Odds & Ends

Today I accompanied Dan to town where he paid his monthly water bill. The local procedure is not without the element of entertainment since one does not pay the bill by check, or mail, or online. One goes downtown to the municipal water department located in a storefront office on a main street. There a person stands in line, his fist full of cash waiting for his turn to dole out payment. Reportedly it is good to be punctual making payment since otherwise the expiry date on the bill will be marked by the prompt halt of water flowing to one's house.

So Dan handled the matter today ensuring that showers and flushes shall continue for the foreseeable future. Drinking water of course is of more exacting provenance.

This evening I went with Dan to make a couple of return visits on men who had shown interest in the past. They both run businesses which operate in the evening so our time with them was necessarily limited. The first is a dance instructor with a sign in his entrance featuring belly dancing. He came out onto the street for fifteen minutes to talk, watched a Spanish video I had on my iPad, then invited us back next week for another fifteen minute session. The second fellow runs a health club in which he sells natural remedies and health-promoting products. The three of us considered scriptures over cups of Aloe Vera. As for Carol and Heather, they joined a friend in the congregation at the local pool hall to shoot pool. You read that right. Carol, recovering from a broken shoulder, discovered it was still premature for her to exploit her skills as a pool shark.

The above photo is of Dan waiting for the gates to his Privada to open. I have observed there is a custom, not mandatory but preferred, to simply wait for someone inside to leave in order to make group usage of the electric gate. Sometimes two or three cars will wait outside for someone inside to leave. This normally requires a wait of not more than five minutes. Then a car will exit and the ones waiting outside will enter, as well as the occasional random pedestrian - a creative use of security installations.