Month: November 2019

Black Friday here was two weeks ago. It, like up North, lasted four long days. Bumper to bumper traffic in, and around, all of the shopping centers- most importantly, our beloved Sam’s Club, and Costco.

Normally we would have stayed home during that time, but, we decided, on the Monday, day four, to take a chance, and venture forth. We went to Sam’s Club.

What we saw, I do not recall ever seeing before, in my entire life. There were lines, at the twenty, or more, registers, going towards the back of the store, with, easily, eighteen to twenty people deep, maybe more. All with carts loaded to overflowing with televisions, clothes, toys, food- anything, and everything. Everything was on sale.

We should have left when we reached the parking lot at Sam’s Club, and saw that it was almost completely packed. But, no! We bravely made our way into the store. Then we turned around, and made our way back out of the store.

Now, me, being the rather frugal person I am, realized, in mere seconds, that, as we had not purchased anything, we would have to pay twenty four pesos for the parking lot. Thinking, ever-so-quickly, on the fly, I fished out an old Sam’s Club receipt, from my purse, gave it to my co-conspirator, Ivan, who took it to get the discount ticket, so we could leave, paying only the usual five pesos. Since there were hundreds of others trying to leave at the same time, we went unnoticed.

I can hear someone thinking that that was not really the right thing to do. Too bad, says I. We have to pay every place we park. Consider it as ingenuity at its best.

Happy Black Friday everyone. I hope you get some really awesome deals on all of the presents you are buying, and, at such great discounts. BFN.

I just want to say Happy Thanksgiving to all of you up North. It is not a holiday celebrated here, obviously, but there are lots of turkeys for sale at Sam’s and Costco. There are probably enough expats living in Mexico to make it worth their while selling them.

I will keep this short because I am sure you are all getting ready for your family get togethers, getting your food prepared, and, some of you are stressing, (and have been for days), about the aforementioned food prep. You know who you are, and you know you stress about it every holiday season. Give yourself a break, and go to some other family members house this season and let them do the stressing. Life is too short. Enjoy it. God bless you all.

Last night there was a small gathering at the house here- the two Juan’s, Pepe and Paty, Paty’s brother, Dr. Arturo Lara and his wife, Tere, Ivan, and me. (You may remember Arturo, because he was the guy that had on the bloody butchers apron, and a saw going through his head, in Día de los Muertos).

We all sat around tables, kitchen, and dining room, talking, laughing, and getting to know one another. Things broke up a bit after midnight, just before the rain. But, a good time was had by all.

We went to our first meeting for the occupants in the condo in which we are going to be living. I will save all of that for another day.

Prior to the meeting, Ivan, and I, went upstairs to check on any advances in the condo. I will try to upload the few photos I got.

Things are coming along nicely. Should not be much longer before we can move in. I will have more photos and will upload as I can. The internet here is very sad.

I keep telling Ivan, and Enrique, when we venture forth, and it is my turn to drive, that I cannot do this, or, I cannot do that. I cannot drive there! I cannot park this vehicle in that space. So I have not.

This morning, for example, since we had the car fixed, I feel more comfortable about driving it. So I did.

We stopped at the condo, dropped off a few things, picked up Enrique, then I drove to the café, which is close to all of us.

Well, all the while I was driving us over there, I was whispering to Ivan that he would have to park the car, because, around the café, there is nothing but parallel parking!!! Around the entire city, there is nothing but parallel parking!!!

I repeat myself when I say that it has been twenty, or more, years since I have had to parallel park. Think about it. When was the last time you had to park between two vehicles, with only enough room to sneeze?

Fortunately, for me, anyway, this morning, there was a spot open in which the rear end opened to someone’s garage, so I could pull up to the vehicle already there, and park very comfortably.

In this town, it does not matter in which direction your vehicle faces when you park it, so, if there is a spot open on the left side of the street, you can pull right in. Mind you, however, most streets in this city are one way.

So, I am taking it upon myself to get myself right with my attitude, and start doing the things that I have convinced myself I cannot. I can parallel park , I (probably) can even drive down the extremely narrow drive into our underground parking garage. We shall see. I am going to start convincing myself that yes, I CAN.

I had had it, and, was just about done with our Mercedes. The front bumper was so low to the ground that, going over the millions of “topes”, the speed bumps, every time we drove it, having it bottom out on the just-above-average tope, was more than I could take.

We asked our cousin, Juan, where he takes all of his Mercedes, (he has at least five, maybe six. It is hard to remember), when they need work done on them. He took us down to the shop, AutoFix®, where we met with Luis Carlos Soberanis Sandoval, the owner. Ivan talked to him, and told him about our problem, and asked him if it would be possible to raise the front end, somehow, so it did not ride so low to the ground. He said he thought he would be able to do something, to leave the car with him, and he would contact us.

