Merida

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Spoiler: In Which I Get a Mexican Bank Account (and 21st Century Connectivity)

Yesterday was an absolutely insane work day. I woke up thinking I had at most two hours to do of typing only to receive an actual call from a client in a panic — one of her typists got in a bad accident and was out of commission, leaving a mountain of work that needed to be done. The amount of money I was offered to work a 14-hour day was worth it and, thankfully, the files were easy and mostly interesting. But even with how committed I was, there was really too much to do in one day and I was grateful to have a few hours to finish up this morning.

That done, just as I was about to head out, I got a text about the shelving I was going to go pick up — apparently the husband sold them under his wife’s nose. 🙁 She was quite upset and sent me pictures of other shelving she had for sale, but it wasn’t what I was looking for. At least she got me before I left and drove to the very south of Mérida!

Since I now had some extra time, I loaded a few more things into the truck, including the shelves for my bookcases so there will be less to move on furniture moving day (possibly this weekend).

I then headed to the house and got there around 11:30 after stopping at the bank. The maintenance man was there doing a final clean, which was really appreciated. I’ll still want to go over everything, but he did a lot of the heavy scrubbing for me, especially in the guest shower. This was his final visit to the house and I got his keys after. The house is all mine now! 🙂

Since I expected to not have internet and wanted to go to the internet office in person (since I had such a hard time understanding the rep on Saturday), I’d parked on the street instead of wrangling Moya into a parking bay. So imagine my delight that I had internet and phone service! I promptly did some downloads to test my internet and called my mother to test my phone (again, I can call Canada from both the cell and the landline at no extra cost).

I cannot believe how easy and fast it was to get my internet service! Yes, today is a week from when I had the techs come in, but remember that I haven’t been at the house. If I was actually living there, I would have known something was wrong by Thursday morning, called, and solved the problem straightaway.

Since 50Mbps was the last reasonably priced speed, after which costs went up exponentially, I decided to start with that. I was delighted that I just about get that speed with wifi:

I Facetimed with my parents later in the day using my phone to give them a virtual tour of the house and while the connection wasn’t perfect, I had service all over the property. Woohoo!

Compare that to my speeds in Chelem:

The connection in Chelem has been absolutely fine! Really! It’s very stable and except for a few outages and uploads being a tad painful, I’ve been satisfied. I mean, I can watch Netflix without buffering! But it really was great to download and upload in a blink while doing my tests in Mérida!

My landlady showed up around 1:00 and we did a final walkthrough. Then, she suggested that we go to the bank together in her car and that she would drop me off later. I said that I definitely wanted to go with her, but that I’d make my own way back since I was meeting very near the bank a guy selling a faucet.

We got to the bank, HSBC, at just shy of two and waited and waited. There was a gentleman ahead of me in line and by 2:10, I knew I wasn’t making my appointment at three. Well, imagine that the guy let me go ahead of him! He said he’d been waiting for 2.5 hours (OMG) and that an extra 30 minutes wasn’t going to kill him. I still can’t believe that.

The bank rep had to speak to his manager and a few other people before he could confirm that he could open the account for me on a residente temporal visa. The manager said that if I had my passport, migratory document, proof of residency, and an existing client right there to vouch for me, we could proceed. I did have to explain that my FMM (“tourist card”) had been changed for the residente temporal card.

I was a bit shocked, though, that even for their most basic account I had to deposit 2,500 pesos and was thankful I’d gotten some cash earlier or that would have been embarrassing. Other banks I looked at only wanted a 1,000 peso deposit. I was reassured that I would have access to those funds within 24 hours, but warned that if I don’t keep a 2,500 peso balance, I’ll have to pay 100 pesos per month in account fees instead of only 30 pesos. Business is slow right now, the current US-CAD exchange rate is killing me, and expenses are high, so I’ll take door number one please. 🙂

My account will be linkable with PayPal (for which I’ll need a separate Mexico account) and I’ll have online banking (including the ability to pay bills), and a debit card. Seems very similar to having an account in Canada. I do know that Mexican accounts tend to nickel and dime their clients, so I have to go over my account documents very carefully to make sure I understand all the fees.

