“A handful of patience is worth more than a bushel of brains.”  Dutch Proverb

Since I’ve never been burdened with a bushel (or any other measurement) of brains, I use my patience often.

As you’ve heard me lament many times already, our furniture and belongings have not yet arrived.  However, our patience has supposedly paid off.

They tell us our furniture has made it to Ajijic.  They tell us this, though I have no proof except for two phone calls David has had with our movers over the course of the last few hours.

We received a message, after an email inquiry I made yesterday, that our belongings had arrived and we needed to contact the movers for delivery.  David called immediately and was asked, when would he like to take delivery?  His response, how about now was greeted with, how about Monday.

Okay, we can make it through one more weekend.  I’m wondering if it would be possible to go and visit our stuff?  You know maybe pull out a few hundred things we are dying to get our hands on?  Perhaps, gaze upon a few items that hold special meaning – like, maybe, our toaster.   I guess that isn’t going to happen as they are still in their crates.

Life is full of ups and downs, a few steps forward and ten steps back.  For now, we march as one into the weekend knowing – though we have sustained yet another slow leak in our air mattress, our time is near its end and we will simply bound joyously into four more days of adventures in sleeping.

Pass the bottle of sleeping pills; I think I’m ready for a quick nap before the bed hits the floor!

(The pictures accompanying this post are a view of our blow up mattress and of Lumpel-Still-Skin – our cat – sequestered within said blow up mattress.)

The Blow UP

Lumpel Still Skin

To make a goal of comfort or happiness has never appealed to me; a system of ethics built on this basis would be sufficient only for a herd of cattle.”  Albert Einstein

I think I saw my first mirage today.  It was a large, comfy, throw-yourself-into-it chair where you could pull your legs under you, sit back, and read a good book.  I’m pretty sure it was a mirage, since it wasn’t anywhere in our house.

I’ve also found myself dreaming of drawers.  Drawers, you say?  Yes, you know those things you put your stuff in…or not.  Places with handles that roll in and out of larger places with more handles – well you get my drift.

Every once in a while a bed seems to drift into the dream.  It is elusive but seems to remain firmly in place, no leaks, no movement as though you are in a canoe and the slightest actions causes mega reactions.  The bed flits just out of my reach all the while grinning woodenly like that guy who used to host The Price is Right – just something unnatural about that grin.

This leads to night time terrors – what if our furniture is lost.  It was last spotted, according to our agent, in Laredo, but that was last Friday.  This is a high desert area – not much water – is it wondering this parched land looking for a home, a place to set itself down.  Does it know we miss it and are willing to send out tracking dogs, if necessary, to bring it home?

What about my stuff.  It might be just stuff, but I’ve grown attached to it.  It might even be odd – come on, doesn’t everyone love their Peter Petrie Egg Separator?  Picture all of these oddities lost, having no place to settle and not even speaking the language.

I’ve taken to looking at the TV schedules online and keeping track of the programs I’m missing.  Neither David nor I watch a lot of TV but there are programs of a great intellectual content, like Big Bang Theory, that we enjoy.  I think I’m going through withdrawal as I’m constantly looking for the “clicker” in my dreams.  The only comforting thing about this illusion is that it always ends up next to David!

Cows, smwows…I need my stuff!

George Carlin said: “Some national parks have long waiting lists for camping reservations.  When you have to wait a year to sleep next to a tree, something is wrong.”

We are in waiting mode.  In some ways we’ve gotten used to waiting.  I’m not going to exgerate – there has been some impatience on my part.  David has been much more stoic then I.

For instance, we are certainly waiting in a lovely setting.  Bright sunshine every day.  Gentle breezes day time and night time.

We went out to eat the other night.  Both of us have enjoyed a bistro call “60’s in Paradise” (the picture is of the entrance door to this establishment).  It actually has a more 50’s look- what with Elvis, James Dean, Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe gracing the walls or meeting us at the door in the form of a large cardboard cutout – I’ll let you guess which of these icons translates best as a cardboard cutout.

Walking in is fun.  Reading the menu is fun.  Talking with the cute and always cheerful waitress dressed in car hop attire (those of you who don’t know what this is are missing out on all the fun), or listening to the 50’s and 60’s rock and roll pumped in continuously throughout our meal makes our toes tap and our minds wonder.  However, the other night when we arrived with appetites in order it was closed.  We waited until the next day and went again only to find out the hours had changed and someone kept taking the posted signs.  Our waiting paid off.

Any whoo, that type of waiting is okay.  Now don’t get me wrong, we aren’t exactly waiting for a spot to lie down our bed sacks next to a tree.  Heavens no!  We have all the luxury of our blow up mattress to keep us company.  I will say sleeping on a blow up mattress might have been fun in my 20’s. My son-in-law’s tongue-in-cheek comment – I didn’t know they had those things when you were young, aside, only made me laugh.

However, our blow up mattress has sprung a leak.  Could it be that our cat who we have begun to call Lumple-still-skin, because she rarely leaves the comfort of being a lump under the covers – which I dutifully straighten around her each day – has got the right idea in sending the message – sleep forever until the actual furniture gets here, might be right.

We received a message from the movers yesterday saying our possessions had made it to Laredo.  They didn’t say where they were going after that or how long it would take them to find their way to our doorstep.  But, being the optimistic sort – we believed they would follow up with an email saying they will be here by the end of the week.  No such luck.

