On retirement

It has been an interesting couple months since stopping my work at the boathouse. The preparations for Mexico consumed a lot of time and energy … particularly emotional energy. Let’s face it, I love Pittsburgh and Crossing Creeks...they are ‘home’ and knowing that I’d be without Bev in a foreign culture (despite the very good friends we’ve made) brought up much anxiety that I tried to deny! Also the rush to finish my boat so that I could take it to Mexico consumed more time than I’d rather admit and kept me on a pace not dissimilar to work!

It was working on the boat, however, that gave me one of the greatest early experiences of what retirement is about: rather than get on myself about how long it took to do this or that on the boat I found me self stepping back and asking, “What’s the rush?” I know this seems like a relatively minor revelation, but it really was a great feeling to know that I could take as much time as I wanted! It changed the experience of working on the boat to a real pleasure!

Progress on the boat on the deck of my workshop in West Virginia:

Nearing finish - in the back yard in Pittsburgh:

Mexico … week one!

So much has happened in just one week that I think I need to just summarize the highlights even though there is a real story behind many of the occurrences

This was the second time we drove down to Mexico and in many ways; it seemed easier even though I did all the driving. Bev was willing to drive, but hauling a trailer and a truck load of stuff was a little tricky.

Loaded in Pittsburgh and headed for the border!

Bev’s company made all the difference for the first two days! She kept me entertained, fed, and awake! What a woman!

We parted in San Antonio, Texas from where she flew back to the ‘burgh. The ‘plan’ was that I’d mosey down to Laredo (about 3 hours), hit up Home Depot, buy Mexican auto insurance, go through customs, spend the night just over the border in Nuevo Laredo, and get a fresh start for the remaining 11 hours drive to San Miguel. (Customs had caused a fair about of anticipation due to all the stuff I was hauling and just the general sense that Mexico must be …should be… really pissed at the way we are dealing with immigration).

Best laid plans …

One needs to ‘register’ one’s car immediately after crossing the border. No big deal. We’d done it in January and knew the routine…except for one thing! It seems like we missed the fact that one my ‘de-register’ one’s car when leaving Mexico (that way they know we’re not taking cars into Mexico to sell!). Foreigners are not allowed to have more than one car in Mexico. Problem: I’m driving the Nissan pick-up and the Subaru is sitting in the garage in Pittsburgh!

I plead with two agents who basically shrug and say there is nothing they can do. I cannot take the Nissan into Mexico unless the agents first de-register the Subaru which they can only do by physically seeing the car! You got it: I’d need to drive the car down to the border so that the guy in the little white shack in the lot can see the car and physically remove the little sticker!

I think I’ll skip the details as I don’t want to get into trouble … but suffice it to say, I left the car registration area and directly headed for San Miguel driving all night arriving at 4:30 AM!

Needless to say, I have an issue that I need to somehow straighten out.

Sunday I went to a great fiesta at Alan’s to celebrate Flora’s birthday. What a great time! We feel very lucky to be part of this Mexican family!

Monday I began staining the floors and I must admit it is going to look great! Except I came to an abrupt stop when the first of the daily rains came. You may recall that we’ve said we have 72 skylights? Guess how many leak? Hint: more than 20 and less than 72!

The calls to our architect began on Monday and to my great delight, he showed up on Thursday and his guys commenced work Friday on fixing what is likely to be a sizeable problem. Monday others will be here (so I’m told!) to begin working on the 25 or so items on our ‘punch list’.

So far,

one hike in the Botanical Garden (http://www.laneta.apc.org/charco/news_vol2no7.htm),

an aborted trip to row on the Presa when to road became impassable due to the heavy rains, three meals out with good friends, several short ATV trips to the grocery and hardware stores, and one tutoring class in Spanish. Lots of floor mopping! Tomorrow (Saturday) may be the first real row on the Presa …

The first real row on the Presa was today, Saturday, June 30. Santiago Corral, a good friend, arrived on a very broad expanse of grass (at various times of the year underwater) in his ultralite with his student (after 20 hours of instruction one can pilot an ultralite here). I took a short row and gave Santiago a short rowing lesson. After he left a rowed for about another hour stopping frequently to adjust the rigging. I think it is right now and I look forward to future rowing on the Presa.

Saturday night there is a full moon ceremony at the Botanical Garden which I plan to go to…so watch out!

Today (Sunday), I took a fantastic hike up a hike up into the Los Picachos Mountain range which we see clearly from our house. At its core is an ancient volcano the crater of which can be made out via Google earth. The hike was definitely a challenge especially with the elevation at 7,000+ feet. The views from the summit were breathtaking. Check out some pictures at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/MichaelPLambert/LivingInMexico