I can't believe I didn't realize how to post pictures to my blog from the beginning! I'm sure it would have brought it all to life much better than my meager words, but it is what it is, right? So I thought I'd go back a little and post some pictures of our house down south in Guerrero. It's about a 2 hour drive south of Acapulco, along the coast. When we visited a couple of months ago, it took a little longer because the road had been washed out- and been that way for months. We're hoping this will be the year we sell it; ha ha I went to a New Year's special ceremony where we wrote down what we want to manifest in 2015 and mine was to sell this house! Well not ha ha maybe. I wrote some other stuff as well because that felt so materialistic....
If we sell that house, then we are open for other options. It does not mean as soon as we sell we'll go back to the United States. It does mean however, if we wanted to, we could. Right now, to go back means we have to work- probably full time. If we wait a few years, I'll turn 62 and can collect my social security as well as the rent we get from the Calif house...in that case, we would again have options; maybe just one of us working, maybe both of us part time, maybe neither of us depending on where we move to. Selling the Mexico house gives us more financial options. I like options. I also realize I have to figure out how to get that money back into the U.S without paying taxes on it again. I already paid taxes on it when I first earned it, so why should I pay again? Nobody asked me anything when I took the money out of the bank and sent it to Mexico to buy the house, but if we just move it back...well you know- the tax man will want to be involved. I say screw that! So I have some reading/research to do to understand our options around that. Even if we stay in Mexico we want to move most of the money from the house sale back to the states- I think anyway. Yeah glad I wrote this because I need to do some homework.Ok here's some photos, then more discussion:
Ok so there's a bunch of pictures of where we lived. You can't see the heat...the fact that we didn't care that we didn't have hot water. That when it rains you don't mind because it still doesn't get cold...and now the road is paved so mud does not flow down your driveway to the patio! Oh man our first week in that house, after driving at least 12 hours a day for a week to get there, and the tail end of a hurricane hits...mud is pouring down the driveway and Everardo is up on the road shoveling like a mad man trying to dig a ditch so the mud and rain will run off down the side of the road and not into our yard. Luckily it just came down to the patio - which was our dining room. The kitchen was separated from the rest of the house by the patio, and that's where the table was.
Oh but right thru that gate to the beach, our beach...see those rocks? That's my rock, my place I sat for hours on end, watching the waves, talking to the universe, enhancing my spirituality, asking for guidance. I could sit there for hours- the ocean was so amazing there- how the waves hit the rocks, watching little crabs crawl around the rocks below me. Ok actually the ocean is amazing everywhere, but I sit mesmerized at the beach outside this house as well. It's different of course; this is a bay, so no big waves crashing, but seals and dolphins playing, the pelican conventions...hmmm pictures of that next post ok?
Yeah so when we sell, I like to have options. I'd like to take a trip- not an expensive trip...but somewhere maybe that Everardo has never been....He says he has no great desire to travel, but maybe it's because he hasn't had the opportunity. I think I posted once about his cousin who has the timeshare for 4 weeks a year to go anywhere! Anywhere! In the world! And she's never gone! They've had for like 15 years..I told her we should go, we need to go, we MUST go somewhere! He husband was laughing and said yeah let's! So maybe something with them. If we only had to pay airfare and food...well ok everything but lodging....I'd love to go somewhere I've never been but am happy to let them choose. I think she said somewhere in South America like Venezuela maybe- yep I'm up for that- never been anywhere in South America. Oh! I need to email my old Spanish teacher- he would tell me these stories in Spanish and one was about these people that lived on a lake high in some mountains...but I forget which country. The people actually live on the lake, in these canoes and I just remember being amazed. Some day I really want to go to Italy, in Rome I think, to see the Bridge of the Last Sigh. I just love that!
From Wikipedia:
The Bridge of Sighs (Italian: Ponte dei Sospiri) is a bridge located in Venice, northern Italy. The enclosed bridge is made of white limestone and has windows with stone bars. It passes over the Rio di Palazzo and connects the New Prison (Prigioni Nuove) to the interrogation rooms in the Doge's Palace. It was designed by Antonio Contino (whose uncle Antonio da Ponte had designed the Rialto Bridge) and was built in 1600.
The view from the Bridge of Sighs was the last view of Venice that convicts saw before their imprisonment. The bridge name, given by Lord Byron in the 19th century, comes from the suggestion that prisoners would sigh at their final view of beautiful Venice through the window before being taken down to their cells.
