The Cozumel Effect and the Chicken Step

As mentioned in the previous post, it is quite surprising how often things unexpectedly fall into place here on Cozumel. At first I thought it was just happenstance, fluke, luck, but things have worked out for the best so often that I now almost rely on it. It is definately a different experience to back home ... I call it the "Cozumel Effect".

Of course I don’t just sit back and wait for this Cozumel Effect to happen. I do keep plugging away, but problems don’t concern me quite so much now. I have learned to accept the more fluid life …that things happen when they do rather than when you want them to. When you give up the desire for things to proceed as planned, life becomes much less stressful and things bizarrely fall into place … eventually. You do need to be without a time limit though.

“When will the carpenter show up?”, my dear diver esposo asks. “Sometime” I say, knowing that the carpenter will strangely show up at a more optimal time if I don’t force things.

For example, had I been back home, I would have had my two boxes of tiles straight away and would have lost surprise option to add the extra glitter pizzazz to my pool steps.



Another example would be my husband just happening to arrive on the day we were putting the final touches to the pool seating before the tiling started. Yes we do have pool seating! In the deep section we have decided to add a little loveseat, a romantic little nook …or a step to get out of the pool if you insist on being absolutely and totally unromantic!

It was my husband’s suggestion (altogether …ahhhh …) and on arriving he noticed right at the last moment that the seat design needed to be altered.

Now had the guys started to tile the pool and this would have been difficult and costly to alter, but due to a fluke of circumstances, we now have a much nicer little loveseat … or as I mentioned before for the unromantic … a much larger exit step!

Were it not so hot and the brain in gear, I could probably list a handful of more events that happened this way … they are not uncommon!

Julia Talyor notes a similar story on her very informative Home Sweet Home Mexico site

To quote her:
“I have an anecdote that shows perfectly how things always work out very well in Mexico. My husband was riding his bike at about 30 miles per hour down a hill (wearing a helmet, by the way) when a taxi driver pulled out in front of him and he hit the taxi.
He launched into the air and hit the ground with a painful scream. This is the bad part. The good part is that right at that moment a man happened to be crossing the street. The man was a paramedic. My husband received stellar, professional help right in the moment he needed it.
This may sound like a lucky break. It’s not. Take it from me, lucky breaks are to be expected in Mexico.”
From http://www.home-sweet-mexico.com/safety.html

I would be very interested to know of others’ experiences of this luck effect…as Fox Maulder might say… the truth is out there!

Introducing the Chicken Step ... all must for all pools!

Talking of exit steps … oh yes we were!

My dear esposo also pointed out a place halfway along the pool wall where it would be optimal to add a small step to allow one to exit the pool without having to wade over to the main steps (...and what a drag that would be!). The esposo is a Californian and therefore knows a thing or two about pools.

It is once again the Cozumel effect is at hand. The change comes at a most opportune moment and is an alteration that I, with my very non Californian, cold climate background, would have never considered.

I explain this new addition to my builder who then refers to it as a punta de apoyo. My only experience so far with a word sounding like poyo is pollo meaning chicken (ll is pronounced y in Spanish). Always wanting to understand more, I asked why my step in the pool is being referred to as a punta de pollo …a point of a …chicken?

I am met with much laughter from the workers who understand “chicken” and find it all very humorous. I am happy to provide the days entertainment but am still left in the dark regarding my “chicken step”.

I later look it up and all becomes clear. Punta de apoyo means point of support … but from now on ... the workers and I refer to this new step in my pool as the escalera de pollo “the chicken step”.