Monday, October 2, 2017

It's Been Awhile . . .

living.boondockingmexico@yahoo.com

Sunrise on the road to Reynosa.


It's been awhile since my last post.   I've been busying traveling but it's not rving.  A big difference.  I'm pretty beat and it took the weekend for me to catch up.  Here's a quick rundown of what I've done.

Did  I mention our U.S. credit card was compromised?  If I did here's a repeat.   Two weeks ago Sunday I received an email saying I needed to call the bank.  Turns out, there were charges from Thailand, Malaysia and Zimbabwe.   The operator told me that MasterCard had been hacked.  

I had to go to Dallas anyway a week later so I made arrangements to pickup the credit card at a bank branch.  It's getting harder the longer we live in Mexico to get things done in the U.S.  Not sure what will happen the next couple months after we sell the house and have no mailing address.  I know I can open a mailbox to pick up mail here in Monterrey with a U.S. address but that's an expense and a pain also.  We don't receive much anymore anyway.

Went to Reynosa the following Saturday morning and made it to the bank early.  I activated the card and off I went.  I spent the night after some CostCo shoppping (they don't sell our Vitamin C in Costco Mexico).  Sunday I had breakfast at the hotel and headed for the airport.  No big deal and the flight was pretty empty.  I picked up the rental car and off I went for the next for days to three Texas cities; Stephenville, Forney and Joshua.   Rotten little shits, I hope nobody there reads this.   Talk about dumbing down.  Another story for the campfire.   

I've been told before that I am preaching to the choir.  In this school, they purchased the church across the street to use as their auditorium.   It was cushy but there was no singing.  I couldn't joke about it either as we can't mention religion or politics in front of the students.  Communism?  I wanted to tell my pirate joke and asked beforehand.  It was rejected as it was possible one of the students may have a family member who is missing a limb, a hand or an eye.   Oh brother.


I arrived in McAllen late Wednesday night, spent the night and headed home early Thursday morning to heavy flooding.  The highway was closed for a bit because and underpass was flooded and the water went down pretty fast.  I don't take chances even though many cars made it through.  Once outside Monterrey it took me over an hour to find a work around.  As a side note, my Google Maps on my Samsung cellphone beats the heck out of our TomTom GPS.   I did all my trips in Texas and found work arounds here to avoid flooded roads.



This month begins working on the sale of the house in San Antonio.  I'm sure we will be spending a few weekends there getting the house ready and signing the papers.  The average sell time in the neighborhood is 44 days and at very good prices.   Let's hope it's quick and easy.

I went out to the rv and did some cleaning yesterday.   The refrigerator has one shelf above the veggie drawers that is a sheet of plastic.  Cheap and ugly.  I'm looking this week to replace it with a piece of tempered glass.  Also the mini-blind in the kitchen is shot and the paint is worn off from rubbing and the drawers in the bedroom dresser need new slides.  That's what I'm working on now besided my trip to Ecuador at the end of this month.  Three long and fast days.  Too bad I can't stay and do some sightseeing.

8 comments:

  1. I wanted to tell my pirate joke and asked beforehand. It was rejected as it was possible one of the students may have a family member who is missing a limb, a hand or an eye. Oh brother.

    Oh brother is right. This politically correct stuff drives me crazy...

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    1. Kevin, since you guys disconnected you probably wouldn't believe what has changed. It's appalling, disgusting, and has made me change my mind about living to 113 years old (2070). We're in for the ride of our lives. Learning to live cheap is a good idea as money and pensions probably won't be worth much in the near future.

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  2. So it is the house in Texas you are selling and not the house in Monterrey?

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    1. Yes, first is the complete disconnect from the U.S. Then we will work on consolidating things here in Mexico. The goal is to sell the rv and purchase a class b roadtrek type and hit the road looking for adventure and a new place to live. Time to live in a stable climate. I think we already know where we want to be.

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    2. Chris, you mentioned as to making a complete disconnect from the US; I wondered if during your working years you might have paid at least the minimum number of quarters into the US Social Security system to collect a monthly stipend. If you have, you deserve to collect it, no matter how small. There is a fellow you might know, Les, who was born in England but is now a Canadian citizen; he found out later that he could collect a small stipend from England upon retirement because of a short working period as a policeman in a England. It never hurts to check it out. By the way, we saw a Roadtrek at Camping World last weekend, used but nice and in great shape, price was high but everything there is negotiable.

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    3. Hi Dee. We've known Les for quite a few years and I follow his blog. If we see him in SMA he's tooling around on his motorbike.

      Yes, I do have SS in the states and it has built up quite a bit. I pay taxes on my income in both countries and the small amount of work I do there is applied to my account. It continues to grow. :)

      As for the Roadtrek, we can only import one that is eight to nine years old and that model year changes every calendar year. We keep looking though.

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  3. You never let the dust settle under your feet. Too bad you cant stay even one more day in Ecuador.

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