I'm Back

Just being really lazy lately about blogging, wasn't feeling good and just didn't' have the energy I guess.  Well, it's an excuse anyway.
I was having trouble with one ear almost a month ago and finally went to a Dr. and got a weeks worth of antibiotics, that didn't work so returned and got another weeks worth.  In the meantime I went to Phoenix with a couple of friends for a few days. We had a good time there meeting and having dinner with some relatives of mine and also shopping.  I bought 4 bags of red licorice and we ate them in a few days, should have bought more lol.
  When I returned the ear was still not good so returned again to the Dr..  She checked it out and decided that it was still inflamed and sent me to a specialist that same day, as she said she couldn't do anything else for me.  The specialist checked it all out and decided that I needed to go to the dentist and get a mouth guard as he decided that I have TMJ or something similar.  He gave me a prescription for aniti-inflammatory medicine and something else to stop the first one from bothering my stomach, cost of the specialist was 500 pesos or about $41.55 CAD.  In the meantime I got the flu so had to cancel my dentist appt. for a few days.  After I got over the flu I called the dentist for an appt. and had him check me out.  He couldn't find any other problems so did an impression for a mouth guard and told me to return in a few days as he was going out of town.  Returned on Friday for the mouth guard, got heck from him for not taking the anti-inflammatory meds., paid him 800 pesos for the mouth guard (about $66.47 CAD) and went on my merry way.  I found out by experimentation that the pills that were to protect my tummy from the other ones were the ones bugging me, so I cut those out and am fine on only the anti-inflammatory ones.  Go figure!  Anyway whether it is the mouth guard that I wear at night or whether it is the pills, my jaw/ear are feeling much better, thank goodness.
Still going to Spanish class once a week and also have started going back to help the children with their English.  I think there was only one day last week that I wasn't uptown, that is crazy for a homebody like me.
I got some yarn and have been doing some crocheting also, so have been busy.
It is cold here and we are freezing to death, some kind of cold front up north and right now at 12 noon it is only 21 C., crazy weather is a month early compared to other years.
The shrimp festival was held in San Carlos on Saturday and we were just to lazy to go, so no new pictures to show.

Heading For Phoenix

I am just getting ready to head to Phoenix, Arizona for a few days.  A friend of mine here has a friend visiting from England and her flight leaves from Phoenix in a day or so.  My friend wanted company for the trip back here so I volunteered.  I had been thinking of going there soon anyway, so this seemed an opportune moment.
I have family in Phoenix that I have never met.  My one uncle moved to the USA when I was approximately 1 yr. of age and by the time my mom and dad could take time out of their lives and could afford to travel far I was long gone from home.  One of my cousins and I have been in contact by email for the last while and I really would like to meet up with her and the rest of the family.  I had discussed heading up there over USA Thanksgiving as some of my other relatives from Canada will be there at that time; but when this opportunity arose I decided to go now when it was convenient.  Travelling with friends will surely be more fun than by bus and besides we have decided to have a shopping day also, how could I resist that?  I think Roy is happy about it as well, (he volunteered me for the trip immediately lol, hmmmm maybe I should think about this eh?)  Somehow I don't think the bus trip, listening to a bunch of strangers recount old family history, etc. was really his cup of tea lol.
The husband (along with a partner), of one of my cousins has several Italian restaurants in Phoenix and we will be dining at one of them one evening.  The restaurants are the Red Devil Italian Restaurants so that should be good, it has been awhile since I have had good Italian food.
Hoping to have a good time.
My mom is doing a bit better yesterday, she has had several not so good days so hearing that she finally had a good day was nice.  She has a feeding tube and is not speaking so is in for a long rehabilitation road again and this time she knows the route so is also somewhat depressed which is not good.  My sister is there and also my brothers sometimes.

The Party Continued

This afternoon there was a knock on the door and when I opened it the older granddaughter from across the street stood there with a table centerpiece from the party last night.  I thanked her and she left.  Shortly after there was another knock on the door and there stood the little birthday girl with 2 bags of candy.  We had left the party before the bags of sweets and centerpieces were handed out, so the girls personally delivered them to us.

The Party

We went to the party last night for awhile.  Wasn't feeling great so we didn't stay for a long time.  There were a lot of people there; probably over a hundred.  The salon de eventos has playground equipment and they had also brought in a couple of those blown up bouncy house things.  They had 2 ponies there giving the kids rides and also a clown/magician that put on a show for the kids at one point.  There was a live band, one which is quite popular here.  They had a hot dog man giving the kids hot dogs and had a hot meal for the adults.  Beverages and snacks flowed freely.  I tried to get a photo of the birthday girl; but she wasn't having it, every time I tried she would turn away.  She looked really cute with her hair all done up and a long, gorgeous white dress.

