A New Day Dawns

Every single day. And I’ve been sleeping well. It helps to have all of our liquid assets back in Canada. All of them, actually. Liquid and fixed, but fixed is only the condo at the moment. And it’s Thursday, December 18. Time flies.

I found the most marvellous thing online today. The Blob Opera. Seriously. You can make them sing. You can make them record. They are delightful.

To meet the Blob Opera click here. 

Great fun. I am pretty sure that I will spend many hours with those blobs. LOL.

So, we don’t like the idea that the money for our house sits still. We will use it to close the condo in early January, then sell the condo we hope by the end of February. We have bought a house as an investment that isn’t built yet. Small down payment, won’t be ready until at least May 21. Which is good. And we can get a good mortgage/line of credit at the moment – and the place pays for itself with a renter.

It’s a nice enough house, just not “us” at all. But investments don’t have to be us. We could live in it, if we had to because it’s nice. it is a very good area with schools, parks and shopping centers. Four bedrooms, 3 bathrooms. Small, low maintenance yard and lots of bells and whistles in the house (pot filler, radiant heat floors, skylights, gas stove and bbq, EV hookup in garage and more. Under warranty for 2/5/10 years (different things) – and we’ll sell inside five I think. Maybe in two or three when we come back from the mainland.

In the meantime, we’ll make money – only 6% net on the rental (paid monthly) but single-family homes in Nanaimo are really in demand and I think it will increase at least 5% (and probably more) in equity a year. And the 6% paid monthly pays well enough to rent on the mainland. We’ll rent in Horseshoe Bay (West Vancouver). And see how that all goes for a year or two.

As for this (very reasonable and central) rental in Cuernavaca, we may keep it for a year longer, so we have a place here that the dog can stay with a sitter, and that we can come back to next winter. That’s for Chris, but Canada is for me so I can’t complain. And you can get anywhere from here (Mexico City airport). And I don’t have to spend my whole winter here.

I’ll take the vaccine wherever we get it, although I’m not sure I want the Russian one and Mexico is buying a lot of the Russian vaccine. Amlo probably made a deal with trump to do so. I really don’t trust that man. He’s reckless. The Mexican governors have sense and are trying to control the spread, but he does nothing. And the feds are in charge of vaccines. Putin won’t even take the Russian one and it’s his country. I would take the Pfizer or Moderna but I really want the AstraZeneca – it’s the safest according to those in the know. But believe me, I’ll be in line, for sure.

Friday, December 18, evening. Miller time. Going to open a green meanie. That photo always makes me think of Tom (my dead cousin). So, here we are. I did update The Move to Mexico Bible – with the new financial requirements (up 15%) for resident visas. It takes effect January 1, but immigration offices are closed now until after New Year’s so no time like the present.

I keep thinking I’m not doing much work, but we do have a contract on that house – we hope to be able to be back up there by the summer (or whenever it’s actually built and issued an occupancy permit) to enact the plan, with which we hope to earn about 20% on our money. And if it doesn’t work, we’ll just sell it. But no reason why it shouldn’t. And it’s Nanaimo, BC. Days on market are averaging about 42. That’s a big change from 500, LOL.

I think the reason why I don’t feel like I’m doing much work is maybe because I’m doing nothing creative. I should be editing the bitches. I should give myself a break, I’m just 2.5 weeks out from a whirlwind week of selling the house and moving. And I feel like something creative is brewing anyway, but it needs a chance to stew for a while, I guess because I don’t know what it is but it’s there. Plus, all my astrology says 2021 is an excellent year for real estate investments. I need to get a bunch of stuff figured out. Oy We’re going to run into a lot of expenses this year – and I do need to get that stuff up to storage in Canada. Just put that on my list.

In the meantime, things are unfolding just fine here and the house is fine but it seems to take forever to get anthing done. And we get deliveries – usually 2 or more a day – we don’t go out unless we are stir crazy and then one of us whips through the large supermarket about three blocks from here.

Mexico estimates that in actual fact, because they don’t test (but are in the highest infected countries anyway), probably 30% of the population has had Covid already.

I’m getting sick of Covid, but do understand that this is no time to f-ck around. We are having a very quiet Christmas and an even quieter New Year. I won’t even get to see my friend Judy this New Year’s (bwaaaaa).

