Pedestrians do not have the right of way. Cars do not have the right of way. Whomever takes the lead, goes first, speeds up, jumps around, they have the right of way. I drove to Marquelia today and it was really no big deal. Except of course for the herd of cows on the road out to the 1 lane highway. (1 lane each way). They were just ambling along, the guy kinda tried to get them to move over but they were all huge cows and I think the best he could do was the direction. I just crawled behind them, then another truck came, same size as ours, and he just leaned on his horn beeeeeep beeeeep beeep and I think it was the combination of that and the fact that the fence opened up on one side to a field which is where they were probly heading...So we got past that and headed on. I actually passed a couple of huge trucks on the highway; they have the double trailers behind them, so long I think maybe that length isn't legal in the states the way the back one sorta waves across the lane..

I only hit a few potholes in Marquelia, but when I stop to let people walk across the road people think I'm nuts. Of course Everardo is telling me keep going, don't worry that truck will move, go around that, stop there..yadda yadda yadda...sometimes having a loved one helping, well....so I'm over the nervousness of driving to/in Marquelia- I realize I cab go as slow or as careful as I want or need to. We got veges at this tiny store across from what I call the farmer's market, the open market, well this place has better eggs than anywhere else; they're bigger for basically the same price. We only bought a couple of things, like 4 bananas and some potatoes and 1 avocado cause the people in the pickup truck will stop by tomorrow with the back full of vegetables, and he said he was gonna try to get green apples. It will be nice if we can become regulars with them; they had alot of nice stuff last week; broccoli, corn, squash, bananas, apples...

So then we hit Super Precio and ooops, no milk, no butter, no flour, so all we got was bread and some American Cheese slices ha ha. She said it was inventory, but the other place where we bought the small cartons of milk was out, too, so maybe we'll just wait for the kid that brings it after they milk their cow. I wanted butter and flour because I wanted to try to make the cheese sauce for the pasta. In the next couple of days we'll have to go to Ometepec for butter, meat, flour...or maybe just wait because another Acapulco trip is looming- we are gonna need more paint for the outside. I want to go to Wallmart- NOT Costco, and if they have things like sauce, I'll buy 5 or 6 jars, not the one I want. Cause all the stores seem to be the same, maybe they have it and maybe they don't.

I also want to buy 2 plastic lounge chairs for outside. The hammocks are great, but sometimes when I come back from the beach it would be nice to lay down in the sun, or the shade instead of the hammock. The road workers sold Poppi 3 or 4 truckloads of dirt so he is still working hard! He's painting the outside of the house by himself, and now shoveling dirt like a madman. It's kinda hard to explain, but the way they are "fixing" the road, leaves us with a steep ditch between the raod and our front fence. The fence is about 4 feet high brick and then cyclone fence above that. Anyway rocks and dirt, branches and debris are making it look like shit, and may be an issue next year during the rainy season (see how I hopefully assume the rain is past...). Anyway we've been told that's our land up to the road. So the workers have sold us rocks and dirt; Poppi spread rocks out and the dirt is now on top. He's trying to get the dirt to fill in between the rocks, and then the tractor came with the next load of dirt and tramped it down pretty good. They brought another dump truck full of dirt and so today he was loading into the wheelbarrow and then dumping it around, lengthening the space, etc. It looks like we can use it for visitor parking, it looks pretty good actually. After the raod os completely done (ha ha whenever that is), and the rain comes back- so next year, he wants to move the bricks we have in the back out there and make it like a paved parking space.

I'm fine with using that brick, it's across some of the second level of the backyard, but not all. Dirt is fine, especially with chickens, so it's a good idea. Oh- chickens remind me that I'm so excited our friends are going to visit at the end of November! A couple, she's from Russia; I've known him for years and Everardo and he became friends before I met Everardo, and he worked with Wayne. Wayne is a contractor. Poppi is looking forward to talking about some project with him. They are such a nice couple; I only got to know Ramilla a few months before we moved, but I really liked her right off the bat. So I was motivated to work upstairs a little this afternoon and it actually looks like a room and not just a storage space ha ha. I need to buy 2 more of those big plastic storage bags for comforters and clothes, but the room looks pretty good. Everardo painted the bookshelf I wanted for up there so it's up there and I put all the paperbacks I've finished up there and then some framed family photos on top. I have a map of Mexico I want to put on the wall and another map- like a hand drawn souvenir map of the Russian River area, that I want to put up, but there's that damn problem of cement walls and so I need Everardo to do it for me. Unfortunately downstairs I am still waiting for several pictures to be put up in our room and a couple in the living room, so that might be awhile...but I'm happy with how the room is looking now. It's also going to be painted and we already have the paint for that. When we go to get more outside paint I want some blue paint for at least the bathroom next to the kitchen and maybe our bathroom in the bedroom.

