...[T]he rain has come...

Well, it looks like the rainy season has finally arrived.  For a few nights we had soft, gentle rain; good for soaking into the earth.  Then two nights ago we had a tremendous storm:  the sky was filled with dark clouds, lightning began to explode in the skies south of town (our side), and eventually the lightning and thunder melded overhead.

Fiyero had been sleeping on the bed; Miyake joined him from the floor.  I would have thought that Miyake would have stayed in her place (between the bed and the dresser on the side away from the windows, but she jumped right up, turned around a few times, and settled down up against me.  Her fur is a bit warm, but with enough encouragement she stayed in place throughout the entire storm (I know this because I was awake calming her).  Thunder freaks her out (as do exploding cuetas), but she handled it pretty well.

After we finally got to sleep (the storm had moved on out to the campo north and east of the town), Michael was awake later in the night and told me that a soft rainfall had returned early in the morning.  The debris washed up at the bottom of our hill was prodigious, that's for sure.  The parking lot guy at the International Fitness gym must have removed it because by the time I returned home from our Wednesday morning koffee klatch, it was gone.

It had been raining gently earlier in the evening and had chased our dinner guests in from the backyard where we had been enjoying jalapeño wonton appetizers and margaritas as a prelude to dinner.  We watched the newly installed 'fireflies' flitter in the bougainvilleas from the dining room windows, instead.

So last night we again had a gentle rain.  'Gentle' is good, as it allows the water to soak into the earth rather than run off as fast as it falls -- however, I love a good storm now and then.  And since they tend to come in from the south - and our bedroom's french doors face in that directions - we usually have a good view of them across our second floor terrace and the homes on the next street.

Guess we'll put up with the increased humidity as a trade-off for the rain.  More bothersome than annoying: our glasses of ice water we suck down condense the humidity in the air and form puddles wherever they are sitting.  A worthwhile inconvenience.

Heat Spell Breaks

Although it's not quite rainy season yet, and there were some sputtering starts along the way, we actually got rained on last night.

Rain has been predicted this week, but only a small chance of it.  That usually means there may be a cloud or two in the sky.  But yesterday afternoon there were some sprinkles: small drops at first, then larger ones, a roll of thunder ... and then everything stopped.

After dinner, the wind came up, rattling our windows and French doors.  Dogs went into frightened mode, quivering while laying under our computer desks.  A great, loud crash was the result of our bedroom's French door swinging open and then closing rapidly in the wind.  More terror for the dogs!

Eventually everyone went to bed, drifting off to sleep in a hot, humid atmosphere - only to awake close to midnight to the pitter-pat of soft rain falling.  It felt glorious and it was falling so slowly that the rain should have a chance to soak into the earth rather than just run off.  Just the kind of rain we needed!

Now if only the 'real' rainy season will arrive and continue to shower down upon us.  Michael said that last year - when I was in the MidWest - it was unreasonably hot before the storms arrived.  It did reach 91F yesterday.  Let's hope it doesn't make it that high any time soon!

Vacationing from Retirement

We will now try to book all our trips from our 'local' airport (only an hour or so away), rather than Mexico City.  That long bus trip (3-1/2 hours) is especially painful (even in an executive class bus with spacious seats) at the end of the vacation.  And we tried to save a few bucks on the trip to Mexico City and chose a bus line that stopped every few miles to pick up riders.  Mistake!  It became a 4-hour trip, but had left earlier, so it got us to the bus station in DF earlier than the other lines, which was a good thing, as it turned out.

It didn't help that the taxi-ticket-seller person sold us a taxi ticket to the Centro Historico district instead of the Aeropuerto - which cost us an extra $100 peso tip to the driver to take us to the airport instead.  And then, upon arrival at the International terminal for our flight to Houston, we found out that all United flights are from the Domestic Terminal...so the taxi driver reloaded our luggage and took us to the other terminal - which has no direct connection to the international terminal - and when he drove out of Terminal 2 with passengers, the Federales stopped him and we had to show them our plane reservations for the flight from Terminal One before they would let us go.  Needless to say, he got an extra tip of another $100 pesos.  (I think he was shocked at that.) At least we got to the correct terminal and checked in with time to spare.

However, once on the plane to Houston International (I still can't bring myself to call it B*** International) things went swell.  Their customs/immigration lines were really long, but moved along nicely.  Disney had provided a limo to take us to Galveston where we stayed in the Galvez Hotel - it's a Wyndham hotel across the street from the waterfront (unfortunately the lobby was all torn up making it more wonderful) - and then Disney picked us up the next morning by bus and took us to the ship.
 
