Christmas posada rounds to sing their song about Mary and Joseph looking for a room. More likely around here, the kids sing about La Rama (a decorated branch).  In fact Sunday we saw Alex and his son traipsing back from the south edge of town carrying branches for this purpose.  Here's more about this Veracruz tradition, courtesy of John Calypso.  We give them a couple pesos for the group and each a piece of candy. They always have a bag for the goodies and can for the monedas, usually with a slot too small to easily drop the coins into. One boy came with two others the first night, then the next three nights with one of the little girls, and thereafter by himself. He now gets only a piece of candy for his singing efforts. Thursday evening, everyone introduced themselves. They always thank us. One boy, maybe 10 years old, asked if we spoke english, and he proudly told us in english that he did too. We invited him to come back and talk to us again. He seemed delighted. Will he return? They mostly ring our door bell between 6 & 8pm, except for the two teen age boys who arrived one night at 10pm. Dan told them that they should be home in bed that late.

Ania, Frank and Wanda came for a turkey dinner wednesday. We have been unable to find cranberry sauce in any of the grocery stores, so... We boiled up some aranadanos dehidratados (cran-raisins) with a bit of sugar, then added some canned pineapple and fresh lime rind, all cooked down to a relish consistency. Absolutely scrumptious! The turkey was overdone, par for the course as we are just getting used to our oven. Apple raisin stuffing, mashed potatoes and giblet gravy, candied yams, baby peas, plus lime meringue pie. Rosé wine from España, a good deal from Sam's Club at US$1.77 per bottle.  The yams are different here. Not so naturally sweet, plus Carmen sauced them in butter with piloncillo (brown cane sugar) instead of regular brown sugar. This sugar, sold in little grenade-sized cones or pylons, has to be cut or broken up and is not as sweet as NoB granular brown sugar. After a very filling meal, we played mexican dominoes. Carmen won the series, though we all had our turns winning games, which makes for fun.

Thursday Carmen made lots of Christmas cookies, with a bit of help from Dan. The eight varieties are: Linzer schnitten, Chocolate chip bars (the recipe from Nancy Clark), Sugar cookies (rolled, cut & frosted), Nutty balls, Carrot bars with lime and lime frosting (always used oranges before, but our oranges had gone too soft to grate the peel), Blackberry jam bars, Chewy noel bars (a buttery nut bar), and Brown-eyed susans which are almond flavored with a spot of chocolate on the top center. This is the first week our oven has been used very much. Everything turned out good, except for a few over-done bottoms because a tray was too close to the edge of the oven. Lesson learned if you want perfection – bake one tray at a time!

Friday Dan had to go to IMSS to get his lab slip stamped in order to have the tests next week. We hit several of the major food stores to check out their special holiday foods. Still hoping to find molasses. Walmart had it last year, but not now. Next was the Soriana hypermart. This store is new and had little business, so perusing the aisles was relaxing. We discovered that a Little Ceasars has opened in this new shopping center. Good to know that the closest LC pizza is no longer in Veracruz! Next we headed for Chedraui and the parking lot was absolutely packed. We will try it next week after Xmas. On to Home Depot for more gardening supplies, and some copper pipe & fittings for the upcoming kitchen hot water heater installation. Lastly a stop at Shattucks to deliver the Xmas cookies made yesterday. Met Ania's daughter Milena and her children from near Puerto Vallarta.  The whole family will have Christmas together at Kalina's home in Boca del Rio, near Veracruz city.

Over the course of the last few days of the week, we gave out 16 Xmas plates and three small bags of these cookies to neighbors and service/utility workers, and kept some for ourselves. We hope that these recipes from our traditions will be a rare treat for our Mexican friends  So far Josefina has given us peach-filled empanadas, and Juanita's daughter came to our door with large pastries similar to elephant ears. Yumm.  Oh yes, construction across the street has stopped for the hoilday season, and the crew there erected a temporary chain link fence to deter people from wandering in, falling into excavation holes, and perhaps helping themselves to some sand or gravel.

