Last week I was feeling kinda down, in a funk, but not this week. I exercised every day, went to the free exercise class the 2 days they had it, and decided to add in a second workout with my elliptical. I did that twice...exhausting. But I will do 3 days next week, 20 minutes...and so on. Some days I do my morning workout and then not much physically the rest of the day ha ha. Being on my laptop, reading a book, utilizing the hammock (big ha ha), talking to a friend....not too physical, right? Oh before I get too far off the subject...I think that at least part of the reason for my "off" mood, was that I did not exercise and I did not stick to my new way of eating. I ate crap- stuff I haven't eaten in literally months....candy and treats...they were everywhere. And they've been everywhere for weeks- since about Halloween I think, maybe since always...but I had been making other choices- and feeling better for it. So I threw myself off. Then probably was mad at myself instead of just giving myself a break. Oh and then I acted selfishly with my husband, felt guilty and so mad at myself....yeah nice cycle right? And I did not go to any AA meetings either. Ha ha way to sabotage myself! The AA meetings are so great- I don't know what I'd do without them! I talk about how I feel. I listen to other people talk about how they feel. I hear about solutions. I remind myself or get reminded what kind of a life I want to lead. That's the cool thing about those steps- admit I am in control of nothing, realize I am not alone in my problems, my fears, my addictions, ect, decided to become a part of things. Take a hard look at myself, inside and out, decide what I want to let go of, and what I want to take with me going forward...and then try to do that, hopefully with some self respect and respect for others. I'm so lucky I have found a group to share in. Well and I share here as well. Sometimes I do figure things out in the middle of writing about them. I forget that this is actually a public forum....but then I can see my stats and see that there are a couple of people reading this. I love that somebody in Russia, somebody in China, Thailand, Germany, Ukraine reads this. Are they reading about a nutty American women in Mexico? Do I even write about Mexico anymore? I have been in Baja now over a year and it simply feels like my life...not some new place. And I change the subject in the middle of a paragraph ha ha. Like now. I started this wanting to just say I got over my funky bad mood of last week. That maybe not taking care of myself, physically and spiritually, was at least part of the problem.
So what was the title of this post about? The Z road. After a year I finally know what the Z road is. It is the part of the spit road that I live on that is paved. And if you follow it from the main road it does sort of form a "Z". But some years ago it was changed- part of it was blocked off so it doesn't resemble the curves of a Z anymore so I never got it. Now it comes straight down from the main road, unpaved, and then meets up with the paved portion. I do not know why they changed it, maybe for access to 2 camps that are up at that end close to the main road. Because of the weather, the rain, the unpaved portion is a disaster right now. I have always just called this the Spit road. Lots of people call it that, but it also gets called the Z road and the Not Z road. Well, on the facebook page for this area it is being discussed because it's such a mess. Potholes and lumps, huge puddles; there was even a pipe sticking up at a place near a big puddle that people were hitting and damaging rims and getting flat tires trying to avoid the hole (puddle). So someone posted the history of the road. How part of the Z got blocked off and the unpaved portion created. To do that, it crossed the estuary, which I did not know and they put in something like 17 feet deep of fill. Aha! So that's why it gets so messed up when it rains. 17 feet of fill? It was going to cost something like $70,000 USD to fix it right, which the gov't was not going to pay, so it got fixed like a band aid. Half ass. And it never got paved. Even the portion that is paved, when it rains pieces of it comes up, then this homeless guy goes around and fills the holes with dirt! Oh and a couple of months ago a couple of guys were filling the holes on the paved portion with cement- not asphalt....weird eh? The homeless guy, Jessie has made himself a little camp along the road- I think he's been there a couple of years at least, but the guy who owns the land where he was must have kicked him out because he moved across the road to the estuary side, which is federally owned. I always thought he probly dug the holes he fills, since he always puts a basket out asking for tips. Some days he's just so drunk he's laying on the side of the road...or lounging in some broken piece of furniture he dragged up like he's a king enjoying his kingdom. But now I realize he doesn't need to make the holes, at least in winter- the rain will do it. Hmmm but maybe he does it in summer.....I don't like him too much because last summer he was trying to charge these kids selling vegetables to come down the road. That pissed me off. These are young kids, maybe early teens dragging around baskets of fresh veges to sell in the hot sun. I've given them a ride before, and he's a jerk doing that. Otherwise I don't care too much- but I don't give him any money. It's so funny, I see some people writing about him on the fb page or in the email bulletin board and saying the poor man, or how they want to give him a birthday party and stuff...have they seen him drinking and stumbling around at 8am???
