Tuesday was a beautiful day, and when Everardo got home from the Bufadora around 5pm we decided to take the dogs for a swim. There was no red tide like there is today (maybe it's for the 4th of July...blue water, red stripe, white foam..ok maybe not), anyway the water was crystal clear and so refreshing! We waded out farther than even Sam would follow us, and he usually comes out pretty far....not quite to the last wave break, but it was still only about waist deep. But it was fun; we were diving into the waves, or jumping up as the swells came past us- stand sideways so you don't get knocked over.
It's funny, I had just commented that my velcro strap on one of my sandals kept coming off and Poppi told me- you don't need to wear your sandals at this beach, the sand is perfect. See I always wear shoes in the water (lakes, rivers or ocean), water shoes or sandals- I mean you never know, sharp rocks, glass, hooks, who knows....I just always have. But the sand here is so nice; it has these tiny tiny shiny gold flecks in it- my new friend Jan recently told me she thinks it's from the abalone shells. Anyway it's pretty, and soft, hardly any rocks. Now some days when the tide is high all kinds of crap comes up on the beach, sea weed, kelp with these long tubes with these fat bulbs on them, empty crab shells, and then the yucky stuff; dead birds, garbage...lots of garbage I guess gets thrown off of fishing boats...plastic bottles, empty cups, baseball caps, socks, basically crap. But some days the beach is clear and beautiful, and this was one of those days. So I thought, yeah he's right, next time I'm gonna leave my sandals on the beach.
You know I just heard about this thing: "grounding" and it has to do with walking barefoot and - ok well here's a short article about it:
Ok anyway the truth is I have been wearing shoes of some type more in Mexico than I ever have before- in the house flip flops or slippers because of scorpions....outside because I have lived on dirt roads for the past 2 years and unfortunately besides scorpions there's always rocks and or broken glass or trash or something....so I just wear shoes. Almost never covered shoes tho'....gotta love the weather, eh? So.....I had already decided that when I'm just walking on the beach or playing ball with the dogs that I'd go barefoot, and now was considering barefoot when swimming.....and then.....
Suddenly Everardo starts heading for shore, looking back over his shoulder at me and c'mon let's go in. At first I just followed; ok, I was thinking it was almost time to get out anyway....but I noticed he was moving really fast. I said he what's wrong but didn't hear the answer but as we got to the really shallow, ankle deep water I saw the blood. I said hey! What happened!! Stingray he said- I didn't want to tell you out there and have you freak out...ha ha which I woulda...I woulda started hopping around...but his foot was bleeding alot. It got him right on the back of his foot, right in the middle of the back of the heel, and the hole looked almost the size of a dime! We grabbed the fins and mask off the beach (he had used earlier) and shot up to the house, him telling me to run the shower water as hot as I could. I was "sure" there was some other treatment, like peeing on it or something, but he yelled- no just run the hot water. Well that takes at least 5 minutes to warm up so I took a quick lukewarm shower waiting for it to heat up while he held a towel on it. Then he yelled- wait- turn off the shower and turn on the tub water (other bathroom) so I ran and did that. He put his foot in really hot (almost scalding) water and just kept it there. What should I do??? He said nothing so I grabbed my laptop and googled it. Well....he was exactly right. Hot water, as hot as you can stand it. for up to 2 hours- which is how long the pain usually lasts.
