then and now

Living at the beach can present some retail challenges, as I no doubt have mentioned before.  Back "then" if you could get 3 of the things from your list of 12 in only 4 hours, you felt you had triumphed.  And for usual shopping ~ marketing, I should say ~ you had to go to either Manzanillo or Colima  There was little or nothing in Tecoman and only the tianguis on Monday in Armeria.  This "old times" always reminds me of daughter Cait who, at bedtime story time, would say to her father, "Dad, tell be about the olden days when you were a boy down on the farm."  He was 30.

But a new day has dawned here on the Costa Alegré.  Now there are supermarkets galore, specialty shops, liquor stores, etc.  So when we started out this morning we were absolutely sure we could get everything on the list taken care of.  Almost.

1.  Call Fernando to check on surgical dates.  Yes, next Monday.  Can we take you or pick you up?  No, he has four brothers who will take care of that.

2.  Head off to La Bodega to check the wine stock before heading into Tecoman.  Managed to buy a few bottles but the favorite Chilean wine is nowhere to be found.

3.  Go to the bank.  Get a load of cash.  Worked fine.

4.  Haircut for Mr. C.  Took 20 minutes, cost 50 pesos ($3.50).  Looks fine.

5.  Walk over to get bacon and cheese at the Italian deli-type store.  Done.

6.  Back to car and head to the Construama ferriteria for plumbing and tiling supplies.  Done.

7.  Around the corner is the nursery for soil.  No room in car.  Next time.

8.  To frozen meat store to see if they have any sort of "American" cuts of meat.  No time.  Next visit.

9.  Bodega again for more shopping now that we have some cash.  Took about 1/2 hour to take care of that business.  Done and out of there by 11:45.  Good timeing all around.

You can see how much progress has been made.  In 3 hours we got 7 of our 9 chores done and would have done more but for the  size of the car.

Workers didn't come back this afternoon but we will expect them tomorrow.  Spend afternoon reading my book; I'm finally about 1/4 through it.  Seems like I've been reading it for weeks.