Moving Right Along but not moving yet

So, April 19, Monday. Moving along. Our goods in storage in San Miguel will travel to Vancouver Island, arriving on or about June 10. We have a locker secured and the lovely manager will receive and lock up said goods. One more thing almost off the list and likely not to worry about.

Now Friday, April 23 Not much happens in these parts lately, LOL. We signed all the condo sale stuff Wednesday, via Zoom. And I trust the money will be where it’s supposed to be next week. We sent it straight to the investment account. To quell any any any possible chance of trying to buy a house sight unseen 🙂

Sometimes, I just feel stuck. I know I’d be isolating like this in Canada in the same position. But I don’t believe I’d feel as stuck, as I wouldn’t be trying to get out of the country. Where did I leave that file when we last talked? CW was planning to drive out with Rosie if alive, and Bo our neighbour who has US status of some kind. But now, we hear they are turning Canadians back at the border again (the border from Mexico into the USA). If he gets a five-day pass to leave the country and it takes him four days to get to the border, he is fucked if he gets turned back into Mexico. The car will have 24 hours before it’s illegal and uninsured, AND it’s illegal to do anything with it EXCEPT remove it from the country.  It’s a Canada/USA Border Services pissing match and up to the individual agent. Ok, well, we aren’t leaving for at least six weeks, eight weeks, who knows. So that goes on the shelf for now. I get reports every day from various “on the road in Mexico” groups about who is being allowed through. All we can do is watch it. 

I guess I have to get good with sitting on my hands again. Maybe in two weeks, we will hear news of our second shots. Then that will give us something shorter to X off on the calendar. Tomorrow is Saturday – that’s Starbucks Lattes and Cronuts and Muffins via UberEats and/or the (mostly) open resale shop, double-masked. Sunday is horoscope day and Monday is two weeks since our first shots (we won’t be doing anything until two weeks after our second shots and even then very carefully). Monday is also a full moon in Scorpio, leaning toward big breakthroughs out of the blue. That would be nice, LOL. A good day for ideas, not a good day for compromise and we shouldn’t sign anything if we can avoid it. Some days are more astrologically momentous than others.

What else? I was thinking about how I could turn a movie about a woman who can’t get over the death of her husband and takes his ashes on a trip around the world with her into a romance. Clearly, she can meet someone. But easier said than done.  ???

Well, I just got a lovely email. “The condo sale is closed and registered.” Always good news. And, I want to point this out again, not to virtue signal or make you think we are anything special but to encourage the world to please take what you need, but don’t take more. We probably could have gotten more for this condo if we’d let it go on MLS. And it would have gone quickly. And we knew this when we signed off.

But we did not need to make more. We made a net 63% ROI and an average of 25% annually over 2.5 years after all fees, taxes, agent fees. (But do note, we only put 20% down and that’s the cash that the ROI was based on, not the full price or you’d be peeling me off the ceiling.)  And, I maybe did 8 hours’ worth of work on it total (if that). Not that having extra money doesn’t matter to us Of course, it does. But we made enough. And we are happy. And everyone in the deal – both agents, the buyers, even the lawyers – are all happy. And that makes me happy. The company made the money actually, not us. And now it can meet payroll, LOL. That’s me and CW.

It’s Saturday. I didn’t have a good day today but it’s almost over. Don’t know why. Some days are just like that. Every day is the same. Every. Single. Day. I want to go home. Now. And the world is going to hell in a handcart. India, at least. I cannot bear the news and the bodies on fire in the parks because the crematoriums are full. Excuse me for not writing about it more but I can’t keep this in my head. It hurts to see this happening. So many dead.