Gardi gave us another scare with his wanderings. He is adventuring onto distant jumps from one of our roofs to another. He also thinks it great fun to ask us to get a ladder to get him down. When we are about to take hold of him, he proves that of course he can jump back to where he came from!  Since telling Carmelo that we wanted no more plants til mid-January, we now have 19 waiting to be planted. We are having problems with our large orchid pseudo-bulbs shriveling. Apparently this can be from either over- or under-watering – so what to do?  Dan wrapped some spanish moss around the root tendrils of some of the mounted orchids, and we think this is taking care of the problem.  Despite the cool weather, or perhaps because of it, we discover new orchid blooms several times a week.

Más Macetas, Más Flores

Domingo 17- Sábado 23 Noviembre   Dan updated some of our albums on DavesGarden, where he has put categorized fotos of the plants for which we have sure IDs and good pictures. We'll post more here as we work thru our master list of acquisitions, which we maintain on a spreadsheet. We have had comments about them from Colombia, US and Mexico, and answers to our queries about IDing plants from as far away as England. Sunday we drove to Ania and Frank's house to check things out while they are away, and to give their kitty some loves and food.

Lots more plants waiting to be planted, purchased over the last few days from Carmelo. He showed up again monday, bearing ten or so plants, which he peddles around the neighborhood. Despite Carmen saying no more, Dan convinced her to buy two we didn't yet have. Carmelo asked Dan for a loan, to “buy medicine.” No, we do not do that. We have several times given him pesos in advance for a couple of plants that we have not yet received, but that is our limit. Cosme was here about the same time, with a huge bag of orchid and other epiphytes he collected up north. Carmen said no more, but Dan felt he had to buy one, a unique large tillandsia from up by Papantla. A lady came by selling some smaller Hass avocados at a good price, so we bought three and she gave us another—they were very tasty. Now that valencias are coming into season, we bought another 40 pound bag of juice oranges, which proved to be much sweeter than the last bag we bought. Repeated frentes frios (cold fronts) are sweeping down from the states bringing cooler weather, but we see the sun most days.  The butterflies are still around when the sun warms up the air.  Here are two common ones we see often:  Diaetheria anna anna (Anna's 88), a brush-footed butterly, and the other one with iridescent silver/blue wingspots that we haven't yet ID'd.  hey both are about 2" across when wings are spread flat.

Dan has started burning CDs of our LP s and tapes. In Anacortes in the month before we came down here, he had copied well over 180 original recordings, using the shareware Audacity program, and stored the resulting aud files on his computer's hard disk, about 300GB in space that he really needs to free up. It did not make sense to bring the originals down here. Once converted to wav files (which can be burned to audio CDs), he wants to move the aud files into separate storage. We took advantage of the special seasonal sales, and went to Office Depot to buy an external hard disk specifically for storing media files for music, photos and such. A stop at Shattucks where we expected to see Manuel working, but this was a holiday (Dia de La Revolución) and he was not there.  

Tuesday we went to the IMSS hospital outpatient section for Carmen's cita with the ENT department. A nice Dr Cobos, who spoke some english, examined her and found no obvious cause for the dizziness. There is no swelling or apparent infection in the ear area, so the specialist feels the problem might be coming from her neck where she had surgery a few years ago to fuse some cervival vertebrae. Looking acutely up or down can stress her neck, perhaps causing the swelling which is affecting the blood supply to the inner ear. She is totally fed up with the head pain and dizziness! He prescribed a cortizone shot, with the hopes that her dizziness will disappear – there will be a followup with him in a month. The shot was interesting in that she was just given a prescription by the doctor. She had it filled at the hospital pharmacy where the clerk there provided a tiny bottle filled with injectible cortisone. She then had to find someone to give her the shot. Dan offered, but she preferred to go to our IMSS family clinic, where a nurse in the urgencias section used a syringe and gave it to her in the hip. Actually the nurse was a young fellow who looked to be in his teens. He did a really great job of very slowly injecting this thick fluid. We could have also gone to the clinic attached to the farmacia in Fortin, where it would have cost MX$30 for the doc there to do the injection.