Our table mates for dinner were a couple from northern Scotland and another couple from Texas, but they'd lived all over the world and were civilized folk. We always were the last table out of the restaurant each night!

Anyway, we had a nice cruise with several sea days (which we quite enjoy) and stops at Disney's private island (Castaway Cay - which is completely and solely Disney), a day at Walt Disney World with parkhopper tix (we splurged and took two private tours: Wild Africa Trek in Animal Kingdom and a dessert party while we saw the IllumiNations fireworks show in EPCOT; the AK trek was fabulous, the dessert party not so much), and in Key West we had booked breakfast at the Latitudes restaurant on the beach at the Westin Resort on their private island just off the coast.  Then a few more sea days and we were back to reality!


The Disney Magic was next to cross the Atlantic (we have friends on it) and do a summer of Mediterranean cruises before an extensive dry dock to upgrade it to something closer to the new Fantasy and Dream ships.

Once we made our way back to Mexico City, we chose the wrong bus line: we went with the 3-across seating bus instead of the 4-across seating bus.  Both were executive class but the bus line we chose left an hour later....  At least we finally ended up in San Miguel and caught a cab home and were greeted by exuberant doggies just before midnight!


Sunday we spent unpacking and washing multiple loads of clothing - even though we'd done laundry while on the ship. We hadn't restocked our cabinets, so it was dinner out last night.  And it will be dinner out tonight if I don't zip over to the grocery store when I finish this entry!

Just booked our shuttle transport for January so things are aligned for our visit to Cabo to see my brother and his wife while at their condo in Cabo.  

We only have one other trip between now and then - a week at the Santa Fe Opera in August featuring Traviata, La Donna del Lago, the Duchess of Gerolstein, Marriage of Figaro, and a world premier of Oscar with David Daniels (new, hot countertenor in The Enchanted Island at the Met).  The Lady of the Lake and Duchess each feature one of Santa Fe's semi-resident (they each own a house in Santa Fe that our friends' business takes care of when they're not around) divas: Susan Graham (in Les Troyens at the Met) and Joyce Di Donato (in Maria Stuarda at the Met).

Then it's on to Cabo!  I think next year may be a year of respite....

It's Raining!

I know you've been missing our weather reports - so here's one:  It rained yesterday!  Not all day, but what started out as really large drops of rain sprinkling on us in the late afternoon turned into a furious storm with lots of rolling thunder.  Didn't last too long - unfortunately - but it was rain.  And we need it!

Things are kinda dryish here.  The last few years we had storms in January/February, but not this year - so things are dry, the presas (reservoirs) are low, we have to water our lawn daily and the potted plants (including the lime tree) dry out quickly without their daily drink.

According to the weather forecast that Michael posted on FaceBook yesterday, storms are predicted daily for the next 7 or 8 days.  What we really need is a gentle, night-long rain so that the water has a chance to soak in instead of running off.  Run-off may help as the water makes its way to the presa, but it would help to have some stay local, ya know?

Luckily for Michael and Fiyero, Michael had walked him home from the groomers (Dusty Puppies - groomers to the gringos) before it started raining.  We're hoping for the same luck today, when Miyake makes the same walk into Guadiana (a colonia a little over halfway into Centro; not quite to the Instituto).  Fiyero looks pretty good but he has an Irish coat; Miyake's already looking good due to Michael's scissoring, but she has an American coat.  We'll see what Rod does with her!

I think we're getting ready for our haircuts, too, soon.  Will it be before or after our trip to San Diego next week to see Billy Elliott?  It's gotta be before our Galveston cruise the week after or we'll have to eat on Deck 9 instead of the main dining rooms!

Yammering On

So months without a peep, and now  there's lots to talk about!

Today we met with a facilitator who assists we gringos through the forest known as Inmigracion.  With all the recent changes in the last couple of years, we need it!

Last year they hadn't implemented the new laws, so we did it ourselves, using the services of an Escritorio Publica across the street from the Inmigracion building.  For a small fee, they wrote our letter for us (in Spanish), created the paperwork for the bank, took our pictures, et cetera.  Quick and easy.

However, the new procedures have now been implemented, so we're using the services of someone who knows their way through that forest.  The news wasn't all that we had hoped for (going directly to Residente Permanente without the 4 years as a Temporal under our belts would have been nice), but at least we now know what we can do and how to do it.