While the mountain of virtual paperwork was being filled out, the faucet guy texted to let me know he was at the meeting point, a full 30 minutes early. I apologised to the bank man and my landlady and quickly dealt with that, telling the guy I’d probably be a few minutes late and begging him to wait. He said no problem.

Once all the paperwork was completed (and I’d convinced the guy that I don’t need to sign any IRS forms), I was handed my debit card and was able to encode it with my chosen PIN. That was pretty funny — the guy said to enter your “NIP” and then he caught himself and said, “I think you call it a PIN?” I replied, “Actually, I’m French-Canadian and do my banking in French, so it’s definitely a NIP!”

The meeting went very well, linguistically speaking. I sometimes had to ask for clarifications and my landlady had to translate (ie. repeat what was said in different words), but, really, I could have done this on my own if I’d had to.

Once everything was signed, it was 3:00 and I had to go to the teller window to deposit my 2,500 pesos. Thankfully, there was no wait for that! And I had another one of those lovely moments where someone was a bit brusque with me at the start of a transaction and then completely softened as he realised we could communicate.

Done, I was going to race off to the meeting point, but my landlady said that was ridiculous and to get in her car. En route, I texted the guy that, “I’ll be there in five minutes in a yellow car!” and he replied with, “I’m blind if I miss you then!” We pulled up and the guy was exactly where he said he’d be, in front of a hospital right by where I rented an apartment last February. That was fantastic because I knew where I was meeting him and how to get to a bus to get me home. So I thanked my landlady for her help and sent her on her way. She’s amazing. 🙂

The faucet appeared to be exactly what I wanted so I bought it. The guy bought the wrong model for his house so it’s brand new. Here it is:

It really looks strange — the faucet part is like what I imagine for a kitchen, but the handle is more for a bathroom. I really hope that it fits. If not, I’m sure I can sell it for what I paid for it and start over. 🙂 There are two covers for the holes in the sink where the existing taps are, so that reassures me. Anyway, I’ll see what my installer has to say and for 324 pesos (22 CAD) I think it was worth the gamble. It really feels nice and solid. (Edited to add: I just Googled how to tell a kitchen and bathroom faucet apart and the first link showed nearly exactly my model of faucet as being for a kitchen!)

I’d thought to hang around Centro for a bit, but it was an exceptionally hot day (you know the weather’s not normal when the locals are complaining!) and the faucet was heavy. I didn’t want to look for a bus, so I just went to the Hyatt on Calle 60 as I knew for sure I could get a bus there. Sure enough, the first bus that pulled up was definitely going to my part of town. It was only a 3.3KM ride and cost me 8 pesos (0.55CAD). At that price, it’s really not worth driving to centro and I plan to use the bus a lot, although I’ll probably use cabs to go to other parts of town. The bus system here really isn’t very good and the buses are in really dangerous condition anyway, so I’m not as keen to learn the bus routes as I was in Maz.

By the time I’d given my parents the virtual tour of the house, I really had to get going as Puppy was going to be needing his supper. I did stop at Chedraui for coffee and Costco for (almond) milk and a slice of pizza. I usually just get sauce and cheese, but they had a new flavour that I just had to try even if I had to wait five minutes. You see, my absolute favourite pizza topping for non-Italian pizza (what you find on this side of the pond at places like Dominos or Little Caesar) are red onion, pineapple, and sweet Italian sausage. You can’t get sweet Italian sausage here, but Costco came close, with their new pizza having red onion, pineapple, and… al pastor meat! OMG, it was so good. 🙂 I’m not crazy about the sauce on the Costco pizza (way too tomato paste-y), but as long as they’ve got the al pastor version, that’s where I’m getting my pizza fix. 🙂

I missed a rainstorm while I was in Costco and drove home in increasingly blue skies. Puppy was glad to see me!

Well, now that the challenges of renting a home, opening a bank account, and ordering internet service are behind me, it’s time for some new ones. Next on the list are healthcare coverage and a driver’s license!

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Wonderful Gifts

I headed to my house this morning. First stop was the DHL office in Xcumpich. You really can’t miss it in the direction I was coming from because there is a huge yellow wall with DHL written on it. I almost missed the entrance into the parking lot, though. My truck really is too big for town and I’m always happy when I find a little shopping plaza like this with widely spaced stalls, lots of room to back up, plenty of parking, and only one way and out, making for easy circulation.