Anyway a guy who lives in a camp past us has a nice car and is trying to figure out how to get the road fixed. Actually there are quite a few nice cars out here, mostly in the camp part ours, a gated community where alot of people own their places vs alot of the camps people just rent. If they want to fix the road- yipee....but we are not contributing to the cause. Come fix our place first, then we might consider it ha ha. Trying to get things fixed is like pulling teeth. However that being said- Everardo is a good networker....he has made friends with the guy who manages the maintenance in this camp, and we got a new (new to us anyway) hot water heater in one day this week AND it worked right after it was installed! I had come home from exercising on the beach and was soaking wet with sweat while it's sooo cold outside and so needed to get right into a hot shower, and found out they were just taking ours out! It worked, it was just leaking. If only he had waited a half hour for me to finish- I was mad. I said- this is Mexico, this is camp 3!!! It's not gonna work the first time...and then....it did! Crap I had to apologize. Now I am very excited because he might get us new faucets in both bathrooms! In one you can't use the hot, and both are so corroded they look gross. I am ready to pay for it ourselves, but up to now we keep saying we are just renters- we are not paying to fix anything up in this old place. But this is month 12 in this trailer.....maybe we do live here...right? I would be very happy with new faucets.....
I finished putting away Christmas today; started yesterday. I always love putting it all out, but I also love it once it's all put away. We also got a tank for our space heater yesterday. Yipee. And it was a loan from Luis- the maintenance guy! We looked at the segundas the day before, but of course there are none, and had decided to buy a new one, but when Everardo went over to pay the rent he saw Luis and he hooked us up! He did say it was only a loan, to return it when we get one, and it was also full of propane. It's a 14 litre tank, bigger than the one we used in Penasco so we'll see how long it lasts. This week was just so cold. I tried using only blankets no sheets on the bed, but I still woke up shivering, breathing in the cold air hurt my nose....I got some mittens because my hands are cold all the time. (19 pesos...so about $1.05USD) and finally agreed to try sleeping in the living room on the couch which Everardo said was warmer than the bed. It's true the couch is warmer. Now we are really like camping ha ha- well in a cabin in the cold woods. Us and the dogs all sleeping together. But it's just too cold in here. If you take a shower in the morning (like after exercise) the towel is not dry the next day. My bones were aching. But we started using it yesterday and what a difference!! I am sooo happy- we don't have it on high, I am sitting on the couch and wearing sweat pants and a thermal shirt...but not wrapped in a blanket or anything. About an hour before sleep we'll crank it up to high, and then turn it all the way off. We shut the doors to the bedrooms, and last nite....well I slept like a baby....ahhhhh The weather is supposed to change starting tomorrow and warm up some, but I can only see out about a week, and sadly heard the freezing weather will be back....But Everardo thinks Luis will not ask for the tank back- and if he does we can always buy one. I'm glad for the better weather next week because Poppi is going over to Penasco to renew our license plates on Monday and might not make it back until Tuesday or even Wed depending on how it goes. Lonely and cold sucks so lonely and warm will be better for me and the doggies ha ha. It's much cheaper to simply renew the registration over there than to move it to Baja, however I think for my driver's license I'll just go ahead and renew it here. That's kinda fun- I have one from Guerrero and Sonora, and now I'll get one from BC. In Guerrero I paid 200 pesos I think, they took my picture and printed & laminated me a license on the spot. In Sonora it was weird, they tried to get more money from us and Everardo argued with them so they said I had to talk to the police chief. Ha ha he did not know why I was there, asked me how I liked Penasco, signed my paper and we left back to the lic place. They grudgingly gave me a license- oh and we had to supply the picture. Here I hear you have to take a written test but not driving...but it's in Spanish so you can have help.....so funny isn't it?
