Favorite Neighbor
Last night my favorite vecino borracho (drunken neighbor) dropped in and asked me: “Do you like boxing?” “No, it’s barbaric” I replied. “Then what sport do you like?” he asked. “I like cycling, I like the Tour de France, and I like hockey.” said I, queen bitch of the north. He looked at me grimly.
Despite my unsatisfactory answer to his sporting questions vecino borracho then insisted that we accompany him to “have some drinks” and “watch boxeo (boxing).” I finally agreed to go for a few minutes figuring I could leave and go home easily enough as his house is close enough to mine that I could run an extension cord to it. And besides, I really like his wife, so I’m always happy to see her for a bit.
When I went over there I carried my own drink with me, a Cuba Libre (rum and coke), so I could avoid having him make me a drink with an inferior brand of rum in it. I know I’m a rum snob. But Bacardi is shit. And Appleton is no better. Both of them give me a hangover before I finish one drink. We basically only drink white Havana Club, which is Cuban, and which is one of the few things I will miss when I move from here. I don’t drink very often and so I don’t see why I should lower my standards and drink crappy rum.
Vecino borracho was a little offended that I brought my own drink to his house. And he insisted on tasting it, to see what the fuss was all about. But being as he was muy borracho (very drunk) he soon forgot the offense and turned to playing with the volume knob on his stereo, like he always does.
They had the TV on, tuned to the beloved face-mashing boxeo match. But they also had the stereo playing. And, as usual, vecino borracho went through a pile of CDs, playing a song here and there from each of them, and periodically turning the volume WAY up so that the leaves on the almendro (almond) tree in front of his house would start to shake. I guess he likes his stereo. Or maybe he thinks that the rest of the world loves his music. We decided long ago that we like him despite his music.
Now and again vecino borracho would turn down the music so he could tell us a joke. I’m pretty sure I’ve heard all of his jokes before, but that actually makes it easier to time exactly when to laugh long and hard, which is what he wants.
So we laughed on cue, and relaxed a little, and didn’t watch the abhorrent boxeo but rather played with vecino borracho’s great dog and talked to his family.
And actually, it was just nice to hang out with the neighbors. It’s nice to have physically convenient friends, people so who live so close by that you can run home to answer the phone (well, assuming you could hear it ring above vecino borracho’s music).
July 28th, 2008 02:30
It sounds like you have an interesting neighbor and I envy you. Our new neighbors have been busy settling in but their children have developed an interest in playing with our children.
My boys came running inside one day last week screaming because the oldest neighbor boy (eleven) had a knife and told my boys that he was gonna shave ’em bald.
Wanna swap houses for awhile? I don’t like boxing either but I can deal with it 🙂
~Lisa
July 28th, 2008 06:43
Another Rum Snob!! The smoother the rum, the stiffer the drink.LOL
July 28th, 2008 18:03
Lisa – It sounds like your neighbors leave something to be desired.
Trixie – It just doesn’t seem worth drinking booze that’s going to give you a sure-fire headache. Havana Club is so clean that I almost never have a hangover from it, I can get up at 7 am the next morning and go running…
July 28th, 2008 19:21
Rum? There’s only one…Flor de Cana!
July 28th, 2008 20:04
Wayne – Flor de Caña is what we drink when we can’t get Havana Club (it’s what we drank in the States). It’s almost as clean and almost as good as Havana Club, imho.