Peace and quiet

Neither the frig nor the washing machine are very good here. For example, the frig is ‘frostfree’, but it does not, as far as I can see, have a drain. Thus, when it defrosts, the water collects at the bottom and then spills out onto the floor! We have been looking at replacements. We were pricing in Costco, Sears, Wal-Mart and Soriano (a supermarket like Loblaws); there are also a couple of small appliance stores in Ajijic. What surprised us was that the latter have the best deals for the same brands as in the big stores. Also, the latter negotiate. In fact while we were just looking around, both began offering us discounts and extra off for cash. The prices are lower than at home, unless you get a big sale at Sears say. However, we shall have to get our finances in order first so we shall be making do for a while.

I think that by default I shall become the dishwasher. Barb does the laundry and most of the cooking. My main jobs in Nova Scotia were doing the floors and shovelling snow. The maid will be doing the floors and I certainly won’t have to shovel snow. I also used to load and unload the dishwasher; with no machine, I guess that I’ll be doing the dishes the old fashioned way. However, mostly I can leave the washed dishes in the drain racks; in this dry climate, they air dry very quickly.

Today, we were walking along the lake and Bijou decided to go in. There were small black bits floating on top; she got absolutely black on the bottom. There was a line sharply dividing the white top and black bottom. Barb had to wash her twice to get it all out. The lake is relatively clear of bacteria and contaminants, but the water is cloudy and murky.

Tomorrow we go to Open Circle; it’s a rabbi giving the talk. There is great diversity.