Livingthedreamwithdiana.com

Not new, really, just revised.

You saw the photos the other day; the ones of the new shelving over the top of the new cabinet. Well, I spent several hours, the next day, and completely rearranged the entire pantry.

Liz helped me clean off the metal shelving we have had since we moved in. We put everything into three totes; one that had all of the things I use most frequently, and two that have things I do not use very often. Those last two will go to LA, to be kept in “storage”. A lot of good stuff, in those two totes. I do not want to give everything away. I want them to be available when we need them.

This is quite a bit smaller than the metal cart we were using, however, I think, this is one of the best pieces of furniture we have had made thus far. There are a few more pieces coming, so this is not the end of the remodel. We are probably looking at next summer before we finish. Who knows?

In the photo of the first open cabinets, I have about fifty pounds of different kinds of wheat. There are four five- pound bags of Einkorn wheat berries, four five-pound bags of Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose organic unbleached flour, eight kilos of bread flour, and three kilos of whole wheat flour.

Instead of them all being in boxes, on the floor, I decided to put them up in the cupboard; hopefully, all of the humidity from the dryer will not affect the flour, now that they are out of the boxes. They are sealed in plastic bags, however. All good.

Anyway, that whole rearrangement took about six hours, and I am pooped. Did laundry on the side, but still have about four loads to do tomorrow. Cannot wait.

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

Remember those new succulents we bought a few weeks ago? I want to show you some of them. They are amazing.

This Eschevería is called a Topsy Turvy, because its leaves appear upside down, while curling upwards. Amazing, is it not?

This one, one of my favorites, is called an Aeonium Kiwi, and requires almost no water, even in its growing season. I will really have to watch out with this one.

We have a couple of different varieties of this, but this one, in particular, is called Pale Stonecrop. This is a more mature plant, like the piece I reallocated from the neighbors storage unit last month. For fifty cents, you cannot beat it.

This one is sometimes called a starfish plant, starfish cactus, or carrion cactus, and has small star shaped flowers that send off some sort of smell to attract insects that will help pollinate it. I found it absolutely intriguing. Do you see the flower getting ready to bloom, on the left? I will show you what the flower may look like.

The flowers are not as attractive as the Flamingo lily, that is for sure, but they are only there to attract insects for pollination. Evidently, they are the perfect color, and design for them.

I will continue to record the progress of any plants that survive my machinations, as well as those that do not. For now, however, the stairs are calling me. I. Must. Go.

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

Luis, and Martín were here recently. Look what they brought us; a new set of shelves, and cabinet for storage in the pantry.

I have a place, now, for my kombucha, the kombucha bottles, and the jars from the pantry; no longer will they be on the kitchen countertop. And this is only day one! I guarantee it will change, greatly, over time. The beautiful wood, on top of the cabinet, is our huge cutting board. I asked Martín if he would use it to make it my work surface. He did. We love it.

Right now, I have so many ideas, chasing each other through my brain, about where I want to put this, or that. It will be difficult to sleep, again, tonight. Oh well. What is another night without sleep. Just another night.

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

Post script: a very happy birthday to our son, Joshua, who turns forty three years old today. Wow. He is getting old.

Good stuff, Benadryl. Not just for allergies, but as a sleep aid when one has been too long without several continuous hours of sleep.

We got back from LA the other day, still without having had much sleep. I took seventy five milligrams of Benadryl, with eight hundred milligrams of Ibuprofen, and slept, finally, from eleven thirty Sunday night, until almost nine forty, Monday morning.

Of course, now, after waking, and arising, the Benadryl hangover begins. It will last for a few hours, but, after that, it will be gone.

With coffee made, cup in hand, sitting at the living room table, I have been typing posts, like no ones business. I have to check back, to the photos I have taken, and write about them. This post, however, does not require photos.

It is going to rain again, soon. Stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

Post script: I am sad to tell you that Cindy S. died yesterday, and Arturo V., an old acquaintance, died a few days ago; both from CoVid 19 virus. Cindy ended up with MRSA in her lungs, and Arturo died alone, and was not found for several days. Condolences to both families.

