I feel like going postal

I hope my sanity returns someday.

I wish it would return as soon as tomorrow and I would wake up being my old self again: a sane, nonviolent, open minded and openhearted liberal.

But today, if I had a machine gun, I would most likely open fire at a group of locals gathering on the beach under my balcony, enjoying 72 hours of a non-stop beach party with a non-stop obnoxiously loud music.

And totally ignoring my pleas, my helpless cries to turn the music down.

So today I would coldbloodedly mow them all down, men, women and children, to silence that obnoxious noise. And then I would take a nap!

I could not run away from them this weekend, not even for a spell of a silence, because on Thursday I was diagnosed with a bad case of infection and ordered to stay in bed at least till tomorrow. And I am sick like a dog...

I used to like Latin music (I doubt that after this weekend I would ever be able to), I used to like Puertoricans ( again, I am not sure that after this weekend I will ever be able to).

I used to be nonviolent - but today I would kill gladly those inconsiderate monsters on the beach.

And, I am afraid, that after 72 hours of being tortured with increadibly loud Latin music (who cares if good or bad??? 72 hours of Chopin or Bach or Vivaldi would be waaaay too much! especially at that decibel level!) if I ever hear a loud Latin music again, my instinctual reaction would be to want to murder - quickly - anyone who plays it.

Oh, boy, I used to be an open minded liberal - today I am closer to being a racist that I could ever imagine!

Of course it is not the beach goers race, not their skin color that makes me today want to coldbloodedly murder them all - it's their obnoxiousness, their total lack of consideration for people, who live in my building, as well as for people, who might want to enjoy the beach - without having been forced to listen to their choice of music at their chosen level of deafening amount of decibels.

Now I understand first hand at least some of the mechanisms behind the so called "racism" and "racial profiling" - they are likely to have nothing to do with race as such, but are perhaps only an unfortunate result of obnoxious elements of a lifestyle of a group of people, people behaving according to a different set of cultural norms (and now I am being euphemistic - liberal that I usually am).

I hope this weekend - and the beach party outside my windows - will end soon and that I might soon start regaining my sanity.

My last electric bill in Puerto Rico

The AEE (Autoridad de Energia Electrica) procedure for returning your electricity deposit is not designed for people who leave the island.

After you inform AEE- in person, in their office, not online - though you can pay a bill online, thanks heavens: in PR a lot of stupid errands has to be done by foot, or wheel, not by phone or email, which would be a lot easier - that you no longer want to have electricity in your place, because you are moving away, they tell you to await a letter from them in about a week's time.

Ok, the letter arrived two weeks - not one week - later, but, surprise, surprise, there is no check in it. Just a statement that you have a credit with AEE and that you have to go visit their office - in person - again, to collect your money, I am hoping.

But what if you need to have electricity up to the day you move away from the island???

They apparently do not want you to move away - at least not with your money!

Sunday afternoon

the weather's so so, yet the beach in front of my condo looks like that

and that
Does not seem like too big a crowd, but the noise they make is horrendous. Kids scream, adults shout - all at once, all the time, from Thursday afternoon till late Sunday night, there is no quiet minute!

And I still have two more weekends of that noise pollution to endure...

I am dirty... :-(((

.... I was looking forward to making a trip to my favorite beach today... but I can't go anywhere, for the simple reason that there is NO WATER in my apartment complex today and thus I could neither take a shower or wash my hair... and I am not going to go anywhere dirty!

Nobody knows why there is no water, nobody knows if and when it will be back... not even the maintenance people. Oh, Puerto Rico is hell more often than not!

OK, I brushed my teeth and washed my face and hands - using water sparingly. I have only one galon of it and carrying enough water to the third flor to wash up is not a doable task for a woman my age.

So I am sitting on my balcony - sweating (it's hot!) and fuming that I HATE Puerto Rico! With a vengeance! I want to leave, NOW, no matter if I had to give away all the stuff I acquired here. I am - personally - sooooo sick and tired of this hellish "paradise"!

But one of my coworkers quit her position during the holidays, I got a couple of grants for a project I designed. It needs to start in February, or the organization risks loosing its credibility as a grantee, not to mention the disadvantaged Puerto Ricans we work for, who'd lose a chance at employment, income, improving their living standard and their quality of life....so for THEIR sake I should stay - another six, seven months??? Until a suitable replacement for me could be found?? If there would ever be another skilled one willing to work for peanuts....

And I am doing best I can to try to stay, despite the fact, that I am uncomfortable and thus unhappy here, that I can't stand all those inconveniences: heat, lack of water, general shabbiness and shoddiness of dwellings plus a bysantine bureaucracy everywhere!

The repairs in my current apartment finally were done last saturday.

