Day 130 or thereabouts. It’s a Wednesday (July 22). And the time seems to be going by more quickly.
Good Covid developments this week. For one thing, our friend in Galveston has been involved in this test and it looks pretty good:
And then there is news of the Oxford Vaccine which, being in the UK and not the US means some of us outside the US might actually get some of it:
Oxford Vaccine – Five Things to Know
There are actually a wave of promising study results. So that’s all very good news.
Now, the house. The former owner hasn’t come back to us yet but it’s been less than a week. We had a showing Monday night and they really liked it. Also Tuesday night (evening) we had two showings. One liked it, one didn’t. The agent thinks it will sell soon. Show me the money. Haha.
We’ve moved our launch of Boomer Bitches™ Astro Cocktail Hour to September 2, 2020, instead of August 19. It’s a full moon in Pisces and “a fabulously creative full moon”. Still well ahead of the September 9th move of Mars into retrograde until November 13 (bad time to launch). I think I showed you the logo already. And we have a show banner. And a one -page website with a bit of info. And a pre-recorded intro/outro.
So we’re getting somewhere. That’s our logo above. The show banner below (for Facebook, I’ll screenshot it). We have Facebook, Instagram and Youtube accounts now, but won’t launch anything until after next Tuesday (July 28). That’s when mercury comes out of its long shoulder season. We can, so we might as well wait until it’s totally clear. And we have our astrologer. That was a big one. But I’m going to surprise you. Not yet. After the 28th. So next week.
Lots of little fixes to do on everything but we’re ahead of the game.
Thursday now. The days go on. We changed the show name from Astro Cocktail Hour to Astro Happy Hour. It’s a better name on a few fronts. What else? Working out production schedules. One more BB (Boomer Bitch) is getting read by our BB astrologer today, and the third BB will be next Tuesday, then we’re ready to tape Episode 0.
I think today’s reading is happening as I speak, hard to keep track of the time zones. But yes, it’s 9am in LA so it’s happening. (Our astrologer is almost the other side of the world).
So, two down, one to go. Next Tuesday for the last reading. And today it’s Friday. Because of the name change, we have to record the into again and that will be done this weekend. It’s looking pretty slick.
Had a bit of a spat on Facebook (surprise surprise). A guy on another page who had previously commented about 12 cops shooting 116 bullets into a black kid — defending the ‘good cops’ and not giving a FF about the black kid…so I was already predisposed to be nasty to him. I can’t shut up when those people open their mouths. And I won’t. That was my problem actually, I said: “people like you” and people like him are the fucking problem. But I have to only say shit like that on my own page 🙂
There’s not one trump supporter I will give one iota of respect to. Not now, not ever. Hey, I found a meme that combines trump and Covid:
God help them if they don’t throw him out in November. God help them anyway, they have a tremendous amount of new cases every day (as does Mexico) and it’s scary. And they’re beating Portland protesters – mothers, vets. Do you see that military gear? Yet, PPE for nurses and doctors cost $11 per person and they have no money to buy them. Because it’s all going to police gear.
That would be the militia, hired and called in by trump as a federal force and not wanted by the mayors or governors. Only democratic areas, of course. Trying to scare them so they won’t come out and vote in November, but it’s not working. If it did, you could kiss democracy and free elections in America goodbye. Check out what happened in Portland last night by clicking on these bold words.
And WTF is with him talking to Putin and then not ONE lazy, self-serving chickenshit White House reporter asked him about the bounty paid on US soldiers’ heads by Russia. Not one. He’s got the press cowed into submission, do not let him do it to your citizens or you’re fucked. I can’t put it any more succinctly (sorry Lou).
Ok, enough of that crap. I can’t think about America anymore, it’s too sad. And frightening. We do have another house showing tomorrow (Saturday) at the end of the day. The market is certainly picking up, almost entirely people coming out of Mexico City due to Coronavirus.
I don’t really have a lot to say. I’ve been away from Padi so long, I’ll have to start section III again. And I’ve got a rewrite on a ghost job I did about four years ago – an update really. So I’d better get on it. DogStar comes out next week! I’ll put the link in next week’s issue. Or maybe I should just wait until Tuesday or Wednesday to publish… we will see how it goes.
Day 135: Sunday, July 26, 2020. Oy.
