Wind An' Sea

Since I'm usually complaining about expenses, let me hasten to say that Friday (February 15) was a good day, consumer-wise. We went to the farmacia and purchased a bottle of herbal cough medicine for Don, a vial of Humalog, and a vial of Lantus insulin. The total was $114 U.S. Don's co-pay for the Lantus alone is $77 in the U.S., and that is not even close to what many people have to pay. We consider ourselves blessed, indeed!

We went to a used appliance store and purchased a used Whirlpool washer. The washer, delivery, and take-away of our old one totaled $160 U.S. Appliances tend to be a little expensive here in Mexico, so we consider ourselves very blessed to have gotten the deal we did.

We stopped at one of our favorite places -- Tacos El Chino -- in Rosarito and enjoyed lunch. Our friend Jerry's taco stand wasn't open yesterday, so we didn't feel like we were cheating on him. Don is still sick with an upper respiratory infection, so I gave him the quintessential cure-all -- chicken soup -- for dinner.

On Saturday, I did something I haven't done before: I left Don and Sofie home and went across to get some prescriptions filled and buy some groceries.

I've mentioned before that the toll road has times when the attendants are off, and during those times, people waving Mexican flags stand by the toll booths, and people from charities hold containers for collecting donations. Such was the case as I traveled before noon.

My border patrol (CBP) agent was very pleasant. He asked where I was going, and I said, "CVS and Walmart." He said, "Where do you live?" I said, "Tijuana." He asked if I liked it down here, and I told him that I do, but we're only staying for about nine months.

CVS was a bit of a hassle, and Walmart was one of the smaller stores, but I met my shopping goals and stopped at Pizza Hut for a treat to take home. On the way back, traffic was busy, but not jammed. However, when I got to the toll booths, I noted several cars making U-turns rather than going through. The toll-takers were back, but the toll is less than $2 U.S., so it wasn't that.  The Federales had set up a checkpoint in both directions and were pulling vehicles off to the side and giving them a thorough going-over as their drivers and passengers stood in a sort of formation at the side. As I drove in the single-file through lane, a Federale waved me on.  This isn't the first time this week. Innocence is comforting. I know that there are stories of Mexican federal police stopping and harassing people, but the new government has vowed to stop that kind of corruption, and I'm sure there are enough actual law-breakers to keep the police occupied. Marijuana and harder drugs are illegal in Mexico, as are guns. Staying on the right side of the law is good for the nerves. (Okay, peeps who know my stance on immigration, you may have a chuckle at the irony, and then let's move on....)

 

Sunday was a stay-at-home day for us. The weather was cold and windy, my leg was hurting a lot, and Don was still very sick. This morning, I saw a rainbow in the clouds and watched the mesmerizing high tide. As I write, we're about to head to the border again -- this time to seek medical attention for Don's upper respiratory ailment, and maybe to get started on more imaging and treatment of my knee.  In a day or so, we'll need to go to California to see daughter Julie, who is in the hospital, even if she is home by then. Unless something remarkable occurs, I'll return in about a week.  

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Let It Rain

Well, it's not exactly a beach song, but it's the best I can do today. We're in the middle of a storm. Our English classes were rained out for the third time in five weeks, and it's supposed to rain again next Thursday. My son Greg says at this rate, our students won't even be able to ask where the bathroom is.  He has a point.

Don isn't feeling well.  He has a cold or bronchitis. We went to urgent care on Monday (2/11), when he had a really sore throat. Now he has a cough. The doc prescribed Doxycycline for him. I need to go get some cough medicine, but it is so miserable out there. The streets flood, the traffic snarls, etc. We have American money to convert to pesos, but we haven't done that since we got home from California. We need to buy a used washer and a new garbage can. Our washer died just before we left on our trip, and the garbage can was gone when we got home. It was falling apart, so the garbage man probably just tossed the whole thing into the truck. We also came home to a thrown breaker-switch problem. First, we had to find the breaker switches. It turned out that the one that was thrown is on a pole outside. Most of them are in a wall box over the toilet in one of the upstairs bathrooms.

We had a good trip. Our daughter Julie had a medical procedure that went well, but left her with a terrible headache. We went to help her, but my knee and back were killing me, and she ended up having me lie down beside her, putting a heating pad under my back and a pillow under my knee, and taking a nap with me. It was actually a very special time. It's been years since I've taken a nap next to my baby.  While we were there, we stayed at the guest apartment on the horse property. The people who own it are super nice, and we like it there. I wasn't a lot of help, but we did spend some time with Julie and family. Maddie is an adult, Parker is a teenager, and Lily is a fifth-grader, so we enjoy each of them in a very different way. Grandpa Don introduced film buff Parker to Monty Python and the Holy Grail and O Brother, Where Art Thou? It's always fun to watch a favorite movie with someone for whom it is new.

