Dogs and Tiles

So I’ve been trying to pick out the tile for the house, the whole house. It is a little daunting because once it goes down, if I don’t like it, it is no one’s fault but my own. Plus, walking into the tile store and trying to obtain samples from a 16 year old girl who prefers to add numbers on her cell phone calculator than to use the perfectly good adding machine sitting right next to her, can get on one’s nerves.

Fortunately, I met an interior designed from Houston who volunteered her assistance. She is a 34 year old buxom dizzy blond pot head but when it comes to picking out tile samples she is a dynamo. I also believe that she stopped me from making a very big mistake on color. She is only here until Friday but I think we nailed down our choices yesterday so tomorrow I need to go place the order. However, first I need to meet with the builders, find out how many square meters of each and then go to the tile store and try to negotiate a discount given the size of my order (living room, dining room, kitchen, hallways, three bedrooms and two bathrooms). And all in Spanish unless I can find someone to translate for me.

The workers are nearly done removing all the paint from the stone and have started smoothing the non-stone walls. I imagine about one or two more weeks on the interior before they start putting the house back together. I’ve already purchased a stove, refrigerator, two queen beds, two microwaves (one for the future casita), a blender, comforter, pillows, one sink, and flatware. They are all in storage until the house is ready to receive. But I still need to buy sink pedestals, toilets, plumbing hardware, etc. The list seems endless.

Tapete, the volunteer dog, appears to be gone. However, I was out at the ranchito with Christine and Erin, looking at our tile samples. I said, “Lets step into the office and discuss our choices,” the office being a plastic table on the back patio. As we approached the table Christine said, “Who’s that?” and pointed to a purebred cocker spaniel curled up in the corner. I asked the workers if she belonged to anyone and they said no, she did not. Upon closer look, she was all skin and bones, problems with her eyes and feet and something on her snout that looked like the result of a fight. I went and got the dog dishes and dog food (previously purchased for Tapete) and put water and food out for her. She crawled from the corner, her fir like dread locks, ate, and then returned to the corner. This was Friday and since then I’ve been feeding her.

I spent the weekend largely at a dog show. It was difficult to see how well cared for the show dogs were and then to go up and feed my ratty little cocker. So I bought her a bed at the show and Marcos and Victor came up with their little mutt “Rhonda”. The cocker came out of the corner to meet Rhonda and then walked over and put her nasty little infected feet on my lap and looked into my eyes. So today, my vet friend Rodrigo came out with his kit. He says that she is only about 3 years old. She has eye infections, ear infections, infections on her feet and nose. We started the antibiotics and anti-inflammatory today. (House call and medicine, total $25 USD.) Thursday he will pick her up, sedate her and shave her completely. We think she can be saved. So I guess now we need to name her.

Today was “Dia de los Muertos” (Day of the Dead) so most places were closed for business (including my maids and workers). I spent the morning at the ranchito and really didn’t want to drag myself out of the hammock (once the vet left) but went and had a lovely lunch with Alex, Andrea, Melanie, Alejandro and Alejandro’s mother (her 67th birthday) and then we all went to the cemetery. As like last year, an amazing spectacle as people poured in to share that day when the veil between the living and the dead is most thin. Graves were decorated, some hired bands to play music for their deceased, one grave included tequila, a disk player and headphones. The gringo side of the cemetery was empty and many gringo friends said, “When I go, bury me on the Mexican side. For them it is about life.”

I should be back in the states for a brief visit (and to renew my tourist visa and California driver’s license) around the 28th of November. I haven’t decided when I’ll be returning to Mexico yet so I’ll probably purchase a one-way ticket. Ticket prices are through the roof in December but at the same time, I suspect that I will be at the detail stages on the remodel down here and can’t afford to be away long.

You’ll all probably be watching the election results tonight. There are several events covering them here in town but the word is that nothing will be decided until mid-day tomorrow. So I’ll skip the social scene tonight and stay in (I don’t have U.S. television) and check the results on the internet tomorrow. Something tells me that I may have a lot more visitors evaluating the prospects of living abroad.