August 18. The electricity came back around 2am and then went off again around 2pm and just came back around 8pm while we were at Chela's swimming in the pool. Now I'm home and online, but the internet is down again. It's been of week of alternating no internet, no phone, no lights.

Yesterday we had no rain, but no electricity or phone. It's weird cause it's nice weather. Oh well, this is Mexico. Yesterday I had English class with 5 kids, Monday regular school starts so I told them to come at 1:30. Later Rosa came over and she wanted me to make it at 4pm so they can do their homework but I bet at 4pm they won't come, so we'll see what happens. I agreed to make it 4pm, but what I actually said was I'd talk to the kids Monday. So her two are not that consistent anyway so maybe if they come at 4 I'll work with them but the others at 1:30, right after school...

Everardo wanted to get baby chicks yesterday and I pleaded with him to wait. Yes I want chickens to get our own eggs, and we definitely have room, but I just want to make it thru this raining season first. I mean we have had a lot of surprises. Water thru the ceiling, water coming thru the windows, muddy water streaming onto the patio. No lights, no phone, no internet. We don't know when we're supposed to pay the cable bill. You can see it on the tv, but it's not right ha ha. The road is a gigantic mess right now. I'm hearing that it will be done in a month. My question is why did they do it now? I'm the only one who didn't know how the rainy season works, but even I knew it was supposed to be July thru Sept.- but hey maybe they've been working on it for months and it got behind...hmmm sounds like road construction in the US ha ha. It is so muddy, bumpy, changing shape, new holes, widening old holes, that I am afraid to drive it. I know the truck is 4 wheel drive, but I don't want to be the one to get us stuck in the mud. I am fine not driving for a few weeks ha ha. So anyway with all that going on I just don't want to add chickens to the mix. I never had them before, I'm sure they are not too much trouble, but I just don't want anything new this minute. So I am happy to say we did not get chickens yesterday.

The ocean remains amazing. Sam caught a fish and so now every time we go for a walk he runs to this rock edge and goes in looking for fish, biting at the water. Today I got to talk to Drewy for about an hour and that was nice. Yesterday I talked to Halla and was supposed to call back today but I was asleep in the hammock when I was supposed to call- oops. Then she had to work, so maybe tomorrow. But I am so learning, make a plan, but don't depend to on the plan with all you got or you will be disappointed! We got up early this morning, the electricity came on about 2am I think, but we got up and took Chela's kids to Marquelia to buy their noteooks for school. We took them cause Eriika knows a guy who works at a Telcel place that can unlock my Iphone. But he wasn't there so we'll try again tomorrow maybe. I haven't really needed a cell phone once we got kind of settled, but if I can have my Iphone as pay as you go that would be great. So we came home and enjoyed the nice weather. Then the electricity went out. So what ha ha! After a nice nap, reading a book in the hammock, a wonderful meal cooked by hubby- so yummy we need to have it once a week!, Oh and Everardo put a rope up over the rafter above the patio that I can grab from the hammock- then I can rock myself! Nice! Then walking on the beach, visitng with Chela Gume and the kids, then a dip in their pool. Ha ha how good is my life.

Tomorrow we'll go back to Marquelia to see if the guy who sells the blankets is there. Ha ha yet another lesson in patience for me. The lady who we buy veges and fruit from at the marketplace told me he comes but probly not last week because of the rain. She is very nice and today asked me the word for broccoli in English. Yes I must recognize that I am becoming a part of Mexico and I can talk to people. I get frustrated sometimes and have to remember it's poco a poco. Thank God I'm an alcoholic in AA where the guidance is about patience, acceptance, humility....and one day at a time. Hubby is wonderful and understands, but sometimes I still let it get to me. I talked to my sister on the phone yesterday and she told me it sounds like a good growing experience for me. And that my feeling of isolation lets me know how Everardo felt when he came to the US. How a lot of people feel. I really want to write to my ex brother in law who's wife is German. I love her even though we could never talk cause she doesn't speak English. We had a good time together but she did spend a lot of time not talking when they were visiting us. I think I totally understand how she felt. I think I have him as a friend on FB and I need to tell him to tell her I understand! I am not feeling down today, it was a wonderful day and we also got to chat with friends on skype. Ha ha she probly understands to since sheis from Russia. They are talking about visiting us in November, I hope they do!

August 17. The electricity just went out at 9:45 pm and it's not raining or even windy. Yesterday I went online for a few minutes at an interent cafe to post the day before post. But the place I was at didn't know their internet ID so I had to hook my laptop to one of their cables. It was too short so my laptop was partially airborne while I was going online. So I posted to my blog, and sent my daughter an email that we had no electricity or phone again and logged back off. Writing in the dark is impossible.

