Monday, November 24, 2008

That was a heavy toothbrush!

I didn't need much more than a toothbrush.

But (as you can tell) I brought a computer . . . and my e-book reader . . . and my iPod . . . and a couple of books . . . and some magazines. Heaven forbid that I get bored! My backpack probably weighed 30 pounds, but it was all I needed to bring.

Just about everything here at Casa Gecko was in working order, except we were out of gas (so no hot water and no oven or stove) and our satellite TV wasn't functioning. That's really not much, considering the usual running around it takes to get the Internet going or the phones working or fix a crack in a ceiling or whatever we find. The place was clean, too, since Ana has been continuing to come here every week.

Of course, we haven't been gone that long.

No mangoes on the tree yet. The bananas are gone. The limones are still coming. They are a year-round treat.

Ajijic has its own Walmart now. We had to go check it out. It's not that big a deal, really. I was expecting something outrageously big, but it's about the same as the average Fred Meyer in Seattle. Which is big. And it's about the same size (I think) as Soriana -- the Mexican Fred Meyer -- just down the road. They've had a recent facelift and it's much more attractive than Walmart. Walmart is probably three or four kilometers closer to us.

I don't shop at Walmart in the States, because they have such a bad reputation in their dealings with labor. But (totally hypocritically) I shop at Sam's Club because they have really great stuff and it's cheap. And I'm afraid if Walmart were more convenient than the places I normally go to, I'd probably be tempted. It's easy to be a Walmart snob when they're out in the middle of nowhere.

To balance out our Walmart trip, we stopped at a little store on our street yesterday to buy some onions, potatoes, chiles, etc. We spent $1.35 there.

I've spent more for a replacement brush for my fancy electric toothbrush!

5 comments:

zoompop said...

say, which eBook reader do you use? thoughts?

Carolyn Hansen said...

Funny you should ask!

Ross and I both had Rocket eBooks -- that are no longer supported. But we loved them.

That's why I got a Sony eReader a couple Christmases ago. It's pretty and sleeker than the Rocket was.

Ross got a Kindle when it first came out. The Kindle is a tiny bit clunkier than the Sony, because it has a keyboard -- but it's a lot more functional. Plus, they have many more books available for the Kindle than the Sony. And with the Kindle you're buying books on Amazon. The Sony site is beautiful, but not exactly intuitive to use. Kindle ebooks are somewhat cheaper than the Sony books. (I don't know if that's going to last forever.)

I'd get a Kindle next time.

Eric Chastain said...

Something about expats and their reading. We just ordered a pile of books. Cammy s working her way through the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. It is massive, but apparently very interesting. I suppose that is the upside of having only CNN to watch on TV. We thought about a Kindle, but haven't struck the match on that yet. Happy Mexicoing! Eric

Anonymous said...

gahhhAHHHHHAAAASSS!

Is that guy still driving around ajijic with the repeating crescendo on "gas"?

Carolyn Hansen said...

Hey, Rick!

We sometimes hear the gaaaaaaahs guy, but not as much. I think we've just gotten used to it. There's ANOTHER gas company that goes around with a jingle that totally gets in my head (of course, I have no idea what the words are). Then there are the incredibly loud -- yet fuzzy -- speaker trucks. I will truly be bilingual when I can comprehend what they're saying. I think one went through the neighborhood saying something in English -- and I only caught the word "watermelon."