It will be nice to have people visit. Tickets are expensive I know, and some people are afraid of Mexico, but ha ha nothing to worry about around here. I'm hoping my daughters will come soon, but the younger one has work and school, the older one has work too and I'm not sure if her novio has gotten his passport yet. But I talk to her all the time and I know she will come when she can. I told our friends who are coming in November what I tell everyone, Club Med it ain't. There's nothing to do here but read in the hammock, play in the water, look for shells, eat, nap- it's a really good place for naps! But they are around our age and think that doing nada is a great idea. They will LOVE the warm water. It looks just like northern Ca where they live, but it's warm, day & nite. I'm so excited they're coming!

Yeah- another fixture fell off the bathroom wall this morning and the replacement Poppi bought in Marquelia is blue, however, at Home Depot I can buy beige I'm sure so I can think about it. It was the soap holder over the sink, I guess it's more a creamy brown that beige, but the point is it pisses me off how badly some of the construction was done. The toilet paper holder was 2 pieces and only 1 was installed, but no worries- that piece fell off almost right after we moved in. And yesterday Everardo ended up talking to the guy who did the construction- at least the roof portion and told him it still leaks and asked him something about how to determine where it's coming from. But the guy insists to come over and fix it- GOOD!...course I'm not sure when...and it might actually be repaired since it didn't leak during the big storm the other day.

Went to the beach this afternoon during low tide and in the spirit of doing things that scared me (driving in Marquelia conquered) I sat by myself in the wedge in the rocks where the waves spill over. I held onto the rocks when the bigger ones hit and when the big one hit me in the head and I let go I still didn't panic just floated around some. Sound like I'm a wimp, but that fear stayed with me from 2 years ago...so today I made a big progress step! On the way back home I saw the next place I'm going to sit while the waves slurp over, maybe even tomorrow ha ha.

Well the internet is now down so I'll have to watch for it to come back up so I can post this...

So Everardo started painting the outside of the house today, at least the new construction portion that was painted white. So we bought the green last week in Acapulco (maybe 2 weeks ago), and he started it today and it looks great! You have to paint every 2 years as long as you use this stuff in the paint that protects against the salt. Otherwise you might have to paint every 6 months!

He also painted 2 of the 3 pillars in the house that needed it; the dark red which we had used the cheap cheap crappy crappy flat boring red. They look so good! Now only the purple one left to fix; it's also cheap cheap crappy crappy.....But we have a small can of "the good stuff" so it's next. Anyway he also painted the bookshelf that's been sitting outside for a couple of months, and gathering tools and outside stuff on it...I've been waiting for it to put the books I finish on it, as well as a few other knick knack type stuff for the upstairs. Right now the one long dresser that's up there has paperback all over it. That room is going to be painted a shade of orange (which is already is, so re-paint I guess), so the dark red shelf will be good.

The weather has been god since the rain storm, and not super hot outside, or maybe I'm getting used to it...ha ha probly not. Sam and I went to the beach today and the tide was really low, but scardy cat me still won't go in too near the rocks. I threw the stick in for my baby Sam and he must of run into a rock cause now he's limping. He paid me back by smacking his really hard head into my elbow and I thought I was paralzyed ha ha. Then we went and say basically in the arroyo, and I found a couple of beautiful shells. There are thousands of beautiful shells on the beach here (duh of course), but I can't help myself and choose one or two almost every time. Too bad I don't make jewelry ha ha.

We walked back and got Poppi, but an hour had gone by and the tide totally changed. Or maybe it was the wind, but the waves were stronger, and coming in faster, so we decided not to go in, maybe tomorrow....We walked up the road toward Casa Peidras, but Sam was limping so we came back. I also know Everardo is trying to catch the road engineer to talk to him about something....probaly about the driveway- which I think I said was about 4 feet long- ha ha it's about 10-12 feet long, so we came back. But I was glad cause the second hill sucks to walk back up and maybe it's not as hot- but I was still sweating ha ha.