But I will be happy to let them choose where we would go on a trip. And even if it's just me and Poppi, I want him to choose. But like I said, that's just a small adventure, and the more I think about South America...hmmmmm
Options. Sell the house and stop taking money from the rent we collect every month. Stay in Mexico, maybe even stay in this little trailer. Ha ha glad Everardo never reads this! Our rent is sooo cheap here, $250 U.S. a month and we don't pay garbage or water. And we're right on the beach. Honestly I wouldn't mind paying a little more and having a nicer place. One without old faucets in the bathrooms that even steel wool can't get the sediment off of.....ok don't let me get started down this road right now. But having a little more income would help. Last week Everardo left on Monday morning for Puerto Penasco to register the car & truck. Here you don't just get new stickers every year- they give you new license plates- weird eh? In the states you just get a sticker with the month and year on it and then to renew you get new stickers every year. In Mexico, you get new license plates every year! Crazy eh? It's about a 7-8 hour drive and about half way, the car's engine blew. Goner. He had to pay a tow truck 2500 pesos to get it towed back here- actually that was a very good price....our mechanic here took a look, shook his head and said there's no hope. Arrgghh. Poppi thought he was going to have to go to Mexicali (about 4 hours away) to find a motor for a good price in a junkyard, but ended up finding one in Ensenada. The guy wanted about 10, 000 pesos for it and Everardo said no way I was already heading for Mexicali where I can get one for half that- and then the guy it to him for that much! Yippee. The point of this sad story is, it's always something. That money was for new license plates and to pay the property tax for the house down south. We simply cannot get ahead. So we had to pull more $$ from the states to cover. And April will be here in a blink of an eye and we'll have to pay property tax for the Calif house. So yeah, selling the Playa Ventura house is something that would be very good for us.
We got the gov't deed we needed and that will make it much easier to sell when the time comes. So options would be nice. Everardo is also thinking about renting a small space, whether a stall or a building or simply a spot, to sell his jewelry. The longer we're here the more informed any decision around that can be. The truth is living in the states is to be near my daughter Drew. I miss her so much. I do talk to her alot, at least a couple of times a week...I so love being a part of her and her family's life. But I want to hug her. I want us to be laughing around the dinner table. But I love it here, too. I can hardly wait for her to visit us here. To sit where I sit and watch the water, the pelicans, the sunsets, the clouds, our silly dogs romping...to see a coyote run across the road by the estuary, Hazel chasing a rabbit. She'll know why I love it here. Third time was a charm in this case. Playa Ventura was a great adventure but I didn't want to stay there in the tropics. Puerto Penasco was great for Everardo selling his wares, for me finding out I can teach.....but the weather killed me there as well- don't wanna live in the desert....here the weather is just right-hmmm does that make me Golidlocks? ha ha. I know I have another daughter, but we seemed to have slipped back to not much of a relationship. So in all honesty I don't miss her as much. I didn't see her when she lived 10 minutes away from me from age 13-19. We rarely talk now...just like this time last year ha ha. I have to let her go. To be here when and if she wants a relationship, but I found myself calling and calling with no answer, sending msg after msg and being ignored...not gonna do that again. It hurts me too much. I have to accept that right now she is busy with her own life. She's 21, hopefully when she gets a little older we can find each other. It's basically the same with Everardo's daughter. He was so excited when she contacted him...but he never hears from her either. So that is not a good reason to go back. So all in all, we want to go back to be in Drew's life, more than we are now...but I think we can wait- or at least not rush. We are not that far, and once she visits she will see how easy it is to visit.
So- options. Hopefully the house will sell this year. But I'm starting something new on Monday and very excited about it! Teaching English to adults, hopefully much like in Puerto Penasco. Today I kinda fixed up my classroom and will take some photos and post them here. A friend's daughter and her boyfriend have given me space in a small building they rented and I do not have to pay for it. This afternoon a wonderful lady lent me 2 long tables and some chairs! Yesterday I went with friends to the states and at the dollar store I got a couple of table cloths- in anticipation & lucky I was right! I also bought some posters with colors and shapes, long and short vowel sounds, etc that I put on the walls...it's all coming together! I made a flyer and took it to the ejido and they put it in their window. I don't know if I'm more worried that nobody will come or too many will come!!
