Livingthedreamwithdiana.com

I must tell you that I have become quite the computer geek.

I have a small computer arsenal at my disposal, and, on the weekends, they all come in handy, as I play in the “Wordscapes” tournaments, starting Friday evenings, through Sunday evening.

Of course, while I am doing that, I watch, or, listen to, rather, whatever show I am currently watching, on one of my other devices. So, while I have two computers working, one is charging. When one of the computers I am using looses battery power, I swap it out for a charged computer. Currently, I have my iPhone, an iPad mini, and an iPad Pro 11”. The Pro is charging, so I am using the mini to type this post, and am watching/listening to “Battlestar Gallactica”, on my iPhone, with earbuds. (Hubby is currently napping. It is hard work getting older!”

You may be interested to know that I am currently in first place in the tournament, and I won last weeks tournament as well. Yay for me. I am sure I am only competing with myself, or the computer, because, if I do not sign in until Sunday afternoon, no was has any more points than do I. It took me some time to figure out, but, that is fine with me. It keeps my mind sharp, or, I guess, sharper than if I did not play.

While I am beating the others socks off, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

I just have to laugh. Ivan, and I were watching a relative of his on FB, name unnecessary, and, Ivan was talking about different things they had done as younger men. I saw his picture on FB, and I thought, I know that guy- when he was younger. But, that was not his name. I am sure that his name was not Eddie.

Actually, Eddie could have been his name, but, it was a name I could not associate with his face. Why? Because there is not a Mexican kid, in the US, that goes by their given name. In fact, I did not know my in-laws real names for years.

Let me show you what I mean.

Edmundo was Mundo (pretty close). Ivan was Néne (not anywhere close). Yolanda- Chacha (What)? Gloria- Kiki (cannot help you, not even a little), Reynaldo- Bebon- (not going to try), Miriam- (Maráya), Maria- (Mayra Galla, my favorite. Ivan was the only one to call her that), Moises- Mo (easiest to figure out, except Ivan called him Mandamientos), and last, Rodrigo – Rog.

It was years, seriously, before I knew that Chacha was really Yolanda, or, even harder, Kiki, was really Gloria.

So, tonight, Ivan was looking at some FB posts, and I saw who he was checking out and I said “I know him. Who is he?”. Well, I could clearly see that he was Eddie, but he did not look like Eddie. This guy looked like Kino, not Eddie. I said as much and Ivan said that it was indeed Kino.

Well, for crying out loud. Do you not think, that after fifty years together, I could get some sort of syllabus that could tell me who the heck we grew up with as such and such, and what their real names are? Please? There are so many family members that I knew only as their nicknames, and never their family names, that I would enjoy being with, by means of FB, but did not know their real names.

Actually, it makes me chuckle, because, I, for one, only had a nickname as far as my dad was concerned. No one else ever called me anything but Diana, or Di, except Dad. He always called me DiddleyDi. It makes my heart swell, just typing the name. It made me his, and no one else’s.

Not until you know who came along, that is. We all know what happened after I met him! So, while you contemplate all of what came after that, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, protect your loved ones.

Our neighbor knocked on our door today. She spoke to me in a rapid Spanish that I could not understand. She indicated that she was going to get her husband, and I said, I’m sorry, but NO. I was not going to talk to her husband.

We have been complaining that their dogs have been bringing in so much dirt, and mud, that Jesús can’t keep up, cleaning the floor, and the stairs. He tries, but, even he feels he can’t keep up.

What are they dragging into the condo with their dogs? (Plural!!) We come up the steps, hours later, and there is mud, all over the stairs.

Ivan is talking to the administrator, and our friend, Claudia, as I type this. Hopefully, he will have some sort of impact on what is going on. He usually does.

Speaking of cleaning, we were walking through Costco the other day, when we came upon some collapsible laundry baskets. When asked if I would like a couple of them, I, of course, jumped at the chance. In our limited space, we need all of the “collapsible” we can get. So, we got two.

Though we have one hundred twenty square meters (almost thirteen hundred square feet) of living space, we are limited in our storage, as are most people. So, once the quarantine is over, Luis, and Martín are coming back to finish putting in cabinets in our bedroom, our bathroom, and shelves in the living room. That should help us unload the black and yellow totes we have all over the place.

