Livingthedreamwithdiana.com

We got to leave our “jail cell” today for a bit so we went to Costco. Of course, I had to use the bathroom. It is the only store we have been to where you can flush the toilet paper. No kidding.

You may think it is funny, but I am here to tell you that it is not! You spend the next year, putting the toilet paper in the waste receptical in the stall, no matter where you go to the bathroom. At home, do the same. Nothing can go down the toilet except biological waste. So, every two to three days we bag up all of the soiled TP, and take it to the basement, and put it in the correct garbage container. Just one other simple thing we took for granted all of our years in the states.

On another subject altogether, we have been communicating with our cousin, Jason, and his very pretty wife, Margie, in Japan. How exciting is that? We are quite interested in visiting Japan, especially now that we are both retired, and, I have our finances worked out. As I told them, Japan has been in our top five places to visit since we were still in high school, deciding all of the most important elements of our future together. They have graciously invited us to visit them in the future. As professionals in their fields, and with three young children, they are very busy, when not in quarantine, that is.

We want to visit Japan first, then, but not necessarily in this order, Great Britain, including Northern Ireland, Spain/Portugal, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Germany, France, possibly Greece, and Morocco. We will probably do the AirB&B route, as we do not socialize well, (as many of you already know), and prefer a more one to one relationship with someone that will take us around, like locals, in whichever region we find ourselves.

When we first started visiting here in Mexico City, I was seventeen, and had just graduated high school. Ivan and I took a bus from Davenport, Iowa, all the way to Mexico City. But stay tuned- that is a story for another post.

What I want to tell you is that each, and every time we visited here, for years, Ivan’s cousins, Marco, and sometimes Juan, would take us all around CDMX, places not known to be touristy. We went to the obvious tourist attractions, too, but those came after the unknown places. Every visit was more amazing than the last. That is what I want to experience when we go abroad.

Now that I have managed a blog site for almost a whole year, I am going to delve into the world of the AIRB&B. Wish me good hunting. It is not like I have something else to do right now, or someplace we have to be. Loving me some more quarantine time.

Stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands. Cover your mouth.

I have to tell you, all we do is sleep, watch the internet, and eat. Another reason I could never be put in jail, or worse, prison. I would kill myself, I am sure.

This seclusion is, as I have said before, making me steadily crazier than I was before this all started. That is saying something. Bored is not even close to how I feel. Since the people from the neighboring condo were taken to the hospital two weeks ago, and two people in the small plaza, in the next block over, died three weeks ago, we are not venturing out like we used to. In fact, we took Juan’s pills over to the house the other day, and I asked Ivan to just drive around for a few minutes so we could see the sun, and feel the fresh air on our skin. It was Heaven.

We are going to venture out tomorrow, and restock our pantry, though, truth be told, we have enough non-essentials to last us until July- if only I knew how to take this, and put it with that, and come up with something amazing. But I do not. Not yet, anyway.

I feel like it has been ages since I was able to cook a decent meal, and I really do not know why I feel that way. For instance, yesterday, we had grilled salmon, with green beans, and mashed potatoes for dinner. Not too bad, I think. It just seems pointless right now. We cannot, and do not, go anywhere, except the store. Oh well. Hopefully this will all be over soon.

Stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands.

I cannot tell you how lightened my spirit has become since I started receiving my SS benefits again.

We have been using our credit cards to purchase quite a bit of the renovation, the upkeep on the vehicles, plus, buying the new appliances for this house, and Juan’s. Now, I have paid off the small cards that we use at the grocery/big box stores, (that way we do not have to exchange money to and from other peoples hands), and have put a rather significant dent into the two cards that have the appliances/reno on them.

Now, I am able to sleep, or not, but if I am not sleeping, it is no longer because I am worried about our debt load. As I see it, we will be, once again, debt free before Christmas this year.

There was a large gathering the other day, in the El Zocolo, the center of CDMX, (Ciudad de Mexico), sending the president of Mexico, Mr. Obradór, off to the Yucatán penninsula for a “vacation”. The cars, driving around the square, had horns blasting, people cheering, banners waving. When I asked our cousin what all of the fuss was about, he said they are hoping he stays there a long time- maybe not to return.

As you may have gathered, he is not well liked here. He made no recommendations about the CoVid19 virus for several months after the US started quarantine. We were allowed to go anywhere, and everywhere for months. Then, a photo was posted of him telling the people here that his religious tokens, called scapular, would protect him from the virus. Nonsense.

Who knows, maybe he has contracted the virus, and does not want anyone to know about it. I hope not, because that is something I do not wish upon anyone.

Stay happy, stay healthy, wash your hands.

But who cares, really? Every day is just like the last one. Except for one thing.

