Real Life in Paradise

It turned out that they had ripped the screen out of the small hallway window that goes into the kitchen above the sink.  They then rocked the kitchen window until the locking mechanism disengaged and then opened it.  They crawled in there.

So, I still didn’t know how the thieves got into the building.  I thought maybe they had climbed up the metal grating that goes up the front of Lomas Mariposas, that would explain the turned over plant on the balcony.  The gardener later informed me that the lock on the front gate had been broken.  They had used something to pry the cover off of the lock so that they could slip a finger into the bolt and undo it.

The only things that went missing were the flat screen TV and a cell phone.  The computer and all other valuables were left alone, it looks like somebody knew what they were going for. 

My opinion of what happened is that it was only one person, they grabbed the TV and left.  They seem to have left through the balcony doors and passed the TV to the landing of the stairs which is accessible from the balcony(where the plant was knocked over), then he crawled down into the stairway himself and exited through the gate.

I replaced the gate lock with the newer model of the same type of lock.   The lock store told me that they no longer sell the old type of lock but the new one is very similar.  It was pretty close, it had some design changes to make it sturdier but also didn’t quite fit the hole that the old lock used.  I had to modify the door a little bit.  I also got the new lock rekeyed to fit the old key, since changing keys is a bit of a hassle in a rental condo building.  Rekeying the lock cost only $100 pesos and key copies have gone up to $12 pesos in almost every key shop, so with 9 units in the building it is more or less the same price.  Installing the new lock took about 2 hours but it works great.  It is still vulnerable to having somebody break it with a hammer and chisel like the old lock, but I have asked all of the tenants to start locking the deadbolt at night, so thieves won’t be able to do the same thing again.

I went to Telcel on saturday to report the cell phone stolen, the line there was atrocious but I finally made it.  I explained to them the situation and it ended up not being that big of a deal to get the old phone canceled and the number transfered to another phone.  Not so bad. 

It is really too bad about this whole thing but I guess the upside to this is that in the last couple of days there has been a big uproar around Mariposas and with the surrounding buildings about security.  We have been installing security bars in all of the sliding glass doors that do not have them and investigation secondary lock options for the windows.  There has been discussion of sharing a security guard with the building below Mariposas.

The neighbors have also been talking about putting up some barbed wire or broken glass over the wall that separates our buildings, though I am not so sure as to how effective this will be.  The glass is very ugly also, but I guess that is the price you pay for better security.

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My meeting last night about the land didn’t turn out so bad, but the owners didn’t show up.  It was just myself and their agent.  It was good though, we talked about the details and now I just have to find a buyer.

Last night at about 9:30 at night the guy from the machinery shop called, my pressure washer was ready.  I went to Dairy Queen with some friends, we sat on La Quinta and discussed the world.  It was nice.  The blizzards there are always so good, they remind me of home.

Today was another hot day in Playa Del Carmen, my cable internet was not working when I woke up this morning.  Obviously it didn’t stay off for too long.  I picked up the pressure washer this morning early and took it over to Lomas Mariposas to test it out with Agustin, the gardener.  We played around with it for a few hours and found out all kinds of things that a pressure washer WILL NOT clean.  Pressure washers DO NOT get the bird droppings off of the white paint on the walls.  The pressure washer WILL NOT take the black stuff out of the conchuela marble tiles.  The pressure washer DOES, on the other hand, take the paint off of any surface that has been in the sun for any period of time, leave gouges in the stucco on the walls, and gets lot of small particles of paint/dirt/etc in the pool.   I am pretty happy about it anyway, it will get lots of use.

Agustin started using the potting soil today, it looks good.  He seems to have spread a fine layer of dirt over the whole lawn, he says that it is because the sand comes to the surface and the grass won’t grow properly if you don’t add more dirt.  I guess that makes sense.  The pile of dirt is getting a little smaller, its still an eyesore.

I had lunch at HC Monterrey on CTM, an order of arrachera to go.  Excellent stuff.  The order was $100 pesos but it is enough for another meal later,  the roasted potato was excellent.  I wish I could get them to come out like that on my BBQ.

