So I had just put down the penultimate Lee Child mystery (I'm working my way through them all), when I stretched and looked out the french doors in the bedroom to see San Miguel sunshine! The cold cloud cover that we'd had yesterday had broken up (there were still plenty of clouds, though) and sunshine was streaming in. It wasn't going to be a miserable day after all.
I can hear you now: 'miserable' mentioned in the same paragraph as your personal shangra-la? Well, yes.
You see, homes here don't have central heating. If you're lucky, your home has a fireplace or three outfitted for a set of artificial logs that burn gas. Many homes have at least one fireplace with a gas supply attached. Fireplaces seldom burn wood as it is at a premium here in the central highlands. Most trees were chopped down and burned in the preceding couple hundred years. It's one reason our homes are built of brick and concrete instead of wood-framed stucco. We even have a set of the logs which live in the bodega since moving from our previous fireplace-equipped home.
Our home doesn't have a fireplace (yet - but that's another story), but we do have a portable gas heater that takes the chill off the living area in the early morning. Finally found the adapter we needed to connect the BBQ-sized cylinder to the heater, so we're in business. The fan is a bit noisy, but if we situate the heater just right, it can be minimized.
With concrete homes, we depend upon the sun to warm them up during the day so that they radiate warmth through most of the night; and then the cycle repeats itself with the coming of the sun. This is particularly important when we need to leave a door to the backyard open so the dogs can take advantage of said yard during the night, allowing cool air to envelope the ground floor living areas.
We were just talking a few days ago about the weather having warmed up enough that we could pack the heater away -- glad we hadn't quite gotten around to it! However, with the sunshine now back, things should warm up enough to let us do that. But we'll wait to see if it holds.... At least it hasn't been really rainy while it was cold, as the previous couple of years had really cold January/February weather. And the first year we had only electric heaters, which caused our electricity bills to soar. (We don't use them any more.)
Before this cold snap we had been enjoying sunny weather. Breezy, but not really cool. Even though 'breezy' probably would not have been the word the dogs picked to describe it - were they vocally inclined. It was downright windy. And while I don't mind the sound of the wind whipping around the corners of the house, they get freaked out! Especially when the wind rattles the french doors that are in most rooms. (One reason we don't worry about using unvented gas heaters - with the way windows and doors fit here in Mexico, we don't need to spend a lot of time worrying about that. There's always some air movement.) Poor Miyake starts quivering and it doesn't stop, even when she seeks out our company, up close and personal. And if the wind blows a door shut - watch out, they'll all be sitting on the bed with you.
But it looks like the dire predictions for a low temperature below 30F won't occur - which is good when you don't have central heating!
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Happy News
Just a little happy note today. Yesterday we had a planned visit from our landlord to look the house over and talk about next year's lease/rent. We have stayed in each house one year since moving to San Miguel. The first house we decided to move from as it really didn't have yard space for the dogs. The second house was being put on the market and we didn't want to deal with realtors and lookey-loos traipsing through the house on short notice. So we were a little apprehensive about the visit - what if she didn't like something?
Margarita picked that day to be late, so Michael and I were dividing up the cleaning chores to whip the ground floor into shape in case Margarita didn't show at all. And then she walked through the door. Relief!
We had been told that the landlord (landlady, actually) was an older person and she had not granted our request for a long-term lease originally because she wanted to see how we kept the house. The last tenant had been 'adventuresome' with paint, we understand.
Imagine my surprise when the landlady and her husband walked through the front gate and they were the folks who had been coming by to pick up the rental checks in recent months, saving us a walk into Centro to deliver the check to the notary's office. I thought they were just saving us the trip to the office.
So it was a friendly visit. Hug-hug;. kissy-kissy greetings. We told them of our desire to replace the kitchen counters (tiles are chipped and bits missing along some edges), add some trees to the back yard, and our hopes for either a new tub in the master bath or conversion to a shower. Although she is not prepared to invest any additional money in the house, she wasn't adverse to our proposed installations.
And then the best news: a two-year lease with no increase in the rent! (I have a feeling that means the rent is likely to increase at the end of this new lease.) Our realtor friend said he was expecting the rent to increase for this next year, so he was surprised, too.
Whew! Perhaps it helped that we had folks here working on refinishing the front door to the house. Or that we always have the rent check ready for them? And the white walls are still white? Whatever the reason, it was good news. This moving each year is not what it's cracked up to be!
Margarita picked that day to be late, so Michael and I were dividing up the cleaning chores to whip the ground floor into shape in case Margarita didn't show at all. And then she walked through the door. Relief!
We had been told that the landlord (landlady, actually) was an older person and she had not granted our request for a long-term lease originally because she wanted to see how we kept the house. The last tenant had been 'adventuresome' with paint, we understand.
Imagine my surprise when the landlady and her husband walked through the front gate and they were the folks who had been coming by to pick up the rental checks in recent months, saving us a walk into Centro to deliver the check to the notary's office. I thought they were just saving us the trip to the office.
So it was a friendly visit. Hug-hug;. kissy-kissy greetings. We told them of our desire to replace the kitchen counters (tiles are chipped and bits missing along some edges), add some trees to the back yard, and our hopes for either a new tub in the master bath or conversion to a shower. Although she is not prepared to invest any additional money in the house, she wasn't adverse to our proposed installations.
And then the best news: a two-year lease with no increase in the rent! (I have a feeling that means the rent is likely to increase at the end of this new lease.) Our realtor friend said he was expecting the rent to increase for this next year, so he was surprised, too.
Whew! Perhaps it helped that we had folks here working on refinishing the front door to the house. Or that we always have the rent check ready for them? And the white walls are still white? Whatever the reason, it was good news. This moving each year is not what it's cracked up to be!
Friday, January 18, 2013
¡OUFF-TA!
[Ouff-ta! - A French-Canadien interjection they use in the U.P., too.] It's cold here today. Woke up to 39F, which is downright chilly for us. This is Sunny Mexico, right? Once we were brave enough to face the chill, we went downstairs and fired up the propane heater, which quickly took the chill out of the lower floor. Upstairs is probably still a bit cool, and the heat only travels up the stairwell. It's an iffy thing but easier than carrying the heater and tethered tank upstairs. Would be nice if we could leave it on low during the night, but as an unventilated heater - despite the leaky windows and doors that seem to be part of the building code down here - it's better to keep it off. Maybe next year we can afford a second heater for the upper story....
However, we shall soon be in a warmer place. Next Tuesday - only four days away, when it's predicted to be zero in Michael's hometown in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan - the weather folks are predicting a high of 81F in Cabo San Lucas. Beach time!
We're feeling a little guilty about going to Cabo this year. A great foody friend invited us to join her in one of her favorite spots - New Orleans - for her birthday in early February. However, search though we did, we couldn't find an airfare that was less than $600 each (too close to Mardi Gras, I guess, and not direct; nothing flies from Mexico CIty to New Orleans without a layover somewhere), plus the hotel and delicious meals out. Our friend can really pick restaurants!
Cabo, on the other hand, is as guests of my brother and his wife, staying in their beach front, 6,000 sq ft, 2 bedroom villa with their own pool and Jacuzzi on the third floor balcony overlooking the beach and ocean. (We'll still be found downstairs on the beach most of the day, before adjourning to one of the swim-up bars.) And the local airline had a great rate: only $103 per person, round trip. Since our sister-in-law has food issues, last year we opted to cook for them and it was so successful that we're repeating it this year. So we're traveling with recipes, shopping lists, and a few things like dried chilies and soy-free, homemade seasoning mixes. We'll still have the occasional dinner out. (I'm not cooking for my birthday!)
This trip covers the aforesaid birthday and my sister from San Diego will be joining us for the weekend. All three siblings will be together at once! (I guess that's the meaning of 'being together,' eh? - as they say in the U.P.) Plus the added benefit of my sister bringing with her all the things we've ordered on the internet in recent months and had sent to their home - anything to avoid the 17% service fee our mail forwarder charges.