And we won’t see our friends from Mexico City or their kids this Christmas – first one I think since we’ve been in Cuernavaca. It’s that kind of Christmas. Oy. Talk about boring. I have had lots of boring Christmas Days – but this is more. LOL, 280+ more. Ok, get a grip. Ok, ok, ok, grip gotten.

We are in pretty good shape and now all we have to do is wait it out. We’re old. Waiting doesn’t come easy to us. At least not to me. But for my Canadian friends, it sounds like by fall, we’ll all be vaccinated. Mexican friends, too, according to the roll out. And likely US friends, although I haven’t seen any ‘roll out’ information from anyone there yet. They are saying March/April for our age group so if we get back up there by June, we’ll be able to do it. They may even offer them at the Canadian Embassy in Mexico City. That’s only a guess on my part, I have no intel at all. None.

Anyway, here we are. I get a weekly newsletter that I love – I’d say 9/10 times it’s very worth reading and that’s unusual. The guy’s name is Mark Manson and he has an Amazon bestselling book titled “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck“. Great blog (check it out). And I found a new one I totally love, Darius Foroux – another practical, no-nonsense, cut to the chase writer.

I really prefer reading to turning on Netflix or Prime most of the time. If I am depressed and want to escape life, I turn on the streaming channels and get lost in someone else’s life (and problems). But it’s not often. When I’m enthusiastic and curious, or bored, I have been reading and tryimg to learn something. Sometimes it’s about writing, sometimes it’s about investing, sometimes it’s about trends and sometimes it’s about becoming.

That’s right, becoming. Because I’m changing all the time and learning about new things and exploring new ideas. I’m not the same person I was yesterday (how could I be?), let alone eight years ago when we got here. But there are two schools of thought (just like there are Keynseian and  Laissez-faire economic schools of thought): Being (Heidegger) vs Becoming (Hegel but one might argue Hericlitus). There was a time I would have studied philosophy in university but my parents insisted it would never lead to a job. Because, I guess that’s what university was for back then. And before that, it was a place for girls to find husbands, LOL. But of course, the good ones are places that teach you how to think. And that’s important. I can get hung up on the big questions though, so probably best that I didn’t.

Today and tomorrow I have classes afternoon classes. Just a weekend course, but I’m going to look for more. I need to finish PADI (dive course) but not until February because then I only have one year after that to do my open water dive and I need to leave that option open as late as possible. I think I mentioned that I didn’t know there were time constraints on taking the open water part of the test, it MUST be within one year of passing the paper exam. I can finish the paper part up in 10 days, I’m sure. But I need to learn something else until then, while I have so little on my plate. Although I am expecting some work next month. I need to manifest some paid work. I’ll get on that next.

Monday, December 21 is the Grand Conjunction and Grand Mutation – Jupiter and Mars are closer than they’ve been in 800 (and then 600) years. It is supposed to be the time when things in the world change as we move from 200 years of earth signs, industry and capitalism into 200 years of air signs and harmony and socialism. Ojala. This is actually The Age of Aquarius. That’s a little reductionist, but you get the idea.

I guess I came to Mexico to live eight years ago last week (I came ahead of Chris and the friend who came with us – I flew to Puerto Vallarta with Eileen, then to Queretaro and went to the rental and got groceries and things before they arrived). We maybe stayed a few years too long, but we’ll get out of here soon. I hope. I did leave and go back and reestablish residency for seven months and would have been back permanently (at least seven months a year) if not for Covid and slow house sales. Now the trick is just to sit on my hands until the vaccine and then make a run for it.

There are the dogs, but surely Rosie is coming to the end of her time at 13+. And I have a plan for PJ. What a f-cked up adventure this was, but live and learn. And I did learn some things. And now I’m ready to do what it takes to get home. And I’ve figured out where home is: Canada. Took me a long time to learn that. ❤

And ‘sitting on my hands’ means I may as well learn something. Why not? the time is going to go by anyway. I forget who taught me that one. I think the comment was actually something like “the next two years are going to go by anyway” and they did and I used it to do something poco a poco. And it felt marvellous to have done it. And I’ve kept doing it as much as I can when I see the road slowing down a bit.