The outlet was neat and well organised, a place I’ll be happy doing business. I told the clerk my tracking number and gave him my ID. He had no trouble finding the package and then I signed for it. Later, I got an email from Amazon confirming that someone by my name had picked up the package…

I then headed home eager to see what gifts my landlady had left for me. When I saw this on my front porch, I almost started crying, I was so grateful:

This was pretty much the last thing I expected to find — a cute little bistro set for my back patio!!!

Now, I don’t need to move the furniture from the other terrace. AND this is something I really hoped I could find at some point. My hosts here have a bistro set and I just love it. I don’t know what it is about sitting up with my feet off the ground, but it’s a different experience than sitting at a regular-height table. I love having my coffee and checking my emails outside on slower mornings and I’ll be able to continue that. So happy. 🙂

Why is there only one chair? Well, now I’m not in a hurry to buy a bar stool! It’s not clear from the picture, but the chairs are pink! 🙂

She also left this little table that while not a necessity is a nice-to-have. I can imagine putting a plant or decorative object on it:

There is one really nice light sconce in the hallway/stairwell area:

I doubt that it is a coincidence that this lamp she also left me matches the sconce perfectly:

Yay for a lamp! Now that I think about it, I imagine I could use that glass table as an end table by my Poang chair and use the lamp for reading. 🙂

So that was the good news when I showed up. The bad news is the internet wasn’t working. After a very frustrating call to technical support, I think I understood that they can’t help me until Monday. I’m not impressed, of course, but I recognise that if I’d been at the house on Thursday or Friday, I could have gotten the ball rolling faster. Anyway, I expected hiccups like these and that’s why I started the process so early.

After dealing with that, I texted the gal selling the shelving to make sure I could still come by and while waiting for a reply I brought in a few boxes (and my Poang chair) from the truck. When she got back to me, it was to say that she was really sorry, but she couldn’t meet me today after all. She’s at the way southern end of Mérida and I really didn’t feel like going out there today, but I want those shelves. I told her that I’m in no hurry, but I really want turquoise ones. If she can hang on to them till Wednesday, they’re as good as sold. She promised that she won’t sell them to anyone else and we made tentative plans to meet up Wednesday…

Then, I decided to make one last pass at the sink. Getting it replaced would be super cheap, but that’s still money I could spend elsewhere and I also really wanted to make an effort and not just throw money at a problem simply because so many things here are so inexpensive. That’s no excuse to be wasteful. Well, I’ve spent some time on DIY forums and come to the realisation that the steel wool I’ve been using is way too abrasive to actually buff the sink. Everyone recommended the green scrubby pads, preferably in the Scotch brand, for buffing.

Boy do I wish I had properly documented the sink’s transformation…

When I first viewed the house, the sink had rust spots and the drainboard was entirely rusty. You couldn’t even see any silver. It was all dark orange. It completely put me off the house, it was so bad.

I don’t have a good shot of it after someone went at it with steel wool prior to my second viewing, but it was quite remarkable that they got the drainboard back to silver:

I scrubbed some more with steel wool and Barkeeper’s friend, finishing with vinegar, but the sink was still augh and the drainboard ew.

And now today, after buffing with with a green Scotchbrite pad and Barkeeper’s friend, a scraper tool I just happened to find in my truck, and then with a soft cloth and vinegar:

Yeah. That’s what I thought too. And it wasn’t even as much elbow grease as you’d think. Now, I just need to wax it to seal it. The taps are still going though!

I decided to set off in search of wax. First stop was the Super Aki a few blocks down. This is a small, but “proper” supermarket. It will be so great to have it right there for staples.

En route, I passed an ice cream vendor in a peddle cart. He had coco or elote (sweet corn). I know I need to try the elote at some point, but I had coco in a sugar cone. What a great treat!

Super Aki didn’t have any wax, but I picked up some lovely pink hangers for my master closet-room and some garbage bags. I then walked up Calle 20, a main thoroughfare, hoping one of the chicken stands would be open that early (almost noon). No luck and no car parts place either. There was one other chicken place sort of on my way home if I essentially wanted to walk around the block, so I decided to check it out and they were open! Half a chicken with rice, coleslaw (!), and tortillas was $50.