Aug 15, Wednesday. Ok no internet, no phone, no surprise ha ha. At least I had it this morning to talk to Drewy on the phone and look at my email....and Facebook. I just became friends with a girl I went elementary school. The other day I became friends with a woman I know who know lives in Italy. She didn't know that I already knew who she was before I met her a few years ago in AA. There was a guy who was ahead of us in school and I thought he was soooo hot. She was his girlfriend and I heard this story about how he put his coat down on a puddle so she could walk across the mud on their way to school one day. When I got out of high school I went out with him a couple of times but found he was not as great as my imaginary image of him ha ha. When I met this woman a few years ago and asked her about the coat mud puddle story, she told me it was true. But so was a bunch of other really ugly stuff; no wonder we found each other in AA ha ha. Anyway....it amazing who you see on Facebook.

I woke up today and the sky was BLUE!! Yipee and sun sun sun. Ha ha everybody around here has laundry hanging on the line. Including us. Like an old washer woman I did the laundry outside and scrubbed on this ridged basin, probly hat's what it for anyway. Of course to be fair, Everardo did his tshirts and shorts. We have been paying Eriika to do some of our laundry, shirts and sheets & towels cause they have a washing machine and she does it for 100 pesos, and we only need it every two weeks. But Everardo wants his shirts just so, I understand that so we're working it out. Thise plastic tubs we used to move come in handy. We can out clothes in them to soak, then the scrubber ridge...I don't have rinsing down. The bathroom by the kitchen has the kiss ass shower that rinses great- that's the shower where you step on the board connected to the chain to get water so you can do it without using your hands. BUt today we tried filling the other side of the outside basin- I'm not sure I like that way...unless of course my stuf is first ha ha....ah vamos a ver...

So after having 13 kids for English class on Monday, I only had 4 today. 3 of the 4 need practice so it was good to have them. The 4th actually lives in Copala and when school starts next week I'm not sure he can come anymore. We moved the time from 11am out to 1:30 cause school lets out at 12:30. But Temo might not be able to come anymore so I told him if he can come to Playa Ventura on the weekend I'll teach him. He's the best regular student. Lupita is also very good- they both practice at home; but she is just not able to come very often. Some kids have to help their parents, with littler kids, with animals, or restaurants; kids grow up way too fast here. (I guess I've probly said this a few times before).

I hope we have sun for a few days. Even when it wasn't raining there was still no sun. It's funny how fast the days go by when you're not doing anything ha ha. We walked up to Chela's and sat for awhile with them. Then Gume wanted to chop down a palm tree in their yard while they had no customers, so we walked over and watched that, then all drank coconut water from the coconuts they got from the tree once it fell. Then a big truck dropped off some huge rocks for building a wall, and of course the truck got stuck in the mud since it was on a slope; so the guys put palm leaves under the wheels and it worked. The rocks came from the guys working on the road, one of the things they do if grind up these rocks into gravel. Those guys work hard up there on the road. Everardo's given them jugs of water before, and a couple of them made sure we have a water hose from getting water from up the mountain- well I think that's where the water is coming from...anyway there's a hose coming thru our fence now. It might be the hose we need to buy water from Gume. Lots of little deals take place all the time. Like the guy who fixes our electricity when it's out all over town. There are construction guys, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, etc. People have jobs and then they also work out things between themselves. Like I said- everything is possible in Mexico.

The waves are coming up high today. After watching the truck get stuck and unstuck, Sam and I headed for the hammock on Chela's restaurant patio. (He sleeps under me- just like at home) Everardo was helping Gume with some other work and I had a nice siesta. Then some customers came and woke me up (yes how rude ha ha jk), so Sam and I walked home on the beach. Wow! Some of the waves were coming all the way up the beach. I was a little nervous about getting all the way home, but we ran in a couple of places so we made it! But this is the highest I've ever seen the tide here, maybe 2 feet from our wall, and we're set back further than alot of the places between us and Chela.

So hubby is making some beans and pork concoction for us for dinner, then maybe an AA meeting in Copala, maybe not though, our road is so chopped up right now and has a little detour, so, maybe stay home and go for an after dinner walk....we don't sleep until after midnite cause it's so hot, so we usually go online, and find a movie, our English stations have these old old movies ha ha. We saw a great one last nite though so maybe we'll get lucky since we have no internet, and if it's not fixed now, I'm pretty sure it will be tomorrow (at least) since it's 5:30...see I said every thing is possible, not everything is.

ha ha

The horses came by again tonight, just before dark. There's a baby horse. They were on our driveway and grazing in our weeds. I took some pictures, Sam didn't bother them at all, the they walked down tot the beach.

