Don't miss life's little blessings
This being year end I thought I'd take a few minutes to be thankful (while I'm waiting for enough water to take a shower when I'll be seriously thankful). So often these days when there is little good news anywhere you look, we forget to be thankful for the multitude of blessings of small things we take for granted each day.
Max and I are lucky and fortunate in so many ways beginning with having each other to look out for. When I lost Chris I didn't think I could take care of him, but of course that was exactly why he was there to give me some focus and responsibility. Today he's the one single responsibility I have each day, to make sure he has enough food, fresh water and a clean litter box, being an inside cat it's important. Oh, the weather station is probably the most visible thing we do, but if it disappeared today everyone would get along just fine, afterall, weather is weather.
Often, more and more in our old age, Max will insist on sitting on my lap when I'm here at the PC, or laying on me while I watch TV, I think he senses some distress in me and he's there to make it better. And in return, when he's sleeping on the big chair by the windows I walk over and pet him a bit and tell him I love him, so it's a mutual exchange of caring we've developed through the years.
We're fortunate to be able to live in a nice house in a nice warm climate and pay our bills on time. Of course the main trick to this point has been breaking old spending habits and learning not to create bills that exceed our income - the process is slow and painful, but it's coming along. I've learned to live by the spreadsheet where I track all my spending to make sure I'm not over driving my headlights.
One big thing has been concerning me for a time now and that's the cost of living in this house. Oh, we're thankful to have found such a wonderful (for the most part) house and to have lived here 4 years going into 5. So, looking ahead at the lease I made the decision to find a new casa next July and to be very honest, we're spoiled and the thought of searching for, and moving to, a new casa has been weighing heavily on me.
The owners of this place are teachers in Taiwan and have been on long term contract and only come to visit for a few days once or twice a year. They have another new house they will eventually retire to. A couple of weeks ago they were here and Paul called me to have a cup of coffee, so we were just enjoying the afternoon, but I put a bit of a dent in it when I told him I was leaving after June as I needed to tighten up the budget a bit and Margaret, the lady from Canada who rents the casita won't be coming back next year. We discussed the satellite TV system I've installed and for him to consider buying it etc. He said they hated to lose me as I've treated the place like it my own.
A few days later before they left, he and Karen came over to see how nice Pedro the gardener keeps the place and out of nowhere he asked "so, what will it take to keep you here?" - that caught me off guard, I really didn't expect it and at first brushed it aside as we talked and walked around the place. Finally he delivered what may be our Christmas present and our heartburn all in one. He said they understood how much I value my privacy and they would just not rent the casita and drop my rent accordingly. Well, that is certainly tempting and as I said, an unexpected Christmas present, but now comes the heartburn, I have to decide if that's what I want to do and a big part of it isn't on the spreadsheet - it's things that are intangible, some are simply inherent in Mexico, some more specifically relate to the neighborhood, the roads(?), water and electricity and simply the noise from the "park" a couple blocks away where they party at night and sometimes all night.
So, we're blessed and thankful for this option which may save Max and I from having to pack and haul, (Max isn't a lot of help in either case) we'll see.
Of course we're thankful for our good health and only relatively minor signs of aging to deal with from time to time. We're thankful and blessed by family and our special friend and neighbor Margaret for putting up with us these 5 Winters and will miss her and the laughs and great cooking she shares with us.
Now, let me remind y'all of a few things you should be thankful for, things you probably don't think much about starting with the simple thing like turning on a light, or plugging in an appliance and it works. Electriciy, it's so common we don't think much about it, well, up there NOB we don't think much about it. There was always power, all we wanted and could use and it was relatively inexpensive. Here we thankful each day to have the power available, it's erratic, it's "dirty" so we have to buy expensive regulators, it surges and browns out and for the blessings of all those things we pay about 4X what I did in TX.
Need a drink of water? - sure, just turn on the faucet and you have clean, safe potable water available day or night, it's nothing special, it's just there when you need it, be thankful and don't assume anything. This morning about 6:15 as I was waking I heard the water heater outside gurgling? - but it does that from time to time. When I got up and brushed my teeth, no water, not a drop? - when's the last time that happened to you?
I went down to feed the cats and make coffee and as I stepped outside I heard the pressure pump running, I went out and unplugged it and came back up to wait for daylight to see where the problem was, even though I had a pretty good idea what had happened - you see, I know more about this property than anyone, the owners only lived here about a year, I've been here 4 years plus and have learned to deal with the quirks, the twists and turns of daily life here which will be a significant part of the decision process, do I really need or want more of this?
The water here is miserable, lots of sand and mud so it is filtered as it comes in from the street. Then, it fills an aljibe (cistern to us from NE) from which it is pumped through more filters into the house - or onto the vegetation by the gardener, which was what was happening last evening. Yes, paying to pump filtered water onto the ground is dumb, but? - well, let's leave it at "dumb".
