Sunday, 6 May 2018

Heading down next Thursday to the Fabled Quinta -

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     We are going to be heading down to the Quinta this next Thursday, the 10th of May, after doing a bit of shopping for the larder down there and making other necessary purchases that the gang requests from "up here".  We shall be out for about 2 weeks during this episode.

     During the past weeks and months there has been a very serious up-tick in the number of animals great and small who visit us, as well as a proliferation of new birds and butterflies.

     This seems to have coincided with a significantly higher number of nearby and Monterrey and Tampico people asking for accommodation and / or for afternoon "parrilladas" - the famous outdoor grilling and chewing the fat social and political talk, speculation, and tiddlywinks that most Texians and Mexicans seem to enjoy so very much.

    We shall have a chance to get to know the most recent addition to our family, a new water heater, which is always a pleasant thing to have.   I suspect that it has not been used yet, because Alvaro, our charge' d'affaires, will frequently eschew using the hot water because he thinks the room temperature water is fine.
     El Gringo Viejo, on the other hand, thinks that if the "hot" water cannot blister your skin and steam up the house with just the "hot" water faucet of the sink in the little kitchen, then the setting is not high enough.

      We are anxious, as well, to see how our new, semi-albino male kitten is adapting.  It was noticed that he was almost totally deaf when we took possession of him, but that over the days he seemed, finally, to be beginning to  respond to sharp noises.   Alvaro informed me during one of our telephonic connections that the cat "Whitey" had been "hearing pretty well".
Image result for image - albino kitten
our newest family member
"Whitey"  more or less  at

 home in the Quinta.

     In any regard, on Thursday, we shall turn into a pumpkin, mainly due to a quirky problem we have in terms of telephone and computer connections.   We are quick to add that such connections throughout Mexico are quite good, in reality.   It has to do with a notorious "black-hole" of about 1 mile in diameter, and the end of a cable service that is always going to be extended "next month".    We do have very good SKY satellite television reception in our parlour and a 17 channel 1950s style, very clear old-fashioned antenna feed for the guest room.
     Please do not worry.  When you visit, the guest has priority over both televisions.   For instance, there are times during a Dallas Cowboy game or an important soccer match or political event when we might have 10 or more people gathered around our flat-screen (a medium-large new one) in the parlour, with all our different chairs, cheering and/or moaning about the proceedings.

    So, people asking me to pay up my bar-bill, and wash the car, and keep my cats out of their flower beds need to be aware that such orders and advisories need to be made no later than Wednesday night, because before daybreak on Thursday, I shall be nearly 100 miles deep into Mexico.   Any messages or requests need to be made before departure.

El Gringo Viejo
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