So we continue our wait.  Blowing the mattress up several times a day and prior to bedtime might help – although by the time evening has ended and the sunrise appears (taking into account the many rooster cackles – a whole other blog) and we find our selves lying almost on the very floor we are trying to avoid, takes its toll.  Lack of sleep doesn’t help.

We greeted the prospect of another day when our furniture MIGHT appear with optimism and now, as I write this post on my slowly sinking bed, my patience is waning thin and my butt is dragging far lower then it should be as our blow up bed begins its decent into nothingness!

Lost in transit comes to mind!

Les

This is our last night in the US. We’re in Laredo,full of anticipation and trepidation. We’re finally here and it’s difficult to come to grips with. Tomorrow might we’ll be in Mexico, and Saturday night in our furnitureless new home!

The movers came and loaded the truck today. it took 5 lift vans, not the 4 we had been hoping for, but with luck, our furniture will be in Ajijic in only 10 days!!!  Hurray!!  we’re exhausted!

You know, I could swear that when i asked our movers in Ajijic how long it would take to get the furniture to Ajijic, she said that her boys could do it in 2-3 days. i guess i should have pushed a little further to find out exactly who she meant by ‘our boys’.  Now i’m thinking that she meant 2-3 days from Laredo, not from Dallas. I asked yesterday when she thought the furniture would get there, and she said she usually told clients no more than 30 days, usually less. it all depended on the US shipper, and she’d have to get in touch with him to get a firmer number.  30DAYS??!!! that took les and i by a big surprise! we’re sure hoping it would be alot sooner than that. Like maybe 2-3 days! 30 days is too long to be paying for a room in a B&B, so we’ll probably just sleep on an inflatable bed until the real bed arrives.

The dallas movers did tell us it would ship pretty quickly since it was all in lift-vans. that it would take a lot longer if it was just indidual items and they had to find different trucks heading south. i’ll talk with him later today and see what he says.

Come on, i guess we should have realized how silly we were thinking our stuff would be in Ajijic in just a few days. we must have been thinking about what happens when you hire a moving company to move you across country in the US.

Les and I had read over and over that there were import duties on new electronics taken in to Mexico.  But we’d never bothered to ask anyone how much.

A few months ago, we got rid of our 12-15 year old rear-projection tv. we just didnt think it would make the trip down there. Best Buy had a great offer on a new plasma set, so we bought it, and a speaker system, and a blue ray player. I’d seen prices for tv’s in mexico, and they were higher than those in the states. so i thought the import duty would be something like the difference or a little more.

NOW I’M TOLD IT’S NOT!! our broker told us to expect 50% duties bringing the tv system across the boarder! That’s a lot of tacos! If we’d made the decision to buy the tv just 3 or 4 months earlier – there wouldnt have been any import duties. And if we’d asked what the duties were just 2 weeks earlier, we would have been able to return it to the store!

So the sad story – if you are going to buy anything – buy it long in advance. if you think you might need to return it, do so before the store’s return limit runs out. We’d only had the tv for 36 days, but Best Buy’s return policy was 30 days from the date on the reciept.  We’re just hoping that maybe, for some strange reason and act of God, the import duty won’t be so much.

“It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.”

This is exactly what David did….when it comes to so many of the things that needed to get done prior to our leave taking. The numerous and lengthy phone calls to various people trying to find out what forms, certifications, notarizations, legal documents and the like need to be obtained to move to Mexico.

The endless hours trying to figure out some way to bring Gilbert (our cockatiel) with us and getting Mandy (our tabby) her health certifications and shots. Insurance for the car, moving inventories (in English and Spanish)….not to mention tracking each and every single item’s serial numbers and model numbers, that have a plug or batteries, on a sheet of paper.

Getting rid of so many “things” and going through so many “things” that were difficult to donate or toss. He kept his spirits up, his sense of humor in tact and his wonderful appreciation for the absurd in force as he tackled item after item on our list.

Today he obtained his fm3 card; much to the surprise of the both of us since we were told it wasn’t likely he’d be able to do so because his social security would not begin to appear on his banking records until after the first check was received. With his birthday in August it seemed highly unlikely that would happen.

Well, David, did not sit back and let things happen – he marched in with flags waving and definitely went out and happened to things…he has his fm3 card (actually picks it up tomorrow) and is ready to roll!!

If I may take a moment, kudos to David for accomplishing what seemed to be the impossible! I don’t think Mexico is quite ready for us however we are ready for Mexico!

It’s getting close now. I remember when it was 10months away. Then 6. Now it’s just 20 days!!!

Some big questions have come up, andI hope you all have some answers.

1. We’ll be driving through Laredo.  What advice you have? Where are some good places to spend the night on the way down?

2. At the consulate where Les got her FM-3 (quite an easy process), we were told that the household inventory had to be in ‘Good Spanish’. Our movers showed us a contract saying they would make an inventory in ‘Standard American English.’ I called Teresa down at Strom White Movers in Ajijic, mentioned the disparity, and she assured me it would all go ok. I’m just a bit concerned how all this will go. At the bprder. will they require the household inventory be in Spanish, not English? What experiences have you had?

“Sitting in your home is a feat to be worked at with unflagging determination and single-mindedness – for what person worth his or her salt does not sit down?  I am deeply committed to sitting comfortably in my home.”  Mirabel Osler

Of course, this is a quote (I love quotes).  However, I’ve taken some liberties with the wording (since Ms. Osler is referring to sitting in the garden).

I have what I consider a wonderful living room set – sofa and chair, which I have decided…I think…would be too costly to move to our new home in Ajijic.

Sofa

Chair