Livingthedreamwithdiana.com

THE FRUIT FLIES ARE GONE!!!!!

I think.

I haven’t seen a single one all day today; well, my daylight hours are only from 11am until 8pm. But in that time, I didn’t see a single one. Those that I did see turned out to be floaters. (If you don’t know what floaters are, ask an adult.)

I can’t tell you the angst I’ve had this past week. First with Ivan, and me being still unwell, and with the baby, and Gabi here at night, (their parents too.) I kept hoping they had no germs in their room, or fruit flies. They did have a few flies, but I put a fly trap in their room, and sprayed the two that were flying around the trap. Dead. Yah.

Today, there were about a dozen of the buggers in the trap.

As it turns out, the “traps” are filled with a liquid called “the lure”, about 15 ml. I smelled it to see what it was, and it’s apple cider vinegar.

I should have taken photos of the glasses I had in the living room, and kitchen; each with a 1/4 cup of ACV, covered with plastic wrap, and each with more then 25 dead flies. Those were the ones that got away from my bug spray. All I could buy was Off, but it worked just fine. Now, I just spray the floaters. Hahaha.

Stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.

Remember the ACV. Good for us, bad for bugs.

Ivan is still a bit under the weather, so to speak, but I am finally pulling out of what ever this is that has us in its clutches.

Speaking of weather, evidently this is the “fall” rainy season. It has rained every evening in the week we’ve been home. Plus, it rained everyday of the week I was in Los Altos. Which, as you already know, is just fine with me.

However, having the electricity go out, for a whole minute, these past 2 evenings is getting a bit much. Yes, I can hear the thunder better, and can definitely see the lightning, but, since the fruit fly mishap, the windows have all been closed except our bedroom window. So I don’t feel closed in, we run one of our air circulators 24/7, just to have air moving around. Very helpful.

Until the electricity goes out.

Speaking of better every day, a heart felt shout out to my sister Martha, the one who just had a birthday. She has been laid up for the past couple of weeks, for personal reasons, but is up now, and doing well, according to her most recent texts. Glad to hear it sis. Love, and miss you.

I must tell you that I did a lot of knitting, while trying to breathe between coughing spells, when in Los Altos. I knitted 48 rows of 100, or so stitiches, having had to unknit 2 rows that were knit incorrectly. Oh, I had to do that twice, actually. One really should learn how to read before trying to read a knitting pattern. And, as I like to use the actual pattern, it makes it a bit more of a challenge.

Mind you, I haven’t been anywhere near this pattern in more than 3 years. I started it way back in the fall of 2017. I worked on it quite a bit, until we started packing to move, in the fall of 2018. By July of 2019, we were here, in Mexico; my knitting packed away in some obscure tote, Heaven only knew where.

Now, I have it back out, and am, once again, familiar with the jargon, and my notes. Away I go.

Stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.

We received another CARE package the other day from my SIL Mayra. Gracias comadre!! It took about a month to get from Iowa to CDMX, and it had a really hard time getting here.

Mayra does such a great job of wrapping the box, you can see how much tape she uses; there must be two, or three layers of it. That make me think that the hole in the box happened within the last day or so. The contents of the box were completely intact, even as the bottom most object was a refill pouch of the spray I use to get rid of spots on our clothes.

Besides the horrible “cold” we’re experiencing, the fruit fly “mishap”, and the electricity going out, (it just came back on for the third time this past hour), not being able to have my beloved spot remover has been the worst. Really.

My poor husband has been sleeping so much these last 2 days, I hope it is a recuperative sleep. He gets up for a 1/2 hour, or so, then lies down, and sleeps for the entire night. Please, keep him in your thoughts, and prayers. For awhile, however, no news needs to be considered good news.

Stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.

I think I just swallowed a fruit fly. Must have been floating, (read drowning), in my drink. Hahaha.

Wow!

It’s 3:20am., and most of the occupants of the condominium are outside. Why?

A new seismic activity alarm was installed not long ago, and it went off like no one’s business.

I was sleeping; Ivan was at his computer; I could hear this obnoxious noise coming from who knows where. WTH?

I sat up, looking at Ivan on his computer, asking him why he doesn’t have his earbuds in, and he is very calmly telling me it’s not his computer, it must be an earthquake.

Oh. Ok.

So, I got up, went to the bathroom, got out my robe, and started for the bedroom door. All the while Ivan is asking me if I was going to go outside with him. Was I ready? Me-I’m going to the bathroom- do I look ready? Him- Come on, we need to get downstairs, and outside. Me- You go. I have to get my robe. Him- Really? Put on these pants- you’ll be fine. Me- you can’t be serious. I’ll put on my robe, it’ll be faster. Him- ok. Let’s go.

