many happy returns

Well, at least two happy returns on Friday.


The first was rain.  That which must fall into every life.  The adage wears a pejorative costume.  But that is not always so.


Most of us in Mexico welcome the return of the rain.  Not because it washes memories from the sidewalk of life.  Unless you are Woody Allen.  But because it settles the dust and the temperatures.


Ours arrived on Friday with a bit of a whimper.


Hurricane Adrian is off our coast kicking up a bit of fuss for the maritime set and adding some thrills for the local beach boys who like their waves to verge on limb-mangling.  Usually, hurricanes spawn at least a few thunder claps and lightening bolts.  But today – nada. 


What we got were periodic showers.  Enough to give some relief to what was a sleepless night.  But not much more than that.


But we did get what we get with almost every rain – no matter whether large or small.  A power outage.  For several hours.


Because I could not do any work on the computer, I decided to try to catch a quick nap.  That didn’t work.  No fan.


However, we did have a few hours of relief from our summer heat and humidity.  I should show my calendar to the weather god – if I could find him.  It is still spring.  We should not be having this weather until late July or so.


But my other happy return was my truck -- as you can see above.  I stopped by the mechanic around 3 on Friday.  He told me on Thursday a replacement window would be on its way from Manzanillo.  When I stopped, the window had arrived, but it was the wrong one.  He now needed to get one from Colima.


That was not a problem.  I was pleased that everything was still chugging along.  Then he told me it should arrive in Melaque later that afternoon.  I was dubious.


To kill some time, I drove over to a hardware store to purchase a tarp to cover a stack of bricks the church will use to build a new palapa later in the year.  When I drove past the shop (no later than an hour had passed), the mechanic waved me over.  He was just opening the shippping box that included my new window.


So, I left the truck there and walked the three blocks home.  He said it would be done in an hour. I gave him two.  When I returned, my truck was ready.


And the cost?  He said the cost of the window was $3,000 (Mx) – about $250 (US).  His labor cost was $100 (Mx) – $8.34 (US).


Now, I suspect my mechanic does what every mechanic does – tries to minimize the appearance of his labor cost by shifting a bit to the parts side of the equation.  But there was not much room here to do a lot of shifting.  I know that auto pats (including glass) are more expensive than up north.


Needless to say, I was pleased that I did not need to leave any appendages behind to redeem my truck.  And there are still six windows that have not yet been broken.


I would say a pretty good days of returns.