Yes, it's true -- our street now has new water meters! For the last 3 years we've lived with a buried meter. It was the old-fashioned kind with dials, not digits, so readings were approximated. It was also buried and we often though that the meter reader didn't bother to uncover it - just repeated the last month's reading.
Our meter was situated below the level of the sidewalk at the point where our sidewalk met our neighbor's sidewalk - a difference of a few inches as the street went uphill. The gap between these two sections of sidewalk was filled with dirt and the occasional plant life. As we didn't know how deep it was buried, we didn't even try to read it ourselves.
All this changed earlier this week when work crews swarmed the street, dug trenches, replaced the old meters with digital ones, and the holes were filled in, cemented, and a hinged lid was placed above the meter.
We still need to dig the dirt out of the finger-hole to lift the flexible lid, but I'm anxious to see what the meter looks like. Some houses had the meter installed in their outer walls, so we have a good idea of the style, but actually seeing it is best, don't you think?
I've heard others who had their meters replaced earlier in the year complaining that their readings were higher, but guessing at the reading does eventually catch up!
Thursday, February 19, 2015
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Vacations
Yes, vacations are still a part of our life! While we don't need vacations from retirement, traveling is still one of our favorite activities. So perhaps 'vacations' isn't the correct term, but we take them anyway!
We've just returned home from a combo 'vacation': three weeks on the beach in Cabo San Lucas with a direct flight to New Orleans for the beginning of Mardi Gras (actually pre-Mardi Gras, I guess it would be).
The weeks in Cabo were heavenly. Nothing much to do except laze on the beach, turn up for a chance to win an activity at the weekly timeshare owner/guest meeting, eat and drink - be it on the beach, in the restaurant, one of the pool swim-up bars, or in the penthouse. A rough life, to be sure!
My brother and his wife had invited us down to be guests in their little 3,000 square foot, beach front penthouse [how could we turn that down?] as they do each year. This year we were joined by my sister and her husband for one week and we had the penthouse to ourselves for most of the last week while my brother and SIL traveled back to the Midwest for an appointment. We left the day of their return (they have something like 9 or 10 weeks at the resort). Other guests were arriving later.
We 'earned' our keep by making meals that fit into my sister-in-law's dietary requirements (on most nights). This involved walking to and from the Super WalMart store for groceries most days - a healthy two-mile round trip. It was fun trying out new recipes and most were successful!
So we flew directly to New Orleans for a few days of more eating/drinking/parading in the early days of pre-Mardi Gras with a friend who was celebrating both her birthday and her official designation of cancer-free! Two wonderful reasons to celebrate!
This was our first visit to New Orleans, so it was a whirlwind tour of meals, bars, shops, and parades.
We got off to a late start flying out of Cabo when our plane was delayed because of deicing required in Chicago. That made us miss our connecting flight in Dallas-Fort Worth, so we arrived too late for dinner out. We did enjoyed the improved new terminal at the San Juan del Cabo airport - a vast improvement over the old one - even if it was still recovering from Hurricane Odile!
Once we made it to the hotel in the French Quarter, we crashed. It had been a really long day and the layovers/delays at SJD and DFW were exhausting, even without the flights.
After our included breakfast Friday morning, we met up with our friend and her sister and toddled off to the Cafe du Monde for beignets and cafe au lait with chicory. Of course we were sightseeing along the way, so it was a circuitous route, but we eventually found our way to the Cafe, found a table fairly easily (the place is huge and is full especially in the morning hours), and enjoyed our beignets. Never saw so much powdered sugar in my life! Lots of browsing afterwards in the shops nearby and along our return route to the hotel.
The days in New Orleans were a panoply of walking around town (many bus lines had been closed because of the various parades, the trolley line's southern route was out of commission, streets we wanted to cross were blocked by barricades for the parades), drinks (the hotel had two bars: Patrick's wine bar and the 21st Amendment and there were plenty of others on offer), and meals (Commander's Palace, Willie Mae's Scotch House, Cane Vino, and The Two Sisters come to mind). And - oh, yes - the shopping! More shops than you could shake a stick at and I think we stopped at most of them! We even found our way to a shop owned by friends of my sister w-a-a-y down on Magazine Street! [Magazine Street is alternately residential and business and the buses weren't running for most of that distance.]
Our return flight to Mexico was actually simpler than in the other direction because we didn't have to deal with late flights and customs/immigration during a short layover - it was at the end of the trip, so even getting a red light at customs wasn't a big deal! [And they got us sorted out at the New Orleans airport; their system didn't allow Michael to check-in on line.]