Mexico Mexico what's up with the weather? Is this really the end of the rainy season? I hope so I hope so. The sky was a beautiful blue all day and I bet the sunset is going to be amazing! I love to sit on the boulders and watch the sky change colors. I was missing my daughter this morning, really missing them, and I started to feel isolated. Walking on the beach changes it. Reminds me why I wanted to come here. Of course I still miss them like crazy, but I remember why when I visited her I felt the pull to want to be here. The isolation is really still all about the language, I spent way way too much time inside my pea brain. My Spanish is alot better, still can't keep up in a group, really one on one or two, and even then I get lost- but I am getting better. And then the road pisses me off- still need 4 wheel drive to get out of the driveway, so I guess what I feel is powerless. I am a very independent person, that's how I got here in the first place ha ha. And I know it will get better. Soon I will be able to gossip and make fun of others...ok just kidding...but I just decided tomorrow I am going to drive to Marquelia to Super Precio...potholes or not. Yeah, that's whats been stopping me, after living in Petaluma- pothole central! But these should be called refrigerator holes- they are way way bigger than pots. But getting out of Super Precio you have to stay on the side street a ways, and the truck crashes down in those F***ing holes! But tomorrow I'm going. I'm not worried about the drive to get there; about 15 minutes down highway 200, and I am no longer terrified of all the taxi's passing and flying over the topes ha ha. I know the word for flour, and I need some cause I'm gonna try to make this cheese sauce I googled.

Anyway again, just writing about this makes me feel less isolated, I can talk to anyone (ha ha they just might not understand), and I can get myself anywhere I want to. So- no more isolation. I'm also the speaker tonite in a meeting and that always feels good too. Ha ha I say speaker but really I guess it's writer.

I tried to call my sister, my daughter, and my girlfriend today and none of them answered, and none have sent a FB msg to say call me call me. They don't understand! Today there is no static on the phone line! I can hear without straining. I don't have to say what? what?what? Or just try to figure out what they probly said based on the conversation. Ha ha that's what I do when people are talking to me here anyway! I mean the phone is not always static-y, but lately, yes. And you never know how long the good stuff is gonna last. Like I told my brother: in Mexico if you don't have it in your hand, you don't have it. Any day you don't know what you may or may not have....telephone, tv, internet, lights...so having a clear phone line was so exciting I wanted to use it. The internet has been kinda sucky lately (ok wait- gotta spit over my left shoulder to not jinx myself), but pretty good so far today. Which I need cause of that whole writing thing in the meeting in a couple of hours...it's funny, the tv is what we care about the least, and it seems to work the most ha ha. Well it does get kinda wacky during a storm. Uh oh what if it all stays intermittent after the rainy season is really over? haha then I will just have to keep saying, welcome to Mexico!

I looked up English meetings in Acapulco again today. After we stayed in Acapulco the other day, I'm thinking maybe we could go once a month, on a Monday or a Friday so we can go to a meeting, and a little shopping. I did find an email address I'm going to write to, I'm hoping they have a meeting not listed that's a little earlier in the day- then we wouldn't have to spend the nite. I mean we don't have to spend the nite, but it's just not a great idea to make that drive at nite.

It's getting really windy, but no dark clouds so it's kinda nice cause it keeps the air fresh. I think it's time to go sit on the rocks.....

So:
1. I drank milk from the cow and didn't get sick
2. It's still raining!
3. The road workers returned.

Of course I didn't get sick drinking cow's milk and yet I was worried about it ha ha. I had googled it and emailed my doctor- it's funny these days I don't want to do anything to encourage estrogen...meaning my cancer to return. Like I can't eat soy. Now it's also a huge debate but at the time they told me no soy with my type of breast cancer, so- I just don't eat things with soy in them. Sucks cause most protein powders have soy, and I love those beans they have at sushi, edamani? And my doctor did email me back and say it's no problem with regards to my cancer, but raw milk isn't good to drink. ha ha I'm drinking it, so we'll see. I mean, c'mon- these cows here graze in the fields, now pesticides, no hormone shots...the only problem my body is gonna have is all this organic, fresh food ha ha! Vegetables, fruits, eggs, milk, bread?? A small secret cause not sure if I can do it, but I'm going to google how to make a cheese sauce & a pesto sauce for pasta cause the stores only have sauce hit and miss. Not even at Costco last week in Acapulco. But I'm only thinking about it at this point ha ha..so stayed tuned. I mean I don't want to become an actual cook.

Monday nite we had lightening all nite but no rain, but yesterday it poured. It rained all day, not pouring the whole time, but still; especially since it almost always rains at nite. And I keep waiting for the rainy season to be over! It's not cold or anything and the road is much better so it's not a problem in that way. But it makes the ocean kinda grumpy...tooo choppy, too tricky to feel safe in it. But again, we'll see. Funny the worker returned when it was raining. But when it lightened up they were out there, starting the sidewalk on our side of the street.