From the parking spot near the hospital, we walked on into the center of the city where we went to the Waldos store. It finally has fig bars and those good oatmeal cookies again! Only place we have found them! Also we bought someattractive but inexpensive plastic macetas (flower pots) of various sizes;  we're sure to fill then as it seems we can't seem to have too many pots on hand. (Can't seem to turn down, each time, one more interesting flower -- this is Fortín de las Flores, after all!) Next door to Waldos is our favorite fabric store where we purchased, after much deliberation, the heavy upholstery fabric for the new bedroom bench seat, for which we bought the foam pad in Orizaba last week. Wondering when Carmen might finish this project? The fabric is rather exciting. It has the browns and greens of the other fabrics hanging over windows and storage areas, plus much rather country-ish looking patterning.

Of course, since we walked right past the main El Borrego store we bought a hunk of their delicious swiss cheese. Now loaded down, we walked the six long blocks up hill and down hill, back to our car. It is always a trick deciding which streets to walk on: where are the hills the least steep, where are there fewer steps in the sidewalks and where is the shade? We then drove to Frank & Ania's place and found the housekeeper tidying up and watering the outside plants. She said the uphill water tanks were dry. Dan checked them out, and turned on the water at the meter (Frank had turned it off before they left). The tanks had been full a few days earlier, so perhaps there's a leak, so we'll go back to turn the water off once the tanks are filled. (Dan later sent Frank an email to explain the situation and ask exactly how the water system was configured. Not a good thing for them to think about on their vacation.) Then home again, home again, jiggity jig.

This week a banana cream pie was made and devoured, plus a batch of chocolate chip cookies with oatmeal added. Our 5gal water garafon was delivered just as some came out of the oven, so of course a couple went to the delivery guys.  Across the street, the crew of albañiles are finished with the rubble foundations, and are pouring a reinforced bond beam along the top, a base from which they'll shortly erect concrete block perimeter walls.  We ran short of sand for our homemade potting mix, which needs to drain well to deal with the ample rainfall here, so Dan went across the street to buy two half-cubetas from the guys, from the huge pile they were working from.  This was way easier than driving somewhere to convince a building supply store to fill and sell us one bucket, when they normally sell it by the cubic meter.

Gardi cat finally had his outing and hike across the top of the narrow fenced ledge on the wall dividing our property from that of Valentin. He traversed out to the roof over the car entry into our backyard. He'd been studying this journey for quite some time. He crossed both slanted sides of this roof and onto the tiled skirt-roof above the west-facing bedroom window. Being a dead end, he went back and made the decision not to leap down into Valentin's property. This is the one place where he could actually get off our property, if he was brave enough to attempt the long, steep leap which would be required. We both did lots of calling to him, so he wisely decided he had had enough adventure, and returned to the terraza outside our bedroom. Now, until we get a barrier at this “jump over” place, kitties can not go out the bedroom door, which is really too bad since timid Smij cat feels comfortable there.

We needed to go to the Shattuck's saturday to feed their beautiful petite short haired calico cat. Our weather report told us that it was supposed to be light rain later, so we started our circle trip in the morning. First to the RG store to see if they had gotten our vacuum cleaner yet; nope. Office Depot for more clamshell CD cases. Next was Walmart, where we bought a Beatle's calendar and a tall flower vase, plus a few grocery items. Calendars are hard to find in this area; everyone stocks agendas (daily/weekly appointment books), but wall calenders big enough to make notes on are a rare item.