But... not only had I to cut short a brunch with club friends, witch I greatly enjoyed, to hurry back home to meet the plumber.... one of the newly installed faucets - the one in the bathroom, stopped working already the next day - lasting barely long enough for me to pay my January rent!

So I am thinking HOW, on earth, could I be able to stay here any longer???
Where???

There is NO supply of decent, even halfway decent rentals in this part of the island. And there is no service. None. Zero!

Cabo Rojo has a plethora of houses and appartments for rent on clasificicados. So does Mayaguez. But that's a theory.
Many of them are the same places listed in duplicate, triplicate etc.
Many of the reasonably priced ones have already been rented and are no longer available, but are on the list.

I keep calling real estate agents, yet few of them even have a decency to return a call, once they know you want to rent, not to buy.

So how am I going to be able to do any job without even a halfway decent place to live??? With water, internet, working appliances?
You tell me!

Landlords from hell

I am sorry to say, but ALL my patience with the discomforts of living in Puerto Rico is now gone!

I know that - in a larger perspective - my complaints are petty ones, but I detest discomfort caused by someone's inneficiency, uncaring and general lack of service.

I can take a certain amount of discomfort, if it is adventurous and only for a short time: living in the rain forest, without a phone (since not even cell phones work there) and internet due to lack of coverage (providing those services are available nearby and can be accessed daily), parking my car half a mile down and walking up a steep hill to the cabin.... carrying my laptop, and all the groceries on my back.

But I can't take a lack of water, because the cabin's owner did not install it properly... or an invasion of bugs, because the owner put a roof floating over the walls, instead of attaching it to them... and failed to inform me of any of the cabin's "quirks". And abandoned her kitty in the cabin, so I had to adopt the poor creature!
At least there the rent was peanuts.

But here in Joyuda I rented a beachfront condo, a so called luxury one for a luxury price. It proved to be a hellish place - overheating so badly, due to lack of insulation that even now, in January, when the temperature outdoors is 84 degrees it becomes even hotter inside. Didn't the landlady know about it? Didn't the real estate agent? Should not any of them inform me?

Anyway, I was not aware that I needed a temperature clause in my rental contract, so there was not much I could legally do about it... I could only swear and complain.

But repairs, which according to contract were the obligation of a landlord, were another matter: so after two months of reasoning with my landlady - through a real estate agent, since any efforts to reach the landlady directly failed totally (she never replied), I finally decided to delay the rent payment until the things that - according to the contract needed fixing - were fixed.

And, halleluja, after only two and a half months (!) I finally got a missing window screen, an internet connection (landlady insisted all utilities etc. remained in her name, so I could not get it in my name, without violating a contract... I suspect she does not declare the condo as rented in order not to pay taxes on the income... but I am not a tax police).
I got hot water after only a month, because I got tired of cold water and fixed it on my own. I know, I am sooo impatient!

So I paid my November rent in a sheer euphoria that my landlady finally got something fixed, despite the fact, that faucets in both my bathroom and kitchen needed urgent replacement, as they tended to fall off at will, creating unexpected - and undesirable - fountains in the kitchen and bathroom. And she promised to fix them.

But come December and they were not fixed - surprise, surprise! - so I delayed rent payment again. My landlady called me promising to fix the faucets, but asked for a rent check in advance of repairs. I declined.
And still nothig happened. Faucets fall off almost daily now, and ... two days after I got back from the mainland, my stove top and oven quit working.

A message to my landlady remains unanswered - ok she might be travelling, or even be in a hospital, but she has family: a daughter living close to me and dropping in during my work hours to put utility bills under my front doors. So there is no excuse. And I guess she does not need the rent money???

So by now I have " recovered" my deposit - by not paying rent since November - and could - and should - move out without having to sue her in an unfamiliar legal territory ... since I seriously doubt I would ever get my deposit back, or manage to get a discount on my rent for all the dicomfort living at her place caused - and causes - me, without having to sue her for a breach of contract. Sigh...

OK, OK, I feel slightly sorry for her, if her negligence as a landlady is a result of a - monumental! - ineptitude and not ill will, because I am almost equally inept in practical everyday matters... but knowing my strengths and weaknesses I would never even entertain a thought of being a landlady... without hiring a management company to deal with bothersome for me details!

But a simple thought of moving to another place in Puerto Rico and dealing with - most likely - irresponsible landlords, in addition to extremely shoddy construction, gives me shivers... so I sent a couple of emails instead, to check a possibility of a relocation to Florida and ... got a green light the same day... despite my age and recession. (But I do get results - funding - for my non-profits, despite recession, so - naturally - they all want those results.)

Still, I decided, that if I can fix the stove top and oven for a reasonable amount of money, I'll endure another seven weeks on the island and transfer at the end of February - in order to be able to finish at least the most critical aspects of my work project and - hopefully - find a replacement for myself.

