… at this time in my life, when my job requires so much brain power, live somewhere that I don’t speak the language fluently. The last few days have been ones where I had flashbacks to Bulgaria and how overwhelmed I would have been had I been living there permanently and having to deal with the daily grudge, especially without a support network.

First, there was the matter of the gardener and his shopping list and his request for things that were missing (took a few tries for me to realise he needed a container to transfer paint into, not something to stir it!) and, of course, finding the twine.

Then, I was left with the garbage pile from hell. Being a rich gringa (HA), I decided to throw money at the problem, found three companies that haul trash, sent them a picture, and requested a quote. I scheduled the one that came in lowest and they came late Monday afternoon at the promised hour and took it all away.

Somewhere in all of that Sunday, I realised that I was almost out of coffee, but would conveniently make it to Tuesday, when I meet folks at a coffeshop that roasts its own coffee. So I messaged the coffeeshop to ask if they could prepare me 500 grams of whole beans of my favourite coffee, Veracruz oscuro (dark roast). To my surprise, I almost immediately got a reply that they would have that waiting for me on Tuesday and sure enough, there it was!

Monday evening, I was at dinner at about 7:30 with a friend when my phone rang. Something told me to pick up. I was bewildered that it was an Amazon delivery person standing on my porch with the items I ordered this past Thursday and wasn’t expecting until next Monday! Talk about service! He asked if he could just leave the box at my door. I wasn’t comfortable with that and asked if he could instead leave the box in the back of my truck (I don’t lock the canopy to prevent a damaging break-in). My box was waiting right where I expected it when I got home an hour later despite the phone connection having been less than crystal clear!

One of the items in the box was this earring holder for my dresser that I couldn’t have found or had made here for the few dollars it cost (and before you ask, I was buying something else that had a $4 shipping charge and I was able to “add on” the holder with no additional shipping charges):

I love having them all so easily accessible!

The last linguistic thing that came up today was a guy responding to my garage sale ad offering my chair for sale. I’d posted it for $750, hoping I’d get $500, so when he asked if he could have it for $500 if he showed up within an hour, it was easy to say yes! That chair will serve him just fine for occasional use (yes, he tried it) and now I’ve offset the cost of my new one quite nicely.

It’s been a full few days, especially now that I’m starting to have a social life and work is not letting up (I just scored a really nice contract that’s going to keep me busy through next week after doing so well on the one the company had me do in June!).

It’s also extremely hot, the first week that I’m really feeling the heat. I brought the temperature in my bedroom down to 22C (72F) before going to sleep last night and when I woke up boiling exactly two hours later, the temperature had claimed back up to 35C (95F)!!! I know from my last power bill that I’m not going to go broke running the AC through the night while this heat wave is going on, so I’m going to do that because I really need a good sleep. During the day, it’s fine — my office gets a good breeze and I try not to be out and about in the afternoons. But I am going hammock shopping ASAP since I’ve been taking my siesta almost every afternoon. 🙂

Bonita is doing fine in this heat. I thought she’d try to bolt when I had the garage doors open yesterday (so I had her on a leash), but my clever girl understood that street means burned paws and unrelenting sun while home means cool tile underfoot, shade, and mommy. I think I may get to a point where I’d trust her not to run while I’m taking the truck out of the carport, but I’m not quite there yet.

Can you believe that B and I are one week to our five-month anniversary?! Already!

And can you believe that this day a year ago was the official start of my house hunting adventures?