In Memory Of My Boy

It has been three months since you've been gone, my sweet baby. Not one day goes by that you are not in my thoughts.
I cannot express how much my heart still mourns. I am comforted by knowing you are at home, and at peace, and you know how much you are loved.
Mommy

Ratzo

My darling baby, Freddy, passed the Friday after Thanksgiving, 11/28/08. We made the decision to let him rest as he had fought a long, hard battle with Cushings Syndrome. It was gut-wrenching to see him getting worse everyday, and there is no cure for this ugly disease. The tumor in his pituitary gland would eventually compromise his system and send him into convulsions. He never reached that point, but he required almost 24/7 care, and I spent countless sleepless nights as his condition worsened.

I knew he was ready on Thanksgiving Day. We were on the bed watching TV, and I turned to look at him. I knew he was staring at me. We stared at each other for a few minutes. He then started to cry and tremble. I wrapped his favorite red fleece blanket around him, but he could not be comforted. This lasted for several minutes, which in the end, I became frantic and sobbing. I knew then and there, at that moment, Freddy was letting me know that he was ready, and it was time.

I can't go any further with the Freddy saga. I cannot type with tearful eyes.

SO ANYWAY-

On 12/11, we take the plunge and go to the Dog Pound and pick out two dogs. Snickers- a golden lab mix who eventually we gave another to a family, and Ratzo- no one knows what she is. Snickers was too pretty not to be adopted and poor Ratzo was the opposite in every way.

Ratzo was malnourished, recently delivered puppies, was scrawny and smelly, hairless on the bottom half of her body, bony bald elbows complete with a big, long, gray rat tail. She hunched up as she walked, was very skittish, always flipping over on her back when approached; she was obviously abused and still carries the numerous emotional and physical scars. ( It sickens me. I'll just say that the bastard who inflicted such pain on this poor animal should be tied up around the neck for a long time, like he did her and shit-kicked, like he did her.) Enough of that...I don't want to start my morning with bummer thoughts.

Now, just 2 1/2 months later, she seems more relaxed, happy in her new digs, and has gotten plumpish. She still cowers a bit and flips over on her back often when she becomes nervous. We love her and try to let her know she is safe now.

I have submitted photos of Ratty-Roo for your viewing pleasure...

This is Ratzo on 12/12. Check out her teats.

Here's pretty, sweet, gentle Snickers on 12/12.


Ratzo on 12/30, Still bald in the elbows, but growing hair.

Here's Ratty yesterday during our morning beach walk.

House update: We're still experiencing some plumbing problems, but for the most part we believe the water issue is now under control. It's amazing how much time and effort we've put into this house that we're only renting. Bob and I have also discussed cleaning up the empty lot next door. It's become a bit of a dumping ground, and I see evidence that the painters who were working here also contributed to the mess. I'll need to find my hiking boots, and thank God I brought from the US these heavy-duty thick red leather work gloves, just in case nasty critters call the lot "home". (Curious... I'm wondering just why I brought down those gloves? With all the massive amounts of stuff we gave away, why did I feel those ugly and too-big for me gloves merited a coveted space in our Windstar???) Go figure.

Bye for now.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE DON'T HAVE WATER?

Monday night was a true beach circus.

I'm not even sure exactly how to explain it all. This house has two water underground reservoirs plus a water tank on the roof that requires a pump to fill. All I know is that mid afternoon, we had no water. Yeah- no water for flushing, cleaning, etc. El zippo.

I heard that our side of the city was temporarily shut off due to construction, and I also heard that the main water pipe was damaged by the construction workers. Same hassle regardless. Thanks to our good friend, Carlos, who is also our Go-To-Mr.-Fixer, that water problem was pretty much under control by 11:00pm.

I am constantly amazed by the resourcefulness and absolute ingenuity of the local folks. They can fix anything. The water job started at 6:30 pm, and night was approaching. I'm thinking, Oh, shit, were' going to have all this equipment and tools strewn all over the front of the house, they'll need to come back sometime in the next few days to finish...this is going to take forever... Boo-hoo for me. And also, I could not have been more wrong.

Anyone that really knows me, knows that I like a neat and tidy living area. I can't stand clutter, dirty stuff, etc. I'm always looking at my surroundings, and if it doesn't look pleasing to my eye, I'll fix it until it does. I'm constantly sweeping, wiping, dusting, and rearranging. I know Bob secretly thinks I'm crazy, obsessive, and overly-dramatic. I blame this curious condition on my Peri-Menopause. I wasn't always like this... but that's another post or two!!)

ANYWAY... So in my mind, I'm thinking there's going to be a big truck that suctions water and stuff, maybe a water truck to fill up our wells, also a cement truck as well as several workers. Wrong again.

Three men and a 12 year old showed up. Of course, Bob and Carlos had to go out and buy big long tubes, water faucet gadgets, and more hardware things that I have no idea what they were. The guys started by moving these two huge cement slabs that covered this large square tunnel that went about 35 or so feet down into the ground.

As it got dark, they rigged up a lighting system because one guy had to descend the deep, dark hole. That in itself was amazing as the ladder that they had in the tunnel did not reach to the top, and so he had to kinda straddle down several feet using only these tiny foot holds. I was fascinated. I didn't think his legs were long enough. They were, and this guy was a trooper, and after he was down in the bottom of this well, the men on the ground lowered two big long tubes, a skinny and fat one, and also a short tube. They rigged up some sort of a suction system with the short tube tied to a long rope, and the man underground was jumping on the fat tube to make it sink further into the ground while at the same time bringing up all kinds of sediment and rocks in the short tube. The skinny long tube was rigged into the fat one to eventually bring up fresh ground water. They went down another 20 feet or so .