When they finish the construction, I will post more photos of the transition. Until then, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

I HAVE A NEW TOOTH WHERE THE HUGE HOLE HAS BEEN IN MY MOUTH FOR WEEKS!!!

I do not know if you read the post, some time back, when I lost a filling, the last metal filling in my mouth, in my “tooth from Hell”. La Dentista (Priscila) filled it, temporarily, with some horrid something that smelled, and, even worse, tasted like a mouthful of cloves. I accidentally swallowed it. Well,

My tooth is better than new. La Dentista spent about thirty minutes, picking, and scraping, a home for the new silicone “implant”. She had taken a mold of the offending tooth, sent it to the lab she uses, and implanted the new tooth this morning.

That tooth has been my “tooth from Hell” most of my adult life. Now, it is as it always should have been. She is a marvel. Seriously.

I have said this before, and, I am going to say it again- her hands are so steady, no shaking, ever. It makes it so much easier for me to relax. We just love her. (You know I loathe going to the dentist.)

Now that that trauma is over, we are on out way to the dealership to drop off papers. Always more paperwork. It is taking forever to get approved, or not.

While we wait to hear the verdict, please, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

There is nothing quite like the ubiquitous, delicious, unavailable baked potato.

Here, there are only two types of potatoes- sweet, and thin skinned white. There is no other potato in this area. It was discovered that those two types grew best in this climate, though I would disagree most heartily. If I can grow white, red, and bakers, they should be able to here. Who is with me?

I told Ivan yesterday that, whenever we go up North again, one of the first things I have to eat, is a baked potato with butter and salt.

Until then, enjoy your baked potatoes, and, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

I do not understand how someone can sit at their desk, and talk on the phone, in a private conversation, while they have clients, sitting across from them, and a half dozen others, outside, waiting to be served.

Wow! Sorry about that, but, I just had to get that all out of my system. It does not help to keep it all bottled up inside. I have a cold sore the size of Texas to prove it.

Let me explain the tirade.

In my last post I told you that we had to go to the bank this morning, to undo my mistake. The bank opens at 10:00 so we were there at 9:40, hoping to get in, rather sooner, than later. To no avail. One stands in line and waits ones turn.

Thirty minutes we waited to get inside, another twenty minutes to get to a desk. Behind said desk was the individual of whom I wrote in the beginning. Twenty five minutes she was on the phone, chuckling away at someone, unknown on the other end of the phone, while we sat, as patiently as humanly possible, (though, I confess, I was giving her the stink eye the whole time).

Finally, though, still on the phone, she printed the one page of our account that we needed. We choked out a thank you and left.

We are taking our transactions to the dealership tomorrow morning so they can approve or deny the purchase of the BMW. While we wait for that, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Cover your mouth, wash your hands, protect your loved ones.

Post script: my account mishap was corrected by the time we sat down, to wait for the first twenty minutes. Thought you might enjoy knowing that.

Okay, so I messed up. Sue me!

We need the transactions, all of them, from our bank account down here, in order to “finish” the loan application, for the new BMW.

Sooooo, I downloaded the app for HSBC.MX, and started working on registering us online. Of course, it is all in Spanish, so I did the best I could with what I know. That said, I was able to get in, get our information, get a security thumb print to open the account, and, signed out. When I went to sign in again, well, that is when

That is when it hit the proverbial fan. Somehow, I forgot one of the passwords, three times, so it locked the online access. Fine. Let me defend myself by saying, somewhere in the signing up on this website, it asked me for a usuario, (username), and a contraseña, (password). Fine. I did that. Then, I remember, it wanted me to make an eight digit password, which could consist of lower case letters, and numbers. So, I did that. When I was supposed to use that password, I have no recollection. The original password, the wrong one that I used three times, that locked the account, that must have needed the eight digit password. To my thinking, eight digits are a whole lot easier to remember than the twelve digit password I used incorrectly. Ugh!

