Settling in to the Daily Routine...

We moved into our home, for good, at approximately 4:00 PM on Sunday, October 20th. We've owned our house four months shy of 3 years, and in that time our longest stay was 10 days. We've been here for 10 weeks now and we honestly don't know where the days go. We have a routine that has existed for almost twenty-five years which revolves around our animals. We awake around 7:00 AM  (much earlier when we were working stiffs), take the dogs for a 20 minute walk, return home, prepare their breakfast as well as the cat's, and have our own coffee and breakfast. Now that we are retired, instead of heading off to work, we generally check our email, our phones for any messages (not that we get very many), and our Face Book pages to keep up with what everyone in our small world has experienced in the past 24 hours -like viewing a photo of their breakfast, a picture of their children or a quote that has inspired them . It's comforting knowing that our friends actually eat!  Now that it's winter in the Yucatán, our daily morning swims have ceased because the pool water is a tad too cold. If we do something around the house that causes us to sweat profusely (which is mostly everything) a dip in the pool can be refreshing after first plunging in and vocalizing a loud #&%* (insert your favorite word here). We've never had a pool before, so we are meticulous about skimming, checking chlorine and pH levels, filtering, circulating, and backwashing. Actually, the filtration system is on a timer but we have to manually do the other things. This takes about an hour which includes standing back and admiring how clean and sparkling the water looks. Once a week we vacuum the bottom, being careful not to fall in while managing the 15-meter hose attached to the telescoping pole with a vacuum attachment on the end. This is not at all like our Dyson, which we regrettably left behind.

The little Klobenz we purchased at Liverpool (or was it Sears/Say-Arz?) manages, but really does not have the power to remove six months of el Centro dust that has infiltrated the sofa we purchased last April. The Yucatecan house cleaners are pretty good at beating the dust out, then brushing it away with a clean cloth.  Most seem to avoid anything electric which is understandable with the cost of electricity in Mexico.

So, after ten weeks in Mérida, are we comfortable, happy, and settling in? Definitely happy and comfortable enough for this stage of our transition.There are almost daily adventures for the most mundane chores, and although some trigger a bit of anxiety at times, we are learning our way around on our own and communicating well enough with our basic Spanish to accomplish our tasks. We try to study an hour each day and will likely begin private lessons soon.

Happy New Year / Feliz Año Nuevo

Update: We conquered an algae bloom in the pool, which followed a heavy rain and easing up a bit on the chlorine. Now I understand why the pool man kept it super-chlorinated. I don't like swimming in chlorine, but algae is worse.