Well, then I good sense to look in the bathroom mirror on the way out of said room and decided I had to brush my hair. Then, I had to put on my slippers, etc. Meanwhile, Jesús is knocking on our door, with Gabi over his shoulder, telling us we need to go downstairs.

So, we did.

Most, but not all of the condo members were outside, in the park.

For about 3 minutes.

After that, everyone went back inside, and I sat down to write this post.

We didn’t feel any quake, which is fine by me, but its epicenter was about 300 miles from us. Maybe someone felt it, but we did not.

All is well. Going back to bed.

Stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.

I must ask your indulgence for the next few days.

We are not as well as I indicated in my last post. we are still short of breath with any exertion; coughing continues but is one day loose, the next day tight. We are both without fever but have zero energy to do much.

The apartment is a mess, and I could care less. The fruit fly epidemic is less as I spent the better part of an hour yesterday trying to kill the wee buggers. Just when I thought it was safe, I picked up the original bag of yuck, which I had triple bagged, and tied up, the whole thing was surrounded by thousands of the flies. Yes, I should have taken it downstairs, to the garbage bins, but seriously, I didn’t have the energy. I just set it on top of the bucket of cans needing to be crushed, and recycled. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

As I said, the next hour was spent in a search, and destroy mode. Actually didn’t need to do much searching, just destroying. Any idea how difficult it is to get rid of that many tiny flies? I didn’t either. Until yesterday.

Today, the bag is bagged, the buckets covered with damp towels, and we are going to nap. Again. I don’t know if this is CoVid, but I’m betting it is. I have had it 2 full weeks, and still have a head full of snot, and a chest full of it, too. And, Ivan; I have never heard him cough this much in all of our lives together. His voice is so deep it rumbles.

I’ll post when I can. Don’t worry if you don’t read anything for a few days at a time. Really, we are worn out.

Stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.

Martha, I am going to wish you a very happy birthday now, though it is 2 days early. I will be thinking of you on Tuesday, just not posting about it then. Love you sister mine.

Shark DuoClean Ionflex cordless vacuum cleaner

A few months ago, I was cleaning the brushes, and filters of the above mentioned vacuum cleaner, and broke the adapter that turned the front orange, and black brush, making it, essentially useless.

I have been trying to “fix” the area where the brush attaches to the vacuum head, but to no avail. We have both been trying to find a descent replacement to it, also, to no avail.

Then, a light came on in my head; look for a replacement vacuum head!!

So, I did. It comes sometime next week; all the way from the UK, via eBay.com. Yay! This was one of the first cordless vacuums that had a light across the front of the head; now, most have it. I don’t need to turn on a light in order to vacuum; I love it.

Before coming up with this revelation, I bought a replacement brush, hoping it would have the adapter, but, no. The brush acts as a duster, and as a pusher, pushing small objects into the mouth of the vacuum head. It really is the main working brush of the vacuum cleaner, and is of no value, much, without it.

Thanks to eBay, I don’t have to replace my workhorse, and will have it up, and working in no time.

Stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.

I really am. I just can’t get my body to follow suit.

I have been coughing up all kinds of phlegm since last week, and it is getting really old; not to mention, it wears me out. I am exhausted by the end of the day, and have actually been going to bed around 1am; early by our most recently acquired standards.

We got home the other day; it’s actually Wednesday the 3rd as I am typing this, to be met by an invasion of fruit flies in the kitchen. Someone, who shall remain nameless, hence blameless, did not empty the organic bin as he had been requested. To his eternal salvation, he, too, was ill most of the week I was gone. It’s the only thing that saved him. Trust me.

I walked in to about a gazillion fruit flies- they were everywhere. When I chanced to check out the organic bin, it was full of mold, maggots, and fruit flies. Closing it back up, I removed it from its holder, quickly opened it back up, closing the bags around the opening. Took that to the front door to be taken downstairs to the garbage bins.

Next, I got an all purpose cleaning cloth, moistened it heavily, wrung out the excess water, and began swatting anything that moved. Let the little buggers land, for just a moment, and they’re mine.

I even went so far as to find my can of hairspray, (like I need that anymore), and use that as an adjunct to killing the wee buggers. Very effective, I might add. I figured any veg that got sprayed can be rinsed off before using. No harm done. Well, certainly not to the veg.

