Report from the Beach

(andy blogging here)

I'm writing this from the beach. My parents, two of their friends, and a friend of mine from LA came down for a visit this week and we all took off for the coast. We rented a couple of houses on the Nayarit coast and have been having a ball. The weather has been warm, the food great, and the surf consistent.

Stina actually went back to GDL for the week to attend to the house (and get some alone time) so I'm managing the kids alone but with the help of the grandparents. There is a small pool on the deck of the house we're renting and, between this and the beach, the kids have been in the water most of the time (me too). Lucy even got her first real wave - with her on the front of a longboard, me on the back, we paddled into a few waist-high sets.

A lot to report since the last update. All of our stuff showed up, much to our surprise, in two large trucks two days before X-mas. We spent the next week unpacking boxes and moving in. By X-mas morning, in fact, we were living in the house and Santa was able to find us without incident.

Living in the new house has been a dream - the extra space, the proximaty to the school, having our things around us again, and not having to commute back and forth from the apartment has made our life immeasureable better.

Unfortunately a few things were stolen in customs. Mostly computer stuff and tools but since everything was insured we'll recover. There was a bit of a scare when all three of our harddrives were missing from the boxes in which they were packed. We'd backed up all of our photos, videos, and music on three seperate drives and packed them in seperate boxes. All of the pix and videos of the kids - everything gone in a single instant. In the end, only 2 were stolen and the third, curiously, ended up in a box full of garden plants.

So Xmas day evening was spent with a group of gringo pals. We had a great dinner with wine, candles, music, and wonderful company in a house that, more or less, resembled a home. Besty (Stina's Mom) had come down for the week to help unpack, celebrate the holidays, and assist with the kids as I, on the last day of the year, returned to the US to buy a car.

I flew into LA to visit friends and spent the new years eve watching a band called Dengue Fever - they played early 70's Cambodian pop music (A sub-genre of a sub-genre of a sub-genre - only in L.A.) Had a wonderful time there just hanging out and enjoying the company, food, and night life. Then I flew to the bay area to buy a Honda Element (which, oddly, are not available in Mexico). I immediately went to work upgrading the car and sound system. Props to my friends Robert and Kathryn (for use of thier garage) and Scott (for use of his tools). After 4 days, the car had all of the goodies installed including a stereo to die for. It rained the entire time I was there and, other than missing friends, was glad to see it in my rear view mirror. San Francisco in January - no thank you. I made it to L.A by the first day. The next put me in Tucson (7 hours). The next back in Mexico at Vic and Betsy's house in Alamos (9 hours - great to be back in warm dry Mexico). They were kind enough to put me up and show me around thier adopted city. A 12-hour marathon drive put me back in GDL - home again but with a new car.

Finally, the house. It's hard to imagine the progress that's been made in the 4 short weeks since the last update. The rear courtyard may be completed by the time we get back home this week. The new windows are in. The beams are installed. The walls are resurfaced and primed. All that really remains back there is paint (which, as mentioned) may already be done) and the floor tiles. The closet in the bedroom is done. The laundry room is done (save the paint). The garage is done (again, save the paint). All of the interior paint it done. The upstairs patio(s) have all been demoed. The windows, doors, and stairs have all been ordered and they are hard at work roughing in the walls for my office upstairs. The progess is nothing short of amazing.

My Mom and Dad have agreed to stay on for a few extra weeks to help me with a couple of projects. We'll install a new hot water systems with a vacuum tube solar heater and a back-up boiler. Then we'll rewire the whole place using the existing conduit. Should be fun. I'm hoping that the electric company has come by to hook up my new service while I've been gone this week.

We're still happy as clams in Mexico. I suspect that we're still in the honeymoon period when all or the odd challenges and weird things seem cute and ethnic - an adventure. At some point they may just seem annoying and unnecessary and some of the shine may dissappear. At least this is what we're told by folks that have been here for more than a year or two. So we're waiting, and are prepared for, the other shoe to drop but, in the meantime, it's life as it's meant to be lived.