By now the weather was sprinkling on us. Off to home Depot to purchase the steel stock to create the fencing panel to keep Gardi where e think he belongs. Was raining hard by the time we left there. Still had to go to Shattucks. As we drove past their front gate, we saw a large branch from a palm laying just inside  on the driveway. We park and go in at the upper back gate. By this time the “sprinkles” have turned into a heavy downpour which kept us in our car a while. We found miss kitty under Ania's car, trying to stay dry. She does so love the cat food we take her. We also gave her a serving of her regular food, assuming she might save it for tomorrow? She is so very sweet and loves any attention we can give her. Dan dragged off the branch out front since it made the place look unoccupied, and checked that the water tanks are now full, and so turned of the main water supply at the meter.  ALl the plants on the terraza were well watered when we got home. Our cacti seem to be doing well despite the rain, as they are planted in shallow fast draining planters.

Dan indeed did sell our old hot water heater, for MX$300, about 1/10 the price of a new one, but better than scrap value. Our fresh cut flower man has not stopped this weekend and now we need them. The flower vase on the dining room table has drooping pink carnations from two weeks ago, but the pink anthuriums Ania gave us are still lovely. A wheelbarrow came to our front door loaded with ceramic cookware—turns out they were the very folks we had bought flower pots from streetside near the Super Ahorros grocery store in town. Carmen showed the two folks selling that she had some of their large pots. Their asking price was higher than we were used to paying, so we made a lower offer and the deal happened. We now have four empty large hand-painted ceramic tripod base pots longing to be filled with something beautiful.

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.

El mas lluvioso mes del año

(Domingo 01 - Sábado 07 Septiembre)  Now that our medium sized bedroom has a bed in it, it is time to move the stored wood out of this room. But where shall we store it? Next problem, the hose hanger that Dan installed in the front of the house has got to be moved to a more accessible location. He had put it where it looked best, right over the hose bibb, but too many plants got crushed when doing the watering with it. Much time was spent on cleaning up our backyard area.

It was our understanding that on the first and fifteenth of the month, the Similares (generics) drugstores in town had a twenty-five per cent discount, so we walked into Fortín center to stock up on the meds that Carmen cannot get dispensed from IMSS. She is allergic to the brand IMSS carries, and they stock only one of each formulation. Turns out that this month, since the 1^st falls on a sunday, that the deal is on the second, monday. Since our hands are empty, we wandered thru the flower market shops. Carmen unfortunately wants one of everything. Luckily our property will not hold that many plants. We came home with only six. We are still looking for a hen & chicks plant.

A man came to our back gate, selling plant stands made from black enameled rebar, and we bought one which holds five plants. Carmen spent time transplanting her herbs into the colorful little pots we bought to fit the stand. The pots are too small for all the herbs that she started from seed, so we now find these herbs here and there throughout other pots. The two long planters that had the herbs now sit empty, waiting for...?

Early in the day we did some skype “video messages” of the panoramic views from our mirador, to send to some friends. Thought we would be able to copy and resend to others, but have not figured out yet how to send a video to more than that one person. We are still waiting to do more videoing, when we're home in the morning, and not otherwise occupied, when Mt Orizaba is not hiding behind clouds, as it does by 10am, or earlier, at this time of year. The radio station we listen to in the mornings reminded us that September is the mas lluvioso mes del año (the rainiest month of the year) here.

Monday morning we were at IMSS by eight am for Carmen's monthly appointment to get her prescriptions reauthorized and filled. Our time was for 9am and we were taken at 10 am. Seems that one has a two hour wait, no matter what time one arrives, because people are taken in order of their arrival, not according to appointment time. Just take a book to read, enjoy people watching, or napping,

Next stop was grocery shopping. (Carmen got a surprise when sorting thru the carrot bin. A fellow, dressed as an employee, looked her in the eye and said buenos dias, with a great big smile! The surprise was that he is our next door neighbor, Valentin. So now we know he works here at Walmart.) We had invited Ania and Frank for dinner wednesday, so we needed to stock us on some foods for the planned menu. Today's new item that we found at the store is smoked tuna, at half the price of un-smoked tuna steaks right next to them in the case. Always interesting to see what new foods will be here each time we shop. Could be anything from canned goods, meats, fresh veggies or fruits we are unaccustomed to. Adds to our excitement of being here. Hmm, a fresh spinach bread too. Carmen used to bake bread frequently, but the stores we shop at have such a good variety, that she rarely has this task, though her bread is a different sort than what bakeries produce here. Yep – this was likely written before, but breads deserve lots of mentions!

