Hard to believe that I'm in the home stretch now and what a whirlwind it has been. The first week of March was full of appointments, doctors, nails, other beauty appointments, (I have eyebrows, eyelashes and lips now!) CT scan, and Dana had dental appointments but we will get to some of the details a little later.
Dana and I took a drive so she could see even more of the coastal communities and we went out to Telchac Puerto. Its another small community on the Gulf and she was amazed at how big the area actually is. As we passed through the village, sure enough she spotted a liquor store so I had to circle the block and come back. I waited in the Jeep and she went in. It took her a bit to come back so I knew she must have succeeded in finding what she was looking for. She had successfully bought out all her preferred wine in and around Progreso and had not been able to find more. Sure enough I see her heading for the trunk with a box in her arms. She bought a case to bring home and I was laughing my ass off at her. She gets in the Jeep proclaiming "don't judge" and I said "I'm not, I'm laughing, did you leave any for the locals?" She did but probably not much. Just so she doesn't sound wine dependent, the stock in our town is not that great, so you need to get it while you can. It has been a running joke that she is emptying the shelves. On the way back we stopped at the pink salt flats so that Dana could see it. She was amazed with the colour of the water and how they collected the salt from the small lakes. It was cooking out so we didn't wander around long and headed home so she could enjoy her wine.
We went to a surprise birthday party for our friend and new landlady Andria. The night started out great and she was surprised. Typically you can't get anything past her but her husband did this time. They had a live band that was amazing and food, just bring your own drinks. Shortly after dinner the mumbling started and we were watching the lightening in the distance. Sure enough, the skies opened up and most of the people bailed and went home but the diehards stayed and continued to party under a couple of the pop up gazebos. Most were huddled under the larger one but a few moved to the back one where the food had been. This one was not in the best of shape and we had to keep pushing the water off the top causing huge splashes everywhere and everyone was getting wet anyways. Eventually it collapsed and everyone was under one. The street flooded, the patio was soaked and our feet were drenched also. There were water fights going on between folks and I ended up in one of them with one of the local waiters. By the time we called an Uber to get home, my purse, feet and pants were soaked and I looked like a drowned rat. When I went to get in the Uber, my pants stuck to the seat and they ripped. I was pissed as I really liked those pants although Dana is going to try and repair them when she can find some matching thread.
We got the electric bill for the past 2 months and just about had a heart attack. It was $7000 pesos roughly $550 CDN and we barely use any. I'm the only one with AC in my room and I barely use it, we don't put any lights on until dark and then it would only be the patio light where we sat. It really didn't make much sense. I contacted the house owner to see if she could look into it as the bill that arrived when I first got here and the house was empty was even more. There wasn't much she could do so we were stuck paying it.
I had a fight with my Wise card and it would not work for me. I finally contacted them and was told it was locked as I entered the wrong PIN too many times. It may have been once as some of their POS machines scramble the numbers on the keypad but I know I only might have screwed up once. It was an easy fix thou, I just had to go to an ATM and ask for a balance check and it was good to go.
So on to the appointments. I went in to get my legs waxed and Dana was with me. Somehow we convinced her to get her lip waxed instead of tweezing it. She saw me laying there with no reaction so she figured she could handle it. Well we got her on the bed when I was finished and Gaby went to work. she started on the first side and when she pulled the strip off Dana exclaimed "SON OF A BITCH!!" extremely loud. Gaby and I both broke out in laughter. Dana didnt have much choice but to let her finish. When she pulled the second half off Gaby put her hand over Dana's mouth, both to keep her quiet and to soothe the burn. Dana refuses to ever do that again.
I went to see a doctor to both have a skin tag removed from the back of my leg and to see if she had any insight into my disability. The skin tag was quick and relatively painless. As for the long covid, she sent me for a CT Scan, wrote a script for some more natural alternatives and made some other suggestions to follow up with. I did go back to see her for the results of the scan and she has given more suggestions going forward. I will follow up with her on my return. As for the CT Scan, I contacted the radiologist for an appointment, went in and had it done, paid $180 and I had the full results report and images within 7 hours. The system here is way better then home and I can't wait to return to see if they can actually help improve my situation.
We had a new tattoo artist come to the house and Dana had one done and then he fixed the mess of my right leg. He came for a follow up and filled in the back of my leg. The coverup is not perfect but it is way better then it was and having the back completed it is way better.
