I Just Got An Idea

living.boondockingmexico@yahoo.com

Let's begin with the contest and the winner.  Dee was the winner and she pegged it right on the money.  Congratulations Dee!  You'll be receiving a LivingBoondockingMexico mug.  We'll be in touch so we can send it in the next two weeks.  We'll be making a trip to McAllen on the 23rd.  

I did it just to see how many people would participate.   There have been 111 readers on that post and only 22 voters.   Boo hoo hoo.   Could have won a coffee mug!

We are trying to slowly eliminate stuff from the house just in case.   I found a bunch of videos that we had taken years ago before when video cameras were popular.   Our trips to Hawaii (we took three as we were on a Hawaii kick).   That's when travel was much cheaper than it is today.   We made grand trips out of it.   We drove to McAllen and spent the night and had dinner with friends.   The next day we would fly to Los Angeles and spend another night and go shopping.   After, we took our flight to Maui.   Those were fun days.   Now the prices, thanks to deregulation and the failure of it that followed, have left us with exorbitant airfare pricing and little selection of airlines not to mention all the extras they charge now.

Anyway, before I get too off track, we have videos of our very first rv trip and our then new to us, Trailmanor travel trailer.   All these miniature video tapes are going to be converted so I can download them and share "some" of them with readers.   You don't want to see all of them but a couple would be fun.  

What got me started on this?   I was on my morning 8 km walk yesterday morning listening to my favorite singer, Astrud Gilberto.  She sang Oh Gingi.   That song brings back special meaning.   On Christmas vacation back in 1999 while we were living in Monterrey, I went for my morning jog.  Believe it or not I used to run 10 kms every morning on very steep hills if you know Monterrey.   Coming down a hill I heard some meowing and took a look in the bushes only to find, on that cold and foggy morning, kittens that had been thrown away.  One was still alive.  I promised her that if she was still there when I returned I would take her home.   She was and I carried her home.   We had listened to Astrud the night before and I decided to call her Gingi.   We miss her a lot.  

All of our pets have been rescues.   Imagine if we could have adopted kids.   We'd have a house full.

On to other news.   I am looking for a free place to stay in SMA the end of July and first part of August.   I have been asked to return to EdCaminos, the volunteer group that teaches underprivileged kids in the city.   

Our palapa is coming along albeit slowly.   That's okay, we weren't in any hurry and it should be done in the next week pending the new tile floor and the kooldeck application.  

It's hotter than hell here already topping 100F most days.   The good news is that I received the electric bill yesterday for the last two months (bimonthly billing in Mexico).  Shocking difference.  As I mentioned before, they lowered our rate and also extended or doubled our usage, passing that limit would put us in a commercial rate.   We used 562 Kwhs in two months; pool filter, well pump, A/C on extremely hot nights.   We wait until 5:30 p.m. to turn on the air in the bedroom to watch PBS news and have happy hour.  We have been leaving it on all night sometimes in the last month.  Yikes.   I read the meter daily but this new minisplit we installed is very high efficiency.  Plus, we keep it at 26C with the ceiling fan on low for circulation.   Keeps the humidity out and we sleep well.   So, bottom line, the bill was 493 pesos ($27U.S.) for two months.  The same usage last year was 992 pesos or $55 U.S.   

This is a huge relief.   We now feel a bit freer in our use of A/C.   The pool helps to keep us cool as well and the water level doesn't change since we fixed the leak.   We have a 2 ton minisplit in our living/social area but it hasn't been turned on in over two years.   Now, maybe we can enjoy it once in awhile.