I have been fighting a cold all week and today it has moved down into my chest. Sucks. I have to speak softly...ha ha not my style or I cough. It is also Everardo's birthday and I hate that in the middle of the day I had to sleep on the couch for a few hours. But I did get up before him and make him a birthday breakfast and had the breakfast in bed tray out, but he got up right before I was done, so it was a breakfast on the couch tray. I made a fruit salad with bananas, 2 kinds of apples, cantaloupe, and mango (or was it a papaya? It was green outside and kinda pink/orange inside). I also made an omelet- ok scrambled eggs with onions and cut up jalapeno pepper, and after it was finished sprinkled with cotija cheese. It look pretty impressive...for me. The toaster actually worked- that is interesting since it hasn't since we've been here. (Maybe to make up for the microwave been blown when there was a power surge so it's just a bread box now), so toast with jelly and a nice glass of milk. ha ha 2 meals in a row from me cause last nite i made a stuffed shell pasta with mixed vegetables and garlic cheese sauce. It was pretty good, too. (ok I bought the shells already stuffed and the sauce was from a jar)- but hey for me- this is huge stuff!

Did I say we had a power surge? Not really a surge cause that sounds like it was an instant thing and then gone. No last week one morning Poppi got up and turned on the kitchen light and it blew. Turned on a light in the living room- pop, the same for the bathroom. The microwave is gone but the fridge luckily is plugged into a cord with a ...wait for it....surge protector. Man if you looked at thelights they were burning SO bright. So, as we do so often, we called Romeo down here, and by called I mean Everardo walked down to his house. He showed up a couple of hours later and fussed around with the lines on the pole, said it had something to do with the ground, and did something. In the mean time I walked down to Ono and bought all 8 light bulbs that they had in their little store...

In Mexico- never say- what's next? Cause there will be something! Haha we go from no lights to lights too bright? And our more than monthly visits from Romeo cost money. Granted not as much as in the states, but still...
The phone is my pain in my a**. The static is so bad you can't hear, so paying for a pkg that gives us calls to the US for free is kind of a joke...wait I'm not laughing...funny thing is tho' it's clearest early in the morning but we are 2 hours ahead of our families in Calif. Oh well, vamos a ver (we'll see)

Today they are paving on front of our house! They paved up the road in central, then there's a space, then in front of us, the lighthouse and I think past Rosa & Gencho up to Cathy's house. We are supposed to be going right now down to Chela's for a birthday dinner for Poppi, but he says we have to wait because they are selling him some tar. Not sure if it's for our 10 feet of driveway or for the roof. It's pretty interesting out there. There's a huge dump truck with I guess the stuff you pave with before it's wet, kinda like black gravel. It pours into this other huge machine/vehicle and I guess gets wet (?) and then spreads on the ground. This vehicle might also be the one flattening it but I thought I saw another type of truck doing that yesterday. They load using a series of honks and whistles, so like I said, interesting. We have gotten dirt, rocks, and now tar from these guys, all of course for some amount of pesos. Sometimes it's left over, today I think a negotiation had to do with the workers having no money to buy water.....I think this has gone on all down the road cause I know some other people have gotten loads of various things that are being used. And this has been a horribly long and drawn out process. They didn't do the strip before our house cause they still haven't put in that pipe to support the arroyo. But there are some pieces of pipe over there now so I think it's finally on the list.

The arroyo changes. There is a house being built next to it. Then a lot about 20 feet wide, then us. I have no idea if 20 is accurate cause I saw after I said our driveway was 5 feet it was actually double that. It's a small lot where you could build a small house I guess. The donkeys and the horses like to graze in that lot, and we throw alot of rinds and peelings and eggshells over the fence right there and the birds are always hanging out, too. Anyway I saw these guys yesterday & today moving big boulders that are in the arroyo over so they can put up a stone wall. I believe this will move the stream over which is not really a big deal. The next lot is big and those people wash their clothes in the stream there- a good idea cause I struggle so much with trying to rinse anything! Up on the road, after the arroyo going toward town central, there's a little dirt road going down and then curves and goes along the main road. But where it goes down is the place with the people who wash their clothes in the stream.

