I Was Just Going to Post...

A few nights ago (Tuesday night) we had rain.  I know I write a lot about the weather, but it didn't just rain, it RAINED!  There were a series of three storm fronts that arrived in the evening, around midnight, and around 3 am.  Each had it's own series of lightning with crack, sizzles, and power outages.  Followed by thunderclaps that reverberated, set off car alarms, and all that sort of thing.

The dogs, of course, were up on the bed, shivering.

Then on Wednesday night we had a repeat, but only twice during the night.  There was no early-morning rain storm.  But all the other events were present and accounted for!  Luckily, the power outages were again brief occurrences.

The last night (Thursday) we had no storms.  Nothing, nada, nil!  Peaceful and quiet, we hardly knew what to do with ourselves.  There was some distant thunder (and the dogs had freaked out already), but there was no rain nor lightning nearby.

We were hoping for a repeat tonight, but at 6:30 pm, another storm rolled in.  The only good part was that, again, the rain cam straight down.  When the wind blows while it's raining, there are usually leaks around the casements on the rooftop so rain drips down onto the second floor from above.  Hopefully the rain was vertical tonight, too.

Other than that it was a good day.  Yesterday we finally got around to having our hairs cut after our last cut before the back-to-back-to-back cruises.  Chemy, as usual, carried on a complete conversation with others in the shop (in Spanish of course) while cutting our hair and it took about the usual amount of time (10 to 15 minutes apiece).  Don't know how he does it, but he does....

Today we had our services folks over in the afternoon to install new light fixtures for the ceilings in our three most popular bathrooms.  Maybe we should have visitors more often?  Things are finally getting done!  We even had them hang the carpet runner on the wall in the stairwell between the rooftop and the second floor....

UPDATE - It seems to have continued to rain throughout the night in one continuous flow!  Still dripping when I awakened at 5:00.

Here's a photo from last night in Centro - and no, that isn't people on the rooftops relieving themselves.  In an old town such as this, roofs are flat (often turned into gathering areas - ours has it's own bathroom) and the water gathers there and escapes via rain spouts.  Makes walking on the sidewalks a bit tricky when folks wash down their rooftops during the day!  You can tell it was pouring down as the water is aimed out into the street.

Photo by Maru Balderas Lopez

Cobblestones

...or cobblerocks, as Ilike to call them.  Forget those snugly fitted pavements you may be thinking of.  Or cobblestones are actual rocks that haven't been dressed in any way.  And depending upon where you live in the city, they are more carefully placed -- or not!

I had planned a photo exposé of the pavements in various parts of town, but some of the 'photos' turned out to be videos.  I'll try again next week. and update this post.

Other than that it's been same-old, same-old.  Things have dried up a bit, but there are still the occasional nighttime rain storm - two of which I've managed to sleep through, even with Michael inviting the dogs up on the bed and their shivers!  Guess I must have been really tired.  Or there was one-too-many margaritas enjoyed earlier.

Rain, again

I don't think we can blame it on global warming, but it's been a real rainy season for us this year.  In particular, this week.  I know it's only Thursday, but it has been raining most days since last week!

And not just a gentle rain, but thunder-and-lighting rain.  (Miyake is spending a lot of time in our bathroom - her 'safe' room.  A couple of nights ago it not only rained hard, but there was wind and it blew the rain against our southern-facing house.  So a combination of heavy rain and blowing wind against the french doors in our bedroom. 

Time to find those spare bath towels and put them under the windows and doors in the house that face south. Luckily not many windows/doors face in that direction but there were enough.  And there was lightning, of course.  On bolt struck very near our house (maybe a block away) and we lost power for a while.  Needless to say, Miyake was shaking in the bathroom for a while - well, most of the night.  Didn't even want to come downstairs for her breakfast!  And yes, we took breakfast up to her.  Spoiled, I know.

The weather report has shown it to be rainy all this week.  The report we see is from bbc.com and it focuses largely on other parts of the world.  It starts of with South America, then moves to Africa and the Middle East, then India, Indonesia, Australia, and Japan.  Then finally gets to Central America and that's when Mexico is shown.  They seldom say anything about Mexico - and only Mexico City is marked on the map - so we sort of guess whether the rain that is shown will encompass San Miguel or not.  It usually does.

At least it is cool here during the summer what with the clouds and occasional rainfall.  Other parts of Mexico are shown with temps up to 40 degrees Centigrade (that's about 104F - yikes!!).  What's a little rain among friends, eh?  At least we not in the Yucatan, poking out in the Gulf of Mexico/Caribbean where it's both hot and rainy, i.e., humid.  I keep telling Michael that we could move to Puerto Vallarta if he wants ocean, but he protests that the humidity would do me in (and he's right!).

So we keep a supply of bath towels at the ready - easy to do with dogs that require baths and lots of towels - and place them quickly when the rain begins.

