Livingthedreamwithdiana.com

Taking care of someone that is ninety three, and, for the most part bedridden, has turned out to be a bit more work than I imagined.

Personally, I feel it is my age that has things more difficult to do than they used to. What is up with that?

Ivan has gotten Juan up, in the afternoons, both yesterday, and today, with excellent results. Juan has walked, both times, without physical support; verbal support only. He walks the ten feet, or so, across the hall to the bathroom, sits himself down, relieves himself, uses proper hygiene, then, back across the hall, to his oasis; the bed.

Each time, however, just when he thinks he can go right back to his beloved supine, nope. Ivan is right there, to talk him into a short, less than ten feet, walk down, then back up, the hallway. Then he can lie back down. Today, he talked with Ivan the entire time; bathroom, walking, lying down. No crying out in pain, no grunts or groans of any kind. Progress. Sweet progress.

When he gets back to bed, he actually has a smile on his face. He says he knows he is making progress; he feels himself having less excruciating pain, and more relaxation.

Now, however, I have to get his blood pressure back under control. Ivan found our automatic B/P monitor the other day, while unpacking one of the myriad totes, so, not having any idea where we were with that, I took it.

Then I quickly got his 10 mg. Lisinopril, and gave him a dose. Yikes. That is all I am going to say about that. He does not need to go to the Departamento de Emergencia; it is not that high; just higher than I would like to see. Now I know, and can keep better control of that.

First, though, we had to get control of the incapacitating pain; that was primary. Now that we are getting some control of that, we can start getting the rest of him sorted out, and, back in order. Enteric coated Aspirin 81 mg. is coming Saturday, via Amazon.com.mx, as is a heating pad. We believe the heating pad will help us with his muscle spasms, and, the Enteric coated Aspirin, his blood thinner, is almost nonexistent here. We cannot find it at the local pharmacies, or even at Costco. No worries. Sign into Amazon.com.mx, and get it from the US. Job done.

This morning, after having had his bed bath, his bedding all changed, and, getting him redressed in nice, warm woolen leggings, and long sleeved top, I shaved him, gave him some of my oat and plum cookies, which are quite high in fiber, and a glass of coffee with a straw. He nibbled on the cookies, as he only nibbles anymore; no big bites of anything. However, he fed himself, and was able to drink his coffee, through the straw, holding onto the glass.

Every day there is a bit more of him coming back. I realize this is only the second day he has been here, but I am telling you, honestly, he is already so much stronger, happier, and, smiling more. He is still very gaunt, and, all of his muscles quite atrophied from this damned CoVid virus.

He had been able to get outside, pushing his nephew, Juan, in his wheelchair, three, or, four miles everyday. Now, nothing. Not since this damn-demic started. They went out, a few times a month, on business visits, or medical visits, for both the Juanes, but nothing like walking around the park.

He sat in Juan’s Shiatsu message chair, everyday, all day. If you have ever seen one of these beauties, you would have seen two, long areas of rollers, that roll up and down, on either side of the spine. While they are quite lovely on the sore muscles of ones back, when sat against said rollers, day after day, for over a year, one can see how muscle spasms may have occurred.

Here he is, though, after his bath, and a shave. I kidded him that he needed to be very wary of a woman with an electric razor. He laughed. Then I took his photo, and showed him. He laughed even more. He said he had a goatee for awhile, but not since he was young. Now, he has one again. I think he looks more distinguished.

All of you, please, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

Still handsome at ninety three.

This time he is here to stay.

My father in law, Juan, has been bedridden for the past five days with muscle spasms in his back. When we went to pick him up today, he could not sit, or stand, and has lost weight. We are going to fix that as quickly as possible.

At ninety three years of age, he has always looked years younger, closer to eighty than ninety. Today, however, he looks every bit his years. We hope to change that as well.

Being the diagnostician that I am, I have dosed him, twice since we brought him home, with Ibuprofen, which, so far, seems to be helping. He is resting, as comfortably as we can make him, for now. I wish we had instant access to a heating pad. It has been ordered, and will be here in two more days.