I came in and eagerly tucked into my meal. The chicken was amazing. I forgot how good is Mexican charcoal chicken. The rice was a bit bland and the coleslaw not quite to my taste. So good chicken, not great sides. I’ll have to try a few other places. But I definitely got my $50 worth!

After lunch, I decided to go for a walk down Calle 60 to see if I could find a car parts place, but the only possibility was closed. I meandered my way back home through small streets, marvelling at the economic diversity of my neighbourhood, with stunning homes built right by literal shacks.

I then headed out, stopping at Bodega Aurrera for some much needed groceries, before pointing Moya towards Chelem where, exhausted as I was, I could not resist a puppy who greeted me with a toy for us to play. 🙂

It was another good day in Mérida except for one bit of really distressing news that is making me consider reneging on my lease:

Someone in the neighbourhood just got a rooster.

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FedEx vs. DHL in Mexico for Amazon Orders

Some months ago, I failed at getting an Amazon delivered order here in Chelem. Actually, the failure was on FedEx’s part. Despite having very clear directions and my phone number, they could not be arsed to get the package to me nor would they agree to let me pick it up, saying their depot isn’t set up for that. I ended up sending the package back to Amazon and Amazon left some generous credits on my account to try again.

One of the items in the order was a Moleskine notebook that I now find myself needing again, having nearly exhausted the notebook I bought locally to make do. With Amazon’s credits, buying the notebook online made tons of sense as it would be fully half what I would have paid had the local bookstore brought it in for me. So I ordered the notebook on Tuesday and paid a ludicrous (as in I can’t believe how cheap it was) $150 for overnight delivery to my house in Mérida since I was planning to be there on Wednesday.

Then, we had an earthquake. Amazon’s depot is northwest of Mexico City, so probably not really impacted by the earthquake in terms of damages, but certainly in terms of telecommunications and roadway access.

Thursday, Amazon emailed to let me know my package had shipped and I was being credited the $150 since I would not get the package until Monday.

So imagine my shock when I got a phone call later Thursday (which I just realised was yesterday — it’s been a couple of long and full days!) from DHL here in Mérida saying they hadn’t been able to deliver my package! I was a bit shocked, needless to say! Shocked that it was here so fast and shocked that they’d called.

I told the man that I would not be at my house until next Wednesday and asked if I could pick up the package since that would be easier for everyone. He said yes and hung up before I could ask him where.

This morning, I checked my tracking number and my package status had changed from failed delivery attempted to “ready to be picked up by client.” Still no address. I thought that they might have left me a little paper at the house, but I wanted to know now where it is because they might be open on Saturday and it might be more convenient to go there first thing tomorrow and rather than going first to the house.

I went to the contact page on the DHL website and was going to call when I saw a chat option. I much prefer chatting to speaking to someone, so I tried that. I put in the package tracking number and asked where I could pick it up. I had to wait about five minutes for someone to respond with an address in a place I can’t even pronounce: Xcumpich.

I put “Xcumpich DHL” into Google Maps and it promptly spitted out a location… between Chedraui and Bodega Aurrera that is open between nine and one tomorrow. Talk about convenient! It’s barely a detour to swing by there on the way to the house tomorrow so I don’t care that I’ll have to go back later in the day to get my groceries.

It’s been quite a journey to get that notebook, but considering that they are 30CAD plus tax in Canada and about 60CAD here in store and that I’m getting it for 10CAD, all the hard work has been worth it! And before anyone asks, yes, it is a special type of notebook. 🙂

I’m glad I planned to go to the house tomorrow — my landlady no longer has keys for it, only for the main person gate from the street, and she just texted me to say that she left me some presents in the parking area, “a small table, a few chairs, and a lamp.” Very curious to see what they are! Considering how nice everything else she’s left me has been, I’m optimistic!

It’s been a couple of really busy days, so I went to La barca tonight for a few beers and a burger (the worst of the three I’ve had and still really good with super thick bacon — yum!). It was the first time I’ve ever had to request ketchup and let me say I did a double take when I uttered the word catsup out loud — it’s “cat soup”!!! That struck me as rather funny.

