First Power Bill......and other things of note.

We had a great time in Mexico this last week end with Chris and the gang. His brother and wife from Montana were down along with Stephanie's and her two boys, as well as Chris's and his two girls ...for a total of 11 of us. They did not all stay in our house as it would have been tight to all sleep there.....at least that was the plan. They ended up renting the two story house to the east of ours right on the beach. They got down the Thursday before us, and all was good for that night. Then as they are cooking dinner on Friday the power in the house goes out. They tried to reset the inverter over and over again with no luck. It was a little warm so we had all the kids stay in our house as the kids could then sleep well as they could run the ceiling fans, while the other couples stayed in the rented house. They tried to recharge the batteries the next day, but as we found out one of the batteries had failed, and such the entire system would not hold a change.

Josh (Chris's brother) loves to fish, and Matt had been wanting to go fishing for some time. I am not a good fisherman, and I told Matt this would be a good chance to go out with someone who knew what he was doing. So early Saturday he and Matt and one of the other boys hit the estuary, and low and behold, Matt caught five fish....two pan size fish that we cleaned and cooked up on the grill that night....Josh called the fish Bar Jacks. Matt wants to go hit that spot again, and you never know i may learn to fish with the help of my son pushing me along. The photo attached is of a Bar Jack I found on the Internet.....not of Matt's fish (which would have been cool)....I will need to have the camera ready for the next one he hooks.

The rest of the Saturday was good. The group went to town and got shrimp and we enjoyed the beach and the great weather. This week end the first electrical bills arrived for our community and we had been anxiously waiting for this first bill to get an idea of what the costs could be. It was a run around, but we got the bill and what a surprise!! $807 pesos, and that included a $430 peso meter fee...that was for two months, and included about 8 days of some hot days running most of the AC units in the house. With the exchange rate of 12 to 1 that is a total bill of $67.25 dollars. We think the bill will run a little less then $20 per month which is awesome. Of course we plan to switch back to the solar system that we paid a lot for during the months we can, but to know we can run the AC in the summer week ends and it will not break the bank is a nice feeling. Check out the shot of the power control panel running over 4000 watts when we had our big group at the house on Labor Day....never could have done that without city power!!

That night the mosquitoes showed up so the patio was not the best place to be past 9:00....and I was beat so by 10:00 pm or so it was off to bed early. Chris and his gang packed up and got out of the house around 9 am on Sunday. We stayed until 1:30 m that day and enjoyed the beach for a few more hours then it was back home...back to reality.

NEW TRUCK!!!

Well...the old trooper that Vincent was driving was on it last legs: we thought the computer or something was really wrong with it as it would run, then would stop running and just shut off; Not good. With a ton of soul searching I now have a new truck...and my son is driving the Toyota Tundra. Attached is a shot of the new truck....a GMC (these are photos off the Internet as I do not have any good shots of the real truck yet). I know....What, a GMC???!!! But I liked the styling of this truck over the Ford, I have never trusted that a Dodge would last. I was back and forth between this truck and another Toyota. The long and short of it is that I now have a USA made truck for the first time over 15 years.

So far I really like the truck. It handles better then the Tundra, and has more power, but about the same gas mileage so far even with the bigger engine (the tundra had a 4.3 liter and this truck has the 5.3...but with the 6 speed transmission). A run to Mexico will be the real test. Also, the Bose stereo is great, and the built in i-pod system is a very nice feature.

On a connected topic, I was shopping for Mexico insurance for the new truck and Chris said to try Costco (I never would have thought about them). I went to the Costco site, and with the HUGE discount you get as an executive member (35%) full coverage on the new truck for the year was $345. I checked the site that I normally get the year policy and it was close to $500.

Thanks for Chris for doing some extra digging.

No new posts....busy summer

The summer has been a long and busy one. Work has been better for the firm, which has limited my time writing this blog (which has been a good thing from a personal perspective). We have only been to the house three times since May, which is not our typical deal, but with Matthew's baseball and such we have not had the same time off as we would like. That said we have had some good weekends with the 4th of July as well as Labor day being in the mix. We also got a chance to bring down a couple of new friends to visit our little beach community which was also fun.

The big news I guess is that power has arrived at the beach. For two years we have waited, and for the Labor Day week end we were able to air condition the entire main floor of the house. Very nice. No generator noise or auto start issues....I slept like a baby. It was not cheap to get it all done and hooked up...and it is still not totally perfect as the voltage provided by CFE is very high. So high in fact that our solar inverter will not hook up to this power source for auto transfer; which means that we may need to switch manually from city power to our solar system for now until more and more people hook up to the system which will lower the voltage. But...it is very nice to have city power when you need it, and it will make next summer a cooler one.