I'm waiting for my Calif license to come back. I had to send it to the social security office to get a new SS card to show to Covered Calif for Obamacare! They made the mistake and then I had to prove it's my SS number. So this is why they asked me to prove I am a legal citizen if the United States last summer....they had my SS # wrong. But SS said I had to send them my passport, not a copy but I said no way- I'm in Mexico so they said ok- your driver's license. Ha ha all this crazy paperwork. So now my renter sent it to our friend Tim who just moved back to Calif from here and is coming down in a couple of weeks. We collected his mail here for him and he'll bring ours when he comes. Kaiser changed whoever was doing their billing which was GREAT because they noticed I overpaid by 2 months- which I said way back in April, but had to keep paying, so I got credited for Dec & Jan. Oh and my premium went down $20 which is nice since I only go to the doctor once a year, right? I could get out of having insurance but chose to keep it. Oh don't get me started though- it's still such a big ripoff!!! The insurance companies are still raping people!!! I pay less but the gov't pays the rest. And the premium is WAY WAY higher than what I was paying before Obamacare. And the gov't is paying most of my premium!! I am eligible for it- I didn't manipulate it or anything, it's based on income, marital status, etc. They helped me sign up last year - but I still think it's messed up!! How do the same drugs cost pennies in Mexico? Seeing a doctor here is just a few dollars, procedures the same. In the United States it's just so bad, I thought Obamacare would be a good thing, and thought well it's not perfect but it's a start- but now it seems like it's not- not a start- the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical companies are still stealing us all blind!! Why does the gov't agree to do this??? Uh oh this is the naive me! I guess I know the answer, right? Whoops got carried away.
So tomorrow is the day I get to try to help distribute blankets and clothes....I will write about it. I hope the people we are trying to help had a way to stay warm this week...shit and I was complaining about being cold......ok well I think this is it for now. As always ....viva!
So what was the title of this post about? The Z road. After a year I finally know what the Z road is. It is the part of the spit road that I live on that is paved. And if you follow it from the main road it does sort of form a "Z". But some years ago it was changed- part of it was blocked off so it doesn't resemble the curves of a Z anymore so I never got it. Now it comes straight down from the main road, unpaved, and then meets up with the paved portion. I do not know why they changed it, maybe for access to 2 camps that are up at that end close to the main road. Because of the weather, the rain, the unpaved portion is a disaster right now. I have always just called this the Spit road. Lots of people call it that, but it also gets called the Z road and the Not Z road. Well, on the facebook page for this area it is being discussed because it's such a mess. Potholes and lumps, huge puddles; there was even a pipe sticking up at a place near a big puddle that people were hitting and damaging rims and getting flat tires trying to avoid the hole (puddle). So someone posted the history of the road. How part of the Z got blocked off and the unpaved portion created. To do that, it crossed the estuary, which I did not know and they put in something like 17 feet deep of fill. Aha! So that's why it gets so messed up when it rains. 17 feet of fill? It was going to cost something like $70,000 USD to fix it right, which the gov't was not going to pay, so it got fixed like a band aid. Half ass. And it never got paved. Even the portion that is paved, when it rains pieces of it comes up, then this homeless guy goes around and fills the holes with dirt! Oh and a couple of months ago a couple of guys were filling the holes on the paved portion with cement- not asphalt....weird eh? The homeless guy, Jessie has made himself a little camp along the road- I think he's been there a couple of years at least, but the guy who owns the land where he was must have kicked him out because he moved across the road to the estuary side, which is federally owned. I always thought he probly dug the holes he fills, since he always puts a basket out asking for tips. Some days he's just so drunk he's laying on the side of the road...or lounging in some broken piece of furniture he dragged up like he's a king enjoying his kingdom. But now I realize he doesn't need to make the holes, at least in winter- the rain will do it. Hmmm but maybe he does it in summer.....I don't like him too much because last summer he was trying to charge these kids selling vegetables to come down the road. That pissed me off. These are young kids, maybe early teens dragging around baskets of fresh veges to sell in the hot sun. I've given them a ride before, and he's a jerk doing that. Otherwise I don't care too much- but I don't give him any money. It's so funny, I see some people writing about him on the fb page or in the email bulletin board and saying the poor man, or how they want to give him a birthday party and stuff...have they seen him drinking and stumbling around at 8am???
Anyway a guy who lives in a camp past us has a nice car and is trying to figure out how to get the road fixed. Actually there are quite a few nice cars out here, mostly in the camp part ours, a gated community where alot of people own their places vs alot of the camps people just rent. If they want to fix the road- yipee....but we are not contributing to the cause. Come fix our place first, then we might consider it ha ha. Trying to get things fixed is like pulling teeth. However that being said- Everardo is a good networker....he has made friends with the guy who manages the maintenance in this camp, and we got a new (new to us anyway) hot water heater in one day this week AND it worked right after it was installed! I had come home from exercising on the beach and was soaking wet with sweat while it's sooo cold outside and so needed to get right into a hot shower, and found out they were just taking ours out! It worked, it was just leaking. If only he had waited a half hour for me to finish- I was mad. I said- this is Mexico, this is camp 3!!! It's not gonna work the first time...and then....it did! Crap I had to apologize. Now I am very excited because he might get us new faucets in both bathrooms! In one you can't use the hot, and both are so corroded they look gross. I am ready to pay for it ourselves, but up to now we keep saying we are just renters- we are not paying to fix anything up in this old place. But this is month 12 in this trailer.....maybe we do live here...right? I would be very happy with new faucets.....
