Joys of Home Ownership

First task on the agenda is calling Frigidaire, the maker of my microwave, on the off chance that I can get somebody out to fix the microwave. They give me the numbers of two repair places. I call one and the number has been disconnected. I call the second and they no longer fix microwaves. Spend a half hour on the phone with Frigidaire just trying to get through the automated system to speak to an actual person. Bingo – got a live one. After much going around in circles with Ms. Customer Service, she says the earliest they can get anybody out to fix the microwave is on Thursday. I'm leaving town on Wednesday so that is a no go.

Then I run over to Camping World, my authorized Jayco dealer in El Paso. I am in luck, they can fit me into the schedule on Tuesday so I can get my steps fixed, my CO2 alert system fixed and an outlet that I recently found where you can't plug anything into because everything is out of alignment. All right!!! Things are looking up.

We hop into my car and head to Chamizal. Chamizal is a National Memorial along the U.S./Mexico border which commemorates the peaceful settlement of the Chamizal boundary dispute. Evidently, Mexico and the U.S.decided on a border based on the Rio Grande river. They jointly surveyed the border and everybody was happy. Of course nobody realized that the Rio Grande, being a river, will occasionally flood and change it's borders. So, all of a sudden, land that was in Mexico was part of the US and parts of the US became part of Mexico. It took about a hundred years for them to figure out how to peacefully make this border thing work. They built a concrete path for the river to follow and the river will wander no more. It was in the 1960s when this finally got resolved.

The memorial is actually a cultural center/theater, museum. We watched the customary movie, wandered the small museum and looked at some art. They had a whole wall of dolls . Each doll was dressed in native costume representing different areas of Mexico.

The art museum part of the memorial contained paintings by two local artists, Francisco Romero and Daniel Padillo,

Romero Painting:

Padilla Painting:

We were hungry so I asked Siri to find us the best Mexican Restaurant in El Paso. She came up with L & J Cafe. We drove over there and it is a dusty little restaurant sitting between a residential neighborhood and a cemetery. Went in and Siri was right – it was really really good. I have never tasted such light and fluffy corn chips. I think they put something in the dipping sauce to make it addicting, you just couldn't get enough of those chips. Each of us were extremely satisfied with the meal.

Home again for naps and several walks with Miko around the parking lot which we call home.