Well, the last 6 weeks or so have been fucking hell.
It started at the beginning of September. La Paz is a desert city. It doesn't rain much but when it does -- WOW. We attended at professional soccer game and when the downpour started, it really came down. Half time was at least twice as long as normal. Then, they had the stadium staff out with brooms trying to sweep water off the playing surface. when the rain let up. They got the game in and we traversed deep water to get home.
The very next Friday we had an hour long downpour while we were at home. It turns out (and I should have noticed it when we moved in) that our apartment complex was built about a foot and a half below street level. There was so much water on the roadway that it chose to run downhill on our drive way and proceeded to fill the parking lot and yard. End result, 2 feet of water outside of our apartment and 3 inches inside. We had to wait until the outside water had drained to below our door to get outside without letting more water in. The other two apartments were in much worse shape. They had gaps at the bottom of their doors and the water inside was as high as the water outside.
We called a friend who had a shop vac who came over and helped us. Our neighbour had a very electrically unsafe emergency pump and a drain in his yard. He ran a hose over the wall from our yard into his and we managed to pump a good amount of water over the wall into his drain. In the mean time, We and our friend and his girl friend (who like Sheldon Cooper would say was a girl who was a friend but not a girl friend) helped us get rid of the water and dirt that had come into our home. This took about two hours. We then went over to one of our neighbours units and helped at least get rid of the water in her place. She suffered more than we did because she had soooooo much stuff that there was no way she could get it out of the reach of the water.
We spoke to the land lords and noted what we saw as major deficiencies and made some suggestions as to how to deal with them (I'm not an engineer but I've worked with enough of them and may have at some time stayed at a Holiday Inn Express).
Two weeks ago, another downpour. Hour and a half, almost two hours long. More water gathered outside (about 8 inches more water gathered outside) and a bit more inside. When we were finally able to open the door, we had an invitation from our friend to come over to his house and take shelter as long as we needed. So a small suitcase of clothes and toiletries, two dogs, a cat, and everything they needed, we were out of there. We met with the land lords the next day and he was very apologetic and gave us the polite notion that he was terminating our lease (he offered to pay for a hotel for us), would give us back our damage deposit in full and the rent we had paid for the month. Basically, he punted us out. We packed up everything we had left in the apartment and parked it in our friend's garage. Then we started the search for a new home. It just so happened, some other friends of ours were leaving La Paz to spend at least 6 months in Mazatlan. Mrs JBRG contacted the landlord and after looking at this smaller one bedroom, we had a home to move into the day after the friends left.
So, we've been in the new digs a grand total of 3 days and BAM!!! Hurricane Norma pays us a visit. We lost internet connectivity on Friday evening at 9:30 PM. Cell phone service was spotty at best. Spent Saturday sheltered in place while the storm, which came ashore just south of Todos Santos, did its best to make life miserable. The good thing about this apartment - even though it's on the ground floor is that we have good drainage and had no water inside. The dogs were having nothing with going outside to do their duty. So, the shower was configured as a bathroom for them with puppy pee pads. Damn dogs wouldn't go there either. Later in the afternoon, Mrs JBRG forced them outside, on at a time, and at least emptied their bladders. We lost electric power for about 30 seconds on Saturday evening. Sunday came along with lighter rain and less forceful winds. Internet came back online yesterday after about 40 hours offline. Damage in various parts of town was quite extensive. In our neighbourhood, there were some trees down but that's about it. Down in the marinas, moored boats were blown off their moorings and have been found in other parts of the bay or were sunk (one sunk boat was raided earlier in the week and all persons on board were arrested on drug and weapons charges).
So, we have come through two floods, finding and occupying a new home and a hurricane. Through all of this, we also had to renew our residency status in Mexico. We go get our new, expires in 3 years, temporary resident cards tomorrow.
As you can see, it is not what ruined my day, it's what has ruined the last month and a half. As I said, we are high and dry and safe. We may go for a walk down to the Malecon to see what kind of damage was done.