I read about 10 articles, and the first one used the word "excruciating" pain...I ran in and looked at him. He said yeah it hurts....bad. The fact that he was not making a bad face, somehow I knew it was much worse than I thought. I scanned the rest of the articles and they all had the same treatment, and then most said, see a doctor, or watch for symptoms of an allergic reactions: swelling, nausea, trouble breathing....but he had none of those, and told me he had been stung twice before, so I stopped trying to convince him to go to the doctor. He only stayed in the hot water for about 20 minutes and then came out and sat in a chair. His face was drawn- he was in pain. He told me later he didn't want to scare me. Yeah? I told him if I get stung- TAKE ME STRAIGHT TO THE DOCTOR! We have some pain pills so he took one- well they are not really pain pills- it's those pills I wrote about before that I am only supposed to take 1/4 of one at a time if I think I'm starting to have a panic attack or a migraine starts to come on. It's called Rivotril and it's very strong. Well I think if you take a whole one it's probly like the time I was rushed to the hospital with a gall bladder attack; they gave me morphine, and what happened was it still hurt but I didn't care...I sort of floated above my body and watched the pain with interest. Well, I have him half a pill, but a few minutes later (not long enough for it to take full effect) he said get me the other half...so I did. About 45 min later he said he was grateful for the pain....hmmm ya think he was a little stoned out of his gourd??? He said it hurt but he was grateful to be able to feel. About 10 minutes after that he said maybe he's lay down...ha ha he slept for about 12 or 14 hours! When he woke up the pain was gone.
Truth is, scared the crap out of me. It scared me that he was in so much pain. Then I needed to watch him breathe while he was sleeping to be sure there was no allergic reaction to the sting OR the drug....but he was fine, snoring like a bear. It was like when my daughter's were babies and I'd watch them breathe. We laughed the next day when he said he was so glad it was him and not me. That I would have died from the pain...but I would have gone to the doctor and they give you a local anesthetic and that usually takes care of the pain (at least according to google).
So I have now decided that if I'm going to go out in the waves I'll wear an old pair of tennis shoes, because my sandals would not have helped having almost no back. They say you need to shuffle your feet going out, and we had the same issue in Puerto Penasco, but never saw anyone get stung. Our buddy Tim has been here 4.5 years and he said he's never heard of anyone getting stung since he's been here- on this side, the Pacific side. He has seen it on the Sea of Cortez side, though. But I am not going to stay out of the water....so tennis shoes it is ha ha. And we have seen alot of dead stingrays on the beach, Sam has carried 2 or 3 home and I've stopped both Sam and Hazel from munching on them when they come upon them washed up on the beach.
Anyway....the red tide comes and goes, today it was back in full force, and seemed to stretch further along the beach than other days. Tim said last summer it ran the length of the beach all summer and stunk...so we're better off than that. He also said the year before it was not here at all, so....I guess it may come and go until Sept, but we can always swim in the estuary, which doesn't get the red tide gunk, even though the water comes in and out twice a day.
It's almost 11pm and seems that the loud bangs of the fireworks that have no color, just loud noise have stopped, which is good because Sam really hates the noise. But tonite when it started Everardo took both dogs outside so they could see there was nothing to be scared of. Actually that's how we ended up seeing the fireworks show. I'm relieved the noise has already stopped because this morning I was sure we'd be up late after watching all the idiots driving atvs up and down the beach like maniacs...yeah and they are not supposed to (it's illegal but I bet since it's people bringing money is the reason nobody comes to tell them to knock it off...the all mighty dollar wins again). There were more people on the beach today than I've seen since we've been here, lot of traffic as well, but it's all quiet by our house...so yippee.
Tomorrow I have no plans. Everardo has to work, and I have nothing. Maybe start a new book. I have stayed true to my exercise commitment but my knees need a day off on the weekend, and since my commitment was 5 days a week and I did that this week...well tomorrow I will be lazy....dog beach walking of course and evening estuary walk...but besides that...just be home. Yesterday we spent about 3 hours driving around Ensenada going to pharmacies and grocery stores looking for this stuff called Autan. It's a lotion, but kinda oily, for mosquitoes and the only thing that worked down in Playa Ventura- down there I went thru a bottle of it every 2 weeks because I had to use it all the time, so after every shower, every swim, I reapplied. I used in Penasco, and went thru alot during the summer, and then here, well we bought 2 in November and just ran out. Been using it every nite since the heat wave in April, but for some reason neither of us seem to get bit during the day. (Ok knock wood) So we stopped to get some Monday, and ooops...none at the grocery store, then none at the next store either, but Everardo remembered getting near here so we came home to buy it, and ooops nope. Everyone is changing to "OFF"...so yesterday went to Ensenda to buy some, then go to the movies and then I was getting a massage (yippee- first one here since my birthday in Dec and only 400 pesos...about $32 USD for over an hour)....well we never made the movies.
