I'm on the beach under the palapa that has not been tended to for some time and it just rained. I guess I'm lucky that it's not raining now (knock on wood), but the palm fronds in the tattered roof are all dripping on me and I can't find a spot that's dry. I'm counting it as a win that I found a spot where it's not dripping on my forehead . . . oops, scratch that.
My palapa shelter.
To top it all off, I am still in quarantine until my friends get their COVID-19 test results, and I just found out that my high cholesterol makes me high-risk to get the virus, have worse symptoms, and die from it - yay. So I'm not too thrilled about having visitors at all, and now I have two cleaning gals in the house, David raking the yard, and a realtor showing the house to somebody tomorrow.
So rather than, say, hang out on the deck while they cleaned, I needed to leave the house, for their safety and my own. This is really quite inconvenient. No breakfast, no morning poop, this kind of sucks. Plus maybe I'm a little sad that someone is interesting in buying "my" house. It's come to be my safe little haven and I love it. Time for some practice in non-attachment!
But hey, someone is cleaning my screens - hooray! I took two of them down and sprayed them with the hose downstairs in the rain the other day. What an insecty mess and a pain in the ass. Is there some sort of trick to doing this?
Here, the screens are all Velcro'd on so that you can rip the edge up to open and close the wooden shutters. My shutters stay open 24/7 other than when the wind blows them shut. It's actually really nice having the fresh air all day along with the sound of the waves, birds, monkeys, and crickets.
The moisture from the ocean (and daily rain) gets in the screen leaving it full of water droplets. On top of that, the insects, from gnats to cicadas, build up both on the screen and piled up at the bottom as they fall, making it an extra treat when you rip the screen up to access the shutters and dead bugs fall all over the counter.
And man, what a difference it is once they're cleaned! It's like when you finally clean a dirty windshield.
The moisture from the ocean (and daily rain) gets in the screen leaving it full of water droplets. On top of that, the insects, from gnats to cicadas, build up both on the screen and piled up at the bottom as they fall, making it an extra treat when you rip the screen up to access the shutters and dead bugs fall all over the counter.
And man, what a difference it is once they're cleaned! It's like when you finally clean a dirty windshield.
The screens get full of water and dead insects.
Ahhh how nice when they are newly cleaned!
Oh, and did I mention all the mosquitoes that are out? I am currently doused in poison and hoping for the best. I am also hoping that these fresh and rather large holes underneath me are from crabs and not something more frightening. But I do have to say that so far the array of insects that have come to check me out are quite interesting. One of those green super metallic flies just came by. I sure would like to have a photo of that one. Oh, and I just saw a Frigatebird fly by with a fish in its mouth, drop it, and catch it again in mid air. There, glass half-full.
There are holes all over the property. These were a little larger that most and freshly dug. Crabs, right?!?
Later:
The property manager came walking up the beach to check on things. Always nice to see her. Turns out the country is having an emergency meeting to try to decided what to do about this latest Coronavirus spike. They might shut down the country entirely for a couple of weeks, like really strict. That's fine by me. I have no problem locking down again for a while. I am in a happy place in this little house. :)
I got some good, but barely-comprehending-in-my-half-asleep-state reading in. Then 2 hours and 45 minutes in, I had to pee so badly so I went up to the house. Plus I figured it might push them along if I showed up and reminded them that I was displaced until they were done.
Almost 3 hours in, the screens are all laid out in the yard, doesn't look like they're going to be finished soon. In fact, they are still sweeping inside the house. :(
So this is really weird. One of the women was locked inside the bathroom. Door shut maybe to mop behind the door or if she was peeing herself, but locked? It took a short time for her to come out and she definitely had not used the toilet. Seat was up and the water wasn't running as it if had recently been flushed. I'm just too tired to be concerned about this. I'll check my belongings later.
Later Still:
About 4 hours later I got my house back. :) All nice and deep-cleaned. 2 women, 4 hours on this tiny place, what?! It takes 2 women 2 hours to clean San Diego Dreamin' which is way bigger, but whatever. Not my dime, just my inconvenience, my cranky tired mood, and a now completely wasted day due to lack of sleep. But ya' know what - it doesn't really matter, does it? I have nothin' but time right now and at least it was something different that the usual! LOL