We anticipate a week of sloth at a marvelous resort with no TV/radio/telephones. Time to get away from it all! They do have a pretty good restaurant (and many others in town which we will sample), food and drink service to your palapa on the beach, two big pools w/swim-up bars (with 2-for-1 drinks most of the day), a tennis court, a gym, and a spa - so we shan't be bored if the sand proves too relaxing.
Not sure if we're planning on a trip up the coast to Todos Santos this time (Cabo is an annual trip), but it's easily reachable if we have a yearning for wonderfully prepared lamb chops!
And I'll try not to drown this year (again). The resort recently resurfaced their pools with Pebble Tec to replace the easily discernible mosaic tiles. Looks great, but you can't tell where the bottom falls out of the pools!
However, we shall soon be in a warmer place. Next Tuesday - only four days away, when it's predicted to be zero in Michael's hometown in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan - the weather folks are predicting a high of 81F in Cabo San Lucas. Beach time!
We're feeling a little guilty about going to Cabo this year. A great foody friend invited us to join her in one of her favorite spots - New Orleans - for her birthday in early February. However, search though we did, we couldn't find an airfare that was less than $600 each (too close to Mardi Gras, I guess, and not direct; nothing flies from Mexico CIty to New Orleans without a layover somewhere), plus the hotel and delicious meals out. Our friend can really pick restaurants!
Cabo, on the other hand, is as guests of my brother and his wife, staying in their beach front, 6,000 sq ft, 2 bedroom villa with their own pool and Jacuzzi on the third floor balcony overlooking the beach and ocean. (We'll still be found downstairs on the beach most of the day, before adjourning to one of the swim-up bars.) And the local airline had a great rate: only $103 per person, round trip. Since our sister-in-law has food issues, last year we opted to cook for them and it was so successful that we're repeating it this year. So we're traveling with recipes, shopping lists, and a few things like dried chilies and soy-free, homemade seasoning mixes. We'll still have the occasional dinner out. (I'm not cooking for my birthday!)
This trip covers the aforesaid birthday and my sister from San Diego will be joining us for the weekend. All three siblings will be together at once! (I guess that's the meaning of 'being together,' eh? - as they say in the U.P.) Plus the added benefit of my sister bringing with her all the things we've ordered on the internet in recent months and had sent to their home - anything to avoid the 17% service fee our mail forwarder charges.
We anticipate a week of sloth at a marvelous resort with no TV/radio/telephones. Time to get away from it all! They do have a pretty good restaurant (and many others in town which we will sample), food and drink service to your palapa on the beach, two big pools w/swim-up bars (with 2-for-1 drinks most of the day), a tennis court, a gym, and a spa - so we shan't be bored if the sand proves too relaxing.
Not sure if we're planning on a trip up the coast to Todos Santos this time (Cabo is an annual trip), but it's easily reachable if we have a yearning for wonderfully prepared lamb chops!
And I'll try not to drown this year (again). The resort recently resurfaced their pools with Pebble Tec to replace the easily discernible mosaic tiles. Looks great, but you can't tell where the bottom falls out of the pools!
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Happy Holidays
Having made it through Thanksgiving with an appropriate feast, we're now readying a Christmas/New Year's dinner. The meal this time is festive, but not quite so overdone as Thanksgiving was.
As you may remember, the Thanksgiving menu included appetizers including asparagus with sesame mayonnaise, a spicy artichoke dip, various olives and marinated mushrooms, and Paprika Guernikas; a roasted pumpkin soup; roasted turkey with chipotle-garlic sweet potatoes, sour cream mashed potatoes, Brussels sprouts (with Prosciutto, garlic, Parmesan & cream), and a dressing with homemade (not our home; thanks, Timo) sausage and apples; salad with a creamy lime dressing; and various desserts.
