I worked time and a half the last two days to be able to take today mostly off to get the internet installed at the new house. It’s been A Day.

I’m in one of my sleeping poorly cycles, so I made sure to put an alarm on for seven morning. Of course, it tore me from the best sleep I’ve enjoyed in ages. *sighs* An hour was just enough time to do a few non-transcription tasks that come in overnight and then finish my preparations for the day ahead of leaving at about eight. I’d already packed the truck with several boxes last night.

By the time I arrived at the house, it was about 8:40. I decided to park, then walk to Oxxo to get a bottle of water and a croissant for breakfast. That wound up being a good plan since the the maintenance guy was there and I was able to get an order from him (just a cold Coke, thanks!).

The next couple of hours were spent hauling in what I’d brought, cleaning the office and cabinets in the living room, and doing a preliminary clean in the kitchen of degreasing the stove area.

My landlady called at one point to say that she was going to stop by with the mailbox key, which I was going to ask her about, and my promised microwave. She is so on top of things!

The window for internet installation was nine to twelve, so I figured that the guys ringing the bell at 11:45 were for me. No, they were there to measure the wall fountain because my landlady wants one.

She came in shortly after them bearing this lovely gift:

This appears to be a very nice basic unit, which is all I want and would have bought for myself. No idea on its wattage, but it’s not like I do a ton of microwave cooking anyway so who cares if it’s not super powerful. I really just want it mostly for reheating things.

What I thought was a microwave cabinet isn’t really because there is a lip that blocks the door. So I thought to put in on shelving I’ll eventually buy. But my landlady told me to put it here on the counter because she had the outlet rewired especially for the microwave. So I will put it there even if it’s not my preferred location by far.

While I’m in the kitchen, here’s the sink that is giving me grief:

It just doesn’t look and feel clean, no matter how much I scrub it. I know I can get both the sink and tap replaced for under 200CAD including labour and that just feels like it would be worth it to me since I will be here for two years. Still mulling it over. The tap is going for sure, but I’ll get a second opinion on the sink.

Before leaving, my landlady made contact with her bank manager for me and very long story short, she concluded that she needs to go with me and will do so next week! I can’t believe how lovely she is! From what I understood of the conversation, she needs to be there as a witness/reference that I’m who I say I am because the manager is going to bend some rules to open an account for me. So no bank account today, but still making progress!

The maintenance man finished his day by painting my back wall. It looks so much better!

I told him I want to bring the furniture from the other terrace to this one and he advised me against doing it because this terrace isn’t as well protected in the rain, floods, and gets dirty with leaves and such. He thinks I will enjoy the other terrace a lot more. But, I told him, the other terrace is a million miles away. I’m really not as likely to use it daily as it’s not convenient to the kitchen. He conceded that I have good points and said that I really can’t know until I live here full-time what will work best for me. I was happy for his advice because that means no surprises!

My landlady’s husband emptied the maid’s room this past weekend and I couldn’t believe the difference.

Here’s one of my own UNPACKED boxes! Once I’m done with the boxes, I will advertise them on the local yard sale site and I know they will go quickly.

Opening the exterior door to the room makes such a difference (my landlady says someone will come by and clean the room!).

I can’t believe I never noticed before that the room has a skylight!

The possibility of my using this room as a den at some point is stronger and stronger, but, for now, it’ll be a storage room.

I cleaned the cabinet in the office and unpacked some stuff onto it temporarily. I decided that my printer will live on it.

After my landlady left, I called the telecom company and got a message saying there was a problem with my appointment and it was rescheduled for Friday afternoon. That was not going to work! I made my way through the phone maze to a live person, marvelling that I can do that now.

I explained to the guy who answered that my appointment for today was confirmed several times, that I made a special trip to be at the house, and that I’d lost a day of work. In stark contrast to what I would have been told by a Canadian telco, the guy was very sympathetic. He apologised and said that they had technical difficulties that put their technicians behind. He offered to call the service team in my area, explain how inconvenienced I am, and that they would make a decision as to whether or not they could squeeze me in at the end of the day. I should expect a call from someone in the next hour or two. At least, that’s what I was pretty sure he was saying since he spoke super fast. As it turned out, I understood him perfectly!

