...that's where you'll find me

This was the sunset in my backyard on Saturday. The palm tree silhouettes looked so tropical


Wicker Living Room set


New Dining Table & Chairs looking out the front window


Dining Table and Kitchen Counter


I love the classy new stove!! It has a flip-up glass top


My new kitchen...Fridge, stove, coffee maker...the rest of my cooking gear is stowed under the counter.

Almost exactly 3 weeks from when my 3200 mile journey ended at my home in Chelem, Yucatan, MX I am finally moved in and have set up at least rudimentary housekeeping. There were the usual home renovation bumps-in-the-road...a couple items had to be finished when I got here...a couple more things had to be re-done. I had to find some furnishings, appliances and a bed. Thank goodness for my Caravan, I can haul about anything in that workhorse! The wicker patio set that I managed to haul down with me will do for living room furniture for a while. It looks good with the new floor tiles. Buying and hauling the stove home was the easy part...once I had it hear I had to get a plumber to come over and hook up the gas...sounds easier than it was. But...after a few days the new range was up and running. The plumber also fixed some water problems and found a couple new ones. Last week I bought a hammock from a local vendor. It seems like buying something in this part of the world is the easy part...getting the rest of the stuff to make it work is the hard part. When you get a hammock you also need to buy two ropes about 2 meters each to connect the hammock to the hooks in the wall. Everyone said that you can buy the ropes...soga para hamaca...anywhere. Well the first three places I went didn't have them...one supermarket did have them but they were hot pink...not what I was looking for. Finally my friend Pedro checked at a local hardware store and bought a 4 meter length of rope and just cut it in two. Then he showed me how to make the simple knot that fastens to the hammock and doesn't slip. I also got a lesson on how to knot (fold, store,???) the hamaca. It's a simple over and under and around kind of thing that the locals must born knowing how to do. I kind of get it...I better because I sure don't want to have to untangle all those strings in my hammock!! So...Long-Story-Short...the hammock works great and my front porch is the perfect spot to use it to relax. Over the weekend I did some cooking for the first time on the new range in the new kitchen. My biggest problem was having to stop what I was doing to go dig through boxes for a knife, pot, spatula or something else I needed. But the stove worked very well, the burners were plenty hot. The oven will take some getting used to like all gas ovens do...the first pizza I baked turned out a little too "crispy" on the bottom. Last Saturday the weather changed a bit. It had been very hot everyday, lots of sun, nice breezes. On Saturday afternoon a storm moved in across the Gulf...the clouds looked worse than the eventual storm turned out to be. It rained for almost 2 hours, some wind...but nothing serious. When that storm moved on the weather on Sunday was much different than it had been. Lots of wind, partly sunny skies with temps much cooler than last week. "Cooler" is definitely a relative term...my friend Pedro described last night as "cold"...for a mid-western boy it was a perfect night to sleep with the windows open. Honestly, it was maybe 75 degrees! The plumber was just here again today...fixed my water pump so I can fill the tenaca on the roof...he also did something so that my kitchen faucets now have water. My next adventure will be getting my satellite TV system hooked up and getting an internet connection at the casa.