On our way home, we spent a night in Oceanside. We got to take grandchildren Jacob and Holly to dinner at El Pollo Loco. They're lots of fun. Jacob is a great big brother, but he also gets mischievous, like making a gross concoction with horchata and salsa and daring Holly to drink it. One sip was good for an hour of drama.  Greg had a lot of painful dental work done on Monday, so we took him a milkshake on Monday night and took him out for Cream of Wheat on Tuesday morning. Then we did some grocery shopping. I will need to go back to San Diego soon and get a better exam on my injured knee.  I bought a brace that cut off my circulation and made my ankle swell, so I'm hoping to find someone to do an old-fashioned Ace wrap -- or do it myself. The doctor let me take a photo of my x-ray, but of course it doesn't show ligaments/connective tissue, so it's not much help, and she didn't order any further tests, prescribe pain medication, or even give me instructions about caring for it. Julie saw the x-ray and said the good thing was that it made my thighs look thin. 🤣

I took a photo of the ocean yesterday, prior to the rain coming in. The water was so green! Usually, I can't capture the color, but I did in this photo.

The breakers are brown today, so much mud is being stirred up by the roiling of the sea. It has been raining constantly all day.  We're just trying to stay warm.

Julie loaned me a heating pad, and I put it on the rug last night to warm my feet. Sofie happened to walk across it and realize that it was warm, and she decided that it would warm her old bones, too, so she lay on it in front of the space heater.

Not much else happening around here -- no vida loca at the moment -- but we're doing okay. More soon.

Knee Deep

I know, that would have been a good title for the last entry, but it's good for this one, as well.

One of our goals in moving to Mexico was saving money. It's true that food is less and rent is less, but we have learned that there are as many ways to lose money here as there are in Las Vegas -- just different ones!  There are also as many bureaucratic rabbit holes to go down here as in the U.S. It is remarkable how similar bureaucracies are, no matter the country.  That brings me to tonight's lesson: the visa, with a secondary ongoing theme of insurance headaches.

Let's review, class.  On December 2, we had two cellphones, one tablet, one Nikon DSLR camera, one Dell laptop computer, and 1900 pesos stolen from our home while we slept. We filed a claim with the Mexican insurance company.  We went to the state police in Tijuana and filed a formal report. A copy of that was given to our agent when she came out to look at the situation and listen to our account of what happened. An adjuster came out and went through the whole thing all over again, even though he had a copy of the police report. He also took photos and grilled me extensively about how the thief got in, etc. Eventually, we got an e-mail from the company, with a list of things still needed.  Even though we'd provided several of the items, we repeated our list of what was taken, what each item cost (receipts if possible), what exactly happened, etc. They wanted a utility bill to prove we live here and a letter from someone not living with us, saying that s/he had seen the items in our possession.  Our realtor provided the letter. The sticky wicket, however, was proof of our immigration status. We have to show them our temporary or permanent resident visa. There is some hope that we will get some reimbursement -- but certainly not replacement cost. 

This brings me to our primary subject -- the visas.  Again, I will review.  I do this partly for anyone who is thinking about moving to Mexico. I read that 92% of American ex-pats in Mexico do not have the proper visas and are therefore here illegally.  Hahahahahahahaha!

I won't bore you with a rehash of all of the mistakes we've made, just the steps. We started by getting U.S. passport books (cards won't work for the visa), which we would need to take to the Mexican consulate, along with photos of the first and last pages of said passports, a letter to the Consulate General, six months of bank statements (proof of income), formal application forms, passport-sized photos, and $36 each.  The consulates don't take walk-ins and don't have any way to expedite the process.  Therefore, our appointment in San Diego was on December 20th, even though we were ready to go through the process in early October. We left the appointment with a visa stamp on our passports, and we were instructed to take the next step: getting a visitor visa at the border. It took a little while, but we completed Step 2.

After getting our visitor visa, we did as we were instructed and went to the immigration office in Rosarito.  We were given more forms to fill out and more instructions, such as for filling out more forms online. We had to bring two kinds of completed forms, our visitor visas, and a receipt from the bank for about $225 each (a transfer payment to the Mexican government) back to the Rosarito office. We didn't do everything right; some had to be done over. We were told that because we live in Baja Malibu, we're really not supposed to go to the Rosarito office, which isn't really busy at all, but to the Tijuana office, where there is a three-hour wait!  The lady in Rosarito was nice and let us go through the whole thing at her office, except for fingerprints, which we'll do in Tijuana when we pick up our temporary visas. We'll then be legal residents of Mexico for a year; after a year, if we want to continue to live here, we will need to renew the visas. After four years, we will be eligible to apply for permanent resident (green card) status.  There is almost no chance of that happening.  It is the temporary visa that we need in order to prove our immigration status to our insurance company. 

Any questions?



P.S. Our washer is now dead.
We're going back to California for the weekend. See you next week!

Some Beach

This is the story of how a beautiful day turned out painfully and of how miraculously I survived it.

