This is a very noisy
country, and the corner we live on gets lots of vehicle and
pedestrian traffic, but all is quiet by 8PM. Some one down the block
likes opera, and sometimes lovely Mexican music. Five small dogs
next door that bark some, but not steady, so it is OK. In between
all the noises, we hear the song birds. Also in the distance, a
rooster. Several pekin ducks live down the street. Also there is a
large Catholic church being slowly constructed, on the next block
north kitty corner (contraesquina) from us, and one roofed
open area to the side is being used for Sunday services. The church
bell now is very tinny sounding—sometime in the future we can
expect more bell sounds when the building is finished. Construction
now is at a standstill and has been for several years.
This morn when heading out,
there was a young bird scrunched down in the grass. Apparently the
baby hadn't learned it's flying technique yet. It was gone later in
the day. Carmen tells a story of years ago, when her small female
cat brought a young blue jay in thru the cat door and Carmen found
her trying to nurse it! Took the bird away from the cat and put it
in a cage over night. The next morning it was able to fly back to
the waiting mother bird. On our way into town, we saw, and Dan
talked to, the driver of a delivery truck with propane tanks. Dan
asked the driver to arrange with his company for a bulk delivery to
happen Monday morning at 9AM. We really are looking forward to a
warm shower.
Laundry again. Starting to
wash the curtains as the windows are cleaned. Saw a water bottle
delivery truck next door, so Dan dashed out and asked them to deliver
to us a 5 gallon carboy (garafon). The company comes by
Monday, Wednesday & Friday and will check with us weekly. The
fellow carries this heavy jug inside to it's proper place for us.
Next we walked in to the cable company office. Talked to the clerk.
Studied the flyer with the plans. Decided we need the only one that
offered high speed (5MB) internet, which bundled with phone and
91-channel TV will cost about USD64 a month. Phone service includes
all calls free (local, national, international), and means we will
not have to install Telmex phone service. We decided to wait and
have cable installed when we move here in September. Only takes
about a week after ordering it.
Next to the hardware store
again. When we got home yesterday, we discovered that one of our
selected parts yesterday, never made it to the cashier and home with
us. We selected it again, along with another item. Cannot find
towel racks or a paper towel roll holder here. We walked further
north a block where there are many small stores along the block. We
both remembered a housewares store. Did not find it or it was not
open. When stores are closed the total front is covered with a slide
down door, so you never would know what was behind the door.
Again we stopped at the
grocery store. When one walks and has to carry bags 9-12 blocks, one
tends to buy less at one time. Now that we have a juicer, we bought
oranges. Yes, they are still green here. Cost was 30 cents US a
pound. The juice is sooooooooo good! Makes a great afternoon lifter
upper. Everything here is not perfect. Bought a large pineapple
from a streetside stall, and later in the day, when we needed a
snack, we cut into it we found it starting to ferment and rot. It
looked fine on the outside. Most disappointing.
Our next event today – a
fellow, along with his peddle cart filled with tools (including
gas-powered weedwacker), rang our door bell, which is out by the
front gate. He offered to cut our grass and prune all our bushes.
Dan had been slowly cutting the grass with hand cutters. Most
exhausting. He also had been working on one of the bouganvilla (bugambilia),
which have nasty thorns. We quickly agreed to have Artemio tidy our
outside up, plus he would also cart away all the weeds we had pulled
up from our parking patio area. He indeed did a marvelous job. Took
him about two and a half hours. We realized later that we had
probably paid him twice what we should have, plus we gave him a cold
glass of water and two bandaids for the finger he had cut. We look
forward to him returning, but we will be wiser when we pay him.
Either way, it was most inexpensive. To our surprise, he put all the
cut debris on a large white tarp, and carried it over this shoulder
deep into the banana plantations across the street. Took him four
trips from the front area and three from the back. Now, do we dare
to put yard waste in the banana fields too? That is the question.
