Normal Life in Chacala

Back to ordinary old life in Chacala. No more son to enjoy. At least for awhile. The weather turned back to it's normal gorgeous self today. Sunny, nice little breeze, low humidity. This is the last day of celebration for Chacala's Saint day. I am not very involved this year. But I know I will go over to the dance tonight, just to see what's going on.

I am very busy with rearranging furniture, removing the borrowed bed, putting things away, and generally getting back to normal. I think my room feels pretty much ordinary again. Here's the view out my worktable window, and another of my bed corner. I am very afraid of scorpions. Very afraid. My first summer in Chacala I housesat a brand new gringo house here. No one had really lived in it before. And it sat at the edge of the "jungle". I killed 41 scorpions there that first summer. I was very reluctant to spray, but I finally had the spray guy come. It worked, so the last month of my six month stay was scorpion free. I was till on the scorpion-alert all the time thought.

The homeowner didn't believe that only the professional scorpion spray would work. So before he left for the next summer, he sprayed with some homeowner spray. The first rain there were three scorpions in the house the next morning. So I called the spray guy. It worked. I hate those sprays. But scorpions really scare me.This afternoon I was untying the little rope that holds the patio sunshade back, so I could block the sun. I didn't have my reading glasses on. The rope was yellow, and there was something sort of brownish sitting on the knot. As I reached up to flick it off, in fell off the knot. And down into my dishpan, full of water. It looked sort of odd, so I put my glasses. It was a 2.5 inch scorpion. He swam around for awhile, and finally seems to have drowned.

A few nights ago, when I went down to the beach to swim, there were a few other people with the same idea. Tropical-whatever Kiko was still sending wave Chacala some waves, so the surf was kind of jumbley.There's a converted restaurant/rental unit/conference center/jet-ski garage next to the beach. This night their loudspeaker system was going full-blast. Making sure everyone could here the Evangelical message loud and clear.I went swimming quickly, to avoid the "message", and got to watch the sun go down.