The water from SIMAPA (our amateur water company) isn't always flowing, if the pump is down, the electricity is down, they're working on the system or it's one of the Holy Days of St. Aguas, the patron saint of water systems, you don't get any water, that's why we have aljibes to tide us over until it flows again.
At first light I opened the hatch and sure enough we apparently hadn't received water for some period of days probably, and Pedro had pumped the aljibe dry watering last evening and turning on a street tap nearby confirmed, no agua. I got out the ladder and headed for the roof of the casita, it's water supply is in big tanks, or tinacos, on the roof - fortunately they were full. Now all I had to do was wait until 9am when the Rentals officina opens and call to have them send a water truck - yes, this happens so often they have water trucks that come out and "fill 'er up".
To add insult to injury, the pressure pump had run all night blowing bubbles in the water heater (instead of water) and that ran up another 7KWH of electricity or about $2.80 and hopefully didn't burn itself out. And of course when we do get water in the aljibe the pump will need to be primed to get the house back up to pressure (which at best is about half what most of you are used to).
One curse that is a blessing is the pool which I never use. It requires 2KWH a day to run the filter, it collects leaves etc. and while pretty to look at - right after the pool guys skims it - it's a curse. However, this morning it's a blessing, it contains 15,000 gallons of chlorinated water that can be dipped a bucket at a time to flush the convenience - now, there's a blessing, we have indoor plumbing and even in the most stressed times we have water to flush them.
Half an hour later I went out to get a second bucket and noticed the little frog on my homemade pool filler (yes, another curse, the pool leaks) was squirting, meaning the water was coming in from the street again, so no water truck will be needed after all. I'll let it run a while and then prime the pump, bleed air out of the faucets and hopefully take a nice warm shower, another blessing I used to take for granted - no mas.
Here's one more for the stack of stuff; just got a note from my friend in Albuquerque, he ordered something from Amazon last night after 6pm and already has a note this morning it has shipped. Now friends, that IS convenience, we don't even attempt to ship things down here for the most part and if we do, we don't expect it for weeks, we do expect the contents may have been pilfered by Customs as it comes into the country and we do expect it may have a ridiculously high import fee accessed by the same folks that pilfered it?
The Mexico experience has generally been a good one, but, as noted it makes you appreciate small things we normally take for granted. And, also as noted, a decision will have to be made about staying or leaving this casa at some point, but fortunately that's something that I can put off until next year. For now I'm just thankful I have a wrench and the knowledge of how to use it to prime the pressure pump and if all goes well we'll be thankful to have water again and a nice warm shower.
Don't miss the small things in life, they are some of the biggest blessings.
Feliz ano nuevo from Max and Steve somewhere in Mexico.
Max and I are lucky and fortunate in so many ways beginning with having each other to look out for. When I lost Chris I didn't think I could take care of him, but of course that was exactly why he was there to give me some focus and responsibility. Today he's the one single responsibility I have each day, to make sure he has enough food, fresh water and a clean litter box, being an inside cat it's important. Oh, the weather station is probably the most visible thing we do, but if it disappeared today everyone would get along just fine, afterall, weather is weather.
Often, more and more in our old age, Max will insist on sitting on my lap when I'm here at the PC, or laying on me while I watch TV, I think he senses some distress in me and he's there to make it better. And in return, when he's sleeping on the big chair by the windows I walk over and pet him a bit and tell him I love him, so it's a mutual exchange of caring we've developed through the years.
We're fortunate to be able to live in a nice house in a nice warm climate and pay our bills on time. Of course the main trick to this point has been breaking old spending habits and learning not to create bills that exceed our income - the process is slow and painful, but it's coming along. I've learned to live by the spreadsheet where I track all my spending to make sure I'm not over driving my headlights.
One big thing has been concerning me for a time now and that's the cost of living in this house. Oh, we're thankful to have found such a wonderful (for the most part) house and to have lived here 4 years going into 5. So, looking ahead at the lease I made the decision to find a new casa next July and to be very honest, we're spoiled and the thought of searching for, and moving to, a new casa has been weighing heavily on me.
The owners of this place are teachers in Taiwan and have been on long term contract and only come to visit for a few days once or twice a year. They have another new house they will eventually retire to. A couple of weeks ago they were here and Paul called me to have a cup of coffee, so we were just enjoying the afternoon, but I put a bit of a dent in it when I told him I was leaving after June as I needed to tighten up the budget a bit and Margaret, the lady from Canada who rents the casita won't be coming back next year. We discussed the satellite TV system I've installed and for him to consider buying it etc. He said they hated to lose me as I've treated the place like it my own.
A few days later before they left, he and Karen came over to see how nice Pedro the gardener keeps the place and out of nowhere he asked "so, what will it take to keep you here?" - that caught me off guard, I really didn't expect it and at first brushed it aside as we talked and walked around the place. Finally he delivered what may be our Christmas present and our heartburn all in one. He said they understood how much I value my privacy and they would just not rent the casita and drop my rent accordingly. Well, that is certainly tempting and as I said, an unexpected Christmas present, but now comes the heartburn, I have to decide if that's what I want to do and a big part of it isn't on the spreadsheet - it's things that are intangible, some are simply inherent in Mexico, some more specifically relate to the neighborhood, the roads(?), water and electricity and simply the noise from the "park" a couple blocks away where they party at night and sometimes all night.