My herbs are growing well, finally. I took some photos. Before and after. Another month and they’ll be full size, I bet.
They don’t seem to be growing super fast but there are a lot of them. Whatever, I guess. Not sure why, the soil is all composted. I have a volunteer cucumber growing from that soil LOL.
What else? The people who came yesterday liked it, we’ll see. I’m not counting on anything but I’m actually thinking about saying f-ck it and taking it off the market. We’ve talked about it. Late next month, very early September for the decision. Take off in October, add two bathrooms, put a house sitter in, and list it again next May/June.
Have to find some money but the condo should be ready to sell by Sept. 1. That was the presale purchase condo. Average days on market in Nanaimo: 42. I can live with that.
We will see how we do. It won’t be a lot of profit, but it took little work. And it wasn’t a huge cash outlay. Should annualize out at about 18% on the cash. And with Covid, if anything, home sales on the island are getting better. And then we’ll have some cash to move with. It’s not cheap to move when an overnight ferry is involved. But I’ll be halfway back to BC. That’s the good part. I miss the rock.
Day 137, ack. No offers yet. Maybe not coming. And I go back and forth about actually moving and the trouble with two dogs who can’t travel together. But, as CW says, we can jump off that bridge when we get there. I’m sure we could make it an adventure. The condo will be sold (ojala, certainly by early November) and we’ll have some cash. Oy. We’ll see.
My Boomer Bitch partner is back from her road trip to pick up a car, meetings tomorrow. And we’ll tape episode 0 a week from tomorrow (the bitches and their charts) and then we’re on for every Tuesday from there on. And then we’ll launch, and we’ll see.
And DogStar launches tomorrow (Tues) – you can get a copy at Amazon (click here) – Kindle or Paperback.
Fighting with a lot of people on FB these days. Well, disagreeing. I think the instinct is to defend America still in some people, whether it be the cops, the constitution or the power of voting when a facist contols the counting. Denial, really. “Everything will be fine. It’s not as bad as they say” (not even talking Covid). Some still don’t get it. I hope I’m wrong. I hope they are able to turf him out when he loses in November.
But you know, they did this fascist stuff under Nixon, too. Oh, yeah, Aaron Sorkin has a new movie coming to Netflix on October 16: The Trial of the Chicago 7. I can’t wait. Sasha Baron Cohen plays Abbie Hoffman 🙂
Ok, I guess, since I won’t publish until after Mercury Retrograde is gone (tomorrow), here is the link to Boomer Bitches website, just a single page, I think I have to hire someone to do the extra pages and then I can maintain it. And add pages. I don’t have time to learn new programs from scratch but I can always learn to update quickly. The big page is YouTube where the show will be on September 2 and I will provide that link before then.
This is our new Boomer Bitch™ Astrologer – click here for her YouTube Channel and subscribe – because she’s from South Africa and the time zones are so different, we’re having her read the guest’s chart, and tape three segments about what she sees that we will play during the show for the guest and audience. She may drop in the odd time but she won’t be a regular live feature with the guest. Each of the three guest segments will start with an astrological observation if you will. And hopefully, stimulating conversation will ensue.
So this should really be fun. We’re sorry our first Boomer Bitch™ astrologer didn’t work out and we miss her, but she just didn’t have the time. I think I might like this format better, with the astrology pre-taped – but we’ll see. It’s a fluid medium so we can change as we go 🙂
Tuesday morning. Still no offers. Don’t know what to think. I am putting another FaceBook ad up and will get Craigslist updated so it shows at the top. Maybe I need to email some Mexico City agents and send them the link with shared commissions info. I’m so tired of all this shit. It’s boring. And being results-oriented, this is disheartening, LOLOL.
Ok, I’ll publish tomorow (Wednesday). Just in case we get an offer tonight. Or maybe I’ll publish Sunday. Who knows. I am my own publising control board. And now, it’s really time to sign off for the night.
Okay, it’s Wednesday. If this is Wednesday, it must be day 138. And no offers. It’s only 9 am but I was awake in the night, thinking that one’s coming. But I’ve thought that before. I think we’re getting out of here soon, though, by hook or by crook. That’s an old expression. I wonder where that came from?