As for other stuff at the house, by the time I write this blog the other 1/2 of the house should be painted. If you recall, we painted the beach facing side of the house last year, so this was the year for the other 1/2. I hope that by using a high quality paint we can now paint the house every three years, but time will tell.

October is about here and with it comes the great weather we long for here in the Southwest. Last weekend was one of the hottest on record, and as luck would have it Matthew played a double header the day we had 111 deg...this is September right? (crazy I know). So to have a weekend of temperatures in the low 90's will be great....and for Mexico that would mean temperatures around 85 degrees. October is also the month that the sea turtles come back to the beach and I hope and wonder if we will get a chance to see them first hand....never know, but it is one of the sights we keep missing.

That is about it for now. As we explore I will try and update things as I can.

Bubba makes the trip....will not be his last!!

Last Summer Chris and I made a trip out to Tennessee to surprise a long time friend Jim (Bubba) for this birthday. Since that time we had talked off and on about him coming out to enjoy some Arizona and south of the boarder experiences. It all came together this May. Jim arrived on Thursday May 13th, and we were able to hook up with Chris and Grant down in Tempe for a few drinks. It was a fun night, but I had a long night with a case in Chandler and was not as into the night as the others were.....I was looking forward to the next three days on the beach. May is a great time to be in Mexico. The weather is not too warm and the ocean is refreshing. We left the house in Phoenix around 8:30 am and arrived at the house at close to noon. The beach was great and Jim was blown away by the house, the view, etc....which was very rewarding to me. We enjoyed the beach that afternoon and that night we made some great carne assada tacos on the grill. That evening we took Jim to town to see the Boo Bar and some of the other sights down by the malcon.

First night in Mexico...had to hit the Boo Bar.

The next day the beach was great; we played some beach golf, ladder golf, and just enjoyed the sun. While on the beach the tide pool in front of the house had a very strange fish trapped. The fish had large side fins, but also had what looked like crab like feet under its body. See the photo below....never seen one like this before.

Darren and Jim playing golf.

Odd fish we found in the tide pool.

We decided that we would run to town around 1:00 and make the loop out to JJ's to let Jim see the grand changes RP had gone through since his last trip down in the late 80's. We got a beer there and then back over to the fish market to pick up some shrimp and sea bass. We were able to get 3 pounds of medium shrimp cleaned as well as two huge sea bass fillets for $25.00. Town was busy...lots of people in bars and such. We went up to the Boo Bar while our shrimp was being cleaned and had a drink and enjoyed the view. It was about 3:00 when we started back to the house and on the way I recalled the oyster bar I had seen a sign for on the way back to the house.....I had never been over there so we made the right turn toward the estuary for a look. When you talk about "third world cantina" this was the spot. A weather worn shade structure, a small building for beer, and a restroom and there you have it....very cool. We ordered a dozen oysters and three beers. I asked the waiter how long ago they had harvested the oysters he served us and he said, "about 3 hours ago"...needless to say; fresh. I do not eat oysters very often, but they were fresh and very good. The great Mexican hot sauces were perfect, and the whole experience said Mexico. Definitely a place I will go back and see again.

This is a view of the estuary and the oyster beds that float in the bay.

Bubba and Darren waiting for our beer and food.

Jim diving into the fresh oysters.

I will put it out there that one can not get fresher oysters then this....and the price; $6 per dozen!

Back at the house, we hung out on the patio and enjoyed the evening. Around 6:00 we started dinner....marinated shrimp, grilled shrimp, and the sea bass baked in foil. We had this great feast along with some Spanish rice; A great meal. That night we went back into town for a few drinks...not a lot going and as we tried Manny's as well as Capone's for a beer or two, then back to the house. The next day after a breakfast of eggs and sausage we took a drive over to the estuary at low tide. The new condo tower dominates the view, but it is a unique area with tons of shells. During our walk Darren found what appears to be the spiked tail of a sting ray.

We got back to the house around 9:30 am and we were able to get packed and on the road for the trip back to Phoenix around 10:45-11:00. As luck would have it there was not line at the boarder crossing and we were on our way. Another trip packed with experiences.....

To Jim; I hope you had a great time...next time you need to bring the entire family.

Lots of stuff....new roof, new lights, and easter!

A lot of things have been going on in my life that have made getting a new post up tougher then in the past. Work has been busy. For the most part this blog was a diversion at times from the reality of my business...which was slow. So with the added work (which has been great) the result has been less time to report on the happenings down south. I hope those who follow have not lost interest.