Sunset down my street this evening (not as pink as in reality):

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Precautions Against Moving to Progreso, Mexico

Progreso might be paradise for retired expats, but it is most certainly not for someone who works full time and needs a basic level of stability of services. The town (and its suburbs) has major infrastructure changes due to problems (ie. corruption) at the administrative level. I’ve been following things closely on social media and by talking with both Mexican and expat neighbours. It’s really bad and, frankly, I wouldn’t want to be paying taxes and utility bills here because there are problems at all levels of services in Progreso including, but not limited to:

  • Garbage collection, which is almost non-existent. To avoid it piling up, I have to take it to the dump myself.
  • Being so far behind on the water bill to the provider that most residents have had no water all summer — not just on the beach but in town as well — despite paying their own bills (where is that money going is the question everyone’s asking). Thankfully, the owners of this house had the foresight to install a well.
  • The beach communities like where I am have poor internet service — very slow and extremely expensive because there is no hardwired service. It’s not quite as bad as in Canada because customer service is really good and there are few outages, but the speed and price are unacceptable for this country.
  • The power grid is extremely fragile.

Which brings me to today. We lost power at 7PM last night and, of course, the emergency line wasn’t working (overwhelmed by the situation in the earthquake zone or just useless? I’ve never been able to reach anyone with it.).

Since it is impossible to be comfortable in this house without AC, my first instinct was to bug out for the day, but it is extremely expensive for me to drive back and forth to Mérida. I hadn’t scheduled a trip for today and wouldn’t have been able to maximize my trip, plus I wouldn’t have had time to do today everything I planned to do tomorrow on top of my work. So I made the decision to stay put and swelter (there isn’t any patio furniture suitable for doing transcription so working on the terrace is out of the question).

I called the power office in Progreso when they opened at eight and, unlike last time, I got a helpful person who didn’t hang up on me. It took a bit of effort because she was using technical terms I didn’t know, but after a bit of back and forth and my running out to get a few of my neighbours’ metres, she was finally able to confirm that there was a total outage in my immediate area and promised me service at some point today.

CFE Peninsular later reached out to me on Twitter to let me know that they were dispatching crews and to confirm that the issue was my entire block, not just my house (ie. not just an issue with the so-called “smart” metre that is actually super dumb). I had to trek out to a neighbour with an analogue metre and confirm that it wasn’t getting any power either before they agreed to escalate the issue since it wasn’t just the house here. Power finally returned around 10:15.

My vocabulary for dealing with such matters is super lacking, but, thankfully, I’m good at describing things and Mexicans are generally patient enough to do the same if I don’t understand a key word. For example, the woman in Progeso was talking about my neighbours’ something and I could not understand what she meant. It was only when she said, “the equipment that gives your house power!” that I realised she meant the metre!  I just went to Translate and with a bit of work found that she was using the word “medidor” — measurer. I have successfully heard and used “contador” — counter, which his a literal translation from the French compteur — but medidor was a definitely a new word. If I had taken two seconds to sound it out and write it out, I would have come to the verb medir — to measure — on my own and made the connection, but at any rate, we finally got there and I have power!

Folks who haven’t been following me for a while might find me a bit ridiculous. Oh, what’s a day without power (which also means no water and internet), toughen up, bla bla bla. Those who have followed me for a while know that I’m very good at living without power, water, and other utilities when I’ve planned for it. But that’s not where I am in my life right now. My growing business demands that I live somewhere with infrastructure stability, which had a big part to play in my choosing where I was going to move. Frankly, this is the level of service that I’d expect in a poorer or more remote part of Mexico, certainly not a bustling suburb of a sizeable and important community in the rich state of Yucatán.

Progreso really is a dream retirement destination for some folks I’ve met and they are not bothered by the service deficiencies because they have other, more important, needs that are met by living here. I’m just thankful to have had the chance to try out beach life before committing to living in Mérida. I’m so grateful to my hosts for having given me this incredible gift of time to try out life up here so that I could rent in what should be exactly the right area for me. Because Mérida is not without problems either, but my neighbourhood appears to be well out of the parts of town that are constantly dealing with flooding and other issues…

Back to work I go. I took some time this morning to pack a few kitchen boxes and to make an appointment to go look at some turquoise shelving units tomorrow morning. Things continue to fall into place!

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Inching My Way Towards Connectivity

I worked time and a half the last two days to be able to take today mostly off to get the internet installed at the new house. It’s been A Day.