I’m always so optimistic. That’s another part of why I believe I am a Sag. Eternal optimists. But sometimes I crash. So maybe I’m bipolar, not necessarily Sag (just kidding, sort of). I am a little deflated today. Although I think (not sure) that the Mexican numbers may be decreasing from 7,000+ new cases a day to 5,000+. Which is a start. Let’s see if it holds, that was weekend numbers and they are often underreported until Tuesday.
As the virus continues to break out in some countries (most notably for us, Mexico), we wonder if we need to just go home to Canada and say f-ck the winter place in La Paz for now, we can get a winter place from our base in BC. We can’t fly back to Canada until Rosie dies (can’t fly her 6+ hours, she’s too old, they won’t even take her and we wouldn’t do it).
Once we can go, we would have to identify a house in Canada to rent for at least a month or two so we can quarantine and then look for a more permanent spot. If the house sells before Rosie dies, we can rent on a monthly basis here if we have to.
In fact, I don’t want to go back under any circumstances until about March because of the weather up there. Not being able to quite leave Cuernavaca yet will NOT stop a sale LOL. I want our money TF out of this country, and us. But they don’t have to go together. Money first if necessary. I would even buy a house up there with adequate video walk through, then we’d have somewhere to go.
It’s okay isolating here. And lots of projects. But when it’s all over, this is not where we want to be. Until it sells, we are grateful to be here, however. I’m not ungrateful at all, I just want to get our money TF outta Dodge. We certainly can’t buy anything up north until we do.
I’ve been getting a little crazed the last couple of days. The dogs here bother me most (Mexico in general, although there aren’t that many in Cuernavaca, thankfully). But there was one on the 16th that we’ve been trying to find since, the trainer and I. And have him put down (or her) rather than suffer, if it was as hopeless as it looked like. But then it was gone and we couldn’t find it. And the trainer got a video of it walking up one of the main streets – he couldn’t catch it because he had six dogs with him on leashes at the time and was alone.
But he circulated the video, asking others to watch for the dog. He got a video back today that made me happy (enough). It was a team of two vet techs in the company car, capturing the dog and taking it back to the vet’s office. I don’t know what happened after that, but he/she was in good hands and better off no matter the circumstances.
So that’s a bright spot. The dog used to live on the roof of a house/tienda on Subida – but I guess either they moved and left him/her or they died of Covid, in any event, it ended up on the street, skinny and looked like it had been in a bad fight. But … someone stepped up and for that I am grateful. Lots to be grateful for today, you see?
Lots to be miserable about too, hahaha. Can’t fool me. Oh Gawd, now I’m having conversations with myself inside the blog. This is surely the beginning of the end. What else is going on, let me see …
It’s rainy season and everything is really lush. It’s great. The birds of paradise are blooming, the jasmine, we still have tons of heleconia and the hibiscus patch is thriving. So is our aloe in pots, my heavens. Pomegranates starting to come and we have literally hundreds of small green mandarinas on the tree. Lots of tiny limes, a couple of yellow Meyer lemons – the avocadoes won’t start to come until later in the summer/fall. Basil is doing well, all the existing “woodland” herbs (mint, rosemary, oregano, thyme, marjoram) are back. The sage is ok, we’ll see about the dill but one or two are doing ok. And we have a ginger plant! It’s the good season here.
Ok, got more info on the dog. It was put to sleep. Had massive metastisized cancer and a broken leg and could never recover. Plus so skinny. RIP. I hate Mexico for this shit. Whoever turfed him on the street should rot in hell. I’ll chant for safe passage.
Thursday now. Still despise the people that turfed the dog but very happy to know the dog has been taken care of and I don’t have to watch for him/her or worry about him/her anymore. I chanted for him/her. Motherfuckers. This is Mexico. In San Miguel, the dogcatchers would just kill them, not so humanely and toss them in the back of a truck and take them to the dump. Things are changing, thanks to the hard work of some people.
Speaking of people who have done incredible work for education and sterlization on behalf of dogs in this country, one of them was the victim of a fraud, a large one, in the recent past. I spent a lot of last week defending these people (who I don’t even know that well but I sure do know the good work they do with dogs) on Facebook – seems other gringos felt it was okay to victim shame them. I’d never seend that before. Cries of: “It’s their own fault.” “Should have known better.” “More money than brains.” Well, fuck all of you. Namaste. I just block you now. (Sorry for the F-word, Lou, but it’s warranted here. xo)
Good god, some people are resentful and cruel and bitter. Mostly Americans. I can see where it comes from. But it’s still wrong. If you can keep your head while others are losing theirs, and all that. Strive to be better, FFS. End of lecture.
