A Storm I Will Miss

Tropical Storm Odile

a French saint

Because I'm up in rainy Seattle.  Sunday was bright, blue and almost warm. Now I'm waiting for a little sunshine so I can do some sightseeing, shopping and business.

The flight Saturday was pretty uneventful except it had been awhile and I was not prepared for uncomfortable seats and cool temperatures. No longer do flights supply blankets and pillows I was happily informed by the Stewardess. The plane on the leg to LA seemed new with nice seats and a not out of control air conditioning. The flight to Seattle was not as comfortable but I grabbed some warm clothes out of my suitcase when we switched planes. BTW - the flight is Alaska

One odd thing that happened entering LA was that I was told by security (TSA) I was "flagged" for the alternate security lane. The procedure was the same except I didn't have to take my shoes off and no waiting in line. I asked the TSA people and they had no idea why. Whatever sets the flags for TSA is total BS since I've never given them a reason.  Oh well, I went through security before most people on our flight.

Well ... two more weeks here and I'll see if I can find a few interesting things to do and get a few fotos.

Throw, Row, Tow, Go

At least that was our motto when I became a Senior Lifeguard at our Mercer Island Beach Club. It only came to mind but in this case none of it applied. The La Aurora Water Park is a great place to spend the day except that they have absolutely no security. No one to calm the teenagers down when they start acting crazy and no one to watch small kids that can't touch bottom.

I had just walked up to the Tobogan pool where all the bodies get dumped from two large slides and at the far end noticed a very young girl, maybe 4, swimming with water wings. That was amazing enough but the next thing I know she took off the wings and pushed off the ladder to the middle of the pool. She soon discovered she could kinda stay afloat but couldn't move back to the ladder. Just as she started to panic I jumped in and walked her over to the ladder. Nobody noticed including the 6 year boy she was playing with. Of course you don't get a thank you from a 4 year old and I'm not sure she even fully realized what just happened. Back on went the water wings and she was in again. I explained the situation to an older sister who was sitting at the "family" table but I never saw their parents.

Our story for the day was we found a nice place in the shade, a big bowl of ceviche de camaron, cubeta of Estrella and lots of playing with the kids. Nahima (3 years) was first afraid of the kiddy pool but an hour later was in every pool with help of sister or mom. Yari (10 years) is very cautious and couldn't be talked into going down the big water slides even when some girl friends were doing it. First time for them and I haven't been in a few years. Nahima's comment at the end of the day was -- "No mas playa, toboganes mejor".

Kiddy pool from our table

Kids and new found friends

Kids water slides

Pool at the bottom of the big slides

A day with Telcel

I noticed that Telcel was upgrading their site last week even asking how much I liked to new 'interface' but they didn't have my bill ready.  Not sure if it was too early or they just hadn't finished the web site.   I went in today and couldn't even get to the login page but kept getting errors that their VeriSign security was not correct or had expired.

I went to the Online chat help and got a woman that evidently did not know they were working on the site.   We went round and round with her standard help-desk questions until she took me seriously and put me on hold.   While on hold for about 5 minutes I tried the site again and was suddenly redirected to another page that worked.  I won't claim that my call is what make them wake up but it sure was a coincidence.

Telcel has not sent me a bill in the mail even tho they said they would ... and I can't change their email notifications to an address I can access for a .PDF file which I need to pay at the bank.  I wanted to get the bill paying out of the way this week to avoid the Semana Santa rush ... but finally made it.

Now my Nokia phone on the Amigo Plan seems to be running out of minutes prematurely or minutes are expiring too soon.  I put in the minimum amount today and got service back ... but the web site still says my account has been suspended.  Hopefully their databases will merge soon so I can find out what my balance is.   It should be over 100 pesos.