Oh the Waiting Game

We try to go for a walk on the beach each morning around 8am before it gets too hot (at that time it is already around 27C!) Usually, we are gone for about an hour and a half. This morning we saw two chickens (maybe one of them was a rooster-God knows we hear enough of them) eating a coconut! We saw the gardener knock if off the tree, split it in half with a machete and throw it to the chickens. There are many amusing things that we see like that.

Then we come home, shower, have a bite to eat and either:
A. Go shopping for the house or
B. Spend the day hanging around waiting for workers or being here because they are in the house.

I hope to come back next year to a completely finished place where we can get into the groove of real living. I know it must sound terrible, because here we are in paradise, but it does get tedious. Everything is two steps forward, one step back.

We finally have most of our fans installed, but now we have to get the electrician back because two of them are not balanced properly and they are driving me nuts. We still need to buy more light fixtures. If you can believe it, the ONLY place to buy them is Home Depot. I don’t know what people around here did before they opened last fall. The place is always blocked with Mexicans and Gringos so they must be doing well. There are no other lighting stores in the area that our neighbours or we have discovered. The choices are not great. I found an acceptable large fixture for above the dining room table at Costco. I can’t find anything I like for the bathroom walls.

I am currently sitting here (I write my update at home and then paste it into my blog when I get to the Internet café) waiting for a fellow to come to measure and quote for mirrors in the bathrooms. He is late, and probably won’t show up at all. I finally broke down and bought a cheapy mirror for the downstairs smaller bathroom because I was brushing my hair in the glass in the microwave door!!!

We had the patio concrete extended today, and hopefully the workers will show up tomorrow to finish the decorative pebbles around the perimeter. But they probably won’t. Yesterday, we found a patio table and six chairs which we quite like. It is very hard to find outdoor furniture around here that isn’t made of plastic. The Mexican’s don’t buy it, so consequently, the prices are astronomical. They know that only gringo’s that want it. Most of what we had seen and liked would have cost more than our leather four piece living room set!!!! Anyway, now we have it here and it is one more thing we are able to cross off the list.

Once we are able to have all our lights and mirrors installed I will finally be able to feel at home. Oh, then we need to find end tables and something to stand the TV on. We want to mount it on the wall but that will be next year. It is nearly impossible for me to hang anything without hiring someone because all the walls are made of thick concrete and I cannot, even with masonry drill bits, cut into it far enough to install the anchors. Once you have a hole, you stick with it, even if it’s not quite where it should be. It is too much of a chore to move it! So, I am hanging NOTHING until I have all the furniture and am happy with where everything is located.

We are all getting the runaround from Telmex. One person in the office says, this week for sure, then when we see a technician on the grounds we all surround and try to herd him, like a pack of wild dogs around a lone sheep, into our homes. Then we are told that we have to contact a different person, or “here, call this number in Puerto Vallarta” knowing that we don’t have phones or enough Spanish to get anywhere!!!!!!!!!! AGGGHH!!!!

Oh my God, as I was typing, the doorbell buzzed and the mirror guys arrived. An hour late but in Mexico that is quite acceptable! I have them ordered and they will be here in a week. I just hope that when they are installed the workers won’t hit a water line. That actually happened next door when Sergio installed a mirror over his downstairs sink. All of a sudden, he punched right through the wall and had a major gusher of water. It is not easy to turn off the water here because the shut off valve is on the roof.

Ah Mexico.