We've even got a schedule of when we go back to him (our visas don't expire until August), what we'll be doing this year and next (Residente Termporal this year; Permanente next year), how we'll deal with the fact that we're going to be out of the country on our expiration date both years, and the fees that we will be responsible for paying.

So it's a transition to Residente Temporal this August and then to Residente Permanente next August.  We can begin the process this year in July and request a permit to be out of the country without a 'real' visa in our hands.  Next year we'll leave the country with a 'real' visa still in our hands, but it will expire during our cruise, so we have to work within the guidelines to make it legal and make the transition to Permanente.

Of course, once we reach Permanente status, that's the last visa we need  -- no more renewals to pay for, no limits to how long we can be out of the country and still maintain our visa.  Guess we'll live making the changeover in 2014 instead of 2013.  There's supposed to be a points system that can be combined with years in-country, but no one has even written the guidelines for that process. We should be permanent before it sees the light of day.

It's the Little Things

So, we've noticed lately that the Bosch washer that we brought with us to Mexico three years ago has been acting squirrely.  It ran for two years like a top, no problems -  even after a few years' use in Reseda.

But lately it had been pausing mid-cycle which required a manual push of the Start/Pause button to resume the wash -- and it always seemed to go back to the beginning of the wash cycle.  Then it began pausing several times during the wash cycle including the rinse portion as well as the spin portion.  Sometimes the clothes were left quite wet and there was water in the tub (it's a front-loading machine).

We'd given up on it and were shopping for one of the new Samsung top-loading machines - the ones without a center agitator which depended upon jets of water from the bottom and sides of the tub to swirl the clothes around - and operated by fuzzy logic.  New appliances are always fun to work with! Bright and shiny, too!

So Michael had discovered that, unless we sprayed water down the detergent chute to wash the liquid into the tub, there was absolutely no water to wash by.  So he disconnected the water supply hoses and found enough mineral deposits to block the hard filter that is part of the connection.

A good cleaning/scrubbing (I knew we saved that old toothbrush for a reason) and it was good as new.  Filter restored, water flow working again!

No new appliance needed - drat!  But it saved us a pocket-full of pesos and we can always spend it on a new estufa (range) that needs looking at.  Perhaps better than a new washer - though it won't be cherry red!

A Busy Summer

I know, I know: Where have I been?  Mostly here in San Miguel.  There just hasn't been too much to write about that I haven't addressed in earlier posts, ya know?  How many weather-related posts can anyone read?

We have been a little busy:  Friends from Canada who are having their house in San Miguel remodeled visited for a few months earlier this year.  Our best friend in town hosted his mother's visit recently.  Facebook friends from Orange County visited.  All of which called for drinks at La Azotea, dinners, et cetera.  So our life hasn't been dull.

Did I tell you that our friend here in town has opened a hostel?  Michael got to 'volunteer' to help with the transition from small hospital to hostel.  Quite the changeover (before and after pictures on Facebook).

Now we're looking forward to an exciting summer!  Not expecting any more visitors, but there's plenty to do.  We've been granted a new 2-year lease on our home, so it's time to do some of those things that we've been delaying: More pictures going up (in homes with cement walls inside and out, hanging pictures is a project); reorganizing the bodega (the former live-in maid's room, we use it for storage); install the solar fireflies in the back yard (we've been carrying around that kit for years, originally planning on using them in our home in Los Angeles);  sorting out the Harry Potter Memorial Bedroom (it's the closet under the stairs to the second floor).  Next up is getting the new light fixtures for the entry and backyard and having them put up; moving the light switches for the backyard lights to the inside of the house; we're saving money for (and window shopping for) a new clothes washer (the Bosch unit that we brought from L.A. has begun acting squirrely); and renewing visas and nationalizing our car.

Nationalizing our car???  Yes, when one converts to a Residente Permanente visa (sort of like a green card in the States), one can no longer drive a foreign-plated car with a Temporary Import Permit (TIP).  [The police in Mazatlan have reportedly confiscated three cars driven/owned by recently christened Permanente holders.  Yikes!]  We've had such a TIP for our minivan since moving to Mexico, as we continue to accumulate time in residence towards that elusive Permanente visa.  We're going to try for the visa this year in August. 

While we're still a year short for making a simple transition, we're still going to Immigration each year, paying fees, having pictures taken, filing applications for extensions, et cetera.  Once we manage Permanente status there are no annual renewals:  No more photos, applications, fees - we're just here.  The only other step would be citizenship, but with my language skills in Spanish, that's not a good bet!  And with Permanente status we don't have to watch our time out of the country.  Not that we're gone a lot, but with our current visas, that time is limited.  No more worries with a Permanente visa.  [I'm hoping that I turned in the correct forms when returning to the country on each trip or they may think I left years ago and never came back!]

