Fuego en el Cañaveral

Domingo 17– Sábado 23 Marzo 2013.  (Dom 17^th)  A day for reminiscing. Started before getting out of bed this morning, and continued thru meals. Dan spent his day doing accounting stuff and Carmen started the green master bedroom curtains.  A strong wind came up early this morning, and blew blew away the clouds and brought in warmer weather. When we went out front to water the flowers, we discovered that the bugambilia had been lifted by the wind off of the fence, and was drooping into the yard. Dan hauled it back where it belonged and tied it in place there. Quite interesting how flexible the trunk was – in a habitat where it didn't have anything to climb up on, it must be quite a sprawling growth. A most beautiful day, finished off with chocolate ice cream and a shared huge cupcake.

(Lun 18^th) We are having a heat wave - a week in the low 90ºs days and down to near 60ºF nights until tomorrow when it will go only down to 70ºF. That night will be hard. Past couple weeks were 65º days and 58º nights. Chilly. We have huge bumble bees enjoying one of the anthurium plants at present. They do not like us out there near them. Unfortunately, we must pass near them many times a day.

Just before our crew left for the day, Carmen was out front watering plants for the second time. Plants in pots dry quickly in this heat. She heard a loud crackling noise coming from the banana field to our east. Knowing that sound, which was not only wind, she looked that direction and saw black billowing smoke rushing our way. Terrified, she ran into the house, yelling for Dan to call the fire department. He had to go onto the roof first to check it out. Had it been a real thing like this in the Skagit Valley, we would have been burned to death by the time he got up the ladder to the terraza and new stairway to look out from the roof top. Our crew assured us we did not need to worry. And – they were right. It was a sugar cane field being burned, over on the far side of the banana plants. Dan is sorry he didn't think to take his camera up with him, it was an awesome sight to behold from his vantage point.  Huge pieces of ash were landing on us. However, the fire did not spread! How can they do that, being windy, and right next to a banana field with many dried leaves. A mystery to investigate. By the way – it takes three feet of sugar cane to make the refined sugar in one cube.

(Mar 19^th) Our crew of four was not here today - their town's saint's (San José) day and a reason for a community-wide fiesta. We did however have a welder and his helper here finishing the stairs from the terraza on top of the bathroom up to the rooftop mirador platform. The stairs look good and are comfortable to walk - though steep, like a marine companionway ladder.

We also had a carpenter here taking out our french door from the west wall of the dining room. He will refinish them, and then one half gets installed in the bedroom opening onto the terraza, and the other in the small hallway between the dining room and new bathroom, opening into the back yard. Carmen is putting the vivid Guatemalan fabrics on both these doors. Very bright! The bedroom one will be lined in the green fabric that the other two bedroom curtains are made of. She finished them yesterday. The hall curtain, unlined, one can actually see thru a bit, as it's a loose-woven fabric.

We have asked our welder to give a quote on cutting and installing fence rods to go between existing rods, to make the fence narrow enough that the cats can not get thru, This way they can roam our back and front area, without escaping. Gardi has started asking to go out every morning as soon as his breakfast is done. Thought it was to go to potty, but so far that has not happened. He just likes to lie around and investigate the green space there.

We met another neighbor today. She was walking her four month old puppy, and stopped to introduce herself. She lives directly at the end of the block from us, to the west. Her name is Magdalena. She said when she was in the US, she could speak no english. She has a pretty black/brown, longish haired dog. I see one couple walk by every weekend, trying to train their dog to heel. I would like to go out and shake them. They do not treat their dog with kindness and respect. There are lots of dogs loose here, ganging about happily, several times a day. So far no dog fights. They especially like the plantings of variegated green sedges, along our sidewalk. We know these plants are sedges instead of grasses because of this ditty:

Sedges have edges, Rushes are round, Grasses are hollow, What have YOU found?