I’m in one of my sleeping poorly cycles, so I made sure to put an alarm on for seven morning. Of course, it tore me from the best sleep I’ve enjoyed in ages. *sighs* An hour was just enough time to do a few non-transcription tasks that come in overnight and then finish my preparations for the day ahead of leaving at about eight. I’d already packed the truck with several boxes last night.

By the time I arrived at the house, it was about 8:40. I decided to park, then walk to Oxxo to get a bottle of water and a croissant for breakfast. That wound up being a good plan since the the maintenance guy was there and I was able to get an order from him (just a cold Coke, thanks!).

The next couple of hours were spent hauling in what I’d brought, cleaning the office and cabinets in the living room, and doing a preliminary clean in the kitchen of degreasing the stove area.

My landlady called at one point to say that she was going to stop by with the mailbox key, which I was going to ask her about, and my promised microwave. She is so on top of things!

The window for internet installation was nine to twelve, so I figured that the guys ringing the bell at 11:45 were for me. No, they were there to measure the wall fountain because my landlady wants one.

She came in shortly after them bearing this lovely gift:

This appears to be a very nice basic unit, which is all I want and would have bought for myself. No idea on its wattage, but it’s not like I do a ton of microwave cooking anyway so who cares if it’s not super powerful. I really just want it mostly for reheating things.

What I thought was a microwave cabinet isn’t really because there is a lip that blocks the door. So I thought to put in on shelving I’ll eventually buy. But my landlady told me to put it here on the counter because she had the outlet rewired especially for the microwave. So I will put it there even if it’s not my preferred location by far.


While I’m in the kitchen, here’s the sink that is giving me grief:

It just doesn’t look and feel clean, no matter how much I scrub it. I know I can get both the sink and tap replaced for under 200CAD including labour and that just feels like it would be worth it to me since I will be here for two years. Still mulling it over. The tap is going for sure, but I’ll get a second opinion on the sink.

Before leaving, my landlady made contact with her bank manager for me and very long story short, she concluded that she needs to go with me and will do so next week! I can’t believe how lovely she is! From what I understood of the conversation, she needs to be there as a witness/reference that I’m who I say I am because the manager is going to bend some rules to open an account for me. So no bank account today, but still making progress!

The maintenance man finished his day by painting my back wall. It looks so much better!

I told him I want to bring the furniture from the other terrace to this one and he advised me against doing it because this terrace isn’t as well protected in the rain, floods, and gets dirty with leaves and such. He thinks I will enjoy the other terrace a lot more. But, I told him, the other terrace is a million miles away. I’m really not as likely to use it daily as it’s not convenient to the kitchen. He conceded that I have good points and said that I really can’t know until I live here full-time what will work best for me. I was happy for his advice because that means no surprises!

My landlady’s husband emptied the maid’s room this past weekend and I couldn’t believe the difference.

Here’s one of my own UNPACKED boxes! Once I’m done with the boxes, I will advertise them on the local yard sale site and I know they will go quickly.

Opening the exterior door to the room makes such a difference (my landlady says someone will come by and clean the room!).

I can’t believe I never noticed before that the room has a skylight!

The possibility of my using this room as a den at some point is stronger and stronger, but, for now, it’ll be a storage room.

I cleaned the cabinet in the office and unpacked some stuff onto it temporarily. I decided that my printer will live on it.

After my landlady left, I called the telecom company and got a message saying there was a problem with my appointment and it was rescheduled for Friday afternoon. That was not going to work! I made my way through the phone maze to a live person, marvelling that I can do that now.

I explained to the guy who answered that my appointment for today was confirmed several times, that I made a special trip to be at the house, and that I’d lost a day of work. In stark contrast to what I would have been told by a Canadian telco, the guy was very sympathetic. He apologised and said that they had technical difficulties that put their technicians behind. He offered to call the service team in my area, explain how inconvenienced I am, and that they would make a decision as to whether or not they could squeeze me in at the end of the day. I should expect a call from someone in the next hour or two. At least, that’s what I was pretty sure he was saying since he spoke super fast. As it turned out, I understood him perfectly!