Tuesday morning. Found out we can only transfer money thru one of our names because only the primary account holder...hmmm can we both be primary account holders? Oh well again welcome to Mexico. I just went a little further into this site and clicked on the stats button. Wow it says I have had pageviews from all over the place. Of course I don't really know what that means...but since I started this in June I had 1161 views from the US, 72 from Mexico, and 69 from Russia! So is somebody or sombodies in Russia actually reading what I write? Or or people just clicking by as they look at other blogs? I admit I don't really look at any other blogs, not even sure if I'm doing it right, is it supposed to be an online diary? It's funny, one of my sisters and one of my daughters read my blog. They have both said they like it cause then they can see what I'm doing and how I am feeling...


And I have never gotten a comment on my blog, but do people really leave comments on blogs? I guess I need to look at the stats and other blogs and try to figure out ha ha I'm not even sure what Google Chrome is for....


We need to go to Copala today, and yipee it's not raining, I don't think it rained last nite. It's nice to sit here and look at the waves; I missed the walk on the beach cause I had to talk on the phone with the bank....hmmm maybe I should go now.....

So except for having the very cool English class with so many kids, we didn't do much today. Then around 5pm it stopped raining so we took a walk down to Chela's and let Sam swim in the roadside pond of course. Gume was fishing with a net at the beach and we went down to watch. Then we all walked back towards out house on the beach while Gume threw his net. Near our house he caught a bunch is fish in one throw and later we helped them eat them for dinner with their family. He had one fish too small & went to trow it back and it went in the tide going back out; Sam saw it wiggling and chased after it, and caught it! ha ha my dog the fisherman! Luckily I had the camera and we got pictures of the whole thing as well as Gume fishing, which have all gone up on Facebook.

Then we went with Gume, Chela & Tony (3yr old) up the road in their truck to Casa de Piedras and Everardo brought his net too. He's learning to master the net! The water was nice but even there to angry to go in. There were no fishing willing to jump in their nets so after a nice walk on the beach we headed back. Man the road was SO messed up, the rain just makes little rivers, chunks out of the road, I was sure we'd get stuck, but we didn't, and I was the only one who was worried ha ha.

We got back and dropped at our place for Everardo to get out of his wet clothes and walked back to their place. Had a beautiful fish and beans dinner as it got dark. Gets dark around 8-8:30. It finally started raining again while we were chatting and digesting, but just a light rain, not bad to walk home in dressed in shorts, tshirts and sandals. It's not raining super hard like the last few days, but now it's 11:15, and so there's all nite for a hard rain ha ha. As long as there's no hard wind we are fine....it's still too hot to sleep. It's funny I was a 10 or latest 11pm sleeper in Calif, and an early riser, hubby woke up earlier than me, usually 6am. But here we both have trouble sleeping with the heat, and our not great bed (it's on the list- a new mattress), so we've been staying up late and then sleeping later. He still gets up around 8, and I try for latest 9, usually 8:30 and then we both take naps at some point in the afternoon. I wish the hammock was in the house because I sleep great in it! We may look at that at some point....I drink alot of water at nite but I guess I sweat it all out cause I barely get up during the nite to pee- not like in Petaluma a couple times a nite ha ha. But you gotta wear flipflops or slippers at nite cause if a scorpion is going to be there, it's at nite.

We bought something we mixed up and sprayed in the corners for scorpions so I'm not too worried altho we had 2 in 2 months, but that was before the spray...from what I read they are not interested in people, not looking to sting you. So I'm careful about picking up stuff that's been sitting against the wall for awhile- like the pile of sheets that was there for about 2 weeks & when I picked it up I said- hey honey could you get this big bug...uh it was a scorpion...he got it. And I don't put my hand way back on shelves where i can't see, and I keep dresser drawers & kitchen drawers shut...

yippee I can post this....It's Monday afternoon, August 12. I have internet but apparently not enough power to open a new post on my blog, so I'm writing in word and I'll copy it over later when I can get into it. It's been raining now since Thursday, spots of no rain, not sun but not wet. There's this arroyo that goes under the road from up in the hills, bringing the rainwater down to the sea. But they're doing construction on the road, getting ready to pave it, and they widened the road- made it double the width in that particular spot (don't know why only there), but I don't think they put in the extra pipe underneath for the water to flow thru. We saw a couple of those pipes sitting along the road closer to town, not sure why they didn't put it in... anyway we can see the water trickling thru the rocks and around the sides, but it overflowed the road yesterday to pour over the other side. Anyway now there's a huge pond on the side of the road and Sam and the nearby kids are very happy about it! The ocean is too rough now to go in, but this pound is so deep the kids are jumping in and it's over their heads. Sam swims around collecting all the sticks and stays in until we order him out! It will be interesting to see what comes next ha ha.

