Domingo 16 - Sábado 22 Diciembre 2012. (Dom 16th) What a lovely
surprise this morning – a three inch long beautiful green grasshopper
on our front porch. It was seeming like it had a broken leg. Later
in the week it was not moving. The new ant hill outside our front
gate did not delight us. The third insect today? Yep, a cockroach
was found under the rim of our toilet seat. Thank heaven it did not
crawl on our butt while we sat on the toilet!! We flushed it down
and it swam and swam and swam and came back up out of the water.
Next it got squashed and flushed again. After watching for some
time, we saw no return of the creature. We really do not see evidence of many
cockroaches around here, considering the climate we live in.
Dan finished up the waste chute
structure on top of the porch roof. Carmen sanded, then varnished
the few pieces of trim on the inside of the windows that had been
damaged by water condensing and running down the glass. Then prepped
and started painting the exposed outsides of the windows with brown
paint (the exposed area that we had to paint from inside the house,
because of the screens on the windows). Finished the two windows in
the room we are now sleeping in. Dan did some caulking around
windows.
We have mentioned that several times a
week someone stops here to ask directions. Today a bus driver asked
for a place we have not heard of. We have never seen a bus on this
street before. The driver managed to turn the bus around in the
intersection, with the help of his ayudante. Beautiful new
air-conditioned bus. They must have been picking up a tour group.
The window in one of the dining room
french doors had a big gap at the top, due to the pane of glass
sliding down too far. Dan removed two of the trim stop pieces,
loosening the pane. Now the pane could be moved, but it was hard to
find just the right width piece of something to wedge under the
window glass to block it up in place. The magic fit turned out to be
half of a wooden clothes pin, carved down thin with a knife. Stops
back in place and a little caulk finished the job.
An exciting evening of TV. There were
three movies in english playing at the same time, one to be watched
and the others to be recorded for later viewing We have had no
shortage of english shows on the television, subtitled in spanish.
Several weekly series that we enjoy, plus the variety of movies.
(Lun 17th) Out of bed early
today, at least early for us. We expected a crew of four fellows to
arrive at 7am. Come 7:30 and they were still not here, so Dan drove
to Frank's obra and found them. What they were doing there
instead of here we do not know. Dan returned here with the crew plus
a few borrowed hand tools from Frank. As Dan explained to the
foreman that we needed to finish the waste chute's receiving bin on
the road, the foreman informed Dan that he has to go to an office in
town and get permission to start the job, and perhaps to put anything
on the street. This is hard to believe since we see all sorts of
building materials from jobs in process piled at the edge of the
streets around here. The guys decide to work on the roof over the
dining room first, as broken concrete from this area doesn't have to
be pitched into the street. This lower roof is the access route to
get to the higher part of the roof. So they go to work denuding this
little roof of tiles first.
Dan immediately went to the office and
found no one there. Seems that the office does not open 'til perhaps
9am. Dan got back and showed the guys his idea for a box-like
receptacle on the street below the waste chute, and they put it
together from the pallet-like bottoms of the old liftvans. Then Dan
drove back to find the SETSE office to find it still closed (this
about 10:15am.) So, Dan next visited the owner at the FortiFerre
building supply store, as a likely person to know if we need a permit
of some kind, and where to get it. He advised that since we weren't
adding to or altering the house structure, just removing and
replacing tiles, that no permit would be needed.
Carmen tried to put cats in our bedroom
this morning, but that slippery white Smij got away and is in the
smallest bedroom, under the single bed in the drawer again. We are
worried that with the workers coming inside to use the bathroom, the
cats could get out and be frightened with the noise and disappear. A
fresh potty box, food and water are waiting for them in the bedroom
we've been sleeping in. The room Smij has chosen has a door that we
can not close 'til we trim off the bottom. Gardi cat of course likes
to be part of the action. He is trying to figure out why all the
noise on the roof top.
