3 gringos have power

It has been a bit of a stressful week, as power surges blast through the house. In one room, the lights get bright enough to blow bulbs, while in the other room they get so dim as to hardly be seen. Fans take off like turbines and then slow down to nothing. We've kept all the gear off as much as possible, and last night we just read for the most part.

We called Rocky Point Resources, and Kesia brought over Hector, who used to work for the power company. He had a team in replacing wiring and then he replaced the meter. At first everything was working except when I checked with a meter we were at 87 volts AC. Not good. Hector checked the panel and came back shaking his head, no es bueno! So then he replaced some more things and now we're at a nice cozy 120 volts. Cost is about $60, but we may get an extra charge on our electrical bill for the crew that came out, we'll have to wait and see.

Meanwhile, the back right brakelight and signal light on the car went out, so I checked the manual; it wasn't a fuse, that would take out both bulbs, so it had to be a bulb. For once, something was easy, I took it apart, walked a few blocks and got a replacement, and Carl put it in, and it worked on the second try. (The first bulb ws no good, but still, we got it fixed within half an hour).

Now we are hoping there are no more household or car problems for a while. A nice quiet week is what we're hoping for. This week we also paid the trash pickup bill for a year, and paid the water bill (I had it put into our name a while ago, a morning's work).

This weekend is the big bike rally here, where 10,000 bikers come to town. We've seen evidence all week as early bikers arrive. We were at the Old Port yesterday and it was packed, with lots of bar parties going on. People seem to really like this week. I understand why the locals like it (lots of money gets spent), but I am not a bike person, so I don't get the whole noise part. Driving out to get light bulbs, I saw probably thirty bikers this morning. So it has begun!

We'll have to get Shadow out for his swim, he needs to crash into some waves. I wouldn't mind doing that myself! 28 degrees today and sunny this weekend.

Last night we barbecued our first fish. (Well our second, but the lobina was cooked in foil, now we have a fish basket so the fish is open to the flame.) It was some nice fresh flounder, big fillets, that Carl marinate in garlic and lime juice. Yum!!

The fish guy we go to recognizes me for sure now, he asked if I lived across from the air conditioning place, and said his brother works there and had mentioned us (in a good way, I'm sure!) We had a little chat, and he is aware that I'll be coming to him pretty much exclusively. We got these two big fillets for only $3, so yep, I'll be going back to him!

I also got a smile yesterday from the lady at our local bakery. Either she is happy the weather is cooler, or she recognizes me, too. I hope it's the latter, we do feel like we're fitting into the neighborhood a bit better. Love that panaderia, everything is so fresh. And I found some crusty chewy buns yesterday, which makes me happy.

We might have blown our amp in this electrical issue, but if that's all that happens, we're fine! It appears to be a self-healing amp, it's been off before and somehow with time it comes back. Time will tell.