¡MAXI-GAS!

On December 12 we took a taxi to Plaza Boulevares to get a gas line installed in the new house.  The company that does this is called MaxiGas.  We brought the deed to our house, our FMs, etc.  We signed a contract, paid a small fee, and were told the installers would come by the 16th at the latest.  

The 16th came and went.  I called their 800 number, got a menu, bad music and a 5-minute wait.  I gave the person at the other end of the line the same information we had given at the office.  She said she would look into the matter.  So on the 19th we set off for the office again, figuring that the mal ojo would work better than a phone call.  This time el sr J wanted to see if we could get the X bus from near our new house.  I gave in to him even though when we take that bus we have to get off at the Kentucky Fried Chicken stop and cross major, major highways with vehicles coming from all directions.

Well, the driver went right past KFC and I thought, here we go again, ending up who knows where.  But no!  There was a completely new bus stop and newly installed pedestrian crossings!  With countdown timers and beepers.  Oh, joy!  Now we can go to two major shopping centers on the bus with no fear.

The woman at MaxiGas told us they would come on Friday or Monday and they would call first.  They called on Tuesday and said they would be there at 9am on Monday.  They were only a half hour late this morning.  They worked without pause until 1 pm.  I know I've been calling them MaxiBastards and MaxiPads, but now they are MaxiMightyMen.

This tiny unit below, along with an outdoor charcoal grill, will be our temporary cooking facilities until we build the new kitchen:

It's all hooked up:

Hooked up hot water heater:

The outside meter:

Now, if only the movers come at 11 pm tonight, I will be a happy camper.

TRONCO DE NAVIDAD

or Yule Log or Buche de Noel.  Jean-Michel at the French Bakery made this chocolate one.  See the little green saw on the top?

We took it to a potluck dinner at Jorge and Elena's house yesterday, 25 December.  It was a big hit, especially since there were French people there.

LA PALA, LAS BOTAS Y. . .¿?

When el plomero took el sr J to Home Depot for a ladder, he also bought the pala you see on the left.  Note the ridges on the top.  Not all shovels have them and that's what he wanted.  

Then he needed some botas to wear when he uses the pala.  There's a shoe store in the market, so we went there.  They didn't have any in stock big enough, but they called their bodega somewhere else and sent someone running to get two different styles.  Which reminded us that you can get pretty much whatever you want if you know where to look and are willing to wait for someone to fetch it.  Below are the ones he chose:  size 29.5.  You'd think with globalization shoe sizes would be standardized.  But no.  And where did all these divergent measures of identically-sized shoes originate, anyhow?   In Europe, these are size 43.5; in the US, 11 1/2.  Mexico used to use the European standard, but now employs the simplest, most rational system of all:  size 29.5 is 29.5 centimeters long.     

That leaves the implement on the right--a mattock or pickaxe, so I've been informed.  We found that if we walked all the way down our street, Invierno, past a Mennonite boy selling cookies, and across a not-too-scary-for-me-to-cross highway, we ended up at Wal-Mart, Sam's Club and ... Home Depot!  Not a bad walk, and the plumber doesn't have to take us there.  So we got a grill (in case MaxiGas doesn't show up and we need to eat), and this pickaxe.  When we got to checkout, we saw it didn't have a price code on it.  The woman at the cash register had to call for a price.  She didn't know what it was so she asked el sr J, who looked at me.  Don't ask me, I said.  I just learned what it was in English.  A male clerk was called over and he said it was a pico.  Also the word for a mountain peak, as in Pico de Orizaba, the highest mountain in Mexico.   So now we all know and it even seems easy enough to remember: pickaxe/pico.    We took a taxi home. 

What's he going to shovel and pick, you might ask.  Not Pico de Orizaba.  He's going to get the wire grass out of the back yard and turn it into a garden/orchard.  While not ruining those new shoes.

NAVIDAD PARTE 2

This is it for Christmas photos for 2011.  We're busy preparing for the move on Monday night, the 26th at 11 pm.  Why so late?  Daytime parking issues at both houses.

Note all the campesinos in these photos.  Somebody must think that Christmas is all about the 99%:

Amazing that nothing gets defaced or stolen (which would almost certainly be the case in places we've lived in the US).  Must be the guardian angels.  Or perhaps the police video cameras.

NAVIDAD EN EL JARDIN ZENEA

I 've been so distracted by the house buying and moving that when my sister said she had Thursday, Friday and Monday off work, I wondered what the US holiday was.  It's Christmas!  And we have it here, too!  The Jardin Zenea seems to have some new attractions since last year.

The animals move, even the geographically inappropriate ones:

The human figures are multi-cultural (although perhaps stereotypical):

Adam and Eve are kind of white:

The baby Jesus:

The Wise Men:

Lots of humble campesinos to make us forget we're living in late capitalism:

Hell is always hell, though, and greed will get you there:

Right side up or upside down, burning is burning:

More tomorrow.  It's a continuing saga.

