Happy Holidays

Xmas commercialism is in full swing here. The stores are all playing holiday music (all the English standards) and are decorated wildly (weirdly?). A huge part of the San Rafael market next door has been taken over to sales of decorations including very ornate and huge piñatas. Xmas lights are going up all over. El jardin has been transformed (as have other parks in town) into a burst of red with thousands of poinsettias (buena noche - since they own this plant I guess they can call it what they want. There is a festival in about a week that is a tribute to the plant.). I will try to get pictures organized soon. In the meantime you will have to suffer thru my renos.

We also survived American Thanksgiving (not that we have survived Xmas yet). I watched a little football at the sports bar close by and had turkey dinner, more by mistake than poor planning, when I dropped into a pub for lunch in the midst of a “hunting and gathering” expedition. I was one of 3 guests. The pie left a lot to desire but otherwise it was quite good.

The plumbing and gas guys arrived in force on Monday and have about 80% done. I too will be able to boast a large black plastic “tanaca” on my roof as well as a gas tank to replace the two cylinders you may have noticed in my back yard. I bought a fancy new 99.9% efficiency gas heater for the bedroom and if my door guy turns up more or less as planned I should be in good shape to button down one room when the big chill arrives. I also bought some weather stripping today – new product on the market here this year. Nights have been pleasantly warm so far but all the old hands warn of the coming chill. No way I will have my fireplace ready in time. And the notion of under floor heating is just a fignuton of my longer-term imagination.

The Jazz Festival just finished up. It runs for only three days (since 1994) and they had some good musicians including Lenny Baul and Fat Head from USA. Reports are they had the hall jumping. I did not take in any officially but heard a bit around town. I talked at length to one of the organizers. He comes in every year from Baja California. He said he really likes SMA but couldn’t live here because it gets too cold. He recounted one time at the festival during a cold snap that he spent the whole day wrapped in every bit of clothing he brought including a pair of shorts to warm his head and his feet in the oven at the rental where he was staying. Of course he is one of these guys who doesn’t own a pair of socks – likes the beach.

The brick masons are all but done. Tomorrow will probably be their last day. I am quite pleased with the results although it now needs a real paint job. On the positive side of the stair change, I get a nice little under-staircase bodega to store all the wine (read tools). On the negative side I have this ugly block of concrete in the quest bedroom (that is where the head room comes from Jim). I am still trying to figure out how to camouflage that. Also got them to replace my main electric meter to the outside rather than on the inside in the way of the front door. I also get a new breaker box in place of the two fuses that currently run the whole house. Got the bill as well today and it came in over $1000 less than expected!

I still have to figure out how I get billed for electricity. There are all kinds of horror stories around about the electric company being quick to cut electricity if bills are overdue even a day or two. One of the issues is that you have to stand in line for a couple of hours to pay – many folks send their maids to do that. I have both time and no maid – but I need a bill. I also need my property deed – must see if the lawyer has that ready.