We spent some time in LA this past week, and weekend. We had the opportunity to go to el campo.

El campo is the family farm; an area, up in the hills surrounding Los Alto. Most of the different “plots”, if you will, around Ramon’s land, all belong to different family members. They are not just immediate families, but radial families, as well. Uncles, aunts, cousins, granddads’ sisters family; you get the idea. Ramon knows them all, and can point them all out.

I am not going to crop any of these photos; I feel you may want to enjoy the heights, and the clouds, as we do. These photos were taken within the same minute; moving from the right side of the mountain, with Los Altos in the background, to the middle, then left side.

Most of the crops you see belong to Ramon, and his sons, but some, as I mentioned, belong to other, more distant relatives. And, yes. It rained most of the evening, after those dark grey, rain-filled clouds rolled in.

In the photos, though, there are two main crops growing; obviously corn, that you recognize, but the shorter crop is fava beans; here they are called habas, (the “h” is silent.)

In this area, the corn grows on a purple stalk, and is surrounded by a purple husk; though, only the outer most husk is purple. Yet, the corn, inside, is sparse, with large kernels that are almost white. It is not the soft, sweet corn that is grown in the Midwest; mmmm, peaches and cream. This is what we corn snobs call field corn; corn which is grown to maintain livestock. It has quite a tough skin on the kernels, and not much sweet, if any. It serves its purpose for humans as well.

Fava beans are roughly the same size, and look quite a bit like the dreaded, and much loathed lima bean, but, fortunately, fava beans have a much better flavor. They are also a tiny bit sweet, and juicy, not dry, like the dreaded, and much loathed lima bean.

The family goes out, usually way before Ivan and I get up, and harvests large bags full of said beans. Then, Maria, makes a soup, or stew, with the beans, and sometimes adds meat, but, not always. It is always delicious, however. Even Gabi, who, like most four year olds, is a picky eater, will eat his Abuelitas bean stews.

The campo, not really a farm, but not really a camp, is an amazing place, a bit higher up the hills than the town. LA has a population of about forty five hundred people, but everyone seems to know everyone else. Love it.

I could write all day about this place; it is a place we want to make for our “forever” home. We shall see. To be continued.

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

Update on our friend Cindy: she is still in a medically induced coma, but now has MRSA in her lungs. Not a very good prognosis.

We were walking through Perote the other day, and, as luck would have it, I happened to look across the street, and was graced with this.

These are video cameras made to look like dragons, or gargoyles. Are they not the most amazing things to see on a small street? Some of the folks here had not noticed them either. What a treasure.

Then, there is this; something else I had never seen. Jesús and Liz are having a half bath built under their stairs, and, as the living room is not finished, and it is raining continuously outside, the guys are mixing the cement for the blocks, on the living room floor. Why not? It works.

After about a half an hour, this is what they have accomplished. In the next few days, the guys will be back to do the finishing work; sealing the edges of the blocks, then plastering the walls.

Should not be long, then we will be able to use this bathroom, and not have to do go all of the way down one and a half flights of steps, and across the bedroom area that Jesús’s mother and father occupy. They say it is no bother; it is the only bathroom in the whole house, at the moment. It feels like a huge imposition.

I think that is all I need to tell you for today. Please, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

I am sure you will be as pleased, as I am, to know, the exercising is coming along without a hitch, and that I remain faithful to this blog post.

Having started this exercising business last week, I have added a bit of resistance band stretching to my workouts, as well as the all elusive crunches, and continue with the myofascial stretching. That last one, as a stand alone, is worth the fifteen dollars I paid for it.

I try to do the myofascial stretching just before going to bed. My legs get so jumpy if I turn off of my back, onto either side if I do not stretch. It is not only very uncomfortable, not stretching, it gets painful. So, just do it.

Slowly, I am noticing a difference, not only in how my clothes fit, but also, the flexibility I have regained over time. Before stretching, I could just touch my fingertips to the floor; now, after almost two weeks, I can curl my fingers towards me, and touch the second knuckles to the floor. That is an increase of almost two inches. Side to side, not so much, though I can reach, probably, one inch more, down the side of my legs. Not bad.

