Friday, September 23, 2005

All the news that fits

All the news that fits. Just kidding.

Gone to the border for a couple of days for my visa. Got back early this morning and took a nap and the made a loop around before it got really, really, really hot and humid.

Aurora#2 showed me the plants I had shared with her a few days ago. She had planted them and they looked good. She has a nice garden, but no access to water near her house and no electricity.

One of the crew working on the Canadian's house off the paved road offered me a ride into LV. His car looks like a hood's car from the seventies, very low in the back. etc. But I was only going to the store, so it was easy to say "no thanks". It surprises me how many people know my name.

The hotel work crew foreman showed me around the hotel. I started having fantasies about being the live-in whatever there. With a free room of course. The four units on the top floor will have kitchens, according to one of the workers.

Checked on the renter at Gora's because the family gone to Guadalajara for a couple of days.

Visited with Concha and Juan and passed on some rental deposit money . They gave me delicious slices of salted cukes, and offered me really big plantanas.

The new place across the street from Concha's, where they are digging the hebe (underground water storage, probably spelled wrong), which the boss calls the swimming pool, was two feet deep in rainwater this am. They were hanging around waiting for a pump (bomba) from Las Varas to pump out the water. The boss again invited me in for a swim. Muddy disgusting water.

At Ventura's restaurant I visited with the old guy, Miguel Hector, (who was in the hammock) and Ventura's daughter, son-on-law and baby, David. Then Ventura's husband, the collectivo driver Miguel Angel, showed off his new moto/scooter/mini bike, zipping up and down the street. Miguel's teenaged son just got a small pickup.

My second favorite dog in town, their dog Lukie, was barking like mad the whole time I was there. Lukie likes me to take him to the beach because he is chained up all the time unless I walk him. But he is getting so big and strong I am reluctant to take him for walks anymore. (Chiquita, mistress of Casa Pacifica, is my favorite, if anybody cares).

Went to the tienda for milk, water, clorox and trash bags. Went to the hardware store for a plastic pipe fitting. Turned out I had the wrong measurements and I bought the wrong thing.

Visited with two young mom's with babies, looked for Trini, Beatriz and Laura, who weren't home. Visited the kinder for a few minutes, passing on some school supplies.

Asked some guys on a construction site near Laura's for a small plastic bag of wet cement, which they gave me. The workers were very polite about the cement. I guess it is normal to take a small bag of mixed cement from a project. It was for the water pipe a neighbor is helping me set up to take water from the roof into storage.

When I got home my handyman neighbor was there, but we didn't have the right pieces. My mistake. It's too hot, too humid, too exhausting to work or walk around mid-day. Finally got it all hooked up. Now we wait for rain and see if it works. Of course it mostly rains at night, so I will probably end up poking around in the dark being scared of creepy crawlies. But it's worth it if I can avoid paying $18 to 36 USD for a truckload of water.

The first time I came to Mexico as an adult I went to a very nice resort in Huatulco (south of Oxuaca on the Pacific coast) in September and thought I was going to die from the heat and humidity. But you get used to it, sort of, and stay inside and in the shade whenever possible.

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