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.

Jubilado

(Domingo 28 Julio- Sábado 03 Agosto)   Last Saturday at the end of the work day, Dan called our welder, carpenter and glazier, wondering why they hadn't got back to us about the small jobs that are still pending. Mauricio the welder apologized profusely and said he would stop by on tuesday, when he was expecting to finish up on another job. We could only leave a message on Melitón the carpenter's answering machine, and the glass shop said that Lenny would talk to us on monday. Of these, only Lenny was on top of things. We ordered two master sheets of 4.5mm thick polycarbonate, cut to fit the lower two feet of most of our upstairs windows. The idea was to mount them between the screen and the security bars, situated to block the rain that blows in when it bounces off the roof in these tropical downpours we have been experiencing. Lenny seemed to understand what we wanted and said the shop would call with a price for the materials. In the early evening they indeed called and quoted a price about 25% of what we had expected, and for 6mm thick material. We should have been suspicious, since the local glass shop had given us prices eight months ago that were much higher.

The next day Lenny showed up with the ten cut pieces, but they were not the solid lexan we expected, but instead were of two-layer insulated greenhouse glazing. Instead of glass-clear sheets, these obscure the view a bit. A trade-off, more privacy inside and a much better price, but with all those channels to collect water and dirt. What could we do but accept them, since it was special order? Later we found some cap strips at Home Depot, which we attached with aluminized tape at the ends, coming up with acceptable watertight units which we mounted on the windows later in the week. Looks like it may work fine, based on a couple of rainstorms since then.

Wonder of wonders, about 9am monday the water commission guys stopped by and began the excavation for our sewer connection. We have been waiting for this project to start for more than six months now. We expected the work to continue the next day, but a hole at the edge of the street, in front of neighbor Valentin's home, flagged off with warning tape, remained there for the rest of the week with no indication made of any further progress, although one morning a truck of workers did pull up, only to leave and not return. Our carpenter did not contact us, and the welder did not show up on tuesday or any day this week. Such is life here SoB, but we know enough to not get upset and bide our time. Being jubilado (retired, or as we say here, tongue in cheek, "jubilated"), we really don't have anything else to do but wait—and, eventually, things will be resolved.

We stained and varnished the frame and hinged louvered panels Dan had configured, converting two of the upper shelves in the office into a cabinet of sorts. Loose odds & ends that had been sitting on the bookshelves now go here, making the room seem much more tidy.

Friday was Carmen's scheduled appointment with Dr Rendon in consultorio 5 at the IMSS clinic, so she could pick up another month's worth of prescription meds, followed by getting those last two fillings done in the dental section. When we were talking to the doctor, Dan tried to find out about making an appointment for his annual labs and consult. Turns out his records had NOT been transferred from unit 3 over to unit 5. You might recall that we had gotten a phone call from IMSS that this had been taken care of in april, after initiating a request in early december with the head of the facility. After Carmen's work was finished, we visited the archivo (records) office, where they reassured us this could be cleared up, if only Dan could stop by with some additional documentation (proof of domicile, etc.) We'll have to take care of this some other day, as these docs are stored at home.

Now for the fun of the week! After breakfast each morning, we have been spending a couple hours on the terraza level outside our bedroom doing flash-card spanish lessons. Hopefully this is getting Carmen further along with comprehension, and the kitties have been helping by their presence too. Out on the corner of the terraza, the papaya plant which we planted from seeds garnered from a ripe fruit, sits in a big pot, and seems to grow a bit each day.  One day, to her surprise Smij kitty caught a butterfly and after being sure we saw it, she ran into the house with it still wiggling in her mouth. Wonder where it went – into her tummy or hiding out in the house? We got a good look, with our binoculars, at two birds. The one small brown & gray with a narrow bill. This one has a nest in the northwest corner of our roof. This bird has a beautiful song—and we have determined it to be a house wren. The other bird is all dark brown or black, with a slash of yellow across the head above the eye. We have not been able to find this bird in any website or bird book. How frustrating, but the the bird watching make the spanish lessons more enjoyable. And the butterflies by the dozens of many varieties. Also there is a huge dark moth fluttering about as we disturb its daily retreat.

