Rosey, Ernie, Jim and Geneva left about half an hour ago, 7:30am, Monday morning. The past five days have been absolutely joyous in spite of the minor inconvenience of having no water for the first three days of their visit and one sleepless night for everyone when the hotel band below played until 4:00am on Friday night. We weathered it all in good spirits, and I know that they were all wishing they could stay longer at the home of their more than gracious host, Betsy.
They arrived at the house late afternoon on Wednesday. Within moments we were all sitting around enjoying the view and each other’s company late into the evening hours.
We awoke in the morning with the hopes that the water would be turned back on. We had been without all day Wednesday due to it being shut off on the entire hillside the previous day for reasons unknown to any of us. We had depleted the last of what was in the holding tank the night before. Our hopes were dashed when only a few drops of water came out of the faucet, so we used our three remaining five gallon water bottles to flush toilets, and went without showers. The neighborhood scuttlebutt was that the water would be back on by noon.
So we headed out to lunch at Rosa’s Cantina, a restaurant that includes a lot of old photos and posters of Poncho Villa and his gang. Poncho Villa was very active in this area in the beginning of the 20th century.
Several of us ordered chile rellenos and they were easily the largest ones any of had every seen. Tasty too.
We were all amused to see that the entrances to both bathrooms were guarded by nothing more than an ornate folding screen.
We came back to the house to find the water still off even though our neighbors were all getting water by now. The house to the right of us is usually uninhabited. We noticed that their gardners had left their hose on in the petunias for so long that the cactus on the cliff twenty feet below were drenched. We guessed the water was from their holding tank. Horrified at the waste of water, I hopped the fence and turned off the hose. The petunias were sitting in about four inches of water. Of all times to be wasting water. This is desert and water is generally a scarce resource anyway.
I’d worked hard over the past week to complete a first draft synopsis of the plot line for my coyote story. I had printed up a couple of copies and everyone graciously allowed me to read the nine pages out loud while they followed along. We have three English and/or Theatre Majors in the household, as well as writers so I decided I was ready for some preliminary feedback. My main objective at this point, is to see if the storyline makes sense to others, and to see if any of it is confusing or too contrived. I was pleased that there were very few questions, and even some enthusiasm about the story.
While we were sitting around in the living room still chatting about my synopsis and making plans to go for a walk on the beach at sunset, we noticed that Frances had her head cocked severely to one side and was walking in circles. Instantly all attention went to her. She was having a "vestibular attack" - essentially an attack of vertigo caused by a swelling of the vestibular gland in the ear. It is a common disease in older dogs. It causes them to lose there balance, become nauseaus and have difficulty walking. I took her by the collar and lead her to one of Betsy's dog beds and tried to calm her down by keeping her still and stroking her.
Betsy's dog Toshi had this same thing happen to him a couple of months ago so she instantly knew what was occurring and we popped a pill into Frances mouth immediately. Toshi's attack was much more severe than Frances as he still suffers with a head tilt and some balance problems. Happily, within about five minutes Frances seemed to have shaken it off and was up and walking around. I was grateful Betsy knew what it was because the outward symptoms mimic a stroke. She has been fine ever since, and it's an over the counter medication that relieves the symptoms should it occur again. Whew! That was scary.
By this time no one was enthused about going to the beach. We were so full from our huge lunch at Rosa’s Cantina, that dinner was not necessary. We sat on the back porch for hours of evening chatter and went to bed hopeful that we would have water in the morning.
But no water. It was beginning to feel icky, no showers, no flushed toilets. The next door neighbors were still away so Ernie, Geneva and I filled up enough buckets and jugs of water from the neighboring garden hose to flush all of the toilets and get water to boil to do a kitchen full of dirty dishes. But still no showers. By now the entire hillside had water except us so apparently there was a problem specific to our household.
Betsy held down the fort and waited for the plumber while the rest of us went to the beach and estuary.
We then had lunch at Captains Club (which I have been mistakenly calling Captain Jack's.)
Three of us had Pozole – a spicy Mexican soup with beef, beans and corn – very good. Rosey said the salsa was possibly the best she'd EVER had. Again we all ate so much that we didn’t need dinner.
Upon returning home, Betsy had finally made contact with the plumber who was to arrive within the hour. We took naps, feeling as though we were waiting for Santa. Finally he arrived. It was repaired in about half an hour, and showers commenced. We have remained very thankful for this precious resource since then and don't take water for granted.
We all headed out to Soggy Peso Beach for some guacamole, reggae music and another gorgeous sunset.
Frances was fully recovered from her "episode" and was back to running through the creek and under the bridge.
Heading out of the parking lot I (and another car) didn't notice that we were headed to a sandy area of the parking lot. I got stuck. But Ernie and a host of young Mexican men lifted the front end of my car while I put it in reverse and backed off of the sand, only causing about a ten minute delay in arriving home.
Once home the Marina Terra Beach Hotel had a band. We hadn't expected one on a Friday night. It's been on Saturdays previously. They played until 4:00 am !!! And as the night wore on, the music got stranger and less... well... less musical. No doubt the musicians were both tired and tipsy. Nonetheless, those of us heading out on the Nature Cruise got up at 6:00am (which is becoming usual), and headed down to the marina for our 8:00 am boat ride and lots of coffee.
Wow! So much excitement, in the desert with no water and having to make do. Sounds like a lot happened since you last posted and I can't wait to hear more.
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