MeXscape

I really love all of the plants in our courtyard. They make the area seem more inviting and cooler, at least mentally. The problem is I am not a very good plant guardian. I don't know much about the tropical plants that grow here. I am used to hardy freeze and drought tolerant plants that pretty much don't require any care at all, aside from a little drink of water in July and August. Now I have all these lush plants to take care of, and I don't even know what they are.

I am totally in love with our new house. And this is no first-blush puppy love. I think it will be an enduring, deep love affair; a passion that has little to do with the fact that, after moving six times in ten years, I would rather open a vein than contemplate packing up all my stuff and schlepping it to a new location yet again.

And now for the most bizarre twist of events in the continuing saga of our relationship with CFE: our electric bill has gone down – drastically. Our kWh usage has gone up some, from 513 kWh last month to 576 kWh this month. But our bill went from $1,051MXN last month to $368MXN this month. The structure under which we are billed has changed. I don't know what twist of fate or computer malfunction occurred, but I will take it.

Like clockwork, wherever Gringos gather, at the beginning of the month talk turns to electricity bills. Of course, the subject is usually brought up by those of us who have the higher bills. During the Winter, most of my friends have bills in the $300MXN - $500MXN range. Ours has been consistently in the $1,100MXN - $1,200MXN range. This has troubled us off and on, especially since most of our friends have larger houses than we do. Finally, we called in an expert.

We have a large and fairly useless construct in our bathroom. It's kind of a large, tile box - with faucets. I think it's supposed to be a bathtub, but it is rather useless. There is a small pipe set into the tile that drains into the shower. I haven't yet been able to figure a way to adequately plug it. Even if I did, with our gravity-fed water, it would take 5 days to fill the ginormous thing.