Don Elias

Don Elias is the owner of the car repair place where we have the van lodged.  The repairs ~ totally cosmetic ~ were to be finished on Monday.  Fernando drove us over to his shop Monday afternoon at Don Elias's assurance the car would be ready by 5 PM.  Fernando showed up in his Cherokee (pronounced cher-O-kee) on time to take us over to Tecoman.  The car, alas, was not ready.  "Mañana," said Don Elias with a smile and reassuring nod.

Today I went down to play dominoes at 2 PM and segued into the botanero at 5 PM while Mr. C waited for Fernando's signal that all was ready.  However, Don Elias reported that things were not quite ready but would be so tomorrow, Wednesday, and we should come back at 9 AM.  We wojuld not be so eager to get this done except that we must take the car to Colima for its 45,000 mile check up at the Toyota shop and  to immigration to finish our business there.  If the is car ready tomorrow we'll do Colima Thursday and Manzanillo on Friday.

What one learns living here is the art and necessity of patience.  Don't ever think that mañana really means "tomorrow."  It really means sometime after right now, perhaps the next day, or sometime in the near future.  Or not.  I love it.  Unless, of course, your water pump isn't working or the toilet is overflowing all over everything, or the 'fridge is thawing at an alarming rate.  Then mañana better mean "right now and no fooling around with this 'later' stuff. " And sometimes it does.

We'll be ready by 9 o'clock when Fernando has said he'll be here to pick us up in the Cher-O-Kee to drive us to Don Elias's shop.  Let's hope there are no more mañanas  because we don't have many more days to waste.