The Days Go By

From what we hear, the weather conditions back home have dropped into the Artic freeze zone and life up there has come to a crawl. -17 degrees Fahrenheit has been recorded in Post Falls and neighboring cities have had far lower reports. This made me worry a bit and so I contacted my brother, Dale, and he was gracious enough to bundle up and go visit our house. This was Linda’s  brother's week to visit her mom, but the storms and driving conditions postphoned his visit. 

Dale drove out and checked everything and all was well. We are racking up the IOUs this winter, but it is so nice to have Dale and several other friends as a safety net at our little home.

A week ago, Teri and Bill Burch arrived from Coeur d'Alene and they are settling into the third appartment at our compound. It has been fun talking and playing cards each afternoon. We also enjoy teaching them the tips and tricks needed to be comfortable for a long-term stay in Melaque. You know, where to buy food, how to get drinking water, where to shop, how to run the cute little washing machine that is used by the residents of out apartments. The list goes on. We kind of feel like Mr. Myiagi teaching Daniel LaRusso in the Karate Kid.  Wipe on, wipe off, the top of the washing maching. Those kind of tips needed to survive.

Days go on and we are enjoying every moment. Linda started taking photos of things she sees on her walks each morning. We use them in her mom's weekly newsletter.  I will be using them in this blog because I have been very lazy and haven't taken any photos.

I am a bit of a odd duck to live with. Linda is a saint and she can handle my many little things that make me who I am. One of our growing concerns in getting older is my noticable hearing loss. We have been talking about this and as soon as we get home, I will probably be going in to get tested. Until then we just have to try to speek louder and try not to laugh too much about what I am hearing. For example, Linda and I were climbing down from the rooftop palapa and she got on the metal stairs. Looking down, she said, "Look at it, it's shaking" referring to the stairway moving from her body being on it. What I heard was, "Look at the chicken" and so I stood there scanning the ground for a stray bird that had entered the compound without authorization. Once I figured out what Linda had said we laughed and continued our day.  Another example happened at the pool during pool volleyball. Linda and I were sitting and talking. She touched her noise and asked me, "Do you see anything in my nose?" What I heard was, "We're going to Yves and Manon's!"  This was a bit out of the blue and all I could think of was that Linda had talked  to one of the volleyball players, Yves, and made  arraingments to visit their apartment. Then I noticed Linda rubbing her nose and looking at me and relized just what she had really said. I could not stop laughing. Oh my, I am sure I will be reporting more of these incidents until we get the old ears checked.

Linda loves this happy little shrimp!

Sunrise over the laguna.

The building continues!

One bucket of concrete at a time.