I watched them build a small building with sticks first, then mud. Maybe they have cement in the final layer of mud cause why doesn't it melt in the rain? They worked on ir for a few days; I have no idea what it's for, it's like the size of a shed. Oh I bet the outside is like our pizza oven, mud and cement.

Well I think a paved road is good for us if we decide to sell. But we went swimming earlier in the ocean, after I sat up on the boulders for over an hour. A light rain started, but I stayed watching the waves. Then Poppi and Sam showed up from their walk and he wanted some algae. Is it algae when it's growing on the rocks? or lichen? I find peace in this place and I want to always feel this way. But I felt it in other places in Mexico, in the Yucatan near the pyramids.

I was walking down this dirt path  to the pyramid site, with my eyes closed, and I could feel those who walked it before me. The workers who built it, their wives bringing them food, kids in tow...it sort of swept over me, not detail by detail, more like an impression. At first my eyes flew open...wow what was that?? I haven't taken drugs or had a drink in many many years so it wasn't that ha ha! But it happened again there, and in another place in that area. In San Miguel nothing as strong, but a feeling of peace like I get here. Here it just envelops me when I sit out there. I talk things out with the universe, I ask for guidance..it's just an amazing thing. If I can find it in the new place then yipee, and I could maybe let this place go, especially after the paved road if someone wanted to buy it for at least what we paid....

Wow yesterday I forgot to say we've been here for 4 months now. Oct 10 was 4 months. Ha ha and the 4 hardest months; the rainy season. And it doesn't seem to be over yet...lightening last nite. But beautiful this morning. I sat out on my rock and remembered why I want to be here. That I'm happy here, serene, at peace.

I also don't think I said anything about that we had agreed to live here one year and then start exploring the rest of Mexico. But after 4 months we see that we don't have to wait a year, but we also don't want to go anywhere right now. The best season, hot but not kill you heat, the ocean so beautiful, the best fishing, lobster season (!), a change from since we've been here. That's why we'll wait until at least Jan. So that's..7 or 8 months here. I've been here in Feb, April-Oct, so wow I have only not experienced Nov, Dec, Jan, & March...So we talked a little bit just now about it some more. Maybe live here Oct-Feb and somewhere bigger March-Sept. Like Puerto Penasco or Zijuantenjo. I looked it up, Wikipedia says the population of Puerto Penasco is 57k, about the same as Petaluma and Zijuantenejo is about 100K, but I think it covers more areas than just the city we came thru, maybe out into the countryside.

There was no internet all morning, it's noon and it's on now. Last nite I was watching a movie when the power went out, so I found the flashlight (why do we only have 1?? We had 3 but...) and we went to bed. Of course after I had been asleep for awhile I opned my eyes and saw light in the living room so got up to turn off the tv. It doesn't work turning it off when the power is off ha ha. The phone was out yeaterday morning but works today; I tried to call my girlfriend Veronica, but 10:30am for me is 8:30 for her and she didn't answer. I would really like consistent....something! Yesterday in Acapulco I saw a Starbucks; I want to sit and have a coffee and chat with someone, so in Spanish it will happen, in a few months...in English it will be in a few months. Oh but Carolina will be here in a few days; she's the wife of one of Gume's half brothers. They lived in Frt Bragg, Calif, just a few hours north of Petaluma where we moved from. She's coming for 2 weeks, but in Dec or Jan she's coming to stay...for awhile- not sure how long. She's young, 20's I think and they have 2 little kids. But she's an English speaker, so that will make her and Everardo to talk to ha ha. Guerro speaks English but I almost never see or talk to him. The 2 teenagers are great to talk to but....they are kids...

Last nite when I was sitting on my boulder, Chela walked up with a plastic bag that had a card with a saint on it and some green material. I have to make a skirt for some kind of fiesta on the 28th. I don't sew ha ha ha ha ha. Maybe a button or if I have to, a hem- which I have done since I've been here when I cut off the bottom half of a dress. Anyway there's a lady who sews down the road. I  was already planning to go see her to hem the material I got for curtains. Right now we just drape the drapes ha ha over the wood rods. I'm gonna have her hem them and make a little loop to slide the rod thru. But I think I'll go see Chela first and take the green skirt I already have and see if I simply need a green skirt, or does it have to be out that material. Also I'll find out exactly what the fiesta is for. I do know she said there's dancing all day! I'm totally open to dancing all day. And dancing all day also means food and drink, so it sounds like fun.

