Tag Archives: retire mexico

Discoveries Of The Bed Bound

3 Nov

Figuring out how to spend my time as I head into three additional weeks of R & R is a challenge. Thank God for Netflix where I have discovered Korean cinema. With a plethora of drama, romance and horror (I don’t do scary) I’m probably late to the game. Three programs have captured my interest or at least have kept me from loosing my mind.

  1. The Extraordinary Attorney Woo
Attorney Woo to the far right.

My favorite by a mile, Attorney Woo is a young woman entering her first professional job as a person with autism. The program captures attention with drama and sweet romance. It was almost binge worthy but I chose to stretch it out. I do hope they have a second season.

2. Culinary Class Wars

While I’m a sucker for cooking shows, this is my first foray into foreign reality cooking. Dubbed in English, both Michelin star chefs aka white spoons and lesser known black spoons compete in grueling cook-offs. The best one included a mound of tofu. While I didn’t know a lot of the ingredients, I’m ready to pack my bags for a taste-testing trip to Korea.

3) Physical 100

A reality show featuring world class athletes, body builders, martial artists and even actors who go up against each other to prove their physical prowess. I love how the show includes their internal dialogue which features a lot of trash talk and overly inflated self-confidence. As participants are winnowed from 100 to a final winner in both individual and team challenges, there are many exhausting twists and turns. Your ally becomes your enemy in a matter of minutes.

My surgeon has relegated me to bed rest for another three weeks before taking an additional diagnostic X-ray. Plenty of time to continue to explore the world of Korean cinema.

DOS TORTAS

Not My Fault

27 Oct

It’s so easy to blame myself for the last two months’ trauma. “If onlies” run through my head. If only I had paid more attention passing through security in Vancouver. If only I hadn’t been so careless playing with the dog. Sigh, an accident is an accident, is an accident.

Surgery scar is healing nicely.

About two weeks after my fall, I got a message from my youngest brother emphatically telling me to pick up the phone. My brother William who is 16 months younger than me had an accident and broke his left leg! (same as me). He lives in Asheville North Carolina and was preparing for Hurricane Helene that swept through in September. My 71 year old brother climbed onto the roof to clean out the gutters, caught his leg and had to be lifted off the roof by the Fire Department.

We have matching walkers.

He spent a week in the hospital after surgery with no electricity, riding out the hurricane. Food and supplies were being delivered by helicopter. At home there was no damage to his house, only the loss of a freezer full of food. He is very grateful.

We talk frequently commiserating over our bad luck. There’s nothing like someone living the same experience, at the same time, to make you feel seen, even if they are a couple of thousand miles away. Maybe we have stupid genes running in our family but I doubt it. I spoke to another friend this week who reminded me that she broke her arm this time last year.

I don’t think we will stop making mistakes because we are older. We may think twice, or three times, but an accident, is an accident, is an accident.

DOS TORTAS

Telenovela Part Dos

20 Oct

I left the hospital the end of September after a 24 hour stay. I went home with a bag full of inhalers, breathing treatments and pills galore. We had taken rapid Covid tests with us on the cruise and all three of us, my wife and I and my MIL tested negative multiple times. I wore my mask at all times because my sister had come down with Covid on her Alaskan cruise a couple of years ago. Little did I know that I had already acquired it. My symptom was a persistent dry cough which could be heard echoing among other passengers as well, up and down the ship’s hallways. Who knew?

A small 14 bed private hospital.

In the hospital in Mexico, doctors performed an antigen test which showed that I had indeed had Covid. The inflammation had settled in my lungs which caused an asthmatic crisis. I went home after 24 hours with a prescription for R & R.

On the evening of September 14, only a week out of the hospital, I was playing with Luna and tripped over my own feet. I went down hard on the concrete floor. Lisa says she heard the crack. I never felt such pain nor screamed so loud in my life. Poor Lisa was freaked out. We both were at a loss as to what to do and I was in no position to make a decision.

Living in the jungles of Mexico one does not just dial 911. No one speaks English and explaining your location and situation takes skills. So Lisa called David.

David built our house in 2015 and is like a son. He has a Mexican wife and has lived here many years. His Spanish is top notch. He dropped everything to arrive at our house in 30 minutes, a new world record.

The rest is blah, blah, blah, emergency room, X-rays, tests and more tests. On the 30th anniversary of the day we met, I had surgery to set my leg. Not the plans we had for our special day.

Staples have now been removed leaving a kick-ass scar.

Life continues. I am to be 6-8 weeks off my feet. I’ve gotten access to my electronic accounts through no small miracle. Thanks to everyone who has commented and contacted me. It means the world to me.

DOS TORTAS

Living In A Telenovela (Mexican Soap Opera)

13 Oct

You might have noticed SILENCE from the Tortas since our trip to Alaska in August. Life took such an unexpected turn at the end of our trip that I cannot even begin to explain in one blog. It started in the Vancouver Airport with a moment of inattentiveness. We were catching a red-eye to return to Mexico after disembarking at 8 am. It had been a long day. I didn’t know at the time that I had Covid doing its tap dance in my lungs. I wish that were an excuse. Anyway, someone snatched my cell phone and iPad while I tied up my shoes not three steps away after coming through security.

Home Sweet Home

Not wanting to miss my flight, I returned to Bacalar getting sicker and sicker while some very poor choices on my part became evident. Online security and rampant identity theft have Apple, Google, and Samsung making it harder and harder to get into locked accounts. Google will not even talk to you. No live person to plead your case to. There are “procedures” and I made all the mistakes one can possibly make.