On Sunday afternoon (2/3), I grabbed my camera and went down to the beach to see what I could see.  It was an awesome day! We'd had rain before, and we would have rain again, but there's nothing like a respite in between.  I'll show you some photos from my walk and tell you what happened at the end.

That barrel is pretty big in person. There are no markings on it.

The waves were fun to watch on Sunday afternoon

I always enjoy a visit to "my" rocks.

I was on the beach, the tide came in, and then I was in the water.

I love this rock that looks like a marble egg.

I think it's cool when the water laps over an interesting rock.

I never tire of these "butterfly" shells.

The birds were out fishing, as usual.

As I said, it was a great walk. I went back to the house, locked the beach gate, and climbed up to the lower patio, where I washed my feet and beach shoes, preparing to dry my feet and step back into my shoes. While washing up, I placed a few sand dollars, my gate key, and my camera on a shelf where they wouldn't get wet. As I always do, I stepped my left foot onto the hose and reached over to turn off the water, and then I stepped off of the bricks with my right foot. Up until now, this has been routine.  No worries! 

This time, my right foot slipped on the wet tile, and I started to fall backward. Attempting to catch my balance, I twisted my left knee sharply to the left, and down I went onto my back.  The result was a sprain of my left knee and some pain in my left foot. I managed to get up by getting onto my right knee and pulling myself up by holding onto the structure where I'd placed my keys, camera, and shells. I didn't have my phone, and Don was taking a nap and probably wouldn't have heard if I had called. I limped in, put the keys away, locked and barred the door, and then made a painful 20-stair climb to the living room. For the first 24 hours or so, I couldn't move my leg without excruciating pain in my knee, but it is getting much better, and I am mostly dealing with occasional pangs and discomfort now.

What amazes me is what could have happened!  I could have broken one or more bones, hit my head on the bricks, or seriously injured my back. I am almost 73! 

I learned from this experience to keep my phone with me, even if I don't think I'll need it, to put a mat by the washing station so that I don't have a repeat of the foot slipping out from under me, and to be even more careful, but the main thing I learned was what my grandma always said, "The Lord takes care of fools and children."  I am deeply grateful that He was watching over me!

On the Beach in the Rain

(Look it up on YouTube)

We have had a lot of rain lately, and you probably have, as well. 

On Thursday, January 31st, we returned from a four-day trip to Yucca Valley (CA), where we'd helped out a bit when our daughter Julie was ill, and it took us a long time to get home. We were at least half an hour late getting to the doctor's office in San Diego's Mission Valley because "It Never Rains in Southern California...It pours...!" On the way back home, we stopped in Little Italy and got some salad, garlic bread, and pizza, and ate along the way because traffic was backed up. Getting through the border crossing was really slow, and people in dark clothing double dared us not to see them along the highway once we were in Tijuana. At least the road was open. We got a call while we were in San Diego that we would be having our English class in spite of the rain, but just after we got home at 6:00 p.m., we got another call that class was canceled.

On Friday, we had to run a couple of errands in Rosarito. The streets of Rosarito have what you might call two-and-a-half lanes each way. Because of flooding, most drivers were staying in the middle lane. A virtual river ran along the gutters. It is a habit of drivers here to pass on the left or the right, and the ones who like to pass on the right like that half-lane.  It's a bit chaotic (nothing like Tijuana, of course), but when the streets are flooded, it's quite an experience.  Don took this photo from his window:

I'm not sure the photo does justice to the degree of flooding.  Now, you're probably thinking that you've seen rain -- so what's the big deal? -- but the thing is that in northern Baja, as in San Diego, the average annual rainfall is under 10 inches, and most of that falls in December and January. When you add northern Baja's many unpaved streets, it gets more complicated.

Sofia can't really use her doggie litter box (tray with a piece of faux turf) when it's pouring rain in the courtyard. The cobblestone street gets to be a muddy mess. I brought her "litter box" into the house, but she wouldn't use it, so we took her out to a very small patch of gravel.

It rained all night on Monday, and I went out and caught this photo on Tuesday morning:

One interesting thing that happened was that an enormous barrel washed up on the beach, right in front of our next-door neighbor's unconventional/unfinished house. We had a lot of fun guessing what was in the barrel (a body? drugs? tequila?). We still don't know, but here's a photo taken the morning it washed up.

I'm waiting for the whales and dolphins to make their way between here and the Coronado Islands. Our friend Jerry has spotted two whales and a dolphin, but I have looked and looked and have yet to see any.  It is the beginning of the migration, so hopefully, I won't have to wait too long!

Speaking of Jerry....  He informed us not too long ago that our having hot water depended on our having propane. Believe it or not, we hadn't known that. So Sunday morning, we arose and started getting ready for church, when we realized that we had no hot water. I boiled water, and we were able to shave, shampoo, and sponge bathe. Jerry and Don went out on Monday and got propane ($50 a tank). Live and learn!