Stop and smell the cocos!

Wednesday's "day off" for work on the property taught me a lesson. I have been too much work and not enough play since returning from the US in July. So after another hectic day, I headed into town to "robando la cajera automatica." Rob the ATM! But I did stop and watch the sunset and, uhm, smell the coconuts. Masonry was well under way and again, the job was being well supervised. Taking care of the supervisor, Lora Doggie Dog, is a job in itself. She has to feel secure with the workers. And she has been eating like crazy under stress, putting on little spare tires. Llantitas.
But just as she has learned to love the Maya plant lady and the crowd she draws to the front of the house, she has accepted Eriso - the sea urchin actually name Abilio. For three hours, he was just one of the four workers Lora and I had to supervise. The compound was a job site for 10 hours.
And then there was the issue of my shoulder. I thought I had torn the rotator cuff. Mary Ann came and gave me a massage and concluded the ligament/tendon was severely stretched. On the same side as the foot I broke jumping out of bed, probably used defensively, she said. It has indeed had more than its share of lifting and moving since then too. Even with Ricardo and Jose variously as helpers, there was a lot of repetitive movement in the shopping trips last month. And pull toys with the dog instead of golf cart runs during heavy rains.
Mary Ann fashioned a pareo sling for me and I hit the ATM at Seven -11 and headed to Miguel's for and a guac and quick one. Back home by 7:30 and in bed by 9 to get up and take Eriso to Constructarama on Isla Mujeres to order delivery of cement, gravel and blocks and some reinforcing bars for the garden wall build up.
But I had so much pain, I could not sleep and finally around 3am took a narcotic pain pill prescribed for just such emergencies by the Cleveland Clinic. And I was up at 5, making Lora chicken liver chilaquiles and checking on the financial markets and politicos. Not that it makes a difference what I do or don't know about what's going on.
Eriso and I were at the cement joint by 7:30, where we ran into the carpenter, and were ready to roll by 8:45, when we came home and found Jose ready to paint. He cleaned up after the re installation of the AC in the upstairs unit (which had been installed incorrectly, with not enough breathing space) and painted that wall. When I checked on him, the TV was on and I asked to switch to CNN, which gave us the chance for him to learned legalese and slang, as in OJ Simpson. Culpable is guilty. He wrote that down. Then I added, guilty as sin! He wrote that down too!
Despite torrential rains until 2pm, everyone worked in and outdoors.
Everyone is gone now as sunset approaches on Saturday afternoon and I just took another pain pill. Mary Ann found the position I can rest my arm without pain. On my back, arm over my head and a pillow under the shoulder.
So hey, folks, it's siesta time!