Livingthedreamwithdiana.com

Wow! I have gotten so much work done today. It was amazing.

I waited until Ivan went to the store with Jesús, about two fifteen this afternoon, then got started. I just finished, and it is about eight o’clock in the evening. Long, but productive day.

Of course, I always listen to an Audible book while I am working, so that helped. I started out putting in a load of laundry in the washer, then, sweeping and mopping all of the floors. I have to confess, that when they are clean, white, and sparkling, I get so neurotic about any little piece of anything that I can see on the floor. I was telling Ivan, when he got home, that I cannot even think about what was on the floors up North! The floors there are medium brown, and could hide a multitude of what not. Yuck.

After that, it was on to moving some of the bigger plants from Jesús and Lizbeth’s room, out to the living room, after ginving each a big a gulp of water. Several of the leaves on the Xanadu, and the Diffenbachia are turning brown, sunburn is my diagnosis. Hopefully, out in the living room, they will have enough, but not too much sunlight. Ha! Famine to feast. Just have to pay attention to each plants needs.

I am finding, though, that drier is best. I am spraying the new succulents, not watering them, for now. They all look great, though it has only been a week. I am hopeful.

I dumped all of the kombucha from in the fridge last night, then both of the large containers today. I have kept both of the SCOBY’s, as well as some of each batch, to make a fresh batch tomorrow morning, and a second batch in three weeks. Doing it that way, we will have alternating batches, not both batches being ready at the same time. Five gallons is way too much for us to drink, especially if it does not taste as good as you would like.

I also fed my sourdough starter, for the first time since June! I am in the mood to start baking again, since it not quite so warm in the afternoons anymore. Plus, I miss the time it takes to actually make the dough.

I will be using the sprouted Einkorn wheat, however, it needs to be ground, then sifted, and that is a big job in itself.

Oh, I made black beans too. I forgot those. They smell so good, and I love the flavor of them. I made a truck load but will send a big part of it upstairs with Jesús.

So, make beans, sweep/mop the apartment, move the larger plants, water said plants, three loads of laundry, (wash/dry/fold; I need to save the put away until tomorrow!), get rid of kombucha, make new starter. I think that is enough for one day.

Plus, my book finished about ten minutes ago, and I do not want to start the last book of the trilogy until tomorrow morning.

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

As I am still without electricity, but without any other means of mental exercise, I will tell you about the beautiful succulents we bought in Altolonga the other day. (I feel fairly sure that I have already told you about this, however, I must finish what will be the conclusion of a nice tale, once told.)

I believe one of the most beautiful, and my favorite succulents is this one. And, as soon as the electricity is restored, I shall endeavor to find the name of this beauty. Just look at the intricacies of its petals, its colors, its symmetry. There is no way that this is not the hand of God at work here. Who, or what, else could come up with such as this? You answer that question for yourself.

I am going to stop for now as it is very difficult to do this without being able to add photos, or retain the ideas that I wish to convey, without electricity; batteries only do so much. Without the almighty “internet”, very little, anymore, seems doable. How awful is that?

I, for one, have come to rely so heavily on the internet for this blog; and, at what cost? As we have no electricity, I cannot find any of my books to read, although, I probably could not read them in candlelight, or the light from my cell phone for very long. (To be honest, it is really quite dark in the apartment at the moment.) Perhaps, if I was able, or had prepared for such an event beforehand, I could have read a book by candlelight. I hope not to put it to the test anytime soon!!

However, to put my ideas down, in a form of any sort, for me to reread, correct, reconfigure, then accept, and post, in some form, especially on an internet source, is nothing short of a miracle.

My ramblings are just that; ramblings. Ideas that come to me when I least expect them. When I finally get them down, on my computer, I find them almost magical. There are so many things that I want to tell you, show you, let you experience through me, that I do not always have the ability to do so.

Think about what things make you happy, healthy, and safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones; they need you as well as we do.

Post script: it is two o’clock in the morning, and we finally have the electricity back on.

Here is what I ended up doing with most of the succulents.

Who needs it, I say?!

Gosh. Come to think of it, we do. Ours was disconnected, you read that correctly, disconnected at the ignominious hour of eight o’clock this morning!!! And has not chosen to resume its duties even as I type this; it is six thirty six of the same evening!!!

It helps, exponentially, if one pays ones bill when said bill is due; not two weeks after said bills due date. Just thought I should pass that along should anyone not understand the meaning of due date. I, obviously, need to add this type of thing to my already packed calendar of events, do you think? (Do NOT tell my husband that, indeed, it was entered into said packed calendar of events, (further to be known as PCOE), and was, evidently, missed.

I could (probably) not be more sorry if I tried. However, our schedule is such that, each evening, I receive all of the messages for the multiple nothings that need be done the following day, on my cell phone, my Apple watch, my iPad, and my iPad Pro. Consequently, I read, or see, none of them. Actually, as we rarely have anything to do the following day, or any day, as it happens, there is rarely anything to read.

