I invited the gals to come to my house to play train. I had to borrow 2, 6 foot long tables and some chairs, but I got everyone to be comfortable. It was a fun day. As the gals arrived I asked them to pick out a pair of earrings. They were excited to get them. I wished them a Merry Christmas. Thursday the gals are getting together in town to do some Christmas shopping and then lunch, so those I missed today with the earrings, they will be able to choose what they want then.
Today, being the 3rd is our grandson, Sam, 16th birthday!!!! Happy birthday guy!!!!
The Bahia gals got together and shopped and had lunch in town. We all met at the museum where they have some really neat gift items. I bought a plastic card that identifies big fish of the Sea of Cortez as the one we had blew away in a chubasco while we were coming up to Bahia for the first time on the boat. Dave always reminded me of the fish card that I let get away!!!! Ha!! Now he can’t complain any more. Well he can-----but who is going to listen???? Then we walked to an art gallery where everything is beautiful but expensive. After we left the gallery we went to a home where there resides a Mexican gentleman who makes things out of leather. He also sells honey. I didn’t buy anything but what he had was interesting. Then it was to Rosalinda’s store. I call it the craft store because there are all kinds of paints, glue, beads, yarn, etc there and the place is packed so you really have to take your time and look. I love going there. Then it was off to Las Hamacas restaurant for lunch. I had chicken tostados and a margarita! We had a great time visiting. Then it was time to go home.
Most of the people are leaving in the next week to go back to their home in the states for Christmas and New Years. There are only a handful of people who spend Christmas and New Years here. Then around January 10th or so they return and stay until summer.
We were invited to a friend’s house for dinner. They will be leaving to go back to Redding, California soon so they wanted to have us over before they left. We had a wonderful visit and the dinner was very good.
We are in Santa Rosalia on the boat for a couple days. We had to come down and pay the man that washes the boat and another man who dives and cleans the underside of the boat. So we just arrived today, the 10th and will return to Bahia on Thursday the 12th. Just a short visit this time. The boat is covered in dust from the wind blowing it around and the cockpit is filthy too. When we arrived the wind was howling and it was cold! We had 30 knot winds in Bahia yesterday so didn’t want to be on the road then as it was suppose to be windy everywhere. It was a good drive down with minimal windy spots. By the time we head home the wind will have calmed. My plan for tomorrow is to clean the inside of the boat and vacuum. Dave will have to pressure wash the cockpit and boat. All we want to do is wash off the dirt. Early evening we walked to the bank and then had dinner and came back to the boat. We are settled in now and the wind has finally stopped or at least let up. Tomorrow is not supposed to be as windy.
It is partly sunny and no wind which is nice. We have had our coffee and now it is time to get to work. If I said I am looking forward to cleaning and vacuuming I’d be lying!!!!! Ha!!! I never like to exercise or clean but I like the way I feel after exercising and the way things look after cleaning so it is worth it!! Sometime this afternoon I am walking to town. Have to go to the bank again and there is a shop I haven’t been in yet I want to visit. It has all kinds of craft items which looks interesting from window shopping.
The wind picked up a little this afternoon but certainly wasn’t as blustery as yesterday. Last night the forward sump pump sounded funny and when it pumped I didn’t hear water expel out of the through hole of the boat. So with that in mind I looked at it today and found it wasn’t working. I got the water that had accumulated in it out and then I told Dave it wasn’t working. He tested it and the switch is dead but the pump is fine. Without the switch working the water doesn’t get expelled from the unit and instead of the water going overboard it goes into the bilge. We are lucky that all grey matter goes overboard. If it didn’t the water in the bilge accumulates and then begins to stink and it is harder to siphon water from it. We bought a new pump when we were in the states last summer so Dave was going to put it in but he didn’t have his wire crimpers with him so we will have to wait to hook it up the next time we come down. We will pick up another switch when we go back to the states so a spare is on the boat.
Dave rinsed off the boat and the cockpit and it looks much nicer. I was going to walk to town and look in the store I haven’t been in yet, but once I thought about it I decided not to go. A lot of the stores aren’t open during the day but are at night so when we go to town tonight for dinner we will stop at the bank, pharmacy, and the store I’m curious about and look. Curiosity killed a cat they say!!!!
Well I went into that store and most of it was decorations and wrapping paper for decorating packages. There were some hang up Christmas decorations but now my curiosity is cured and I’m still alive!! We are back on the boat just chilling, listening to music and messing with our computers. I am having a hard time getting on the internet. Dave can but not me. Oh well!!
Dave talked with one of the guys that works at the marina here, Edgar, and asked if he wanted a job waxing the boat. He said yes so when he can he will clean the spots off the paint and then wax it. He is a young man so he can bend and contort better than we can. Ha!!! So when we come back to the boat in February, she will be shiny again!!!! That will be awesome. Edgar has a little girl so he can use the money for Christmas.
The diver came this morning to clean the bottom of the boat. It was in pretty good shape as it didn’t take him long to do it. He checked all the zincs and all was good. He will dive again at the end of this month and again at the end of January.
The town is looking so festive with Christmas lights and decorations. I love Christmas! We don’t have much to decorate with right now but what we have it makes it look a little festive. I hope we can get some LED lights for the railing of our deck next year. That would look awesome! All in good time.
All my Christmas shopping is completed. I shopped online for gift cards and a few toys for a couple of the grandkids.
We just found out that Creela is going to have her back surgery on the 16th. That is sooner than we thought she would be able to get in. She said a bed at the hospital opened up so in she goes. We called and talked to her the night before she was to have surgery and of course she is scared but happy to be getting it over with.
We finally heard how Creela did with surgery and she made it through the surgery with flying colors and now is recuperating.
I have decorated for Christmas. I put up our small string of LED lights inside and put the decorations here and there to make it look a little festive. Before Creela left she gave me her basil plant and I considered using that as our Christmas tree but that isn’t going to work. Ha!!! No worries.
The committee for the Arts and Craft show decided it would be better to have a Christmas show in November next year and have more items for the holidays. Some of us have already started making ornaments and of course I am making more earrings and probably a couple other things too.
We called Creela at the hospital and Phil answered. It was good to hear his voice. He said she hurts but is doing well. I talked to Creela for a few minutes and she doesn’t recommend anyone having that surgery, but I reminded her that she will feel differently later.
Dave and I figured out that to cover the lower part of the house which is cemented with river rock, it will cost over $3,000. That isn’t going to happen. I don’t want to spend that much money on just one thing for the house. It was a nice idea and it would save us money in paint, but if we get the right paint we won’t have to paint again for a couple years. Unfortunately the whole outside was painted with a latex paint, even the cement and it is peeling off. So we will just stick to painting. We have to paint the inside too, but we have to put down new flooring first. So we have a list and we will start doing things a little at a time.
It is Christmas Eve and we have been invited to go to dinner in town and join some friends. The choices of dinners were lobster or turkey. Dave chose lobster and I turkey. He said his lobster was good but some of the other people said theirs was mushy which usually means it has been frozen. The turkey was good and tender. It was good to get together with some of the people we don’t see very often.
Earlier in the day I made 2 danish puffs. One for us and the other one I cut in half and shared with our neighbors to the south and north of us. That will be breakfast Christmas morning.
Christmas was quiet with a beautiful sunny day and some wind. Dave watched a little football; I read and did some cross stitching. For dinner I roasted some pork and made scallop potatoes and had swiss chard.
It is time to get some walking in so I walked the beach this morning to hopefully work off a few calories. The wind didn’t come up until I had made it back home. I collected some sea glass that I found on the beach and will add it to my collection.
I have been busy making ornaments for next year’s show and some more earrings. I am working on creating a decoration formed out of the long spiraled shells. If it turns out good I will use it to decorate the house next Christmas. Have lots of ideas and a lot of shells to play with!!! Imagination is a wonderful thing!
Another one of our neighbors is suppose to arrive this afternoon. They are bringing part of their family with them. The grandsons haven’t been here before so it will be a fun time for them.
Merry Christmas to us!!! Lynn and Tom brought down the 32” flat screen TV we ordered and had sent to their house. Dave was like a little kid. He could hardly wait to hook it up. It is up and running and wow is it nice. We have been watching TV on some really old huge TVs so it is nice to have one that is light and doesn’t use a lot of energy or take up a lot of space!!!
We received an invitation for a New Years Eve dinner at a new restaurant that just opened in town. We had heard good things about it so I am glad we can try it out. It is right next door where my friend Penny used to live. The plan is to go to dinner then afterwards come home and go to Lynn and Toms place to gather around the camp fire and ring in the New Year. We did that last year too!!! The Diaz family (one of the large families that go way back and actually built the town) is throwing another celebration this year with a band and dancing, but we aren’t going to stay for that. We attended last year but things don’t get started until around 9:30-10:00pm and we still have to maneuver the lumpy bumpy road home. Not worth it to us so a camp fire sounds to be a better plan.
It is a beautiful day today and the wind hasn’t picked up so I went for a hike. 2 years ago I hiked to one of the hills behind our house. Well today I went over to the other hill. We have looked at it with binoculars and it looks interesting as there appears to be some small caves. So I packed the hand held radio and water in my backpack and took off. The desert is beautiful as everything is so green and lush from the little rain we had not too long ago!!! As I got closer to the bottom of the hill I came to a huge arroyo filled with boulders. I stopped and assessed what I wanted to do and looked for an easier way to head to the hill. I had to climb over some of the boulders to get to flatter ground but I did it and reached the base of the hill. The wind has made a lot of carve outs of the rock and there were about 3 small caves at the base but it didn’t look like any animal had been staying there. I wondered if at some point it has been used by coyotes to get out of the weather. It was pretty awesome. Then when I looked behind me I saw a panoramic view of our south end. Very pretty. Picture???? NO!!!! I didn’t pack my camera and I am sorry I didn’t. If I go again-----which I am planning to, I will bring the camera. I called Dave on the radio and told him I made it to the hill and described the caves. I couldn’t climb up the hill as the rocks are small and not secure. I probably could have made it up the hill, however, I had to get back down and that would not have been safe!!! I followed an arroyo along the base of the hill that slopes down to the road. I found human footprints and animal like cows and some horse tracks. At one point I saw many coyote tracks too. Everything was going pretty good and I was nearing the end of the hill range when all of a sudden I felt something hit my right leg. I looked down and on my left shoe I had part of a large spine cactus burr stuck in the bottom. I pulled that out. However, on the right leg just below my calf was quite a large piece of cacti with many spikes on it and some of them were in my leg. I tried to pull them out but without gloves it was no use. I did try and use a neckerchief but I couldn’t get a good enough grip on it. So I started walking toward the main road. I hailed Dave on the radio and asked if he could come and get me. I told him what happened and I was headed to the road. I was just north of an abandon ranch so he knew where to find me. I walked to the road and headed north toward the house. I had to be careful not to bump the burr which was not easy. I had to walk like I had a load in my britches!!!! It was a relief to see Dave coming in the truck and when I got in he asked what I did and I showed him. Hmmmmm!!!! He said he didn’t know how he was going to get it off me. So we discussed what could be done and it would take a pair of wire cutters to cut the cacti away from the spikes in my leg and then pull the spikes out with plyers. I knew it was going to hurt. Ya think?! Actually I wasn’t bleeding so that was good, but I think walking pushed them in deeper. Dave said a couple of them were like a ¼ inch. So when we got home, I went to the deck of the bamboo room where the trailer is to get out of the wind and Dave got his tools!!! Then it was snip, snip, snip, snip, snip and so on until the burr was removed. Now came the fun part! Dave pulled out one and it was just above the ankle and it bled pretty well. It must have hit a vein. We decided that maybe it would be best if I laid down upstairs to make it easier for him to access the spikes. So that is what we did. He poured hydrogen peroxide on the whole area and the good news there was very little foaming!!! Then he started the extractions. About 3 of them were in deep and so he gave it a rest and went for the smaller ones. Once those were out there was no choice but to work on the big ones. So he treated it like getting a fish hook out of your finger or wherever and pinched the area around the spike and pulled the spike with the pliers. A couple didn’t want to budge but there was no choice but to apply more pull. FINALLY they were all out!!! Yippee!!! Dave put more hydrogen peroxide on the area and I headed to the freezeer for ice. I sat with my leg up on some ice for 20 minutes or so. There is some bruising but I will be fine. It is a little achy but nothing unbearable. Next time I will avoid the cacti with the long spikes!!!! So that was my little adventure. Believe me------I didn’t do it on purpose so I would have something to write about!!!! I’m not into pain that much! I am really glad I called Dave and had him pick me up because if I walked home I could have really caused an issue with the spikes driving deeper into the leg. Here is a picture of the spikes Dave pulled out and one of the cacti burr he cut loose!!!! I’m just glad that is over.
The next morning I checked my leg and found a little more bruising but otherwise it is good as it was before the mishap.
It is New Years Eve and we went to the new restaurant for dinner to join our friends. It was pretty good and they went all out and served steamed clams, and hors d’oeuvres. Dave had grilled chicken and I had scallops fettuccini. Then we had a really good dessert that was like a parfait. It was really nice. When dinner was over some of the folks went to the fiesta in town and we headed for home. When we got home we changed clothes and joined our neighbors Tom and Lynn and family around the camp fire. George and Mary (another one of our neighbors) came a little later but they didn’t make it to midnight. They got cold and tired. I am proud to say the rest of us, even Tom and Lynn’s grandsons made it!!! Zane is 6 and Luke around 9. It was getting pretty cool so we built up the fire and kept it going to stay warm. Once midnight arrived, we hugged and kissed our husbands and said Happy New Year and Dave and I headed home. We didn’t go to bed right away as Dave turned on the TV and there was a program about the Pacific Islands where he used to travel to for work. It was interesting. It would be nice to visit some of those islands someday. The program ended at 1:00am and we went to bed.
What a year it was!!!! I am anxious for 2014 as I think it will be a great one for us. Our Adventure continues!!!!!