So, Ivan called the number, plastered on the webpage, making me look like a computer dummy, but they were unable to help me “reset my damn password”. So not like in the States. I am not sure if this way is better, or worse, because now I look like some stupe, someone who cannot use the internet properly.

We have to go to the principals office, (the bank), on Monday morning to have them release the account. I want to show them the one hundred fifty plus websites I have usernames, and passwords for, and ask them if they could set up their bank account in English, without anyone else’s help.

Okay, I feel a bit better, but, still cannot access. Until Monday, until I can access out bank account, you know what to do. Stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, protect your loved ones.

One cannot hope to see a more welcoming sign than this. I doubt it even needs much in the way of translation, does it?

Since they were not open Tuesday, (my actual birthday), and today is Saturday, (the sign, just above, shows a special – one kilo. of assorted meat, with all of the other things, cilantro, onions, tortillas, etc., for three hundred and fifty pesos), so, we got 2 kilos of the mix, (surtida), 3 dozen tortillas, several containers of different salsas, a container, each of cilantro with diced onions, and limes. All in celebration of my birth. Yay for me. This is what it all looked like.

And, last, but not least, is this little gem. Actually, there were three of these, and two of sesos (brains, which were amazing). The photo is of a fried taco, made up of the little pieces of pork that fell to the bottom of the cutting board. You know, those little bits that you cannot throw away, but, as a restaurant, you really cannot sell them either? So, they were included in our order.

We have finished our dinner, and are now at home. It was a long afternoon, but, enjoyable all the same. At the moment, I am recharging my bigger iPad Pro fully, so I can watch something on it.

Until that happens, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, protect your loved ones.

Today, our favorite neighbor, Claudia by name, (she lives in the apartment directly above us), came to ask us a question. Where could she buy the same “máscaras” (masks), we have? Anywhere close to the condo?

Let me say, here, and, now, she is the best person in this whole condominium! Ideals, moral compass, social conscience- like ours.

At the first meeting we had, here, last November, we realized she had the same morals, and values that we had. We feel, as does she, that the rules we all are supposed to abide by, rules made, and agreed upon by the association committee, should be enforced for all dwellers of this condominium. We have all purchased our apartments, however, those that chose to rent their spaces to outsiders, need to make it clear, to said renters, the rules will be followed, or they will be asked to leave.

That brings us to the subject of having animals in the condominium. The rules say that only those living here before 2017 are allowed to keep the animal(s) they had, but are not allowed to purchase new animals when the originals pass.

Our neighbors have two dogs that, on most nights, bark, off and on, for hours. The administrator is in the process of contacting the owner of the apartment, to have him come and tell these people to get rid of the dogs, or move. As he is making money on the rental of the apartment, he is slow in getting over here to give them the ultimatum. We do our best to shut our bedroom window, durning the “barking hour”. As soon as possible, we open it back up. The fresh air is soothing.

Until we get the dogs out of the condominium, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, protect your loved ones.

Strike one. We went to the bank today, asking for a loan on the BMW. Nope. We do not have any credit here in México, only our checking account. We understand. We were in the same place about thirty years ago. How strange- being declined for any kind of loan! It has been so long since we were denied credit! We have worked so hard to get, and keep our credit score high. This is not the United States, however!

Off we go, to talk to the people at the dealership, to see if they will finance the loan for us. I will let you know.

We have been given more papers to fill out, and, return. We may, now, also, need a co-signer, because we have not been able to establish any credit, yet.

We will, in good time.

Now, we are, once again, standing in a queue, waiting for entrance to our bank.

After forty minutes, we have, finally, gotten inside the bank. Again, as usual, there are two women at their desks, but only one of them is taking care of clients. I cannot tell you how annoying this is.

According to the law, we could not apply for any credit until we had been here one year. We just passed one year last week. Ivan, today, applied for a credit card with our bank. He feels comfortable that he has been approved.

Tentative good news, as of nine o’clock tonight, we may have been accepted for the loan, by the dealership. Ideal? No. However, we will be paying off the loan in two years, with what we consider a “minimal interest cost”. If we receive the car by next week, it will be a win-win!

When this happens, you will the next to know. Until then, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Cover your mouth, wash your hands, protect your loved ones.