I haven't been in my hammock for a couple of days and I think I saw it looking at me thru sly eyes this morning, kinda flirty...so maybe I'll go for a little hammock visit....

Ok new plan! Well sort of a new plan. Everardo has been saying it all along, and I just wasn't regatistering it. We had a trivial argument a couple of days ago, basically about nothing, but it sparked a whole other conversation about what we are doing here. We love Playa Ventura. It's peaceful and quiet, the beach is amazing, and all I have to do is go out the back gate and sit on the huge boulder and I remember why I want to be here. I walk the beach, read in the hammock, eat, and nap. Nice life eh? Everardo on the other hand has a "honey-do" list a mile long. Painting the inside of the house, the outside of the house, fixing the gate, the windows, yadda yadda yadda...cause there's lots more. But- when he's not doing one of a million things, then what? He doesn't like to read much, he likes to be doing something. He thought when we got here he would find a job, doing something- fishing, construction, selling trinkets to touristas...but that is not happening here. And the truth is I cannot do nothing ALL the time. And no, I don't want to learn to cook or sew, and I don't even want to clean my own toilets.

So- maybe in Jan, maybe later than Jan, but not before. We're gonna pack Sam up in the truck and take a month vacation from our retirement. Maybe a month, give or take. We are going first to check out a border town called Puerto Penasco. Poppi lived there for awhile about 6-8 years ago (I think), and he really liked it. He says there's all kinds of work. Working on the banana boats, construction, and selling things to tourists. He makes these very cool scorpions out of wire, and other things like that. Another example is he says you can buy these silver bracelets for about $2 and sell them for $10...gotta say I like that. Truth be told, we don't need to work. But he needs it- he wants to take care of us, and we have been spending money like running water. There were/are so many things to fix here, so our budget is so out of wack.On paper we can live for less than $800 a month, but in reality we spend almost double. There are still things to do to this place, too. Anyway we're going to go check it out. If I like it (cause he already does- altho' he hasn't been there in awhile...) we are thinking of staying there for 6 months or more and year and then come back to Playa Ventura for the rest of the year. Maybe be up there thru the summer months when it's so rainy here.

This is all a totally new idea yesterday and today. We went to Acapulco today so we talked all the way, thru our restaurant lunch and all the way back. I also emailed a real estate person in Zijuantenjo asking about rents there. Zijuantenejo is beautiful; we drove thru, and stayed a nite on the way here. It's about 150 miles north of Acapulco on the ocean and we really liked it. We're going to make a list of cities along the Pacific coast going north and choose some to go check out. That's why we think it will be a month adventure. Puerto Penasco is actually right between Mexico and Baja, so it's where the Pacific comes up.

We love it here, but this town is so very very small. Yes that's a good thing, but it's also hard- hard to get groceries, gas, milk, well anything that has to be bought except a soda or a meal, must be done in at least the next town. Yes we could be more disciplined and carefully list and shop for exactly what we need during the week, and even for the month. Because for meat, really have to go to Acapulco. The gas is killing us, we spend more on gas than anything. Even if we just want milk, it might be an all day quest ha ha. The electricity is out almost every day; we're told it's cause of the rainy season, and maybe that's the case, we'll see over the next few months, but the same with the internet and the phone. The phone we pay extra to call the US for free, but lately it's so static-y that my daughter and I yell to each other. We are also both in recovery. The only AA meetings are in the next town, at nite, in Spanish. My Spanish gets a little better every day and I understand it takes time, and no matter where we live I really really want to be fluent. There are no stores here, no movies anywhere close. So the fact is we are missing a little bit of socializing. I guess mine has mostly been with people in recovery, but it's still socializing and I miss it. The meetings are good here, but we don't like to go to the next town at 9pm...we're on the couch by then ha ha.

