November 5, 2009 -- waiting for Ida

We got home safely on Sunday noonish and it IS 3200 miles almost on the button!! We were exhausted from driving and wished to never again get into our car, but managed to unpack and get somewhat organized before crashing. Sunday and Monday were holidays here for the Days of the Dead so things were very quiet. So quiet that when we ventured to TelMex Monday hoping to get our internet service ressurected, we found two people at work and no engineers working in the entire country. This meant that our request for service would be delayed until Thursday after the engineers got caught up from the big holiday!! Hmmmm. However, this morning (not at 9 as promised, but before 11) the person we'd spoken to Monday came to our door with the new modem, instructions, codes, and best wishes. He did say, however, that just because we had the modem, don't necessarily expect service, which could take up to 5 business days to be actually provided. However, around 1, the internet sprang to life and we've been happy ever since!! We felt so disconnected.
Getting reconnected was not all good news however. We learned to our dismay (thanks to a consular alert and some email references) that a hurricane is out there off Nicarauga and although the eye won't head directly our way, we will be continuing in the rain belt of Ida for the next several days. We are perfectly happy to veg and read or watch DVDs, however, we do have houseguests (Gary and Dale Bader from Anchorage who arrived on Tuesday) who will probably not continue to find this ideal.
It also means that without sun, our solar hot water heater is having a real problem finding a reason to live much less heat our water. And so cold showers with rainy days and nights have been the rule this week, not the exception!! We are way past the normal rainy season and really are beyond the normal hurricane season, but mother nature seems to have other plans.
And speaking of showers, while we were still in Illinois, our hydro which pressurizes the water that comes into our house, so we have a strong, steady stream of the stuff broke down. It had been hobbling when we left, but finally it gave up the ghost. And so with Jose's help, we got the guy who'd talked to us about this in March to come back and replace it. The new hydro was fine but the motor that runs it was not and so now this too had to be replaced. When they took our motor out, they thought it could be rebuilt, but when they brought back a rebuilt motor, it was NOT ours. You can picture Eva's reaction as she paced and fumed. Ultimately, a new motor was provided us, not as large or robust as the original one, but better than the smaller, rebuilt version and so for a few moments, all was bright. Then the hot water heater, which was having problems anyway without sun, decided to act up and we had to turn it off until some engineers can come to look at it. They said this morning but then around 2, called to say maybe tomorrow morning. We are getting really tired of cold showers!! And have a feeling that we'll have to wait for Ida to decide where she's going and get there before anyone will stand on our roof to repair the solar hot water heater, but still, against the tide, we hope we are wrong.

UPDATE Nov. 9 -- news has only gone from bad to worse. The hot water heater will need replacing and since these giant tanks have been nothing but problematic, we will need two smaller solar heaters to do the job this has done reasonably well in terms of hot water, but very badly in terms of pouring hot water all over our roof and causing a crack.
The garage door was hanging by a thread and has required work. They had to dismantle the steel bars holding the heavy iron doors, clink clink clink, and rehang them waiting, of course, for the cement to dry. This has meant Gary became our door-man literally opening and closing the doors if we venture out.
My computer which we left here gave up the ghost with a big sigh and is being repaired as I write this. Too much humidity plus apparently when you leave something unplugged here for over a month, electricity "builds up" in the circuit behind the plug and so when you do plug it in, things can easily get fried. Fortunately, for me, I have a battery backup which helped protect the computer but the motherboard is being replaced.
Similarly, the electrical surges blew out capacitators on two of our air conditioners, and they've been replaced -- if not, Eva and maybe even I would have been headed back north by now!!
And as if this were not enough, today the pump for our pool died. It circulates water keeping the pool clean. Repair guy was to come today but oh well.