As you know, I, too, suffer from chronic back pain, and have since I was sixteen years old. That having been said, I have been teaching him how to ease into a sitting position, and, how to reverse that in order to lie back down, with a bit less grabbing pain.

For him, today, however, sitting has been, literally, beyond his abilities. He just cannot do it; not today. We are not going to push him too hard into doing much of anything; not until I can get those muscles to release themselves.

I will keep you informed how his physical recuperation progresses. For now, however, he happens to be snoring. 😉

Stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

We are going to start the process of making out our will. This should prove interesting.

We are going to the attorney’s office today, to drop off our information papers so we can get an appointment. If something happens to Ivan, God forbid, and we do not have a will, everything we have will go to the government, and I will be left homeless.

That prospect does not interest me in the slightest. If I go first, no big deal; everything, here, is in Ivan’s name, so he will be set. Right now, I am not even on the bank account, therefore, I have no access to our millions. (Hahaha. I needed a bit of levity. Sorry if you did not.)

The next thing we have to figure out is how to renew my membership, and the permanency of my residency here, in Mexico. After talking with our friends, it seems that I may just need to pay the fee for five more years, and receive my updated residency card. That would be lovely, not to mention a miracle!!!

Until then, I am taking the very best care of my husband.

Enjoy all of your Black Friday sales, even though they are just items that did not sell during the previous years. They are still “on sale”.

Stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

Ivan has been working like a man possessed.

Most of the “things” we have collected over the years belong to him, therefore, he has been working, quite faithfully, to sort out all of the things we need to keep, things we can give to others, and things to discard. He has made a huge dent in the number of totes we have left to go through. Thank you honey.

The discard pile is quite a bit smaller than the other piles, I must say. That is ok. Much of what we have, and needed up North, we no longer need down here; that does not mean that others can not find uses for them.

Wool coats, mittens, hats, scarves, etc., we no longer need here. Two, or three, dozen pairs of underwear, socks, t-shirts, and, in my case, sports bras. Let us not forget to mention sets of bedding. Wow. I did not realize we had so many sets of sheets, duvets, and comforters.

We do; we did. We have gone through all of these things, and have several totes that, in time, will go to Los Altos, for storage, and then for use. We have all of those “things” because I was not interested in going up and down two flights of stairs, every week, to do laundry. I did not care for our laundry room, so I went there as infrequently as possible. Hence all of the aforementioned “things”.

Here, however, the laundry area is one of the nicest places in the apartment; full of indirect light, and fresh air, plants, and is twenty steps from the bedrooms. Lovely.

Things are going to change around here. I will keep you updated as they do, but they have yet to start unfolding.

While we all wait for that, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

Happy Thanksgiving to those reading this in the US. Enjoy your families, and a day from work.

I just repotted our three orchids, for the first time.

Wow. That was fairly unnerving, I must tell you. I do not actually have any orchid potting mix, but made do with the sphagnum moss that was drowning them, some coconut coir that I just got, and a bit of succulent soil mix. Hopefully it was more traumatic for me than them. We shall see.

Something else I discovered during said episode; the roots of two of the three had grown all around each other, some being six and seven inches long. Amazing, considering they were all in their two inch orchid cages. How they managed to grow at all is a mystery. Now, they have room to grow, as I have repotted them into three inch cages. I read that you should repot into the next size larger cage, so that is what I have done.

As I have run out of three and four inch ceramic pots in which to put the ugly cages, I got my little brûlée torch out, and put four quarter-sized holes into four inch plastic pots. Ugly, but functional. One does not want the little roots to stay wet for too long, or they will rot. Not good practice.

While I wait to see if this was successful, please, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

It has to be the ginger that is ruining my Kombucha batches.

Whenever I get a wild hair, deciding to put some healthy ginger in a batch of Kombucha, invariably there is no second fermentation that takes place. No effervescence, no natural carbonation, just flat, full of ginger tasting liquid. It does not taste good.

As I am not a real ginger fan, I do believe this lesson has been learned. I do not care how healthy it is, I am no longer going to put it in my second ferments. Do not even ask me; I will not use it. Yuck.