I had to get a padlock for the systern at Las Olas because a few of the condo owners have repeatedly found construction workers dipping buckets into it to make cement.  That should take care of the problem.

The new “For Sale/For Rent” signs were done today, they look good but I am worried that they are a little small.  We will see if I still get the same amount of phone calls.  I used to screw the signs into the side of the building with little wooden anchors, but they tend to get blown off after 6 months or so, this time I attached them with transparent silicon, the people at the sign store said that would work better.

There is some sort of talk by a buddhist monk tonight, I am going to try to go.  I went to something like this out in SacBe a few years ago, it was very cool.  I am hoping this will be the same.  I was told that it was at the Hotel Alahambra, I am going to check into Tai Chi classes while I am there.  I will talk more about it tomorrow.

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I got up this morning and it was already really hot out.  The dog had knocked the screen door off the track at about 6:30am, so I woke up then….but I laid in bed for another hour I think.  I got up and went to Lomas Mariposas, one of the buildings I manage, where I showed up just in time for the gardener leaving an hour early.  I asked him why and his very logical answer was, “I am going to get some breakfast.” I didn’t feel like this was a good way to start the week, so I asked him to go back inside and finish up his time there by spreading out the potting soil he harrassed me to buy that has been sitting in bags in the yard for the last five days.  He watered the lawn instead.  I decided that this was a fight I was not going to win, so I continued on my daily rounds, leaving him to his thing.  I wonder if he stayed around or left right after I did?

I then went to electric company to pay the bill for one of the other buildings I take care of, the self-service machine in front was not giving out receipts and I figured I couldn’t risk putting $4000pesos($400 USD) into the machine without getting any proof of payment, so I waited in line inside.  The air-conditioning in that office makes it all worth while.  I waited there for about 30 minutes, there were about 15 people in line and only one teller taking transactions.  Not so bad, I have had to wait for longer periods before.

I later got some banking done and got some “For Sale” signs made up, the bank really didn’t take that long.  Which was nice, I really cannot ever complain about the bank though, it is air-conditioned as well.

I went over to the little machine shop in my neighborhood where I have been trying to buy a used pressure washer for the last two weeks, they seem to be putting it together piece by piece.  Today the machine is assembled and there is a hose associated with its operation(though not yet attached), the only thing missing is the spray-gun.  He tells me that it should be done today.  I can only hope, some of the biggest excitement in my life these days is imagining all the things that I can get washed when I get that pressure washer.

I later got a call from the architect that is in charge of putting a new wood post on the terrace of one of the apartments at Las Olas, the building I manage close to Mamitas Beach Club.  We have been waiting for a few weeks for the piece of wood to come in from the jungle south of here, it is a special type of post that is actually a hardwood tree that has been attacked by a creeping vine(also a hardwood), killing the tree but leaving an the vine to grow into an exterior tree on the outside.  It is a pretty cool finished product, mother nature does good work.  I will try to include some pictures.  Well anyway, the post finally arrived today and the architect wanted me to come and have a look at it to make sure it was ok.  I didn’t think much about it at the time, but it turns out that the post was much too big and she wanted to see if I would notice.  I did.  The post was about 20 centimeters too wide, which would have thrown off the whole look of the building.  The building owners are funny about that sort of thing.  So I had to send it back, I hope it doesn’t take another 3 weeks to get another post…Arquitecta Lupe told me that these posts are cut to order, I don’t exactly know what that meant.  It was really too bad, the piece of wood they brought had some really amazing patterns that would have shined up really nicely in the finished piece.  Asi es.

I am going to finish my day today rooftop meeting with some guys from Mexico City that want to sell a piece of land by the beach and their real estate manager here seems to think that I will be a useful addition to the land sale, so we are going to talk about terms of the sale.  I am pretty excited because this will be the biggest deal that I have been involved in so far, it will be a learning experience.  I am also excited because the owners are members of the Mexican National Soccer team, so they are somewhat celebrities down here.  We shall see what comes of this.

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