Spring Is Here With a Touch of Summer

May is here and the temperature is warming up. It hasn’t been too hot yet. We have been having nice breezes during the day and it is cool enough for sleeping at night. Our neighbors Creela and Phil have arrived and it is good to have them back down here for a while. They will stay until June. They are planning a trip on a charter sailboat in July to Belize. Fun!!! So what has been going on so far this month? We had Eian, one of our grandsons turn 13 on the 5th!!! Oh Lordly he is a teenager now!!! Ha!! Happy Birthday!!!! I had 10 gals over to play the card game Hand and Foot. It was fun. Then my step son, Michael turned 40 on the 9th!!!! May he have many, many more!!! The truck has too bad tires on the front. They both have been slit by sharp rocks traveling on our road. The back tires are all terrain but the front ones aren’t so they aren’t taking the abuse very well. We have to go even slower with the tires the way they are and are trying not to drive it much. We are going to have to buy 4, 16 inch tires on rims, or just 16 inch rims either in the states or Ensenada and put them on the truck after we get back from Washington. We can’t get 16.5 inch tires down here but we can get 16 inch ones. We got our new instructions on whom to call in an emergency and all that goes with it. The Commandant was supposed come out to meet us but he was a no show. We had a potluck planned for after the meeting so since he didn’t show we went ahead and ate and visited. Monday the 14th we took off to Santa Rosalia to the boat. Our friend, Murray, drove down and meet us there. He is staying with us on the boat. His wife Penny is in the States so she will have to wait until the next time we go down. Murray was a lot of help to us. He mostly helped Dave which freed me up to do things I needed to get done. I managed to clean and condition the leather seats down below, then wash out the cockpit. It was hot and very humid this trip so we couldn’t do much outside after 1:00pm. We are so glad we have air conditioning. We pretty much got everything done on the boat we needed to do before we leave for Washington for the summer. Dave pickled the water maker, changed the engine oil, washed the starboard side of the hull and soaked some lines to get bird poop off along with dirt and salt. The only thing Dave didn’t get a chance to do is change the oil in the generator, but that is an easy job when we return. The guys hoisted me up the mast so I could tie line across the first spread as you go up the mast and after tying the line I tied danger tape onto it so it will flap in the breeze and scare the birds away. The cormorants can’t land on a small diameter line so that is why we put the line across. Then on the smaller spreaders above the big ones I just tied the danger tape onto the spreader. Hopefully that will work. There is a sailboat in the marina that the owners have left and the cormorants have used that as a home base at night. At least they are not landing on our boat. But when the owners come back and it leaves, they will be searching for a night roosting place. Unfortunately the owner of the boat didn’t make arrangements to have someone clean his boat and it is a bird poop mess. The boat has teak decks and they are going to be ruined!!! It is really sad as it is a nice boat. It is going to take a lot of work to get that boat back in shape again. I don’t envy them coming back to their boat!!! They are in for a real shock!! Alberto still washing our boat 2 times a month and having the divers come once a month to clean the bottom, so we are in good hands. We left our pressure washer onboard so he could use it to clean the decks. That will save him a lot of work and keep our boat cleaner. He’s a good guy!!! Murray had a good time on the boat. He used to be a commercial fisherman and fished in Alaska and off the coast of Washington and Oregon. He was comfortable being on-board. When we got back home on the 18th, we went to dinner at Phil and Creela’s house. It was nice not having to figure out what to fix for dinner. We had a nice visit. Sunday, the 20th I took my dirty clothes over to Murray’s to wash as they have a washing machine. Once a month I usually wash my clothes and large towels and sheets at their house since washing the big items are hard by hand. Unfortunately the marina didn’t have enough water for people to wash clothes so I didn’t get a chance to do that so Murray offered to have me come over. That was really nice. Dave came along and as my clothes were being washed I went looking for rocks on the beach in front of Murray and Penny’s house and Dave and Murray changed one of our front tires on the truck. Murray had a 16 inch tire on a rim that was all terrain he let us have. We have a spare A/T which Dave will change out the other front tire soon so I can drive the truck to town to get groceries. The people down here are like the cruisers. They will help you when you need it. Then that evening Dave and I went to Larry and Lois’s for dinner and had a great time. There were several other friends there too. We were lucky see a little of the partial eclipse before the sun went behind the mountain. Larry has 3 welding masks to view it with. Awesome!!! Dave and I went to a Memorial Day party and had fun. The majority of people who are still here came to enjoy good food, fun and each other. Today, Monday, was Hand and Foot card game. I didn’t win, but came close. It was fun. We laughed a lot and commiserated over our card hands. Ha!! Happy Memorial Day!!! Thank you to all who served and blessings on those who died and were wounded. You sacrificed so much so we can be free!!!! Thank you!!! God Bless you all!!! Dave and Phil went fishing this afternoon. Phil couldn’t stand it any longer listening to the guys that were fishing this morning catching fish. So right after lunch they took off and I just heard they caught quite a bit of fish. Yahoo!!!! They will be back close to 7:00pm. They left a little after 1:00pm this afternoon. Dave is going to be hungry and tired!!! Oh no----not another snoring night!!!!! YIKES!! I tease him about his snoring, but he does and he isn’t quiet about it. We laugh a lot and he gave me ear plugs to wear when it gets to where I can’t stand it anymore. You do what you have to do!!!! As long as it works----no worries. This month is passing quickly and I can’t believe we are leaving here in 14 days to go north. I am looking forward to seeing the family and spending some time with them. I have made a couple more creatures. One is a pelican and the other is a whale. Here are the pictures of the pelican and whale.

The temperatures are climbing and it is getting hot. At least it is still cool at night. I really think it is going to be a hot summer. Because of the heat we now have bees, mosquitoes, and lots of bobo flies that are everywhere. They are tiny and get in your nose, food, drinks, garbage!!! I have to put whatever I am throwing out in plastic bags and seal them well to keep the flies from hatching and creating a huge problem. I have 2 fly strips hanging, one near the garbage and one in the living room, which has helped but it is just the time of the season for those critters. Speaking of critters, I made a couple more. I made a blow fish and a couple lizards. The lizard tails are made from gourd seeds! My neighbor gave a bunch to me so I was playing around and thought it would look cool to put them on their backs and tails. Here are the pictures.

Since the weather is getting hot a lot of the gringos are leaving to go back to the states. We will be one of them soon. I have already packed clothes and necessities and my craft projects to keep me busy. This will be the last blog for a while as I will write it on vacation but not post it until we get back home to Bahia. Enjoy your summer!!!