That meant I had time to go out and find some food. I checked in with the maintenance man, we had an interesting gab about where I live in Canada and the role of Catholicism in Mexican culture (not sure how we got there, but, dang, it was very enlightening). He then asked if I had any water to give him. I offered to go to the store around the corner to pick up some and asked if he needed a snack as well. No, his wife was expecting him in about an hour for lunch! I got us both a litre of water, dropped his off, then went out to a main street to find some lunch. The Chinese place I came across was good enough to go there again, but next time, I’m saying no to the fried platano, which was either banana or plantain and incredibly awful. 🙂

It was just past two when the phone rang. It was the internet company saying they’d have guys over by four and to hang tight. Yup, definitely not in Canada anymore… This reminds me of my first winter in Maz when I waited 11 days for internet only to learn that their system had hiccupped and they’d lost my order. Horrified, they sent someone out immediately to get me hooked up. You just don’t get that level of service in Canada because the telcos really don’t care about their customers. That’s what happens when there’s no competition. I don’t expect service to be perfect, but at least treat your customers with respect. Mexican telcos have done more for me in the last three years than Canadian telcos have in twenty years. I mean, what was I doing while I was waiting — using some free TelCel bandwidth they gifted me with to catch up on some personal things!

Two very cute and sweet guys showed up at 3:45! They asked me where I wanted the modem, questioned me about my workflow and where my desk was going to go, and then determined the best place for the modem. They said that the phone has to be plugged into the modem, not a standard phone jack, so the jacks I have in the kitchen are useless. That’s okay. Having the phone in the office makes sense.

They got to work promptly while I went out to get us some water.

When I came back, I found this unexpected item waiting for me:

Am I glad I didn’t go out and buy a cheap phone! They said it comes with the modem. It’s quite a nice unit! I can call the US and Canada with it, so I suspect it will get some use since talking for any length of time on an iPhone is unpleasant.

Now, I wish this story had a happy ending, and it might, but not today. It takes about an hour for the internet service to activate and I could not wait because I really had to get home to give Puppy his supper. But first, I had to stop at the bank, Costco, and gas station, so I was going to be late as it was. Hopefully, I’ll have service when I come back, which will probably be this weekend if I can get away. One of the tech guys gave me his direct number in case I have any issues.

Nearly Spanished out for the day and starting to get a major headache, I headed out into quite a downpour that I thought was going to abate, but which got worse and worse the closer I got to Galerias. I ended up having to practically swim from my truck to the entrance and was soaked by the time I’d made my withdrawal and returned to my truck. Costco wasn’t happening! 🙁 So I really need to go back this weekend if at all possible as I’m almost out of (almond) milk.

At any rate, I pointed the truck north, got gas, and then decided that I was treating myself to a burger for dinner because I was not going to be in the mood to cook, especially since I thought I was having Costco pizza for dinner! So I pulled into the Carl’s Jr. on the highway to Progreso to get a cheeseburger combo to go. I have to say that’s quite a nice chain as far as fast food burgers go. I really don’t want to get into the habit of having a $100 meal on a regular basis, but this was a good call tonight, especially since 6PM is not a good time to be looking for food anyway.

I got in at about 6:15 and was greeted by a dog who was very happy to see me. Since he hadn’t had any treats all day, I quickly scrambled him an egg to go with his kibble and my lateness was forgiven. 🙂

If I go back to the house this weekend, my goal will be to find some inexpensive metal shelving units for my kitchen so I can start setting up that room. I was surprised by how cheap generously sized used units are and I hope I can find some in a colour I like, although I’m open to spray painting some if I need to. I was disappointed to have missed out on some turquoise ones that would have looked incredible! 🙁

It was a good day at the house. It’s starting to feel more like my space even if there is tons of work to be done to get it feeling homey. I was surprised by how much I brought today — my books, odd computer bits that I don’t need, and DVDs — and realised that the biggest job is ahead of me — repacking all my kitchen things! I really don’t want to pack it up too much until the last minute, but there are plenty of things I can bring down, like extra cups and mixing bowls, plus some small appliances and a few of my cast iron pieces. I think that once I get started on the kitchen and bring down my desk and bookcases, the rest will all fall into place.

I have to note also that with the windows open and the ceiling fans going, the house felt very comfortable, even while doing heavy labour!

Well, it’s almost nine and I still have a small job to do (!), so I’d better get cracking. But first, I think I’ve earned a hot chocolate. 🙂