Hard to believe it's already November, but here 'tis. This was also the day 30 years ago I left Denver for Chicago and my new life. Today was pretty much a maintenance day being the 1st of the month. It seemed a good time, now that the dust has settled somewhat, to look at the past months expenditures and try to get settled into a budget of some sort. Now, I hate doing that in any time or country, but it gains significant complexity when you consider I'm buying things in pesos and trying to figure out how much I spent in dollars because the peso floats and American Express adds 2% to each purchase etc. But, it had to be done and Max said no way he was going to do it.

Later I stopped down at the rental office to see how my account was going, as I paid my first month up front I owed nothing there and I had left a deposit for other things and all was going well. The electricity is the main thing I'm watching, with two meters and the pool pump spinning one like a top it should be fun. Also you only pay electric once every 2 months, so it's a real cardiac event. There is no real schedule for reading the meters, so I started reading them and tracking as some odd things seem to happen occasionally.

I also had some mail for the owner which was "delivered" under the front gate yesterday - apparently. There is no mail box and so they just slide it under the gate and the gardener found it and put it on the table on the patio. I asked the guy at the rental agency if that's how mail is delivered, he just smiled and nodded his head - casual, you gotta love this place, I can't wait to see what happens in the rainy season.

Speaking of mail in general, it's settling down and all aspects seem to be functional. I am receiving forwarded mail from the TX address via USPS. And, my mailbox in Laredo works great - when you put the proper address one it (more on that in a minute). The outgoing mail through the LCS "tote it to the border" worked great as the deposit I sent to Houston a week ago Tuesday showed on my account today (and Compass normally sits on checks a couple of days). Now, tomorrow I'll see if my pictures I sent to Mom got there, of course she only checks mail once a week or less, so it could be another week before she notices.

Now, a two part story, I forgot my check card pin so they sent me a new one in the mail to Laredo. I waited two weeks and no pin, so called and they sent to the wrong box number - the RIGHT number IS important people. Compass volunteered to send another FedX. I said that would be expensive, but they insisted as it was their mistake, so I carefully gave this lady a long rambling address in Chapala, Jalisco Mexico and shazaam, today it showed up, so I can receive FedX in emergency situations but at a cost of $40 to the sender (and that's for a small package)!

I've been noticing that all the kids in school here wear nice uniforms and amazingly they all walk to and from school, even their mothers often accompany them as they walk - NOT in BMW Suv's - amazing huh?

The physical money here is still a challenge, it's made out of stuff like Tyvek house wrap, stiff and plastic and it's not only hard to fold for your money clip, but as different denominations are different sizes it's impossible to keep it neat and orderly in the clip - Monk would go nuts down here.

The support group on the forum is great, I hadn't found St. John's Wort or TileX, a nice person told me exactly where to find each, I did and so all is well. Fortunately I stocked up on Texas tee shirts before I left so I'm good to go in the clothing arena.

We're building up to the Day of the Dead big time, it's a major day here and I'm seeing all kinds of beautiful standing wreaths to take to the cemeteries, so it will be a big event and the weather looks to be great, it was 75 today and sunny, just another boring day in paradise.