Month: December 2024

***I am certain that many of you recall that back in the day we had access to the use of Coles Notes. Per Dr. Google:  What are Coles Notes? They are little books students use to help them with a variety of subjects. Coles Notes are written to help students and others to gather information quickly without having to read a whole book. Coles Notes have been written on a number of different topics. Coles Notes are student guides to literature, published in Canada. The Coles bookstore first published Coles Notes in 1948. So I have decided to publish my own version of Coles Notes as I have the energy. Bits of this and that as they come to mind.

Cruise ship leaving Christmas evening. Taken from RV1.

Friday, December 27th

Poor Colin, he has had no phone since Monday as I neglected to remind him it was running out of data! Thing is he uses it so seldom that he had no idea it wasn’t working. I had 3 to 4 good normal hours today. We mostly sat outside and talked about our future a bit. We love it here and at this point plan to stay till the end of June. Had a few cat sightings resulting in barking. All good and normal. Later saw that that B&W cat had 3 kittens, not so good 😮 Have not watched TV since the 21st, will try to see if I can tonight. Still working on where the TV will be.

About $14.00 CAD. So fresh and tastes like real veggies.

Lots of RV repairs/upgrades happening. Good to find out that the smoke alarms were archaic. Many thanks for the various suggestions re my fatigue, for certain carbon monoxide is not one of them, great thinking though.

Thank you Colin for my unique necklace holder. So easy to find what I want now.

Unique privately owned cruise ship called ” The World ” has been in port for 3 days. Yes it looks fabulous, costs more than any of us will ever have but would I really want to limit myself to being at sea? Not at all. But do Goggle the ship, interesting reading and glimpses of some wowser private on board homes.

A bit of a rare event…Dec 25, three cruise ships, left to right in the photo, The World, Norwegian Joy, and the Carnival Panorama docked Mazatlan. The N Joy and C Pan are regular visitors to Maz, whereas The World, is a rare visitant. The World is a condominium style cruise ship owned by mega rich people and is constantly sailing around the world, with an average of 150-200 passengers in 165 private suites. (Photo courtesy of Dolores Swanson Callfas)

The girls love resting with me.

Just a bit of indoor Christmas decor as compared to years past.

Saturday, December 28th

One phone call and the plans for the day change. Had trouble sleeping last night, perhaps I am getting better.

Who has room to hang king sheets in their bedroom? It was a bit too damp out to complete dry at the end of the day.

Erik, our local RV tech continues to make things happen for us.

Our water tinaco is too far away from the RV that even with our pump ( green one ) we have had to keep filling it almost daily. I think we used more water with the newer rv. The original tinaco location is behind the black post mid photo on Erik’s truck.  Today was the day to make the big change.

So the tinaco was moved much closer to our new home.

We also upgraded to a much larger pump.  Now we no longer have to use the rv water pump. Perfecto.  It took a while to find the perfect PSI point but is now working perfectly.

Another photo has surfaced from Christmas dinner. I believe that I was making a wee speech that included Spanish words, French words and English words all in the same sentence. I have fun when I can.

Watch out for those grapes!!!!

Funny face!

…….forgot to finish this post……right now it is December 30th….yesterday was a good day and a good night.

We had our palapa builder Alex extend our wind screen once we arrived here in the new RV.  He built it right to the top of the older post on the left. It wasn’t until we went inside that we realized that this window was our escape hatch from the bedroom. So we immediately had the new extension cut down to what you see here. If we had to get out we could.

While Erik was here sorting out the tinaco and new water pump we had one of his guys build us a proper escape ladder. Not sure if I could mange it but hey, at least it is a working option. Very clever mi amore.

First off I just wanted to mention that the photo of Colin and I dancing on our Christmas card, was taken on December 15th by Fred Wicks. Los Cpys ( my very favorite band here in Mazataln ) was playing at El Velero and are scheduled to play every Sunday afternoon. I think we danced only 2 short dances. I am still working on getting my energy up. Despite the lack of vitality I found myself lining up a few social events.

