Domingo 24-
Sábado 30 Noviembre
The Lord gave us a
great fog sunday for all day, along with a mere 64ºF outside and
69ºF inside. Most of the flowering plants outside don't seem to mind the weather - this hibiscus is about 6" in diameter, and seems to love the clouds and rain. (We ARE living at the edge of the cloud forest, after
all!) The weather report called for clouds and precip all week.
Sunday was to be the only day this week with no rain, so laundry was
to be done. But, isn't fog just a massive amount of water in the
air, in much finer droplets? We might be reduced to using our
clothes dryer instead of clothes line. However, it was a good day
for cooking an item that takes a long time. That warms the house
sufficiently. Today it is to be chayote for soup. A colder day will
be dried beans or beets.
Nervy little
termites have started indulging in a wood beam above our hanging
fruit and veggie basket at the edge of the kitchen, as evidenced by
sawdust-like fine particles on the countertop below. Their tiny
holes are surely difficult to find. Dan climbed a short ladder to
give them a drink of festermicide via syringe, which stops the
activity immediately. Dan also took the opportunity of inclement
weather to catch up on some inside projects, first installing the
hidden light fixtures under the wall cabinet at the end of the new
downstairs bathroom (a tricky proposition as, due to prior
measurement errors, there was just enough room for them to fit).
Then finally, working at putting in the toilet we purchased many
months ago, which has been sitting there in a big carton waiting for
him to get pysched about drilling mounting holes in the tile and
concrete floor. With a wee bit of help from Carmen, he installed the
toilet. We now have a
baño completo (complete bathroom)! The only problem was that
the toilet rocked a bit on the floor after tightening up the bolts,
so it took some time finding and installing wedges to make it stable,
and finally caulking around the bottom edge of the bowl.
We discovered that
inspite of all the work done last winter & spring, we still have evidence in the upstairs bathroom of moisture leaking in from the party wall to the south, where the house there has unfinished walls open to the skies above. This will require getting permission from our neighbors to seal and caulk some wall-floor joints on their side of the wall. We'll have to get in contact with our crew of masons, who all live up in Coscomatepec. This will be before Xmas, as we owe them their aguinaldo (about 4% of their annual wages) that is always, by law, to be given at the end of the
year to all long-term workers. At that time we will arrange for a bit more
work we want done, including the sealing of such leaks, running lines for our kitchen hot water heater thru the walls, and some paving blocks laid in the front yard..
Tuesday Dan needed
more disks & cases to finish copying the music from his computer.
We drove out to buy same and since we were out and about, we went on
to Shattuck's. We had heard on the radio that morning that the
coffee growers were having a manifestación (protesting the low prices for harvested coffee beans) which closed the federal highway between Fortín
and Cosco, where the lady who does housekeeping and gardening lives.
We thought she might not have been able to get to Frank & Ania's.
Since the weather was colder than usual and rainy, we had best check
on miss kitty. She was there, and all was fine.
Tuesday night went
down into the 40's and wednesday only got up to 54ºF outside. We
don't recall it ever being this cold last year. Even the three cold
days we did have then were much later in the winter. Inside our house with no
heat, the temp was 67ºF – time for some extra layers of clothing, and an extra blanket on the bed.
We also learned last winter that our vanilla orchid does not like
temps below 10ºC (50ºF), so we wrapped it with layers of plastic
for several days until the temperature warms up sunday. Seems that
our kitties do not like the cold any better than we do. Gardi really
wanted outside, so we let him out and within a couple minutes he was
meowing to come back in. But, we're not really complaining about the
weather, which is nothing like the US is experiencing, or the
interminable periods of cold-wet in the Pacific Northwest. We're
used to and appreciate the clouds and occasional gray days. And, a
little bit of seasonal variation helps us mark the months that pass. The succulents we have been collecting seem to be weathering the cold and rain just fine.
Carmen cooked two
light hot meals today instead of only one to help warm our bodies.
Plus it did warm our house a couple degrees. Navy bean with italian
sausage soup for supper and hot spanish rice for lunch. Pans of leftovers were left on counter to cool and give us their heat. This we
never do otherwise. We are firm believers in cooling foods as
quickly as possible to keep them from spoiling. Our years in
restaurant business taught us this. Food cooling and storage
procedures were things the health inspectors always checked. Carmen
finished the cover for the large foam pad on bench in the master
bedroom, with much help from Gardi cat. Looks great!
Saturday it finally
warmed enough with the sun out, so that we could hang laundry
outside. As we were finishing a late breakfast, an elderly man came
to our gate asking for food. Normally he would have gotten a juice
or milk box. Today he got lucky. Carmen had not finished her ham
and cheese omelet and had a tortilla left, so we put the two together
plus some hot sauce and he got that also. He has been here before,
moves very slowly, and always looks starved. He did indeed stand by
our gate while he ate the food, and he put the beverage in his bag.
Late in the week our mailman
stopped twice one day, ringing the doorbell. One of the envelopes contained some
pictures of her children from Harmony. Children do grow fast! And, once the bell rang well after dark one evening. Who could it be so late? It was our fresh flower man rang the bell. The only light we had was the dim outside bulb. We
thought we were buying large white mums and orange carnations. Inside, in
the light, they turned out to be pink carnations and yellow mums! Finally, a report on the progress of building project across the street, with most of the perimeter block walls up at two meters now. Based on the reinforcing steel already in place for the vertical
castillos (columns between wall sections), they'll probably top out a three (ten feet), which seems to be the standard around here. The cool weather (and mostly dry days) we are having is great for outdoor building projects it seems.