So, yes, I think we will just go to Canada from Cuernavaca and regroup. We’ll get another offer. And we’ll probably take it, now that we have a plan that doesn’t look so scary, LOL. If the offer comes before spring, we’ll rent here short term and if Rosie doesn’t die by next spring, we’ll figure that out then. But I am much calmer. It must be the right thing to do because I’m calm. That’s how it works, right?
It’s all here. A vet who knows Rosie, and who knows 10-pill-a-day PJ and his heart, the trainer, we have accounts set up for one click at all the grocery stores… we have a driver we trust, an assistant/translator we trust – we know where everything is. Why go to La Paz now and try to set up everything again right now while the virus rages? Yes, we will eventually. Just not in the time of Covid. It’s too daunting. If we didn’t have dogs … but if we didn’t have dogs, we probably would have put a housesitter in here and been gone back to Canada long ago. Bygones. I forgot he played that part. Oh look, there’s a squirrel.
Interesting the things your mind leads you to. Or mine, at least. I can’t even rememeber the name of that series, with Captain Kirk and The Blacklist Guy. Who I think may be from Ottawa but don’t quote me on that. James Spader. Oh yeah, Boston Legal. Bygones. I liked that. Must remember that.
Day 140: Friday July 31! July is OVER. I can’t believe it. We’re going to be inside for a while. Or at least wearing masks and social distancing. Another 18 months. So, the sooner we accept it and start acting like it’s just the way it is, things should improve. I really need to see a doctor about my stomach. Maybe it’s the coffee, but I have gastro issues that I do put down to being in Mexico. It was an adventure and I am so done with this one. Funny, I was the one who insisted we not give up in 2014. That’s because I’ll beat a dead horse until it smells. Well, it smells now 🙂
I guess I woke up in a mood. It’s Friday and we have service people all day. Mostly outside but it limits the dog, it means I have to move around with my computer – not that hard done by, I admit, but getting through Fridays takes patience sometimes. It really does. That salt under my bed doesn’t seem to be helping. I should probably take it out of the box (it’s open) and put it on a plate, LOL. I’m pretty sure that’s how it’s supposed to work.
I’m out of sorts today. Tomorrow will be better, the flowers and Costco order will come, I can fuss around with things.
My co-author on The Move To Mexico Bible received an email from the Mexican consulate in Austin today and here is what he had to say about our book: “I understand that it has become a bible for foreigners looking to retire in Mexico because unfortunately, it is often difficult to find accurate information in English.” That’s kinda cool.
So, what else? A promo meeting happening tomorrow about the show and how best to use social media, and all of our promos, they are very cool, here is a link to one:
I love that promo. And I am waiting until Sunday to publish now. It’s gotten kind of long, this blog post, not sure how that happened. I didn’t publish last Sunday because it was too short.
I’m getting excited about the Boomer Bitches™ show … we’ve had some very encouraging feedback out of LA. And we all know, that’s the center of the TV universe, really. I’ll keep you posted. We haven’t even launched yet and people are talking to us about it. I’d love to sell it before we launch, LOL. But that’s really a slim chance.
DogStar – copies are winging their way to France to the producer and animation studio there. We’ll see if that prompts any movement. Oh, Lord, I should get Jack’s Knife and The Golden Boy typed in so that we can update those. I do mean by someone else.
The saddest song I’ve ever heard (FYI, this is easily a week ago and the federal forces are looking like they might leave but who knows):
And all is quiet tonight (Saturday) in Portland, there are very peaceful protests following the withdrawal of federal troops (August 1). They were causing the problem. God help America. I’ve always loved Portland. Here’s a Guardian story. This is good. Actually, the news has been settling down, maybe we’ll have a quiet time for a bit. We could use one.
I’m done. I’ll publish first thing tomorow, when Linda’s Youtbe is out for August 2. And that will be that. Until next time, stay safe, stay informed, stay kind.