I know I can do this. I was good at it in Penasco. This weekend I'll make some copies of some of the handouts I made from before...I'm going to have classes on Monday and Wed for an hour and a half in the late afternoon- different than Penasco where so many people had no jobs so we did it right after lunch. Here people have jobs, but in many cases shitty paying jobs and if they learn some English they can get something better, or maybe just make more where they are. I suspect I'll have more women than men because a few have asked me about it when I was out and about- at the consignment store and today while I was fixing up the room. The location is perfect. Right on the little main road. And maybe I'll get as many men; maybe they are working and so the start time (5:30pm) is just right.
Oh and it's free. Ok well I'll write more about this maybe tomorrow, or on Tuesday after my first class. Oooh maybe I'll have pictures of my first class- gotta find the camera! Ok viva!
If we sell that house, then we are open for other options. It does not mean as soon as we sell we'll go back to the United States. It does mean however, if we wanted to, we could. Right now, to go back means we have to work- probably full time. If we wait a few years, I'll turn 62 and can collect my social security as well as the rent we get from the Calif house...in that case, we would again have options; maybe just one of us working, maybe both of us part time, maybe neither of us depending on where we move to. Selling the Mexico house gives us more financial options. I like options. I also realize I have to figure out how to get that money back into the U.S without paying taxes on it again. I already paid taxes on it when I first earned it, so why should I pay again? Nobody asked me anything when I took the money out of the bank and sent it to Mexico to buy the house, but if we just move it back...well you know- the tax man will want to be involved. I say screw that! So I have some reading/research to do to understand our options around that. Even if we stay in Mexico we want to move most of the money from the house sale back to the states- I think anyway. Yeah glad I wrote this because I need to do some homework.Ok here's some photos, then more discussion:
Oh but right thru that gate to the beach, our beach...see those rocks? That's my rock, my place I sat for hours on end, watching the waves, talking to the universe, enhancing my spirituality, asking for guidance. I could sit there for hours- the ocean was so amazing there- how the waves hit the rocks, watching little crabs crawl around the rocks below me. Ok actually the ocean is amazing everywhere, but I sit mesmerized at the beach outside this house as well. It's different of course; this is a bay, so no big waves crashing, but seals and dolphins playing, the pelican conventions...hmmm pictures of that next post ok?
Yeah so when we sell, I like to have options. I'd like to take a trip- not an expensive trip...but somewhere maybe that Everardo has never been....He says he has no great desire to travel, but maybe it's because he hasn't had the opportunity. I think I posted once about his cousin who has the timeshare for 4 weeks a year to go anywhere! Anywhere! In the world! And she's never gone! They've had for like 15 years..I told her we should go, we need to go, we MUST go somewhere! He husband was laughing and said yeah let's! So maybe something with them. If we only had to pay airfare and food...well ok everything but lodging....I'd love to go somewhere I've never been but am happy to let them choose. I think she said somewhere in South America like Venezuela maybe- yep I'm up for that- never been anywhere in South America. Oh! I need to email my old Spanish teacher- he would tell me these stories in Spanish and one was about these people that lived on a lake high in some mountains...but I forget which country. The people actually live on the lake, in these canoes and I just remember being amazed. Some day I really want to go to Italy, in Rome I think, to see the Bridge of the Last Sigh. I just love that!
From Wikipedia:
The Bridge of Sighs (Italian: Ponte dei Sospiri) is a bridge located in Venice, northern Italy. The enclosed bridge is made of white limestone and has windows with stone bars. It passes over the Rio di Palazzo and connects the New Prison (Prigioni Nuove) to the interrogation rooms in the Doge's Palace. It was designed by Antonio Contino (whose uncle Antonio da Ponte had designed the Rialto Bridge) and was built in 1600.
The view from the Bridge of Sighs was the last view of Venice that convicts saw before their imprisonment. The bridge name, given by Lord Byron in the 19th century, comes from the suggestion that prisoners would sigh at their final view of beautiful Venice through the window before being taken down to their cells.
