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| With Ryan and Brandee on our Kayak Trip |
I spent about a week with Ryan and Brandee in Ft. Lauderdale. Had a wonderful visit with them. Brandee wants to make a quilt so I helped her get started. We ate at some wonderful restaurants, but had better meals in their kitchen just the three of us. Such great cooks! And we went on a sunrise kayak tour in the Everglades which was amazing.
Then I flew to South Carolina to spend some time with our friends Karen and Mike. They moved to South Carolina this summer as they'd had enough of Kansas winters! Their new house is beautiful and so is their new state. They can see the Blue Ridge mountains from their home and it's just a short drive to the nearest mountain park. Mike has a great trail mapped out for his bike rides. My first impression of South Carolina was that it's so clean. No roadside litter, which definitely isn't the case in Mexico. Karen and Mike showed me around to their favorite new places, Karen and I shopped (I so needed clothes for this coming winter), and of course we spent lots of time on their patio with cocktails and catching up.
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| With Karen |
Days like yesterday are when I could kick myself for not always caring a camera with us...or at least our IPod. You just never know what's going to happen!
Matt and I had an appointment at immigration in Chapala for fingerprinting. That's the last step in the process to renew our temporary residencies for three more years. On the way back I asked him to stop at a salon in Ajijic so I could see about an appointment for a manicure and pedicure. It was Wednesday, the day the tianguis (street markets) are held in Ajijic so there was a lot of traffic on the road around the salon. Matt dropped me off and was going to wait for me to make my appointment. I was only inside a few minutes and when I came out I saw Matt parked a bit down the road talking to our friend Isabelle, and our car was at an odd tilt. Matt had been moving the car and tried to get it to the side of the road and unintentionally pulled up on the curb. There had once been a fence there and someone had cut the metal fence post almost to the ground....and of course this is what Matt hit. Our tire was ruined. Isabelle had just happened to be walking by and stayed with Matt for moral support.
Matt started to get out the tools to change the tire and had a look of total bewilderment on his face - he is not a car guy. I man an information table every Friday for our dog rescue near Pharmacia Guadalajara, just two blocks from where our car sat. There is a great young man, Luis, that is always at that corner offering to wash cars. He works so hard and is always there to help me unload my car and set up my table. I suggested to Matt that I walk down and ask Luis to help - Matt quickly agreed.
When I arrived at Pharmacia Guadalajara, Luis was there just finishing up washing a windshield....and so was his little brother (about 10 or 12 years olds) who was selling green beans. When I explained the problem to Luis he was eager to help and started jogging down the street toward our car, along with his little brother.
Luis quickly took over, but immediately realized we had two more problems. The spare tire which is stored below our SUV was impossible to remove, the bolts had rusted. And the tire changing tool wasn't strong enough to get our lug nuts off. But, as is the case in all of Mexico, he knew a guy who had a better tool. Cinco minutos he said - and he went running off. His little brother stayed to "help". Then a gringo walked by, saw our situation, and said he had a tool that would help loosen our lug nuts. So he went back to his car, got that and Matt was able to loosen them. Then Luis returned and started to try and get our jack down from under our car - no luck with that either. But then another man appeared who worked across the street at the Pemex. He'd seen our problem and came to see if he could help. He trotted back across the busy careterra and returned a few minutes later rolling a large, industrial jack. Meanwhile another little boy, probably a friend of Luis' brother, appeared and was also "helping". And then a bit later the town drunk appeared and lucky for us he was once "the best mechanic in Portland, Oregon" and he could help us. So the guy with the jack was able to get our tire off and Luis rolled it back across the careterra to the Firestone store. They had pricing for tires, but we'd have to go to Chapala to get the tire. One guy offered to go get it on his scooter and another offered to take his truck to get it. But luckily for us Isabelle had called her husband Donnie and he showed up in his car and he would take Matt and the guy who had the jack (who I think maybe worked for Firestone) to get our new tire. Matt gave Luis $100 pesos for his help, sent the town drunk off with 50 cents, and bought cokes for both of the little guys so they would watch our car. I did what any good wife would do; I went and got my mani/pedi.
Matt had no problems in Chapala and got the tire purchased and mounted. The guy with the jack put it on, Matt gave him $200 pesos for all his help and each of the little boys got $20 pesos for doing such a great job watching the car. All and all our mishap was an economic boom for a bunch of Mexicans. As I was walking home from my salon appointment, I saw Luis and his little brother at a hot dog stand enjoying a couple of hot dogs. With the typical generosity of the Mexican people, Luis offered me one. When I declined, he asked if he'd see me Friday. So, if this had happened in the US, how much help would we have received? I realize there is an economic motivation here, but even knowing that I felt very fortunate to have so many willing to help us out for just a few dollars.
And what about those Kansas City Royals! First time in 29 years that they've made the playoffs and had quite a run the first eight games. First game of the world series was a major hiccup for them (and unfortunately we were watching the game with a bunch of Giant fans), but they came back strong for the second game. Matt, the creative genius, made us shirts. He used stencils he'd cut for his globo and then spray painted them. We're afraid to wash them as we don't know how the paint will handle a wash cycle, but they look great. |
| Matt's birthday present |