So, we're blessed and thankful for this option which may save Max and I from having to pack and haul, (Max isn't a lot of help in either case) we'll see.
Of course we're thankful for our good health and only relatively minor signs of aging to deal with from time to time. We're thankful and blessed by family and our special friend and neighbor Margaret for putting up with us these 5 Winters and will miss her and the laughs and great cooking she shares with us.
Now, let me remind y'all of a few things you should be thankful for, things you probably don't think much about starting with the simple thing like turning on a light, or plugging in an appliance and it works. Electriciy, it's so common we don't think much about it, well, up there NOB we don't think much about it. There was always power, all we wanted and could use and it was relatively inexpensive. Here we thankful each day to have the power available, it's erratic, it's "dirty" so we have to buy expensive regulators, it surges and browns out and for the blessings of all those things we pay about 4X what I did in TX.
Need a drink of water? - sure, just turn on the faucet and you have clean, safe potable water available day or night, it's nothing special, it's just there when you need it, be thankful and don't assume anything. This morning about 6:15 as I was waking I heard the water heater outside gurgling? - but it does that from time to time. When I got up and brushed my teeth, no water, not a drop? - when's the last time that happened to you?
I went down to feed the cats and make coffee and as I stepped outside I heard the pressure pump running, I went out and unplugged it and came back up to wait for daylight to see where the problem was, even though I had a pretty good idea what had happened - you see, I know more about this property than anyone, the owners only lived here about a year, I've been here 4 years plus and have learned to deal with the quirks, the twists and turns of daily life here which will be a significant part of the decision process, do I really need or want more of this?
The water here is miserable, lots of sand and mud so it is filtered as it comes in from the street. Then, it fills an aljibe (cistern to us from NE) from which it is pumped through more filters into the house - or onto the vegetation by the gardener, which was what was happening last evening. Yes, paying to pump filtered water onto the ground is dumb, but? - well, let's leave it at "dumb".
The water from SIMAPA (our amateur water company) isn't always flowing, if the pump is down, the electricity is down, they're working on the system or it's one of the Holy Days of St. Aguas, the patron saint of water systems, you don't get any water, that's why we have aljibes to tide us over until it flows again.
At first light I opened the hatch and sure enough we apparently hadn't received water for some period of days probably, and Pedro had pumped the aljibe dry watering last evening and turning on a street tap nearby confirmed, no agua. I got out the ladder and headed for the roof of the casita, it's water supply is in big tanks, or tinacos, on the roof - fortunately they were full. Now all I had to do was wait until 9am when the Rentals officina opens and call to have them send a water truck - yes, this happens so often they have water trucks that come out and "fill 'er up".
To add insult to injury, the pressure pump had run all night blowing bubbles in the water heater (instead of water) and that ran up another 7KWH of electricity or about $2.80 and hopefully didn't burn itself out. And of course when we do get water in the aljibe the pump will need to be primed to get the house back up to pressure (which at best is about half what most of you are used to).
One curse that is a blessing is the pool which I never use. It requires 2KWH a day to run the filter, it collects leaves etc. and while pretty to look at - right after the pool guys skims it - it's a curse. However, this morning it's a blessing, it contains 15,000 gallons of chlorinated water that can be dipped a bucket at a time to flush the convenience - now, there's a blessing, we have indoor plumbing and even in the most stressed times we have water to flush them.
Half an hour later I went out to get a second bucket and noticed the little frog on my homemade pool filler (yes, another curse, the pool leaks) was squirting, meaning the water was coming in from the street again, so no water truck will be needed after all. I'll let it run a while and then prime the pump, bleed air out of the faucets and hopefully take a nice warm shower, another blessing I used to take for granted - no mas.
Here's one more for the stack of stuff; just got a note from my friend in Albuquerque, he ordered something from Amazon last night after 6pm and already has a note this morning it has shipped. Now friends, that IS convenience, we don't even attempt to ship things down here for the most part and if we do, we don't expect it for weeks, we do expect the contents may have been pilfered by Customs as it comes into the country and we do expect it may have a ridiculously high import fee accessed by the same folks that pilfered it?
The Mexico experience has generally been a good one, but, as noted it makes you appreciate small things we normally take for granted. And, also as noted, a decision will have to be made about staying or leaving this casa at some point, but fortunately that's something that I can put off until next year. For now I'm just thankful I have a wrench and the knowledge of how to use it to prime the pressure pump and if all goes well we'll be thankful to have water again and a nice warm shower.
Don't miss the small things in life, they are some of the biggest blessings.
Feliz ano nuevo from Max and Steve somewhere in Mexico.
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