Thinking About A Project

living.boondockingmexico@yahoo.com 

Several things have been going on recently and I guess I need to get off my behind and start blogging on a regular basis.

Conference in Merida

My very comfortable room at the Holiday Inn.  The food service stank.

For one thing, I recovered from my Ecuador trip and looking forward to getting paid.   It was only two days later that I went to Merida for an overnight and spoke at a conference on Social and Emotional Learning.  I had a good crowd for a smaller city and most them are university text material users.  I didn't hang around until the end.  I booked an early return as I figured I don't get paid for just hanging around.  I doubt people were to thrilled with that but I arrived in Monterrey at 6:30 p.m.  Flights to Merida are twice a day as far as nonstops.   Until the new Mexico City (Texcoco) airport goes online I will try and avoid stops there.   If our Socialist candidate wins, he vows to end the new airport construction.  It shows you what a fool he is, after all that investment and only two years to go, he would scrap it all.  It will be the largest airport in all of Latin America bringing jobs, money, tourism, and business.

I still have four more trips to take before June 6th, including Saltillo and Puebla and then it will be time for summer vacation.  We have another holiday next Tuesday the 15th of May celebrating Teachers Day.  The 1st of May was Labor Day and we had the day off but no four-day weekend.  Same with this next one but we have decided to make it one.  The trailer will go somewhere.  I'm still a bit skittish after the breakdown we had during Spring Break.  That was a real bummer.

Insert:  Sorry No Fat Pic!

One of my projects is to lose 10 lbs.  This is my 60th year and I haven't been this big in years.  What happened?  A vegan diet is what happened.   I need to eat, I like eating and yes I like comfort foods which include carbs.  You know, pasta, freshly baked bread, etc.   Well, I packed on the pounds the first four months of this year.   Before I die, I will be thin.  It's not my body type I've been told over the years but I really don't give a S!"%!   I still go to the gym every day and do 40 minutes of intense cardio and 50 minutes of weights.  The daily 10 km walks didn't help much because it made me really hungry.  I guess I need to live in a forest and forage for my food!

Second project.  I receive a feed on my Facebook page of called Market.  Market allows you to offer things for sale including rentals.   I am surprised by all the inexpensive rentals that are available in Monterrey.  They are not the most luxurious areas by any means but do provide good and comfortable housing albeit with some lower income areas.  Some of you may remember Lee and the house she had in Mazatlan.  This is the level of home I am referring too called casas de interes social.  They are homes built for lower middle to lower class incomes provided by government-backed home loans.  Some of these homes sell for as little as $10,000 after a $5000 subsidy from the government.  I'm doing research now and the idea is to share with those who may be on a very limited income of $1000 or less a month a way to be comfortable by living in Mexico.

BTW, I checked my social security account in the U.S. and it went up another $100 a month when I'm 62 so that is around the corner.  I finished all the paperwork for my SS here in Mexico and can now make contributions.  I will have a meeting with the consultant who will advise me just how much I can contribute on a monthly basis to beef up my account.   Mexican SS allows up to a 50,000 peso a month benefit and gives you your last four years before retirement to make contributions.  More on that later.