Today is a simplified menu of baked brie and artichoke and sun-dried tomato vols-au-vent; cream of carrot soup (made without any cream); a pork roast accompanied by a medley of roasted winter veggies and glazed carrots with ginger and jalapeño (my sister's find); individual grilled Romaine salads with pear & Gorgonzola dressing; and our friend Victor's take on Key Lime Pie (different and rather wonderful).
With matching libations, of course: jalapeño margaritas with the appetizers, Ironhorse Fairytale Celebration Cuvee, 2007 with the soup, a Mexican red and white (AX tinto based on Cabernet Sauvignon and AX blanco based on a Blanc de Blancs) with the entree course, and Starbucks Christmas blend (or whatever they're selling now) with dessert.
We're trying out the jalapeño margaritas as I write this. Instead of infusing the tequila with jalapeños (as we have done in the past with Serrano chilis), one blends the lime juice with the jalapeños then strains out any bits that are left before mixing in the tequila and Controy (the Mexican version of Cointreau - the recipe for which - as the story is told - was taken from the Mexico liqueur, so they had to come up with a different name for their orange-flavored liqueur). Better than Triple Sec, we think.
Had to test it out before serving it; 9:30 may be a bit early for a drink, but most of the prep work on the dinner is already finished. It's rather green and pretty grassy-tasting (reminds us of a bell pepper-tasting chenin blanc we used to enjoy at the Spotted Cow in Glendale, California), but we've decided to serve it anyway. If folks don't like it, we'll make them our standard margaritas instead (equal parts tequila, Controy, and lime juice). Either way, it will be a good introduction to dinner!
Our guest list is also smaller for this holiday; only four of the Thanksgiving six will be attending: the muralist has moved on to New York City; the Aeromexico person is on a different schedule now and doesn't make it to San Miguel as often. Our loss, but we'll make up for it!
And now I must return to fussing over dinner preparations ....
As you may remember, the Thanksgiving menu included appetizers including asparagus with sesame mayonnaise, a spicy artichoke dip, various olives and marinated mushrooms, and Paprika Guernikas; a roasted pumpkin soup; roasted turkey with chipotle-garlic sweet potatoes, sour cream mashed potatoes, Brussels sprouts (with Prosciutto, garlic, Parmesan & cream), and a dressing with homemade (not our home; thanks, Timo) sausage and apples; salad with a creamy lime dressing; and various desserts.
Today is a simplified menu of baked brie and artichoke and sun-dried tomato vols-au-vent; cream of carrot soup (made without any cream); a pork roast accompanied by a medley of roasted winter veggies and glazed carrots with ginger and jalapeño (my sister's find); individual grilled Romaine salads with pear & Gorgonzola dressing; and our friend Victor's take on Key Lime Pie (different and rather wonderful).
With matching libations, of course: jalapeño margaritas with the appetizers, Ironhorse Fairytale Celebration Cuvee, 2007 with the soup, a Mexican red and white (AX tinto based on Cabernet Sauvignon and AX blanco based on a Blanc de Blancs) with the entree course, and Starbucks Christmas blend (or whatever they're selling now) with dessert.
We're trying out the jalapeño margaritas as I write this. Instead of infusing the tequila with jalapeños (as we have done in the past with Serrano chilis), one blends the lime juice with the jalapeños then strains out any bits that are left before mixing in the tequila and Controy (the Mexican version of Cointreau - the recipe for which - as the story is told - was taken from the Mexico liqueur, so they had to come up with a different name for their orange-flavored liqueur). Better than Triple Sec, we think.
Had to test it out before serving it; 9:30 may be a bit early for a drink, but most of the prep work on the dinner is already finished. It's rather green and pretty grassy-tasting (reminds us of a bell pepper-tasting chenin blanc we used to enjoy at the Spotted Cow in Glendale, California), but we've decided to serve it anyway. If folks don't like it, we'll make them our standard margaritas instead (equal parts tequila, Controy, and lime juice). Either way, it will be a good introduction to dinner!