Mexico seems to be holding steady at 4,000 new cases a day. But they don’t count them all. I just read that they only count the cases in public hospitals, not private (but all deaths attributed to Covid are covered, until they find another 100,000 dead they forgot to add to the total). Still, proportionately, even if not a true number, it’s better than the 21,000 new a day in public hospitals January. But it is still very bad. I saw some idiot on social media proudly proclaiming that Mexico reached herd immunity by so many catching Covid and this was the way to do it. I doubt that for one (herd immunity), and 300,000+ dead is nothing to be proud of.  We should get timely second shots, however, and I’m grateful for that. Mexico has vaccinated 12% with first shots and I fear it’s trying to vaccinate its way out. It has taken, and continues to take, no other precautions. I can’t talk about that either. Today is one of the days I need to go to bed and pull the sheets up over my head. 

Maybe I should start packing. I still don’t quite know how we’re leaving or when. I seem to have an issue with that, LOL. I haven’t found that project yet that will keep my mind so busy I don’t have time to drive myself crazy with uncertainties about the future. I have a bit of a list and none of them appeal to me. Which one do you think I should throw myself at?

• There’s Cream Cheese in my Sushi: The real cost of living in Mexico
• The Move to Canada Bible
• The Cry of a Hawk (MOW)
• Editing the Best of Bitches – but I’m losing my enthusiasm. We’ll have to wait for the other bitch to get back and inspire me. I have some codes done and one of the bitches did some of them — once we get the gang back together, I commit to getting that done. Once and for all. But not until then.

What I really should do is keep going with Captivatist. I’ve been setting up affiliate programs and it’s a pain. But it might provide another passive income stream. The M2CB (Move to Canada Bible) could also be a steady bread and butter. The others not so much, but Cry of a Hawk pays well one time if anyone buys and once it’s done, I put it on Inktip and that’s that. So, it’s passive until it sells, anyway. Or do I have better ideas for a MOW? The Brass Ring? Right Down the Middle? I’m really stalled.

Monday is a full moon in Scorpio, we talked about how that means something “out of the blue”. But we also saw what the “luck of a leprechaun” prediction brought me last week. Nada ???

I was just thinking back to a year ago. I should go look at a blog or two. We were just into Covid’s first wave and quite frightened. Same time, same place, next year. ONLY, many of us have had vaccine shots and that is an incredible testament to science. It’s still bad. And there are still variants and we’ll need booster shots. But if they can just get control in a few countries, we could be on our way to turning the corner. Oops, I wasn’t going to go there. But how can I not? I think I need to go to bed and watch Modern Family reruns, there are so many I haven’t seen and even if I have, I can see them again. Something funny.

Oh a friend who saved a baby squirrel this spring, had her and helped her leg heal for two months, fed her with an eyedropper, let her go about a month ago. She just whatsapped me and told me she saw her! In the garden! I’m so happy for her, it was hard to let the baby go but she knew she had to. And the squirrel lived and is okay. So, that cheers me up. Immeasurably.

We didn’t do Starbucks today because we had leftover breakfast from McD’s the day before because I was just starving and there it was. On UberEats. Didn’t go to the store either, why risk it when we are so close. Not that we won’t. I don’t even know what I’ll do once we feel safe. We’re talking about a San Miguel weekday weekend. Staying in a hotel (me, and my two friends who live there), eating at restaurants, buying shit to put in the van if Chris does drive home. And I can board PJ up at a kennel that turns them out all day with other dogs and there are video cameras so you can watch. One person can’t take care of both these dogs, just can’t happen. I am aiming for early June on that but I guess we will see. It is important to see those two amigas before I leave. I have to get on my old hard drives and find more of these photos – every time we got drunk at Hanks, we took a shot like this.

In fact, looking through those old hard drives is an excellent idea and I’ve got one of those thumb drives that takes things off automatically so I could do that to the photos and put them in the cloud. I should sort out my photos one day. These guys were absolutely my gang in SMA. It’s been hard to live in Mexico without them 🙂

Ok, 7 am walk (it’s Sunday) and I can’t go outside our privada with PJ on his walk (tiny, 4-house privada) because there is a pack of street dogs eating garbage outside the nightclub across the street (which just opened and plays music at 80 decibels until 4 am on weekends). If that doesn’t encourage me to find a way out of here, nothing will. But I will not let it ruin my day because there is f-ck all you can do about shit like this in Mexico. I am focusing on the second shot plus two weeks. Interesting since I just wrote about the neighbour’s dogs last night. After the second shot, I will consider all options for getting out of here (but this time, not just the town – the country).