You know these kids are jumping right into a hole where they have no idea what's under the water, there's gravel and chunks of rock that the construction guys have been breaking up to layer the road with before they pave. Of course at this rate I don't know when they can pave if it doesn't stop raining for a month ha ha. This means to us that mud and sand flow in a river down our driveway and quickly overflow or stop up the gutter that runs in front of the patio. The gutter has pipes that run under the patio and drop into the backyard, which has pipes to the beach, but I think because of so much mud it's overflowing. This means out patio which is part of the house since that's where we eat and walk across to the kitchen, has a layer of slippery mud all day now.

Anyway the kids here are amazing. For one thing once they are teenagers they pretty much have to grow up, help in their parent's stores & restaurants, help with the younger kids, etc. But the younger ones are fearless; they climb on the rocks at the beach, they play all over the place, the bigger ones watching (kinda) the littler ones. I know a 3 yr old who goes swimming in their pool, on his own! He plays all over the neighborhood. He knows though about the beach, he stays away from the water unless he has permission, and when he does, runs straight in. I guess because they live here they don't get sick. They run and play, flop down and sleep, then get back up for more play. School starts next Monday and they tell me they are ready!

And for English class! I've had usually 4 or 5, sometimes nobody, and today: 13!! Wow! I didn't know what to think, or really what to do. So I just started class, asking the new kids their names, giving them the little handouts I had made (luckily) last week. I need ink for my printer! I also ran out of the Spanish/English dictionaries for kids. Gotta see if there's a place in Acapulco to buy more....but it was fun, and they helped each other. next week when school starts we will move class to 1:30pm instead of 11am. They really like to compete now that I give little pieces of candy for right answers. Everyone wants to recite individually, today even 2 of the brand new students! ha ha This is for them- but I feel so good. Overwhelming grateful that I get to be a part of this. The other day I was swimming in Chela's pool and 2 kids from class were guessing the colors of everything and then a couple of other kids wanted to learn them too. The when I went to Rosa's Monsie, Miguel and Ronoldo wanted to guess colors and body parts (eyes ears nose...) And it's helping me with Spanish too.

Well can't fix the windows yet but luckily for us when the wind was blowing so hard yesterday and last nite, it wasn't raining. Then the wind died down and it rained all nite. The rain makes us feel lazy, we're watching a movie now- Indian dubbed with Spanish ha ha, but the dancing is good. The bread lady came by when we were having class, and she asked me when I have it, so maybe we're gonna have even more estudiantes! The laundry on the line has been there 4 days ha ha cause it never gets dry before more rain...and even the stuff I hung up inside still seems damp.

But I'm happy to be here at the hardest times, the rainy wet season, the buggy buggy season, cause in another month it will be fresh and clean and cooler and the water will be amazing. Then by the rainy season next year we will be better prepared, but aware of what's coming. Like when I was a kid I used to eat the stuff on my plate that I hated first, then I could enjoy the rest of my food. yeah my parents made us eat everything on our plate. They'd say eat it or no dessert, I'd say ok I don't want dessert. Eat it anyway or have it for breakfast. I saw my brother-one time- get served something (i don't know what) from last nite's dinner....I never wanted to do that, so I ate it, or found interesting ways to get rid of the food. Can I pls be excused to come back? That meant could I go to the bathroom and come back to the table- you didn't get up from the table without asking to be excused...and I'd take a napkin full of meatloaf and throw it out my bedroom window.

Of all the mistakes I made as a parent, that wasn't one of them. They had to try it, but if they hated it they didn't have to eat it. It seems like they don't have all the weird food issues I've had ha ha. Anyway.......the point is that I wanted to come when it's the hardest to get that experience out of the way first. We were gonna come after the rainy season, but I realized I wanted to do it this way. Well we'll see how I feel in a month after being wet for all that time. Nothing feels dry, even the stuff that doesn't get wet, still feels damp...hmmmm maybe it's just me.