But if the stove can't be fixed inexpensively - I am out of here now!

No luck with the car... :-((((

Shock absorbers, fluid and coolant exchange... all of it is going to cost me today close to $900!!!
After I spent about $ 500 on it last month (starter, oil change, belts, air filter).
And it irks me that I have another car, waiting idle for me, on the mainland. :-((((

Boy, is life on this island expensive!!!! Sigh....

Hurra!

An early evening view from my balcony . The weather's fine!


I finely ( after 2 and a half month) got a cable TV and internet at my new place.

Long story: All utilities: electric, water, cable is in my landlady's name and she wants to keep it that way. She is a nice and wellmeaning lady, once you learn to know her, but she was absent most of the time and I had a lot of troubles to get in touch with her. Finally this month I decided to postpone paying rent until everything I needed fixed got fixed.

Looks like it worked almost like a charm: less than two weeks and I got a missing window screen, cable fixed, internet installed and a plumber is supposed to come later today. So now i can post some pictures of my new place - as it is now.

And here is the same view in the middle of the day. A boat is passing in front of Desecheo island. (Click to see the details)

My guests (Katrina and Disa) in an animated conversation one Saturday afternoon

Here is my kitchen
my living room...
with a good luck "goldfish" I once bought on Galveston island now hanging in a Puertorican net...

When I drag the table - and chairs - back inside from the balcony, they serve as a dining room/study.

Definitively minimalistic... save for the abundance of cats everywhere! Cats by the table...

Cats on the table...


Cats in front of the TV...
Cats in my recliner...

Cats in every corner...

Cats in cat beds...

Cats on top of the refrigerator...
Cats on top of the world... er.. on top of the stackable washer and dryer ...

Cats on the balcony...

...and all the cats in my bed! It's time to retire - they tell me: come on in, there is place for you, too! :-)

It's night already. Behind the bedroom window a silvery moon is reflecting in the sea...

I think I'll just move in to Sears

Auto Center. Due to all the time - and money - I spend there recently.

After all the maintenance and the purchase of an ultra expensive high performance starter motor ( as if I were a rally driver, lol), my car developed a ticking (coughing ?) noise every time I turn the motor on and turn a wheel. I have no idea what it is and the Sears mechanics did not mention that anything was wrong. Sigh.

So today I need to go there again and make them check it out. Wish me luck. Sigh.

A car and .... a machete

I have had a series of troubles with my car lately.

It served me without the slightest mishap since last December, when I bought it (save for a routine maintenance like oil chnges, new battery and tires) till October, when I had to replace its starter motor (and have been price gauged really, really bad) , got a flat tire and - upon changing oil - learned (from Sears) that besides the oil, I need to replace two belts, change all the fluids and the coolant, air filter and something - all in all over $300 - again!

But yesterday my car trouble was my own fault entirely: I left my car keys in the lock. I was going to atted meeting yesterday afternoon and found out the keys were inside.

So I asked one of the coworkers, Joel, a really thoroughly talented guy, what should I do, and he threw his arms in the air, but then laughed, asked me to wait and in a moment ... emerged with a machete.

I have seen machete used to cut grass, vines, pumpkins, but I had no idea how easy it is to open a car door with a machete. Merely seconds!

I was impressed by Joel's abilities, greatful for his help... but from now on I'd rather not leave anything of value (like my laptop) in the car, knowing anybody with a machete can open it at any time within seconds.

Not that a guy with a machete would not be conspicuous on a parking lot of a mall, for example ;-)

My year in Puerto Rico

Last Sunday was my anniversary of living in Puerto Rico.

I decided to leave the island as soon as my professional obligations permit, most likely during spring, as I absolutely can't imagine spending another rainy/hurricane season here.

I could live here during a few winter months... but there are probably more comfortable places in the Caribbean to spend winters, which I haven't yet discovered, so I am not likely to return to PR.

Right now my overall impression of Puerto Rico as a place for me is : a hell with some elements of paradise....., but given sufficient time outside the island my memory might change to a paradise with elements of hell... I usually remember adventures warmly, even if they have been hellish at the time ;-)

What was paradisic in Puerto Rico for me:

• Climate ... but in winter only... I love being able to wear light summer clothes all winter long, swim in the warm, calm, beautiful Caribbean sea,
• Nature ... its beauty and its unexpected diversity, considering that it is such a small island. Granted, Puerto Rico does not - by far - have the natural diversity of fauna or flora of , say, Costa Rica, but it is both beautiful and diversified nevertheless. And Puerto Rico has some really breathtaking beaches.
  
