Picture taken last week I thought I would first share with you this picture. It was taken as I was driving to meet with someone a week or so ago. This area of town is a poorer area of town. But as you can see that you have to have your priorities. Notice the grey Ford Mustang just after the puddle. You can see an example of most of the roads here which are made with stones. Having a car here is more practical than anything else. Ask anyone who has visited Autlan, and they will tell you that you can't drive very fast here because of the roads and all the speed bumps that are placed through out the city to keep people from driving fast. A tank of gas (if you don't leave Autlan) can last up to five weeks or more depending how much driving you do.
We are enjoying a change in the weather. We had a few days of rain which is unusual for this time of year. We are now in our stretch of months with no rain. With the rain brought in cooler temps. Our kids are now sleeping-in until 8. Anna sometimes until 8:30. It is a chance for us to actually wear jeans without sweating. It still can get up into the 80's during the day though.
The other day, I had to repair one of our wooden kitchen chairs. They are considered "rustic" here because of the style they are. I had to fix the springs underneath so they wouldn't fall in the middle. As I was hammering the spring back in the wooden piece broke in half. What do you do with a chair that has a broken piece? You take the piece of wood and take it to a carpenter shop where they will make you another one for less than a buck. I put it back together and you wouldn't know the difference.
Because they work they are doing on the streets two blocks away from our house, they have been turning off the water during the days. Some parts of Autlan only get water on certain days of week and have to fill up big tanks infront of their houses. We on the other hand, because we live in downtown, have water all the time. So when they turn the water off,we have to get water from a smaller tank. It also means we have manually flush the bathroom toilet. We do have a tank on top of our kitchen roof that will last for 4 or 5 days of washing dishes and showers. It has been a challenge to wash clothes during the day. We have to fill the washer manually. It goes pretty fast if focus on loading it. It just makes you sweat though and you can't just leave it like you normally would.
We are enjoying a change in the weather. We had a few days of rain which is unusual for this time of year. We are now in our stretch of months with no rain. With the rain brought in cooler temps. Our kids are now sleeping-in until 8. Anna sometimes until 8:30. It is a chance for us to actually wear jeans without sweating. It still can get up into the 80's during the day though.
The other day, I had to repair one of our wooden kitchen chairs. They are considered "rustic" here because of the style they are. I had to fix the springs underneath so they wouldn't fall in the middle. As I was hammering the spring back in the wooden piece broke in half. What do you do with a chair that has a broken piece? You take the piece of wood and take it to a carpenter shop where they will make you another one for less than a buck. I put it back together and you wouldn't know the difference.
Because they work they are doing on the streets two blocks away from our house, they have been turning off the water during the days. Some parts of Autlan only get water on certain days of week and have to fill up big tanks infront of their houses. We on the other hand, because we live in downtown, have water all the time. So when they turn the water off,we have to get water from a smaller tank. It also means we have manually flush the bathroom toilet. We do have a tank on top of our kitchen roof that will last for 4 or 5 days of washing dishes and showers. It has been a challenge to wash clothes during the day. We have to fill the washer manually. It goes pretty fast if focus on loading it. It just makes you sweat though and you can't just leave it like you normally would.