The task of trimming some off the
bottom of the bedroom door now can't be put off, so we removed the
door from its hinges, figured out the trim line to clear the spot on
the floor where it sticks, set up a saw guide/jig to run the circular
saw along, and sawed off the bottom. It was a minor difficulty to
rehang the door since one of the hinges was a bit out of line.
Carmen worked thru the afternoon, painting all the exterior surfaces
of the upstairs windows which can be reached with the windows opened
up. The paint we waited so long for works like a charm, looks great
and goes on easily.
First thing this morn, Carmen baked a
peach pie. Shared it with the four workers at lunch time. Wonder
what they really thought of it, since we have never seen a dessert of
this sort here.
We have been having children rattling
our front gate and ringing our doorbell late in the evenings. No
adults with them. Children in US would never be out by themselves
like this near nine o'clock. We can not figure out why they are
doing this. Sometimes singing what might be snatches of Xmas carols,
and sometimes rattling something. Sometimes carrying poles with
glittery decorations. We did not go to the door, because we have been
taking our showers after the workday at 6pm ready for a little TV and
then an early bedtime. Certainly not dressed for answering a door
for these children. Incidentally, there are public service
announcements airing for free flu shots for everyone.
The puzzle continues. All this late
activity started monday evening. Dan looked the situation up on the
internet and discovered it is a yearly happening when children enact
Mary and Joseph looking for a place to stay (a posada) for the
night. According to the web, we are supposed to let in the children
and give them something to eat and drink. Well, we aren't about to
do that with our house in it's present state. So – we guess we are
the mean north americans
(Mié 19th) First thing
this morning Carmen baked some chocolate chip cookies. Dan wanted us
to take some next door to the political office building, when he and
Luis went over to ask if we could do some work on the wall between
our buildings. Of course there is no problem with that, but we're
being good neighbors by asking. Second thing today we went into town
with our car, to the hardware for a diamond blade, got cash from bank
and two fresh bakery rolls for lunch sandwich. Haven't found the
occasional street corner sale of oranges by the large bag, as has
happened in the recent past, and we want some fresh OJ! Walked from
hardware up a couple blocks to the grocery store that has wednesday
produce sales. No luck, so we drove the few blocks to the big
Mercado Publico. This large market is at the opposite corner of town
from our house. Here we found a large bag of oranges, so we are back
into squeezing juice again! Nothing like a good fresh squeeze every
day!
Next to the Fester store for five
gallons of Acriton 10-year grade red roof sealer. While at that
north end of Calle 11 Sur, we found a parking spot a block off the
boulevard and parked the car – now nine blocks from home. Never
saw the streets around this area parked so full! From here we walked
a few blocks east on the main Fortín-Córdoba boulevard to the
tianguis (weekly itinerant market) area. This area draws
people from all over this corner of Veracruz. This is a many blocks
long group of buildings plus tented areas that sells goods on
wednesdays only – other days of the week the halls are empty..
The traffic along this road was solid and all but stopped today, so
was no trouble crossing this usually difficult fast traffic road.
Guess the wednesday before Xmas must be the busiest day of the year.
The people shopping were hip to hip, so we only visited the first
store sales hall. Also walked the sidewalk a ways, which we found
more interesting, because the store had only clothing, at very good
prices, and outside had much more variety. Crossed under the road
where many goods were also displayed along the viaduct walls. Back
to our car. Interesting adventure, but glad to be out of the crowds.
Maybe on a less busy Wednesday, we will visit more of the sales
areas.
While we were in town today, our
foreman fell off the lower roof. He took the same fall that almost
got Dan the week before. When climbing the ladder onto the roof at
the laundry building, they held on to a tile at the top wall and the
tile broke loose. Dan was luckily leaning inwards so he caught
himself. Luis was not so lucky. He hurt his foot. He kept working
though more slowly, with plans to visit the doctor in the evening We
gave him an ace bandage to wrap the foot with. They did all leave an
hour early because of this situation. If the foreman is not here, no
one works, so it seems.