If we can't manage the changeover to Permanente this year, we can change to a Temporal visa for one more year and then we don't have to prove income for the change to Permanente next year.  There's some question as to whether there are lower fees for the second person if there's a familial relationship.  We're dealing with a facilitator who handles this sort of thing, and waiting for her take on our situation.  To take advantage of a lower qualifying financial base (if that is so), we'd try for a familial relationship, so we'd likely have to have our California marriage license registered with the federal government in DF [pronounced Day-effay for Distrito Federal] in Mexico City. And who knows how long that would take. Hence one of our concerns about meshing the timing of the car nationalization and new visas.

And just to make things more complicated, our original choice of visas was FM2 or FM3.  We opted to go directly to an FM2 visa, so that we could gain residency more quickly.  Then they changed the names of the visas to Inmigrado and Non-Inmigrado and some of the rules, but they operated much the same way. 

Now we've got Residente Temporal and Residente Permanente to deal with and all the changes that came with it all.  After knowing what to expect for the last few years, we're on a steep learning curve again.  One of the changes creeps in backwards.  The Aduana (customs) rules are based on earlier versions of immigration visas, but the named visas have gone away.  So there's the question of what do you do with your vehicle now?  Can Permanente holders still drive a car with a TIP?  Can they not?  What do you do with your car?  That's why we're going ahead with the nationalization process - sooner or later we'll need Mexican plates on our van.

So, back to the car issue.  One normally nationalizes a car at the border and the process takes up to two weeks.  Rather than driving back to Texas, staying in a hotel/motel, eating out for two weeks, entertaining ourselves for two weeks, boarding the dogs for two weeks, et cetera, et cetera, we decided to take advantage of a recent, temporary Amparo and do it long distance.  Don't bother looking up 'amparo' in your Spanish/English dictionary; I don't think it translates.  Basically, it's the result of a court decision that gives the injured party the ability to do something that they were prevented from doing (which resulted in the court case).  In our case, a particular broker was given permission to import cars of a certain age and lineage that would not otherwise be eligible for importation for a limited time.  So we were under the gun to make a decision.

We found an agent in Guadalajara ('nearby Guadalajara') who had a relationship with that particular broker, so we are able to handle everything without leaving San Miguel and skip the trip to the border.  While a bit more expensive, we don't incur the costs of living NOB for two weeks while the process goes forward, so it's at least a wash.

We contacted the agent, sent all the paperwork and photos via email, and transferred the deposit into their bank account (thanks, Tim, for helping with that!  US banks are not very helpful with their rules for wire transfers - even to another US bank).  Then we sat back to wait. That was last week.

I'm not the most patient person....so I was thrilled to receive an email from the agent that the Pedimento (the approval of the importation by Aduana - Mexico's customs agency) was in process and would be available early next week!  We only transferred the funds last week!  When the agent has the Pedimento they will let us know our balance (courier fees, differences in exchange rates, et cetera) and we will make the final funds transfer. Once it's couriered over to us, we take the Pedimento to our local DMV (okay; it's not called the DMV) agency to file it, have the vehicle's VIN verified, and pay for the registration ('buy the plates') and then we're legal!  Still need to sort out the insurance ramifications (waiting for a second quote), but it's not required in Mexico (though wise to have it), so that shouldn't delay registering the car - and it sits most of the time in it's little off-street parking space here at home.

And this is all tied back into our visa situation because under the terms of the amparo, we had to possess an FM2/Inmigrado visa.  (Which we do.)  However, if we had to settle for Residente Temporal visas later this summer and the nationalization hadn't taken place yet, we wouldn't have been able to import the car.  We would have the wrong type of visa.  And with the way things sometime move in Mexico, there was a concern about which would be finished first.  And Mr. Hope-for-the-best-but-plan-for-the-worst had concerns.  Which are now ka-puff!  With luck - and the creek don't rise - we should have the Pedimento in our hands by the end of next week.

As I mentioned before, we're already working with a facilitator on our visa situation.  Once again, forewarned is forearmed.  If we need to register things with the federal government, it could take time and might require a personal appearance in Mexico City.  And our expiration date on our current visas occurs while we're in Santa Fe, New Mexico for the opera season, so this needs to be planned out.  I  believe that our facilitator can file our applications for us and then we return for fingerprints and photos afterwards (we return to town the day after the visas expire).

Anyway, that's our summer!  Hope yours is good as well.