Wow! Friday already!

Ok first things first. I did get the key to the gym. Actually I borrowed the key and made copies for them. I went inside it by myself to take a look...sad. Calling it a gym is such a stretch ha ha. It's a 2 story house that is in total disrepair, and here that means plumbing is pulled out, walls are down to the plants and 2x4's, things are are pulled off the ceilings, dust and broken glass on the floors- which of course are just wood. However...there are machines in there for working out, and free weights as well. I'm sure there's no electricity but there are a couple of treadmills with cords laying on the floor. There's also machines that don't need to plug in, a stationary bike and then a bike where you are sitting very low to the ground on a seat and then pedal out in front of you. A machine where your feet slide forward and back while your arms are also pulling back and pushing forward. An abs thing that looks like the one we have; you lay slanted backwards and pull up, etc.

Everardo is interested in the free weights, and altho' I saw the small bars for the hand weights, I did not see the long bar, but there was a weight bench and the bar is probly there somewhere. I had thought he might like the treadmill and I was hoping for an elliptical or to bring ours down there, but he said, no he likes to job along the estuary and at the beach, and I am enjoying walking the beach in the mornings. If I decide I really want to use my elliptical we'll figure something out (right now it's in the shed- it was on the porch which I did not like at all, I may refer to myself as trailer trash now that we live in a mobile home, but I am totally kidding and don't want to look the part).

So he hasn't been down there yet, we were going to walk over there today and the rain sorta made us feel like we should stay home in sweats and/or jammies and play solitaire on our laptops and watch movies.

The impending storm for Calif has been all over the news, but we are just a couple of hours south and so knew we'd get at least a little wet. It rained, well sprinkled really, during the nite, and was cloudy, windy, and gray this morning. I started to take the dogs to the beach twice, and both times as I started out the door it suddenly started raining buckets. Then later this afternoon I sat outside watching the waves and it only sprinkled while I was there, so when Everardo returned with the dogs from a quick run to have a tire looked at, I grabbed the ball chucker and we went to the beach. HA HA!! As soon as I got down the path it started to pour!! I was instantly soaked, and I was only wearing a short bathrobe over a tshirt and pajama pants. Since I was already drenched to the bone I decided to throw a couple anyway. It was the first time I brought 2 balls, because Hazel can outrun Sam now and he won't chase it if she's way ahead. She's not great at bringing it all the way back yet, but that was resolved when Sam trotted over and got her ball in his mouth, too. He came up and dropped 2 balls at my feet. When I stopped laughing I threw a few more. It rained on, even harder. Hazel left for home. I threw another one for Sam and he started after it, went a few yards, looked back and me- and I swear he said "really??"...and he headed for home as well. As I got to the sliding glass door, Everardo was already drying Hazel off and ordered me to a hot shower.

We skipped the 6pm AA meeting in favor of more lounging around, and I'm glad because as I have been writing this it is just pouring, really hard. Luckily yesterday Everardo put something on the porch roof because last time when it just rained a little, there was a big leak there. I was wrong when I thought- wow- this is the first house in Mexico that hasn't leaked in the rain; a front window is leaking, but not too bad, a towel there is taking care of it, and there's a little water on the sill of our bedroom window but we have Everardo's thick serape there already because when we first got here I thought the wall was so cold and our bed heads against that wall. The room is too small to choose any other way, so the serape on the wall keeps my head nice and warm. Ok it is just attacking us! The wind is blowing so hard and things are banging around. We're now talking about camping out in the living room where it's the warmest tonite. That will make Sam & Hazel very happy. Hmmm sounds like we need some hot chocolate!

