Domingo 12 -
Sábado 18 Enero Sunday morning seems there
are many men taking their young children for a walk around the
neighborhood. An enjoyable sight to see and hear! We started our week
by going to Shattuck's to feed their kitty, hoping to find her home.
Thankfully she was waiting for us at the top of their driveway!
After feeding her, we sat and held and petted kitty for a while. She
was happily taking a nap in a sunny spot when we left. What a
beautiful setting their home is in.
No, we did not go
to a church this day. We instead took a walk, at the south side of
town, thru God's beautiful countryside. Our preferred way of
spending sundays. We saw butterflies, tall sugarcane in bloom, and gorgeous trees with old leaves off and new ones beginning to grow. The sky was blue, temperatures in the mid-70s F, and birds were chattering. Looking north towards where
our house is, we discovered that many new good looking houses are
being built inside a walled and gated area on the south east corner
of town. These are in the Las Villitas development that is due south of the new rental home Ania & Frank built at Los Encinos.
We found a gnarly tree, trimmed, cut off with a saw and discarded with some building materials along the old railbed, so we wrestled it back with us and stuck it thru the car's trunk to bring home. Once home, we found
the perfect spot for it and Dan installed it next to our front gate. It is already
home for a few orchids that we had elsewhere, and waiting for more. We took the time to
re-hang and surround the bases of other orchids with the spanish moss
that we had purchased at Xmas time, to improve the immediate environment around the aerial roots.We are still learning about cuidando (caring for) las orquideas, as each type seems to want it's own micro-environment, some potted, some attached to branches and a few in the ground. Some like it cool and shaded, others don't mind some sun. So much to learn.
It's yearly bill paying time. If we pay property tax, refuse/recycling and water bills for the year in january, we can get a 50% discount because of our age. Monday morning we tried to pay the water bill. The attendant said we needed our social security number, to prove we were retired. This was not needed last year, now why would that US number be needed in Mexico? Since we were out we went to the post office and asked that our mailman would please stop at our house for his Xmas gift, then headed home. Later in the day a couple of city sanitation workers came to our door collecting for our refuse/recycling service--no problem with the discount here, and we paid our fee, equivalent to US$12, for twice weekly pickup.
It's yearly bill paying time. If we pay property tax, refuse/recycling and water bills for the year in january, we can get a 50% discount because of our age. Monday morning we tried to pay the water bill. The attendant said we needed our social security number, to prove we were retired. This was not needed last year, now why would that US number be needed in Mexico? Since we were out we went to the post office and asked that our mailman would please stop at our house for his Xmas gift, then headed home. Later in the day a couple of city sanitation workers came to our door collecting for our refuse/recycling service--no problem with the discount here, and we paid our fee, equivalent to US$12, for twice weekly pickup.
Tuesday we looked for the ss card and realized that it is in a safe deposit box in the US. Now what? We did locate a medicare card with Dan's number on it and decided to try it. and so we went to the water office again. The lady was happy with the number we showed her, and collected the discounted amount (~US$25) for the year. Next stop, the property tax office which was temporarily set up in the city sports arena. After waiting in line two hours we paid our tax bill, discounted with no problem. The ~US$24 we paid would easily be sixty times higher in the US.
Finally we have an appointment for the inner-ear tests Carmen needs in downtown Veracruz city, the 21st of january at nine in the morning. We will have to pick up the paper work at the Córdoba hospital the day before. Since this out-of-town appointment is the same day scheduled for Carmen's next ENT appointment, we had to go into the hospital and change this local appointment. It will now be the 24th, when we should have testing results in hand. It will be good to find out if Carmen is to live with her situation of continual dizziness and nausea. With a firm diagnosis in Veracruz, we hope improvement will be a matter of course.