And of course learning a small town is interesting. But sometimes a novella (soap opera) Literally everybody knows everybody's business, and if they don't know, they make it up ha ha.

We still will keep this house. We love it. We have so many options and they're all good. We can have a family who lives around here move in and take care of it. We have someone in mind. And whenever we come we can stay upstairs. We are also thinking about building a little bungalow in the yard. We were already thinking of that for renting out during "the season". We can simply have someone caretake it and not live here. See lots of options. And the places we want to look at, we can rent a place for less than $500 a month. Everardo wants to work and pay that, and we can save up the rent money we collect now. Now that the road is getting paved, we could probly sell this house and make a profit if we are patient. This is really a big property. Anyway if we decide to sell, that wouldn't be for a few years, we need a home base while we explore Mexico.

We want to start by going to Morelia, Michocan to see Everardo's sister and brother. I want to know how close to the beach it is. I'm really hoping that I like Puerto Penasco partly cause it's so close to the US, and maybe my kids would come more often, maybe I could go see them more often. Playa Ventura has less than 1000 people, I think Puerto Penasco is closer to 60, 000...hmmm or was it 16000. I'll let you know ha ha, but it has stores, beach, AA in English, it's a city, not a village. Having both would be cool so we can go back and forth...

So writing this I have tried to spit out all the things we've been talking about. And maybe we will go on our adventure and make completely different decisions! Having options is so totally cool. I do think that we need more people around us. This is nice, but really, it is a very poor village, people are scraping  out a life. 2 weeks at Christmas and 1 week near Easter this place is full of tourists and most of the people here make their nut for the year in those 3 weeks. All their income in 3 weeks. The rest of the time a customer once in a while for some and not at all for others. the kids work with their parents, too many of them start having babies so young. Life is simple, but life is hard. What's cool is they are happy. Altho' gotta say, not too many young adults; if they can, they go. Maybe the paved road will help; I think it will. But selfishly of course I'm thinking of it in terms of the value of our house.

Anyway, these are the things we have been talking about the last 2 days....and oh yeah we saw 2 dolphins swim by. I also saw a baby parrot walking on the road and later the same day a huge parrot up in a tree. The baby belonged to the yard it was walking in, otherwise I mighta picked it up.....

Three scorpions in three months. That's not too bad, right? The first one was in our kitchen sink the day we moved in. The second was in July in a pile of sheets I had left on the floor for about 2 weeks. The third was actually outside on the patio the other day. The puppy from down the road was playing with a leaf as I came up onto the patio from the beach. He was barking at it and that made me laugh. Then I thought the leaf moved in a way that didn't make sense- know what I mean, when something acts in a way not natural...so I looked closer and it was a scorpion waving his tail around in anger at the dog. I yelled for Everardo who came and dispatched that scorpion with one good stomp.

I don't leave piles of clothes, or anything else on the floor. I keep drawers closed tight in the bedroom and in the kitchen. Cabinets as well. I don't put my hand way back on a shelf where I can't see, ha ha I don't put my hand anywhere I can't see. At nite I always where shoes. Flip flops mostly. I have a pair at the end of the bed cause I always have to pee during the nite. So one a month is ok.

Well the truck with the vegetables isn't so great after all. Very expensive, so we will just go back to going to market on Sundays. We can go any day, but it seems like there are more vendors on the weekend. Yesterday we got a couple of cantaloupes and some green apples. The truck had neither, but we did buy some stuff from them. I really like the idea of vendors walking down the road, but I also like going out. We haven't seen the kid with the milk in about a week, so we bought some yesterday in Marquelia. Yeah, Saturday no milk or cheese or butter, and Sunday they have it.

Last nite there was far off lightening, lots of it but I don't think it rained. Nice today with a little cooling wind. October is trying to decide what kind of a weather month it will be. I laid around today- ha ha more than most days. I slept with the fan in my face all nite and woke up with a big headache, stiff neck and stuffed up head. Of course I want the fan in this heat, just not blowing in my face. When we get a new bed and have walking space on the sides, then we can position the fan differently. Right now we have 2 single beds together and it's 80 inches across, I think a king is only 75...but both sides are about a half inch from the wall- and I hate it. A queen is 60, really all we need and then I'll be able to get out of the bed on the side instead of scrunching down to the end. It has gotten pretty high on the needs list, but things have a way  of popping up. Like the dirt in front of the house.