Alan and Diego with one of the ponies.













My mom had her swallow test this morning and I guess it did not go well, so they are going to try again this afternoon.  She also had another CT scan, so we will see what if anything that shows.  Her blood pressure fluctuates and they are working on the meds, yet again.  Only time will tell I guess.  Hoping for the best.

Mom

My mom had another stroke last night.  They did a CT scan and it didn't show any bleeds so they gave her the "clot buster" drug and will do another CT scan on Monday along with a swallow test.  She is not talking again; but her writing is legible so that is better than the last time.  Her mind is good and she is writing notes to everyone saying what things she wants brought to her.  It has been less than 24 hrs. since the stroke so at this point it is still a waiting game.
I have what I think is a nasty ear infection.  Ear is aching, jaw is aching and neck is stiff and sore, hot and cold spells, so I am not doing much of anything.
Update on the Telmex guys and their new post at the neighbors place.  The other day they came back and tied the old post to the new one and added some ropes and a pulley to the whole thing.  One guy began chopping at the old pole with an ax and shortly thereafter they lowered the old pole to the ground with the pulley mechanism. Worked pretty slick.  Loaded the old pole onto their trucks and away they went.

We are supposed to go to the neighbors grand daughters baptism/birthday party tomorrow, so I went uptown and got a gift yesterday.  Will see how I feel tomorrow and decide if we will go or not.  I don't like to miss this one as the last party they threw I had a splitting headache and stayed home so don't like to miss this one too.  We will see.

Just Another Day

When we came home from San Carlos it seemed that our refrigerator was not cooling, the freezer part was working fine; but the frig part was not cool.  We shut it off for awhile thinking that maybe it had frozen up with the door not being opened for 5 days; but that didn't help.  We turned it to a cooler temperature, didn't help either.  We decided that the fan had probably quit working.
About 3 blocks from us is a repairman.  We had taken our electric frying pan to him when the switch went and he honestly told us that he probably couldn't get a new switch as it was from Canada.  We left it with him for a couple of days and when we returned he explained to us that he just couldn't find a new switch that would work.  Since then every time we see him on the street he says hello or waves to us.  We decided to try him first.  We wandered over there and explained what we thought was the problem.  He said that he could come over soon and Roy waited for him while I continued on to the store to pick up a couple of things.  I assumed that I would be back before he arrived at our place as "ahorita" (soon), doesn't always mean that soon.  When we were there before I had spoken to him in Spanish and he had also spoken in Spanish, naturally.  When I arrived home, he had already been there and left.  Roy said that the repairman had spoken to him in English.  Too funny.  Anyway he had taken the fan out and said that he would be back in an hour or so.  Sure enough about an hour later he returned with another fan, put it in and it worked.  Cost:  200 pesos for the fan, 150 pesos for labor for a total of 350 pesos, which is about $28.05 CAD.  The frig is working perfectly.
Yesterday we heard some commotion outside and as good, snoopy neighbors we had to have a look.  There were 2 Telmex trucks parked at a neighbors home.  Just ordinary 1/2 ton trucks with the toppers on the truck beds.  On the top of one of the trucks was a long wooden telephone pole.  The hole was already dug, we had missed that part somehow.  Anyway they backed the truck with the pole on it up close to the pole and lowered the one end into the hole.  They then slowly backed the truck up so that the pole slid off of the truck and stood in the hole.  One man then steadied the pole while the other shoveled in the dirt, tamped it down and voila it was in place.  One guy then climbed the pole while the other guy threw him up the stuff he needed.  It didn't take long and soon they were gone.  A job well done.  No heavy equipment needed.







































We were downstairs chatting with the landlords last night and our landlady was telling me about a new coffee that she had seen advertised on TV and heard good things about.  It is made by Nescafe and is an instant coffee.  They are advertising  that it has twice the antioxidants in it that green tea has.  She gave us a couple of packets and we tried it this morning.  We thought the taste was OK; but that it was pretty weak.  If we used it again we would put 2 packages in for 1 cup.  I need to google it to see what all the hype is about.  Interesting though as the package only lists 100% soluble coffee as ingredients.
Anyway that was the day.