Sunday, December 22nd Colin and I once again went to listen to Los Cryps at El Velero. It was wonderful to see a variety of friends but most especially Darwin and Audrey.  We had no idea that they were here for the winter this season. Looking forward to future visits and checking out their new posh digs.

Monday was a very full day of cooking and preparing for a later afternoon visit with year another special friend. She had asked if she could bring a visitor from the US to meet Colin and to play music with him. Fortunately we found out late afternoon Sunday that instead of 6 or 7 we were going to be a group of 12. So we cleaned, cooked and prepared most of Monday. We were looking forward to a very fun time together. Needless to say they were close to 90 minutes late but we were not upset. That is part of the Mexican culture, time and things just happen when they happen 😎  We are used to it and just sat and waited. Heck I even had arranged for a cruise ship to depart at dark, fortunately they were there to see that. Somehow the evening just did not quite work out  and things ended unexpectedly early and somewhat awkwardly. I was just serving some sweets to everyone 🙁  Sadly everyone left. We truly did enjoy their company and the music was just getting going. I cleaned up inside while Colin put the yard together. As the day progressed I was getting more and more tired. This last amount of stress pushed me over the edge.

I went to bed as soon as I could but did not sleep well.  I was in great pain, my muscles were aching and I felt like my nerves were literately trying to jump out of my skin. A difficult feeling to describe. I slept the entire day of the 24th. Colin had to cancel our Christmas Eve dinner. I said to someone that had it been my wedding day that there was no way I could have gone. It was as if my brain had shut down and my body was mush. All I could do was sleep and have sips of water. I had a few spoons of canned mushroom soup but nothing more.  I woke up Christmas morning about 10AM and felt a wee bit stronger. I stumbled to the bathroom and then found Colin napping in the living room.

Christmas Eve sunset by Colin.

He had a great sleep but woke up extremely tired. I went back to bed.  What a pair we were. The girls seemed to sense that something was off and stayed quiet on their own. The thing was I had no physical symptoms at all. Well other than exhaustion. We dosed most of the day. We made the decision to permanently cancel our own personal Christmas meal which we had moved to the 26th but well Christmas is now over.

The Princess Love Boat leaving port the 24th. I remember hearing the captain playing the “Love Boat” theme not once but twice that night.

For the first time ever we had been invited to celebrate Christmas dinner with Fred & Kelly but I truly had no idea if we could make it or not. I was feeling a bit stronger but Colin remained sleeping. Finally about 3:30PM on Christmas Day Colin said we would go. I checked with our hosts as to the actual meal time and we went for that. Meanwhile we both napped again. It was a lovely meal and it was nice to meet some new people. But it wasn’t long before we both begin to fade. Colin was dizzy and I am not driving because of my eyes. So we left just a few hours after arriving. Thank you my friends for being such wonderful hosts and for putting up with us.

Extra special Christmas Dinner. That is me on the left under the bright light.

Colin is on the right, next to Joe in the black hat.  Kelly & Fred took over our site this season.  I figured some of you will recognize the layout. We are looking forward to checking out all the changes they will make in the years to come. It was an honor being at your first Christmas Dinner.

We were both in bed by 8:30PM ( a first for us ). I slept until 10AM this morning – a full 13.5 hours of deep deep sleep and woke up tired! I sat around and glanced around the computer for a bit, had a much needed shower and went outside to water my flowers. We had already agreed that today was going to be a quiet day, just the two of us so we could regain our strength.

I still had to go out to the street side to water my flowers there. Colin helped me set up and went back to doing things in the yard and feeding the girls, so it must have been about 2:15 or so. New to us neighbours/friends stopped to chat, then a new couple from Christmas Dinner stopped while biking past and then another couple walked past. No watering had been done yet but I was feeling detached from everyone around me and my mind was not taking anything in. Then I felt dizzy. I dropped the hose, grabbed onto a bike to stop from falling and somehow got moved two feet to lean on the fence. Someone went and found Colin and I got escorted to a chair under the palapa. I was trying to stop hyperventilating and work on deep breathing. Everyone left, I laid back and the girls came and sat on me.

