The Price Of Home Ownership.....

How many Panamanians does it take to pump out a septic tank?  Apparently 5-6 since that's how many showed up yesterday at our Chame house.  The sixth guy showed up late and didn't do much except help himself to free fruit from our trees.  We're finding out fast that when you have fruit trees people feel free to take the fruit and even fill bags with your fruit, without asking first. 

Anyway, the five men worked on the problem for close to 4 hours and had to go empty the tank on their truck about six times.  They addressed the slow draining showers in the house with snakes pulling out globs of roots that had invaded the area.  One of the men told Clyde that he's a plumber and seemed to know what he was doing.  Clyde was impressed with their work but not with the quoted price of $500. He talked them down to $380 but should have deducted the price of the fruit they walked away with.  At $1.25 a pound the price of those free mangos can really add up quick. 

Our insurance broker recommended her air conditioner guy from Panama City and when he and Clyde talked he agreed to take on the job.  Novo said he'd be here around 10 or 11 but we never heard from him until noon after we had left the house and were 30-minutes away.  Thankfully he was still in the city so it would take him an hour or more to make it to Capira.

Two men showed up around 1:30 and even after Clyde introduced them to Venus, she insisted on running them off the property.  One of the men was seriously afraid of dogs and would walk by her holding a lawn chair in front of himself, even when we were holding her on a leash.  They say dogs can sense how we feel and she felt his fear as a weakness and decided she could take him. 

They quickly removed the split a/c unit from the wall here and off we went to the Chame house to have them install it there.  The whole job took about two and a half hours and another $250 from our wallet, but it had to be done.  Novo is from Cuba and gave Clyde a Cuban cigar which he plans to save for a friend since he thinks cigars are nasty.

Taking the day off from working on the house today for an afternoon party with expat friends.  Still need to scrub the tile floors in the house before moving in sometime this week.  That gives us plenty of time to clean and paint any parts of the rental house that need it.  Since the walls are all white and get dirty easily it just needs some freshening up and patching nail holes where we had things hung.

Nice to take time to relax and smell the humid, tropical air.  The birds are chirping as the sun rises over the mountains for another beautiful day in paradise.....along the gringo trail.