Dried Up

Every now and again, Patty takes a shower and jumps out halfway through to let me know that there´s no more water.  I don´t know how it always happens to her that she´s the one in the shower when we run out.  Glad it´s not me, though! 

Normally, it´s not a problem.  I just head out to the street, flip the switch by our water meter and the water flows again. 

Unfortunately, last Friday, things didn´t work so smoothly.

I flipped the switch and nothing happened. Oh, dear.   

 Our cistern below the garage was full, so I just turned on the pump, and that sent the water to the tinacos on top of the roof, which then sent water to the boiler and then to the shower.  In reality, it took a good deal less time for all that to happen that it did to write that sentence. 

However, we still haven´t gotten water from the city since sometime before last Friday. 

The cistern is now empty.  The smaller tinaco still has some water in it, but I´m guessing it´s going to give out sometime today. 

I´ve been calling the water company every day and every day they promise that someone will come. 

No dice on that front until today when I started to get clearly irritated with the woman fielding the complaint calls.  I let her know that I haven´t had a shower in three days.  They did send a group over this morning to change the valves on the meter, letting us know that the valves weren´t actually the problem, but that a different crew will have to dig up the sidewalk to see what´s blocking the pipes. 

We knew that already, as Mario cleaned the meter this weekend.

Second crew hasn´t shown up yet.

And it is now past my two o´clock deadline to let Mario know that they haven´t come, so he can call for a water truck to hopefully come today and fill our cistern. 

And the water company had the nerve to send us our February bill yesterday, after they had repeatedly ignored my calls, pleading for any kind of service. 

In return, if I can´t take a shower tonight or flush my poop, I might just have to stay in a hotel tonight and send Aguas de Saltillo the bill.  You bet it will be a nice hotel.  ;)

Oh, my inner drama queen!

Jill vs Typhoid--I think I Won!

Yep, I´m still here.  Things are finally starting to feel like normal. 

I´ve been sidetracked for a few months, thanks to a bout of typhoid. 

That sounds more dramatic than it was.  But now that I´m officially recovered, I am realizing that it really did knock me for a loop for quite awhile.  Kind of like my pregnancy with Joey. 

Actually, yeah, it was a lot like that.  And I described my symptoms to one of my friends who was CONVINCED that I was pregnant.  It would have made sense.  Fatigue, dizziness.

But nope, definetly NOT pregnant. 

Not long after my last post, I was attempting to get our Thanksgiving turkey in the oven, but I had to lay down every 10 minutes or so because I was so dizzy.  Finally, I gave up and let Mario do it, coaching him from the couch.

I spent the better part of those two weeks in bed, not feeling terrible, just very, very dizzy when I tried to do anything vertically.  Then the symptoms went away and I didn´t think about it anymore. 

However, as we were driving home from Indiana to Saltillo, the dizziness happened again (resulting in mild carsickness for two days straight).  Furthermore,  I added insomnia, a lack of appetite, and losing weight to my list of drama and I decided that it was high time that I found a doctor. 

It turns out that insomnia is not a symptom of typhoid, so I´m not sure what that was all about.  But when I listed all my other symptoms, my new doctor immediately diagnosed me with typhoid.  OK, she did wait for my bloodwork to come back to officially diagnose me with typhoid (and write me a prescription for antibiotics), but she knew immediately. 

Apparently, typhoid has a tendency to come back, so I had to get even more blood drawn this week to confirm that I really, really got rid of it. 

Yep, I´m good. 

And, if anyone in Saltillo needs bloodwork done, I highly recommend the lab, Centro Medico de Saltillo, located right across from the University Hospital/University Nursing School on Calzada Francisco I. Madero #1236-2.  I´ve gone there a number of times, I believe there is only the one doctor in the lab, and she has the magic touch for drawing blood.  Often I don´t even feel the needle prick. 

And that´s something--I am terrified of needles!  Seriously, go there.  She´s great.

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So I´m almost back to business (just as soon as I shake Monster Cold). 

It seems like we´re just about to shake winter, too!  Things are looking up! 

Take that, you suckers up north with record snow this winter!  Come visit me! 

And just to add one more exclamation mark, I think I´ll go to bed!!!!  (OK, 4 more.)

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My apologies for turning into a crochety old lady and describing my every ache and pain, but that´s where I´ve been, and I had to start SOMEWHERE to get back on this blogging horse!