Everardo has been working with this dirt out front for 3 days now. And hauling rocks to go under it. He's exhausted....and I laid around all day feeling crappy. Right now is the best I've felt. I'm tempted to go walk on the beach, but Sam really needs to rest lis leg, too. We can't tell if it's his foot, or ankle or leg, he doesn't wince when we squeeze any of it...but he wants to do whatever we do, so I guess me being sick today is good cause he's been laying around too.

We're talking right now about visiting the states and moving back. Moving back is probly 10 years from now, if we do it. Visiting, well in January we're going to apply for a visa for Everardo.He really wants to visit hi uncle, who is really more like a father to him since his parents both died when he was really young and his aunt & uncle brought him up. His uncle is old and has been sickly lately. Not sure what we'll do if he gets really ill again and we have no visa for Poppi. But we'll deal with that when the time comes. He's not worried about it, so I am not going to worry either.

So many things can happen in 10 years. Maybe we sell this place and buy a small place in Ca and keep renting our house up there. Maybe we keep this place and sell the place in Ca. Maybe we live in the house in Ca and keep this place. Ha ha I guess some of it depends on how much I'll get from social security...Maybe we'll decide we want to stay here. We have lots of options, all of them good.

Got to talk to my younger daughter for about an hour on Skype yesterday, that was great. Of course we got disconnected a few times, all the services here are in and out all the time. I try to talk to my older daughter all the time, and sometimes the static on the phone is so bad we can't really hear and spend the time repeating things in a shout. I talk to her much more than the little one, so yesterday was nice. I guess 19 is a very busy age, school and work, and not too much time for momma. Drewy, my older one and I laughed about that since I told her I was the same at 19, and so was she. But now with Drew who's past 19 (27 a couple of months ago) and I are closer than ever. I love our chats on the phone, hearing about her job (which she hates haha), her adventures and her life with her boyfriend...just anything, we can talk & talk & talk. Skype is good too so we can see each other. I have to say that Facebook Skype sucks, regular Skype is much better. I'm so hoping she visits soon, I hope the't had to use it yet, I haven't. But the cool thing is I found a website where I can download books for free so that's pretty cool.

Poppi worries about me struggling here, he's such a dear man. For him everything is pretty easy, for me sometimes not so much. The language is the single biggest issue, but the fact of the matter is that it takes what it takes. Hopefully in a few monthworks. I also know as soon as I start using my Kindle I'll probly never need a paperback again ha ha but since I haven't had to use it yet, I haven't. But the cool thing is I found a website where I can download books for free so that's pretty cool.

Poppi worries about me struggling here, he's such a dear man. For him everything is pretty easy, for me sometimes not so much. The language is the single biggest issue, but the fact of the matter is that it takes what it takes. Hopefully in a few months I'll be much better. Spicy food is hard, but there's so much stuff that's not spicy. We are talking about hiring this woman who lives across the road to come in every day and cook for us, do laundry and clean. We can do this for 500 pesos a week for 5 days. Since Everardo does almost all of the cooking, and most of the laundry, too, how can I resist this? So I think we're going for it. If she comes around 9, makes breakfast, does whatever laundry there is, (or she can save it up for a week- however she wants to do it), and clean, then make us a dinner that's ready around 3 or 4, then she can go home. We can eat then or wait, but a big meal earlier is better and then if we want a quesadilla or a bowl of fruit & cereal later in the evening we can do that.

Living in the beach there is always things that need to be wiped down. The table is already outside, and the windows should be cleaned almost every day, mirrors need to be wiped, all the floors swept- the sand is everywhere all the time. I think it's a good idea; I just never had a maid before...and ha ha of course it's all about me and what she will think of me spending my days in the hammock or on the beach...well I believe we're going to try it, so stay tuned to see what comes next ha ha...