Yeah they came back the 2nd, so maybe they will finish after all. I still don't know why they didn't come for a whole week, thought maybe there was 5 weeks in Sept and they only work 20 days; but nope, there's just 4 weeks in Sept, so I don't know why they stopped coming. Of course now the noise is terrible since I think they are grading and doing the sidewalk. And there's alot of guys all yelling to each other. I think they're building a wall in front of Rosa and Gencho, but we only get sidewalk. I actually don't care, and the wall is short, not for blocking anything. I just want our driveway to be drivable without using 4 wheel drive ha ha. And driveway is a big word for our length, maybe it's 4 feet long....

Everardo is in Copala buying some wood to make my shelves. One more set for the living room area, and also something for outside he can put his tools on so I can have that bookcase/shelf for the upstairs. It's not really tool; more like tool accessories, boot's and pieces of wood, nuts & bolts & nails. The tools need to be locked up; unfortunately like everywhere,we need to err on the side of caution and lock up things that might be worth anything. When we first moved in, well after maybe a month we had this exercise bench disappear, I only paid $5 for it at a garage sale, but I wish I had it. It was for doing sit ups, but had a bar that curved over it like an arch that you held onto and part of the bench came up with you doing the sit up. I liked it cause then no strain on the neck. I do know that a guy was arrested for some kind of burglary around here a while back, but I guess he was part of 3 or 4 guys who've been stealing stuff. It's like you just "hear things". And I heard that people know who they are.

But the cool thing is people are starting to know us, and Everardo has been told these kind of things by a few people. I'll say this- this tiny town is like it's own novela ha ha! There's like 2 families that comprise "the power" around here, and everybody else. But is seems over time, everybody else is now the majority...so there's little bits of talk and gossip all the time. We are trying hard to stay out of it. For me it's not too hard since I don't understand alot of what I hear, but ha ha I have been the center of some gossip, so whether I'm in or out...in a small town the only thing I have is myself. As Poppi said, we have each other and Sam. We have a couple of close friends; we love Chela & Gume, but when it comes down to it, we have ourselves. But that's ok, generally when people get to know me they like me- especially in the past years; I work hard to be honest and up front with people. Sometimes up front is not all that easy, but in the long run, for me, it works. So little by little as we deal with people, as they get to know us, we will build relationships. And it's already happening, like I said, people confide in Everardo. Ha ha all the kids in town know me- only a few came for English lessons (and nobody now), but they all call my name when I walk by or drive by. And there's alot of kids- ha ha I don't know most of their names.

But they like to practice English. An older boy, he always yells hola to me; yesterday I walked all around town when the rain let up late in the day, and this kid yelled "hey hello Terry" to me. Then I stopped infront of this yard where I know this big pig is tied up and has a baby near by; I was talking to the pig and asking where is your baby when a guy (not a kid) walked in from further back in the yard and he had the baby on a rope. He looked at me kinda puzzled so I told him in Spanish I was just talking with his pig. He looked at me for a few seconds, smiled and went about his business. So ok they think I'm a little wacko- just like the people who know me in the US ha ha!! My older sister just sent me an email to that effect ha ha.

Well the sky is blue with white wispy clouds so maybe no rain in store for us, well it's almost noon, and oh good the noise stopped- maybe they're going for lunch and that's a couple of hours. I don't like to go in the hammock when they're working right in front of the house so maybe while they're at lunch I can grad some reading hammock time. I'm very excited about new shelves...I still have stuff kinda overflowing around here so that will be cool. i want to look thru some of my photos cause when my laptop crashed the other week I realize I lost SO many photos! Chela asked me to pick colors for her to paint the patio area of their restaurant. the building was painted for free by Coca Cola so -of course- it's red and white and says Coca Cola but she wants to paint all the wood posts and the wood beams for the thatched roof. The place next to her is ornage and the other side blue, and it's covered so she needs lighter shades. She loves what I chose for inside here, ha ha thought I was nuts before we did and now everybody loves it. So I wanted to show her the inside of the Petaluma house...one dark and one light shade of both purple and green, thru the whole house, but with two walls yellow- yeah sounds weird but looked fantastic. BUT- aarrgghh no photos cause I lost them all. I'm hoping my daughters have some pictures of it, or maybe I have them hard copy since I took them back on 2007 or 2008.

This house inside has 8 sections cause there are these round pillars that were holding up just the upstairs room. We enclosed this area when we bought the place. So 4 walls are purple, not too dark, 3 of them together and one on the other side. 1 wall is bright green, 2 are deep red (not next to each other), and one is orange, almost yellow. The pillars are painted too. It looks great! The bedroom is similar, but with a yellow wall and no green. So this is why Chela wants me to help and yipee cause I love doing colors! As soon as she has the money we'll go to Acapulco to Home Dept. Of course the paint is expensive...ah well this is Mexico.