Colin made me something to eat and then I went inside to nap. Heading off to bed any moment now. I have decided to stay confined to home until the New Year. Then I will see how I am. Am I just really that worn out or is something wrong? No matter, my plan is to rest as long as I need to and then come 2025, we will see how I am.

Perhaps I will do a short post or two. I have no idea. Right now I need to sleep. Don’t worry about me, Colin will let you know if there is a problem.

….I pretty much planned to do a new post most days – but I guess I really am living life to the fullest each day.  And often at the end of the day I little energy left. I have no energy left to sit at the computer for a few hours. However I have written untold posts in my mind. Happy to say that I am mostly content and all is well in my life. And if it is not – I simply sleep till 10AM.

Early morning walk.

The photos with  comments below are from here and there with no particular dates.

Special friends from Holiday Park, Cindy and Sonny, on a much needed and deserved visit to Mazatlan early December. They certainly made the best of each day and created hundreds of new memories while they were here.

We have had so much happening. Unlike past years I have no inclination to capture every moment which I know that I will soon regret. Almost daily I go back into my blog to capture what we were doing on such and such a day in the past.  I am hoping to change all that so I can stay current with my “diary”.

So much activity on the shipping channel behind us. Huge car carrier.

Only 2 weeks left in this year…..I definitely need a fresh start in 2025. Over all we are doing well. Ciela has developed an ear infection. Colin took her to the vet a few days ago and she was treated. However none of us including Ciela are happy with the treatment. Currently looking for a new vet much closer to us. Colin spent 300 MXN on Didi and the vet was an extraordinary 500 MXN for a 10 minute appointment.  The ear liquid  treatment was beyond stinky and did not help. I am on it…..

When we went out in the other RV the girls could sit in this corner and watch and wait for us to return.  Earlier in December we were away for just about 90 minutes having a shrimp dinner at Chivas. Apparently the girls cried and even howled a bit. This RV does not have such an area for the but we figured something out in the bedroom which just might be the solution. A comfy area for them to watch for us. Also Colin finally got the nanny cam connected.

We are pretty much settled in. Today Colin took in 11 totes to be stored and 5 empty ones. The bodega was closed. We later discovered that the owner was ill. We will rehire a truck another day to bring the bins in. Most of them contain books and photos albums that go back 50 -70 years to current time. We are working cleaning up our site today so hope to get these containers in storage soon. 2025 will give us lots of time to go thru the contents. I spent several hours today once again discarding recipe after recipe. Some went back to 2002.They were all great recipes but for the rest of our lives we can only add so many new ones. We are more inclined to live in the moment day by day for now. We have months/years ahead of us to sort through these items. There is no way that I will likely cook what I have already saved but there just might be an extra special recipe lurking in my piles of paper. I found a few yesterday. Will get to them when I get to them.

A new recipe with fresh shrimp and fresh crab topped with 20 year old grated parmesan from Italy.  Fresh as in never frozen. So very rich. Yummy.

I have not been reading books for several weeks but happy to say that Colin has been back to his guitar, 1 -2 hours per day. I am still getting massages every two weeks which have helped with my mobility. When I am outside I usually just sit and enjoy our unique vista, which also helps my eyes – which remain problematic but I am trying to be hopeful. I did fairly get a good pair of regular sunglasses which have helped. I will check with an eye specialist here in Mazatlan in the New Year. Recommendations welcomed.

On an almost daily basis we get to watch the locals being in their catch the day.

The net was was out to just past us on the right. The pelicans were happen to nibble.

Totally enjoying our onboard washing machine. Except last week when we discovered late in the day that the water pipes from Mazatlan required repair and that we had had no water input for many days. Our tinaco as well as the RV tank were either on low or empty 😳 We did mange to get thru those few waterless days. Our plants were ever so happy to get full water once again. Not sure if I shared earlier but we now have our full complement of potted plants ( 34 ) and our garden is looking happier.

I saw the notice of the water shut off after the fact!

This was another day.

I am thinking of starting to use my ‘real’ camera once again. The iPhone doesn’t give me what I want. However on the other hand I can’t really see what I am taking a photo of because of my eyes.

