Whether you’re writing blogs or not, time marches on. Almost five months since my last post, which is not good. I’m not sure why I’m avoiding it so much. I did just finish one ghost job and embark on another, so maybe sitting at the computer all week trying to absorb someone’s entire life and order it in a way that will make pleasant reading kind of turns me off writing for pleasure. Not that I don’t enjoy my work. But then I don’t feel like writing on my days off.
That happened with websites – once I was doing web stuff (some building, lots of maintaining and content managing) – I didn’t work on any personal sites anymore. I can’t seem to do the same thing for pleasure that I do for business (at the same time). Maybe it’s just that I can’t do the same thing 24/7. But regardless, here I am.
And here is our new pool. We changed it from a natural pool to a regular pool. We couldn’t take it any longer, we got sick of throwing good money after bad and not swimming. It was the proverbial f-ck it moment and we’re deliriously happy and swim almost every day. You can read about the transition if you like, just click here: Natural Pool Problems: Ours was a natural disaster
We still have the pond and it’s lovely. It’s just separate now. That’s the casita in the background (above, not below LOL). It has a great view now.
I’ve been up north a couple of times, as the ghost book client is up there. Going back again in October for some meetings. And to visit the kids. And to go to the Island where the infamous Airstream resides. We bought an old Airstream to gut and renovate and it’s moored (permanently) at Buffy’s house (Vancouver Island). So we’ll have a place to spend time in the summer. In the winter too, but not a chance. It will be very cute. I will keep you posted.
Aside from the ghostwriting job, which really is part-time, I’m also doing a ‘Move to Mexico’ book with a well-known facilitator down here who has worked with thousands of visas and visa issues. We’re ready to go to production soon – picking the art and the cover. It’s a self-published book – so no advances – but I think it might sell some copies. I guess we’ll see. Not sure what I’ll do in October (hopefully when we publish), although I will kill a couple of weeks in BC that month.
I guess we all know that John McCain died. Rest his soul – I had a lot of respect for this willingness to listen to the other side and to admit when he’d made a mistake. Also, for his statesmanship and courage. He was probably the last one in the Senate who came from that era when bipartisan was good if it was good for the country. I’m so distressed about the pretty much inevitable fate of the USA, but aren’t we all. No news there. I think we’ll see blood on the streets in November. But I really don’t want to go there on this beautiful sunny day.
PJ (Piggy Junior) has an enlarged heart. That’s traumatic for us but not really for him because he doesn’t know. And, it’s getting better they say. We had a gammogram in Mexico City three months ago and will have another one in September. But based on local Xrays and ultrasounds, the vet says he’s doing well. So, fingers crossed. He’s on very good meds and he seems okay. He’ll be a year old in about a week. He sure has grown.
And how quickly they forget. In July – Buffy, Judy and I did a show at a fair on the island. Maybe 1,000 people came past our table. We sold some things. Just not enough. We were selling Mexican folk art and assorted things. Papel Picado, baskets, pewter, tin ornaments and mirrors, Frida bags, cute little dog coats made out of Mexican serape blankets (for $10), Day of the Dead dog and cat skeletons. Everybody loved them. They squealed about what great gifts they would make. Only a few people opened their wallets. The purpose was a test, to see if anything would sell. We didn’t expect to make money but we did expect to break even.
We were going to take any best sellers and put them on Amazon.ca with free shipping with Prime but nothing sold well enough. Nothing. FM. Oh well. We had fun. I ended up with some nice gifts for people. And now I know better. (And I used to have a chihuahua like that dog below, named Clyde. But this is not my dog. Interestingly, since Clyde, I’ve had nothing but Bull Terriers. In any event, I still think those coats are bloody cute.)
Even though the fair/market was disappointing, it was still a good trip. Got lots of work done, got lots accomplished. Had good visits all round. I was in BC in July, how bad could that ever be? And we had a fantastic seafood dinner one night, real west coast fare. After the show, I went to Ontario to visit Dad and Sylvia and that was great, too. It was a really quick trip, I flew the red-eye and took a shuttle to Wasaga on a Friday morning and left on Monday night. We did yard sales and sat on the back deck and had sundowners overlooking the lake. I love Canada in the good weather. Just not the winter.
No trips planned this year – redoing the pool redid our travel budget. But now we do use it every day and it upped the value of the house pretty substantially (compared to a 40-ft water garden). But there is good news right here at home – we don’t have to travel any longer to find almost any foodstuff in the world. We got a City Market in town – so there will be no more complaints, ever, about not being able to find anything. They had a complete double row of olive oil types.
And I couldn’t count the salts. And three restaurants right in the supermaket. And Kobe beef burgers to go in the deli. My new favorite hang out. Although we tried lunch at the seafood bar – lobster rolls – and were singularly unimpressed. But the store impressed the bejesus out of me. A $3,000 (those are USD) Faberge egg full of Russian vodka? Don’t mind if I don’t, LOL.
But it’s a great store and I don’t need to take the egg home. I already have a Faberge Chess set. I always wanted an egg but I settled for the chess set when I found it at a price I could actually afford (previously owned). And that’s not a real egg, anyway. Well, it’s real in that Faberge made it to house the vodka. But it’s not the egg I wanted, LOL.
So, here I am in Mexico, still. There are times in the rainy season/summer that I like. It will be 27C in the day, very sunny and then it does pour, tropical torrential rains mostly overnight or in the late evening. But I don’t like it when there are disturbances (read: hurricanes) on either coast and the tropical depression comes up the mountains and gets stuck and we have overcast rainy days for a week at a time. I don’t like that at all. Happened twice this year. I’m totally back to figuring out how to do summers in BC but I think that would require a major project (small fix and flip would work). But I really don’t want to fly the dogs, even once the old girl leaves us, the young one has a bad heart. But I’m sure I’ll figure it out. I’ve spent some time wondering how to do it and haven’t come up with anything, so now I just need to let it come on its own. My brain knows I want the answer.
I can’t believe I have no major projects on the horizon except the one I’m doing (and the one I’m almost done). The Mexico book will give me something to do for a while in promoting it. But then what? And it’s going to be winter, so it won’t be a fix and flip on the Island. I do have the casita bathroom sort of on the go right now – planning stages. And two more bathrooms after that. And the floor in the office. And something for the office that will hide all the papers and supplies. Something with doors.
I could concentrate on doing what I can to the remaining bathrooms (we did one, with a red sink I’ve been carrying around for 12 years – above). And then it will be spring and maybe there’s an Island project. Well, there’s the Airstream project – I think I’d better concentrate on that. This is what I hope it looks like. From the outside, anyway.
And then we hope for Morocco next year. Probably September. If we can. We’ll see how it all goes. As usual, it depends on work and the occasional flyer we take on the stock exchange. We don’t bet a lot – but a few of them have bought trips in the past. We’ll see.
Until then, I hope you are all of good health and spirits and enjoying what’s left of the summer. I’ll try to post sooner next time. Hasta luego.
I was wondering when we would get an update of Life! Beautiful photos, the Canada one makes we want to go visit!