I have all the ingredients, at the same time for BLT’s. Yes, you read that correctly- bacon, lettuce, and slicing tomatoes, plus, a brand new jar of mayonnaise. Oh, and do not forget the bread. We bought a new kind of bread, for us anyway. It is a light, whole wheat that is so soft and tasty. The last bread we tried was whole wheat as well, but too sweet. Yuck.

Yes, I know this is crazy, but we rarely have slicing tomatoes, usually we only buy Roma’s because that is what I use to make sauces, and soups. But, we have found a six pack of slicing tomatoes at Costco, and, after about a week on the counter, they are ready to eat. And they are delicious.

Let me tell you about the lettuce, though, as it was quite the achievement for me. Several weeks ago, we bought a mega pack of Romaine lettuce, at Costco, of course, and it contained six heads of lettuce. We gave two to Enrique, and had the other four in the vegetable crisper drawer for weeks. I kept thinking that I needed to make a salad every day for lunch, but that fell through.

Two weekends ago, I was getting ready to throw out all four heads because they had wilted so badly, then decided to find out what would happen if I soaked them in the disinfectant we use on fresh produce. What was the worst that could happen? They were already ready for the bin.

So, I did just that. I put them in my small salad spinner, filled it with water, and added about a teaspoon of the disinfectant, and left them to sit for the required fifteen minutes. When I returned, they looked they were fresh from the garden. I could not believe it- it worked. I spent about an hour and a half doing all of the lettuce in the spinner, then setting them on kitchen towels to dry off. When they had all been soaked, I used the spinner to finish spinning them dry. Now to preserve what I had done.

Several weeks ago, I purchased a small truck load of the best food storage containers that I have ever used. They are the Rubbermaid Brilliance collection, and they are wonderful. Between those beauties, and the altitude here, I still have about two heads of lettuce that looks, and tastes, as fresh, maybe fresher, than when it is first purchased. The leaves are beautifully green, moist, crisp- nothing short of amazing.

We have had the same thing happen with four loaves of bread we bought way back in April, when we first returned home. It has been in the cupboard for about eight weeks, no joking We have some of one loaf still left, and it has no sign of mold, or drying out at all.

The altitude has to play a major part because I am still having some trouble with my fermentation’s. Nothing seems to want to ferment. Though, when I did a search yesterday about the relationship of altitude to fermentation, the article said that over six thousand feet, it will be likely to take two to three weeks to start a bread or kombucha fermentation. We are at seven thousand fifty feet, or there about, so I am going to keep that in mind while I double my efforts.

Stay happy, stay safe, and stay vigilant.

I was just commenting to Ivan that it was getting so dark, I wondered if it was going to rain. One thing lead to another, and, after opening up the weather app, I changed it from the standard view to the satellite view, and this is what I saw.

I did not realize just how big the park in front of the condo really is. When we walked around it, before the plague, twice around was a mile, or, one and one half kilometers. We have not walked for several weeks now, but you-know-who keeps telling me we will start again, soon. Not soon enough by my estimation.

We have walked, twice, over to Enriques condo to take him food, and that was wonderful. We have gained so much of the weight that we lost, it is depressing. Do not worry about us, though. Once the quarantine is lifted, life will get back to normal, and we will, once again, put on our sneakers, and, our sun visors, and start off, walking, first the inside trail, then the outside trail. I cannot wait. “Normal” life 2.0.

Stay happy, stay healthy, and stay vigilant. This virus is not done with us yet.

We awoke Saturday to find out that we lost a much loved member of our extended family. Dr. Arturo Lara passed away from complications of the CoVid19 virus. He was, as you may remember, one of our cousin Paty’s brothers. If you remember the Halloween photos, he was the one with the axe through his head, and was wearing a blood splattered apron. He is deeply missed.

On a different note, you may be interested to know that I have finally begun receiving my Social Security benefits again. I have been in communication with the US embassy here, well, with one woman in particular, since sometime this past September. It has taken them all of this time, after numerous emails back and forth, to finally get the ball rolling again. But, they did, and that is what matters.

It feels like this quarantine will be coming to an end in the near future. But, as my opening paragraph indicates, the pandemic is not done with us. So, please, keep up your guard, wash your hands, stay home, stay vigilant because the virus is still aggressive. It has not given up, so let us not give up. Not yet. We will get through this.

So, still nothing going on here. How exciting is that? And, as of a few moments ago, we did not have internet. I find that I have been able to survive without many of the luxuries, and indulgences we were used to, but to be without the internet, that is asking too much.

As I type this I am unsure if it is still functioning, or not. I hope it is. If not, I may have to go do some work. I know the stove works, and the fridge, so maybe I will make something for brunch. I am hungry. Plus, I need to re-feed my kombucha today, and that will take most of the day.