Earlier this week the weather was beautiful; gets cold as the sun goes down, but during the day I can usually wear shorts. One morning, either Tuesday or Wednesday I sat out with my coffee, and a seal came by and entertained me for about 40 minutes! It was so cool! I've gotten good at spotting big groups of birds that are more than one kind- like sea gulls and pelicans and it means something is swimming/fishing out there. I've only seen dolphins, no whales yet, but this seal was a crack up! He swam and jumped and rolled over, and then swam SO fast I was really surprised- I guess I've seen it on tv but right in front of me was so cool! He went past from one side to the other and I thought he was gone, and then he came back and played back across the bay going this way. It was wonderful.

Took another drive hoping to see whales, just may not be in the cards this season. But we took long dirt road thru some mountains that we hadn't seen before and then hiked up the last little bit to get to a good viewing spot. Everardo said he could do it in 4whell drive but my "chicken-ness" kicked in after some steep windy roads and I said, "no no we can walk it." It was a beautiful spot, one I'd bring my daughters to when they come visit, and we sat and looked, spotted boats way out on the horizon and a place very close to us where there was a very tall rock and a smaller one behind it, and for some reason the waves swirled and plunged downwards in between the 2 rocks and then crashed against the front rock with an incredible spray. It was like a crashing whirlpool and amazing to watch, with or without the binoculars.

I was thinking about when I made those copies for the lady at the rental office. I asked her is she wanted me to make 3 or 4 extras and she replied "oh that's ok". Now in English- wait she was speaking English,,,so maybe for a person for whom English is their first language, and they are and American, "oh that's ok", means "no, thank you", but here it can mean "yes, please". I've already experienced this in other places in Mexico so I asked her to confirm, so she did want me to make extras? And she said yes...kinda funny how the same words have different meanings..I was thinking of another one, but my brain just emptied out ha ha. My daughter and I were talking on the phone the other day and she was telling me about talking with her girlfriends about something one of them wanted to buy, and Drew said, "oh I bet they have it at the segundas", and went on talking and her friends all looked at her and said what?? She meant the thrift stores but I talk about the segundas all the time and she just picked it up- she and I had a good laugh over that.

And lastly, I've been thinking about what my older sister said to me about my younger daughter with whom I've not been talking to at all, and I've been full of resentment...that maybe Halla is doing the best she can. I talked to Drew about it, and she said it, too. So I sent her a message simply telling her I love her and I miss her and I hope hope hope hope she writes back to me, or even better, calls me. I don't know why she keeps her feelings inside, I know she misses me, and even though I told her I wasn't going to chase her anymore trying to get her to have a relationship with me, but she is my child, and I need to keep reaching out. The problem is mine, I need to reach out, and be able to accept it if she does not reciprocate. So no long teary messages, just simple unconditional love...tell her I love her and I miss her. The truth is, that's the best I can do right now without getting resentful...like you never reply, or you never try....see that? I'm saying you you you....man sometimes writing here helps me sooooo much! This is the example I needed to see for myself...that when I'm mad I say you you you instead of remembering that I can ONLY control me me me!
Wow talk about ending on a high note! Viva!

Flea markets, segundas, another fridge?

Most Sunday mornings we hit the flea market (altho' here I hear it called the "open air market") for vegetables and fruit. Bananas, green apples and oranges are our primary fruits- and usually the green apples came from the states. It's a huge market place, and it's packed all weekend. We went this morning primarily because Everardo had a hankerin' for pizza. By the time we get there it's usually closer to noon than not, and there's a couple of good taco stands and a couple of pizza places as well. They have these metal boxes that are pizza ovens; I saw inside one today as we ate our slice of pepperoni, and it had flames at the bottom and she had one of those wide wooden paddles to slide it in and out on the shelves. It seemed to me that her dad was showing her the ropes; every move she made he had a comment, and sometimes it became a small discussion. Anyway the pizza is great! Then we found this stand to bring something to our friend Tim; it food from Oxaca, and they use "blue corn" tortillas and fold them into triangles with beans (like a paste) and cheese or other things for 10-15 pesos.