We now have pieces of plywood over the space where our french doors were. Must keep cats in and weather out. Hopefully all will be back together soon, as soon as the doors are refinished.  Dan finally got to speak to the architect and engineer at the Fortín water commission today. They would not take any of his money, because they are now thinking about doing a more thorough project, to be ready for the new development that is platted to go in north of our place. Supposedly, the engineer will be here tomorrow to let us know what is decided. Are we now going to have to pay for the whole thing, or just our section of it? No one seems to know yet. We will lose our country setting when the banana fields turn into houses. That will be sad. However, we will always be surrounded by nearby hills and mountains, all covered with jungle green trees!

(Mie 20^th) Crew of four today, except that our foreman went home sick at three. Repairing walls and doing floor tiling, plus stretching the green cyclone fencing between the posts we embedded on top of our back wall. These materials were left here when we purchased this property, so we are using them.

We went to IMSS this morning to make an appointment with our family doctor, in order to bring the prescriptions for Carmen from Orizaba to Fortin. Thought we had all the papers with us, but we did not.
While outside watering plants this morning – getting them ready for another 90ºF day, Louis, the teenager from Los Angeles, stopped and asked if we had seen his dog. No we had not. Later he stopped again to let us know that he had been found, visiting another dog down the street.

Lunch today was the best ever. Fresh bakery burger type pambazo buns with pan-fried tilapia with sharp swiss cheese melted over each piece, and further dressed with turkey bacon, tomato and lettuce. Lady stopped and asked for food waste for animals. We had none. Thinking it is the lady down the street with chickens and ducks, maybe.

Our order for more building supplies was supposed to be here yesterday or this morning. Will it arrive today? The welder's helper was here for a bit, chiseling notches for the steel supports in the floor of our mirador platform. Welder was expected today to give quotes on next projects. Leonardo (“Lenny”) was here to measure for made-to-order windows and skylights for the bathroom and dining room. He's from the same firm that made the windows we admired at Frank & Ania's new house.  At 8pm our order from Home Depot arrived. The roofing sheets were not what we ordered, so we sent them back, accepting only the spanish-style roof  peak sections that we had expected.

(Jue 21^st) Found the patient info sheet prepared by the doctor in Orizaba, which we needed in order to transfer prescriptions to our local clinic, so we were at IMSS by 8:30am this morning. The dispensing pharmacist there told us we needed to talk to the clinic department head. We went to his office and gave him the paper work. He will put all the info into the computer and tomorrow morning we need to visit our family doctor for him to write out the new prescriptions. We'll have to arrive very earlier in the morning, so that we can be squeezed in among patients with appointments.

Next we drove to Home Depot to straighten out our order which turned out to be the wrong item when it was delivered last night. Seems that they do not actually have the size and design of the Palram polycarbonate laminas (roofing sheets) that we ordered. The item is in their illustrate contractors' catalog, but the number there does not match up with the actual item that they stock. Marycarmen, the clerk, offered to call other Home Depot stores, but since the actual SKU number of the item is wrong, it would require people actually checking their stock in all the stores. She thought that the error was probably system wide, which meant that perhaps the item wasn't even in any of their stores in the country. So, after measuring and adjusting our quantities based on the other style of roofing sheets, we ended up ordering exactly the item that we returned the night before, and setting up an exchange of the cumbrera (roof peak sections) that we had at home so they would match. The undulating corrugations are not as attractive as the spanish teja style we originally thought we were ordering, but the roofing is the same terra-cotta color.  Way up there on top of the rooftop mirador they will not be too visibly different, we assume. Hope all is right with the next delivery, and the exchange of cumbrera pieces works out. First problem we have had with Home Depot.


(Vie 22^nd) Since the head of the IMSS told us yesterday to be at IMSS early today, to see our family doctor for new prescriptions, we were there a bit before seven. Already dozens of people were waiting! How can this be? It was another two hours before the doctor was in! However, we were out of there by 9:25am with free meds in hand. Not many of the patients were in line for our physician, whom we really like. He is so personable. He even speaks a wee bit of english to put Carmen at ease! Turns out that for IMSS meds, one must visit their doctor each month for the new prescription. No cost involved, just one's time. We suppose that when our building project is done, our main outing of the month will be our long sit at IMSS.
Upon arriving back home we seemed to have a steady procession of folks coming and going. First, we had barely gotten back and changed into our work clothes, when Home Depot arrived. This time the whole order for the mirador roof was correct. Yeah!!