Well, two days later, and he did get back with us. And, yes, he could easily raise up the car, because, the shocks, and struts, on all four tires were “dead”, so to speak. If we got new shocks, and new struts, on all four wheels, that should raise it up significantly.

I am here to tell you that, with the new s&s’s, plus a small thingy he put above the aforementioned s&s’s, the car now sits two inches higher than it did, and it drives just like the BMW- solid but smooth. I cannot get the close up photo to upload, but hopefully you can see that there is at least two inches between the tires, and the wheel wells.

The topes are no longer a concern- just an ongoing nightmare. Now we drive over them, slowly, of course, but we no longer bottom out on any of them.

The car feels like a luxury car should. We thought that, because it is in the “Sport” class vehicle rating, it was supposed to be that low, that uncomfortable. It was not. Now, it is not. Now I cannot wait to get out there, and drive it.

I am guessing that I will even be able to drive it into, and out of, the parking garage. All by myself.

Tonight, I discovered a great, low carb snack, plus, I like that is it is an alliteration. I discovered that a beautifully cooked, hard-boiled, egg, some prepared horseradish sauce, wrapped in a thin slice of ham hits an empty spot perfectly. (Got it? Hard-boiled egg, horseradish sauce, and ham).

I do not know if you like horseradish, as a sauce-like condiment, or straight up fire, but I happen to enjoy it immensely. And, of course, we cannot find the plain fire version down here- much to my dismay. We did find it, however, on a website called MercadoLibre®️, but it was a bit expensive. Again, not something we will be buying much of.

I will look up the nutritional information (maybe) before I post this, and, probably take a photo, or two (probably not).

In the meantime, enjoy every day as if it will be your last, because, one day, you will be right.

They have finally begun the kitchen remodel. Here is what Luis sent us this morning.

You can see the lazy Susan in the corner and the drawers to the left.

Here is a closer look.

And look what they did for us. We never even asked for something like this but we absolutely love it.

Here is the last photo with everything open a bit. We are going over in awhile to see it firsthand. We are anxious to get over there permanently.

This poem was read to me for so many nights, I cannot remember. It went like this:

“To bed, to bed”, said Sleepy Head.

“Tarry awhile”, said Slow.

“Put on the pot”, said Greedy Gut,

“We’ll eat before we go”.

Now, as it was Nancy, and me, in our bedroom, so, you need to read through this, again, and decide which one I was.

Of course, I was Greedy Gut; I could not have been anyone else. And to this day, if I am awake, and breathing, I am, usually, hungry.

I hope you folks up North enjoyed the snowfall on the 31st of October. We still have 78º weather during the days here, but it is cooling down to the 50’s at night. Oh, how I do miss the colder weather. Not much else, however.

I showed the family here the photos of the snowfall we had in January of this year- remember the foot of snow that fell all day, on January 23rd, to be exact? We do. Here are a few photos of that night.

I am unsure, at the moment, if I will miss not having snow to shovel, icy roads to travel, slippery bridges to traverse. However, I can tell you that all of those things are slightly better than the topes we have to slither over, ever 10 feet, and the potholes that spring up, frequently, or the worst, the manhole covers that have had the pavement built up around them, so now they have become a pot hole in, and of, themselves.

Many years ago, in 1982, actually, we moved our family to Texas, due to the overwhelming collapse of the farm implement manufacturing industry in the Quad Cities. There, we had two seasons- hot, and hotter still. I thought I would go insane. Luckily, for me anyway, we had purchased a movie called “Running Scared”, starring Micheal Keaton, and Gregory Hines. I cannot tell you anything more about the movie except that, (for me, the most important part), it took place in Chicago, in the winter, with icy roads, and falling snow. (Can you see where I am going with this)?

This may not seem like much to you, but to me, it was manna from Heaven. I watched that movie, (on VHS, no less), I cannot say how many times. It saved my sanity at the time.

Fast forward to the present day. To wake up every morning when we want, go to the store when we want, and, not have to worry about driving icy roads, I am good with that.

This time around, I will live vicariously through you people. Post your photos on FB or Messenger of the snow, the slush, the icicles, three feet long, hanging from your gutters. I dare you!!

And I will keep posting photos of the bougainvillea in bloom, the palm trees, swaying in the breeze, and the beautiful flowers blooming all over the city.

I leave you with these parting photos, which I took, from the front door, and our bedroom window of our house, in Bettendorf, Iowa, this past January. The beauty of this continues to fill me with awe.

Please be careful this winter, though I do believe the winter of 2019, the beginning of 2019, was really bad. I believe the Lord wanted to give us a final winter of ice and snow to always remember.

And we do.