So- Everardo is back- but with no wood! Damn. The guy didn't have the kind he wants, and he's the guy who's stuff Everardo likes so looks like we have to wait a week. Damn I'm so impatient when I want my projects done ha ha! again...this is Mexico!

The pizza oven is done- called orno en espanol. Not sure of the spelling...So we are going to have a bbq and have some friends over to eat, Chela, Gume and their 3 kids, plus Rosa & Gencho and their kids, not sure if anyone else. We need to decide what to cook. Ha ha we were saying chivo (goat), and it's funny, the men are good with chivo and the women make icky faces...then I quickly say and pollo! (chicken). But today we were talking to Chela & Gume and talked about lamb, cow, chicken, so we'll see. Not sure when either. I guess Everardo worked really hard on it for 3 days and maybe doesn't want to look at it right now ha ha. We put photos on Facebook and everybody commented and likes it very much. I keep calling it a pizza oven, and well maybe we'll make a pizza in there, but really it's for everything- baked or bbq'd any kind of meat any dish you would normally bake. My mouth is watering for a baked potato...mmmm butter and sour cream...

Of course he's hot on another project already and tried to kill himself today hauling huge rocks. The construction workers for the road left tons of these stones in front of our fence and down the sides of the road. It's this kinda white and orange rock, in bug chunks, like maybe they dig it out of the side of a mountain or something. But Poppi wants to use it for lots of things in the backyard. A path for water to drain. A curved walking path from the first set of stairs that go down from the patio to the second set. From the patio you can't see the second set of stairs. It's 3 levels including the patio. Once you go down from the patio, it's maybe 20-25 feet across, then more steps and another 20-25 feet. Then you get to the gate in the fence; step thru that and you are on the beach! He has a lot of ideas, good ideas about things to do in the yard, and it's kinda wide open for ideas, nothing is back there. Oh except now we have a beautiful pizza oven on the second level. There was no place to put it up on the patio, but that's ok.There's 5 steps I think- I guess I should count them and 5 on the second set, too.

So interesting about the road paving project- I haven't seen the workers in a week. Since before I went to Houston. But what I hear is- this is Mexico. It will get done, at some point. Maybe. Well the road is better than it was by far, except maybe where it goes over the arroyo. I guess it's the same, but wider everywhere else- so that you could have a car going each way at the same time, but not over the arroyo. I don't know why they don't put the second pipe down there. There's the original pipe, and not long after we moved in they had widened the road but not put the pipe and little by little the dirt fell away. So the widened it again...duh?....no second pipe and now it's a single lane again. I saw pipes down the road months ago, not sure about the logix there, but I'm not a contractor so...

I also heard they'll be back on Oct 3 (Wednesday) to get back to work. Don't know the significance there either. Maybe they completed all their Sept hours? But around 6pm today I was reading in the hammock and I saw a tractor go by with one guy driving and 2-3 guys standing in the big scoop on the front. Then they came back by so seemed like maybe a beer run. Now it's around 9:30 pm and we can hear some partying going on so maybe they're back.

Well maybe writing about my anxiety attack was a good thing cause in the last 2 days I've only had 2 little ones. And one I just took deep breaths and the other I talked to Sam since he was right next to me and he didn't notice anything. But the one I had the other day before I wrote, Everardo told me later I looked terrified. hmmm when I used to get them nobody but me would know cause I looked the Sam, but maybe now cause I'm trying to face them- crap I'm just talking shit. I really need to break out those meditation cds and actually listen to them I found them the other day- ok goal- tomorrow.

Today we went in the ocean! Yipee. At first it was just me and Sam cause Everardo was lugging all those rocks, We kinda just waded- the ocean is still pretty fierce, Gume says maybe in a wek or two we'll start to see the change. Then we went down and sat with Chela & Gume and talked, and I did pretty good in Spanish. But it's still the same, I knew the topic, and they were patient ha ha. Later we saw Poppi walking up the beach and I told Sam and he ran to Poppa and jumped in. I thought that looked pretty good so I went down there to and we played in the waves for awhile, close to shore for me of course. Probly not for an hour; then we walked back up to Chela's...chatted awhile... then I went for a swim in the pool- so refreshing. Then Everardo showed up, with Tigre close behind. That crazy little guy showed us jumps and turns ha ha. Then we were invited to eat with them when Eriika and Polo came hime from school and it was great! Some kind of squash that looked like pineapple befire it was cooked, with tomatoes and onions, sprinkled cheese, some kind of sauce, and mine and Tigre's without chili ha ha. It was so good I told Poppi I hope he can make it for us! What a perfect day eh? I came back, had a nice shower, a little reading & napping in the hammock...nice.

And the very coolest thing- I can do that every day!