Just read a great NYT piece about wearing masks outdoors. Please read, or at least look at the graphic:

Do We Still Need to Keep Wearing Masks?

Use the two out of three rule — you need TWO of these conditions at all times (when with those whose vaccination status you do not know): Outdoors, Distanced, Masked. Just like last summer. This isn’t going away. Yet, anyway.

There’s a handy chart at the NYT. Do click on the link. These rules are for any group with unvaccinated people in it. If you are all vaccinated and fully set (two weeks after 2nd, or in some cases full, dose) – you can relax a bit.

Monday. Another week. Depressed as f-ck. But will snap out of it, it’s only 5:29am. I need to update the M2MB (the Mexico bible) this week. I plan to update all 33 cities covered in the first half of the book. That’s a lot of work but I think it will really help, things have changed in two years. Sales are ticking along. Covid has made a lot of people want to move to Mexico, most of whom don’t read a newspaper, clearly (the second most covid deaths in the entire world). But hey, everyone needs to figure things out for themselves. I am thinking it will be more conservatives (Republicans) than liberals (Democrats). They are the ones pissed about Canada or America’s Covid restrictions and somehow they think Mexico is the wild west. Hey, wait, they’re right, LOL. Maybe this *will* work out for them. And down here, there will be no restrictions on them. Just bring your $$$ and all is good.

Today isn’t a good day. My soy milk keeps curdling my coffee. Enough to make me say f-ck the water issue and go back to almond milk (dairy inflames my arthritis if I have too much). I googled it and it happens all the time. I’ve been drinking it in coffee now for almost a year and it just started happening. But I can’t figure it out. Almond milk it is. And less coffee anyway. Or maybe not less coffee.

I spoke to my friend last night for about an hour, the one whose husband died a month ago. It was a hard death. They all are, of course. But some deaths are harder to watch than others. She was at his side the entire time he’s been sick and of course, was with him when he died. I haven’t seen her in seven years – but she is one of those “J” friends. There’s something about those guys, I’m telling ya.

So, I’m thinking about her a lot today. Anyway, my stomach is aching from thinking about the two of them and the process of his death and how she has to deal with all of this now. The two of them went everywhere together (and worked together) for 32 years. Like my other friend in SMA whose husband died of Covid a month before this friend died. I can’t imagine what they’ve been through and still have to deal with emotionally. It may happen to me. Or CW. Unless we die in an accident together. Or assisted dying together. Can’t think about that today. Some days, sure. Just not today, LOL.

How do you turn your brain off? Almost all my waking hours that I’m not actively engaged in something, my brain goes all by itself to the problem of getting home. The first thing is, until the border is declared open, CW can’t try to go with Rosie and Bo in the car. He can only get one 5-day pass to drive out of the country. He has to know he can get across. He can’t drive up and take a chance, as some of them are doing. I don’t think the borders will open until at least mid-summer. By then, there may be no Rosie. There are too many options, they are making me dizzy. Today is not the day 🙂 It must be that damn full moon in Scorpio. Where’s the “out of the blue” thing? The “big breakthrough”? Hmmmm.

Ok, I take it back. Out of the blue, I checked the Diario de Morelos website (newpaper) and we are getting our second shots in the first available window – 3 weeks after our first shot, to the day. May 3 – 5. I did not expect that. And it gives us something to throw ahead – in two weeks after that, we’ll be 95% protected. Of course, we will still mask in public places. But it should give us some flexibility around other things. This is very good. That’s next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. And by the 18th of May, we should be well protected. I must say, Mexico has rolled out the vaccines to the 60+ groups quickly (there aren’t that many of us, this is a very young population). Efficient and quick, though and I applaud (and thank) them.

