Friday, March 28, 2008
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
My last post before I head home!
Monday, March 3rd
I'm having a hard time getting a tan because its just too hot to sit in the sun! I guess January was a nice cool month, too bad it didn't work out for me to be here then...Sure could have gotten more work done with cooler days! Its so hot I can't really do much outside, the sweat just rolls down my face and I hate that.. I'm almost bored because I can't do much.
Well it was a sad day today, yep, I finished the last of my homemade blackberry jelly, boy do I wish I could have had the time to make more before I left! All they have here is strawberry, I guess I'll see how good that is..
So the donkey horse seems to like any too old fruit and even banana peels and watermelon rind. Until I get a compost area he's gonna take care of stuff like that!
Well this weeks excitement was the small Gecko that dropped from my ceiling! I'm so glad he didn't drop 10 minutes earlier when I wasn't here yet and crawled into one of my food or storage boxes! Or worse yet dropped on the table where I sit or even on my head!! I was making morning coffee when I heard something land on the plastic garbage bag I use to cover my dishes that sit on top of my little fridge.. When I went to see what it was, there was this lizard. I thought aw geeze what am I going to do now, I figured if I tried to scoop him up on the bag, he's run fast, but I had no choice, so I put my gloves on and quickly picked up the corners and scooped him up and ran outside in the new addition to the doorway and tossed him down below (the foundation sits about 4 feet up off the ground). He wasn't moving too fast so maybe he was sick or something, thank goodness!! I noticed later he was gone.
I also have small Iguana living in a pile of brick out back. Much smaller than my toilet Iguana, which is in one of my video's. (that one was about 2 feet long) this little guy is probably 10-12 inches..much smaller.
They sure eat a lot of tortillas here. They can't understand when I eat only one or 2.. the ladies eat from 6-10 and the guys from 10-15 (at least). and they don't use silverware, the tortilla is the silverware. I'm the only one eating my beans with a spoon! And when I went to lunch at Linda and Xavier's grandma's yesterday, we had yummy chicken tostada's and of course, no silverware in sight.. a lot of finger licking and the salt is always in a container (everywhere, homes and restaurants!) and you (and everyone else) just use your fingers to get a pinch.. No Pepsi down here either, just Coke..
This week I got a bite (mosquito??) on my earlobe, I am so sorry I didn't bring my little bug bite pen. The stuff they have here is useless, doesn't stop the itching at all.
Well this sure has been a time of sadness. The lives of 2 more beautiful ladies so young, both in their 30's, taken away from their loving family's... one with 2 young kids.. One from cancer and one from pneumonia. I just lost 2 beautiful friends to cancer weeks before I left. I know its inevitable, but I still wish they and all of us could just live till we are really old and more ready after living long full lives. Its just so tragic. My thoughts are with all of them, my dear husband and all of those taken from us too soon..
Monday March 17th, Boy is time flying. I kept forgetting to add my post to the blog every time I would come to the internet. Just so much happening and so much on my mind.. Now I'm packing up and I leave in 3 days!! I got my sidewalk temporarily done and my leveled parking area out front is done. The retaining wall got finished and I had the back hoe in one more time to fill in around it and somewhat level the area and move a bunch of the leftover gravel into the new driveway onto my property, Its all in my videos.
On Wednesday the 12th it was Linda's birthday and they took me with them to Platanitos, one of their favorites beaches that they took me to last time I was down here, and we had a nice family lunch with cake and mariachi, there was 9 of us and lots of food. Sunday they took me to Chacala for lunch and I ended up buying a Hammock for $20. Wish I had it earlier! Its a real nice one too. Even though it means I now have to sleep on the airport bench instead of getting a motel for the night of my layover in Portland.
I really hate to come home to reality and bills. I can't wait to figure out how to come back soon as I can.
Its gonna take quite a bit more money to get this place livable so I better start buying a few more lottery tickets.
I did get a pretty good tan I think, but of course its only a farmers tan. Its will probably look darker once I get back with all you white people!
Linda and Xavier are taking me to Puerto Vallarta to the airport Thursday and we will stop in Guayabitos, my favorite, for lunch on the way. I'll be sure to get a video of that beach too.
Well this is the last post until I get home, then I'll start adding the videos and they tell a whole lot more than my posts! See ya real soon!!
Monday, March 3, 2008
My Sick Day's!
