The kids are the puppies next door...
Their names are Josie and Rudy. The top photo here is our Hazel and Rudy wrestling. No pics of Josie, but believe me she's here all the time. Sam cares nothing about the puppies, he cares about the ball, about going swimming, about going jogging with Poppi. Josie looks like a german sheppard, she's only about 4 months old but with huge feet- and she's almost as big as Hazel already. I call the puppies the kids.The kids show up in the morning. They paly all day of course- they keep Hazel busy which I think makes Sam happy.
The kids belong to our next door neighbor. She's just lived there for 4 or 5 months, and we're getting to know each other. I think these are her first dogs- she a cat person ha ha. But she loves them and she really loves Hazel. So Hazel just makes herself at home over there- she uses the same dog door as the kids, and even has her own bowl for treats over there. Sam only visits over there if one of us are there, but Hazel is there as much as here, and the kids are pretty much over here off and on all day as well. Everardo is making a green house and we've been making mulch for months; all our egg shells, avocado rinds, the carrot mulch from the juicer we use almost every day....so there's all kinds of smelly goodies out there and Josie likes to "sneak" in, get something and sneak out. It's pretty funny to watch.
I guess I'm writing about all the dogs because they are bringing us neighbors closer together. There's a couple across the road who also have a couple of adult dogs; they don't get to play with our dogs, but we still have pets in common and we chat in the road. I also continue to be grateful to live in a spot where our dogs run free, and I'm also pleased that my closest neighbors are good with dogs as well. I was reading in the community newsletter about somebody being bitten several times by some saint bernards...after walking into a fenced yard. It was in the next town and the fenced yard was a business. He saw at least one of the dogs before he walked in...but in he went. DUH. Someone else wrote that the guy should call the police. I laughed- call the cops for what? He should have never walked thru that gate. But around here the dogs are friendly with each other- although I wouldn't advise walking into someone's fenced yard- my Sam is a big ole friendly lab....but when we're not home....don't try to come in our yard. In the states we had to move our mailbox off the porch to the driveway because for some reason Sam hated uniforms. The mailman was scared to come in the yard- same for UPS, Fed X ha ha.
So I've started year 2 of my quest for a healthier lifestyle. I am exercising 5 days a week, dancing on the beach, a little bit of weights, and my "senior" stretch class. The other day I was rushing to get there- I do at least a half hour of cardio-zumba dancing on the beach- before the class and I was running behind, and I forgot my water bottle. The place they have it doesn't have water- well not bottled water anyway. Even though I call it "senior" stretch, it's still an hour of light cardio, weights and floor work and man did I miss that water. There's no drinking fountains in Mexico. Nobody drinks the water- nobody. You drink bottled water. Some people have pilas- big tanks at their houses that get filled by water trucks, some people have "city water", water coming in thru pipes, but that water is not drinkable. At this house, we have a pila, but it's not drinking water either, so we fill the garrafons...big plastic jugs...too heavy for me to carry around. You can have them delivered, or take them to several places to get them filled, which is what we do. In Petaluma, Calif, the water is so clean you can drink it from the hose...ha ha and here I try to remember not to get any in my mouth when I shower.
But these things simply become a way of life. We also have to take our propane tanks down to get them filled, usually once a month. You can call a truck to deliver propane as well, my neighbor has a huge unmovable tank so the truck delivers to her. We also don't mail anything or receive mail. Oh- well the electric bill gets delivered to our landlord...but I'm not sure if it comes in the mail- in 4 houses in Mexico we've never received a piece of mail. We can go online and see how much our bills are, and pay them at the local store...hey like the "good old days".
So our life is slower here, simple. I like it. But at the same time I'm getting involved in a few things. I go to a meditation group which I think I've mentioned. Teaching English for free, and my class may get much bigger next week. There's an adult education type class down the road from where I teach; it seemed like maybe it was adults who haven't done much school, anyway I went down there last nite with a couple of my current students (ok I only have about 4 right now), to invite them to my class. It ended up with me agreeing to go teach where they are, and have my class following the class they're in now. So I'll teach from 6:30-8pm instead of 5-6:30 on Tue and Thurs. So things change again. I'm also helping this woman set up a reservation schedule for their new fishing business- they take clients out to this island to fish, they have a lodge out there and these fishing boats called pangas. The fishing season is from June-Sept but they are getting reservations right now. So my days are filling up- but none of it is many hours, so I still have my mornings for exercise and conversations with the universe. The beach is getting really nice, although the last couple of days a cool wind has been blowing and the nites have been cold...well...cold for here...like I'm wearing socks to bed ha ha. There have been quite a few sea lions on the beach and the veterinarian knows Everardo's voice now because we always call her when there's one on the beach if they're injured or seem in distress. There was one this morning, a big guy with an injury to his eye, Poppi called, but I did my whole hour of dancing and they hadn't shown up.
There's still a lot more people here than usual this week, and so at least 3 small groups (2 or 3) stopped to look at him, take a picture, but at least they kept their distance- I was grateful for that. To Sam & Hazel the sea lions have lost their attraction- ha ha they're old news, so they don't even bother to go investigate. Last week the beach had alot of people on it- but not too many out in front of us...so we still had our private beach. At the far ends, people poured in and stayed all week thru Easter- but from here you can't even see either end. I only saw 3 or 4 houses around here fill up with renters and thankfully only one nite had fireworks. The town was full up, though, which is really good for the locals. Poppi had to go to about 5 stores to get milk on Monday- all the little local stores I mean- they had milk at the big grocery store, but it's a 15 minute drive minimum and there's lots of little aborrotes around here- but everybody was out of milk ha ha- and I needed it for my protein shake. I think the sea lions are hungry...I know the fisherman with the tuna rings are raping the bay to put all the feeder fish into the rings...but at least around here Profeta has been really good about coming out when there's a sea lion in distress.