Got our 25% discount Monday at the Similares drugstores. Thankfully we did our bank stop the day before, as there was a block-long line waiting for the ATM, being the first monday of the month. Stopped by the grocery store in town to buy some beets for a salad. They usually have good fresh ones, and there were none at Walmart today. Found a fresh pineapple at a fruit stand. And lastly we went to the electric company to pay our two month bill of less than US$25. Electricity is expensive here, but we are in the lowest bracket that still gives a special discount to small consumers, as our only electric usage comes from lights and outlets (TV, computers, refrigerator, and a rarely used fan, which we used only twice this past year).

Since we installed the wide eaves trough along the edge of part of our back roof, we now have a deluge in one spot at then end of the gutter, instead of all along this ten foot area. We wanted to keep the water from falling onto the terraza just outside our bedroom door. That part is working great. Now we have a waterfall effect hitting the ground level patio. We bought some white largish decorative rocks from Home Depot, and put them in a large tray, so that the water falling from the roof now drops into there and more slowly leaves the area and flows out of the slightly slanted parking area to the street, instead of drowning the planting area which it is adjacent to. Unfortunately, the harder it rains the farther out the water falls, missing the landing spot we made for it. Back to the drawing board!

Tuesday the young lady at DIF called us, to come in to their office in Fortín to finalize the paper work and receive our senior INAPAM id cards. These will give discounts on public transportation, admissions, and some stores. We feel almost guilty for taking advantage of this program, but we are gray haired now. This gobbled up a couple hours of time. As we walked home, we saw the grader just finishing scraping up the escombro (dirt & debris) the city had left on the road, from doing our sewer connection.  Now, aside from some little patching of the steps which Dan will do, our construction job is at an end.

We unpacked our pictures and together we got those hung on the walls. The hardest part was of course, deciding where to put each one. Also we hung some of our fabric hangings, like Dan's Yale rug in the stairwell. This was a tricky job, on top of a ladder and stretching to reach high on the wall over the open stairwell, to set the anchors. Also put one of Dan's mom's quilts over the new bed, and a colorful batik we purchased when on a cruise in the Caribbean – from Caribelle Batik at Romney Manor on the island of St Kitts (http://www.caribellebatikstkitts.com/caribelle_batik.asp). Still have a lovely piece from Italy that Dan's daughter, Harmony, gave us from when she was in school there for a semester. We are looking for just the right pieces of local color for a couple spots of wall yet.

Dan spent a couple hours cleaning while Carmen did some cooking for the next days meal, both of which continued the next day. Finally there was a day when Ania & Frank could get together with us for a meal on our rooftop! We four have had many past weeks of sore backs or bad weather or house guests which have prevented this meal from happening high up on the mirador. Wanting a nice meal, but easy to carry up all those steps, was a dilemma.

Carmen went the route of appetizers, with nothing hot. Carrying items up the steep stairway is not too difficult, but bringing them back down is a feat! So – in a five gallon bucket, were stacked, all the plates, soup cups, silverware and water and wine glasses. Next came the smoked tuna, deviled eggs and stuffed mushrooms. Then the biscuits made with some cornmeal, chorizo sausage and cheese to the usual dough, topped and covered with and table cloth and napkins. Dan carried the bucket, just like a picnic basket! Carmen carried the room temperature carrot soup in a pitcher. Ania took the bottle of wine and water pitcher, and Frank carted the large bowl of a salad of cooked beets, apple, garbanzo beans, broccoli, and grapes with a fat free caesar dressing, on a bed of butter crunch lettuce. Most elegant looking and oh so delicious! Earlier Dan had carried a card table and chairs up.