It’s how I wrote The Move to Mexico Bible – not the most exciting project in the world. I told myself that the next two years were going to go by anyway, and I gave it an hour or two a day for about eight months. And now, it’s our bread-and-butter book (meaning, sales are steady). It’s really just the “one foot in front of the other” approach. And it works before you realize how long it’s taken. At least it works for me. I don’t like to look back at a significant chunk of time and realize I’ve accomplished nothing. Time is too valuable to me. And I’ve never been one to sit still.

I’m also drinking a lot less. I can’t remember the last time I was tipsy – but I have a beer or two now and then. I often have three when taping bitches. I might see if I can get tipsy on our zoom tomorrow. Celebrating eight years since we officially arrived in Mexico. Well, toasting to the past and the future.

Bitches aren’t meeting again until officially after the new year. One bitch has just finished a large assignment and will be have more time for brainstorming the show in the coming months.

So, Europe’s numbers are coming way down with regard to the pandemic. Bloody good news and it’s because of lockdowns. I hope Canada follows soon. And places in the US like California and NY, who seem to be making some effort to lockdown. There is a more contagious spreading version appearing only in the UK but a new strain is never good unless it weakens. It seems to be much more contagious, but not more deadly. More contagious is not good, of course.

While Germany, the UK and France have a tiny upturn, as you can see, Europe overall is clearly going down. The US is going sky high. Not sure if they’ll get things under control or not. They need a federal plan.

At least they have a vaccine now. Two, as a matter of fact, having just approved the Moderna vaccine. But from what I read, Pfizer has millions of doses sitting in a warehouse, the states are begging for vaccines but the feds won’t tell Pfizer where to send it. Cruel, sadistic mother-f-ckers. Remember, trump doesn’t want NY (or CA) to get vaccines if he can help it.

Enough of him. The next big deal is the Georgia runoff so I’m going to watch from a distance and not give a FF until then. The best plan over the holidays.

We have our Christmas menu planned. It is the only thing we have to plan I guess, for the moment. New England clam chowder and Caesar, with peel & eat shrimp and steamed stone crab claws. I’ll try to remember to take photos.

It’s Saturday the 19th now. Not sure if I mentioned that yet. I’ve walked the dog myself. Then a short walk with the trainer. Then I walked up the street with Chris while he bought some pastries. Now, back at my desk and bored to shit. I need to take a pen and yellow pad and my phone in the sun and listen to music. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

Sunday morning now. I read a great John Pavlovitz story this morning:

What do you want to do with the time you have left here?

Well? I hope you read it and thought about it. We’ve all felt like that. I often think about the time I have left (15 years? 20 years? More? Not sure about that but time will tell) and what I need to do with it. I’m not done by a long shot. And Buddhists say you should think about your death every day. I do pretty much, between 4:00am and 5:00am almost every morning when I meditate. And yes, thinking is also meditating (along with emptying your mind).

I’m not ready to retire yet. Not that money is the end all be all but I do need it to do some of the things I want to do (like go to Ireland, Morocco and Portugal, Spain, probably Vietnam – not on the same trip clearly except the three in the middle). I always wanted to go back to Macau and Hong Kong but not so sure. Maybe. I’d like to see Indonesia. I have itchy feet. And I know they end up costing money so I’d best get to work 🙂

And now, it’s Sunday, December 20. I turn 66 this week. Four more years until another big one. So this one will be easy. I once admitted that my late mother, whose birthday was December 15, would always make sure I had a birthday cake – on my birthday during Christmas week. And that I hadn’t had one since she died. So my friend sent me a birthday cake ornament. And it’s been on my tree every year since. And for the record, I don’t need a real one, can’t say I’m a big cake eater. This one works.

Tomorrow! I’m excited about tomorrow. The astronomers (not astrologers) say Jupiter and Saturn have not been this close since the early 1200s and 1623. If you google 1623, there was a plague then too. But Europe collapsed in the late Middle Ages – and things began to dramatically change. It really wasn’t *that* long ago. I hope this grand conjunction changes us. For the better. A kinder world where everyone has enough to eat and the medicine they need. It’s supposed to do that.

And with that, I leave you with a totally appropriate song as it actually, finally, after 51 years, happens tomorrow!

Stay safe, stay informed, stay kind.