We know know why we don't usually fly American Airlines -- they fly MD80s which have very limited overhead space for all the carry-ons that flyers nowadays bring and they cram as many people onto the plane as possible. While our plane from DFW to BJX was brand new and gorgeous (a smart-phone type screen installed on the back of the seat in front of you that offered many options), it was still an uncomfortable flight - luckily a shorter one. Guess that's one way to up-sell people to more spacious seating or business/first class! I know if we fly them again, I'll certainly pick a premium seat or upgrade during check-in!
But we made it home safely and were delivered to our doorstep about midnight. Yesterday was laundry, pick-up packages at our service, et cetera. Today is back to normal. It's just like we never left....
We've just returned home from a combo 'vacation': three weeks on the beach in Cabo San Lucas with a direct flight to New Orleans for the beginning of Mardi Gras (actually pre-Mardi Gras, I guess it would be).
The weeks in Cabo were heavenly. Nothing much to do except laze on the beach, turn up for a chance to win an activity at the weekly timeshare owner/guest meeting, eat and drink - be it on the beach, in the restaurant, one of the pool swim-up bars, or in the penthouse. A rough life, to be sure!
My brother and his wife had invited us down to be guests in their little 3,000 square foot, beach front penthouse [how could we turn that down?] as they do each year. This year we were joined by my sister and her husband for one week and we had the penthouse to ourselves for most of the last week while my brother and SIL traveled back to the Midwest for an appointment. We left the day of their return (they have something like 9 or 10 weeks at the resort). Other guests were arriving later.
We 'earned' our keep by making meals that fit into my sister-in-law's dietary requirements (on most nights). This involved walking to and from the Super WalMart store for groceries most days - a healthy two-mile round trip. It was fun trying out new recipes and most were successful!
So we flew directly to New Orleans for a few days of more eating/drinking/parading in the early days of pre-Mardi Gras with a friend who was celebrating both her birthday and her official designation of cancer-free! Two wonderful reasons to celebrate!
This was our first visit to New Orleans, so it was a whirlwind tour of meals, bars, shops, and parades.
We got off to a late start flying out of Cabo when our plane was delayed because of deicing required in Chicago. That made us miss our connecting flight in Dallas-Fort Worth, so we arrived too late for dinner out. We did enjoyed the improved new terminal at the San Juan del Cabo airport - a vast improvement over the old one - even if it was still recovering from Hurricane Odile!
Once we made it to the hotel in the French Quarter, we crashed. It had been a really long day and the layovers/delays at SJD and DFW were exhausting, even without the flights.
After our included breakfast Friday morning, we met up with our friend and her sister and toddled off to the Cafe du Monde for beignets and cafe au lait with chicory. Of course we were sightseeing along the way, so it was a circuitous route, but we eventually found our way to the Cafe, found a table fairly easily (the place is huge and is full especially in the morning hours), and enjoyed our beignets. Never saw so much powdered sugar in my life! Lots of browsing afterwards in the shops nearby and along our return route to the hotel.
The days in New Orleans were a panoply of walking around town (many bus lines had been closed because of the various parades, the trolley line's southern route was out of commission, streets we wanted to cross were blocked by barricades for the parades), drinks (the hotel had two bars: Patrick's wine bar and the 21st Amendment and there were plenty of others on offer), and meals (Commander's Palace, Willie Mae's Scotch House, Cane Vino, and The Two Sisters come to mind). And - oh, yes - the shopping! More shops than you could shake a stick at and I think we stopped at most of them! We even found our way to a shop owned by friends of my sister w-a-a-y down on Magazine Street! [Magazine Street is alternately residential and business and the buses weren't running for most of that distance.]
Our return flight to Mexico was actually simpler than in the other direction because we didn't have to deal with late flights and customs/immigration during a short layover - it was at the end of the trip, so even getting a red light at customs wasn't a big deal! [And they got us sorted out at the New Orleans airport; their system didn't allow Michael to check-in on line.]
We know know why we don't usually fly American Airlines -- they fly MD80s which have very limited overhead space for all the carry-ons that flyers nowadays bring and they cram as many people onto the plane as possible. While our plane from DFW to BJX was brand new and gorgeous (a smart-phone type screen installed on the back of the seat in front of you that offered many options), it was still an uncomfortable flight - luckily a shorter one. Guess that's one way to up-sell people to more spacious seating or business/first class! I know if we fly them again, I'll certainly pick a premium seat or upgrade during check-in!
But we made it home safely and were delivered to our doorstep about midnight. Yesterday was laundry, pick-up packages at our service, et cetera. Today is back to normal. It's just like we never left....
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