2 Out Of 3 Is Not Bad

I called our builder this morning and HE ANSWERED HIS PHONE!

There must be some mistake.  Maybe he got confused and thought I was someone else.  Maybe it was a reflex action and he regretted it immediately.  Maybe he hiccuped and accidentally hit the phone, knocking it up to his ear.  Maybe he actually wanted to talk to us...no, that's not it.

The jerk would walk 100 miles without shoes to avoid us.  He would sacrifice his first born to avoid us.  He would start a revolution with Costa Rica, for God's sake, before he would talk to us.  He would...well you get the picture.

Anyway, he said he was going to do (the key here is "going to do" rather that saying "is doing") three things:  take the door frames to the house, deliver the cabinets for the 2 bathrooms to the house and use the retro (backhoe) to finish the job he started 6 WEEKS AGO, not that I'm pissed about it or anything.

Yella and I got a good laugh about what he is "going to do."  And, of course, we expected none of it to be done.  After all, he tells us all the time he is "going to do" something and it never gets done.

He uses another phrase which we notice many English speaking Panamanians use: "in this moment. " I suspect this is a direct translation from Spanish.  Roughly, and I mean roughly, meaning just about anything from now to next year.  Another friend of ours who has been here a long time explained that "now" in Latin countries doesn't mean now like in the US.  Now is, of course, RIGHT now in the US.  In Latin countries it is about like "in this moment."  Just a cultural difference designed to terrorize type "A" Americans!  Successfully I might add.

So, with no expectation but a lot of hope, I go to our house this afternoon.

Walla, you could have knocked me over with a straw.  

The retro was working and had been working all day.  The door frames, or at least half of them, were in the house.  But alas, a triple hitter was avoided when the bathroom cabinets were not their.

To prove it, I have included some photos.

This retro thing is critical.  The retro has to remove the tree stump so we can install the electric line to the house so we can get the Bomberos to inspect the electrical so we can submit for electricity at the Devil's Den, Union Fenosa.

And then, with any luck, we can get electricity in the next 6 to 9 months.

This little piece of work accomplished has thrilled me.  So now you know to what pathetic depths I have fallen.  

As an aside, the weather has been glorious.  Light breeze, sweet and moist air, vistas forever, and good friends over breakfast.  Great days!

And added to this, a modicum of progress on the house.

Ya!