Since RCPM in February a few things have happened at the house. We discovered in discussion with our house keeper that during the big storm we had back in February that the roof was leaking badly....water was running in through a couple of light fixtures and around one of the air-conditioners. She had cleaned up the mess, but we were not aware of the real issues with the roof. I had a feeling last year the roof was not done well by the contractor, but it was a surprise to have to deal with this now with the house being only 2 years old. In an effort to "just get it done" I asked Darren to come down with me and have a work party over a couple of days. He agreed and we ran down with he and my Dad around March 14th to re-roof the house as well as add light fixtures on the patio in place of the rusted and broken fans. We worked for two days and got the roof and the lights done as well as a couple other items. I sure hope this new roof will hold up for more then 2 years.

New cabinet in the main entry hall

New lights on the patio to replace the rusted fans

New towel hooks by the outdoor shower.

Spring Break this year was all over the place for our family. For the first time, we all had a different schedule; Lourdes had her Spring Break due to her new job at the very beginning of March; Vincent was in the middle with PVCC, and Matt was at the end. Lourdes ran down at the beginning of the month with a friend, I made the run in the middle to fix the roof, and we all made the trip at the end of March. The end of the month was also Easter, and as we did last year we invited the Parmiters. We arrived on Thursday night late and settled in with a bottle of wine for the girls and a gin and tonic for me. The kids played some video games and a quick run the beach.

Good Friday was nice. I got to sleep in a little, and was able to read a book and drink coffee until 9:30, then a nice walk on the beach. We ended up running to town around noon to pick up a few items at the store as well as shrimp at the fish market. We had grand plans to watch the Good Friday procession, but again we just could not get down town in time....but we had a good time anyway. The weather really cooperated that day and we made a great meal that night of fresh grilled shrimp and shrimp quesadillas.

Fresh shrimp about to go on the BBQ.

Deb cooking up tortillas.

Saturday morning was a repeat of the Friday...but the day looked to be a little warmer. I got a few projects done around the house that I needed to get accomplished and then I packed the ATV for a day at the beach; Not to hot and not to cold, a nice breeze, good tunes on the I-pod, a good books, and a few cold drinks....nice.

The kids played some beach games, hit a few golf balls, and just did kid stuff. Around 3:00 we made it back to the house to get cleaned up as the plan was to run into town. It is always a party over this week end....great time to people watch and have a few drinks. The patio at the Thirsty Parrot again was our destination and it was good as always....Close to the action to catch the bands, and see the crowd. We had a few drinks as the kids did some shopping and just enjoyed the view as always. Deb and I had a couple of margaritas while Lourdes had the Mango Tango.

View from the patio.

Lourdes and Deb having a good drink.

That evening we had the Turduckin and rice. I made a fire in the outdoor fireplace and we cooked marshmallows and made smores. We then watched "Ironman"....I think I was awake for about 1/2 of it as we were all beat. I think we were all in bed by 10:30.

Easter Sunday was very nice. We had a good breakfast and we divided up some plastic eggs to hide for the kids. Each was worth a $1.00 to make it interesting. I thought I had hidden them well...but they found them all in about 30 min. The day was too nice to waste so we hit the beach again. The girls had not used sunblock very well on Saturday so they were only catching rays on the legs, but it was another great day at the beach. We packed up the house right after lunch and got out of the house around 2:45. Like the year before, no line at the boarder and we breezed home to Phoenix. It was not until we got back did he hear anything about the earth quake as we did not notice or feel anything while we were driving. Also, we do not know if there are any issues in the house as we have not been back since this trip.

All in all another great Easter and the start of a real tradition.

RCPM January Jam 2010.....gooood.

I am sure that no January could match last year; We had the perfect storm of the Super Bowl with the Cardinals in the big game, and RCPM all happening at the same time, and I got to see these events in Mexico...which was a blast. For those who can take the time look at last years post....even now typing this I just have to smile. But with those expectations aside, to get a chance to see RCPM again in the original "third world cantina" can not be passed up. For this trip I had Chris, Darren, and Gary.


We were able to get our of Phoenix around noon and made it to the beach by 4:00. The tide this week end was dramatic and the beach was very scoured by the big storm the week prior. Friday was nice...blue sky, and temps in the high 60's. We got the house set up and we assessed some of the storm damage. Clearly the house had sand in many spots inside, we did loose one of the patio ceiling fans to the storm, the windows were very dirt, but the view did not suck and we settled in. We played a round of beach golf, had a few beers, and cooked some great carne asada on the grill.






