You Have To Be Flexible in México

July 1, 2013

Last Tuesday night we had a fairly good rainstorm.  I think it was just the second rain of the season so we weren’t surprised that the power went out for several hours in the middle of the night.  It came back on around 4 am and Paul and I went back to sleep for several more hours.

I got to the kitchen first the next morning and found that the refrigerator didn’t have power.  I went and flipped the breaker but nothing worked.  Meanwhile Paul got our hefty extension cord and plugged the fridge in at the closest plug with power.  We checked our plugs to see what wasn’t working and it’s our whole kitchen, sala fresca, garage, and laundry room.

Wednesday we had electrician #1 come and he said that it didn’t seem to be the breakers and there was something wrong part of the power coming into the house.  He thought it would come back on its own and said he’d check with us in the morning.  We thought it was likely that he was out of his depth and didn’t know how to fix it.  Telling us tomorrow would push the problem off until then.  We ended up being wrong about that as you’ll see, below.

So the next morning (Thursday) we called electrician #2 and he came and checked and said basically the same thing!  He called the electric company while he was here to describe what he’d found and they told him that it had been reported and was a problem for an area around us.  They said it would be fixed within 3 hours.

Well, you can guess that it wasn’t fixed Friday either.  Or Saturday.  On Sunday the power came on and off a bunch of times so we thought they were working on it.  Paul even got a bit over zealous and put back all our kitchen appliances that had been plugged in on the buffet in the dining room.  Nope.  Better put everything back.

Monday (today) it was still off.  We had a number of errands to do this morning but when we got back home at 2:30 and it was still off, I called the electric company.  I have a trouble ticket number now and the repair people are supposed to be out between 1 and 10 hours from the time I reported it.  We’ll see.

What we understand is that one of the three legs of power coming into our house is not being given power.  Makes sense given that the oven comes on but can’t heat since you need all three legs for 220 power (or so I’m told.)

What about being flexible? Well, yesterday I had prepped a whole bunch of tomatoes to roast not realizing that the oven wouldn’t work.  Instead I decided to put them (with the garlic, rosemary, salt & olive oil) in the slow cooker instead.  The smell was heavenly and it worked out perfectly.

Today is our fasting day (we’re both on the 5:2 diet) and I had planned to make baked sweet potatoes for our dinner.  Without an oven that wouldn’t work so instead I took our roasted tomatoes and pureed them in the blender and served the tomato soup cold over chopped cucumber.  It was a delicious cold soup on a warm summer day, just the thing for those flexible days in México.

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More about Nancy

I'm Nancy, a US expat living in San Antonio Tlayacapan, Jalisco after 11 years in Mazatlán, México.

11 Comments
    1. I find that the improbable is usually probable in Mexico. It’s taken a long time for me to understand that……..I love that you rolled with the flow. It’s the only way – those that don’t, leave.

    1. Electric stove in Mexico?

      Yep common to run 220 thru the house and split to 110 legs in various sections

      1. Babs, Mexico has taught me to roll with the flow, so much healthier of an attitude!

        Wendy, It’s always something..

        Sparks, We have a separate cooktop and oven, our cooktop is propane and the oven is electric. CFE arrived this morning and got us all fixed up!

    1. Hope is the 5/2 diet working for you? Interesting idea, have read about it but have not tried it – any comments you will share and TIA.

    1. You’re right Nancy, you really do just have to relax and work around the problems. They always get sorted out eventually. If you expect things to be fixed in the same time frame that they would be in Canada or the USA, you will just drive yourself crazy.

    1. We had that happen a few months back, luckily just for a few hours. But it confused the devil out of me! I was ready to call an electrician when my neighbor convinced me it really was the power company. Had no idea the power could be half-way out (or half-way on, if you’re an optimist, I guess)! LOL

    1. I love your phalanx of coffee-making equipment! If you haven’t already, next time you’re in DF, check out Jekemir on Isabel la Catolica. You can buy amazing Oaxacan coffee beans there for $160MN per kilo, and (despite the cheap price) they’re fantastic. On my last trip, I bought 6 kilos, brought them back to Boston, and am drinking a cup now.

      Saludos,

      Kim G
      Boston, MA
      Where we are amused at the idea of half a power failure. I’m glad you didn’t get the same “half of a repair” that Babs writes about on her blog.

      1. Sandy, I’ll be doing a blog post on the 5:2 diet soon but we LOVE it. We feel great and don’t plan on stopping.

        Shannon, I was a lot more uptight when we first moved here but after six years I am almost mellow!

        Viki, I have learned a lot about odd things like this since living here.

        Kim, Yes, we MUST have our Rancilio espresso in the morning, we buy Chiapas whole bean at El Faro here… but they charge us $200 a kilo. Next time we’re in DF we’ll check your place out. The coffee pot is for heating water for my green tea obsession. Ja ja ja

    1. You are lucky that you were home during this event. This happened to us while we were at the coast for a weeks vacation. The leg of the circuit that fed the refrigerator was off, and our caretaker’s house was ok, and so was half our house except for the kitchen circuit.
      The stuff in the freezer and fridge wasn’t smelling too bad when we got back and figured out what had happened.
      I since then have made an alarm that monitors both legs of the power so that if we are gone, they will at least know that half the power is out…..
      You can’t get too excited about stuff like that, always look at the big picture that it was not something like not having power while laying in bed with a oxygen machine or something like that!

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