Que Pasa!

I have been trying to write a post for a week now but the hours over the day seem to blend together. I get caught up by about noonish and suddenly it’s dark outside and almost 8PM. Time to make dinner. No time to write a blog post. To be honest I have reduced my inbox from over 860 to 696 right this minute. Ever so slowly I am finding replacements for foods we ate back home and would freeze and bring here in the RV for the months that we lived here during over winter. That took time but it is important to me and I still have a long ways to go. But it’s the little things. Such as walking outside in the 45C/113F ( plus humidity ) day to hang a load of laundry. First I have to lug my heavy laundry basket through thigh high weeds to my clothes line and then stand in the sun ( of course I am wearing sunscreen and a wide brim hat ) to hang the load. By the time I get back inside, my hair is damp and my dress which is sticking to my back is wet in so many places. Then I have to sit and pull the thistles from my stockings – wearing compression stockings in this heat must be deserving of some sort of medal. Of course each time the girls come in they need to be de thistled as does Colin. We all have to go thru those weeds.

On the good news front, the awning motor and remote are built and have been shipped to an address in Phoenix where they will be picked up and driven here to Mazatlan, around the 27th or so. The window blinds which were to fly out of Mexico City today may have been delayed because of a huge rain storm as the airport was shut down. They are on a very tight timeline to get sent by UPS to the blind repair shop and then back to Phoenix on the 21st. Hopefully that will work out.

My eyeglasses were being sent to a different lab to get the new lenses made. I have heard nothing. I am hoping that tomorrow will be the day as starting Wednesday we are expecting rain for the rest for the week.

Someone made a comment about how I was wearing a sweater inside in a photo on my last blog. When you live in air conditioning 24/7 with never a moment with it off, one does get chilly! And then someone else made a comment about how it was not good to be living in A/C all that time. Sadly, we have no choice! Of course we never planned to spend the summer here. Again in that some post, a comment was made about Erik being on the roof of the RV wearing long sleeves. He does that to keep from being sunburnt. So many of the workers wear long sleeves. I can’t imagine how they do that, but they must simply adapt. Actually a few times in the past two weeks I got into a Didi and there was no air conditioning. only twice was it because the A/C was broken. The first time I suffered quite a bit because of the heat. The second time I simply got out and the driver understood. However a few other times the driver turned on the AC at my request. One said that some people prefer not to use the A/C!  We all have the choice.

For the most part we are eating very well. Part of that credit goes to Sunshine Catering from which I get two meals cooked and delivered per week. This past Saturday she delivered tuna pot pies which I had asked her to make for us. Colin and I have been eating tuna pot pies twice per month since possibly 2002. When we moved from Vancouver we started bringing them in from the fish store in Ladner to our home in Kelowna. That is how much we enjoy them. So needless to say we wondered what we would do here in Mazatlan. Happy to say we had the very best tuna pies ever and that fresh veggies were used as much as possible except for corn and peas. I forgot to take a photo!  Other than for Colin’s birthday, we have not been out to a restaurant since early April so I feel justified in doing some ordering from this catering company. We also had a lovely sweet & sour shrimp meal with rice and broccoli. Time for me to get back to full time cooking. I just need a bit more energy and a few extra hours in the day. Ever so slowly I am finding replacements for foods we ate back home and would freeze and bring here in the RV for the months that we lived here during over winter.

Certain over the counter medications, especially for my arthritis, are only from Canada. Colin is contemplating giving up peanut butter  ( a main source of protein for him ) as what is found here is dreadful and full of sugar. However there is a family on Isla de la Piedra that actually grows peanuts and makes peanut butter. They don’t do it year round and what he did get was enjoyable. I don’t care for peanut butter – unless in Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. The girls need their special kibble which I can’t get here, only in the USA or in Canada. Always something to sort out.

Lots of little things have been happening. We had a lovely electrical storm. Then one night the girls saw a tlacuache. Here is a link to a blog post I wrote about them on December 28, 2010, when they paid us a visit on the Isla….link to old article. And in February, 2014, Colin actually captured one. You can read about that here. Hard to believe that I started the blog back in May of 2010. My first Que Pasa.

Then there was the very bad storm in Mazatlan last week as you can see by these photos. There were so very many more photos and videos. I have learned that Mazatlan has no drainage system.

I finally broke down and took Didi to Sam’s Club where I signed up a one year membership. Overall I was not impressed with the prices. However I did get some quality orange juice for a better price and a particular Chilean Saubaino blanc for about 20 MXn less per bottle. Probiotics were a good price but the muffins were no better than Soriana. So much chocolate! They do have cashews which I will try once we finish what I brought from Cnadnanda. Oh and toilet paper. Would someone please tell me what they think is the best TP is Mexico?

On the way back to mi casa, my Didi car, was hit – well sideswiped by a bus! I was on the phone to Colin and suddenly went from one side of the vehicle to the other.  It happened so quickly. Was told that another car was coming to collect me. Meanwhile it was getting very hot inside. No other car came. I asked him to turn up the A/C – otherwise my compression stockings were coming off very quickly. About five minutes later he hoped in and drove me home. What? It took me a few hours to realize that no one even asked if I was okay, had I been hurt, etc. Fortunately I had not. Strange that I never thought about it at the time.

A very quick word on our home in Kelowna. The real estate market is almost dead. Even if we drop the price $200,000.00 no one will be buying or so we have been told. Having said that we are at our bottom limit, well even lower that our planned bottom limit. So based on that we are not going to buy a condo here in Mazatlan. We may rent sometime down the road. Our current plan is to continue living in our lovely RV and to move back to Isla de la Piedra sometime in October, once all damage from hurricanes have passed. Our future is also based on Colin’s continued recovery. Time will tell.

 

UPDATES….

~ Actually published three days later than written due to no time to add photos and edit….

~ As of today, August 13th, posting date, my inbox is down to 474.

~ the two window blinds did make it to the USA.  BUT the overnight shipping to the blind repair facility was $97.00USD!! Even worse is that they are on vacation until Monday the 18th!! No one told us. Somedays, I just wonder what is the point of it all?

~ I went to pick up my eyeglasses yesterday and they were even worse than the three previous attempts. Turns out that they used the same lab for the 4th time!!! I not so not silently demanded a refund, which I did receive. So now I need to find time to discover a new location to start all over again.