Our guest list is also smaller for this holiday; only four of the Thanksgiving six will be attending: the muralist has moved on to New York City; the Aeromexico person is on a different schedule now and doesn't make it to San Miguel as often. Our loss, but we'll make up for it!
And now I must return to fussing over dinner preparations ....
| Salad |
| Tossed Green Salad w/Creamy Lime Dressing |
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
No Longer Bereft
Well, as fate would have it, I'm no longer bereft with the loss of my credit cards et al.
We received a call this evening from a Spanish-speaking woman and I turned the phone over to Michael who speaks more Spanish than I.
As it turns out, one of her children found the cards and IDs yesterday. Going through the cards, she found our phone number and called this morning, but we already left for the bank. So she called again this evening and reached us!
No wallet (someone now has a Fossil wallet) and no cash, of course, but I've got all the cards!
So we headed out, passing Mega (stopping to withdraw a reward from the ATM machine) and were hoofing it down the Ancha when someone honked and pulled over. It was Alejandro, a friend from Centro, who took us to the address we were seeking and interpreted for us.
So I now have my California driver's license, my Mexican visa (thank you, Jesus; we just saved $3100 pesos to replace it with a new visa - there are no 'replacements' issued, you get a new visa), my INAPAM card (old-folks' discount card - which included our phone number), my Sam's card and Costco card, and my Club 33 card (for which they wanted $25 to replace)! Replacements for the others have already been ordered and will eventually show up when our mail forwarding company gets around to it.
American Express sends them via UPS Next Day, but they're going to our Laredo address (don't tell a creditor you live full-time in Mexico if you want to have a credit card), so there will be a delay in receiving them. Others are mailed USPS. Only one provider charged a replacement fee and it was only $7.50. Luckily, we avoided paying the Club 33 fee!
So I can again purchase online for the States and I have my local bank's card for the peso account. Yahoo!!!
Restores your faith in folks, ya know? [And the person who stole my wallet has risked their eternal soul for $25 in pesos and a nice wallet. Maybe they needed it.]
We received a call this evening from a Spanish-speaking woman and I turned the phone over to Michael who speaks more Spanish than I.
As it turns out, one of her children found the cards and IDs yesterday. Going through the cards, she found our phone number and called this morning, but we already left for the bank. So she called again this evening and reached us!
No wallet (someone now has a Fossil wallet) and no cash, of course, but I've got all the cards!
So we headed out, passing Mega (stopping to withdraw a reward from the ATM machine) and were hoofing it down the Ancha when someone honked and pulled over. It was Alejandro, a friend from Centro, who took us to the address we were seeking and interpreted for us.
So I now have my California driver's license, my Mexican visa (thank you, Jesus; we just saved $3100 pesos to replace it with a new visa - there are no 'replacements' issued, you get a new visa), my INAPAM card (old-folks' discount card - which included our phone number), my Sam's card and Costco card, and my Club 33 card (for which they wanted $25 to replace)! Replacements for the others have already been ordered and will eventually show up when our mail forwarding company gets around to it.
American Express sends them via UPS Next Day, but they're going to our Laredo address (don't tell a creditor you live full-time in Mexico if you want to have a credit card), so there will be a delay in receiving them. Others are mailed USPS. Only one provider charged a replacement fee and it was only $7.50. Luckily, we avoided paying the Club 33 fee!
So I can again purchase online for the States and I have my local bank's card for the peso account. Yahoo!!!
Restores your faith in folks, ya know? [And the person who stole my wallet has risked their eternal soul for $25 in pesos and a nice wallet. Maybe they needed it.]
Bereft
Now I know how it feels! Bereft, i.e., deprived or robbed of the possession or use of something; lacking something needed, wanted, or expected.
And that's how I felt as we got off the bus yesterday afternoon at Mega (the grocery store stop near our home). For at that time I felt the back pocket in the jeans - it's a habitual thing - but noticed that my wallet wasn't there!