• People... though as friends, coworkers and neighbors only: they are warm, helpful, cheerful... Puerto Ricans as citizens are not my kind of people: I dislike traditionalism, conservatism, unwillingness to stand up to authorities and demand fair treatment by them... and, most definitively, I dislike what happens to many Puerto Ricans when they get behind the wheel .... it is like dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde... ;-)
  
• San Juan Viejo... it is utterly charming despite its commercialism. I moved to Puerto Rico after visiting the Old San Juan only and imagined the whole island to be as charming... A big mistake... the rest of the island is an architectural disaster, completely devoid of any elements of charm.

What was hellish for me in PR:

• Housing. Definitively THE main contributor to my perception of Puerto Rico as hell. I have NEVER had to move so many times in such a short period of time. Only twice during my year in PR I moved because of the job change, while four times I moved because of the hidden flaws in the dwellings I rented: noise in the first dwelling, dangerous electric shower in the second, lack of water in the casita when the stream dried out, and having been trapped there once due to idiotic construction of inoperable windows, overheating due to nonexistent insulation in walls and ceiling in my current condo. I would have moved again in a heartbeat again from my new condo, despite its breathtaking view of the sea and of magnificent sunsets, were it not for the high deposit I paid... the hope that the problem won't be so pronounced in winter... and lack of more suitable alternatives near my work. I thank heavens, though, that I have resisted signing the rental contract for one year: my expensive, so called luxury condo ... is overheating so badly that - except for the (huge, I admit) balcony and its sea breeze - the rest of the condo is practically uninhabitable in the afternoons and evenings - where I want to spend some time there. And the bathroom without a window and without ac makes even morning grooming an exercise in futility: one gets sweaty within a minute of leaving the shower!
  So I have decided to NEVER AGAIN rent a place without central a/c in a hot climate. And there are NO dwellings with central a/c for rent in PR - as far as I know!
• Climate between May and November: it is awfully hot and humid! Yet, I am used to hot and humid. I have lived on a barrier island in Texas, where it gets a lot hotter, and I was very comfortable there. I have also lived in Florida in summer, and was comfortable also. But in all tropical and semi tropical places where I lived I had a central a/c at home, or - like in Costa Rica - lived so high up in the mountains, that a/c was not needed, and I was not forced to suffer heat and humidity both outside and inside! And the heat and humidity (without a/c) in PR creates a mold problem I have never had to deal with before PR (except for a short period in Costa Rica, but I left CR in mid June)... and never want to deal with after PR! And I haven't even mention the hurricanes, yet, the occasional lack of water and electricity during the hurricane season. No, PR in summer IS HELL! Both for people and electronics.
  
• Roads are almost as bad as in most of Latin America, which is far poorer than PR and not a part of USA. So there is not a lot of excuse for PR authorities to have neglected them so badly. They are hell on cars.
• Inequality, overblown and inefficient bureaucracy etc, - did you know that PR, despite it being a free associated state of the USA ranks as FOURTH MOST UNEQUAL country in the Americas???
  

My new - all in all - $400+ starter motor...

... or how to be taken to the cleaners (twice???) by car mechanics in PR.

In my last post - from less then two weeks ago (I know, I have been neglecting this blog) I wrote about the troubles my starter motor caused me... and that I had it fixed after a couple of hours of wasted time and a $ 130 in towing ($45) and parts and labor for the starter.

I thought the problem was fixed. But no... yesterday I went to the airport in San Juan to drop in my daughter, who was leaving after her long weekend visit. Parked the car... but when I was ready to drive back, the car would not start. The airport security came to help, noticed there was electricity: sound signals worked, lights worked, radio worked... but the car would not start.

They tried to bust it anyway, but to no effect. They said it was my starter. Whaaat? Said I?
I had it fixed less than two weeks ago!!!!

They shook their heads... So I called AAA, now knowing it offered services in PR.

A towing truck came in less than half an hour. The towing guy tried to bust it, also, not trusting the security people... and the same no result. Starter, he said. I repeated that I had it fixed less than two weeks ago. He, too, shook his head and towed me to the nearest Western Auto in Carolina.

"You need a new starter" - they told me. "It will be $ 170".

I reapeated that I had it fixed recently.

"He rebuilt your starter" they told me. "But it did not work. You need a new one. $ 170, will be ready in 45 minutes".

So there I was : 120 miles away from home, two deadlines looming and I have already taken too much time to entertain my daughter during the weekend and driving her to San Juan.

"OK", I said.

But after half an hour the guy, Carmelo, calls me back:

"We have a problem" he says." This is not the part you need. The regular starter won't work in your car". He did not explained why. He only shook his head, when I asked and continued: You need a special starter. There is one in Lakeland, Texas, which we can get here in one and a half weeks (he knows I am 120 miles from home, before he askem me that previously) ... and there is one on the island, which I can get in about half an hour, but it will be that much" and he shows me a price on the computer of $ 296.