So, Sunday night the 24th, I got home to mom's after being at the internet cafe all afternoon (actually its not a cafe, they don't serve anything but don't know what else to call it!) and there was a big pot of Camarones (shrimp) I was so hungry so I took about a dozen or so (thumb size) cause I love shrimp! Well somewhere in the early morning I got heartburn bad so I took a Tums, then later I may as well have slept in the bathroom. I never threw up (thank goodness!) so I don't think they were bad, they just didn't agree with me. I got up at 6:30 and headed over to my place to let the workers in to get their tools and slept all day, just getting up every couple of hours to let the workers know I was still keeping an eye on them. Chino was gone that day. I am so glad I brought my lounge chair to have some place to lay down! After the workers left I went straight home and went to bed. About 10:00 that night mom came in all worried of course, and rubbed something on my back and gave me a bottle of Pedialyte. I could only drink a few swallows.
Tuesday morning I went to my Casa as usual at 7:00 and went right to sleep again. Chino was here today and kept coming in and telling me to get that bottle of Pedialyte drank up. I could only swallow a little bit at a time. After work, I went to the internet cafe to try to get my departure date changed and ended up spending $40 bucks for an 800 number call to Alaska Airlines. The call wouldn't go thru from mom's house and at the internet cafe its 50 cents a minute. They were having some kind of trouble getting it changed and being on hold for 50 cents a minute was really stressing me out! Finally she just said well check your email tomorrow and if the reservation is not there, you will have to call back. When I went home that night I thought... Hey I think I'm hungry, so I went in to fix something bland like Ramen noodles. I was so hungry I couldn't wait the 3 minutes for them to cook and drank a cup of milk, it tasted so good and when I went to sit down to eat my Ramen, I took one bit and could hardly swallow it. I forced down about 2 more bits and that was it, I wasn't hungry anymore and went right to bed. I am feeling fine and never really felt sick, just tired!! and can't eat much...(like that's gonna hurt me!)
Wednesday, I actually got up in the afternoon and ate almost a whole small banana and now able to drink orange juice and milk. Later I ate a half of P B & J!! So in the afternoon I went to the internet cafe to check for my reservation and it was not there. So luckily, James, my new friend and family that adopted me in Coos Bay, had got me on Instant Messenger and he happen to be online, I had him make the call for me and then he had to call the internet cafe with 3 way calling so I could give permission to Alaska to have him work with my acct. Well that phone call was so bad, the guy that was working there that day had the volume on it so loud I couldn't make out anything ( I didn't know how to say “{how do you turn the volume down on this phone” in Spanish!!) and James had to IM me what he was saying then I would speak and I guess they could hear me fine cause they let him give all my information like credit card info and such. So we IM'ed back and forth on the computer while he was giving them the information they needed and got it all taken care of. So my return flight leaves's Puerto Vallarta on the 20th and I get home on the 21st around 11:30 am, I think..with a bummer of an all night layover in Portland. I may try to get a motel for that night.
Thursday, I had a small bowl of beans and a tortilla and thought I was doing pretty good now, so that night I made the mistake of getting a hamburger at the local burger stand and If I just hadn't eaten the whole thing I know I would be feeling better. I just hated to leave half or take it with me so I stuffed myself and my stomach hasn't stopped hurting since and its Sunday now! Man I just don't seem to have a brain.. I am eating a couple small meals a day now, but my stomach still feels like someone socked me in the stomach and Alkaseltzer helps but I didn't bring a full box and I don't know what kind of Alkaseltzer they have here in Mexico, seems like everything is just a bit different than what we get in the states..
Ya know, I have not seen anyone with a kitchen sink here, (of course there are some nice places here and I have not seen inside them...) they all have those outdoor wash bins and after you carry your dishes out to it, you scrub your dishes with a soapy loofah, you hold one dish in one hand and dip a plastic container in the water with your other hand to rinse the dishes, with cold water of course. I am going to have a kitchen and bathroom sink and I think I may have mentioned I'm gong to use several hundred feet of black pipe for solar hot water ( for the shower too!!) thats going to work great, as long as I can hide it on the roof well, so it doesn't get stolen..
You rarely have to go shopping here for food. There are lots of traveling vendors that drive around the neighborhood and they each have a certain beep, like the tortilla guys beeps his horn 4 times each half block so you know he's coming He has a Ice chest strapped to the back of his little motorbike and sells from there, he just goes home and gets more when he's out. And the Ice cream truck has that musical recording like they do in the states with those little Ice cream trucks.. The breads guy drives a van and has some recording of the types of breads and sweet rolls he is selling.., and I didn't see the cheese guy this morning so don't know what he drives.. The fruit and vegetable guys drives a truck filled with all kinds of stuff, lots of variety.. and has a small weigh scale on the back and a tarp over the back like a canopy..who knows what other vendors I haven't seen yet. They also have pick-up's selling mattress's, which every mattress I have slept on here (motels and mom's) are soooo hard they have no cushioning ...but they seems to make a great fence when they are burned with the springs that are left!!!
Well, the final wall is getting started tomorrow, the foundation is done and the bricks go up next. Sure wish I could do the floor and roof, but no way...no Dinero!