I hope all of you are safe, even if boredom is upon you, as it is with us. We may have to start watching GOT’s again.

Wash your hands, cover your mouth and nose, or just stay home. But, be safe, stay smart. Do not let this virus get the better of us.

Post script: one needs to pay ones internet bill in order for one to actually have internet. This is what happens when one is incarcerated for so long. Well, it is saving me from actually having to work anymore today. Win, win.

Happy forty fourth anniversary to my friend, my husband, my love.

Even HE thought he was going to marry someone else. Little did he know that, until he met me, his life was miserable, lackluster, and boring.

When it was time to go to our Junior year Homecoming dance, he had already asked another girl, “Candy” to go. But, as I was walking close to the center of the main hallway, called the “M”, he yelled across the hallway, “hey, Diana, do you want to go to the dance with me?” All the while he thought I would say no. To his surprise I said yes.

Wow. What was he going to do now? He had already asked the other girl, never believing for a moment I would accept. Hah! I got him!

We went to the dance, and, as they say, “the rest is history”.

That was a long time ago, in a land far, far away. But we have been working at this romance for all of these years, with lots of ups, and downs, good times and bad. But we have come through to this time in our lives where we are happy, content, but still able to explore, and share what we like, what we want, and what we can do to please each other.

It has always been, and will always be a give and take relationship. Compromise is the key. We do not take, take, take. No one is happy doing that. We give as well as take. Actually, we both give more than we take. It makes the taking that much sweeter.

Wash your hands, cover your mouths, stay happy, stay safe, stay healthy.

We got quite a little bit done today. Not the towel bars, or the knife racks, but I made my second two gallon jug of Kombucha, plus, we set up our printer/scanner. That was a lot more work then I anticipated, let me tell you.

Setting up the printer was easy peasy. The scanner, however, was not so easy. Well, not until my sister in law, you know her as Mayra, told me about the HP Smart app!!! It saved me tons of time setting up things. She was able to scan some important documents to my email, I printed them, filled in the information that was necessary, and, with her help with the app, I was able to, using my phone, scan them back to her email!!! The twenty first century is amazing, is it not??

We got out for a little while, and went to our favorite store, Costco. Stocked up on tequila, since the president keeps changing the laws regarding its sale, we decided to go big. The last ban has been in place since the beginning of May, and was supposed to go through mid-June. Today, however, we were able to stock up, so we did. Better safe, than sorry. Right? How can anyone go through this incarceration without alcohol. Do not know what that man was thinking.

Anyway, the towel bars will be tomorrow, supposedly. Plus, I have just received another shipment of bottles for my Kombucha, so that will be tomorrow, as well. We stopped and got some fresh fruit from the green grocer, and I will use that, pureed, to put in the bottles for the second fermentation. Yay!

Wash your hands, cover your mouths, stay home, stay safe.

We are actually contemplating putting up the two towel bars in the two main bathrooms, and the knife racks in the kitchen. Oh, and, there is setting up the copier, as well. I am not sure if we are going to attempt all of those things today, or pace ourselves. We have been so busy I have not had time to post anything.

Ha ha ha ha ha. That was funny. It is boring as Hell here, as I can only imagine it must be for some of you, as well. I have voted that we do one thing each day, spread things out a bit. We certainly do not want to do all of that in one day. What will we have to do the rest of the week? We cannot put anything else away until our cupboards, cabinets, and shelves arrive, and that will not be until the end of June, by the sound of it.

Two people contracted CoVid19 in the small plaza where we do some shopping, so we are unwilling to go there for awhile. An ambulance came by day before yesterday, taking someone in the condo next to us, to the hospital. We have no idea why, but it brings everything a little closer to home.

Speaking of home, one of Ivan’s siblings, back in Iowa, my favorite, has also contracted the virus, but, as of yesterday, she is three days post fever and chills, with no respiratory distress, at present. Hoping that she only gets better from here. Love you girlie girl.

So, you see folks, the virus is still going strong, therefore, we need to remain vigilant at all times. Though it is difficult for us to leave the condo, we do so only when absolutely necessary.

Recently, there has been a restriction put in place, that, due to our age, we cannot go into many of the stores down here except between the hours of 7am-9am, and only one family member at a time. Really? Who in the heck gets up at that time of day anymore? We certainly do not, that is a fact.

Well, wash your hands, stay home, learn how to cook something new, and different. Try baking your own bread. We are back to brewing kombucha, but our sourdough just does not do well at this altitude, for some reason. I have ordered a culture from here in Mexico City, and, hopefully, that will survive. I will let you know how that goes.

Best wishes to all of you. Stay safe, stay happy, stay healthy.