Well just a short check in for tonite. Viva
The kids belong to our next door neighbor. She's just lived there for 4 or 5 months, and we're getting to know each other. I think these are her first dogs- she a cat person ha ha. But she loves them and she really loves Hazel. So Hazel just makes herself at home over there- she uses the same dog door as the kids, and even has her own bowl for treats over there. Sam only visits over there if one of us are there, but Hazel is there as much as here, and the kids are pretty much over here off and on all day as well. Everardo is making a green house and we've been making mulch for months; all our egg shells, avocado rinds, the carrot mulch from the juicer we use almost every day....so there's all kinds of smelly goodies out there and Josie likes to "sneak" in, get something and sneak out. It's pretty funny to watch.
I guess I'm writing about all the dogs because they are bringing us neighbors closer together. There's a couple across the road who also have a couple of adult dogs; they don't get to play with our dogs, but we still have pets in common and we chat in the road. I also continue to be grateful to live in a spot where our dogs run free, and I'm also pleased that my closest neighbors are good with dogs as well. I was reading in the community newsletter about somebody being bitten several times by some saint bernards...after walking into a fenced yard. It was in the next town and the fenced yard was a business. He saw at least one of the dogs before he walked in...but in he went. DUH. Someone else wrote that the guy should call the police. I laughed- call the cops for what? He should have never walked thru that gate. But around here the dogs are friendly with each other- although I wouldn't advise walking into someone's fenced yard- my Sam is a big ole friendly lab....but when we're not home....don't try to come in our yard. In the states we had to move our mailbox off the porch to the driveway because for some reason Sam hated uniforms. The mailman was scared to come in the yard- same for UPS, Fed X ha ha.
So I've started year 2 of my quest for a healthier lifestyle. I am exercising 5 days a week, dancing on the beach, a little bit of weights, and my "senior" stretch class. The other day I was rushing to get there- I do at least a half hour of cardio-zumba dancing on the beach- before the class and I was running behind, and I forgot my water bottle. The place they have it doesn't have water- well not bottled water anyway. Even though I call it "senior" stretch, it's still an hour of light cardio, weights and floor work and man did I miss that water. There's no drinking fountains in Mexico. Nobody drinks the water- nobody. You drink bottled water. Some people have pilas- big tanks at their houses that get filled by water trucks, some people have "city water", water coming in thru pipes, but that water is not drinkable. At this house, we have a pila, but it's not drinking water either, so we fill the garrafons...big plastic jugs...too heavy for me to carry around. You can have them delivered, or take them to several places to get them filled, which is what we do. In Petaluma, Calif, the water is so clean you can drink it from the hose...ha ha and here I try to remember not to get any in my mouth when I shower.
But these things simply become a way of life. We also have to take our propane tanks down to get them filled, usually once a month. You can call a truck to deliver propane as well, my neighbor has a huge unmovable tank so the truck delivers to her. We also don't mail anything or receive mail. Oh- well the electric bill gets delivered to our landlord...but I'm not sure if it comes in the mail- in 4 houses in Mexico we've never received a piece of mail. We can go online and see how much our bills are, and pay them at the local store...hey like the "good old days".
So our life is slower here, simple. I like it. But at the same time I'm getting involved in a few things. I go to a meditation group which I think I've mentioned. Teaching English for free, and my class may get much bigger next week. There's an adult education type class down the road from where I teach; it seemed like maybe it was adults who haven't done much school, anyway I went down there last nite with a couple of my current students (ok I only have about 4 right now), to invite them to my class. It ended up with me agreeing to go teach where they are, and have my class following the class they're in now. So I'll teach from 6:30-8pm instead of 5-6:30 on Tue and Thurs. So things change again. I'm also helping this woman set up a reservation schedule for their new fishing business- they take clients out to this island to fish, they have a lodge out there and these fishing boats called pangas. The fishing season is from June-Sept but they are getting reservations right now. So my days are filling up- but none of it is many hours, so I still have my mornings for exercise and conversations with the universe. The beach is getting really nice, although the last couple of days a cool wind has been blowing and the nites have been cold...well...cold for here...like I'm wearing socks to bed ha ha. There have been quite a few sea lions on the beach and the veterinarian knows Everardo's voice now because we always call her when there's one on the beach if they're injured or seem in distress. There was one this morning, a big guy with an injury to his eye, Poppi called, but I did my whole hour of dancing and they hadn't shown up.
There's still a lot more people here than usual this week, and so at least 3 small groups (2 or 3) stopped to look at him, take a picture, but at least they kept their distance- I was grateful for that. To Sam & Hazel the sea lions have lost their attraction- ha ha they're old news, so they don't even bother to go investigate. Last week the beach had alot of people on it- but not too many out in front of us...so we still had our private beach. At the far ends, people poured in and stayed all week thru Easter- but from here you can't even see either end. I only saw 3 or 4 houses around here fill up with renters and thankfully only one nite had fireworks. The town was full up, though, which is really good for the locals. Poppi had to go to about 5 stores to get milk on Monday- all the little local stores I mean- they had milk at the big grocery store, but it's a 15 minute drive minimum and there's lots of little aborrotes around here- but everybody was out of milk ha ha- and I needed it for my protein shake. I think the sea lions are hungry...I know the fisherman with the tuna rings are raping the bay to put all the feeder fish into the rings...but at least around here Profeta has been really good about coming out when there's a sea lion in distress.
Well just a short check in for tonite. Viva
