~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We have bought most of the goodies required to keep the Quinta Tesoro de la Sierra Madre running for a bit longer. Bebe the Labrador will be glad to see me...at least for a few minutes. The other dog, Sonsa, will still probably be just as un-trusting and suspicious. The cats will not even wake up, from their landing spots on the rocking chairs on the corridor, but about an hour later the tri-coloured cat...a calico....will come and tell me that Alvaro has not fed her once in the two weeks that El Gringo Viejo abandoned her to the mean master. That is the signal for me to serve her some milk. Just a couple or three thimbles-full is enough for Calandria to feel as though she has things back on track.
We named her Calandria (in English - Oriole), because of her combination of principally orange, black, and white. She is not a very friendly cat, nor is she particularly unfriendly. She has taken to following me down to the Rio Corona on my daily morning walks, however.
This trip will involve a little repair and restoration work. It will also allow me to pull a little of my own weight by taking a traction wheel of a lawn-mower that finally wore out....not the gear....but the tread and face of the tire after 20 years of service. Strange. Our neighbour could not bring himself to get rid of the mower so I was asked to find the drive wheel in Gringolandia. We did, and it cost about 50 dollars. Because of the continuous favours our neighbour provides us, we shan't charge him a farthing, but we are almost certain that this will only provoke more generosities on their part.
Such is the nature of pleasant friendships which are far too few in these days.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There was an interesting thing that happened while we were doing a bit of shopping for repair supplies for our roof area near the chimney in the back of the Quinta. Everything we bought at Home Depot was either made in USA or Hecho en Mexico....there was no money sent to the Red Chinese. Some caulking, a bit of silicon sealing spray for the concrete part of our roof that needs a bit of re-plastering and sealing, a couple of light bulbs, and some fertiliser sticks for our garden. The above-mentioned traction wheel was also made in USA.
Because of the surprise at Home Depot, we checked several things and found that they were made somewhere, frequently in the United States, but none were made in Red China. Why the big turn-around? It would be good to find out. Perhaps the inconvenience of copyright theft, cost of shipping, and the out-of-control price changes and labour obstinacy that has been raising its ugly head for the past 30 years. Or perhaps it is the poor quality and variable quality that never seems to improve longer than for a few weeks before falling back to below third world quality again.
Perhaps it was all just a lucky quirk.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We shall strive during this episode to send or bring pictures of our area. We will try to take the very mundane pictures, more of a portrait of our near neighbours and general environment, so that you all might feel more at home with our peculiar, yet pleasant, reality.
If the opportunity presents itself, perhaps a few shots of our nearby capital city will be in order. We will put in a couple of studies of street scene of the Ejido of Francisco I. Madero and the Estacion de Santa Engracia.
One more transmission should be able to flow from my magic fingertips before departure. Please stand by.
El Gringo Viejo