Everardo is now calling it my 1500 peso bug juice! We used soooo much gas driving around for almost 3 hours. We had given up and were heading home when he suddenly turned toward the touristy area down by the cruise ships. He walks into this pharmacy and the guy has one left (yep switching to OFF) so he buys it. There's another pharmacy right next door so he goes in and finds 2 on the shelf, then the sales lady says her inventory says they have 5 and he tells her he'll take them all. She looks surprised and he says if you have a case- I'll buy them! Ha ha So 2 of her turn out to be a spray that is different but we take what she has so I have 4. She charges him 75 pesos but he says next door it's only 50 so she charges him 50P. So 4 bottles should last awhile, and now we will always be on the lookout for it. He's testing the one bottle of OFF lotion we bought in defeat...so we'll see ha ha. So now he has stopped teasing me for the 100 peso goat cheese I accidentally bought because the 1500 peso bug juice is now funnier.....Simple pleasures are the best, right??
Viva
It's funny, I had just commented that my velcro strap on one of my sandals kept coming off and Poppi told me- you don't need to wear your sandals at this beach, the sand is perfect. See I always wear shoes in the water (lakes, rivers or ocean), water shoes or sandals- I mean you never know, sharp rocks, glass, hooks, who knows....I just always have. But the sand here is so nice; it has these tiny tiny shiny gold flecks in it- my new friend Jan recently told me she thinks it's from the abalone shells. Anyway it's pretty, and soft, hardly any rocks. Now some days when the tide is high all kinds of crap comes up on the beach, sea weed, kelp with these long tubes with these fat bulbs on them, empty crab shells, and then the yucky stuff; dead birds, garbage...lots of garbage I guess gets thrown off of fishing boats...plastic bottles, empty cups, baseball caps, socks, basically crap. But some days the beach is clear and beautiful, and this was one of those days. So I thought, yeah he's right, next time I'm gonna leave my sandals on the beach.
You know I just heard about this thing: "grounding" and it has to do with walking barefoot and - ok well here's a short article about it:
Do you notice you feel better when you walk barefoot on the Earth? Recent research has explained why this happens.
Your immune system functions optimally when your body has an adequate supply of electrons, which are easily and naturally obtained by barefoot contact with the Earth.
Research indicates that electrons from the Earth have antioxidant effects that can protect your body from inflammation and its many well-documented health consequences. For most of our evolutionary history, humans have had continuous contact with the Earth.
It is only recently that substances such as asphalt, wood, rugs, and plastics have separated us from this contact.
It is known that the Earth maintains a negative electrical potential on its surface. When you are in direct contact with the ground (walking, sitting, or laying down on the earth's surface) the earth's electrons are conducted to your body, bringing it to the same electrical potential as the earth. Living in direct contact with the earth grounds your body, inducing favorable physiological and electrophysiological changes that promote optimum health.
There is an emerging science documenting how conductive contact with the Earth, which has is also known as Earthing or grounding, is highly beneficial to your health and completely safe. Earthing appears to minimize the consequences of exposure to potentially disruptive fields like "electromagnetic pollution" or "dirty electricity."
Some of the recent evidence supporting this approach involves multiple studies documenting Earthing's improvement in blood viscosity, heart rate variability, inflammation, cortisol dynamics, sleep, autonomic nervous system (ANS) balance, and reduced effects of stress.
The Ultimate Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory
Grounding or Earthing is defined as placing one's bare feet on the ground whether it be dirt, grass, sand or concrete (especially when humid or wet). When you ground to the electron-enriched earth, an improved balance of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system occurs.
The Earth is a natural source of electrons and subtle electrical fields, which are essential for proper functioning of immune systems, circulation, synchronization of biorhythms and other physiological processes and may actually be the most effective, essential, least expensive, and easiest to attain antioxidant.
