A Different Kind of Day

I just got out of my morning shower. It's three fifteen in the afternoon. You might think I procrastinated or was - less likely - doing something engaging, engrossing, even important, but noooo blog reader breath, noooo. We had no water. This happens on a fairly regular basis, say, once a month: I get up, turn on the tap to make morning coffee and... nada. I phone B and L to see if they have any of the precious stuff and they say nope out tambien, so I know it's a neighborhood problem. Always comes back though. Well, so far at least.

But I'm not hear to talk about today, I'm here to talk about yesterday and I don't mean yesterday in the back-in-the-day sense that I usually go on about, I mean yesterday the day before today.

Yesterday was Tuesday or Martes in Spanish for those of you who are acquiring the language one word at a time. I was up, showered, shaved and you know, all that, ready for our Martes golf outing when the phone rang. On the phone at the other end was an hysterical woman by the name of Elizabeth, pouring Spanish into my ear at Nascar speed. Elizabeth is our friends Victoria and Scott's cleaning lady. V and S are out of the country and Elizabeth cleans their house every Tuesday and Friday. I go there bi-weekly and pay her with funds V and S have left for the purpose. Elizabeth was calling to tell me the house had been robado. Yeah, that's exactly what it sounds like, robbed. I drove there forthwith, Gus and camera in tow and verified, that yes, this was a serious robbery. Much was lost, televisions, stereo, stove, refrigerator, furniture and who knows how many small things. The robbers clearly had a truck. Next stop the Policia, bureaucracy and frustration for Gringos. Elizabeth and I alerted the police to the crime and then filled out a long form. After that we sat. Well she sat anyway, I took Gus for a walk. Eventually, one of the policemen said he had to go to the "Personneria" and would be right back. Half an hour later he returned and said we had to go there which we did. They said come back later when we had a list of everything stolen. We returned to the station and waited some more. I took Gus for another walk. He alone was having a good time. Two hours of waiting passed, for what I wasn't really sure, and my short Gringo patience finally ran out. I asked if I was really needed and told no, Elizabeth could lead them up to the house and fill in whatever blanks that needed filling. Whew. I returned home, but not before scarfing a couple of bananas I had purchased downtown, five cents for the two, as I had not eaten that morning. Woowoo Charly had gone off to the golf course with Old Redneck Larry and I was going to join them as soon as I could. RTGFKAR was not playing this week as "he hates golf, it's a stupid game" and is cutting back to every other week. I got to the course and arrived just as Woowoo and Lar finished up the first nine holes. Not much here to tell apart from my posting an individual score of 33 on the par 30 course, my best ever. After golf we met RTGFKAR at Bon and Larry's house for cocktails, then left for Aura's Restaurant for dinner. It was closed. We motored on to town and ate at our new favorite place, a new Mexican restaurant named Charros. Driving home, I slowed for what appeared to be a cop investigating an accident, a couple of cars were askew in the road, and as I passed by the cop waved me over. What the? I thought as I did what he said. He finished up with the other cars and they drove off. Peering through the passenger side window he pointed at RTGFKAR's seat belt which he was wearing and then at mine which I was not. Next, of course, he wrote and handed me the ticket.

So there you have it, a day of ups and downs that starts and ends with Policia. It was as frustrating and aggravating as you might imagine and I was feeling very bad for V. and S. throughout. There were though, cocktails, pleasant conversation, a great dinner and a long putt on number eight. All in all an odd sort of day.

And now it's nice to have the water back. I can see RTGFKAR from my window, hose in hand watering the begonias. We have begonias, don't we?