Doesn’t change a lot. Except we can visit people in their yards. Eat at outdoor restaurants. I guess that’s a lot. I suppose I could go to costco again, masked of course. Double masked. But I’d do that. I need a trip to SMA, too. But it has to be a private car, I’ll never get on a bus again. And only on planes when I really need to. I’m done breathing in closed spaces with a lot of other people. There will be others (viruses).

We may be here (well, could fly up and come back) until the border opens – we can’t get the car out until then. We can’t sell it, we can’t give it away, we can’t junk it. Not allowed.

What a difference a day makes. Tuesday April 27. That freaking full moon in Scorpio is gone and good riddance. It was really difficult for me. But it’s over. I also made sure I ate healthy food for dinner, hydrated and went to bed early and read. Yeah, we’re still here. But it’s what it is. I even did some work on Captivatist this morning and swear I will publish my outdoor lights piece by Sunday at the latest. It’s been three weeks … that’s bad but I’ve been really preoccupied.

And what a difference another day makes. Wednesday, April 28. I had two nice surprises yesterday. The first, is that I had thought the money from the condo would have to go into a cash account at the investment company (earning less interest) as we may need it out to close the blue house in September so can’t commit it to any big projects. But they’re going to invest it anyway, and loan us the money to close the house (if required, this is all about mortgage access and where we are at the time) at the investment rate (so it’s a wash) but we can retain the investment for when we do finance the house but it’s on hold. So that’s nice and it’s a higher interest rate, which helps everything. We have lots of expenses these days with dogs and moving and flights.

The second surprise is a nice writing contract with a person/firm that I love to work with – and it’s in BC. It’s an annual contract and it pays well. It’s a retainer and expected to be 10 – 20 hours work a week. Which isn’t a lot. Three hours a day at the high end. And I can do that from 4 am – 7 am if I want and still have my whole day left 🙂 Plus it is a creative, ethical business. I’m excited about working with them.

They say the effects of full moons stretch three days on either side. So, these are all out of the blue. And somewhere in there, according to this month’s horoscope, is a ‘big breakthrough’, although I’m not sure about that. But time will tell.

Thursday (the 29th of April): All’s well on the southern front. We’re doing the same thing for our second shot, with the guy lining up the night before. That’s Monday. Then a month or so later, I’m talking about a San Miguel visit. I’ve got a (refundable) hotel reservation. But I’m not really “seeing” it yet. Normally, I can imagine and plan. I think I’m freaked out about the cost of private transportation. I have to cancel my hotel by June 1 to not get charged. And today is just an unenthusiastic day. Tomorrow I might feel more enthused. I do want to see where the numbers in Mexico go in the next few weeks. It doesn’t hurt to have the reservation, just in case I can go.

On a much brighter note, I found some of these online (Amazon US) and shipped them to the Texas maildrop. I haven’t had them in so long and love them!

Today is dull. All days will be dull now until things start to recede. I feel like we’re living in deja vu. The cases were far fewer this time last year but deaths were much higher. But now, it’s about overwhelmed hospitals. Hospitals everywhere didn’t get totally overwhelmed last year (although some required field hospitals). That’s because people died. And that’s the only reason they didn’t get overwhelmed (but almost did) in Mexico – so many died. We have 325,000 dead in a population of 135 million. India has 200,000 dead with 1.4 billion people. It’s all alarming. And I don’t trust Mexico’s case numbers for a minute. And they do almost no sequencing for variants. Seriously, almost none – 1% I think of all positives. You know Brazil is likely the dominant variant here and it’s worse than the other two. By mid-May, I do think we may see some numbers dropping in Canada. But I sure hope they drop around the world.

Also, the markets are not doing that well today. I hate that. I just have to breathe and wait until tomorrow. I *was* thinking about cashing everything out for the summer.

Friday morning. April 30. Last day of the month. Thinking about San Miguel…still. I do want to go up before I leave for good. Hopefully, that happens (once we’re back in Canada, with any living dogs, all bets are off, I know that. I guess we’ll see.