The only real drawback is that to reach Mega (our local grocery store that is right behind our garden wall), the local bus stop, and cab rank is that we have to walk down our street and turn right past the gym and Mega's loading dock.  And I do mean 'down' the street.  Which means any loose dirt uphill from us washes down the street, floods over the sidewalk, and deposits mud that we then need to walk through.  Yuck!  Given a day or so, the gym sends their man-of-all-trades out to shovel the dried mud from the sidewalk, but we invariably need to walk through it before that takes place.  So we hop from clear spots on the sidewalk to empty gutters (they seem to be pretty empty - though narrow - for most of the way) to the cobblestones in the street. 

Yes, we could always go in the opposite direction: walking up to the cross-street, across to the Libramiento, and down to Mega/bus stop/cab rank.  But if we're walking into town that puts us on the wrong side of the road (the Ancha), so we don't usually go in that direction.  You should see us streaking across the highway to Celaya, looking for all the world like those warning signs around the nuclear power plant on the way to San Diego!  But it puts us in a position to cross the Libramiento on the correct side of the glorietta (avoiding the elevated walkway that feels like it's about to collapse) to gain better sidewalks for our stroll into town.

Centro is quite nice (except when it rains and the downhill streets turn into gushing rivers), but life is a little more exciting out on the edges of town!

Where We've Been Recently

I realize that I don't post regularly on this blog - only when something interesting comes along.  So you may have been wondering, 'what are those guys up to?'

What we've been up to included 39 nights on three back-to-back cruises plus about6 days at Walt Disney World.  [Who can go to Orlando for a cruise and ignore the parks?]

This all began with a bucket list, of course.  We had noted that Disney Cruise Line was headed to the Baltics this spring.  On the bucket list was the Norwegian Fjords, which they would be visiting.  So we booked that cruise.

Of course, we would need to get to the Baltics (all their cruises sailed out of Copenhagen) and it seemed like a good idea to sail on the EastBound TransAtlantic cruise from Florida to Copenhagen.  Flights are expensive, anyway - right?

Then we were left with a week between the EBTA and the Fjord cruises, so we signed up for the Baltic Capitals cruise rather that stay in Copenhagen for the week (a notoriously expensive place to stay).

So we left on May 9th and returned to San Miguel on June 15th.  Whew!  There were many adventures: ports cancelled due to ice, new friends made and old friends reunited on board, and, of course, the usual supply of dim-witted fellow cruisers to avoid at all costs.

For those interested in a blow-by-blow description you might look at Michael's Facebook entries.  He was pretty diligent at posting comments and pictures.  If I ever get around to sorting through my own pictures, I may post them.  That's a big 'If'.

But we're back at home for now.  Bought two new cruises while onboard (it's one of the few discounts that Disney offers) so we'll be gone from time to time.  We've got five trips in the works through 2016: Disneyland and Club 33 in September 2015; Cabo San Lucas in January/February 2016; the Santa Fe Opera in August; an EastBound Panama Canal in late August (did the westbound PC a couple of years ago) this is just the reverse - San Diego to Port Canaveral; and a Eastern Caribbean in October.  Should keep us hopping!

[I never want to drag two suitcases and a carry-on with me again.  There were tons of clothes that went unworn.]  The dogs did not forget us and seemed quite happy to be home again.

Wonders Never Cease

I tend to be a little cynical about most things.  Especially new-fangled products promoted with extravagant claims.

So it should come with no surprises that the use of a magnetic gizmo to soften the water in ones home got short shrift from me.  Never mind their users' claims that built-up gunk could be eventually removed by running the processed water through the gunked-up fixture.

But I must say, it seems to be time to take a big bite of humble pie!

Our city-supplied water is very hard.  Watering the lawn leaves white spots on the windows from the sprinkler.  Flushing toilets leaves a trail of white residue from the outlets around the rim of the fixture as well as a ring at the edge of the water level.

Living in a rental, it wasn't in the cards for us to spend big bucks for a water softening outfit for the house.  But for $50 bucks, it might be worth it to try one out.  Not that we'd try out a big water softener that uses salt to soften the water, but there was an offer for a magnetic gizmo for around $50 bucks.

We had recently done a partial remodel on our kitchen (see earlier posts), which included a new sink and faucet duo.  I was getting tired of constantly drying the sink (and going through a lot of towels) to keep the water from drying in place and leaving the infamous white rings.

So - after reading the supporting comments from users, I decided to spring for the 50-buck model.  After all, if it didn't work, it was only $50 bucks - right?

Well, bless my soul, but it seemed to work!  We installed it on the outflow of our tinaco (took about 15 minutes, including the time to carry an extension ladder up to the roof top) so that all the water in the house would be treated; both hot and cold water is sourced from our tinaco.  And it works! And not only that, but a couple of months down the road, the white stains in our toilets seem to be gradually disappearing.  And the filter for the hot water to our washing machine doesn't need cleaning nearly as often as it earlier needed to maintain a flow.

We bought the model that had strong magnets that are held around the water supply pipe (some require an electrical connection).  I might even spring for a second unit that should fit around the incoming pipe for our water supply so that the lawns can also enjoy the benefits of gunk-free water!

