Sabado, 07 Julio,2012. Surprise surprise, the nearby restaurant was open. We shared each
other's meal as is often the case. Carmen had a giant bowl of Sopa
Azteca (tortilla soup). For Dan a Mixiote de Borrego
plate—succulent lamb cooked in paper with seasonings including an
avocado leaf, accompanied really good rice, a salad of fresh tomatoes
with sweet onions, plus refried black beans. Probably the best
restaurant meal we have yet had here.. That was late yesterday
afternoon
To start today off right,
Dan climbed the ladder in the main bedroom, Carmen filled and lifted
up to him a large syringe filled with Festermicide which Dan squirted
into the ceiling beams where we thought there were termites..
Made our daily tour of town.
Little more extensive than usual. We visited the key shop. The
fellow there was not the one that knew the job. We were unsuccessful
in locating either of the other two key shops we have seen in town.
Visited the fellow who might be hired to make flashing for our house.
At the grocery store we bought fresh breads (baked in the store),
yogurt and lots of veggies – green beans, corn on cob, broccoli.
Also more bleach since Dan might need more for sanitizing the water
tank on top of our roof. Cannot find any of the right kind of
fencing in town to keep cats in. Maybe we should just forget it.
The problem is that this house sits much closer to the street than
kitties are used to. Plus there is far more traffic here than in
Anacortes. Only if you have loved kitties, will you know our
dilemma.
Upon arriving home, Dan
changed into work jeans and laddered up to the
tinaco on the
roof (up onto the roof over the dining room, then lift up the ladder
to that sloping roof to get up to the upper roof). Fortunately he
can hook the ladder top over the upper roof -wall edge so once it's
in place it doesn't slide off the lower roof. With some WD40 and a
wrench he unfroze the tank drain valve, and set the tank to draining. He pulled out some greenery that had taken hold in the little walled area that surrounds the tank, and pitched it down to the ground. You will recall that when we inspected the house prior to purchase,
the cover had been off the tank, open to ashy rainfall, critters,
algae growth from the sunlight coming in, etc, so we were expecting
the worst for this cleaning
Using a new mop to scrub the
inside of the tank from the access port in the top, the apparently
clear water got dirtier and dirtier the lower it got. Unfortunately
the drain hole is a few inches from the actual bottom of the tank, so
that last five gallons or so, by this time almost thick mud, came out
a mopload at a time. Then Dan called down to Carmen on the ground,
who took this long opportunity to weed the backyard parking area, to
turn on the city water again, and filled the tank with about 15
gallons of fresh water, dumped in the liter of bleach, and repeated
the process, this time with a much cleaner final rinse out. Water on
again it filled with clear water with the bottom now satisfactorily
visible. Once off the roof, he ran water thru all the lines and
cleaned out the fine screen on the kitchen faucet which had been
partially plugged with the crud coming thru the lines. Glad to have
that job done. A shower and a libation to toast the successes of the day. Salud!
