Category: Things my sister has apparently read all the way through.
Yeah, so I got up Monday and had a reminder to myself by email notifying me that Tuesday was a national holiday.
Oct 9 Tuesday Independence of Guayaquil National holiday <- See?
So I had lead time to buy some food, since you never know what's going to be closed. Mostly everything. But hey — I had a day to get it sorted out, so no probs.
I followed my usual lazy schedule, and after a late-morning shower I got dressed and went to lunch. All OK.
But then I noticed that things were really quiet. Not much traffic on the streets, not that many people. Some shops open, some closed. Eh?
Then I turned the last corner, the one only a few feet from el Túnel, and the menu boards weren't up yet. Well, it was a little early, so... But then I saw that the doors were closed up tight. Another oops moment. So I went back to my apartment, ate, and headed out for Supermaxi, hoping that they were open.
Luckily, yes. Coral was open last Xmas day even, but you never, never know, and Supermaxi is a different business, so I always feel lucky when something works. If one or the other is open, you can get pretty much all you need, though Supermaxi has a better selection of food, and at Coral you can buy tools, clothes, or a kitchen range if you suddenly feel a need for one.
So I loaded up on the basics and braced myself for Tuesday.
As it happened, I didn't bother going out Tuesday. Had plenty to do, and food, and the water didn't go out, or electricity, or the internet, which is excellent here after Henry worked things out while I was gone last summer. I don't know what he did though he said it was hard, but at least the wifi here has been stable, and that's a big deal. Like everything else, around here you just don't know what's going to happen next.
So the maid was still here, and I had to go hide while my apartment got cleaned on Monday, but I skipped hauling my pack full of dirty clothes to the laundry — wasn't worth the exertion. Lots of places take an extra day off when a holiday comes, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday being a nicer break than just Tuesday. I figured that I'd try for laundry on Wednesday, which worked out, and I had two days off as well, though I don't have anything to do anyway.
So, aside from minor panics like not knowing where I'll find my next meal, things are generally quiet here. The weather suddenly warmed a lot after the end of August, and the sun is back, though a lot of the days are still cloudy. We're definitely headed for summer. Too bad I'm getting bored again.
I did take a one-month Spanish refresher, taught by an ex-teacher from the U.S. who's been here for seven years or so.
You can tell she was a teacher because she can go a full two hours without either closing her mouth or taking a breath, even once.
Edgewise was a way you could not even get a word in. I know, I tried. She'd stop and look dazed. But.
There were two others in the class, both new here. Holly, who I don't know much about, a pleasant woman who apparently is about 63, and trying to get residency mumbo-jumbo sorted out and get her cats here, which is easy but complicated, and Bones, a former 39-year Harley-Davidson dealership owner who spends a lot of time rumbling around the countryside on his locally-bought on/off road motorcycle.
Ultimately the class didn't amount to a whole lot, but I was able to get out a bit and talk to at least a few people for a few hours a week.
But bored, me.
I've been wondering if there's another place to go.
It still seems like Portugal might be one of the best places to relocate to. Close to the rest of Europe, good infrastructure, good climate, not too expensive. Then Hacker News had a piece on it. Still a possibility.
I've also looked at Santa Fe, NM, but then wondered about Flagstaff, AZ. It looks like the general climate in Flagstaff is milder, more agreeable, and it's closer to the backcountry in California, Nevada, Utah than Santa Fe is, and looks like it might have a more reliable water supply, which is going to be more and more important as the years go by.
You can tell that i'm thinking of making the same mistake i've made several times already — moving back to the U.S. and trying to be 30 years old again. Maybe, maybe not, but this time I'd buy a van and live in that. Last season living in my little Nissan wasn't that bad, but nowhere near adequate since I had to keep most of my my things in storage, and was tied down by that. And if I got a van, it would almost have to be a new one for mucho bucks, so there's that.