I had a distinct feeling I was being taken advantage of ( you know , the Blink factor), but... what was I to do: renting a car, driving to Cabo Rojo and driving back in one and half a week would cost me more that the difference (of about $ 100) in quoted starter prices, so I agreed.

The part arrived within the half hour as promised and the car was fixed within a bit more than an hour. But the final bill did not show the price of the starter as previously quoted at the computer screen. It was the same as Lakeland price - if I remember correctly. Only a few other parts and services were suddenly added to come to a definitively not cool $301.

I have been taken to the cleaners: twice, presumably... though the first time might have been in a misguided wellmeaning....

Handy men and car mechanics - two groups I have very bad experiences with ... almast always trying to take advantage of single old ladies. That was the reason I sold my house in Texas when my spouse died and swore never to buy another one, so I would not have to be at handyman's mercy - or bother my neighbors every time I got a repair quote to verify just how badly they want to rob me.

But how WHERE can I live without a car, to be able not to be at mercy of car mechanics????

Making a grand entry... the WRONG way!

Mayaguez Resort and Casino - terrace in front of IFC meeting room

This morning I - inadvertently, I swear! - made a huge traffic stop when entering - by car - Mayaguez Resort & Casino, to attend a breakfast meeting of the Mayaguez International Friendship Club.


I pulled into the entry gate too far away to reach a parking ticket, so I stopped the car and got out to pick my ticket up. That went realtively well, although already inconveniencing a few drivers behind me... but when I got back into the car and tried to start it... nothing happened.

Again and again. I opened the mask, to see if battery screws needed tightening, messed with them a moment and ... hotel personnel started coming to get me off that spot. First they tried the jumper cables, but when these did not help, they pushed my car away, so the others could pass me.

I could not believe how many cars I managed to stop during this five minutes (?) of my car mishap!

I told the parking attendants I was about to be late to a meeting. "Don't worry", they told me, "your car can stay here until you get back and then we shall see what we can do."

Now, THAT, I call a first class service!


I enjoyed the meeting, got the tow truck called in by the parking staff, after they failed to start the car with jumper cables. "Starter" they told me "not the battery". The tow truck took it to Mercado Auto Electric downtown, a garage that specializes in alternators (don't ask me what that is, I have no idea), starters, generators, regulators and all things electrical.

The car is now fixed. Starter changed. Parts and labor total $68.78, which, I was told, is a very good price.

Tow truck was $45 and a very nice conversation with its driver, who told me about his adventures driving an 18-wheeler through the entire USA and Canada, when he worked there. He knew how to speak Spanish to a foreigner, and even threw in some English words, when I looked confused, so I understood quite a bit of it. Too bad I did not know I could have used my AAA in Puerto Rico, but I know now!

The worst was the close to 40 minutes wait for a coworker to come and pick me up from the garage, as it is downtown, tight spaces, hot, nowhere to sit and cool down. And, of course, after I pick up my car from the garage, I'll have to try and not get lost, among the maze of narrow, congested streets. But I'll manage somehow :-))

Boy, am I bitchy today!

Yeah, that's right: bitchy... No, it is not a misspelling of beachy... I feel far from beachy today....

I feel, I feel... almost as disgusted as my profile portrait ;-)!

You see: my stomach hurts. A lot! For a few days now and alka seltzer, pink soup and even immodium seem not to make it better. So I need to find a doctor and make an appointment.

My real estate agent, Aida Martinez, (AIM Realty), who is a local Cabo Rojan, and a very nice person, recommended two. I call, ask if the receptionist speaks English... and hear no.

(I am surprised. Just a moment ago I called a local vet to make an appointment for my cat and the vet's assistant spoke decent English. While the doctor's assistant doesn't. Is it because most people who take care of pets here are English speakers... and the vet would not make any money catering to Spanish speakers only??? Told you I was feeling particularly bitchy today...)

She does not even try. Nor does she utter a polite disclaimer " I am sorry" or "lo siento". (And SHE is an American citizen, while I am not! The b... word again...) She just says "no".
Yet, instead of deciding right then and there to end this attempt at conversation, I do try my Spanish.

I explain that my stomach hurts and I need an appointment. ("Yo tengo mucho dolor de estomago y necessito pronto una cita con doctor ..."). She asks my name, tells me October 2nd and asks what kind of plan I have. All in Spanish, but that much I understand.

I have a stomach pain now and she tells me to come a week from now? And without specifying an hour? Or telling me the address? So I ask ... and she gets irritated and speaks now in this rapid fire Boricua, which to me is almost totally incomprehensible.. it does not even resemble the Spanish Spanish I know a bit of. Sigh...

I ask her to speak slower, she speaks even faster. And this only about specifying time and address. And keeps asking about my insurance and telling me "no". I tell her, don't worry, no se preocupe, knowing I am unable to explain to her that my "plan" will pay for any doctor's fees, but she tells me "no".