Modern science has thoroughly documented the connection between inflammation and all of the chronic diseases, including the diseases of aging and the aging process itself. It is important to understand that inflammation is a condition that can be reduced or prevented by grounding your body to the Earth, the way virtually all of your ancestors have done for hundreds if not thousands of generations. By Dr. Mercola
Ok anyway the truth is I have been wearing shoes of some type more in Mexico than I ever have before- in the house flip flops or slippers because of scorpions....outside because I have lived on dirt roads for the past 2 years and unfortunately besides scorpions there's always rocks and or broken glass or trash or something....so I just wear shoes. Almost never covered shoes tho'....gotta love the weather, eh? So.....I had already decided that when I'm just walking on the beach or playing ball with the dogs that I'd go barefoot, and now was considering barefoot when swimming.....and then.....
Suddenly Everardo starts heading for shore, looking back over his shoulder at me and c'mon let's go in. At first I just followed; ok, I was thinking it was almost time to get out anyway....but I noticed he was moving really fast. I said he what's wrong but didn't hear the answer but as we got to the really shallow, ankle deep water I saw the blood. I said hey! What happened!! Stingray he said- I didn't want to tell you out there and have you freak out...ha ha which I woulda...I woulda started hopping around...but his foot was bleeding alot. It got him right on the back of his foot, right in the middle of the back of the heel, and the hole looked almost the size of a dime! We grabbed the fins and mask off the beach (he had used earlier) and shot up to the house, him telling me to run the shower water as hot as I could. I was "sure" there was some other treatment, like peeing on it or something, but he yelled- no just run the hot water. Well that takes at least 5 minutes to warm up so I took a quick lukewarm shower waiting for it to heat up while he held a towel on it. Then he yelled- wait- turn off the shower and turn on the tub water (other bathroom) so I ran and did that. He put his foot in really hot (almost scalding) water and just kept it there. What should I do??? He said nothing so I grabbed my laptop and googled it. Well....he was exactly right. Hot water, as hot as you can stand it. for up to 2 hours- which is how long the pain usually lasts.
I read about 10 articles, and the first one used the word "excruciating" pain...I ran in and looked at him. He said yeah it hurts....bad. The fact that he was not making a bad face, somehow I knew it was much worse than I thought. I scanned the rest of the articles and they all had the same treatment, and then most said, see a doctor, or watch for symptoms of an allergic reactions: swelling, nausea, trouble breathing....but he had none of those, and told me he had been stung twice before, so I stopped trying to convince him to go to the doctor. He only stayed in the hot water for about 20 minutes and then came out and sat in a chair. His face was drawn- he was in pain. He told me later he didn't want to scare me. Yeah? I told him if I get stung- TAKE ME STRAIGHT TO THE DOCTOR! We have some pain pills so he took one- well they are not really pain pills- it's those pills I wrote about before that I am only supposed to take 1/4 of one at a time if I think I'm starting to have a panic attack or a migraine starts to come on. It's called Rivotril and it's very strong. Well I think if you take a whole one it's probly like the time I was rushed to the hospital with a gall bladder attack; they gave me morphine, and what happened was it still hurt but I didn't care...I sort of floated above my body and watched the pain with interest. Well, I have him half a pill, but a few minutes later (not long enough for it to take full effect) he said get me the other half...so I did. About 45 min later he said he was grateful for the pain....hmmm ya think he was a little stoned out of his gourd??? He said it hurt but he was grateful to be able to feel. About 10 minutes after that he said maybe he's lay down...ha ha he slept for about 12 or 14 hours! When he woke up the pain was gone.
Truth is, scared the crap out of me. It scared me that he was in so much pain. Then I needed to watch him breathe while he was sleeping to be sure there was no allergic reaction to the sting OR the drug....but he was fine, snoring like a bear. It was like when my daughter's were babies and I'd watch them breathe. We laughed the next day when he said he was so glad it was him and not me. That I would have died from the pain...but I would have gone to the doctor and they give you a local anesthetic and that usually takes care of the pain (at least according to google).
