Yesterday was a prime example. With lots of errands and appointments it was a "chockablock" day.
Arriving home at 2:30PM, there were lots of men at the corner of my house. Unusual. I didn't pay much attention. Parked the car and started to head for the gate.
One of the men came up and said he was with the water/sewer company known as SAPASMA! Uh oh, this didn't sound good.
SAPASMA had been trenching a block away on Cuahtemoc for at least a month. Dirt and dust, not to mention that it is the one street going DOWN the hill for the children who go to the kindergarten and the kids that go to the primary school across from me. It's also the down road for all the cars, trucks and motorcycles.
He informed me that they were getting ready to trench my street, starting NOW! Starting at the corner of my house. I look at my watch, it is now 2:45PM. It will be dark in a few hours. He says they'll get all the way down the street before dark with the diggers and bull dozers. In my mind, I know better but I have learned to just smile.
More importantly is the fact that the tenant who is in the guest house has her car loaded and ready to drive back to the USA first thing Wednesday morning. No place to park the car except in my garden behind the gate. I ask if it is possible for them to NOT trench in front of gates until next day. He said, "Yes".
Whew.
I move my car to avoid it being trenched, to park between two huge dirt piles. It is still there!
Further the man from SAPASMA said all the work will be done in two or three weeks. Again I smiled.
The trenching and jack hammering began. YIKES
I, on the other hand, decided after all the drama and excitement, today would be a good day to stay home and sit in the sun to watch the hummingbirds and monarchs.
I took fourteen photos of hummingbirds! Ha, not one photo has a hummingbird in it. My hat is off to nature photographers. They must be the most patient human beings on the face of the earth. There were at least five hummingbirds feeding off the blooming aloes along with monarchs on the poinsettia tree. Nope, none of them in these photos either. Guess my camera isn't fast enough........
Here's what I did get. All of these blooms, the orange spikes, the poinsettia and the seeds on the china berry tree denote the fact that fall is definitely here.
14 comments:
"Mexico was not for her".. I am always surprised of how little preparation is done by most of the people that pull up stakes and head back to the US.
What did they imagine life to be down here? 24 hours of Margaritas and Mariachi serenades? Good greif man you are moving to another country not the Spanish Section of Denver. There have been several folks from our neck of the woods that finally gave up because there wasn't enough things for them to do!
Huh, I wish I had more time to do all the things that I WANT to do.
Mexico is not for everyone, but I would expect enough foresight to be able to ascertain that before packing up the car and cat and schlepping down to Mexico. Could you imagine if they went to a really un-Gringo place.
I hope they find hope and tranquilly NOB, sad they wasted the time..
Tancho, on day 6 she said she was leaving. I suggested she give it 6 months. It was not meant to be.
Someday when we meet, we can talk about this issue with people coming with unrealistic expectations!
In the almost 20 years I have been living in Mexico I have met several people who after rigorous research and preparation over quite some time decided that they and Mexico did not fit together. Most of them did the best they could to prepare ( one taking Spanish classes for a year among other things ) one person spent half a dozen vacations here and prepared before she decided to move here and finding out that her decision was not the correct one.
I myself was sent to Kenya in 1972 and returned to Germany four month out of a 2.year work contract later, because I lived in constant fear. Now, 40 years later I know some of that fear was irrational, but at the time felt real. It was a learning experience for me, something that is important to me now and not the fact that I most likely was not prepared enough.
I know that there are people who take decisions too fast and without good preparation, but I think one cannot assume that automatically of all persons . Some discover just too late that they are not a good match with a culture, a job , or a partner.
I must say that I admire the person who packed up her stuff and cat again after a week ( if I understood correctly ) to correct a wrong decision, instead of hanging around in a place where they are unhappy, just because they don't have the courage to correct an error.
Droelma - Very good point. She realized it 6 days in due to her health conditions and left 26 days after arriving. Doubt seriously she could have made it here, comfortably.
I thought they dug up your street a few years ago .... or was that paving ??
You have a good memory Sparks! They recobbled and added some to the street. NOW they have dug that up! What a mess. Today NO ONE came, well one little guy for about an hour with a pick. But, no bull dozer, no supervisor, nada. This might be a year end project! Yikes.
It will be interesting to see how far the work has progressed when we are in San Miguel next month!
Bill, I looked out this morning and it looks exactly the same as yesterday morning! Aaargh.......no workers today either!
It's Wednesday. They're taking a mid-week break. LOL
Bill, it's Thursday here today and still one little guy and NO equipment or people.
Tomorrow through Sunday is ALL celebrations and I would NOT expect to see anyone until next week. In the meantime, I'm "jumping the trench". Life IS an adventure!
Sounds like Boston construction. Very quick to tear up and make unusable, but EXTREMELY slow to finish.
There's a drawbridge near my house that required some kind of repair. This drawbridge is 3 lanes on either side, and a very major boulevard. Well, in no-time flat, they cut it down to 1 lane in each direction, and then spent the better part of a year working on it, from time to time. Mostly it was just one giant traffic jam with nary a worker to be seen.
So celebrate!!! You've got "Yankee ingenuity" right there in SMA and didn't even know it.
Saludos,
Kim G
Boston, MA
Where they are now doing the same thing to my favorite bike path along the bay. Ugh!!!!
Very funny Kim. Thanks for sharing.....at this rate, next year if you come back, you can "jump the trench" with me!
Thought of you today......that's probably the reason why I am catching up with posts.
On Friday morning the guy who cleans our building came up to me all breathless ( I live on the 4th flor-no lift....:o)..). He informed me in an instistent tone that " por ninguna culpa mia " ( through none of his fault ) the electricity company just told him 20 minutes earlier ( must have been at 8:30 am ) that we would not have electricity in around three blocks all Friday until 7 pm and Saturday from 9:00 am through 7pm. This was so they could replace all the heavy cables, do away with the wire mess ( which also would do away with those " colgados " illegally attached to others ) and all would be fine by 7 on Saturay. Inconvenient, but hey, fine that finally in one of the borrows where people pay the most for electricity in Mexico City something was going to be done.
Cones were put up and yellow tape on Friday. The light came back on at seven. The light went off at 8 am yesterday and only after people complained to the police. also because it gets darker an hour earlier the light came on at around 9pm. Most of the cones are gone, the tape is ripped......and none of the work done....not even a minute.
The neighbors and I would be willing to write a letter, but for years now we are convinced that those who receive them can't read.
Indeed, our stories are very similar. Absolutely nothing has happened since the beginning of the trench digging - it is no farther along.....except for one trench is deeper because of one lone guy with a shovel! I just shake my head.
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