I have not fallen off the edge of the universe, although it can feel that way at times.
It has been a sort of Mr. Toads wild ride for the past two month. The Casa Mas O Menos, after much delay, is finally underway. This little snafu was due to how much re-bar should be used in the second floor ceiling. It has coast us time and money, with the debate between our main guy Chico, Roberto (land owner) who is on a continual downer, two engineers with very different concepts and us, the wealthy but very ignorant gringos. Language barrier is an understatement! In the end we lost part of our design due to safety issues. This was decided by men who show up to work wearing flip flops, no eye protection or have no safety guards on their electric saws. This has been our life basically since we arrived in Melaque, one step forward and two steps sideways, over the dale and through the woods.
Our roof is amazing and we really like the profile of the building now that the ceiling is poured and the stick forest has been removed. We now await the creation of the second set of stairs so we can easily climb up onto the roof and take in the 360 view, awesome. You can see a long ways across the blue sea on a clear day and that my friends is priceless.
We have had a string of friends come and stay at the Hotel Bahia, a quaint little hotel two doors down from us. Two of John's sisters and their husbands will be flying in at the end of the month plus a cousin of mine and his family will be here over Easter. It's all good, if not a bit tiring.
During all of this my laptop stopped being friendly. We took time out of building and entertaining to drive to Colima (2 hours away), the closest Apple Distributor where my iBook has been for the last two weeks. It has been waiting, like a a liver patient for a donor, for an expensive imported new battery. I have been sharing JT's I-pad and laptop and it's not the same, writing on another persons lap top. I have not been in an e-mail mood.
It is now approaching the last day of Carnival but not to fret, Mexico loves a celebration. The Saint Patrick's celebration begins in a few days and lasts through the 21st of the month; this includes a huge rodeo, several banda music concerts and two weeks of knock out loud non-stop hoopla, OH BOY! We may have to head for the hills for a night or two to save what little sanity we have.