The view is so very gorgeous from the top of our house. There was a wee breeze and no flies until a moment after Carmen foolishly remarked about no bugs! Frank suggested that we install a zip line between our houses. Wow! Wouldn't that be something, going over town and cane fields from our mirador to the hill they live on! While packing up to carry all back down the stairs, Dan managed to flip the wine cork and opener off the deck onto the roof top. He retrieved it, which gave us all a bit of excitement. After carrying our items back down, we played a game of rummy cube. Ania won, as usual. Then we had our dessert. Carmen made a cheesecake, and it was the worst she had ever made – extremely dense. Why? Who knows, maybe the cream cheese brand, over baking it, or not whipping long enough? It was sad, and a challenge for the next time she attempts it.

Ania brought a plant for Carmen that she had started, and Carmen sent her home with several starts she had been hoping for. Unlike us, they have a huge piece of property, so lots of room for more plants, which is good since they have almost one of everything. They also have room for trees, shrubs, and tall and sprawling plants. Lucky them – or maybe not – all that yard area requires a lot of upkeep, and we have purposely left that part of our lives behind us.

Needless to say, the next day for breakfast we had party left overs – in the form of an omelet stuffed to falling apart with fresh mushrooms, smoked tuna, broccoli and tomato, with a good local gouda cheese And there were two biscuits left to be freshened in the toaster oven. Oh yum. Yogurt on the side of course.

Dan has been going over tax returns for some northern folks. Carmen fluttered through the day with the plants. Amazing how time consuming they can be. Before these fun things, though, we had a lonnnng spanish lesson while sitting up on the mirador. Most difficult for Carmen to concentrate up there. Too many things to keep track of – birds, butterflies, Gardi cat who joined us, cars on the street below, people walking by, and even a plane flew over. In Anacortes we had frequent overflights, but here they are rare and this was probably only a business jet, unlike the frequent fighter jets in the US from the Whidbey Island Naval Air Station. We're glad to be missing the sometimes annoying “sounds of freedom.”

A tropical storm was predicted for the afternoon, so laundry was hung out early and dried. The rainy weather was later than predicted and never did get really bad here. Carmen made some ginger cookies to help us thru the evening. She makes and freezes dough in small batches, then bakes them off in the toaster oven, just enough to eat up right away.

We always take in about an hour or so of evening TV news on ForoTV (and sometimes a little CÑÑ), with Dan translating the highlights for Carmen. After only two weeks of school, the big news is the teachers are on strike, protesting the federal government's education reform program which will have teachers take competency tests, with possible firings for those that fail three evaluations. A big manifestación outside the international airport in Mexico City slowed things down there for the day. There seems to be a general willingness on the part of citizens here to let aggrieved groups have their say with actions like this, but it's getting to the point that parents are becoming angry that classes are on hold.

Friday was a chilly 70 degrees. Time to have the oven on and make a lime meringue pie. Our carpenter came by to tell us that he will be delivering the repaired kitchen cabinet door tomorrow. He had been working on a big job in Córdoba, but he hadn't forgotten us. The original door warped badly after he had installed it. He was trying to straighten it, and if that was not possible, he will have made us a new one. Carpenters must have a hard time here, with little kiln-dried wood available for purchase.

We barely had our eyes open saturday morning before a woodpecker ratta-tat-tatted on a wood en beam above the bedroom window. Up near the roof, we were unable to actually see it. Hope he comes back sometime we're outside, as we like to identify and tally the fauna and flora around us here. We then enjoyed listening to the radio (classic hits on XHSIC “La Poderosa” in Cordoba) music for awhile before the kitties could talk us into getting up.