I now have thirteen more bottles of this mess to drink, and hope I can stomach them, as I really hate throwing “good” things out. Only time will tell. However, I find it hard to believe I can possibly drink close to two more gallons of this. Ewww.

Stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

But do NOT put ginger in your kombucha.

Many times, I have noticed the different smells of a place.

Sitting here, at the table in the living room, it is eleven thirty in the morning, on a Wednesday. The smell coming through the open windows has caught me unawares.

It is cool, and has a scent that I have come to enjoy immensely. I cannot describe it very well, but it very refreshing. There is no smell of toxins, smog, gasoline, laundry softener, or anything noxious. As I eluded, it is fresh, and clean smelling. It is a smell I, somehow, associate with my childhood.

For several years, we grew up in a very small town on the Mississippi River. The air there, too, was sweet, and clean smelling. Here, however, we are no where near either a small town, or a river. Hmmm. I am at a loss as to understand from where, exactly, the smell originates. But, neither do I care.

I am just going to enjoy it; while it lasts.

Stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

Our Plectranthus Barbatus is going to bloom, for the first time, in another week, or so. It is a first.

It does not appear, today, that it will be as full a bloom as when we bought it, but there are new buds, waiting to open.

It is a delicate shade of purple when blooming. Maybe, by the time I need to post this, I can take another photo of it in bloom.

Most of the plants we have left are green, non-blooming plants. Right now, besides this one, the only color is coming from the lilies, the red and the white Flamingo lilies. That is ok with me- for now. As soon as I can find more Primroses, I will snatch those up, and keep them going as long as possible. They are so pretty. The violets are so small, still, they have no blooms coming. Maybe next year. I can wait.

Until then, mis amigos, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

Yesterday was Revolution Day, here. Vacation!!

Of course we went to LA, for two days.

You really cannot imagine how relaxing it is there, until you get there. When you get out of the car, it hits you; fresh, clean air, bright warm sunshine, and, as important, peaceful quiet.

It is soul soothing, time away from the smog, and big city noise. The noise here is continuous, almost 24/7. I do not think most people here even realize how they are constantly bombarded with it. Horns, cars, buses, trucks, the mobile vendors, selling food, or collecting sellable items; all in constant motion. All making a cacophony of noise.

Not in Los Altos. The occasional truck goes down the street, or the infrequent motorcycle. One of the loudest things, we notice, are children playing, and laughing. A welcome sound that.

It is very similar to where we used to live, in Iowa. The setting was idyllic, near a creek, with children growing up next door. There was the interstate about fifty feet to our West, but we became so desensitized to its noise, we really no longer noticed it was there.

This, however, is a huge city; awake twenty four hours of every day. In our suburb, however, the noise is a bit less, probably because of all of the trees in the park.

Within the condo, itself, however, dogs bark with nearly intolerable frequency. And let me not forget to mention a toddler that cries every day, off and on, for about two hours. I swear the child needs a nap. Ugh.

Stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe my friends. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones. Please.

Frequently I talk about Los Altos, about how quaint it is, and how familiar it is becoming. Here is just a peek at its beauty.

This photo was taken along the road that goes up to Lizbeths parents home. Next time we go back, I will take another photo, without the cables, and a bit more majesty. This one was hastily taken. Additionally, however, you may be interested to know that the puffs of clouds, in the back, above that mountain, is actually a semi active volcano. It burps out smoke for awhile, then it stops, for awhile. Gorgeous.

While we were there, we took a drive into Perote, and bought a fruit cup. WOW! A beautiful, plastic cup, full to overflowing with freshly cut fruit; all sprinkled with a not-too-spicy chile powder. Here; this is what I am talking about.

Here is what is (was) in the cup: oranges, cucumbers, jicama, cantelope, papaya, coconut, watermelon, and pineapple. This cup was full to the line above the cup top (in the photo) before I got started on it. Then, I remembered that I needed to take the photo. Well, I could not put the eaten fruit back, so this it what you get to see. It was ambrosial.

Stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.