Socks are weird

They are! I haven't worn them in months, to put them on is like encasing my foot in concrete. This blog soon to be followed by 'shirts are constricting', 'I hate my bra', and 'what about these pants?'

In the "this never happens in Canada" file, yesterday our car started acting strangely. I started it, and there was like an extra motor sound. So I turned it off, and the sound continued!! We opened the hood and stood looking at it like the hopeless motor idiots we are. The neighbors immediately came over and dove in, stopped the sound, and the English-speaking young guy, Andreas, said his Uncle was a mechanic and could fix it. We said great, let's do that tomorrow! Meanwhile he said if it happened again, we could just take off this one wire and it would stop.

We carried on with our plan of buying fish at the old port, and having a cerveza while looking out at the birds at Senor Shrimp. That's one of my favorite pastimes on the weekend. Upon leaving, the same thing happened, except that this time the car wouldn't start at all!

Within minutes we had three guys looking at it trying to fix it. They couldn't, so eventually we asked if they could get us a tow. No problema, sit here in the lovely shade and let us bring you a cerveza while we call the 'car ambulance'. A bunch of really funny, helpful guys. And every few minutes someone would walk by, see the open hood and look yearningly at it- I know I could fix that!!

So we got the tow, and this morning Andreas knocked on the door (well actually people stand at the gate and call out), and we pushed the car into their yard to be fixed. If he can fix it, we'll get him to give us an oil change and a tuneup as well. A couple of American guys said, you couldn't break down anywhere better, the guys here are the best mechanics in the world!

Periodically we get blasé about living here, and then an incident like this re-opens our eyes. I walked to the Mercado last night, reminding myself again that I should walk more often. Kids are playing soccer in the streets, everyone is out visiting, and the walk light on Josefa is a little animated man who is not walking, he's RUNNING! I think that's appropriate.