Hence, the missed notice of the electricity bill coming due. As it is all in Spanish, I can, safely, still say that I cannot understand all that is on said bill; such as the date the bill needs to be paid. (Limite de pago). Evidently, one has about two weeks after the payment limit before one wakes up without electricity.

I want to say that this happened to us, and I wrote about it, sometime shortly after we moved in here. (Another memory blocked, thankfully, by the invention of liquid anesthesia.)

Please, while you check your bills for their due dates, make out your checks to the various companies to which you owe money for the use of their utilities, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

We were staying in LA a few weekends past, and were driving outside of the main city of Perote.

Why? So I, “la Reyna”, (the queen), could purchase succulents, from a good source. A reliable nursery that Jesús’s dad, Ramon, knows. They grow, and, sell their own plants. Can you imagine, driving twenty to forty minutes, just to buy plants? I am more than willing.

I am not one to look in the mouth of a gift horse, so I bought as much as I could, to make this long trip worth the time, and energy. Here is what I bought. (I will, definitely have to go back and buy more.)

The circled succulents are the ones I gave the ladies here. The two smaller ones, top left, I gave to Lizbeth, and Sari, wives of Jesus, and Juan, respectively. The larger ones are for Maria, Jesús’s mom, Alicia, Lizbeth’s mom, and me, of course. Now I have to find what each of them is called.

The tiny ones were $10 pesos/$.50 each, the middle sizes were $20 pesos/$1.00, and the larger ones were $30 pesos, $1.50. I paid $350 pesos total, or $17.

While we were looking out the window, on the way to the nursery, we passed a few different areas that were, each, digging the necessary dirt, with which to make bricks.

Also, a bit further along, there was a small area where they were cutting down trees, planing them into boards, some going to pallets, some stacked for sale.

Next to this operation was another area where there are hundreds of small trees growing. I will get photos if we return the same way.

We did, indeed, go back the same way but we were going too fast for a photo shoot. So, of course, I took multiple photos of both the cement/brick building, and the wood shop. It was an amazing area of conscious reforestation. Here are the photos I could use. The first on is a part of Altotonga, the city we went to, to buy succulents.

We learned, just the other day, that our friends, Jesús and Lizbeth, are pregnant again. (She said it was okay to tell you.)

Excellent, because, as you may remember, they had a stillborn baby girl just before this Christmas past; at six months gestation. They go to the cemetery to visit her every time we go to Los Altos. Very sad.

She has been depressed every since, but has, over the past few months, slowly come out of the depression. We do not doubt that, living in that tiny cell upstairs, has played a significant part in that episode. Now that they are down here, with us, they all three seem to be thriving. Amazing what a bit of human touch, love, kindness, and understanding can do for people!

That said, they give as well as they get; they help us remain human as well. In fact, when she returns from Los Altos in two weeks, she is going to teach me how to make sauces for the meat we cook. Already, she/they help us around the apartment with anything that needs to be done. Liz came downstairs yesterday just to help me fold, and put away, all of the Pico tops I have, (and I have close to three dozen of them. Check them out on eBay! Most are made of bamboo!)

Anyway, we folded them, then put them back into the felt bins I had taken them out of; that was when I thought I was going to use the drawers in the newest cabinets, just inside our bedroom door. Alas, there are too many of them, so into the bin they went. Now, they are all back up on the shelf in the closet, where they started last year;)

In fact, she inspired me to redo my half of our closet, moving all of my blouses up to the top pole, and put whatever slacks, or leggings I have yet to fold, on that second pole. Oh, it also allows me to have plane sight of the shoes I am currently interested in wearing. (Normally, they are under the bed, fighting with the dust bunny population. And losing.) Here is what I mean.

Day before yesterday, we cleaned in our bedroom, Liz, and I. What a chore that was, let me tell you. Yikes! I should have saved all of the dust bunny population to make throw pillows! Hahaha! (No. Seriously!)

I am off to put together some of the things we are taking to LA with us tonight. We are driving up to leave Liz, and Gabi, with her folks for two weeks, as I mentioned earlier. I am very sure that she will be sorely missed here, but greatly enjoyed there.

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

We had hail the other afternoon. Quite a bit, for here. Here is what it looked like.

Earlier, there was a clap of thunder that just about knocked my socks off. Though I enjoy a good thunderstorm, that one took my breath away. It was fun to watch, however.

That was the highlight of the past couple of days. Liz, as I have told you, is helping me keep the apartment clean, and let me tell you, she is a cleaning demon. It is so nice to have someone else around here; she, and Gabi, keep us company while she and I do the cleaning. We only clean an hour or two, usually tackling one room at a time.

She has been coming down two days a week to help me, but now that they are sleeping here, she is here a bit more often. I really appreciate everything she does around here; I know it is too much for me to do on my own. With all of the stuff we still have to go through, though we are making great strides in that department, it is still more than I can manage.

I did not think, at first, that I could have her cleaning somewhere in the apartment, and me be in another room, doing whatever I needed to do, Hah! Everything works just fine. She does her thing, and I do mine. If we are in the bedrooms, we can talk to one another while continuing to work. She is such a joy.