Anyway, 5 hours and almost $2000 pesos later, we had water. Well, we sorta had water because the next morning there was an issue with our city water well, which Bob and Carlos had been working on until yesterday afternoon. More parts were needed, and I did a quick run into Cd.Colima yesterday early am. Now, we're almost home free as we will be checking the water tank on top of the roof today.

Below are some pictures of our "Agua Men" :

Today, we're discussing what to do to resolve our pigeon problem. Carlos found five nests including one with babies on top of the terrazza roof. Needless to say, baby bird nest is still there and so is Momma and a few friends. The Momma's cooing to the youngsters is lovely, the dropping are not.

Tomorrow is our boogie-boardin' beach day. YEAH!!!! The waves are high and strong in the afternoons, "real riddin' waves", as Bob calls them.

Bye for now.

At Home

Weeelll,
We made it down. I received a call a week from yesterday that the Internet would be up and running in a few days here at the beach. Now we're talkin'!! Our weeks of living amongst boxes and just the bear essentials were coming to a close. We kicked it up into high gear, now packing away the semi-essential things and still maintaining our work schedule.
Our landlord finally came through with the moving truck and scheduled the move for 8:30am Saturday. Well, we received this piece of news on Friday evening. I also had to schedule a last minute cleaning of the beach house, etc, etc, etc. (Although this shouldn't be difficult to accomplish, I can't begin to tell you how many calls this one simple task entailed.)
The movers show up on time in an open air truck, very tall sides, old, and dirty. I looked on the inside, and it was full of planty-looking things and LOTS of dirt. I gently suggested that they clean it out as I grabbed the nearest broom. Ends up, the truck had just returned from Nuevo Leon and had been carrying chile peppers.
The move was pretty smooth and no real casualties except that several plants were somehow squashed, my chiminea was chipped and scratched, our equipale furniture was all scratched up, and the fridge was scratched and dinged. I consider it very successful considering that nothing was tied down, cushioned, or covered. Total cost, about $300 US.
Of course, we had the computer and other valuables packed in our van and arrived first. The drive from Colima to the beach can be pretty scary the first few times, and you are descending 1500 feet and must go through some mountain passes, a couple bridges, and serious curves. We encountered the policia in at least three locations, one of which a car had gone over the cliff. ( No guardrails folks. ) Also, our newest member of the family, Ratzo, was sitting on Bob's lap as I drove. She threw up on Bob a few times. More about Ratzo in future post.
All in all we're happy to be here and are sore from lifting stuff up and down the stairs. It's a yummy kind of sore, and I've actually slept better than I have in six months.

Not all has been smooth sailing. Details in my next post, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE HAVE NO WATER????"
Bye, y'all.

The Beach House

Here's the good news!

Well, Telmex called Tuesday afternoon. Much to our surprise, they advised us that the internet would be up and running by Friday. A flurry of activity followed as I began blitzing through all non-essentials in the kitchen and packing it all up. We have two frozen fish filets, frozen pasta primavera, a fridge full of condiments, as well as three camotes, lettuce for days, and a pack of very old flour tortillas. What a feast! Needless to say, I'm off food shopping this morning.

Hopefully, we'll be out by Saturday. I spoke to our landlord to set up the appointment with the movers. I haven't heard back yet. I left another message this morning. The chasing of people is a real chore. It's annoying. Yet, because he hasn't called back leads me to believe that he has no news which is doubly bad.

Anyway:

I took pictures of the house in Cuyutlan last Saturday, outside only.

Here's our view from the terraza upstairs.

Green Beans

Well,

We're still in Cd. Colima awaiting news on our Internet connection for the beach house. It's been over five weeks now and costly not only dinero-wise, but I feel like a kid at the fair watching the roller coaster take off and anticipating sooooo much my turn on the ride. Well, this has proven to be the longest roller coaster wait ever, AND since our visit to the beach last Saturday, I'm yelping even more now for my turn.

We met some very nice people on Saturday. As we drove up to our "weekend home" as we call it, ( that takes the sting off a little), we came upon a couple perched at the front gate. After introductions, small talk, and a tour of the house, we were on a fast road to friendship with Ned and Sheila. They invited us back to their lovely home, nestled behind a rather formidable gate. The door opened up to a beautiful compound, with the main house on one side and a detached master suite on another. Everything was open for fresh air and best yet, they have a lovely pool in the middle. YUM, I thought. ( I so love pools, especially clean, clear pools like theirs.) Not too big, not too small... just right...

Well, they are social folks and had their door from the street open. Two more friends stopped in, and Bob and I were having the best time just doing that introductory 1st meeting

kinda talk with everyone. But it was never awkward and quite informative as well as enjoyable. (I mean, really fun.)

It was a real treat to be able to engage in a conversation where my husband can fully participate and be understood. And he was quite humorous. He always has been though. No one has ever made me laugh like Bob. And, I'm sure that no one finds him as funny as I do.

Well, that encounter just makes me wants our move all the more. Forget the roller coaster... The way I feel now... it's like when Bob and I did a 5-day shake fast, and we were able to incorporate a half cup of vegetables with our dinner-time shake (of nasty "goodness for your body and soul"), and we would absolutely just almost faint waiting for the veggies to heat. WHO WOULD EVER THINK THAT CANNED GREEN BEANS ARE SUCH A DELICACY?? Well, we did.

Having to do without our beach home full time is bad enough. Meeting nice people who can share ideas, tell funny stories, and make us laugh, are our green beans. We want MORE.

Hi to SC.