Souvenir Photo Studio, by Al Bourassa: Saturday July 21, 2018 NeNe

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Saturday July 21, 2018

I forgot to mention on Thursday’s Blog that we accomplished another chore, getting our half-deposit (in cash) for the house from the Bank. Friday was a holiday and it had to be paid Monday so I couldn’t leave that to the last minute. We try the bank branch close to our house to see if that would work. It is close and there is parking, and seemingly not as crazy busy as the downtown Main Branch where every visit seems to eat up 2 hours.

So, after 15 minutes, our number comes up and we go to the teller. You would think that we were cleaning out their cash reserves because it took another 45 minutes for them to get the bundles of cash together (of course she said our wait would be 5 minutes)... The teller is then using the electronic counting machine and halfway through she drops a bundle of cash on the floor, so she had to re-start the count all over again. Miguel and I are scanning the crowd to be certain that we are not being observed with any interest. Finally we stuff the cash in Cristina’s backpack and we head out, accompanied by a bank guard. I was more concerned about getting held up while walking the short way out of the Mall but nobody was following. The guard leaves us, and I am saying WTF… when he shows up at Miguel’s car on his motorcycle, ready to escort us home.

That evening, the owner of the new house popped by, as arranged with Cristina, to pick up a small portion of the cash which she desperately needed for something to do with the house. No big deal… We are playing ball in the hope that we can get into the new house before September 1^st. We are so anxious for the dogs to have their own outside area to play and sleep in comfort so we don’t need to be up at 5:45 every day with the sun, and we don’t have the dogs tracking in so much debris from outside..

Definitely yesterday’s break was so welcomed and no news is good news, so we hope things are finally progressing on the Visa, because then we have to get the Cedula and Drivers licence in short order.

This morning Cristina wanted me to take a few photos of our little fighter, NeNe, to send to her sister Adiela for posting by the rescue organization, I presume for advertising. NeNe was hit by 2 motorbikes and, while nothing was broken, enough body parts were bent that he was essentially paralyzed on the right side and fighting for his life. They either did not expect him to survive the first 48 hours and were faced with the possibility of putting him down. I met NeNe during that period and put in my vote to do everything to help this little darling survive,… and survive he did… Cristina brought in a vet for regular physiotherapy and the little guy responded better than anyone expected. While his right side is still a little off-kilter he continues to improve and thoroughly enjoys the daily walks where he easily keeps up with the rest, and even though his pee-pee stance leaves a lot to be desired, he is just like a regular guy. I definitely could not think of parting with my little short-legged superstar, I love him so much. The little guy shocked us this morning by jumping from the floor onto a low bed, a first for our feisty tiny man!

We decided to go to the cemetery in Andalucia today instead of tomorrow because we have to go there Monday as well to officially make the first half-down-payment on the house. It was sprinkling as we caught the buseta, then a little heavier rain as we drove through Tulua, but it was just lovely with nice cloud and breeze in Andalucia. Cristina’s ex had put some fresh flowers out so all we had to do was water everything. Cristina spotted some parrots waaaay up in a palm tree across the cemetery and I used my full 30x zoom to get 2 shots. That little camera is amazing.

We caught the buseta back, walked all the dogs and I took a couple of shots of the action around our lake, and also of the egret tree starting to fill up for the night. Then we went to try this “Circus Food” set-up on the other side of the lake. We had been by this place many times but had never checked it out. It turned out to be a bunch of mobile booths stacked together serving everything from burgers, sandwiches, pizza, wings and ice cream,… to beer and sausages. We ordered a large lasagna for the two of us but when it arrived we thought they had got our order wrong because it was so small,… very good… but very small… Anyway, I came home and had an ice cream chased with a cold beer and all is well with the world.

I hope you enjoy the pictures, all taken with the Lumix. That was the day’s excitement.

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