I have become quite efficient over the past few days, killing the little so and so’s. I just wish they would stop multiplying before my eyes. I am tired of being “on guard” when I enter the kitchen, but alas, I am. It is amazing the places these little critters hide. They even found their way into the laundry area, and are trying to get into my Kombucha!!!

Enough. It is annoying, not life threatening.

Stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.

Post script: I just had a brief stare down with a fruit fly. How annoying.

There is an old saying that says “no good deed goes unpunished”.

I, unfortunately, am a perfect example of this very thing.

I had a post the other day about filling the trash can with water, and all of the exercise I got in doing thus. I was tired afterwards, as anyone could imagine, however, the worst was yet to come.

That night I developed a fever, and chills such as I have not had the opportunity to experience in awhile.

I went to bed around 11:00pm, with the assistance of Benadryl and Ibuprofen, but was too warm for the comforter. Instead, I covered with the flannel top sheet, and the wool blanket, both folded in half. Even those were almost too much.

I woke up, sometime in the wee hours of the morning, frozen solid, in a semi fetal position. Fortunately, I wasn’t using the comforter, so I was able to cover myself with that. After what seemed like hours, I was able to straighten out, then figure out, I was not well.

Before sunrise, the coughing started. My chest felt like I was breathing through sandpaper. All of the muscles in my upper back, and chest were cramped, and painful. I downed more Ibuprofen, covered up, and tried to sleep. Between the coughing, the headache, and the muscle aches I was able to sleep for a bit.

Well, folks, that was 4 days ago. I was in bed for most of the next 2 days, up most of yesterday, knitting my shawl, and am much better today. I am going home with Ivan, and Jesús, however, when they come here today. It is so cold, and I am no where even close to being prepared for it this time.

I am not at all keen about going back to the city as life here is very relaxing, and more to my preferred way of living. However, life goes on, does it not?

Stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.

Captain Arab chased Moby Dick.

Ivan and I chase sleep.

Sometimes we catch it, sleep, that is, sometimes we don’t. When we do it usually isn’t until the late hours of the night; or early hours of the morning. Not really sure how to say that.

We usually don’t fall asleep until close to dawn. There. That’s what I meant. We end up sleeping most of the day away as well.

Being a morning person, this has been difficult. I want to sleep at night, but without taking a Benadryl, sleep eludes me. When I do take one, then I’m constipated for 2 days. So, let’s assess.

Constipation, and sleep? Or, no sleep. Tough call. As I am not a fan of the former, I usually choose

Ibuprofen. Sometimes it helps me relax, sometimes it just eases my back pain. I guess you can’t have everything.

I have sleep apps on my phone, in their own little folder even. I’ve tried saying the Rosary, slowly, meaningfully. Nope. Not even the communion of saints seem to be able to help me.

I toss, and turn, get up, put on socks, (cuz it’s freezing over here), change pajama bottoms, or put on another pair over the ones currently in use.

Then, after about 20 minutes, I get to reverse all of the above. All of a sudden I’m perspiring; next thing, the perspiration if drying, and freezing, (figuratively), at the same time. Ugh.

I remember my Gramma Manda saying she rarely slept, the older she got. Well that’s just great. Now, not only do I have her beard, I have her insomnia. Gifts that keep on giving.

I know, you’re all sorry I’m up at 1:30am typing this little ditty, but don’t be. I try to do creative things with this wakefulness, not just watch YouTube, though it is enticing. Tomorrow night, if I can’t sleep, I’m going to start

Just Dance Rasputin. It’s on YT. Take a look. Though, maybe if I did that during the daylight hours I would be tired enough to sleep at night. I’ll let you know.

Stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.

What an odd feeling- being here, in Los Altos without my friend.

It feels as if I am in a hostel, in some other part of the world, taking a vacation without Ivan. Neither pleasant, nor unpleasant, to be honest. I miss him every minute, but have had 3 days of total relaxation, such as I have never known.

Today, and everyday until we go home, I started my volunteered duty of filling the trash can with the water we use to flush the toilet.

Not difficult, agreed. The source of said water, however, is across the large kitchen, and outside on the porch, then, up 16 steps, all the while carrying a bucket of water. Return, refill, repeat. 22 times.

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To say that I will be sore tomorrow is an understatement. To say that by the time we go back home I should expect to be in a tiny bit better shape than I am now, and maybe, hopefully, will have lost a bit of weight. All good things.

In fact, I am so tired at this typing I can hardly stay awake. That said

Stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.