The Mexico Diaries: A river runs through it

Things were looking up. After five visits by three different plumbers, the pipes under my sink had finally stopped leaking. And the newly-repaired water purifier had been reinstalled with a T in the line that now sent pure water to the back of my fridge so I could get purified ice and water from the door. This was very exciting. For years I have buying blue 10-lb. bags of ice from Oxxo and using a hammer to break off the cubes for my drinks. Now all I had to do was put a glass under the dispenser and woosh! Out came the ice. I was so excited about this development that I thought about hosting a dinner party. Just to show off my new ice-in-the-door.

And the electricity problems had been solved. True, it had cost a fortune to replace the electric panel in the garage but it was worth it. I still didn’t have air-conditioning (Señor Rivera had sent me multiple e-mails during my time in Sayulita outlining the various obstacles to procuring a new compressor and I could explain them to you but I think you would find them as trying as I did) but I wasn’t too worried about that. The air-conditioning is basically for my renters who are coming after the first of the year, Tom and Libby. Tom is a judge. Or was a judge. From Tennessee. Tom and Libby spend more time in my house than I do. In fact, when I am down at one of the pools and someone asks me where I’m staying, I explain the location to them and they invariably say, “Oh, you live in Tom and Libby’s house!”

Anyway, I don’t know how often Tom and Libby use the air-conditioning but it should at least be an option. As for me, I long ago moved out of the master bedroom and into the back guest room which is cooler and darker and better for sleeping. A ceiling fan is all you need here.

So things were really looking up. After three weeks of residency, I now had electricity and running water. I had ice-in-the-door. Woo-hoo! Then last night, about four, I got up to go to the bathroom and, in the darkness, stepped out the guest room door and into a lake. I don’t mean a little puddle of water. I mean an inch of liquid that extended from the front door to the master bedroom and the kitchen to the patio. An area just about the size of Delaware. In total darkness (I wasn’t about to touch anything electrical and electrocute myself) I swam through the living room looking for the source of the leak. I figured it had to be coming from the kitchen, but where? It didn’t seem to be coming from under the sink or from any of the hoses running from the water purifier or the fridge. Then I noticed water pouring out from behind the freezer door and when I opened it, I was sprayed in the face by a gusher shooting out from the ice maker. All the bins in the now-defrosted freezer held eight or ten inches of water. So I reached under the sink and shut off the water and then stood in an inch or so of water in my dark kitchen. At four in the morning. Wondering how on earth I was ever going to get all this water out of my house.