We are set up for Christmas outside as usual but the inside is laid back which works for us this year. This is our first Christmas in this home and we are creating some new traditions. We both are preferring to be rather quiet and to not have many folks over.

Sadly I have had to spend numerous hours online with both Telus and Shaw since we cancelled our accounts October 3rd. Just yesterday I got yet another charge for $66.64CAD.  The account has been closed since October 3rd. So much wasted time online.  An average of 3 hours per day. At least I am mostly winning the war of the not valid charges but oh such a waste of my life.

Overall we love being here and can’t think of anywhere else we would like to be. We have only been in the RV for about ten weeks and still can’t believe that this is our home. We were so fortunate picking this one especially as we needed to purchase it before seeing in person. Huge decision based on a one time FaceTime Video Tour. We have made a few changes and have plans for more, probably next summer after we sell our home. I miss having a recliner.

This was a few weekends ago.

Watersport’s Cars? An extraordinary fusion of jet ski dynamism and the refined luxury of a classic sports car.  Who knew? Might be fun to try.

I am simply enjoying the beauty of where we are, watching the dolphins, the jumping fish and the hundreds of pelicans and the birds. Then there are the sail boats, catamarans and a rather large cabin cruiser that hang around our bay of late. The other morning we had ten vessels all lined up facing us. The weather is perfect. We had a few foggy days which simply added to the ambience of this area.

A full day of cruisers in port.

We suddenly realized that it is Christmas week already. I don’t plan to entertain too much due to lack of stamina but we certainly will be enjoying a few social activities. More on that later.

This is happening December 31st and we are going to the early show at 6PM. We should be home by 9:15PM at the latest. Eugene is a great artist. Seats are still available for both shows.

I am going to try this this evening.

Sunrise by Colin – of course I missed this one.

Moonrise last week.

………..no-one knows how long we are here for. It is up to each of us to enjoy every single day to the fullest. Colin and I are fully aware of that and have always strived to live each day as jammed packed as we can.

Those thoughts came back to us this past week…..

My mother’s brother passed just three days ago, Sunday the 8th!  Just yesterday the 10th, a most extraordinary friend, Kelly passed. She was a warrior fighting her liver disease to the end. So very happy she passed pain free with her loved ones at her side. We were surprised today, the 11th, to hear that Colin’s older brother had passed today.

Three deaths in four days.

Be sure to tell those around  you that you love them. Tomorrow may never come, live and love today!

We had a lovely day. We got a few to dos done including some relaxation. Then we headed out for a coconut shrimp dinner with Genie, Joe and Amy to Chivos Restaurant.

Lovely sunset.

Our small group grew to eight.

Wonderful friends and great food, life is good.

…… this is the time of year to donate to helping the less fortunate here on Isla de la Piedra so that they may have a Christmas / Christmas Eve dinner. I have collected for this group for many many years since 2010 and over Covid helped keep the community fed.

The following is from Rocio and Dallas……

Every year becomes more and more difficult for each of us.  Any amount that you can spare will bring joy to those who often live in cardboard homes. Anything you can donate is appreciated more than you will ever know.

Time moves quicker than we often are aware of.

Oh wait. I am already doing that. So very thankful!

Ciela getting a mini massage also known as a get rid of that excess hair.

Guess who arrived yesterday? Our compound is now complete with Genie and Joe here. They are working at getting set up for the many months to come. Linda and Russell who live in the apartment upstairs to our right ( facing the ocean ) arrived today. Looking forward to giving them hugs in the morning. Our wee community is filling up.

Just this past Thursday we had our neighbor ( to the right ) Umberto and his wife and five year old daughter over for a visit. I was concerned about conversation but it all worked out, either we know more Spanish than we think or it just worked out perfectly. Mom and daughter do not speak any English. Lots of laughs and a friendship was further strengthened. We were all shocked at the end when the daughter who never speaks English said very clearly ” thank you so very much”. They kept our plants alive while we were back in Canada.

Today, locals hunting for oysters just below us.

Going through 30 years of old recipes – keep or discard? I might be at this well into the new year.

Happy days…..thanks for sharing the photo Fred.

The best is yet to come.

It truly is.