So I have now decided that if I'm going to go out in the waves I'll wear an old pair of tennis shoes, because my sandals would not have helped having almost no back. They say you need to shuffle your feet going out, and we had the same issue in Puerto Penasco, but never saw anyone get stung. Our buddy Tim has been here 4.5 years and he said he's never heard of anyone getting stung since he's been here- on this side, the Pacific side. He has seen it on the Sea of Cortez side, though. But I am not going to stay out of the water....so tennis shoes it is ha ha. And we have seen alot of dead stingrays on the beach, Sam has carried 2 or 3 home and I've stopped both Sam and Hazel from munching on them when they come upon them washed up on the beach.
Anyway....the red tide comes and goes, today it was back in full force, and seemed to stretch further along the beach than other days. Tim said last summer it ran the length of the beach all summer and stunk...so we're better off than that. He also said the year before it was not here at all, so....I guess it may come and go until Sept, but we can always swim in the estuary, which doesn't get the red tide gunk, even though the water comes in and out twice a day.
It's almost 11pm and seems that the loud bangs of the fireworks that have no color, just loud noise have stopped, which is good because Sam really hates the noise. But tonite when it started Everardo took both dogs outside so they could see there was nothing to be scared of. Actually that's how we ended up seeing the fireworks show. I'm relieved the noise has already stopped because this morning I was sure we'd be up late after watching all the idiots driving atvs up and down the beach like maniacs...yeah and they are not supposed to (it's illegal but I bet since it's people bringing money is the reason nobody comes to tell them to knock it off...the all mighty dollar wins again). There were more people on the beach today than I've seen since we've been here, lot of traffic as well, but it's all quiet by our house...so yippee.
Tomorrow I have no plans. Everardo has to work, and I have nothing. Maybe start a new book. I have stayed true to my exercise commitment but my knees need a day off on the weekend, and since my commitment was 5 days a week and I did that this week...well tomorrow I will be lazy....dog beach walking of course and evening estuary walk...but besides that...just be home. Yesterday we spent about 3 hours driving around Ensenada going to pharmacies and grocery stores looking for this stuff called Autan. It's a lotion, but kinda oily, for mosquitoes and the only thing that worked down in Playa Ventura- down there I went thru a bottle of it every 2 weeks because I had to use it all the time, so after every shower, every swim, I reapplied. I used in Penasco, and went thru alot during the summer, and then here, well we bought 2 in November and just ran out. Been using it every nite since the heat wave in April, but for some reason neither of us seem to get bit during the day. (Ok knock wood) So we stopped to get some Monday, and ooops...none at the grocery store, then none at the next store either, but Everardo remembered getting near here so we came home to buy it, and ooops nope. Everyone is changing to "OFF"...so yesterday went to Ensenda to buy some, then go to the movies and then I was getting a massage (yippee- first one here since my birthday in Dec and only 400 pesos...about $32 USD for over an hour)....well we never made the movies.
Everardo is now calling it my 1500 peso bug juice! We used soooo much gas driving around for almost 3 hours. We had given up and were heading home when he suddenly turned toward the touristy area down by the cruise ships. He walks into this pharmacy and the guy has one left (yep switching to OFF) so he buys it. There's another pharmacy right next door so he goes in and finds 2 on the shelf, then the sales lady says her inventory says they have 5 and he tells her he'll take them all. She looks surprised and he says if you have a case- I'll buy them! Ha ha So 2 of her turn out to be a spray that is different but we take what she has so I have 4. She charges him 75 pesos but he says next door it's only 50 so she charges him 50P. So 4 bottles should last awhile, and now we will always be on the lookout for it. He's testing the one bottle of OFF lotion we bought in defeat...so we'll see ha ha. So now he has stopped teasing me for the 100 peso goat cheese I accidentally bought because the 1500 peso bug juice is now funnier.....Simple pleasures are the best, right??
Viva