A rude, obstinate idiot, who should never be allowed to work with people. What kind of a doctor, I think, hires such a stupid bitch as his assistant?

Do I want to see such a doctor? I decide I do not want - let me rather die of stomach pain : he should have had enough sense to hire someone more educated and nicer. (Unless she is his wife... or lover... but then I definitively do not want to see him: the guy's judgement can't be trusted!) So I throw the receiver down in frustration.

And then I laugh at myself: why am I not mad at myself for not knowing adequate amount Boricua? Good question. Perhaps I am getting too old to learn effectively?
I did not have a problem in communicating in Spanish with medical support staff in Spain... they often do not speak English in the public medical system there either (but private doctor's assistants did), but they at least spoke Spanish, slowly, distinctly, like to a foreigner... ;-)

My stomach hurts... a lot... and I am sick of Puerto Rico... again (yesterday I dealt with car licence... don't get me started!!!!) and I want back to a civilized country: be it USA (which is not quite civilized, either, but at least medical staff there knows how to behave... and speaks English), be it even Spain... anything, ANY COUNTRY would be more logical and better organized than Puerto Rico!!!

Told you I was particularly b...y today, didn't I???

Double move... over two weekends

I am moving -yes, again, to my new place in Punta Arenas, Joyuda. I am moving partially from Aguada, where I spent the last one and a half months and partially from the mountains of Patillas, wher most of my belongings still are.

I picked up my Puertorican teenage cats last Thursday, on my way back from the conference in San Juan. I was lucky - they both were near the casita, so I could pick them up and go, without having to spend another night there (I am still a bit horrified of a prospect of staying there after having been trapped inside the last time around).

Got the keys to my new place yesterday evening and today moved the cats and some stuff from Aguada. Tomorrow I'll move the rest of the stuff from here. Unfortunately I could not persuade anybody to work on Labor Day weekend, so I am doing the move from Aguada totally on my own - carrying stuff up to the second floor. Worse, I'll aslo have to do a move out cleaning tomorrow myself, since no local wants to work on weekend. Tuesday, yes, but not on a Labor Day. Great! And I'll have to live superminimalistic for another week. And without internet!
Sometimes, I swear I HATE Puerto Rico!

Tropical freeze

Holiday Inn in San Juan/Isla Verde boasts of its tropical atmosphere, while, in reality it is overly air conditioned everywhere and its grand ballroom/biggest conference room is a huge refrigerator.

And I am here, since yesterday noon, freezing my extremities off, together with circa 50 fellow sufferers, wrapped in all clothes they brought, sweaters, jackets, woolen caps (some people, obviously knew what to expect, while others did not) even comforters!

I wonder what the tourists say: "I have been to Puerto Rico! Brrrrrr" ????

For me, personally it is not the end of suffering. I have unexpectedly been thrown into four twelve hour (!!!) days of advanced conversational Spanish, expected to discuss - intelligently, if possible - issues like "modelos y tipos de pobreza" and "descubrimiento social???"... or whatever... I can't really think in any language after 12 hours of that!

I knew I would have to discuss stuff like that... I just naively thought that I could do it in English, since it is a US government organized event. Silly me....

Good night, ladies and gentlemen, I am bushed... and frozen, and ... worst of all ... they serve an abundance of very tempting sweets FIVE times a day, so I better take some more insulin, again...

Two more days of frozen Spanish immersion from 7 am in the morning till 7:30 at night.
If I survive this ordeal I'll be back ... on Friday perhaps ???
Wish me luck, please.

Trapped!

On Thursday I went to the mountains to visit my two kitties left in the casita.

I was worried and not able to sleep untill the small hours of the morning when I could not find one of the kitties, Fortuno, and was then told that he actually has not been seen by the pet sitter for the last two weeks. The other one, Sweetie was there, but whining, complaining about something. So I was worried that something might have happened to Fortuno.... but he came home before dawn.... and all became well.

I woke up happy, made myself a cup of tea, which I was planning to drink on the terrace... but no matter how hard I tried, I could not open the door. It was an old container door, locked with a padlock on the outside, usually after leaving. But this time Goyo, the pet sitter who came to the casita with me, carrying food and water for me and the kitties (I left the casita when it became uninhabitable due to lack of water), must have left the latch from the padlock in an upright position, when he opened the door, and when I closed it in the evening, before going to sleep, the latch must have fallen down, locking me inside.

Oops, I thought. What do i do now?

The casita is a cheapo Puertorican construction, pittoresque, yes, but potentially a death trap.
With only one - metal - door, lockable from the outside and all eight windows with those typical Puertorican aluminum contraptions instead of normal glass windows which could easily be broken if one needed to leave the house in a hurry, say, in a fire, it had a potential of a death trap. My kittens could enter and leave through those windows at will, without effort, but, alas, not me.