Now, I had had no use for my wallet on our trip into Centro (Michael picked up our coffees at Starbucks and the new glassware at Europea) and the new wallets are sort of awkward getting free of the pockets in my jeans, so there had been no reason for pulling it out. Plus I wasn't completely sure I had brought it with me; it had been on the desk near my computer earlier in the day.
So we hurried home and searched - to no avail. Then Michael thought of calling the friend with whom we had shared our coffee time at Starbucks. He was no longer there, but went back to check the area in which we had been seated and to ask the manager about turned-in belongings. No dice. Then he went to the local radio station to see if anyone had turned it in to them (it's a San Miguel thing). Again no dice, but he was encouraged to return, say Friday, to go through the IDs that are turned in (wallets tend not to be surrendered).
So we set about trying to remember which credit cards had been in the wallet and notifying the companies to freeze those cards and send new ones. This turned out to be simpler than expected, as most companies have a procedure that can be followed for that purpose online. And I have a three-page document of websites and their IDs/passwords for my accounts and memberships.
So with that list to jog my memory - and Michael's suggestions - we notified almost everyone. It did remind us that I really should change my California driver's license address from the post office box in the sub-station that closed. So having done that, we now just have to wait a bit of time before asking DMV to send me a replacement license. Can't change your address and ask for a new license at the same time - identity fraud, you know.
I was clever enough to not write any passwords or codes on any of the cards, so we felt fairly safe that accounts would not be accessed or charges made. American Express was great - new cards should be delivered by UPS today at our Texas address, of course, which means I'll eventually see them. One must not, as a general rule, disclose that one lives outside the United States if one wants to continue to have a credit card. One can arrange for speedy delivery with our mail delivery provider, but there's a $50 charge! I'll wait a bit.
We decided to visit our local bank to deal with replacing my peso debit card this morning. The process was a bit drawn out (took about an hour), but it involved canceling my old card (this is done by phone - even from the bank branch) and they don't open until 9 am. And our executive for preferred customers (that's a nice way of saying 'expats') was also handling a new customer, setting up an account for her, et cetera. Then there was the fact that we hadn't advised them of our move from our first house (a year and a half ago and a house ago), so when talking to the person on the phone to cancel the old card we had to dredge up the address and other information from our memory banks to identify the account and ourselves). So this was the time to make that change. And our bank uses a credit-card sized gizmo to create new access codes each time we go online to check our account and that had to be reset to include my new debit card number.
But I did walk out the bank's door with a new debit card that worked. And they ran our most recent activity report for us and there were no unknown debits.
Although one can't be sure where the wallet went missing, I have grave suspicions about a male/female couple that bounced against me as we were hanging on for dear life to the bars for standing passengers in the bus as it hurtled down the road on the way home.
Whew! So I'll eventually have the replacement cards in hand, in a new wallet (thank you, amazon.com), and life will be back to normal. In time for us to zip off to Cabo late in January for a brief vacation with my brother and sister-in-law (and my sister will also be there part of the time)!
Now I just have to deal with getting a new visa to replace the one that went missing in the wallet: an appointment to explain what happened to my last visa before it expired; paying the fee for a new visa (Mexico changed the visa format and rules about a month ago); paperwork, new photos, a new visa fee ($3100 pesos or thereabouts); and, of course, today was the last day before the end-of-the-year holiday for Immigration, so we can't do anything until next year. Luckily we're not leaving Mexico until next May!
And that's how I felt as we got off the bus yesterday afternoon at Mega (the grocery store stop near our home). For at that time I felt the back pocket in the jeans - it's a habitual thing - but noticed that my wallet wasn't there!
Now, I had had no use for my wallet on our trip into Centro (Michael picked up our coffees at Starbucks and the new glassware at Europea) and the new wallets are sort of awkward getting free of the pockets in my jeans, so there had been no reason for pulling it out. Plus I wasn't completely sure I had brought it with me; it had been on the desk near my computer earlier in the day.