I allowed my iPad to store my secure passwords without writing them down. My two-step verification was to my phone and vice versa. I had NO passwords, No access to any of my accounts. No FB, Instagram, Apple ID, Google, banking accounts. Need I say more?

Then I ended up in the hospital with complications from Covid. And believe it or not, this is only half of the story.

DOS TORTAS

Forgive the stripped down blog. I’m still not back 100%.



If You Want To See Eagles You Have To Look Up

18 Aug

We left Vancouver by ferry for the Sunshine Coast, a favorite Canadian summer haunt. We dropped Alice with a friend from Bacalar to catch up and give Lisa and me a little va-ca.

Lana and my MIL Alice

The Sunshine Coast is more of what I wanted in a vacation to Canada, tall pines and oaks, fiddle ferns and moss, the cathedral of the great outdoors. We watched the tide going in and out from our room on Porpoise Bay, Seychelt, BC. and walked a marsh full of birds (crows, siskin, blue herons, hummers, mallards, geese). I looked up to spot an eagle overhead. At least I think it was an eagle. Anyway, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Big ass jelly fish.
A little afternoon snack.
One way to get back to Vancouver
Forest bathing at its finest.
Beauty that brought me to tears.

By the time this posts we’ll be on our Alaska cruise with no WiFi. Then on our way home. Stay tuned.

DOS TORTAS

Vancouver

11 Aug
Great Architecture
A Vibrant Noisy City
Gay Town
Lunch
Chinatown
Steam Clock
High Fashion
Curious Sam Kee Building
Christ Church Cathedral
Old Lamps and Stained Glass
View From Here

We have been blessed with perfect weather. Wednesday we leave for Alaska.

DOS TORTAS

I Wish I Liked Wine

4 Aug

While visiting Sonoma County, California aka wine country USA, it is obligatory, (or so I’ve been told) to imbibe. Almost harvest, the vineyards are buzzing with activity and the vines are weighed down with their fruit.

White, then red, then champagne.
Vineyards everywhere.

We sat outdoors in a beautiful garden and I learned more than I ever wanted to know about what it takes to produce world class wine. I went along for the ride, sipping and sampling. A few weren’t bad.

Almost everyone works in the industry. My daughter’s best friend is of the Kendall-Jackson persuasion. The weather was perfect. Yesterday we went to the coast. Gotta love California.

DOS TORTAS

Greetings to all.

Rainbows And Mermaids

28 Jul

Our granddaughters’ sixth birthday party was one of the most fun events I’ve been to in a long time. My daughter was in her element. I swear she should create parties for a living.

Nana’s calligraphy.

Covid caused a postponement from the original date, but for a “thrown together” shindig it was amazing.

Under the sea.
Rainbow celebration.
Party organizer kicks back.
How the adults get by.
Taken by one of the guests.
A yard made for a party.

Gone are the days of homemade cakes and a small gathering of a few besties. The weather was perfect and a good time was had by all.

DOS TORTAS

Lost In Mexico City

21 Jul

Flying during a worldwide tech glitch, causing one of the worst travel days in history, after 9/11, of course, left much of the world with cancelled flights, ruined plans and much confusion. I must say, Mexico City was pretty chill if you’re going to be stranded with a cancelled flight to San Francisco. I never heard anyone raise their voice, cause a scene or mention a Biden conspiracy. The counter attendants were fabulous. Kudos to United Airline. Their folks worked tirelessly to make lemons into lemonade, all with a smile.

There are some nice restaurants in the airport. I ate well.

After two days of roaming the airport, I remembered it was blog day! No, there was no partying in the City. While I love Mexico City, the uncertainty of my flying future kept me mostly chill-laxing in my hotel room.

Not bad digs for an airport hotel. Compliments of United Airlines.

I finally got a confirmed flight, to Cancun then on to San Francisco. Fingers crossed all goes well. I will be glad to unpack and love on my grandchildren.

DOS TORTAS

Time To Pack Again!

14 Jul

While “unpacking” from Hurricane Beryl we’ve simultaneously been packing for a jaunt to the US and Canada.

This year we celebrated the milestones of Lisa’s sixtieth and her mother’s eightieth birthdays. We have been trying for months to plan a trip that would get us out of the tropical heat and not break the bank.

Alice’s 80th birthday party.

Our house sitter arrives Monday to watch the dogs and manage the house. Lisa and Alice are off to Southern California for a mini family reunion while I head North to visit daughter and family. We meet up in Vancouver for a quick tour before catching a cruise to Alaska.

The twins turned six this week!

When traveling with a frail eighty year old, a moving hotel sounds doable. Escaping the steamy jungle of Southern Mexico for the land of glaciers and whale watching sounds divine.

I may be offline for a while. Remember to stay out of the heat, hydrate and be kind.

DOS TORTAS

Emilie Vardaman

travel and random thoughts

A Dead Kennedy

: A journal of a very slooow marathon swimmer

The Soulful Word

Intuitive copywriter + creative director: word whispering magic for personal brands

View From Casita Colibrí

gringa musings from a rooftop terrace in Oaxaca

Your Hand in Mind

Musings of a human factors engineer after her brain was released...

Surviving Yucatan

Smoothing out Mexico's rough spots.

Surviving Mexico

Adventures and Disasters

Perking the Pansies

Jack Scott's random ramblings

WordPress.com News

The latest news on WordPress.com and the WordPress community.