Author: iagardener55

Last night I set my phone alarm to wake us up at seven o’clock today so we could a) get ready to go to the Office of Immigration, and b) start getting us back into a routine.

For the past seven months we have been going to bed around eleven thirty, waiting for Ivan’s dad, Juan, to finish watching the “noticias” (news) with his nephew Juan. We usually got to sleep, if we did not get our “second wind”, sometime after midnight. As domino’s fall, that made getting out of bed anytime before ten, or ten thirty close to impossible. So, we started our days halfway through them. Rarely did we leave the house before one in the afternoon. Day wasted.

So, now, we have started rearranging our lives back to what was normal for us- up early, walk in the park, have breakfast and coffee, run errands, etc. No more late nights, wasted mornings. It is back to “early to bed, early to rise”. You know the rest.

We have long stopped eating at nine o’clock at night, customary here, because we did not have enough time to digest anything before going to bed. No good. We are, also, no longer eating more then twice a day, and really skimming back on our portions of everything. We are not “starving” ourselves either. Do not even consider that. But, we are not, or, I really should say I am not hungry all of the time. Something new for me. I remember listening to a black comedian saw she heard a coworker say she forgot to eat lunch, and, how does anyone forget to eat?! I can see, now, how that is possible. We have been so busy with our move, and have so little food in the condo right now, that it is easy to skip a meal, or two.

We are on the way to the Office of Immigration again today. We are trying to finalize my residency status. This has been a seven month process in which time we have been completely in the dark.

But, that is not what this post is about today. As I am typing this, we are waiting at the Metro for our friend, Enrique, to meet us here. We are headed to downtown, first, to Immigration, then, afterwards, we will have lunch somewhere. I am hungry already.

We are “people watching”, again. I love to do this, especially now that we have the time. One can see, and hear, so many different things when one takes a moment to stop, look, and listen. (I distinctly remember someone in my youth telling me that with some regularity).

All shapes, sizes, colors, ethnicities. It makes me wonder what their lives are like. Do they have enough money for food, shelter, clothing? Do they have to travel very far to enjoy their lives? Are they safe to travel with on the Metro? I have no answers to any of my questions and probably never will.

It is fun to watch, just the same.

We have total coverage on both of our cars, and pay about $100 three times a year for each car. Not a bad deal as far as I can see.

Today we went to the market and bought about one and a half kilos of fresh chicken, and paid less than five dollars. Another good deal. Limes, garlic, epazote, and avocados were five dollars. Score.

Got to go do some more unpacking. This is getting harder to find places for everything. We have way too many “things”. But we also have new friends and lots of family that can use some of this.

I have him- hook, line, and sinker.

Ivan bought me the entire wooden and glass boxed set of The Game of Thrones, in its entirety, for Christmas this year. It is a wooden box, with glass in the front and back, that closes with a leather strap, secured by a small replica of the Hand of the King. Amazing.

We started watching the first season three nights ago, and he does not seem to be able to get enough of it. We stayed up until one o’clock in the morning the first night, but only until eleven last night.

I am so excited that he is enjoying it as much as me. I have seen, or at least listened to, the whole series at least three times. In the past, I have had it playing in the background while I knit whatever project I had currently been knitting. Now, we sit on the loveseat he brought into the bedroom, and watch for two, sometimes three hours, after several hours of unpacking and organizing. Work comes first, rest and relaxation second.

I cannot wait until we get further into it. Each season has new, and more interesting characters and plot. If you have not seen it, you need to try it. It is amazing.

After, at least, two weeks of moving, unpacking, and repacking, we are amongst the living.

It has been a long, hard two weeks, as we are no longer, we have discovered, painfully, forty years old. Twenty plus years makes a huge difference in one’s abilities to do strenuous activities, such as unpacking.

We do appreciate the time off, because, during our hours recuperating , we got to watch some of our blue ray movies together. That was amazing. John Wick trilogy, both Equalizer movies, with Denzel Washington, the Matrix trilogy, the whole Jason Borne series of five. Great movies, all of them.

In between all of those, we watched all of the Hobbit trilogy, and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Yes, it takes us a while to recupe.

Anyway, we are back, have high speed internet, and time. More soon. Thanks for coming back.