A flower seller stopped at our gate. His fresh flowers are lonnnnng stemmed and so beautiful! Today we bought a bunch containing Alstroemeria and another of large gerber daisies . Hope they last two weeks as the last ones we purchased from him did. Carmen put one branch of the alstroemeria into a pot of soil – hoping to root it. We had one of these Peruvian lilies growing in Anacortes. Dan has spent the day pecking way at his computer on financial stuff. Carmen spent the day with our plants. Actually sewing the straw like coconut fiber on to the mesh form we made to hold our staghorn fern.

We have a banana every morning for breakfast and they have gotten a bit ahead of us. Since we had recently purchased a six hole muffin pan that nicely fits into our toaster oven, Carmen made banana muffins for our 10:30am snack. The kitties seem tired out today, so they must have worked hard protecting us last night. Dan had suggested that the wine left over from dinner with Ania & Frank wednesday, be used in cooking. The result was our mid-day meal: chicken thighs roasted in our toaster oven, with veggies (carrots, shallots, chayote and garlic cloves, thyme) and red wine. Many children about today. In fact, lots of folks walking into town today. An old red pickup truck with large cans or raw milk also drove by. It actually had a tin cup attached to one of the milk cans. Our carpenter never arrived, so for sure he had something pressing come up. We had wanted to go for a walk, but did not for fear of missing him. Tomorrow for sure a walk.

Polinizando a mano

(Domingo 18 - Sábado 24 Agosto) 

Dan started the week out by hanging up the new ceiling fan in the bedroom, assembling it and hooking it up to replace the single bulb overhead light that was there. This was no small job. The cathedral ceiling slants and is supported by sloping beams. Carmen planted some new plants outside and indoors. While sitting on the upper deck doing spanish lessons, Smij was being curious about the stairs leading to the mirador, so Carmen carried her up there. Gardi was on the top waiting for them. Smij was put down on top of the roof before the level of the mirador, assuming she would go on up with Gardi. Wrong. She spied the enclosed area under the platform and darted under there. She finally crept back out, wide-eyed at the view from the roof to the ground below, and went slowly back towards the steps, Carmen grabbed her and carried her back down the stairs. Gardi literally runs up and down the steep steps (more like a ship's ladder), though he could easily catch a foot and twist it in the open framework of the steps.

While Carmen was out front sweeping the entry area, a lady with four smallish children walked by. Well, actually, the lady bent over to tie a shoe, one child bravely walked up to the gate and said “h e l l o” with the word all stretched out and said very slowly. Carmen mimicked her slow speech and replied in kind, and the little girl giggled and kept repeating the word. Carmen said a few more english words which the girl did not understand, so went back to hello. Eventually the mother got her shoe tied and walked past with the other three children, who all stopped and said “h e l l o”, then giggled. Mother looked on proudly.

A new bird today! What a thrill! We spied on our back fence, a large bright yellow breasted bird. Seemed about the size of a flicker, but in reality, according to all the pictures on the internet, it must be smaller. It has a heavy long bill, a strong white slash over the eye, rather an olive color on the back, white above the tail under the wings, and some white streaks on the outer areas of the wings. Most beautiful. It is either a yellow-breasted chat (Icteria virens) or perhaps a king bird. This bird stays only for a minute or so and has returned for us to admire a few times that we know of. We do not know it's song yet.

Tuesday we walked into town to go to the DIF, etc. On our way on Avenida 7, one of the main streets, when what do we spy? The Google Earth car, a compact auto with a blue globe-like apparatus (the panoramic camera) on the top. The company tends to update the same streets and this street is on Google Earth already, so we expect that one might be seeing us (our backsides) walking west on the sidewalk, near Calle 5, just before coming to the library, cultural center and DIF office.

