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Published: November 3rd 2010
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I was talking with the new caretaker here, the one Gary and Loren hired, and he seemed like a nice guy, jabbering away at the speed of luz. Was he telling me he was going to leave in two weeks? Why's that? Something about two weeks. I was very tired what with the small electrical fire in my car on Saturday, and that causing me to miss my annual car inspection thereby being at risk for a $200 traffic ticket right now, then all day Sunday with the mechanic working double overtime, him telling me I could get the inspection no problem when the national inspection station opens on Monday, the next day, as long as I go very early, and they open at 6 am., and they'll let me in on a standby list. He miraculously replaced the one melted, blackened wire, and got the entire car panel and dash and accessories back in place and ready to go. I attached a picture.
Ok, I woke up early, drove to the station, and they looked at me and said 'you stupid gringo' who do you think you are that you can schedule an inspection, and not show up, then
have us pass your car on your own schedule? Forget it. Hmm, I wasn't planning on this happening (although, just in case, I did schedule another appointment for the next day). I said "What? I'm illegal if I drive away from here without an inspection." He said not my fault and I asked, but isn't there a provision for things like that? How about giving me a note or a letter or something to show I was here so that I can show it to the policia if I get stopped at one of your many traffic stops? Provision, he asked, like it wasn’t even a word. (Maybe it’s not, or it means something else.) He told me I could have come for the inspection anytime in the two months prior to the due date. Well, I couldn't think of a good excuse for that except that I WAS IN THE UNITED STATES, BEING A GRINGO, THAT'S WHY. So I pulled out a $20 dollar bill, and said, okay, I know what you're getting at. Here's a regalo (present). No, I'm just kidding. But I did ask him that if it cost extra I would pay. I didn't wink or
anything. He didn't buy that either. So right now I don't have a legal car inspection sticker, and I had to drive an hour down the highway to my house here at Butterfly. But I do have that appointment scheduled down in Esparza tomorrow. That would entail only about 20 kilometers of getting lucky (or not) with the local cops and their radar traps. That's not too much to ask, is it? What could go wrong? I’ll let you know.
So I was up near Omar's old, new and improved, bodega, talking to Francisco, the new caretaker. I guess that's what we're calling him. That's the safest, I think. If you call him 'guard,' he's entitled to all sorts of money and benefits which would be too much for us four gringo houses to support. Okay, and was he telling me he was leaving in two weeks? No. He was talking so fast. Oh, he was gone for two weeks. No. Oh, okay, now I got it, he leaves for two days, every two weeks, so he can travel to where his family is. Oh, too bad. Is he trying to make me feel sorry for him so he can soon ask if his family can stay? No, that can't be it. Just paranoia. Didn't I write something about paranoia in CR being good in an earlier blog? I should go back and read that for reference.
Francisco and I were standing in the middle of the top of the dirt road that descends into the development, and I looked at the hedge that V & T had planted where their property ends at the dirt road. What happened to those bushes, I asked. I cut them, he said. I've done landscaping, blah, blah, blah. He's talking too fast again. He clearly has not worked with gringos before. That's probably a good thing. But, I said, I think they wanted the hedge taller. He is surprised. Yes? Really? Well, yeah, I said, they planted it for privacy, I'm pretty sure, and now you can see their porch and through the sliding glass doors from the road.
But that is what is good, he said. From the road it is now a much more pleasant view. Look, he said. I cut the hedges so that when the two gringos are sitting on their porch, the top of the hedge is like the bottom frame of a picture from out here on the road; a nice gringo family relaxing on quality furniture that we can't afford even for the insides of our homes. And see how the colorful hanging lamps reflect on the beautiful tile from Europa. And the details - there on the side is that shiny metal cooking device they told me is a greel, but we call a stove.
Understand, Don Paul, he continued, these are our pleasures, to see this picture of how life could have been for us. Just to know this exists is a blessing. Perhaps, for us, this will exist in the afterlife. I looked at him and said, Blessed are the poor, Francisco, for they shall inherit the earth. He said, si, then did that thing again where he made a cross with his right hand.
As I turned to walk back to my house, I saw him light a cigarette as he looked toward the porch.
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