This place has 3 or 4 long rows of booths- booths with everything...Everardo got a haircut today for about $3! There's 2 or 3 haircut tents and they're always busy. Of course it's mostly all the same haircut: short. Almost shaved head short. He gets a haircut I like better, but this looks ok, too. They sell clothes, shoes, toys, baby clothes and accessories, furniture, everything you can think of. They sell cars, bicycles, scooters.

They have these markets everywhere. There's one in Ensenada on Thursdays and Fridays but we haven't been to it yet. The price for veggies and fruit is usually better than the store, and sometimes we just walk thru to look...today we bought some caramel popcorn to snack on, and what I like is anything you buy there, somebody just made it (food I mean). On Saturdays there's a mini flea market at the end of our gravel raod, up where it meets the main road. Not usually cooked food, but veggies and fruit. The thing about this one, is they are targeting Americans; in fact maybe half of the vendors are Americans. So the veggies and fruit is more expensive- this woman actually sets up 2 afternoons during the week out there- we went once- she was sooo expensive- much more than the store even. This market has clothes, tools, camping equip, and surfing stuff- wet suits, surf boards boogie boards. We stop there when we need batteries, and sometimes just to look.

Today there was some kind of volkswagon event going on. We must have seen over 100 VWs, bugs and buses, some at the gas station, some on the road. When we were trying to speed home to measure our fridge space, we got caught in a VW parade! Then, apparently they didn't know where they were going because they all started pulling over, in an area where the road isn't all that wide ha ha. But they musta figured it out cause on the way back they were gone. There's always something going on...car races, biking, hikes, seems like you can be as involved or uninvolved as you want. Right now, we're just watching.

Ok so when we got to the flea market we went around the side to get in. Right there was a guy selling furniture that looked new (might have been) and he had a tall fridge. I just stopped to take a look and sigh (see the trick is in the sigh)...because we have a little apartment fridge that we have stuffed full with almost nothing. This one was plugged in and running, so we zipped home to measure and got ourselves a new fridge for 1500 pesos (about $120) The guy next door upstairs is very happy cause Everardo offered him our little fridge, which is twice the size of the little box he has (and no freezer). We still got our pizza and walked a little, so it was a nice afternoon. In Mexico there is always something for sale on the side of the road. This is the 3rd fridge we bought since getting to Mexico. We bought a brand new huge one in Playa Ventura because I naively thought we would be there forever (ouch ha ha). But we did sell that one. Then in Penasco we bought a used one on the side of the road. It was a little cheaper than this one, but we had to get it fixed almost right after we got it home so the price became the same as this one. We gave that fridge to the lady who lived across from us- she didn't have a pot to pee in. We gave her that, a couple of lounge chairs, a bunch of food, our big sectional couch, and our dresser. She was soooo happy, it was worth it. I would not have wanted that couch here, what we have now is much better, much nicer. And like I said, you can buy anything in Mexico, new, slightly used, used, beat up, trash. For me the only problem remains the 2 prices- gringo and Mexican. Ah well, lucky for me I got me a Mexican who is happy to let me choose and then he negotiates. (I love this man) Things are just cheaper here, people are much more poor here and so prices reflect what they can pay. With no income except from rent, this is a good thing for us. I just read Mexico is in the top 5 of the best health care countries in the world! Yeah- Viva!

Now this is kinda pathetic- I am so happy because we have handles on all the kitchen drawers! At first we had none, then we painted, oh and still had none. Then they brought them and for some reason Everardo put all the knobs on the cabinets but not the drawer handles. He put them somewhere...anyway today after getting our wonderful new grownup fridge in, he put all the handles. I keep knocking stuff off the list, but it has a ways to go. He has this way of working on something up to about 95 or even 98%...and then changes to something else. It always gets done so I'm trying to not say anything,,,,but why no drawer handles, and the tile behins the stove...almost done and nothing for about 2 weeks. Oh! Glad I said that! I just realized we are on week 3 of being here, so maybe it's good I haven't said anything about the speed things are being completed. But I am happy. It feels like home.

This week goal: get the key to the gym! Viva!