The young lady at DIF told us they would call us when there was someone there to talk to us, on thursday or friday. Next stop, the Santander bank for auto insurance quotes. The quotes from there and also from the agent Frank uses, were all higher than from the company that we signed with before we crossed the border. We had thought that now that we are here more than six months at a time, we would not be able to insure with this company, however, as long as we are US citizens with a US-plated vehicle, we can insure with them. Coverage is with Qualitas, the same insurer that the agent and the bank quoted to us, but at higher prices.

Now a stop at the Telcel store. Our cellphone needed a refill. Even phones get hungry! The day was ended with hanging the long curtains Carmen and sewn for the closet area along one wall of the smallest bedroom.

Wednesday – Dan built the curtain rods for the north small windows of smallest bedroom and Carmen made the curtains. They are of a beautiful purple, blue and other colors with the look of Guatemalan typical tela. The two large windows on the east side are a medium blue.

The next day the city water commission finally got “done” with the streetside gutter concrete work in front of Valentin's house next door. Will they do the steps that they smashed while repairing his water line? Carmen had a dental appointment and got a small filling put in behind one of her front teeth. It came out when she had a cleaning last week. Cost about US$35, and more care was taken putting it in than Carmen ever experienced NoB.

A note we missed last week. When in Home Depot, there were two fellows checking out ahead of us – setting up a new wholesale account. According to the shirts they were wearing, they work for a local refinery, but according to the shirt logo, also a part of the Domino brand. The sugar is apparently made here and shipped north in large quantities for repackaging. So now we know where our favorite sugar comes from. The only brown sugar we have found here so far, however, is coarse and granular, not the fine and soft of the north.

Friday dawned sunny, and we took advantage to hang clothes out to dry, and to freshen up items that had been in the closet for a while. We really love having our clotheslines on pulleys outside our upstairs bedroom. So convenient. Walked to DIF, which postponed us again. They will call us next week. Today they got a large shipment of food that they must distribute to the needy. We finally had time to make a tour of the city library. It had books on learning english, but we found no novels in english. Dan found lots of things he'd like to read. We browsed the children's section. Carmen feels she is not ready for any of those except the mostly picture books. She just does not like reading when she has to look up every third word or so. Probably not that bad, but it feels that way.

Needed a few items from the grocery store. Just before there, a man had his wares, flower pots and household ceramics, spread out along the sidewalk. After grocery shopping, we bought a pot which Dan then had to carry home, full of some of the grocery purchases. We both had rather heavy loads to carry the next ten blocks. As we got closer to home we passed a fellow selling fresh grapes, both red and green, for about US$0.70 a pound. A kilo of both kinds added to the load.

All thru the week, Dan has spent time hand pollinating the passion fruit flowers. We had noted that they would bloom and the flower would fall off in a day or two, without setting any fruit. Some online research told us we needed to polinzar a mano (hand pollinate), by brushing the pollen on the stamens to the stigmas which sit above them. This can be done with the fingers, or a small implement like a brush.  A Q-tip works great!  The beautiful delicate flowers last but one day, and we are getting about 4-6 a day.

Carmen made a big buy all by herself this week, right at our front gate. A fellow with an arm load of 20” stem flowers was walking by and she bought a dozen three inch diameter carnations. She even understood what he said to her and counted out the correct change for payment! In her excitement she forgot to bargain, though. Now, she has fumbled through gateside purchases before, but this time she actually understood the words, and they were in spanish.

We finished up the week installing the 20 foot bamboo pole that we had gotten from Frank last week, attaching it with set-off blocks to the tall south wall in the front yard, so the vanilla vine would have something to grip and climb on. In working here on the ladder, Dan bro worked in the afternoon sun for an hour or so, weeding along the avenida edge on the north of our property, and came inside sweat- soaked and exhausted. It was a good day, all plants weeded and fertilized, roadside cleaned up, everything looking good.
ke off the top of the plant. It will recover, but he was quite depressed by the accident. Carmen promptly started propagating the 18” piece in a pot, so hopefully we'll have another plant to gift someone later. We both

Manifestación

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Residentes!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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