There was supposed to be a delivery of
building supplies from FortiFerre – sand and cement. Never
arrived. Seems their truck broke down and it is promised for
tomorrow morn.
(Jue 20st) Workers arrived
7am today. Foreman José Luís is feeling better. The doctor said
the problem was a dislocated bone in his foot. We left home at 8:30
this morning, with a busy day ahead. First we went to Pretensur, to
place the order for our new concrete roof tiles. We had been there
last week to make a final heated decision on which tiles to purchase.
After this decision, we discovered that the sales person with us
speaks some english! We had to park a ways from the store, since the
road directly in front was torn up and being resurfaced. The
Fortin-Cordoba, boulevard is getting a facelift with highly
reinforced concrete paving. We deposited half the cost and the tiles
are to be delivered on 27 December. The 26th we must go back to pay
the other half. Then when the 1000 tiles are delivered, our crew
must unload them. Hard to imagine there will be no lift gate at the
rear of the delivery truck.
Next stop was Home Depot for trim wood
for the window that has termite damage and a piece of galvanized
angle to try out for roof flashing, plus our foreman asked us to buy
a tape measure for him. Dan applied for a contractors pricing, which
it looks like he got. HD posts all it's aisle-sticker prices without
IVA tax, quite different from all the other stores, which list all
prices including this 16% tax. Seems like the contractor pricing
pretty much offsets the amount of the tax.
Dan came back to the dentist office and
stayed in the room where Carmen is being worked on – because guess
what – Dr Soley who speaks english is not here today. Only the
endodontist Luis, from Orizaba, is here with the assistant. After
another Xray and some poking about, it seems we must wait longer to
see if the inflammation will go away, or if more surgery needs done.
Have to return for another check in a week. Luis was very chatty
today. He told us that he was from Brazil. He married a mexican
lady, moved here and spoke no spanish. His wife had to do all the
talking for him, so he can understand our situation. While at the
dentists office, Dan asked what they could tell us about the night
time posada activity at our front gate. They explained it all
and told us that no, we did not need to have the children come
inside. Just give the group a couple pesos (and more if the singing
was really good) and they would be happy.
Next on our way towards home now, we
stopped at the IMSS. We have to have paper work stamped for our next
week specialist appointments that are at another location, the main
hospital. Work here is no cost other than the original yearly fee,
so far, but it surely does take a lot of trips into IMSS for paper
work.
Now we traveled onwards to Metalurve
hardware, for a bigger and better diamond saw blade. Next a stop at
Walmart. Amongst other items, we bought a mexican fruit cake, and a
ham which the stores always have some at this time of year, and not
necessarily other times. When we got home and opened our bakery bag,
we discovered that we had been given an extra Xmas bun. Long line
here of course. Someone tried to cut in front of Carmen at the
checkout line. Did not go over well and Dan straightened it out.
Upon arriving home, we discovered a
large dump truck parked by our back gate. Yesterday this driver had
stopped here, wanting the job of hauling our debris away. We told
him that we had already arranged with someone else to do it. Well, a
job is a job. This fellow came back and offered a deal that was much
cheaper than the other party, plus his crew would do all the
shoveling into the truck. Luis knew we would like this deal, so he
hired him with our OK. Also saved us the money that we would have
had to pay our crew for the shoveling time. And, saved our guys a
lot of back ache. All was hauled away today. Two persons, the truck
owner and his helper pitched the debris from the piles on the ground
up into the high dumptruck shovel-full by shovel-full – all 6.5
cubic meters of it
Tonight, knowing about the posada
traditions now, we put our showers off 'til later, left outside
lights on and waited for our doorbell to ring. The first that Carmen
heard some voices outside, she got so excited that in dashing from
the couch to the dining room, she fell up the one step between the
two rooms. Only a bumped knee thankfully. Finally she heard another
group passing. They were walking past our house! Word must be out
about us not playing at this game fairly. She hollered Hola!
out the door and they came back. Believe one of the young fellows is
the one who used to ring our doorbell and run fast, until Carmen was
there at the right time and busted him by “hola-ing” out
the window at him. These were the only ones to stop this evening.