ARANAS Y LOS ARBOLES

That big circle in the middle seems to be the mother spider who has given birth to many babies on the wall of our casita:

Meanwhile, at the new casa I have been pruning the overgrown, amazingly productive lime tree in the patio.  I've discovered that I'm no longer comfortable climbing a ladder onto a roof, not to mention climbing down.  Ah. . . some of my happiest moments were on the roof in Creedmoor, NC.

And then there's the flamboyantly flowering tree in the back yard, which we think is a type of bougainvillea:

I got a hoe and took out all the wire grass around it.  For some reason the previous owners thought that grass was attractive.  It is probably a good variety for this climate (slow-growing, drought- and sun-tolerant), but who needs grass, especially this insidious kind?

There are lots of bricks and stones around the property.  I can't wait to make a path or two.  Or three.  Or four.  Easier than building a pyramid.

I also took great pleasure in pruning this tree.  Here are the remains of the day:

EL AGUA Y EL PLOMERO

This is our water meter, located near the front door of our new house.  We haven't changed the water into our name, but we plan to soon.

When we went to the house over the weekend we noticed there was no water in the taps inside the house, only in one on the patio, which was on a direct line from the meter.  

So el sr J turned that orange handle above, which allowed water to flow into the rest of the lines.  Water began to cascade off the roof.   Oh, my.  A broken pipe?  A broken water tank on the roof?  We needed a ladder to get up on the roof and check it out.  But how to get a ladder?  We don't have a vehicle.  A ladder wouldn't fit in a taxi. Hmmmm. . . .

Monday morning I called the plumber who had put washers in our washing machine supply faucets at the old house.  He said he would come at 1 pm that same day.  And he did:

But he hadn't brought his ladder, even though I had told him the problem was on the roof.  Another issue was that he had to park a mile away because our whole street was parked up.   El sr J told me to ask him if he would take him to Home Depot if we paid him.  (I realized later that el sr J could say that perfectly.  He was using me as a middlewoman).  He said yes.  Did el sr J want to walk to the truck or be picked up at the house?   Now if you know el sr J, you know that he likes nothing better than hanging out with workmen.  We had a whole crew of them living with us for 6 months in WV until I said to choose between them or me.  You can see he chose wisely.  So off they went to Home Depot and look what they came back with.  It's a regular ladder that turns into a step ladder for tree trimming, etc.
Here is the plumber who, it turns out, is the same age as el sr J.  They're bonding, you see.

The problem was the shut-off valve on the water tank on the roof.  It didn't shut the water off when the tank was full, so it overflowed.  There was a lot more to do.  He installed a new hot water line for our washing machine and here he is on the roof, attaching the line to the tank (the culprit earlier):

And here are two photos of the finished product, a new set of supply lines, hot and cold, for the washing machine, and and faucet for the utility sink, which he will install tomorrow, along with a new, bigger hot water heater:

CASA COMPRADA

We finally closed on the house.  Now there's a lot of work to do:

Flowering whatever tree in back yard:

The saw in the first photo is for this lime tree:

I hope to show you a different photo of it tomorrow.

FMs

We're legal for another year:

DOMINGO CAMINANDO

My dear readers will know where we went on Sunday.  Below is the newly-remodeled end of our andador.  The tree has a new surround and new trees and shrubs and benches have been added.  It didn't take long for cuddling couples to find those benches:

The bike lane on Universidad is looking more serious, with raised barriers and a coat of green paint:

A finished wooden bench and plants in the planters on the corner of our new neighborhood:

And the sports complex near the old train station is taking shape.  Here is the new basketball court (how long do you think those flowering shrubs will last?):

The new soccer field (that's Astroturf) with shaded seats for the spectators:

 A multi-purpose area, with Vita Par-like stations:

And here we have a sign celebrating the neighborhood's renewal.  Nothing like a little self-congratulation, writ large:

Each area of the sports complex has signage indicating the services available.  In this sector you will find bathrooms, offices, cafeteria, soccer field, and multi-use field:

And here more bathrooms, forum, physical activity area (a gym, please), cafeteria, offices, agora, music area (youth symphony), and workshop area:

Here is an area reserved for children, with bike parking, gigantic chess board, spiderweb (?), hill game (?), bathrooms for kids, play mountains, open-air theater, infirmary, and water mirror (?):

This is children's area:

We think these are the spiderwebs:

This is the view from the mid-way point in the complex, looking toward the fountains at the end of the andador:

Native cacti plantings:

The pedestrian path with lots of benches:

This photo is taken the top of what we think is the agora, looking back on the whole area.  There is seating in the near foreground and an enormous fountain at the base, with water flowing down the central channel to another fountain at the far end: