Another Year to Reflect and Be Thankful

Can you believe it is December already? Well thank goodness I have my shopping done. I finished shopping for the grandsons just before Thanksgiving. I shop online and have it sent to their homes. Unfortunately the adults have to wait for their birthdays to get something. Money just doesn’t spread as far as it once did. Dave has measured the spot where the house will be built. It is pretty amazing. Like I said, he is having fun. I am having fun just watching him!!!! I have been making wreaths from beads and wire to give as gifts this year. I have finished 6 so far. I was telling Mary, my neighbor, we only had a small string of lights but we were going to put them out anyway. I went over to her house the other day to borrow some spray paint for a whale I was making and she gave us 2 strands of Christmas lights, one red and the other green. That was very nice and I was excited to have more lights to display. I want to put them up so when Creela and Phil come over for dinner on the 1st it will look Christmassy. We got them up and when it got dark I turned them on. To our dismay only half of the red and green strands worked. Bummer. We’ll have to investigate tomorrow in the daylight. It is pretty with the ones that are working. We examined all the bulbs and made sure they were tightly in all the way but they still didn’t work. I took off the green strand and worked with it to no avail. Then Dave tried his hand at it and determined the wiring was wrong on half the strand on both. So we will just have to live with it. Next year we will get some good ones and toss these. Hey!!!! They were free so I’m not complaining. At least we have enough lit to make it festive. I gave all my aluminum can ornaments to our gate guard and he has decorated 2 trees outside his trailer. It looks rather festive. Mary put a green wreath and garland on the gate with a solar light attached to the gate so we can find the lock to unlock the gate when Ramon is not there in the night. We had Creela and Phil over for dinner as they are leaving on the 2nd and we gave them their wreath made of beads and wire. They loved it!!! We had a nice dinner and we said our goodbyes until next time when they come back. Creela left her sweatshirt at our house last night so I took it over to them this morning. It was good timing as they were getting ready to leave. We hugged and said goodbye again and I gave Creela back her sweatshirt. Ron and Diane are throwing a big birthday bash for Ron’s 80th at Alejandrina restaurant in town tonight, Sunday, the 2nd and we were invited. Just about everyone who has known Ron through the years showed up. It was a nice party and the amazing part about it was they paid for everything. They supplied the wine for the tables and we had 2 entrees to choose from. One was a chicken dish and the other a beef soup. Dave got the chicken and I got the beef. It was all very good. Then there was cake. We not only had the birthday cake but some of the gals brought other cakes. Everyone had a wonderful time and Ron was a happy camper. May he have many more good ones. I have been busy making new critters and made some new dragon flies. I am almost finished making ones for the Art/Craft show in March. It is getting cold in the art room and the glue isn't drying as fast as I would like it. Time to take a break for a while. I have plenty for the show. Here are some new critters.

We are in Santa Rosalia for the week. Moorage needs to be paid for the month and we have to do some repairs to the forward head as there isn’t any pressure when we flush it. We will replace the duckbills (they are rubber gaskets that allow the water to flow through one way. They expand and contract with the water pressure). Dave will also try to adjust the pressure. So that wonderful job is facing us. Then I need to clean both sump pumps. That is on the agenda for today, Dec 4. We also need to go to the immigration office to ask some questions about the new way they are doing visas. We have read that FM3’s and FM2’s are going away and for non citizens we will need to get a 180 day visa, but you can pay in advance so you don’t have to renew every year. So we will get the scoop. Hopefully they will be open. We have to come back in January to renew so we want to be sure we have all we need by then and all questions answered if possible. It is a beautiful morning, sun is shining and it is cool. It is nice not to have the heat. It makes it better for working on the boat. Tomorrow I need to rinse the cockpit. To our surprise it isn’t really dirty. So it will be a quick job. Then I have some shopping in town and if we are finished with all projects we may be leaving on Thursday, but I still have laundry to do so we shall see. Our plan was to leave on Friday unless we finished earlier. Dave walked down to the immigration office to see what they had to say about the new regulations, so while he was gone I cleaned the forward sump pump. Just as I finished Dave came back. He said nothing will change for us because we are on our last year of FM3. All the new regulations are for those who are new to Mexico. So this is a good thing for us. The only drawback is it will cost us twice as much this year. Then next year instead of going to an FM2 we will be able to apply for residency. Dave and I discussed the issue of going for citizenship, but said we really don’t need to do that. There is a lot of red tape involved and we really don’t have a desire to go through all of that. Being a resident will be enough. I tackled the other sump pump while Dave worked on the forward head. I cleaned the sump pump but the float switch wasn’t lifting high enough to drain the water. Dave took a look at it and we think the mechanism in the float that makes the level go up and down is being hampered in some way and it can’t be taken apart. So we need to order a new one. We have a complete sump system we tried putting in some time ago, when we were having similar issues, but it was too big for that space. Oh well. Dave will have to go online to see if they even carry the parts. I sure hope so because there isn’t any way to modify the space where it goes. After helping me he went back to working on the head. I helped hold the flashlight and give him the tools he needed but outside of that there wasn’t much for me to do. I decided I would walk to town and look for some disinfectant wipes. There is one store I know that carries them so I will go there and also to the government store to pick up a few grocery items. I walked to the craft/fabric store and looked for beads. They had them but in small quantities and there were a lot of people buying fabric and things for Christmas so I decided not to get anything. I can get some more beads when we get home. I needed to stop at the ATM but there was a line. Saturday was a holiday for Mexico as it was the inauguration of their President. So the banks were closed Monday. I’ll have to come back later. When I got back to the boat Dave was almost finished with the head. He took the old duckbills out and replaced them with new. They definitely needed to be replaced. Now he needs to work on the pressure switch. The head is working better and does have pressure but Dave thinks it needs a new motor. Dave will have to order that as well. Hopefully we will get the parts before January. Joanne’s son and family are coming down next week so we can ask if they will accept the parts at their home and bring them down with them. That is how we get things down here. That forward head has been used a lot more than the aft one so it doesn’t surprise us the motor is going on it. After lunch Dave and I relaxed. I read and Dave was on his computer. For some reason I don’t get as strong a signal as Dave so I can’t connect to the internet very often. That is alright. When I get it I do what I have to and then I’m done. I did post the October blog this morning. Thank goodness I got that done. I lost my internet signal after that and still haven’t gotten it back yet. I will try in the morning and hopefully my blog will be up to date. Back at the house our internet isn’t strong sometimes and it takes a long time to download pictures on the blog so I try to do it when we come to Santa Rosalia. I guess I just go with the flow and do it when I am able. No worries!!!! We had dinner on the boat last night and again tonight. I had leftover roast beef and vegetables so I brought it with us. It was nice to dine on the boat for a change. Tomorrow night I think we are going to Terco’s to have some roasted chicken. Our favorite. Before we went to Terco’s for dinner, Dave and I walked to the ATM and then to the grocery store to get a battery for our carbon monoxide unit. It was beeping when I opened the boat. Now it is working again and all is well. Tomorrow I plan on doing laundry, rinsing the cockpit and vacuuming. Depending on time I may have to wait on laundry but we’ll see. Looks like we leave Friday to go back to the house. Well we have a new development with the forward sump pump. It doesn’t work!!! It overflowed so water was going into the bilge instead of being drained overboard. Dave thinks water got inside the pump. CRAP!!!! The motor is contained in a box. he took it apart to see if he could fix it but when it was back together it ran but it wouldn’t shut off. This isn’t a good thing because we can’t run any water from the sink or the shower in there. The pump runs but doesn’t drain. Now what sportfans!!!!! Today is a figure out why the sump pump isn’t draining. Dave got online and did find out we can order parts for both sump pumps so that is a very good thing. I think the boat might be rebelling because it knows something is going on with us trying to sell it. HA!!!! If you believe that I have a bridge to sell!!!!! Things are just wearing out and eventually they would go belly up anyway. Now is a good time to get things in running order. Even if the boat doesn’t sell we would still need to have everything running. We both are frustrated with the internet here. We use to be able to get on without any problems but lately it is hit and miss. Plus they took away the room cruisers use to get on their computers and drop off and exchange books. The customs people are taking it over so now there isn’t any place for the cruisers to go. Dave told Isabela, the lady in the office, that the room the cruisers use to get on their computers to call home and check emails was taken away and if they can’t do that they won’t come. She said that wasn’t good so she will figure out another place for the cruisers to go. Internet is very important when you are cruising as that is the lifeline to family and friends and ordering parts. The boat is clean on the inside and out and we can’t do anything more with the head and sump pumps until we come back so we are heading home Friday. We had a safe trip home. The weather has finally turned cold with wind and we have had more rain and clouds than we have seen in the last 3 years. It is good for the plants but hard on the generator as we have to run it to charge up our batteries. There have been storms in San Diego and because of the way the jet stream is this year we are getting more weather from the south. That is because the lows move in a counter clockwise movement which pushes the air south. A few days Dave and I thought we were in Seattle with the grey all day!!!! Ha!!! Sorry guys!! We have been watching the weather and know Bremerton, well Kitsap County has gotten cold temperatures and snow. Looks like they will have a white Christmas. That will be fun for the kids. I miss my family and friends but sure don’t miss the weather!!! I’ll take the wind and a few cloudy days that we have. Most of the time the sun shines and at least brightens things up. The deck looks festive with the lights. I love seeing the colors and brightness it brings. I bought a paper tree and hung it on the wall for our Christmas tree. Still don’t have many decorations. I hung our stockings and tried to make it look festive. We invited our neighbors Joanne, George and Mary and Leysel over for dinner. It was fun. Joanne’s son, Ken and family arrived with our parts. Now we just wait to see when we are going down to the boat. We have to renew our FM3’s before the middle of January and the people interested in the boat want to see it first part of January so when we hear from them we will make our plans. Christmas was quiet. Just another day really. Not many people down here now so it is quiet. I finished the baby afghan finally and now am working on a cross stitch wedding pattern for my son Jon and his new wife Susannah. I also received the birth announcement cross stitch kit to do after the wedding one. So I have my projects lined up. I have finished working on all the critters for the Art/Craft show in March and it is too cold for the glue to set quickly so it is taking longer. Time to put it aside. I did manage to coat them with polyurethane so that is done and I attached my name tags to them. Now I need to price them in U.S. dollars and pesos. Then I will be ready for the show. I started making zipper pulls out of beads, animal trinkets and Angry Bird pogs. I found out the only way to get the pogs is to buy small bags of chips and then you get one in each bag. I went online to see about buying sets of pogs, especially Angry Birds, but they weren’t available. I will wait and see what I can find when I go home in February to help with the new baby. Not looking forward to the cold, rain and grey, but I am looking forward to seeing the family and our new grandson. Any day now!!! New Year’s Eve we went to a dinner in town and had a great time with our friends and had a lobster dinner that was delicious. Then we stopped at the Fiesta they were having in town for the first time in 3 or 4 years. We did some dancing and I got to dance with my friend Herman who is 93. He was having the time of his life and he was all decked out in his finest clothes and cowboy hat. What a kick he is. He was dancing with all the young pretty gals. That is Herman!!!!! Ha!! After dancing a couple dances and saying hello to our Mexican friends, we headed back to the house. Tom and Lynn, another one of our neighbors is having a bonfire and we have been invited. We went home and changed clothes and then joined our neighbors. Mary and George were there and our gate guard, Ramon too. It was a cold night but there wasn’t any wind which was great and the full moon was shining!! What a beautiful night. We made it to Midnight and wished everyone a Happy New Year then went home. We couldn’t believe how cold the house was and was glad to get under the covers and get warm!!!! Yeah! HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!!