I have, finally, received confirmation from Immigration that they are ready to grant me permission to stay here. It has only been seven months of angst!

I contacted my cousin, Viridiana, at Immigration, who said “they” sent me notification in December, that everything was ready. Needless to say, I never received it, so Viri asked them to send it again. Even better, Viri sent it to me via WhatsApp. I printed the letter, have all of the copies of all of, well, everything, and will, once again, head down to the Office of Immigration, and try to finish this. I will let you know how it goes. When it goes.

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone. Hope you are enjoying it with your true love.

Folks, I am going to take a few days off, beginning today. Why, you ask? WE ARE MOVING. Yes, you read that correctly. The day has arrived, and we are anxious to get settled in. I will not know our internet situation for awhile, so I will write when I am able.

Thanks for staying with us this far. And, please, come back for more. I will have lots to talk about, I am sure. See all of you soon.

It has started to get pretty darned cold at night here, somewhere around forty degrees. In the morning, we leave the house with a jacket, or a sweater on, and by two o’clock it is in the mid fifties. Funny thing is, though, it feels like it is about seventy five.

Interesting how, in just six short months, we are finally starting to acclimate to this climate. For so long I watched others wearing down jackets, vests, scarves, mittens, all the while thinking they have no idea what cold really is.

What I failed to realize was this- up North you have central heating, and probably, cooling, year round. Here, no one had even a space heater until we bought them some. I have no idea how they stayed warm but they do now.

Little did we know just how much sound echos in a building of all stone! Most of the apartments, and condos, up North have a fair amount of wood in there construction so it absorbs some of the noise. Here, the construction of most buildings is almost completely made using metal posts, rebar, and cement.

One of the buildings that we drive by frequently, was severely damaged in the last earthquake. The government is trying to refabricate it by using a beehive of rebar. Where there was once only a few feet of rebar there is now hundreds of feet of it. All in an effort to keep the building standing after the next big quake.

Speaking of quakes, which I was not, but am now, I was told, just the other day, that there have been several small tremors recently. I have felt nothing, however, because they have all been while we were sleeping. As I do not wish to experience anything major, I am curious enough to go for something at least noticeable. I will let you know when that happens, to be sure.

We have a defined ordinance, at the condo, stating, as of March 2017, there are to be no animals allowed in the condo. Lovely. Though we are animal lovers, ourselves, at this time in our retired lives, listening to dogs barking, at all hours of the day and night, does not interest us. There is one condo that has had a dog for several years, so when that animal no longer is around, the condo should be animal free.

When we went visiting the condo today, we were greeted by at least two dogs, two very loud dogs, in the neighboring condo, that were barking their heads off. Mind you, the people just moved in yesterday. After banging, multiple times on the front door of said condo, to no avail, the dogs stopped barking. Regardless, on the very first page of the Rules of the Condominium, it clearly states that there are to be no animals permitted in the condos.

I am fairly sure that I published a post about the very first meeting we had, with all of the condo inmates, sometime around November. At that very meeting, we all agreed to uphold the clause regarding animals in the building. Now, all of a sudden, we are inundated with animals. There are two other “renters” in the building that have dogs- in fact one youngish lady has three!!! What is up with that?

Ordinances are put in place to protect the rights of the whole, the collective. So what happened? We are going over to speak with the administrator soon. It has been about two hours since we left the condo, so you-know-who has had a little time to decompress.

He is right, of course, and will try to “help” Lulu, the administrator, understand this. I will be there as his “second”, of course. It should be fairly bloodless, as it rarely comes to that. Ivan is one that knows, and speaks “the law” to people. He does not use bad language, (never has), or anything of that nature. However, out of her own mouth, came the decree that there were to be no animals. So, there should be no animals. Period. Right?

I will let you know how it goes.

Post script: we have just returned from our “talk”. She is trying to make the excuse that the condo is being “rented” out, while the owner is out of the country. Ivan explained that, according to “the rules”, the dogs need to be gone by this afternoon. Then we left. Ball is in their court.

Second post script: we stopped by the condo this morning, to pick up our burgled BMW, to take it to get fixed, and Jesús, the young maintenance man at the condo said the dogs were gone by seven thirty last night. Yay for all concerned.