Catching up....

I've done the L.A. Times crossword puzzles on-line, and I think it's time for a newsy Sunday afternoon blog entry. I've started a number of entries, but somehow these days I keep getting sidetracked. I've been catching up by telephone with some of you readers, and sporadically answering emails from others. I beg forgiveness, please.

This is why I've been incomunicado: all of a sudden we have a social life! Hooray! Two birthday parties this weekend, one at a beach restaurant and the other up the hill with a view. Gringo friends and neighbors are coming back south. The white bread lady has returned to the Thursday market. Hala has opened her hamaca shop. The Italian restaurant on the plaza in La Penita is once again serving French press coffee and veggie omelettes on market days. The six foot high vegetation along the highway is being weed-whacked back and any day they should be re-striping the road. Sometimes in the morning there's actually a chill in the air. I'm out walking then -- Kody, too! The "season" is starting up again, and once more I'm falling in love with where we live.

I'm also busy reclaiming some ceded territory. Like my linen closet. For quite a while there, I didn't really care what color the pillowcases were or whether or not they matched. Just so long as the sheets were washed and changed. Hilda did it faithfully, for which I am very grateful. But she did it her way.

I am now sorting through sheets: queen size, king size, California king, fitted and not, matched and not, as well as stacks of pillow cases that vary from high thread-count crispy white ones to a dilapidated Little Mermaid slip left behind by -- well who knows? Maybe a little mermaid, judging from the pervasive damp smell I found clinging to all of the above. And all of the above was stuffed willy-nilly on to shelves that in what seems another life I had carefully labelled both in Spanish and in English as to just what went where.

The question now is: What's the difference between being a control freak and a good housekeeper?

That issue isn't limited to the linen closet. Sweet husband Larry seems a little taken aback these days when he finds me doing things for myself -- like rearranging the furniture on the verandah, going out in Hummercita without him, or carting loads of laundry between here and the basement. He's happy to see me doing it. It's just that he was doing it before.

Interesting dynamics we're working with here. Borders have been redrawn over the past year or so. For instance, I used to joke that Larry knew the PIN number to the ATM and not a lot more about our finances. Now I'm the one learning where the pesos are, who we owe, and who owes us. Cobbo has done a great job! I wonder: Just how much of ceded territory do I really need or want to reclaim? Maybe I should push onward into something new and different. One thing is certain: we're both growing into talents and capabilities neither one of us realized we had! It's just so great to care about life again!

So what's on the agenda tomorrow?

• Yoga down the street at Mona's at 7:30 AM.
• Javier and his crew will be here early to start about a two week stint of treating the roof, getting rid of the lama, sealing the brick work and painting the house. We're thinking about going a little crazy with some color. More on that later.
• Larry begins his new duties as head of maintenance for the Zona Residencial. He's got a crew of men who will clean the beach all this week.
• Our Southern California friends Mario and Priscilla will drive up from Puerto Vallarta for a day visit, and we'll either feed them here or go up to Vista Guayabitos.
• In the evening, we're going to see if we can catch Lucy in the dance review at The Decameron Los Cocos Resort. (We may have to sneak in, as it's a "guests only" sort of deal.)

It will be Lucy's last night in Guayabitos for a while. She is out of our guestroom and into a hotel with her vacationing Mum and Auntie Carol. Tuesday she's headed for two weeks back in England where she will walk across a stage in cap and gown and collect her degree from Oxford, which will make her the most highly educated chorus girl the Decameron has ever experienced. She collected her stretchy clothing out of the freezer (better to preserve the lycra), but left all sorts of strange British things in our fridge. Marmite? What's that? I'm going to miss her!

Other news: We're out of municipality-supplied water until the water company pays its electric bill and the pumps start running again. It's the end of the fiscal year, so they're out of money. They'll start collecting and offering discounts for early payment here in the next week or so. In the meantime, we'll buy a truckload/tankload to fill our cistern. That's another thing to take care of tomorrow... Happily dawn comes early now, because we changed to Daylight Savings Time this morning. So for one week only, we're on California time.

It's only taken me all afternoon to make this entry. The sun is now down. We've had a walk into La Penita to see what's going on (nothing), and Larry is watching what will probably be the last game of the World Series. I'm headed for a (very fast) shower. And bed is looking pretty good! Love to all, and goodnight!