Month: June 2020

I cannot tell you how lightened my spirit has become since I started receiving my SS benefits again.

We have been using our credit cards to purchase quite a bit of the renovation, the upkeep on the vehicles, plus, buying the new appliances for this house, and Juan’s. Now, I have paid off the small cards that we use at the grocery/big box stores, (that way we do not have to exchange money to and from other peoples hands), and have put a rather significant dent into the two cards that have the appliances/reno on them.

Now, I am able to sleep, or not, but if I am not sleeping, it is no longer because I am worried about our debt load. As I see it, we will be, once again, debt free before Christmas this year.

There was a large gathering the other day, in the El Zocolo, the center of CDMX, (Ciudad de Mexico), sending the president of Mexico, Mr. Obradór, off to the Yucatán penninsula for a “vacation”. The cars, driving around the square, had horns blasting, people cheering, banners waving. When I asked our cousin what all of the fuss was about, he said they are hoping he stays there a long time- maybe not to return.

As you may have gathered, he is not well liked here. He made no recommendations about the CoVid19 virus for several months after the US started quarantine. We were allowed to go anywhere, and everywhere for months. Then, a photo was posted of him telling the people here that his religious tokens, called scapular, would protect him from the virus. Nonsense.

Who knows, maybe he has contracted the virus, and does not want anyone to know about it. I hope not, because that is something I do not wish upon anyone.

Stay happy, stay healthy, wash your hands.

But who cares, really? Every day is just like the last one. Except for one thing.

I have all the ingredients, at the same time for BLT’s. Yes, you read that correctly- bacon, lettuce, and slicing tomatoes, plus, a brand new jar of mayonnaise. Oh, and do not forget the bread. We bought a new kind of bread, for us anyway. It is a light, whole wheat that is so soft and tasty. The last bread we tried was whole wheat as well, but too sweet. Yuck.

Yes, I know this is crazy, but we rarely have slicing tomatoes, usually we only buy Roma’s because that is what I use to make sauces, and soups. But, we have found a six pack of slicing tomatoes at Costco, and, after about a week on the counter, they are ready to eat. And they are delicious.

Let me tell you about the lettuce, though, as it was quite the achievement for me. Several weeks ago, we bought a mega pack of Romaine lettuce, at Costco, of course, and it contained six heads of lettuce. We gave two to Enrique, and had the other four in the vegetable crisper drawer for weeks. I kept thinking that I needed to make a salad every day for lunch, but that fell through.

Two weekends ago, I was getting ready to throw out all four heads because they had wilted so badly, then decided to find out what would happen if I soaked them in the disinfectant we use on fresh produce. What was the worst that could happen? They were already ready for the bin.

So, I did just that. I put them in my small salad spinner, filled it with water, and added about a teaspoon of the disinfectant, and left them to sit for the required fifteen minutes. When I returned, they looked they were fresh from the garden. I could not believe it- it worked. I spent about an hour and a half doing all of the lettuce in the spinner, then setting them on kitchen towels to dry off. When they had all been soaked, I used the spinner to finish spinning them dry. Now to preserve what I had done.

Several weeks ago, I purchased a small truck load of the best food storage containers that I have ever used. They are the Rubbermaid Brilliance collection, and they are wonderful. Between those beauties, and the altitude here, I still have about two heads of lettuce that looks, and tastes, as fresh, maybe fresher, than when it is first purchased. The leaves are beautifully green, moist, crisp- nothing short of amazing.

We have had the same thing happen with four loaves of bread we bought way back in April, when we first returned home. It has been in the cupboard for about eight weeks, no joking We have some of one loaf still left, and it has no sign of mold, or drying out at all.

The altitude has to play a major part because I am still having some trouble with my fermentation’s. Nothing seems to want to ferment. Though, when I did a search yesterday about the relationship of altitude to fermentation, the article said that over six thousand feet, it will be likely to take two to three weeks to start a bread or kombucha fermentation. We are at seven thousand fifty feet, or there about, so I am going to keep that in mind while I double my efforts.

Stay happy, stay safe, and stay vigilant.

I was just commenting to Ivan that it was getting so dark, I wondered if it was going to rain. One thing lead to another, and, after opening up the weather app, I changed it from the standard view to the satellite view, and this is what I saw.

I did not realize just how big the park in front of the condo really is. When we walked around it, before the plague, twice around was a mile, or, one and one half kilometers. We have not walked for several weeks now, but you-know-who keeps telling me we will start again, soon. Not soon enough by my estimation.

We have walked, twice, over to Enriques condo to take him food, and that was wonderful. We have gained so much of the weight that we lost, it is depressing. Do not worry about us, though. Once the quarantine is lifted, life will get back to normal, and we will, once again, put on our sneakers, and, our sun visors, and start off, walking, first the inside trail, then the outside trail. I cannot wait. “Normal” life 2.0.

Stay happy, stay healthy, and stay vigilant. This virus is not done with us yet.

We awoke Saturday to find out that we lost a much loved member of our extended family. Dr. Arturo Lara passed away from complications of the CoVid19 virus. He was, as you may remember, one of our cousin Paty’s brothers. If you remember the Halloween photos, he was the one with the axe through his head, and was wearing a blood splattered apron. He is deeply missed.

On a different note, you may be interested to know that I have finally begun receiving my Social Security benefits again. I have been in communication with the US embassy here, well, with one woman in particular, since sometime this past September. It has taken them all of this time, after numerous emails back and forth, to finally get the ball rolling again. But, they did, and that is what matters.

It feels like this quarantine will be coming to an end in the near future. But, as my opening paragraph indicates, the pandemic is not done with us. So, please, keep up your guard, wash your hands, stay home, stay vigilant because the virus is still aggressive. It has not given up, so let us not give up. Not yet. We will get through this.