Log #62, November
Our View from the SolCasa RanaQuemada
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29 November
PATA Dog Jog
PATA organizers/supporters
(l to r) Renee, Lee Ann, Susan and
Lalo
Doctora Gaby (left)
Personas Ayudanda a Todo los Animales (PATA) hosted a 5km run/walk to support upcoming spay/ neuter clinics. Renee, PATA's organizer, has managed to round up support for a four-day training seminar for local veterinarians by the Rural Animal Veterinary Services (RAVS) branch of the International Humane Society.
Stan and I will be helping out at the training clinic as well as the other week-long clinic, like the one we worked our first month in Manzanillo. Dra. Gaby has helped Renee organize and strong-armed other local vets to support the clinics. That's why she's our vet of choice. That and she charges MX$50 (less than $5) for vaccinations, and MX$350 for a spay or neuter. She also cares for a whole passel of ferals. I usually add extra pesos to good ole Dra. Gaby's bill to help feed and care for them.
If you're planning to be in the area in February or March, let us know and we'll sign you up as a clinic volunteer ... or just send money (to PATA).
Stan in
his red Chivas hat helping at
sign-in and passing
out PATA calendars
One mellow kitty
Besides the Dog Jog, PATA put together a cool calendar, sales of which will help buy meds and supplies for the clinics. Renee took submissions from the community, and guess who is July's poster boy? Gale the sailor cat.
View of Las Hadas Resort and joggers along the route
25 November
Beach Treasures
Hunting for treasure
Still hunting for treasure
Jay on Ceilidh initiated the treasure hunt. He has a friend who makes mosaics, so we'd collect our treasures and deliver to Jay, who would then deliver to his friend when they visited Los Failes.
Sometimes the hunt here in Santiago is so engrossing, one is oblivious to one's surroundings, even a sexy photo shoot. The southeast section of the Santiago beach is particularly rich in treasure, and it's not unusual to return home with a whole bag full.
Chivo, defying deterrents
Beach treasures at work
One of the RanaQuemada uses for beach treasure is to keep the dirt in planters while keeping the wildlife out. We tried sticking objects into the dirt, but some tenacious critters can circumvent the deterrents.
Jay had a list of strict requirements for collectable beach glass ... it had to be ravaged by sand and waves, soft edged and opaque. Good beach glass works well for mulch inside as well as out, but it also makes a fun toy when skittering across the SolCasa floor.
9 November
The New Washer/Dryer
Washer and Ipod stand
Dryer
Fluff and fold had been eating up our cash, not to mention being a pain, airing our dirty laundry in public. Our favorite lavanderia has been closed for a month due to pregnancy, and we tended to wear yesterday's sweaty clothes just one day too often, making us unpopular with neighbors and shopkeepers. Those are my excuses for the extravagence of a washing machine. That, and the plumbers completed installation of the connections. The "laundry room" will be a closet at the end of the guest bathroom. Right now it's a corner in the dining room, with bathroom sink connections just to the right - there will be a dividing wall, someday.
The price difference between the energy/water efficient front loading model and the regular top-loader wasn't significant. Frigidaire, the only front-loader available in the five appliance stores we shopped. Quiet, efficient, spins so well that the dry cycle doesn't remove resultant wrinkles. Something we've lived with ever since wringing out our hand-washing on SolMate. Frumpy-dumpy is a way of life ... ours. At least we're clean and frumpy.
5 November
Puppy Love
Juan sweeping Plaza de Miramar
A few months ago, when Rosie was in residence and I was walking her every morning, she'd insist on visiting with the neighbor-hoods. The old guy sweeping the new business plaza seemed harmless enough, so we'd stop by and chat with him on our way to the beach. Funny how a puppy seems to buffer normal taboos, like talking to strangers.
Being fairly shy and stumble of tongue, my language skills don't shine, but comprehension is there, none-the-less; so when Juan started babbling about how I didn't understand what he was saying, but that I was the love of his life - oh, yes, I did. And he freaked me out.
Rosie and I suddenly chose other paths to wander and other neighbor-hoods to visit, like the little kids who cringed and asked if she would bite as Rosie performed her puppy-wiggle all around their legs. Much more fun watching kids fend off the puppy than worrying about fending off old machos.
2 November
Building All Around RanaQuemada
Condo on the beach
If we weren't snuggled down in the RanaQuemada holler, our ocean view would be taking it in the shorts. Having no ocean view to obstruct, we're hoping that all of the construction going on around us is simply raising our property value.
An eight-story condo is slowly rising from the sand, two blocks due south of us, right on the beach. It's got an underground parking garage; wonder what magic the builders performed to keep the ocean out? Water table in the hood is just about two feet below the surface.
Plaza Miramar
In between us and the condo construction is a new office plaza, two stories, six offices just built, with an L-shaped twin going up behind it. Very nice building, landscaped, pretty design, subtle colors, esthetically pleasing. Before the plaza contractors could even start on the second building, an additional construction crew blew in and fast-tracked an Oxxo right on the corner. Now the ugly Oxxo blocks most of Miramar Plaza, and Oxxo's red plastic clashes with their orangy color scheme, not to mention the ambiance.
New Oxxo going up
Kiosko at the Pemex station
Two blocks uphill from Oxxo is a Pemex gas station with its own Kiosko, another 7-Eleven look-alike. Whether or not this little neighborhood can support two such ripoff stores, we'll have to wait and see. Within four blocks going the other direction are two more stores, little neighborhood abarrotes on the order of Art's Grocery in our Lake Chelan hood when I was a kid. With Oxxo, Kiosko, and the new WalMart that just opened in Salagua, the local shops will be hurting, but what effect on property values for those of us living nearby?