About nine pm, as we were hanging
laundry out on the front porch, since the line in the backyard (a
construction site now) is down at present, there were many children
passing by, some stopping and sitting on our road curb for awhile.
They seemed to have been at a party. Probably at the school that is
five blocks south of here.
(Vie 21st) First thing this
morning, Dan took a garbage bag out and cleaned the party items from
the roadway. Paper hats, candy wrappers, sparklies, and so on.
Workers arrived a bit after 7am. They worked on a final pressure
washing to clean off the roof. Next started the thin coating of
cement that is not water permeable. Mixing the cement on the road
and carrying it up the ladder by five gallon buckets.
The air is filled with the smell of
beans and a ham bone simmering away. Started out misty today. The
sun is peeking thru at present. A woman stopped hoping to sell us
freshly cut up chicken. A man wanted to sell us peanuts and garlic.
Men across the street checking out the banana field. One has a
pencil behind his ear.
Dan spent this day drawing up plans for
our new ground floor bathroom today. Our foreman, Luís, assured us
that he can do all the work just as we want it, and seems very much
in tune with how Dan had planned things out in his head. He also
talked Dan into giving them all a raise as of the new year. A lot to
them in pesos is not much to us in dollars. And they are working
really hard. On the way back from dropping the guys at the bus stop
where they get their ride back to Cosco, Dan placed an order for
block (bloques), brick (tabiques) and other stuff for
delivery monday.
Only one group of four boys singing at
our gate tonight. They looked much like last night's group, except
last night's group did not sing, but only beat their decorated stick
on the ground and rattled their money cans.
(Sáb 22nd) Temperature
outside at 7am was 55ºF for the second day. Still holding 68º
inside. Yesterday we had a pot of beans with ham bone simmering to
help keep what Carmen considers a chill out of the house. With a
pork roast and some snickerdoodle cookies in the works, today the
oven will temper the indoor environment again.
Dan had to go to the FortiFerre this
morning to buy another bag of cement. Either he misunderstood the
foreman when the original order was placed, or it is an add-on.
Fellows will work only 7½ hours today, then they'll get their weekly
pay. Their normal workweek is 10 hours, monday thru friday, and a
partial day on Saturday. Today the thin coat of impermeable cement
is still being applied. It was discovered that the placement of the
rebar (varilla) in original roof slab was done incorrectly, as
rusty rebar is visible in a few places, and this is where water was
getting thru and dripping into our bedrooms. The new bonded
impermeable layer will take care of this problem for us.
At 9am the gray skies brightened and
the sun peeked thru a bit. Dan set up his router to trim the window
boards we purchased this week, to more or less match what's there.
Earlier this morning he went to use our hose out back that has been
supplying water to the pressure washer, and found it has lost its
male end connection. Gremlins? No, the crimp on connector had come
off, and David had put it aside for Dan to fix again. Carmen found
that the oven temp would not go above 325ºF with the roast in the
oven, so had to remove it 'til cookies were baked. An hour later
temp had made it to 400º with the roast well on its way.
A productive week on the house
remodeling. The upper roof's tiles were removed, lots of debris
removed, and now about 60% of that roof is capped with the Impercem
layer, The marquesinas and roof overhangs that were in the
way of the future project of building the full bath addition were
removed. Dan added up the hours that the four guys worked this week,
54 each. Our labor costs for the work week came to just a little
over US$400. Our crew is happy with us and we are happy with them.
With their pay in their pockets, Dan gave a lift to the crew to the
area of the big tianguis for some gift buying, before they
head back to Coscomatepec for the rest of the weekend. The market
space is open this special week for Christmas shoppers, thru the
24th. The guys will go to the futbol game Sunday
in their hometown and be back to work on Christmas Eve (Noche
Buena) day.
