May 15, 2022

It is the 15th of May, another wet, dark gray, cool day as spring winds down. This season has been that way the whole time. The 15th is the day that the housing association overlords of this this condominium complex say that we’re allowed to put out umbrellas on our patios, and I have a new umbrella that I would like to use with a table and some patio furniture so that I can work and read and listen to music out there while every so often someone walks by on the other side of the fence (figuratively—another world because these passers-by are often ‘homeless’ wanderers up to who knows what as they struggle to get by)… the fence that the patio faces so I don’t know what that will be like. I guess we will largely ignore each other which shouldn’t be too hard to do with the help of the fence. It’ll largely be like neither of us exist to the other which seems more than a little sad, I think.

We’re getting things ready to send to Peru because Quilla and her significant other, Jeff, are soon going to go there for just under a couple of weeks and they’re going to take things for Pepe to sell and/or use in the house (a total of 3 suitcases). We are also doing a relatively major overhaul/ renovation in the house –of the upstairs room (we’d already done the upstairs bathroom before) putting on a new metal roof and refinishing all of the cement and painting it, adding a closet up there to store things in safely. Security has been an issue because there are no walls for the upper floor so someone can climb up to that area easily and then because you can then just walk down some open stairs into the downstairs area, it’s a problem in terms of security to say the least.  Worst than a sieve, I’d say, in terms of an analogy. Downstairs we’re completely renovating the kitchen– adding to it because before it was just a narrow hallway with stuff stuck in there… now we will have the hallway with a new counter, underneath shelves, all new plumbing and electric, including all under the floor drain pipes, and new sink with washer and dryer at the end of the hallway. And then making a hard right into what was a small bedroom will now be an extension of the kitchen, with a door and wall removed to open it all up,  where we will have the stove, refrigerator, and more counter and shelving area.  All of the counters will be cement, with porcelain tile tops.  We are also having to refinish cement rafters and we’ve added a column of support for the upper floor and we will be doing some work on the upper floor to reinforce it as well as putting up two 8 foot walls that run all along the roof on both sides.  This will help with regard to security. We’d like to put a metal roof all along that second floor but we’ll see how far the money stretches. This has taken a lot of money which we’ve put in and Quilla put in the most $7000 and Juana has put in $3000.  Of course, we don’t have a deed for the house yet, but we have an attorney there who is working on it, slowly but ‘sure’, Peru-style.