So we hurried home and searched - to no avail. Then Michael thought of calling the friend with whom we had shared our coffee time at Starbucks. He was no longer there, but went back to check the area in which we had been seated and to ask the manager about turned-in belongings. No dice. Then he went to the local radio station to see if anyone had turned it in to them (it's a San Miguel thing). Again no dice, but he was encouraged to return, say Friday, to go through the IDs that are turned in (wallets tend not to be surrendered).
So we set about trying to remember which credit cards had been in the wallet and notifying the companies to freeze those cards and send new ones. This turned out to be simpler than expected, as most companies have a procedure that can be followed for that purpose online. And I have a three-page document of websites and their IDs/passwords for my accounts and memberships.
So with that list to jog my memory - and Michael's suggestions - we notified almost everyone. It did remind us that I really should change my California driver's license address from the post office box in the sub-station that closed. So having done that, we now just have to wait a bit of time before asking DMV to send me a replacement license. Can't change your address and ask for a new license at the same time - identity fraud, you know.
I was clever enough to not write any passwords or codes on any of the cards, so we felt fairly safe that accounts would not be accessed or charges made. American Express was great - new cards should be delivered by UPS today at our Texas address, of course, which means I'll eventually see them. One must not, as a general rule, disclose that one lives outside the United States if one wants to continue to have a credit card. One can arrange for speedy delivery with our mail delivery provider, but there's a $50 charge! I'll wait a bit.
We decided to visit our local bank to deal with replacing my peso debit card this morning. The process was a bit drawn out (took about an hour), but it involved canceling my old card (this is done by phone - even from the bank branch) and they don't open until 9 am. And our executive for preferred customers (that's a nice way of saying 'expats') was also handling a new customer, setting up an account for her, et cetera. Then there was the fact that we hadn't advised them of our move from our first house (a year and a half ago and a house ago), so when talking to the person on the phone to cancel the old card we had to dredge up the address and other information from our memory banks to identify the account and ourselves). So this was the time to make that change. And our bank uses a credit-card sized gizmo to create new access codes each time we go online to check our account and that had to be reset to include my new debit card number.
But I did walk out the bank's door with a new debit card that worked. And they ran our most recent activity report for us and there were no unknown debits.
Although one can't be sure where the wallet went missing, I have grave suspicions about a male/female couple that bounced against me as we were hanging on for dear life to the bars for standing passengers in the bus as it hurtled down the road on the way home.
Whew! So I'll eventually have the replacement cards in hand, in a new wallet (thank you, amazon.com), and life will be back to normal. In time for us to zip off to Cabo late in January for a brief vacation with my brother and sister-in-law (and my sister will also be there part of the time)!
Now I just have to deal with getting a new visa to replace the one that went missing in the wallet: an appointment to explain what happened to my last visa before it expired; paying the fee for a new visa (Mexico changed the visa format and rules about a month ago); paperwork, new photos, a new visa fee ($3100 pesos or thereabouts); and, of course, today was the last day before the end-of-the-year holiday for Immigration, so we can't do anything until next year. Luckily we're not leaving Mexico until next May!
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Another Milestone
Earlier this week we went to nearby Celeya to visit Costco. There's another, larger Costco in Queretaro, but QTO is further and larger, so traffic is crazier. We don't much like driving in QTO, unless we can stay on the outskirts. There is a wonderful grocery store on the outskirts, but Costco, Home Depot, and Sams Club are all further inside the city.
Now, going to Costco is not a big deal (we used to go quite often when our friends were running a restaurant and didn't have a car), but we hadn't been in over two months. First there was the Hawai'ian cruise, then once back in SMA we were beingcheap thrifty to make up for the money we spent on the cruise. No big shopping trips.
So there we were, driving along towards Celeya, commenting on the view. The Presa is finally filling back up - not completely normal (you can still make out the church steeple) but much better than it was; luckily San Miguel doesn't depend upon the Presa for our water supply. The pedestrian walkway over the highway had finally been completed: the concrete superstructure had been finished for some time, but the railings had taken a bit longer. The interchange had been finished and there was no longer a detour.
