Excuse the Venom

OK, this is a bitter extranjero entry. Let me just jump right in and say I am officially tired of the constant lack of efficiency and quality we encounter when trying to get anything accomplished around here. In certain regards, the “way things are here” is working my last fucking nerve. I warned you, this is not a nice girl entry. Prepare for a lot of hot air. Zen hippie girl has given way to bitchfightergoddess. No asterisks or pound signs here, you’re getting the fully monty of my vulgarity. . . . I think we’ve been pretty patient and tolerant and welcoming of our new environment and lifestlyle. We’ve gotten used to the fact that when someone says they’ll do something “tomorrow,” they may mean any day in the future that is not today, and that “later” may not necessarily mean later today, but later in the week. And of course things move at a slower pace here – that’s what we came here for. Yes, ok. Cool. Excellent. But does slow have to mean absolutely incompetent? Por ejemplo…

· When you explain and illustrate a job to someone more than once in great detail and it still gets done wrong – irritating!
· When you pay hundreds of dollars to have your shitty car turned into a less shitty car and the day after you get it back it starts to leak oil and coolant – irritating!
· When the glass guy comes to install your new shower door and then leaves a mess of metal shavings and small nails in your shower – irritating!
· When someone gives you their “word” that they will be at your house to work on a certain day but then doesn’t show up nor call and still has all his limbs to show for it – irritating!
· When someone begins a project and then decides they don’t want to finish it simply because they don’t want to – irritating!
· When someone claims to know what they’re doing and then royally fucks up a job – irritating!
· When you pay for materials and expect them to be ordered or delivered but they’re not and you don’t even get the courtesy of an inventive excuse for the lack of follow-through – irritating!
· When your electric bill is set up for automatic payment and the bank fails to pay it so your electricity gets cut off without any prior notice – fucking IRRITATING! (This, by the way, happened to hundreds of people in town. But instead of thinking, “Hey, look at all the people that just happened to not pay their bills this month, maybe something’s wrong,” ICE, the electric company, simply cuts everyone’s electricity off without any advance warning. Thank goodness for Stan’s sister Mary, who used to be an electrician. She told Stan how to enable the electricity for us and he just opened the box, diddled what had to be diddled and, voila!, our power was back on. Gracias a dios!)

I know these things could happen anywhere. And I can hear all our comrades down here now, “Hey, that’s the way it is. If you don’t like it, don’t stay here.” And I can hear our friend Dave telling me, “You have to have a sense of humor to live down here.” Yeah, point taken. I already acknowledged bitter extranjero status, and I obviously am not finding humor in these things at the moment. I just need to get over it. But I’m not lamenting what’s not most convenient; I don’t expect to come down here and change the way things are done, but I really don’t think our expectations are too high. Aren’t we allowed to have just a modicum of expectation for people who profess to be “professionals?” Even in a nice, slow culture full of pura vida, is it really too much to ask that things be done correctly if not on time? I’ve got patience and time enough, but flagrant incompetence and apathy is getting a bit old. Am I disillusioned? Hell ya. I guess it’s all our fault for trying to keep things on a loose schedule and for not wanting to have the same job done two or three times when it should have been done right in the first place. Half-finished – normal. Half-assed – irritating! . . . Ah, ok. I feel better now. I'm off to watch the sunset in our half-finished rancho amidst the carnage of our six other half-assed projects. Pura vida!