(Post 201 of 263)

Things are not going well and many are back to square one.

One positive note is that where it was done correctly, the polished concrete is amazing and exactly what I was hoping for. I just wish it wasn’t a single square foot considering how much concrete was poured.

(Post 200 of 263 — that’s 200 posts I might not have written without your generosity in Bast’s time of need. Thank you again!)

Since there was enough purple paint left I was vetoed on repainting the whole under cabinet area. The guys like the purple against the yellow as much as I do!

There’s still so much to do, though…

(Post 199 of 263)

I have some outlets and this happened:

It is Artscape window film with UV protection. My contractor did an amazing job installing it and was the perfect person to do the task. He figured out more quickly than I ever could have how to make a template so that he could precut the film, leaving only a little trimming in situ to do.

(Post 198 of 263)

I’m very fortunate that Mérida has at least one pet funeral home, Cielo Animal, which is right near my house (I pass it on the way to and from Pilates). Their motto is “por un adíos digno” — for a dignified goodbye. Most of my other fur babies did not have dignified goodbyes — Herman, Peggy, and Samuel went out with the trash as that was what I was told to do by the city in which they died. Tabitha was group cremated. I’m grateful I was able to bury Neelix at Haven. For Bonita, I had a choice of burying her in the garden here or having her cremated. After bundling her up and putting her in the freezer, I just could not handle her one more time. So unless I found someone to bury her for me, that option was eliminated. Frankly, I loved the idea of handing her over to a funeral home, grateful that I had that option.

Being so emotionally drained on Monday the last thing I wanted was to make any difficult calls, but I also knew I could not bear to have B in my freezer one minute longer than necessary. I reached Cielo Animal and a lovely man named Pepe answered. I explained what had happened and that I wanted a price and information for pickup of B’s body, cremation, and an urn. He was so kind, like really kind, not “I’m being paid to be kind” kind. He spoke slowly and enunciated well, explaining the pricing of the two services (cremation cost is based on weight), that he’d send me a brochure with the urn options, and that they’d be over as soon as possible to pick her up.

Early afternoon, he pulled up with a colleague. I told them where she was and said I did not want to get too close. They peered into the freezer, went back to the truck, and came back with a dog-sized body bag. 😭 They gently zipped her into it, told me they’d be back, and took her out to the truck. There, they weighed her. 14kg. Too skinny, but not her lowest weight. I always had to tell myself there are dogs, like whippets, that are naturally very lean. Her vet wasn’t concerned with her weight when he saw her on Sunday.

We did the paperwork when they came back.

I know this is not inexpensive to the average Mexican, but when I think that I paid more than that to have Tabitha put down and couldn’t even collect her remains, it feels like a bargain. They only had one urn I liked, a plain wooden box, and it happened to be the least expensive option. I appreciated that at no time did Pepe try to upsell me anything, like a funeral. I actually might have done that if I’d had more people here who knew and loved her, but most those people are in Canada right now.

This afternoon, another lovely man delivered her back to me.

“Thank you for your companionship. We will always remember you.”

I don’t know if I’ll keep her ashes in the house with me forever or if I’ll end up scattering them around her domain. But I have the choice, and for that I am so grateful.

(Post 197 of 263)

I’ve had one good distraction in the last few days, in between the nightmare of losing Bonita and the contractors standing me up again. It’s going to sound like such an insignificant thing, but it’s really going to end up being the bright spot of my week.

Last week, I noticed that my washing machine was not spinning. I finally had time to do some diagnoses on Friday and Saturday and determined it was an electronic rather than mechanical problem. Dang. But that washer had cost me $4,500 five years ago and never given me any trouble, so it really didn’t owe me anything.

I have a trustworthy appliance repairman in my contacts who did some work on a fridge for me, so I called him up on the Saturday morning (the 23rd) to see if he could confirm that the washer was not worth fixing. He promised to be here at 10AM yesterday. I cannot remember how I initially found him, but one thing I really like is that his wife comes along, so I always feel comfortable referring him to single ladies who are nervous about having strange men in their house. He’s also trustworthy in all aspects of his work.

As I expected, the washing machine’s motherboard was shot. “Augh, why does my washing machine need a computer?!” I lamented. “I’m not trying to get to the moon!”

His wife laughed and pulled up a photo on her phone, saying that they had a used “American” washer for sale, the old mechanical-type model, Whirlpool brand, all revised, rust painted over, and with a three-month warranty. My jaw dropped. I didn’t even think I could get something like that here. I sure looked when I was washing machine shopping five years ago! I said I’d take it for the $3,300 they were selling it for if they’d hauled away the dead one. They agreed and said they’d return at 4PM!

By 4:27, my old washer (thanks for your service!) was loaded in their truck…

…and I was running a load in my “new” machine.

Despite two trips out to me and the old washer probably not being good for maybe more than a few parts, they dropped the price on the Whirlpool to just $3,000. Call me a happy customer!

I also told them to keep an eye out for a hard-to-find item here, an electric dryer. I am not a fan of using a dryer (bad for your clothes) but I also do not want a repeat of two summers ago when we had three solid weeks of rain and I could not get anything to dry. Dryers here tend to be gas models, but I don’t have gas running to my laundry room

I’ve run two loads so far with the new machine and it works great and takes half the time to do a load! With everything going on this week, I’m so grateful not to have to deal with taking laundry to the laundromat, shopping for a replacement machine, figuring out what I’m going to do with the old one, and, of course, busting my budget to buy yet another disposable appliance. This was just so easy and the new washer is exactly what I wanted even if I could have technically afforded one of those shiny new front loaders that could probably take me to the moon.