Chris brought some playing cards and we improvised some chips with tea candles and breath mints....I lost big as I suck at poker; Chris won big on the "all in play" at the end. It was a long day for most of us and we got to bed around 1:00. The next morning was a replay of Friday's weather with clear blue sky's. Chris made a great breakfast of eggs and potatoes; I tried to recharge my brain batteries knowing that by 3:00 that day we needed to be ready for the fun that night.

A good walk on the beach that morning helped us all out....got the blood flowing and helped to clear my head. On our walk we found this dead eel on the beach....another first in all my years; About 18" to 24" long.

With a few cat naps, a lot of water, and soup we were all set to make our way over to JJ's for the show. Last year we arrived around 4:00 and found a table in the corner....we arrived around 3:30 this year and it was packed....so much for planning as everyone from last year learned that the only way you get a table is to get there around 1:00 and camp out, play cards and wait. But we were there at the show; the beer was gooood, we hung out, had some burritos, and waited for the show to start at dusk.

Our initial spot to watch the show got more and more crowded with people standing in front of us on a wall. We stuck it out for about 1/2 the show and then Chris met some people who shared there table with us on one of the lower tiers....which was great.

There is really nothing like a small setting to watch any band, and even better when you know all of the words to every song like most do at a RCMP show. The perfect setting, with good friends, good weather, and good times.....I wish we had more shots of the show, but it was good as always. When the show was over we walked back to the truck and as always happens you meet people who are just cool to hang out with. Last year we had thought there would be a good place to hang out after the show....that year it did not materialize. This year was very different as many people from the show hit Chango's right down the road. They had a live band and a great crowd. We stayed there until about 1:30 or so and then made the drive home. We were all beat and got to bed around 2:00.

Sunday came way too early. I just could not sleep past 8:00 (so 6 hours of sleep!!) and we had the perfect sleeping in weather. A fog bank rolled onto the beach and blanketed our little section of the world. Very cool. Chris made a good breakfast again, and I actually felt better on Sunday then I did on Saturday. Around 9:00 am Gerry and Steve came to the house to work on the future power hook up, so I would have had to have gotten up early anyway. We lounged for a little bit then got packed and the house closed up and headed home.....another January Jam in the books.

Winter In Mexico....is there a better place to be?

With maybe the biggest winter storm in a number of years heading to Arizona we made a run down for a quick week end at the house. It was me, Matt and his friend Austin...so it was a PG-13 week end with the boys. The weather was good for January...about 63 to 67 degrees during the day and about 52 or so at night. The temperature there stays fairly constant due to the ocean temps so the day to night differential is usually not very much. We got to the house about 8:00 on Friday and settled in for the night.

My plans for the week end were simple....get some work done around the house, decompress, relax, and read a good book. This new book I started by Elmer Kelton is a good one....I got through 120 pages or so....a page turner. The beer helps as well...

It was a good trip for work around the house; new shelves in the garage, added some chlorine to the water tanks and cleaned out the tank vault, washed and cleaned the solar panels, applied WD- 40 to the steel parts on the AC units, spayed some of the house for insects, lubricated the rollers on the screen doors, serviced the main house batteries, re-charged the ATV battery, called the propane guy and added some propane to the main house tank, etc.

The patio was nice in the afternoon...by 1:00 the sun came out in full force for about 4 hours which was nice. That was about when the Cardinals game was about to start. I made some good bacon and cheese cheese crisps on the grill and watched the first 1/2 of the game...then hit the beach for about 45 min of quiet and sun. The football game was not great as we all know.

The boys had a good time trying new things. With the ocean a little too cold, they found that the sand dune by the back road was perfect for sand surfing. They were out there for maybe two hours while I was working on the house. Up and down that sand dune....I would have done that about two times and been done. Thank god for youth. They had a great time finding new ways to jump off this hill. Needless to say, when it was all done that night they had sand in every orifice of their body.

And they had a chance for a some football on the beach. It was a good day as the tide stayed out most of the morning.

Around 4:00 I rounded the boys up and we headed to town to watch the last of the football game. We went to the Desert Oasis...the food has not been great there the past year or so, but they do have a pool table and a indoor shuffle board game so Matt likes to go there....I like the $1.25 beers. We stayed there until 7:00 pm and then hit the Thrifty for some ice cream and made a try at buying some fireworks, but the two places I know close to the house were closed. We headed back to the house, made a fire, cooked some marshmallows and made it an evening at the house.

On Sunday it was a little more cloudy, but still very nice. I had a good walk on the beach, a little nap, and got the rest of the house stuff done. We packed up and got back into Phoenix around 6:30 that night. It was a very nice, easy weekend....got to love January in Mexico.