But I will be happy to let them choose where we would go on a trip. And even if it's just me and Poppi, I want him to choose. But like I said, that's just a small adventure, and the more I think about South America...hmmmmm
Options. Sell the house and stop taking money from the rent we collect every month. Stay in Mexico, maybe even stay in this little trailer. Ha ha glad Everardo never reads this! Our rent is sooo cheap here, $250 U.S. a month and we don't pay garbage or water. And we're right on the beach. Honestly I wouldn't mind paying a little more and having a nicer place. One without old faucets in the bathrooms that even steel wool can't get the sediment off of.....ok don't let me get started down this road right now. But having a little more income would help. Last week Everardo left on Monday morning for Puerto Penasco to register the car & truck. Here you don't just get new stickers every year- they give you new license plates- weird eh? In the states you just get a sticker with the month and year on it and then to renew you get new stickers every year. In Mexico, you get new license plates every year! Crazy eh? It's about a 7-8 hour drive and about half way, the car's engine blew. Goner. He had to pay a tow truck 2500 pesos to get it towed back here- actually that was a very good price....our mechanic here took a look, shook his head and said there's no hope. Arrgghh. Poppi thought he was going to have to go to Mexicali (about 4 hours away) to find a motor for a good price in a junkyard, but ended up finding one in Ensenada. The guy wanted about 10, 000 pesos for it and Everardo said no way I was already heading for Mexicali where I can get one for half that- and then the guy it to him for that much! Yippee. The point of this sad story is, it's always something. That money was for new license plates and to pay the property tax for the house down south. We simply cannot get ahead. So we had to pull more $$ from the states to cover. And April will be here in a blink of an eye and we'll have to pay property tax for the Calif house. So yeah, selling the Playa Ventura house is something that would be very good for us.
We got the gov't deed we needed and that will make it much easier to sell when the time comes. So options would be nice. Everardo is also thinking about renting a small space, whether a stall or a building or simply a spot, to sell his jewelry. The longer we're here the more informed any decision around that can be. The truth is living in the states is to be near my daughter Drew. I miss her so much. I do talk to her alot, at least a couple of times a week...I so love being a part of her and her family's life. But I want to hug her. I want us to be laughing around the dinner table. But I love it here, too. I can hardly wait for her to visit us here. To sit where I sit and watch the water, the pelicans, the sunsets, the clouds, our silly dogs romping...to see a coyote run across the road by the estuary, Hazel chasing a rabbit. She'll know why I love it here. Third time was a charm in this case. Playa Ventura was a great adventure but I didn't want to stay there in the tropics. Puerto Penasco was great for Everardo selling his wares, for me finding out I can teach.....but the weather killed me there as well- don't wanna live in the desert....here the weather is just right-hmmm does that make me Golidlocks? ha ha. I know I have another daughter, but we seemed to have slipped back to not much of a relationship. So in all honesty I don't miss her as much. I didn't see her when she lived 10 minutes away from me from age 13-19. We rarely talk now...just like this time last year ha ha. I have to let her go. To be here when and if she wants a relationship, but I found myself calling and calling with no answer, sending msg after msg and being ignored...not gonna do that again. It hurts me too much. I have to accept that right now she is busy with her own life. She's 21, hopefully when she gets a little older we can find each other. It's basically the same with Everardo's daughter. He was so excited when she contacted him...but he never hears from her either. So that is not a good reason to go back. So all in all, we want to go back to be in Drew's life, more than we are now...but I think we can wait- or at least not rush. We are not that far, and once she visits she will see how easy it is to visit.
So- options. Hopefully the house will sell this year. But I'm starting something new on Monday and very excited about it! Teaching English to adults, hopefully much like in Puerto Penasco. Today I kinda fixed up my classroom and will take some photos and post them here. A friend's daughter and her boyfriend have given me space in a small building they rented and I do not have to pay for it. This afternoon a wonderful lady lent me 2 long tables and some chairs! Yesterday I went with friends to the states and at the dollar store I got a couple of table cloths- in anticipation & lucky I was right! I also bought some posters with colors and shapes, long and short vowel sounds, etc that I put on the walls...it's all coming together! I made a flyer and took it to the ejido and they put it in their window. I don't know if I'm more worried that nobody will come or too many will come!!
I know I can do this. I was good at it in Penasco. This weekend I'll make some copies of some of the handouts I made from before...I'm going to have classes on Monday and Wed for an hour and a half in the late afternoon- different than Penasco where so many people had no jobs so we did it right after lunch. Here people have jobs, but in many cases shitty paying jobs and if they learn some English they can get something better, or maybe just make more where they are. I suspect I'll have more women than men because a few have asked me about it when I was out and about- at the consignment store and today while I was fixing up the room. The location is perfect. Right on the little main road. And maybe I'll get as many men; maybe they are working and so the start time (5:30pm) is just right.
Oh and it's free. Ok well I'll write more about this maybe tomorrow, or on Tuesday after my first class. Oooh maybe I'll have pictures of my first class- gotta find the camera! Ok viva!