Might be better to take a "vacation" starting and ending in Cuenca, like touring Britain, or Iceland. But then Cuenca is a godawful long way from anywhere else, and expensive to commute from. Don't know. Will have to dither some more.
One thing that mostly worked was that I managed to dole out gifts pretty well. I had 18 bottles of Dr Bronner's soap for the nine girls, and 10 little LED flashlights for the boys, plus a few things for a couple people's kids. Unfortunately, there were two new women working at el Túnel, and one bottle of soap leaked on the way here. Then Paólo quit working at my hotel, and MaríaJosé and Oskar no longer work at el Túnel (they're both university students now) but I had things for them, and for MaríaJosé's daughter, but luckily I found out from Xavier that MaríaJosé is his wife now, and Oskar is her brother, and Xavier sees him almost every day, but with the two new women working there, I didn't have enough bottles of soap to go around (not to mention the empty bottle that leaked).
And when I talked to Henry about the children's books I brought (Sandra Boynton, translated into Spanish), they seemed too simple for Sonia's girls (8 and 10), but Santiago has a daughter who is about 4, so maybe, I thought, that would work. Santiago was covered (LED light) and I found out that he's married to Joanna, the other maid at the hotel, and I had her covered with soaps (one lavender and one rose for each, except for Eva, Anita, and MaríaJosé because I just didn't have enough to go around so I bought some semi-high-end chocolates to cover for that, and though both Eva Anita work at the hotel, they're part-timers, so maybe...).
So that left four frog lights for Sonia's girls (plus a sheet of Hello Kitty stickers), and I gave one to Santiago's daughter, and one for MaríaJosé's daughter, but I had enough LED rechargeable tube lights so I could give one of those to Xavier's son, who was hanging around at el Túnel while school was out. And since Paólo was gone, I had an extra, until I came back from lunch one day and saw Paólo at the hotel. He was picking up his last paycheck or something, and I felt a little bad that I no longer had anything to give him, but I got a hug anyway.
As far as I know, that about covers the story of the gifts, except for Janet and Luís, the owners, who were on vacation, but I kept their things in my closet until they turned up, so they got their treats too (LED light and soap). Arrr.
And then yesterday I was coming back from lunch and heard "DaBEED! Buenas tardes!" as I came around the corner. It was Sonia (Sonia from the hotel, not Sonia from el Túnel) and her two girls heading into the hotel, and that's how my name is pronounced around here. School goes in two shifts, morning and afternoon. She had her girls with her (Pamela and Carolina, in their spotless little school uniforms). I looked up, caught off guard, but mumbled something and waved just in time to trip over a nubbin sticking up from the sidewalk and almost fell, but mostly just bounced a couple of times on one foot until I recovered.
Sonia had gone into the hotel entrance by then, but her two girls were trailing, and one grabbed me around the hips and gave me a hug and also said "DaBEED!", and then the other girl gave me a second hip hug (they're really short, about the height you'd expect to see on five-year-olds except they're eight and ten). So anyway, I guess they got their flashlights and kitty stickers and I forgot what I was saying, but it sort of looks like things worked out so far.
Now I'm watching for those little six-piece boxes of Guylian chocolates so I can start hoarding them for Xmas presents. My bread store (Rey Pan) is gone but the laundry is still there (Kleenex Lavandería), and two of the three dwarves (haven't seen the woman, just the two guys), and the legless guy who sits begging on a skateboard all day on one of the streets near here. The dwarf guys really appreciate seeing me because I give them each a dollar coin every time I come by, and leave them their popcorn balls to sell to someone else (it's how they make their living and it must be a pittance). And the older wheelchair guy who tries to sell candy bars by the ATM — I give him a dollar too and just say thanks when he holds up a candy bar — he can keep that for someone else.
And then there's all the dog shit on the streets, but I at least know two friendly cats, when they're out, but other than that I'm sort of bored, so we'll see how this shakes out. At least there is always something going on around here.
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