I finished putting away Christmas today; started yesterday. I always love putting it all out, but I also love it once it's all put away. We also got a tank for our space heater yesterday. Yipee. And it was a loan from Luis- the maintenance guy! We looked at the segundas the day before, but of course there are none, and had decided to buy a new one, but when Everardo went over to pay the rent he saw Luis and he hooked us up! He did say it was only a loan, to return it when we get one, and it was also full of propane. It's a 14 litre tank, bigger than the one we used in Penasco so we'll see how long it lasts. This week was just so cold. I tried using only blankets no sheets on the bed, but I still woke up shivering, breathing in the cold air hurt my nose....I got some mittens because my hands are cold all the time. (19 pesos...so about $1.05USD) and finally agreed to try sleeping in the living room on the couch which Everardo said was warmer than the bed. It's true the couch is warmer. Now we are really like camping ha ha- well in a cabin in the cold woods. Us and the dogs all sleeping together. But it's just too cold in here. If you take a shower in the morning (like after exercise) the towel is not dry the next day. My bones were aching. But we started using it yesterday and what a difference!! I am sooo happy- we don't have it on high, I am sitting on the couch and wearing sweat pants and a thermal shirt...but not wrapped in a blanket or anything. About an hour before sleep we'll crank it up to high, and then turn it all the way off. We shut the doors to the bedrooms, and last nite....well I slept like a baby....ahhhhh The weather is supposed to change starting tomorrow and warm up some, but I can only see out about a week, and sadly heard the freezing weather will be back....But Everardo thinks Luis will not ask for the tank back- and if he does we can always buy one. I'm glad for the better weather next week because Poppi is going over to Penasco to renew our license plates on Monday and might not make it back until Tuesday or even Wed depending on how it goes. Lonely and cold sucks so lonely and warm will be better for me and the doggies ha ha. It's much cheaper to simply renew the registration over there than to move it to Baja, however I think for my driver's license I'll just go ahead and renew it here. That's kinda fun- I have one from Guerrero and Sonora, and now I'll get one from BC. In Guerrero I paid 200 pesos I think, they took my picture and printed & laminated me a license on the spot. In Sonora it was weird, they tried to get more money from us and Everardo argued with them so they said I had to talk to the police chief. Ha ha he did not know why I was there, asked me how I liked Penasco, signed my paper and we left back to the lic place. They grudgingly gave me a license- oh and we had to supply the picture. Here I hear you have to take a written test but not driving...but it's in Spanish so you can have help.....so funny isn't it?
I'm waiting for my Calif license to come back. I had to send it to the social security office to get a new SS card to show to Covered Calif for Obamacare! They made the mistake and then I had to prove it's my SS number. So this is why they asked me to prove I am a legal citizen if the United States last summer....they had my SS # wrong. But SS said I had to send them my passport, not a copy but I said no way- I'm in Mexico so they said ok- your driver's license. Ha ha all this crazy paperwork. So now my renter sent it to our friend Tim who just moved back to Calif from here and is coming down in a couple of weeks. We collected his mail here for him and he'll bring ours when he comes. Kaiser changed whoever was doing their billing which was GREAT because they noticed I overpaid by 2 months- which I said way back in April, but had to keep paying, so I got credited for Dec & Jan. Oh and my premium went down $20 which is nice since I only go to the doctor once a year, right? I could get out of having insurance but chose to keep it. Oh don't get me started though- it's still such a big ripoff!!! The insurance companies are still raping people!!! I pay less but the gov't pays the rest. And the premium is WAY WAY higher than what I was paying before Obamacare. And the gov't is paying most of my premium!! I am eligible for it- I didn't manipulate it or anything, it's based on income, marital status, etc. They helped me sign up last year - but I still think it's messed up!! How do the same drugs cost pennies in Mexico? Seeing a doctor here is just a few dollars, procedures the same. In the United States it's just so bad, I thought Obamacare would be a good thing, and thought well it's not perfect but it's a start- but now it seems like it's not- not a start- the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical companies are still stealing us all blind!! Why does the gov't agree to do this??? Uh oh this is the naive me! I guess I know the answer, right? Whoops got carried away.
So tomorrow is the day I get to try to help distribute blankets and clothes....I will write about it. I hope the people we are trying to help had a way to stay warm this week...shit and I was complaining about being cold......ok well I think this is it for now. As always ....viva!
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