Friday, January 26, 2007

Solitude...and photo for 25 de enero de 2007


The solitude of this day is wearing heavily.

The people from CRIM (obviously a government acronym but I have no idea what it stands for) were supposed to come esta manana (this morning) to "inspect" the house. What this really involves is checking to see if I am in fact living here. It's important because since this is my primary residence and the property is less than an acre, once this is done, I get a paper that says I don't pay any property taxes.

Also with that paper, I get to go to Isabela to get another piece of paper called a "patente." Again, I have no idea what it is except I have to have it to go to the next office, the Oficina de Muebles. (Who knows?) From them I get and yet another piece of paper and then I take all these pieces of paper to the oficina de bebides alcoholis and finally (maybe) get my actual permit to run Ola Lola's.

So anyway, the CRIM people were supposed to come this morning. Fine. I have a lot of work to do in the garden. So I figured I'd spend the morning working in the garden then either go start the next round of paperwork or have the afternoon to go to the beach. Afterall, it has been a postcard day.

Alas, t'was not to be. CRIM never did show up so I sat and waited pretty much all day for nothing, wasting a nearly perfect day.

Two good things did come of it: I finished trimming all the hibiscus and I got more hammock time than I've had at any one stretch since I got here. I actually took a nap in the hammock.

Still, it was an unwelcome solitude that feels enforced. I couldn't leave until late afternoon. It clouded up by then so the light on the ocean was like the ocean itself, flat and grey. Kind of matched my mood. Don't get me wrong: I'm not feeling sorry for myself, just a little lonely.

So the photo for today is one from the garden. I'm not sure what this flower is - and surprizingly, Katie doesn't either. It is related to the bird of paradise, but that's all I know.

No comments: