A couple of pictures of interest ...
Here's a rather unique motorhome. The "Vista Cruiser" incorporates the top of an old VW van atop this old schoolbus. Reminds me of the dome cars on the CPR passenger trains. A great place to send the kids to tell you what's going in traffic up ahead, or to give you the current weather report - that would be - "sunny"!
Or how about this innovative second storey structure. Notice the old travel trailer outlined in the exterior wall of this store. They've done a good job of blending it into the wall by painting it the same color. We drive by it a couple of times a week and didn't even notice it for the first 4 months. The big question is ... "how did they get it up there?" It's not like there are lot of cranes around here.
And then there's "Home Cheapo of the Baja", which primarily sells used building materials, not to be confused with "Home Depot" which sells new building materials. They have everything from fridges and stoves to cabinets and plumbing which come out of hotels. They have truck loads of fencing materials, some complete with grass still in the wire, large volumes of new and used doors in all sizes, and many types of used lumber. These include anything from large quantities of tongue and groove 3 x 4's, to complete flooring from bowling allies, glue-lam beams which they cut down into appropriate lumber sizes and beautiful old growth fir edge grain bleachers from schools. Wood workers - eat your hearts out!
And then there's the saga of lost electrical power. Back home, the snows come, or the wind takes out a line and the power company comes out and fixes it - the same night. Not so here! Oh no! This becomes a two week ordeal. Yes, we were without power for two week, hence no communication from "this" computer.
Two weeks ago, a large group of ATVer's and dirt bikers from the States blazed into town on a Thursday night. Many of them used to live here and had gone to the States seeking wealth and fortune. Most are drywallers and so are making good money, and every once in awhile, they come back to their home town and rip up the 
community with all their expensive toys - every day - all night. Saturday night promised to have a big party down at the beach, and what's a party without generators and lights. Remember, it's dark here by 6:30. So here they come down our road, pulling a trailer generator / work light set-up. Not uncommon back home, except here the large worklights on the trailer are already in the raised position, so all you have to do when you get to the beach is turn on the switch. Good idea, except they couldn't see the overhead electric wires. Needless to say, we are plunged into total darkness; our whole block that is. Not a huge deal; we'll call the electric company and hopefully we'll have power at least by Sunday morning.
Our neighbor, Ray, calls CFE but no one answers. So he calls the local police who give him the emergency number for CFE. Sunday morning they come and hook up power for everyone except us. You have to first of all understand something. Our power pole and meter are located about 500 feet down the road from our house. From the meter, our electric cables run above ground along the fenceline and underground at the driveways 'til it finally reaches our house. No, our driveway is not 500 feet long; our house is right beside the road, just our meter is way back up the road from our house. In the mishap, our old wooden pole became dislocated from it's base, so consequently, instead of fixing the pole, CFE just took our meter out of the meterbox, cut our cables that had been pulled down and went home. Remember, everyone except us has power restored. Upon checking into this odd behaviour, we are told, "it is our responsibility to install a new pole as the old one is damaged." Fair enough, we install a new metal pole, reattach our old meterbox, conduit pipe and cables and call CFE. The next day (Tuesday) they put a bright orange rejection sticker on our box saying, "we need a new conduit pipe that houses the cables going from the meterbox to the top of the pole. We need to also make sure the insulator at the top of the pole is properly secured." Okay, we can do this! In fact, we'll make it better. We install a new insulator at the top of the pole, we get a whole new meterbox and conduit setup and even put new wires through the conduit from the meterbox to the top of the pole. Surely they will be impressed! Two days later, another bright orange rejection notice. "More concrete is needed at the base of the pole and the ground wire from the meterbox to the ground rod needs to be replaced." Our pole is already more secure than any other pole in sight, so we're not sure what the problem is. But hey, we can do this! So we pour a 3 x 3 pad around our pole and slope it up in the middle to create a strong collar around the pole. This pole is not coming down. If any other vehicle hooks our line, their vehicle will come off the ground before our pole comes down. We also install a new ground cable and a new ground rod, even set it in the concrete so no one can steal the ground rod for scrap metal. They should be real happy now - but hey - what's this? Another bright orange rejection notice. "The ground rod cannot be in the concrete."
About this time we're thinking it would have been nice if they had told us all this info right at the beginning, but we're learning there's a process - slow and slower, and of course, there's always tomorrow. The long and short of it is, after another week of phone calls and finally a visit into the office to meet the "Main Man" we finally have electricity. But hey, the meter was barely in and the cables connected and I see there is already the next electric bill rolled up in the fence. Oh ya, the bill gets delivered to the meter (500 ft away) not to the house. Guess I better take a walk down there and retrieve it before the wind blows it away. But then on the other hand, since we haven't had electricity for so long, why is there even a bill there at all? Maybe it's someone else's?
