It’s almost December! Time of snow, skiing, cozy fires in fireplaces, and wet galoshes drying at the doorstep – SOMEPLACE ELSE! Temperatures in Mazatlán have dropped below blast furnace levels, making my walks much more enjoyable! Sunsets are just as pretty, and the ocean may be a bit colder, but it’s still nice to walk in the surf at noon.
My neck is still not letting my head turn side to side, so tomorrow I’ll be at the pharmacy getting some advise. I have a tiny part of my brain that always takes medical issues and whispers things like, “this is how meningitis starts” or “you’ve got a vertebral bone spur impinging on something really important – turn your head and you’ll die!”. More likely is that the last bit of my cold tried to hide in my neck and inflamed something pretty good, or that I tore a muscle a little when coughing. Hot compress only helps when the compress is on. Cold dulls the pain, but only when it’s applied. Nothing is giving me any more range of motion, and sleeping with no/one pillow isn’t an option if my neighbors want to sleep without hearing me scream. We’ll see what I find out tomorrow!
I’ve been limiting my activities to give my neck a rest, and during my down time CBS All Access had a ‘get a free month’ during Black Friday! I’m now caught up on Murphy Brown (it’s getting better as it goes, the first few episodes were horrible), NCIS, and Criminal Minds! I’m not too fond of the Abby Sciuto replacement and am hoping they’ll kill her off in some spectacular way soon! I’m holding out for her sudden and mysterious death at the beginning of the show, and later have it found she was a Russian agent with direct ties to Putin who was silenced just before she was going to be caught.
A week from Friday is my excursion to Guadalajara. Yes, I know I was just there! This one is a four day tour of Guadalajara, Tonala, Tlaquepaque, and Tequila. We’ll be staying in the same hotel I was in when I tried to escape the hurricane, so I know the area and will be able to navigate around. I’ll be happy to go back to the taqueria on the corner for tacos de lengua! Have to make sure I do NOT go in the Rodo Padilla gallery again! We’ll be taking the Jose Cuervo Express, which should be a lot of fun. Even if I can’t move my head side to side I can move it up and down enough to do a shot or two!
When I return I’ll have one month to get the apartment tidied up, pre-pay the electric, water, and internet for a few months, set up some maintenance tasks for my property manager, and try to remember to turn my hot water tank off! Then back to Seattle where I’ll visit the Méxican Consulate and get the ball rolling on my residency in México. While that’s in the works I’ll be getting things done in the house getting it ready to either sell or rent. I’m still up in the air over which direction I want to go. While I don’t need it, a bunch of money in the bank would be nice. On the other hand, having a monthly income from a rental would be nice too. Either one would pop me into eligibility for permanent residency in México in case they won’t consider the value of my home as a retirement asset.
In any event, I’ll be back in Mazatlán by the end of April at the latest. Just in time for a couple of nice balmy months before the blast furnace begins again!