I was in trouble. My cell phone did not work there (actually, no ones cell phone does), not even in an emergency mode, so I could not summon any help. My three nearest neighbors in a barrio about half a mile down the mountain were ansent since June, their houses empty. If Cruz, in front of which house I park my car, were home, she would have noticed that the car was not moved and would have come to check on me (as she did before - at that time I was fine, just writing a long report and enjoying the mountains) in a day, two at most. I leave alone so nobody would raise any alarm that I did not get back home. Nobody knew that I left, nobody knew for how long. If my daughter called she would just assume (correctly) that I was in the mountains, where my cell did not work, so not even she would be alarmed.

Without Cruz all I could count on was Goyo, but he would not be coming to feed the cats and play with them until Monday evening. Three and a half days!

And I had no meds - I left them in Aguada forgetting that none were left at the casita. So I was already missing an insulin shot and two Metformin pills. Could I live 3,5 more days without them, without getting into a diabetic coma and dying?

Well, I had to assume I could. But I inspected my food supplies. Not bad: 6 tea biscuits with some leftover peanut butter and sugarfree jelly could serve as three breakfasts. A bag of 3 frozen tilapia filets and a bag of frozen peas could serve as three lunches. For dinners I found one portion of frozen pumpkin soup, 2 pastellitos, one can of ravioli and one of garbanzo beans. That was all, but it was enough.

Water situation was worse. I found 4 small (half a liter) bottles and about one quarter of a gallon in a larger container. About a litre a day - not enough for the heat of the tropics, but, perhaps, if I had not exerted myself too much, that would do. I found another half gallon of an uncertain quality water, which has been used for washing the dishes. I decided to forget about washing any dishes and use the water - after boiling it long and hard - for tea and coffee, or even drinking as such, if I were forced to do it.

I made another cup of tea, administered myself my daily ratio of buiscuits with peanut butter and jelly and started thinking what I could possibly do to get myself out from that (death?) trap.

The light on cassita's terrace is visible from the lower part of the barrio, near the popular picknick place, from the bridge over the stream, that all bikers had to take to reach the neighborhood bar, very popular among them. It could also be seen from some parts of rt 184.
So at dusk, I decided, I would start sending morse s o s light signals: three short, three long, three short ... surely someone would have spotted them and recognized as a distress signal?
That was a plan!


But I also inspected the screws on the windows. Uff, plenty of them, all covered by layers and layers of paint... and not a tool in sight. Not even the smallest hammer, the tiniest screwdriver - they were all locked in a shed, outside. I had two kitchen knifes I could try to use instead of a screwdriver, though, and cans of cat food I could use as a hammer. I'd try that!

After I worked on a single screw for two hours straight without any progress, I took a break, drank a glass of my precious water.... and got an attack of blinding fury after being calm and composed so far. I went to the door and started banging on it - in the place where the padlock and the latch were - first with the cat food cans, later with just my hip and my butt... I don't know for how long... but finally the door opened with a bang and I tumbled out on the terrace. Free !!! Oh, what a feeling!

(I inspected the door after that: the latch was still in locked position but I managed somehow to make two screws in a padlock to losen enough to yield. A miracle of sorts).

Boy, was I grateful to mother nature that it did not make me a waiflike, weak and helpless "mamsell" in distress. I was grateful for my strong and well padded butt.... which most likely saved my life!

But now I hate even more brainlessness of Puertorican housing construction and feel very uneasy now in my Aguada apartment. It has two normal doors instead of one, true, but the windows have three layers to entrap you in a case of fire: those aluminum blinds, nets and iron bars on top of everything! Houdini would be defenceless!

Electric bill and.... linguistic confusion???

When I moved from Aguada to Patillas I asked the electric authority to close my account there, but not on the last day of March, when i moved, but on April 10, because a friend were staying in my Aguada appartment till that time and she needed electricity.

So, come April 11 I went to Guayama to the local office of the same electric authority to enquire whether my account in Aguada had, in fact, been closed. They said it was not. I then asked them to please, pretty please, close it, since I no longer lived there. I also gave them my current adress to send me my deposit.
They asked me if I wanted to have an account at the new place, but I repeated that the adress is solely for them to mail me the last bill and send me back my deposit. I explained that I stayed at the new place temporarily, and my friend, who owned the house wanted to keep the account in her name. OK, they understood. They were very helpful and gave me the amount I owed for March (it was $74) and allowed me to pay it there, but could not give me a meter reading.
Oh, well, a month have passed and I received a very strange electric bill: with a new meter number, for 8 days of use (though only about $8, which was a BIG difference from my first electric bill in Aguada, also for 8 days) + unpaid previous bill suspiciously close to the amount I paid for March in Aguada.
I though it was a serious mistake and planned to go to the electric authority to try to straighten it out, but was under a few deadlines, so I postponed it.
Then I got an email from my friend that it appears I changed the electric account in her house (the casita I live in) from her name to mine, although I was not supposed to do that, but "whatever makes me happy".