That meant I had time to go out and find some food. I checked in with the maintenance man, we had an interesting gab about where I live in Canada and the role of Catholicism in Mexican culture (not sure how we got there, but, dang, it was very enlightening). He then asked if I had any water to give him. I offered to go to the store around the corner to pick up some and asked if he needed a snack as well. No, his wife was expecting him in about an hour for lunch! I got us both a litre of water, dropped his off, then went out to a main street to find some lunch. The Chinese place I came across was good enough to go there again, but next time, I’m saying no to the fried platano, which was either banana or plantain and incredibly awful. 🙂

It was just past two when the phone rang. It was the internet company saying they’d have guys over by four and to hang tight. Yup, definitely not in Canada anymore… This reminds me of my first winter in Maz when I waited 11 days for internet only to learn that their system had hiccupped and they’d lost my order. Horrified, they sent someone out immediately to get me hooked up. You just don’t get that level of service in Canada because the telcos really don’t care about their customers. That’s what happens when there’s no competition. I don’t expect service to be perfect, but at least treat your customers with respect. Mexican telcos have done more for me in the last three years than Canadian telcos have in twenty years. I mean, what was I doing while I was waiting — using some free TelCel bandwidth they gifted me with to catch up on some personal things!

Two very cute and sweet guys showed up at 3:45! They asked me where I wanted the modem, questioned me about my workflow and where my desk was going to go, and then determined the best place for the modem. They said that the phone has to be plugged into the modem, not a standard phone jack, so the jacks I have in the kitchen are useless. That’s okay. Having the phone in the office makes sense.

They got to work promptly while I went out to get us some water.


When I came back, I found this unexpected item waiting for me:

Am I glad I didn’t go out and buy a cheap phone! They said it comes with the modem. It’s quite a nice unit! I can call the US and Canada with it, so I suspect it will get some use since talking for any length of time on an iPhone is unpleasant.

Now, I wish this story had a happy ending, and it might, but not today. It takes about an hour for the internet service to activate and I could not wait because I really had to get home to give Puppy his supper. But first, I had to stop at the bank, Costco, and gas station, so I was going to be late as it was. Hopefully, I’ll have service when I come back, which will probably be this weekend if I can get away. One of the tech guys gave me his direct number in case I have any issues.

Nearly Spanished out for the day and starting to get a major headache, I headed out into quite a downpour that I thought was going to abate, but which got worse and worse the closer I got to Galerias. I ended up having to practically swim from my truck to the entrance and was soaked by the time I’d made my withdrawal and returned to my truck. Costco wasn’t happening! 🙁 So I really need to go back this weekend if at all possible as I’m almost out of (almond) milk.

At any rate, I pointed the truck north, got gas, and then decided that I was treating myself to a burger for dinner because I was not going to be in the mood to cook, especially since I thought I was having Costco pizza for dinner! So I pulled into the Carl’s Jr. on the highway to Progreso to get a cheeseburger combo to go. I have to say that’s quite a nice chain as far as fast food burgers go. I really don’t want to get into the habit of having a $100 meal on a regular basis, but this was a good call tonight, especially since 6PM is not a good time to be looking for food anyway.

I got in at about 6:15 and was greeted by a dog who was very happy to see me. Since he hadn’t had any treats all day, I quickly scrambled him an egg to go with his kibble and my lateness was forgiven. 🙂

If I go back to the house this weekend, my goal will be to find some inexpensive metal shelving units for my kitchen so I can start setting up that room. I was surprised by how cheap generously sized used units are and I hope I can find some in a colour I like, although I’m open to spray painting some if I need to. I was disappointed to have missed out on some turquoise ones that would have looked incredible! 🙁

It was a good day at the house. It’s starting to feel more like my space even if there is tons of work to be done to get it feeling homey. I was surprised by how much I brought today — my books, odd computer bits that I don’t need, and DVDs — and realised that the biggest job is ahead of me — repacking all my kitchen things! I really don’t want to pack it up too much until the last minute, but there are plenty of things I can bring down, like extra cups and mixing bowls, plus some small appliances and a few of my cast iron pieces. I think that once I get started on the kitchen and bring down my desk and bookcases, the rest will all fall into place.

I have to note also that with the windows open and the ceiling fans going, the house felt very comfortable, even while doing heavy labour!

Well, it’s almost nine and I still have a small job to do (!), so I’d better get cracking. But first, I think I’ve earned a hot chocolate. 🙂