After a couple of weeks

MOVING TO OUR WINTER HOME – THIS AND THAT

 

We have moving our household, either north to south or south to north, down to a fairly good system.  It takes only 2 or 3 days to get things in order and in about a week we are back to being fully in place.  Moving north is a bit easier because we have a stocked freezer and pantry; no freezer here and only a few very well-wrapped pantry and cleaning items to carry over from year to year.  (We learned that bugs really like pasta.)  But there are always a few items and events needing attention.  Our second night we enjoyed strolling the first ArtWalk of the season.  Our refrigerator and computer went on the fritz.  The original refrigerator was a bit smallish and probably used when put in.  It has already been fixed a couple of times and was making a squealing noise like a fan bearing was about to go; R enjoyed hitting it a few times to make it stop.  We replaced it with a bigger, very quiet, more energy efficient make.  The computer is operating rather fragilely at the moment.  Its battery is dead and it needs more memory.  Fortunately Number One Genius Son will be visiting and might be kind enough to bring and install some bits and pieces to make it run up to speed.  Mrs. T reports on few adventures:

 

 

 

Well we arrived in Mexico after enduring the now usual indignations at various airports and began to settle in.  We went to buy supplies and I was looking for some shampoo that Dan would like.  Last year he complained that the brand I bought smelled too floral.  Here I was, unscrewing the tops and sniffing various bottles.  I finally found one I thought would be OK.  Dan remarked that it was a men's brand.   Good, I thought to myself, you can't complain about that.  Well, no.  Dan seemed to have no complaints, a very unusual situation.  (Hmpff. –dt) However, when I took a shower I came out smelling like men's aftershave!  (She was warned when she purchased it. –dt) This was unacceptable.  Dan said he didn't mind but it was clear to me we were going to be a two shampoo family.  Well after another shopping trip I came back with a shampoo with honey and wheat germ conditioner so now if I smell like something I suppose it must be Honey Nut Cheerios.  (My bottle should last a long, long time. –dt)

 

The beach is very clean this year.  The unusually heavy flooding at the end of August made kind of a dip in the beach before you reach the water.  However the new shape is very nice for boogie boarding.  I had an extra dive skin so I decided to try wearing it when I went boogie boarding this year.  A dive skin is a very thin Lycra dive suit; I bought mine from Dive Goddess.  It is a yellow and rainbow print and I have received many comments when I wear it, but I wear it anyway.  (Who knows what the fish think. –dt)  When I was boogie boarding I had a small audience looking on with downright awe to see a fat old lady in what might be perceived as yellow rainbow long johns.  I couldn't hear the comments but I can't help thinking they were approving.  However that may be, I plan to continue wearing the dive skin; I will tell you an important secret:  I got no sand in the usual places.  (You ladies should know where I mean.)  Also the dive skin kept me nicely warm and protected from sand scrapes and sun burn.

 

The flooding took out one of the main highway bridges to Bucerias (And most points north of Vallarta; the bridge is at the border of the states of Jalisco and Nayarit over the Rio Ameca. -dt)   This has caused traffic tie ups as two lanes need to merge into one to go over the one remaining bridge. (One bridge is handling traffic in both directions. –dt)  Congestion is especially bad at rush hours as I found out as I travelled by taxi to Puerto Vallarta the morning of my first scuba diving outing.  As we approached the merge point the driver turned to me and said, "Traffic bad this morning; we go a fast way.  Okay?"

 

"Sure," I replied.  I was all for taking a little shortcut.  So we turned off the main street and started down some back roads.  I was OK with this but when we turned onto a dirt track I started getting a little nervous.  I remembered warnings saying never to allow taxi drivers to take you to isolated areas.  When I peeked anxiously ahead I saw two other taxies bouncing down the dirt track ahead of us.  Well I thought philosophically, if I have been kidnapped I have company, but probably I'm safe.  Sure enough eventually we merged onto a main road and slid into the line of traffic.   As we came to the merge point with the highway a short while later, I looked ahead and saw a police man standing between two lanes directing traffic.  "Boy is he brave,' I thought.  But when we came nearer I saw a soldier with a machine gun standing right behind him.  I have never seen traffic merge so smoothly.

 

I have been painting quite a bit since we got here.  Nora, my teacher in Philo, said I should try to paint at least an hour every day and I have done just about that.  (Nora Daniel; www.noradaniel.com ; she has a show upcoming soon at the Zanesville Museum of Art –dt)  I am still working on my first picture, a palm tree with an iguana.  (I call it "The iguana that ate the condo."  -dt)   I work on it a lot at night when I can't sleep.  I am using the tree outside our patio as a model.  Nora has really helped me; I can tell because I look at things differently.  The thing is, every time I look at my painting and think what needs work, I see several things I would not have seen before.  Hopefully one day I'll look at it and say nothing.  (See the artist at work and the finished painting.  –dt)

 

Last weekend we had our annual condo association meeting of the owners.  Dan, as El Presidente, conducted the meeting.  I never thought I'd say this, but I was amazed at his patience. (I am not known for this. –dt) The meeting lasted SIX HOURS!  But in the end we pretty much reached a consensus and were working well at making decisions.  Everyone's opinions were heard and respected.  (Thank you, everyone!  –dt)  A lighter moment was when Luis was telling us how destructive the large iguanas could be to the roof and shortly thereafter the attendees deserted the tables to run off and photograph a large iguana ambling along the wall.  This is life in Mexico; full of sunshine and conundrums. 

 

 

We had another iguana incident; a juvenile iguana came to the ground either on its own or by Gemon (?sp)  the condo cat.  In any case it created quite a stir with Lucy, the condo dog.  As you will see in the pictures, the cat thought the iguana was an amusing toy.  We did not watch until the finale, but it is quite likely the iguana escaped.  Some of you may recall that if they can make it, they will head for the swimming pool to evade their enemies.

 

Here are a few pictures to flesh out some of this story.  As most of you know, Mrs. T could be called the tree lady.  So when she is out and about pictures of trees often come back.  Also, those of you with digital cameras know that they now all have a video feature.  I accidentally took a very short video of Mrs. T taking tree or iguana pictures.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9151458@N07/sets/72157625321853263/

 

We hope all is well in your part of the world.

Dan and Rebecca

www.casa-de-terrible.blogspot.com