I said yesterday or the day before that I didn’t trust Mexico’s case numbers for a minute. I just read a piece that says over 1/3 of Mexico, 30+ million people, as many as are in Canada total, have been infected with Covid already. They got this from testing antibodies on the non-Covid hospital and doctor visits (blood tests). It was a fairly large sample. That’s 1 in 3. And that was at the end of 2020. they say 43.5% now. And we have no idea, the world that is, what the long-term effects are. I think this country will be in big trouble over the next few years with the long Covid-effects. I hope not.

Added to the vaccination totals, this puts Mexico very close to herd immunity. Which was their leaders’ plan the entire time, he even said it. Never mind 350,000+ dead – they would have been a drain on the health system with their pre-existing conditions. He didn’t say that, but I did.

It’s just such a shame because Mexico has so much to offer in the way of weather, natural resources and talented people. But they shoot themselves in the foot repeatedly. And the people pay a huge price. Funny how corrupt governments for hundreds of years and out-of-control organized crime can do that – this is a mafia state now. We don’t see it, but it’s certainly here in Cuernavaca. Well, we don’t see anything these days and have never run a business here (for that reason). There is a lot of new construction and there are a lot of expensive shiny new plazas with no renters. Well, Mexico has done this for hundreds and hundreds of years – fought the same battles with different people. They’ll make out fine. But two of my three best Mexican friends are leaving. In fact, one is gone but still has property, which she may or may not sell. But the plans are to move all their money out of the country. These guys are nervous about the state of things. Well, so were we (not anymore since we have no money here).

And I had an epiphany about the border closures. The US is giving us (Canada but likely Mexico as well) vaccines, I heard, as early as next week (a big thanks due to the USA… it’s starting to act normal again under Biden). I think it’s in aid of — and it would be very symbolic as a show of friendship after trump is gone — opening the borders the week of Canada’s July 1 and America’s July 4. In fact, I’m sure this was part of the deal. Mark my words. The business owners in the northern states have been pushing for a reopening for months, but finally, Canada will be safe enough to do it. Makes me very, very happy. I almost see no hotel quarantine if you have been fully vaccinated in the last six months and have a negative test. If not fully vaccinated, you do the quarantine. At least it would do that if I were in charge.

Monday, May 3. I did mean to post yesterday but since I waited – we did get our second dose this morning of Pfizer, gracias, tambien, a Mexico. We feel like so many things are off our list now… the shipping, the storage locker, vaccines. We’re really hoping that the next month tells us more about the land borders. And then I pulled these.

And no waiting around cards in there. The third card, the near future, shows that a phase of life is ending, and indicates a change of country. And a busy time sorting things out and preparing for the end of this phase. That works. This card positon concerns “up to” 90 days out. And it’s funny, I felt it,

I felt it coming back downtown from our vaccine, on the highway, the way we used to get to the house we rented when we were first living in Cuernavaca in 2015. Six years ago now. Then we went to Mexico City after a year and came back. And now, other than coming back possibly for a couple of months but minimally to get the 2nd dog (PJ) will be pretty much the end. We could come and visit friends here and there but we also need to go to places we can still go to (while still in our 60s and early 70s), like the south of Spain or Morrocco. There are things I will miss. And that was the thought actually as we pulled off the highway. I started to see things with those other eyes. Not just the eyes that want to get the f-ck out of here, LOL. Remember those Tommy eyes when my cousin died and he walked with me one day in San Miguel? Oh yeah, I guess if you weren’t reading the blog then (July 2014), you really think I’m crazy now 🙂

We do have to watch our carbon footprint, we can’t lose sight of that. And buying carbon offsets when you fly doesn’t absolve you from much. I’ve already sent out a query for solar on the island. LOL. We don’t even have a house yet.

Ok, I am closing now. I’ll even send it out tonight.

Stay safe, stay informed, stay kind. Stay patient if you don’t have your vaccine, it’s coming and it’s worth the wait. Please be careful in Canada. In one more month, things will look better. I leave you with this old chesnut, you’ve heard it so many times but just listen to it again. My all-time favourite (if I had to pick).