I am convinced that the Universe has been conspiring against me for the past couple of weeks. First the shower/tub had to be replaced. That took longer than I thought but in defense of the great Cosmic Joker, it cost less. In the middle of all that hammering and banging, my washing 
machine decided to take a permanent vacation. I mulled over calling in the repair man for the second time in two months and decided to go ahead and buy a new one. Fine, but they couldn’t deliver for six days. To top those two events off, some files on my computed were corrupted somehow and the programs in windows designed to fix these things kept telling me they couldn’t access the files. Jeeez! As I sit writing this, all is well finally. The plumber/contractor/tile man finished his work, the washer was delivered and by some miracle windows managed to access the files and repair them. All is well again, at least until the next disaster. What could possible go wrong next? Maybe I shouldn’t ask that question.
Naturally, my efforts at writing have been stymied and very little work was done on the Suitcase Murders. I think I’ve only managed 400 words or so for the entire week. Just keeping up my entries on Facebook has proved to be a chore. I did manage to finish up my Christmas newsletter, “The Hot Rod Gazette,” and write a short note in the 60 plus Christmas Cards I will be mailing out this year. Now to 
have the newsletter copied, stapled, folded and stuffed into the Christmas Cards. Then I’ll carry them back to the US with me and have my Sister mail them after Thanksgiving.
I received an e-mail and some photos from my friend Amanda. She’s in Italy now on the final leg or her grand tour of Europe. She stopped in at a café called “Hemingway’s” and had a coffee. It made her think of me; I’m touched that she did, so she took the photos in this post and sent them to me. Looking at her photos on Facebook and 
reading her blog makes me want to return for another visit myself. I loved Italy and Rome in particular. Amanda is in Florence at this moment but after a short stay in the country, she will be headed to the Eternal City.
I had to skip my Friday meeting with my friends here in Peru because of the delivery date on the washer. No news on or from Larry but I did get a message from Kathy and she’s doing well. She and her soon to be Ex, are selling their house in Barranco. I wish I could afford it 
but I can’t get a home loan in Peru and they are asking $267,000. They paid $70,000 for it and $30,000 for the contents when they bought it. They’ll get a nice profit. I finally heard from Tim. He and Lourdes are doing well. He has a good job now working as a safety officer for a company. They are working on the legal papers to get Lourdes her citizenship in Canada. They’ve posted a bunch of photos on FB and look very happy.
It’s another short post. I hope all of you have a good week and manage to get outdoors for a stroll. Read a good book, start a painting, write a poem, take some photos, just see the world through different eyes this week. Ustedes tienen un buen semana.
Tags: coffee, conspiracy, Hemingway, Italy, repairs, writer, writing