Then, there is Gabi. He spends quite a bit of his time here sitting with Señor Iván, watching his computer programs. Everyone in Jesús’s family calls Ivan Señor Iván, out of respect. Of course, that makes me Señora Diana. It makes us proud.

I am off to try to get a nap before the day begins. I slept almost ten hours night before last, but nothing last night. It is almost six o’clock in the morning, and, with any luck, I can sneak in an hour or two.

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

Post script: did not work. I closed my eyes, but my brain kept taking over. Oh, well. There is always tonight.

While walking in the park the other day, Liz and I had the opportunity to witness a real live superhero in action. It was thrilling, to say the least. He is Sonic, the hedgehog, played, in the following video, by Jesús Gabriel Garcia- we just call him Gabi.

Though he is only four years old, he changes our lives every day. They, Gabi, and his folks, have come to live with us as the size of their dwelling absolutely does not work for them. It makes me feel ashamed to think that the administrator of this building thinks it is acceptable. Believe me, prison cells are bigger.

Anyway, something else I wanted to tell you about are the cuttings I took from a jade plant, in the park, just across the street from our building. All of the jade plants around the park are huge old things that remind of me tortoises; big, leathery shells. The plants themselves have trunks on them with three inch circumferences. Let me see if I can show you what I did with the cuttings.

My plan is to “reallocate” more cuttings later on in the week, as back up. I am in the process of propagating some of the succulents that we have, so back ups are a must. The problem, as I see it head on, is that it takes weeks for the divided portion to take root, and begin its reproduction. It will definitely be a test of my patience3.

I do not know if you can tell in the photo, but the geranium is growing at about a forty five degree angle towards the opening between buildings; nothing is growing straight up. The two jars contain the roots of some cilantro we bought, recently, at a local market.

The roots, most of them, rotted, and were discarded. (I almost was sick to my stomach; the smell was horrible. It was a very good thing they were “out the back”.) The geranium got a face lift, and will, hopefully, recover before the weather changes too much. It looks better, anyway.

That is about all I have to report on for now. See you again, soon. Until then, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

Never say it! Yesterday, I missed my renewal date for this domain site. I have since renewed it, and, I am happy to report, good for three years. I am not sure if I will continue much past that, however.

Three years seems like a long time, especially in these times of lethal viruses; with people bringing allowed to do the horrible things they are doing. It makes me want to become a hermit, which would be quite easily done.

Sorry about that last paragraph; someone will probably decide it was a racist statement.

I am so tired of reading in the news that everything we think, say, or feel is becoming misconstrued as racist ideology. I really could care less what color your skin is. If you are intelligent, then, you are. If you are an idiot, then, you are. The color of your skin is completely irrelevant; to me, anyway. I base my perception of you on the things you say, and do, not what the others of your race do. I expect you to do the same of me.

In no way do I represent all others of the Anglo-Saxon race, nor do I wish to. Each person, as an individual, must represent themselves as they will. I will admit to being an intelligent WASC, living my dream in a part of the world that does not understand what the heck is going on in the USA. I am well educated scholastically, as well as socially, and enjoy being allowed the freedom to express my views when, and how, or if I want, while not being slurred for doing so.

Wow! Tell us how you really feel Diana!

Glad I got all of that off my chest. On to better things.

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

Tai-chi? Tai-Chi Qigong, actually. I am going to give it a whirl, along with the stretching yoga that I am doing.

For example, today, my joints are rather sore from two weeks of stretching, though I must say that I am much more flexible than I was two weeks ago. That having been said, it is not saying much. The girl that I emulate, while forcing my joints to bend farther than they have in years, can touch everything to everywhere! I cannot. Not now, not ever!

Nor do I want to. That is not why I am doing the stretching. I have discovered that I can walk with considerably less discomfort on the days after having stretched the night before, than when I do not stretch. I have also learned that I have to stretch immediately before walking, if I want to do the full two times around the park.

I have to tell you that this quarantine crap is really taking its toll on me. The lack of movement is a slow, and steady trap that my body is finding hard to escape. I feel like I my muscles are slowly being wound with a spiders web; slowly becoming stone. Plus, it hurts to be getting so stiff.

So, now I am going to try Tai-chi Qigong. If it works, great. If not, it is better than sitting around, watching shows on the computer, and getting more stiff by the day.

A very special birthday greeting to my sister, Martha, with whom I got to share all of her wonderful music albums growing up. (I also got to sneak peeks in her desk drawers when she was out of the house, but she never knew that, so do not tell her. She had the neatest stuff!)

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

Unfortunately for all concerned, Juan did not do well the other night.

The apartment is still too disorganized for hime, and he has become too used to the house of his nephew so we had to take him back. He said he enjoyed his stay but felt that Juan needed him at the house, and wanted to return.

As he is not a prisoner, we did just that.

The business with his SS benefits has been cleared up but will take some time to reissue his money. As that money is divided up amongst those taking direct care of him, it will be some time before that can happen. I can only hope they all understand.

While we see how things progress, please, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.