The interchange had been finished!!!
You should understand that when we moved to San Miguel about two-and-a-half years ago, the highway was under construction - or re-construction. Although part of the road was left mostly intact, most of it was receiving a widening job and the section through the mountains just south of San Miguel was being rerouted to improve the grade, which necessitated a great deal of work cutting new pathways through the hills.
So our introduction to the highway was one of washboard dirt. Slow, bumpy, and dusty all at once. The highway was being reworked in honor of the country's Bicentennial - and, by golly, it was to be finished before 2010. Well, it was finished almost during 2010. It was a really big job and although there were mechanical aids, a lot of work here is still done by hand.
We were so glad when it was finished and we could drive to/from Celeya easily.
Then, one day, it was torn up again. This time at the intersection of a highway that enters only from the west. It would seem that in their hurry to finish during the Bicentennial year, they took a shortcut and didn't build the overpass with connecting ramps to the other road. So we spent many more months of driving down 'temporary' ramps, making U-turns, and driving up another 'temporary' ramp to get back on the highway. More slow, washboard, and dusty roads -- this time with the added thrill of an ever-changing (and not well-marked) traffic pattern. I think once we took a shortcut that we weren't supposed to take!
Things were still torn up when we last drove to Celeya, but they managed to finish the work in our absence. It was a glorious drive both ways! And I must assume anyone entering or leaving the highway at that intersection was enjoying the new routing, too.
Oh, yeah, Costco was great, too. Especially their pizza, which is a pretty faithful copy of NOB Costco pizza. We just don't slather it with mayonnaise or ketchup as the locals do! Jalapeños are another story, however.
Now, going to Costco is not a big deal (we used to go quite often when our friends were running a restaurant and didn't have a car), but we hadn't been in over two months. First there was the Hawai'ian cruise, then once back in SMA we were being
So there we were, driving along towards Celeya, commenting on the view. The Presa is finally filling back up - not completely normal (you can still make out the church steeple) but much better than it was; luckily San Miguel doesn't depend upon the Presa for our water supply. The pedestrian walkway over the highway had finally been completed: the concrete superstructure had been finished for some time, but the railings had taken a bit longer. The interchange had been finished and there was no longer a detour.
The interchange had been finished!!!
You should understand that when we moved to San Miguel about two-and-a-half years ago, the highway was under construction - or re-construction. Although part of the road was left mostly intact, most of it was receiving a widening job and the section through the mountains just south of San Miguel was being rerouted to improve the grade, which necessitated a great deal of work cutting new pathways through the hills.
So our introduction to the highway was one of washboard dirt. Slow, bumpy, and dusty all at once. The highway was being reworked in honor of the country's Bicentennial - and, by golly, it was to be finished before 2010. Well, it was finished almost during 2010. It was a really big job and although there were mechanical aids, a lot of work here is still done by hand.
We were so glad when it was finished and we could drive to/from Celeya easily.
Then, one day, it was torn up again. This time at the intersection of a highway that enters only from the west. It would seem that in their hurry to finish during the Bicentennial year, they took a shortcut and didn't build the overpass with connecting ramps to the other road. So we spent many more months of driving down 'temporary' ramps, making U-turns, and driving up another 'temporary' ramp to get back on the highway. More slow, washboard, and dusty roads -- this time with the added thrill of an ever-changing (and not well-marked) traffic pattern. I think once we took a shortcut that we weren't supposed to take!
Things were still torn up when we last drove to Celeya, but they managed to finish the work in our absence. It was a glorious drive both ways! And I must assume anyone entering or leaving the highway at that intersection was enjoying the new routing, too.
Oh, yeah, Costco was great, too. Especially their pizza, which is a pretty faithful copy of NOB Costco pizza. We just don't slather it with mayonnaise or ketchup as the locals do! Jalapeños are another story, however.
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