To Ask Senor or Not......That is the Question

Buen dia!
Yesterday morning I rode new old bike out to the arches and beyond. I don't think that's more than a round trip of eight miles but when I got home I had to take a long siesta. That route is all about up and down and finally the bike shop has installed two new handle bar shifter thingies that activate the derailers. I just went out and asked Senor what those things are called..........are they called something special, i asked. He was up on the ladder, not happy with my question..............oh, are you thinking........i asked. Not happy again.....well, can I just call them gear shifter thingies...............sure, can i get back to work now, he asked. When Senor is working, especially up on the ladder with a tool in his hand, and I know this, he does not like being distracted.

I try not to bother Senor when he is working, but well, sometimes it is hard not to, even if it a dumb question about new old bike. This does not mean we don't talk to each other during the day, of course we do, I am referring in particular to critical times when it is obvious he is immersed in his work. But sometimes those times are not so obvious to me. Besides, by nature, I am a multi tasker. I can talk any subject Senor wants, answer any question thoroughly while totally concentrating on an entirely different topic. Easy as making an apple pie and thinking about which plates to serve it on, whether or not to serve whipped cream and coffee, and yes, dear, I got your laundry from the cleaners and don't forget we have dinner with Harry and Sarah on Tuesday and teacher's conferences tomorrow at two.

I should have learned my lesson long, long ago when we bought our very first house, a small little craftsman bungalow on the edge of a ravine. He was building a rock wall. I was sitting on the grass, waiting for him to assign me my part of rock wall building. I began talking to him about the other things I thought we should do to the yard as he carried huge gorst rocks by wheelbarrow from the alleyway to the wall. Oh, I thought a fence on top of the wall would be nice, a grape arbor, a few new rhododendrons here and there, oh, and could you make us a bird feeder and when are we going to drive out to the lake and get that old wooden hot tub our friend said we could have..................

If my memory serves me correctly, he stopped working, went inside the house and turned on a football game. He just left me sitting there in the grass.

Later, while we were playing a game of croquet, I mentioned how he left me in the grass there................so, he said, this is my only complaint, when I am working on a project, I am really concentrating on my work, it is hard to talk when I am carrying huge heavy rocks..............

So the shifter thingies work and I was able to get up in that gear............is it high or low that gets you up hills? I would go and ask Senor but, ouch. It must be high.

The bike man went to Tucson for over a week and came back with boxes and boxes of stuff, all new looking. I am pretty certain my shifters were in that box and I was very worried about what it was going to cost me. Forty-five pesos, that's what it cost, not even four dollars. So after my siesta, I rode to town. Then again, later in the day, I went out again. New old bike is working like new. On one of my trips I went to buy bird seed at the feed store over in La Capilla barrio and saw this little calf. There were some men sitting on the wall there and they said they were waiting for a key to the courtyard of this casa so they could graze the calf. They asked me to stay and have coffee, but I told them I was off to town.

I took the long route to town and crossed over the new bridge. It has been completed now for over six months, but we still call it new. The two pictures following this one will show you what happened to the original bridge when Hurricane Norbert hit. That will be three years ago on October 11. If you want to refresh your memory about Norbert, you can see the posts and photos by clicking on the Norbert tags to the right. It's still pretty clear in my mind, so I only pulled up the two bridge photos and did not look at anything else. I find that I cannot look at too many photos of Norbert, it's certainly still very clear in my mind.
So, this morning I left new old bike alone to rest and mowed the lawn. I was able to complete it in one hour and forty three minutes and two tankfuls of gasoline. I swear I will have this whole yard covered someday in concrete. I had to take a siesta when I was done and I would have slept for two hours, I am sure, except Senor started using his saw and that woke me up. See the freshly mowed lawn below.



More vigas and beams are going up on the portal. Every day I think this portal is bigger and bigger and I wonder how I will ever fill it up to make it look lived in. Sixty feet, I think that is correct. I would go and ask, but................
Of course, we are still planning on the dipping pool and that will be under the portal, or would that be called on the portal. Not going to go find out.

Below you can see some of the electrical tubing Senor has up there. He has a map of all that, what is in each tube, where it goes, the location of it in the wall and what it goes to. Yesterday he was studying that and I asked him if he would buy me a topochico mineral water next time he went out and could he also get me some pesos from the bank so I could pay the electricity...............and do you want shrimp or turkey for dinner................... Evil eye.
Senor is using his saw. I am going to go take a picture, be right back.

He is cutting barro blanco for the roof top.



The other day I was reading through one of my house magazines. This particular magazine is one I purchased several years ago at El Nicho, an antique store here in Alamos. I flipped through an article about remodels and how romantic it can be if approached correctly. The author clearly stated it is important to communicate as you work. The wife should consider staying on top of making sure she is doing the job given her correctly. Especially if there is no general contractor and a couple might be doing their project together. Asking questions of the person, husband, in charge is critical to the continuation of the project and the author went so far as to suggest that contrary to what one might think, bedtime is a very good time to bring up thoughts and ideas about your project, for example, try snuggling and then tell him how you think the refrigerator should go on the wall opposite the one where the electrical wiring was installed. Woman's Housekeeping, 1969.

Oh, one of these days I suppose I might discover that I have learned not to talk to Senor when it is obvious he is concentrating on his project. I might stop and think to myself, is this a good time or a bad time to ask that question. Or maybe I will never learn because after all, if that's his only complaint.....................