After this we had a woman stop at our gate when Carmen was out tfront. She had a sales catalog in hand and wanted Carmen to buy something. Carmen assured her with a “No, gracias,” which the lady did not accept. So between her couple words of english and Carmen's couple words of spanish, Carmen gave in and leafed thru the whole small catalog, and then the “No, gracias” was accepted. Thru the day several other intinerant peddlers stopped by.

 

Our welder arrived and after discussing the mirador design with Dan, he used our phone to place an order for a delivery of steel stock. The order arrived in the afternoon and we paid directly for it. The mirador structural steel should be finished in about a week – maybe the roofing will take longer since it is done by our crew instead of the welder.  The tiling inside the new bathroom is pretty much complete, the last of it done when the sink was set into place today, and the floor, walls and trim colors & textures look good together.  Still no word from the water commission on our sewer connection.

Carmen made fresh garlic butter with garlic cloves instead of using powder. Plus added fresh basil, yum. We have several planter boxes of herbs growing well. Then just as Carmen was about to drain the pasta for italian sausage spaghetti, the door bell rings again. This time it is our happy window maker Lenny. He seems a bit shy, and always happy, and is a very tall big-boned fellow. All he showed us looked good, including the price. This included the sky light for the bath room and one for the dining room, the bathroom window, and the door for the water heater alcove off the bathroom.

Meanwhile, Carmen received an email from the pharmacy in Canada where she has purchased domperidone for several years, saying that our visa card was declined. This happened with an order to a vitamin company two days ago. The charge card company had assured us that time that they did not decline it, but it was the vitamin company. This upset Carmen...why is this card being declined? She has used it with no problem for 45 years. It seems that the visa thought the order was being charged fraudulently, since we live in Mexico and we have not used the card in a long time. Yes, this country is cash based, so rarely do we use a card. The credit card rep held on the line until Carmen emailed the Canadian company and they ran the charge again. All ended up well. Carmen's physician in Anacortes gave her a prescription to last her, at her current rate of taking this medicine, until she is 92 years old. Whatever will she do after that age? We assume we will have no trouble taking it back with us, in it's original prescription bottle. Unfortunately, this company will not ship to Mexico, so we'll have to pick it up on our trips back NoB.


(Sáb 23^rd) This early morning we were awakened by a strong hot wind blowing thru the banana fields, rattling the big leaves fiercely. By 7:30am the temp was 85ºF. We had to walk into town to purchase a different brand sealer for bathroom, as the fellows did not like the one we had. It did not prep the concrete walls well enough. Also bought another plumbing fitting, so we can install the drain for the sink. Yes, the atm too, plus the small grocery store for bananas and to see if the order for Temptations for the cats had arrived yet. No it has not. Lot of people walking the streets at 9am, trying to beat this afternoon, predicted near 100ºF. Thank goodness for the shade at this time of day, before the sun got overhead! We're also thankful it cools off to a nice sleeping temperature each night.

Dan saw young Louis, from Los Angeles, riding his bicycle up the hill by our house, like a unicycle. Kids! He always hollers a hello. Edwin and family also stopped and said hi. Of course everyone who passes our house says “Buenos Dias.” Frank stopped by yesterday but have not seen Ania in a couple weeks.
The tiling in the bathroom is finished, and the walls are partly painted. The sink has been installed and the water flows well. Looking good!

Plants had to be watered three times today. Poor things are not used to this heat. We are thinking about giving the front yard gate key to the gardener that we used when we first arrived, so that he can water our plants everyday as he passes here. He lives a few blocks south of us. He really wants some of our plywood from the liftvans, to build himself a new garden cart. This cart carries all his tools of his trade as he maneuvers around the area.

In this heat of the afternoon, a lovely lady in authentic indian dress tried to sell us dried flowers. They were beautiful long stemmed, and had our project been completed, so that we actually had some place nice to put them,we would have bought a bundle. Never know who will be at our door next. So far only nice people have happened by here!