So I have been keeping quiet but I have been going on dates with locals. I went into Merida the night before Danas family were to arrive. I was almost home and a text pops up from Dana but I did not listen to it. As I was pulling into Progreso, I get a call from Greg and Michele (my parents friends that were here for 2 months) I answered it and Greg fills me in that I'm needed immediately at home. Dana is having a meltdown as her family missed their flight. Shit! How to ruin a good evening. Their flight was scheduled to leave at 1215am on the 18th. Her daughter thought it was midnight on the 18th. Okay, semantics, but they were 20 hours late for their flight and all the flights the next day were already full. I got in the door, told Dana to get me some wine while I changed and I would be back to help get them organized. I managed to get them on a flight with flair to Cancun the next evening, it would just mean that we would have to leave at 5am to get there to pick them up and approximately 8 hours of driving for me. Well this turned into a bit of a shitastrophe. Cancun is approximately 3.5 to 4 hours away. I have done the drive in around 3. Their flight was arriving around 715am, but with deplaning, customs and baggage, I figure we had an extra hour before they were out of the airport. So leaving at 5 should get us there by 830, in perfect time. When I got up that morning and woke Dana, I realized I had forgot the time zone change between states and that it was actually 6am there. Well pedal down and I drove better then the Mexicans and pulled it off in 2.5 hours. The highway was quiet and no checkpoints to deal with and the Ruby turned into a sportscar. Their reunion was great and we started their adventures in the Yucatan when we left the airport. They all crashed for the hour drive to Valladolid to get something to eat.
We then went to some ruins that are not as touristy as Chichen Itza. We went to Ek Balam and it was amazing. Even thou my legs would allow me to walk up the ruins and Dana didn't have the energy, her granddaughter did go to the top of the main pyramid. It was amazing to see the history within the ruins. Her youngest granddaughter kept asking to go home to the pool and i finally snapped and warned her that if she asked again she would not be allowed. not even 5 minutes later the words start to come out of her mouth and Dana and I (in one of our all too frequent same track thoughts or verbal comments - sorry LJ, D and I are way too close now) at the same time start to shush her and her oldest goes into a full blown panic, dancing, swatting and freaking out (thinking something fell from the trees) and in a delayed reaction the youngest turns tail and runs a few hundred feet thinking something attacked her sister. Dana and I laughed so hard, we could not explain what was going on. It was so funny. We left the ruins and took the scenic way back instead of the highway. The girls all napped out again on the way.
Kahlua had her first encounter with an iguana. A couple of them were on the wall and fell onto the patio. One of them made a bolt for it but the other sat there for a minute, until Kahlua figured it out and the chase was on. Damn those suckers can move and gave Kahlua a run for her money. That little lizard made a beeline across the patio and yard and up the side of the house with Kahlua hot on its tail. The iguana ran up the side of the house and scaled the metal gate (covered in chicken wire) and was clinging to the side of the corner of the house. The house was smooth so not sure what he was holding on to, but then he dropped and fell into the neighbours yard.
On our return trip to take Danas family to Cancun airport we came across an accident and traffic was moving slowly in the left lane. As we got closer, Dana said there is a car in the ditch, then we see a semi on its side in the ditch. There is vehicles lined up on the side of the road and on the side road that runs along the highway, cars, tuk tuks and bikes everywhere. People on the side of the road, the highway and in the middle trying to cross the median. As we see the semi, a man emerges from the ditch with a pig carcass on his shoulder, then we see a pile of pork on the side of the road. Well wouldn't you know but the pig truck crashed and the grapevine has gone into full swing. The whole community has come out to get them a free side of pork!!! Well needles to say the pig jokes start flying and we laughed for miles about it. We thought we should have stopped and strapped one to the roof rack!
We got to Cancun and spent the night and dropped the girls off early the next morning for our return trip to the beaches.
We have both been taking Spanish lessons and I'm getting pretty good. Maybe I will become conversational.
I will try and get one more post in about the month of April. I will be leaving on the 21st and returning on my own (with Kahlua of course) and I will do my best to blog each night of my trip back. I have an rv pad booked and paid for when I get there and already have appointments stacking up. I have a 2 day cognitive and functional assessment for LTD at the beginning of the month.
Anyways until the next edition,
Bromistas y Deseos,
from Kahlua and I
