Dipstick in the Driveway

 File this under things that are different in Chile.  

It was that time of the month again.  No, not that time.  This is not that kind of blog.  

It was time to check the dipstick in the driveway.

What?  You don't have a dipstick in your driveway?

Hmmmm....Well then, let me explain.

This is a picture of my driveway.  Taken from my front door. Right underneath the driver's side mirror in said picture is this funny looking thing that sticks out of the brick. 

 It looks a lot like this  ↓ .  Probably because this is a picture of it.

         

This is my dipstick.  In my driveway.  I have never had one of these before.  Like I said - file this under things that are different in Chile.  But since it is nearing winter here in the Southern Hemisphere this dipstick is very important.  This dipstick tells me how much fuel I have left in the tank that is buried under my driveway.

What?  You don't have a tank buried under your driveway?

Hmmm...

Well, I do have a tank.  And if I wanted not to have to wear my jacket in the house like I did last month before we got the fuel loaded, I had better go outside and check the levels.  So, I unscrewed the top and started pulling.  Having never done this part before I didn't realize just how long this dipstick was.  MadHatter is crouching down next to it in the picture below.  I am guessing it to be about 4 feet long.  Now that is a dipstick.

That funky flesh color in the left upper corner is my arm.  Pretty distorted by my camera phone.

Once getting it out of the ground we needed to check how much kerosene was still in the tank. Because if we let it get too low or, Heaven Forbid, empty we run the risk of not having enough

hot water to last through a shower.  Or the stove wouldn't light. Or the heat wouldn't continue to seep up from the floorboards and quickly back out through the uninsulated concrete walls.  (Which, as much as I hate the second part, I need the heat to keep coming out of the floorboards. Otherwise I would be wearing a jacket in my own house.  Again).  

Our dipstick was showing very low levels of fuel... 

Trust me - it's low.

  

 This would not do.  So the call was made and yesterday the fuel truck showed up.  One that looked like the one below (though this is not our truck - it was too dark outside when they showed up at 7 pm to get a picture of that one).  But this gives you the idea.

  They proceeded to roll out a very long hose, hook it up to this spout

↓

Not very well hidden in my garden about 5 feet from the dipstick.

And proceeded to unload 530 Liters of kerosene.  That's about 140 gallons.  

And you thought you had a big tank to fill on your car.  

At a cost of 299.980.00 CLP* ($585.96 US as of today's conversion rate of 511.950 CLP to $1) it comes out to approximately $4.18 a gallon. Not cheap.  But still so much more cost effective than the house that we lived in last winter.  That one had a gas line directly to the house.  The gas company would come read the meter each month and bill us (sound familiar?).  That bill, in the throws of winter, would run about $1200 a month.  US dollars, not CLP.    

Have you gotten your wind back yet?  

Yeah, the first time I saw that bill it almost knocked the wind out of me too.  Heck, every time I saw that bill I think I felt my breath catch.  It's just not a number you can get used to seeing on your gas bill.  And now, thankfully, I won't have to.  Because I have a dipstick in my driveway.

* And if you are wondering why we didn't just get 300.000 CLP worth of fuel you would be completely normal.  We asked for 300.000 CLP but their truck only holds 530 Liters, hence they could only bring us 299.980,00 CLP.  They could have rounded up and lied to me.  I wouldn't have minded.  It would just have made it easier to balance the checkbook.

There was a little girl,

          Who had a little curl,

Right in the middle of her forehead.

          When she was good,

She was very good indeed,

          But when she was bad she was horrid.

                                                               - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - 

Rain, Rain, Go Away

We have been chanting for the rain to go away for a couple of days now.  The skies have opened up so much that our pool has filled to overflowing, there is a new lake in the back yard and we have a pile of muddy soled shoes in the front hallway.  And that is just the rain.  The wind storm that tore through here yesterday and kept setting off the house alarms of everyone we know (or at least those that have electric fences - with the trees constantly being pushed into the wires in so many places it just overloads the system and it goes off) was epic.  But at least all the leaves are now off the trees at our house which will make for only one more raking up of those strays.  Too bad it also brought down quite a few branches too.

Once it finally stopped raining this afternoon we thought we would get out of the stuffy house we had been cooped up in and take a family walk.

This is what that walk looked like...

No rain but we brought the umbrellas just in case.  Of course, they were a good toy too.

We may have to go sledding in that mountain top next weekend.

We ran to let off pent up energy...

We peeked at ourselves in puddles...

We hung around for a bit when we got tired of walking.

And we were all smiling at the end.

Party Animals

Last week was full.  Not only was B out of town but we had 4 parties and one Mother's Day brunch to attend.  (He did make the first of the parties before heading out).  The girls and I partied like it was 1999...

1st up we zip lined, ate junk food and swam...

 

Everyone was harnessed, helmeted and ready to go!

No fear!

And they're off.

 We sent the two four year olds ahead with the two guides.  The guides had to go first because there had to be someone on the other side to catch you when you came screaming in.  And since the littles had to go attached to someone (they don't weigh enough and aren't tall enough to catch on the other end) the guides were the perfect choice.  I was sent over next so that the poor guides didn't have to try to entertain little kids while trying to safely bring us to a stop.



We zip lined there.  We zip lined back.

B got in on the action too!

 We all landed safely and had a fabulous lunch (with delicious cake!) and it was time for the swimming part of the party.  MadHatter and Stinkerbell had been asking for weeks to go swimming so this was perfect.  Indoor and heated.

 One last sucker and we were headed home for naps.  For all of us.  We had a busy week ahead.

During the week I had not one, but two, Mother's Day celebrations at the girls school.  Not too many pictures.  I can only take so many pictures of the girls standing around not singing.  If you remember the Dieciocho program last year - not one word was uttered and we watched MadHatter deal with her stage freight.  Repeat this, times two, this year.  This is what I do have...other than some fun memories.

When she gets nervous that finger automatically goes to the mouth.

Her friend giving her some moral support.

Stinkerbell with the same hand in mouth stage fright...

But she did warm up a bit.  No singing, but hand motions.

And then we had another birthday party...This time, we played like we were Mexican jumping beans...

All suited up and ready to go....

 

        

Too small for the harness.  So we jumped freestyle

We ate chocolate...

We ate more chocolate...

We danced with friends...

 All in all, it was a great week.  And we have a party scheduled every Saturday from here until we leave for the States.  And a Daddy who is out of town every weekday in between.  It might mean I am behind on my blogging of events like I have been this month.  It's tough to keep up when you are a single mom, but I will try...