Well, I just got back from climbing the stairs, so I am going to have a cup of coffee, and relax. See you tomorrow.

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

We are trying to get to LA, but have been sitting on the highway for almost an hour. Why? There has been a landslide up ahead. Seriously.

There has been a landslide up ahead of us, and has, according to a passerby, captured a few vehicles in its path. We do not know about the people in those vehicles, but are hoping they are ok. (Yes, we do, now. No one injured, only trapped vehicles. The landslide was thick, but not moving so quickly as to sweep vehicles, or people away.)

I am going to try to video anything I can but it is after nine o’clock and quite dark. There are plenty of vehicles so they might be able to give me sufficient light. We will have to wait and see.

Nope. I was unable to video anything, but I can tell you that the highway is a mess, both sides. In this part of the highway, they are, with two lanes moving in each direction, on different levels.

Our lanes are going Northeast, and, are twenty plus feet higher up than the lanes going Southwest. All of the mud, and sand washed over our two lanes, and across the other two lanes as well. What a mess.

I took the above photo about an hour before we were stopped in our journey. Jesús was able to drive about fifty miles per hour still, then, within the next hour, as I said, we came to a complete stand still. The sign, below, which is on both sides of the road, was unseen by us for about forty minutes. It made us all laugh. Duh!

I believe that I need to mention here, that this is the site of a huge mining operation, and has had, in the past, obviously, prior washouts. Hence the road signs.

Here, in México, they have such beautiful highway’s (no snow, ice, or salt to buckle the asphalt), but have zero, zip, nada when it comes to overhead lights. Yikes. People, for the most part, are smart enough to drive at a safe speed and keep a safe distance from each other, thankfully.

Another interesting tidbit it that when the sun goes down, that is it for light. There are no big cities to reflect any light, and, as I said a moment ago, there is no lighting overhead. There are a bazillion stars, but they are just a ways off, and only look pretty when they can be seen. Not tonight, however.

Tonight, it is cloudy, and has rained the entire way from CDMX to LA. Bummer. Fortunately, for us, Jesús is an excellent driver. Plus, he enjoys driving the BMW. Perk.

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

Read your highway road signs. 😉

I do believe that the process of climate acclimation for the two of us is complete. We are freezing. To think, it took only two years. A record.

It is sixty one degrees here, and we both have thermal shirts on, over the top of at least a tee shirt. Over that will go a light weight jacket, and that is here, in the house. Beats being the only ones sweating.

It is eleven thirty in the morning, and we are just getting up. Life in this LA (Los Altos), is so different, and relaxing, than any other place we have ever been. You can go to bed when you want, get up when you want, eat whatever is available, whenever you want.

It is as if time is completely unimportant here. And, for the most part, it is. There are very few things ever scheduled, unless it is a doctor or dental visit. Everything else is pretty much at your leisure. “Going into town”, Perote, is pretty much when everyone is up, has had coffee and something to eat, and then, off we go.

Structureless. I hope that is a word. My spell check did not go crazy so I assume it is. There is very little structured time here. The only ones who really are on a schedule are the children. When they are up and about, everyone gets up and going. Even they, however, do not get up with the sun. Thank Jesus.

Gonna go. My fingers are complaining about the cold, and I have to go to the bathroom. For this visit, at least, it is still downstairs. It is another soon-to-be-started project in the building of a forever home for Jesús, Liz, and Gabi. Things are moving along quite nicely.

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

Last week, we had a “cable guy”, who happened to be in the building, helping someone else, come up to our apartment, and change the cable box from the Juan’s bedroom to the Garcia’s bedroom.

Little did he know that he was in for an education. Ivan spent about fifteen minutes teaching the guy the difference between the workings of a modem, and a router. The guy was definitely appreciative, by the responses he made.

Ivan was in his element. Not much does he enjoy more than teaching someone about something. He can talk with profound intelligence on such topics as computers, politics, and governments, both here, and abroad. Really, I have never spoken with anyone that knows as much about so many different subjects as he does.

It used to intimidate me, but now, after fifty years, he just continues to amaze me, and, make me proud.

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