No, it did not make me happy at all... but by now I am getting used to Puerto Rico, so it did not make me mad, either.
It just made me shrug my arms in resignation: now it seemed to me a normal occurence on the island dealing with local authorities: EVERYTHING that can - and a lot of things that you can't imagine could -WILL get messed up due to, say, "linguistic confusion"...
Because it can't be a total incompetence, or can it?

My first electric bill in Puerto Rico

Today I received my first electric bill here... and it is a horror story!

I looked at the amount first $60.25.

Hmm, I thought, seems a bit hig, considering that I do not have a/c, rarely use a fan (sea breeze does the job most of the time at least for now), don't cook and installed my new TV only a week ago. I do shower regularly, though, and do laundry about once a week - both washing and drying.

'Is it normal? ' I asked a couple of coworkers. 'No', they shook their heads 'it seems high'.

So I looked at the bill for more detail. First I noticed "dias de consumo" - 10.

What? I am being charged $60.25 for 10 days of very light electricity use??? It's a highway robbery! My coworkers agreed - a highway robbery. None of them pays so much for a month, much less for 10 days and they assume they use more energy than I do!

So I started to study the bill even more in detail: "compra de energia" - purchase of energy (256 kWh x 0.040909 $/kWh) - $ 10.47 + three different 'cargos' (fees, I presume) at respectively $1, $6.18 and $5.67 and finally 'compra de combustible' $36.93!

What on earth is the 'combustible' I am being charged so much for? And why am being charged for it?

Mysterious - I need to talk to my landlord, who should be able to understand that.

As for the 256 kWh - my guess is that the meter has not been read even before the previous tenants - who left unpaid energy bills for $570 - moved out. My landlord read the meter when I moved in - I did not - my bad. I don't even know where it is. I need to check it now and wait for the second bill to see how much I am actually paying for my own energy use... unless someone somehow gets his energy on my meter, but I have no idea how to check for that - other than, perhaps, turn everything off and check if the meter is running or not. Is that how it is done? Or does someone have a better idea?

Oh, brother, the pleasures of living in a society known for its, hmm, inventiveness (?) in avoiding high costs of living here, especially during recession. But whom might I be involuntarily sponsoring - if I am? Former tenants or a current energy thief?

P.S. My second electric bill was still high, but much more acceptable: $ 84 ( apparently the average of what former tenants were supposed to pay monthly) for 32 days of - still rather light - use. Which means in the first one I must have been charged for some of the previous tenants unpaid electricity use. Oh, well.

And having now lived in Puerto Rico for well over a year, I must add that it was by far the highest electric bill in PR. In my current condo, even when I was using air conditioning during the fall, when it was hot and humid inside, my bills averaged around $50 a month. Electric bills in the mountains were lower still.

Help, the Christmas season continues here...

... and, according to speaking boricua, will do so for the next 12 days!

Please, remind me anyone to stay far away from Puerto Rico the next Christmas season if I don't want to become deaf!

Today is Tres Reyes Magos - the present holiday in Puerto Rico (as it is in Spain as well, and perhaps even in other countries with Spanish traditions) - so yesterday shops were packed with crowds making last minute purchases of toys and sweets. It felt like shopping on Christmas Eve elsewhere - sheer madness. And all I needed was some household items. Should have waited till tomorrow.

(the pictures are of Christmas season's decorations in Anasco, a lovely little town south of Rincon)

This morning I was awoken at 7:20 am, no, not by my kitty, but by a travelling parranda - just outside my windows. Poor kitty got so scared she dived under my sheets and crawled all over me, occassionally punching holes in my belly - and other parts of my anatomy - with hert oh, so sharp little claws. Finally, I managed to calm her, and hoped to snooze a little longer, but less than half an hour later the parranda noise terror returned.

When it did for the third time, I got up and went to work - no matter that it's holiday today - taking the poor scared to death kitty with me. I have to work a lot during this season - hiding from the parranda noise terror. 12 more days? TWELVE??? I am already starting to be considered a - boorish, of course - slave driver - by my coworkers, since, when I work, I usually need some stuff to be done by others for me, on time, or I can't continue to do my work ... and - since it is the Holiday Season - everybody involved may get pretty cranky. I, because stuff is not done, they, because they - rightfully, I admit - think I am inconsiderate giving them so much stuff to do during holidays, when they have other priorities. And all of this just because of the darn parrandas - or rather their noise levels (I would have enjoyed the music had it not be so loud).
Ok, I shut up already, before you call me a grouch. ;-)