The units don't remove the gunk in the water, but 'realign' the molecules so that they aren't attracted to fixtures.  Go figure; still doesn't sound possible, but it works!

Now, I'm still a little cynical about some claims, but I must say that I'm happy we tried this one out!

Kitchen Redux

As mentioned before, we're re-tiling the kitchen.  The new tile around the new sink looked so good, we screwed up our determination, found that the costs wouldn't be prohibitive, and ordered the work done!

So after a day (9 AM - 6 PM) of pounding, hammering, and chipping away to level the cement bed in which the original tiles had been set, they laid a few of the new tiles before leaving yesterday.  And they look grand!

The workers will be back this morning to commence serious tile work and we should be in possession of our kitchen before the end of the day -- depending on how much time will be required before the tiles are set up.

We were able to use the new sink for dinner dishes after that section was replaced - all in the same day!  But we're ready to acquiesce to a longer follow-up period for all the counters.

This morning wasn't a great deal of fun as the kitchen was unusable.  We made coffee (as well as preparing the dogs' breakfast) in the 3/4 downstairs bathroom - in shifts.  First the coffee grinder; then the coffee maker; and finally the cups/cream/sugar.  It worked, but I'd rather not deal with it again!

Here are some pictures of the same corner of the kitchen.  With blue tile; tile removed (photo shot through the door into the dining area, which is glassed, so there's a bit of reflection); and the finished work.

Before

During (note space where stove was in Before picture)

and

After --- Ta-Dah!!!

It is now Wednesday and we have all the bits and pieces of the kitchen back in place, so the counter isn't as pristine as it appears in this photo.  (We also have the office put back together, the outside wall having been touched-up, so we're not tripping over things.)  Now to find a recirculating exhaust hood that will fit the opening above the estufa.  We'll eventually get things sorted.

Kitchen Work

We told the landlord a couple of years ago that we might want to change the tile work in the kitchen.  Although there is decorative tile on the walls behind the counter tops (which is not a favorite but we can live with it), the counter tops themselves and the front of the cabinets around the doors are a medium-blue tile.  I really dislike blue in homes and a whole kitchen has been difficult to bear.

To that you can add that the tile work was older and worn around the edges.

That's the corner of the new stove.

The kitchen sink was also an older stainless steel number with sarro (calcium) stains especially around the faucets.  We meant to replace the whole thing but thought it was going to be an expensive project, so kept putting it off.

Then the kitchen faucets started leaking, creating even more stains on the sink.  We decided that the fault was with the faucet, rather than just a simple gasket replacement job, since the water leaked out under the hot water knob whether we had turned on the hot water or the cold!  So we stopped at Home Depot on the way to Costco the next time we were in Celaya (the larger town about 40 - 45 km away).  Found the faucet we had seen on their website, bought it, and took it home. 

Eventually we called the maintenance company (still anticipating a huge bill) and asked them to install it.  While waiting for them to stop by and give us an estimate, we decided to replace the sink, too.  So we sent them off with a deposit to purchase the sink and needed materials for the installation.  It turns out that the sink superstructure was composed of - what else? - cement.  So the tiles around the old sink had to be chipped off, the cement leveled with hammer and chisel, then the new tile cemented (using real cement) into place.

Did I mention that the sink was about 1-1/2" short of the size of the hole in the counter top from the earlier sink?  So decisions  had to be made about spacing.

Lo and behold,  they also discovered that the rim of the sink was sandwiched between the counter top tile and the backsplash tile on the wall and that to remove the sink, the tile fractured!  So we had to add some new tile to the job.  Couldn't find blue tile (just as well) so went with an off-white that was approximately the background color of the wall/back-splash tiles.

And it looked pretty neat installed around the sink (oh yes, as I mentioned, the new sink was a little less wide than the original, so they needed to fill in with extra tile and also replace the backsplash tile with the off-white tile.  It was a pretty obvious difference, but it was also pretty obvious that it looked pretty nice!

So we worked up our gumption and asked what it would cost to re-tile the rest of the counters - and was pleasantly surprised to find it affordable!  So in a couple of weeks (April the 6th, actually) the old tile will be removed and new tile installed (saving the expense of re-grouting the old counters to more closely match the new work around the sink.

Oh, and here's the new sink.  The blue stripe at the bottom right-hand corner of the photo is the original tile which will also be replaced.

The new cross handles will make it simpler to turn the water on and off with soapy hands!

So we're going to have an almost brand new kitchen soon.  We replaced the estufa (stove w/oven) recently.  Next up - installing a recirculating hood over the new stove.  It isn't often that there's cooking smoke in the kitchen, but when it occurs, it's awful! Filtering the air will be a good thing; maybe the cabinets won't get so sticky....

Eventually we'll have the light switches for the backyard lights moved inside the living/dining rooms so we don't have to stumble outside in the dark before switching on the lights.  Hope to get that changed before visitors arrive later this year.

We'll post pictures of the completed kitchen once the work is done.  At least we got some of the work done before our current lease expired.  Should have a new one to sign this weekend!