Other fun – we have enjoyed relaxing on our front porch, acting like jubilados (retired, or as we say tongue in cheek, jubilated) folks. Watching people walk by as we are mostly hidden behind all our flowering plants. Dan in the green hanging (hammock-like) sky-chair and Carmen in a the most colorful woven hamaca, which we purchased in the Yucatan many years ago.

Last week we purchased light fixtures for our dining room and kitchen, replacing the last bare bulb sockets on the lower floor that came, as is typical here, with the house We (mostly Dan) installed them and we are happy with them. Our umbrella plant continues to lose leaves and we don't seem to be able to solve it's problem – too much or too little water/light? We have had hard rainstorms every evening and night for a couple weeks. Days are delightful however. Mother nature sure knows how to time her watering of the greenery and keep people happy at the same time, at least in this beautiful part of Mexico!

Un año más

(Domingo 21- Sábado 27 Julio )  One day this week we headed into Córdoba to pay our annual voluntary IMSS medical insurance fee. You might recall we first signed up in July 2012 while we were down here for several weeks getting the house ready for our move last September. Our benefit year started on the first of August, so each year in July we have to pay the annual cuota for another year. The whole process took about an hour or so, and was much easier than the initial sign up. The lady who processed our paperwork remembered us from last year, and typed up the few pages we needed when we told her there were no changes, including an order to a bank to receive and deposit our funds to the IMSS account. Documentation that was need this year was a fotocopy of the first two pages from our original inscription, plus a fotocopy of the receipt we would get from the bank. We headed further east down Avenida 11 and over to Avenida 1 to the Banamex we had located the year before, and paid our premiums for the year, MX$3733.30 each (about US$300).

When we finished at the bank, we took advantage of being near the new Soriana HiperMart, and did some shopping in the huge new store. Bought some Heileman's Old Style beer which Soriana imports from the US and sells for MX38 per sixpack (US$3). How Mexican supermarkets can import beer from the US (and Guatemala), and sell it for less than Mexican brands, we haven't figured out. Along with some other groceries we found and bought a virtual clone of the RummiKub game, so Frank & Ania don't have to bring their set over when we have game night at our house.

Early in the week two young fellows from the city came around taking a census of household pets. Turns out there is a new city law that is supposed to safeguard the care of family dogs & cats. The were handing out 12-point reminder cards of how to be a responsible pet owner, all of which we are already doing. Dan told the guys that no hay problema, our two gatos were being treated like rey y reina (king and queen) in our household.

In projects around the house, Dan finished up the slotted shoe shelf for the new downstairs closet, and Carmen finished, and we hung, new curtains covering up this area and the things stacked above the bedroom storage areas upstairs. Dan had installed rods (using pieces of metal electrical conduit) up near the ceiling for these new curtains. He really likes other-purposing stuff he finds in the hardware store, so to come up with inexpensive substitutes for fixtures and gear that would otherwise cost more pesos. A fierce wind occurred early this week, blowing in the evening's rainstorm. The next day Dan found a piece of ridge cap from our new polycarbonate mirador roof on the patio next to the car. A repair job to add to the list.

Tuesday was Dan's birthday, not just a regular año más, but the big 7-0, and Ania & Frank came over to celebrate with a special meal Carmen put together: Roast pork, mashed potatoes & gravy and fresh broccoli, washed down with some Zinfandel and followed by a carrot cake made even more scrumptious by the addition of dried Michigan cherries. He is thankful he still has (most of) his hair (only partly gray), his good health, and an active interest in this new life in Mexico. Both of us are benefiting from the improved diet due to the great variety of inexpensive fresh, local foods, with Carmen approaching the same weight she had in high school, and Dan not far behind the same goal.

Saturday we went to the local flower market so pick up some Citronella plants that were going to be there, only to find that they only had the geranium of that name, and not the plant related to lemon grass that we expected. We bought only one, because the leaf was so interesting, but don't really expect it to repel mosquitoes. If we can find the true citronela (it's grown commercially here in Mexico, used for extracting the essential oil which is used in mosquito repellants), we will keep a plant in a pot by each doorway. Out in the front yard, our piquin chili plant is covered with tiny fruits, many of them bright red, almost like LED xmas lights hung on the branches. These are 40 times as hot as jalapeños on the Scoville scale – not something we'll use too much unless very diluted in some salsa, but they look great on the plant.