Yesterday was a good day

We started the day off with coffee, followed by a large plate of fruit and tamales we'd bought the day before from the tamale lady who walks through the colonias. Then...

- I was able to get two loads of laundry hung and dried before the showers came.

- The link to Capi's Property Management was finally added to the MyIsla site. And Miguel starts working with his first customer as of August 1.

- Miguel cut pieces of the wire mesh holding up the plant roof over the front entrance, and knocked out a lot of dead leaves that served to provide shade and keep us dry during rainy days.

Here's how it looks sunny-side up:

Here's how it looked from underneath:

Now the dead matted leaves are gone and a little more light filters in, but there is still a fresh cool feeling when one enters the garden from the street.

- With the chores done, we headed into town to get our hair cut. 100 pesos later and we both had excess hair removed from our heads and we feel cooler. If hair growth is any indication of health, I'm very healthy - my hair grows fast, and is thick. In this humidity, once my hair reaches a certain length, it droops and hangs in my eyes and drives me nuts. I would like to let my hair grow a little longer but it's not practical, my hair simply makes me feel too hot.

- When we got back from town we took a siesta - Miguel on the front terrace in his hammock, and me on the bed where one pesky mosquito made several itchy spots and prevented me from falling asleep. I am missing the hammock on the front terrace, but the mosquitoes have a feast with me there, and so I'm banished to the indoors until they get around to spraying. I actually have a net that goes over the hammock, but it also blocks out the breeze so I don't really like using it. The bed on the ground floor is a good second choice for siesta.

- After siesta Miguel made chilaquiles and while he was doing that, I was too hungry so I dove into the fridge for a piece of chicken parmesan, slapped it on a piece of roll I'd saved from the day before, and ate it cold.

- After eating, we took to the couch to digest our food. Then Miguel went off to school to take the final test to complete his secundaria level (junior high). He came home around 8 pm - he passed! So once he gets his 'report card' (credentials), he can start preparatoria - also called bachillerato (grades 10-12, high school). Many older adults as well as young people here are completing their education via this program. Miguel went to work at the age of 14 when he came to Isla Mujeres to help his father at Aquarama (now Zama), so even though he took other courses over the 11 years he was enlisted in the military, his formal education was abandoned. I hope he continues to study and complete high school - I know it's important to him.

- The lottery booth closes at 8:30 pm, so when Miguel got home we quickly jumped on the golf cart with Loco and drove over. The hamburger stand was open, and nobody was in line, so while Miguel bought his tickets, I went over and ordered a hamburger/fries for Miguel, a hotdog/fries for me, and another single hot dog. The woman knew the single hot dog was for Loco - no onions, please.

- We finished the evening on the couch - Miguel enjoying connecting with his family via Facebook, and me putting the finishing touches on a new design for our web pages. Each page takes a long time to add the little things that make it a standard look across the pages, and keywords to optimize the site for search engines. I will do a post on this process once I get the site up - hopefully in the next few days.

- It was late when we headed up to bed, and before we could even get settled, there was a nasty cat fight in the kitchen - much more than the usual little scrap. Upon investigation I figured out that Maya went after Minina but in the process scared Smokey. Everyone seemed ok but I took Maya upstairs and made her sleep in our room so the other cats could get some peace. Of course, to Maya this was not punishment, it was a treat - and she slept quite comfortably in the sink. Next time she is going out back - but I didn't want to put her out there when we were not sleeping where we might hear if she got into trouble - she has never spent the night out back but it is in her future, if she keeps up with the bullying.

- Since I was unable to get Luna in last night, I knew our screen doors would be popped open sometime during the night. Luna's night out ended at 3:30 am - such a nice hour to be disturbed. I had been up a little earlier to let Loco in when it started to rain. And I'd been disturbed around 1 am when a mosquito bit me on the bottom of my foot - so itchy! At 5:45 I was up again - too hot. I wanted to put the ceiling fan on high but to do that I would have to stand on the bed, and at 5:45 I was not about to test my balance and it would have disturbed Miguel anyway. So I came downstairs, put out the garbage, put out all the cats (except Maya), and finished my sleep in the little bedroom.

Today everything is back to normal. Has anyone figured out that 'normal' here at Casa Susana is relative?