This month’s big news is that Chuy and his team are back doing projects around the house. Chuy and Ricardo did the work in the guest bedroom after hours last time. This time they’re back during the day, along with the third member of the team, Nicolas.

Here’s a partial list of the work we’re having done:

• Roof maintenance. It’s almost done now after about two weeks. They lifted and cleaned every tile, cleaned the roof, put down a coat of sealant, membrane, and more sealant, then the tiles again. Then they sealed around the corners and joints with cement where necessary.
• Repairing the wall where Cobre busted out of the back yard.
• Building a wall where there had been an awkwardly placed bathroom door (right in the front entryway).
• Building shelves in the bodega.
• Painting and repairing a metal fence along one of the property lines.
• Replacing the 1/2 inch water line from the street with 3/4 inch and adding a pressure reducing valve.
• Cementing the other half of a wall in the TV room.
• Cementing a wall in one of the downstairs bathrooms.
• Adding finishing touches to the door installation in the guest room.
• Replacing a sheet of glass on the ventilation shaft with a dome, designed especially for this purpose.
• Adding screens to the master bathroom windows.

And those are only the things we’ve thought of so far!

Here’s a photo of the roof work in progress:

In other news…

The middle of January to the beginning of February was cold and rainy this year. Rain in January doesn’t happen every year, but it’s not uncommon either I guess. And so much for raining only at night. That apparently only applies to the downpours during the raining season. It was so rainy that I finally used the kit I bought about a year ago and converted the clothes dryer to propane. It sounds a bit like a jet engine, so who knows if it is working properly. We got to use it once or twice before the washing machine drain pump got jammed with a piece of wire. Luckily, I was able to diagnose the problem and fix it myself, leveraging my previous experience with rehanging the drum after shipment. Then it finally brightened up again. When there is no sun for heating the house during the day it’s not very comfortable here. We were starting to wonder what ever happened to our electric blanket…

Cobre’s neutering did not go well. He kept irritating his incision (or maybe it was the other way around), had to wear a cone, worked all the stitches out anyways, got infected, etc. We quit seeing the Vet that performed the surgery at the infected stage. Our new Vet seems to be really on top of things and inspires confidence. He got Cobre on antibiotics, restitched the incision (making the first one look like a hack job), and has him started on his chemotherapy treatments for his venereal tumors. Four treatments should do the trick. We’re in much better hands now. Cobre’s going to be good as new very soon.

Leigh just got back from an AEA convention in Dallas, TX. We had a bunch of stuff shipped to her from our mail forwarder while she was there - a book on dog training, an air filter for the car, some computer parts for a friend, our USPS mail, etc. Yes we do get mail - eventually. She had a good time after the convention staying with a friend, and enjoyed a little shopping and JFK museum hopping too.

We saw a great string quartet from Canada, Borealis, last night as one of our Music Appreciation Society concerts. OK, so I’m really reaching for news now…