5C's Que Pasa

The state of Sinaloa had asked everyone to stay home, no walking in the streets, in parks, nor beaches and certainly not the malecon between 4:00PM and 8:00AM ( although that may even be closed now ). There are to be no home parties, no gatherings and no alcohol sales. Restaurants are closed and can only offer home delivery. Residents are being asked to stay home and only venture out to purchase groceries but they must wear a mask.

Mexicans can no longer go to work which means that they are unable to earn pesos. For many families and especially those in the Colonia on Isla de la Piedra that means no food. Many work every day just to earn enough to feed their families. Now they are going to bed hungry.

The above exert came from an article published on April 11th.  Please click here to read that article which goes into more depth.

Most of us are home and safely waiting out the Covid- 19 virus.  We have enough money to purchase groceries and to spend hours online and to watch movies, read books, etc. These people are worrying every minute of the day if they will have any food to feed their children at the end of the day.  Many of you have been following my blog for years and enjoying the photos of the Isla and especially the magnificent sunsets. I am asking you to please donate something to help, even $10.00 would be of great help. More if you can.

There is a couple living on the Isla who are doing all they can to help. They have asked those on the Isla to donate what they can and they have even received donations from people living in the city of Mazatlan, people who come often to enjoy Stone Island. They have asked all who they know to please help. Two days ago they had 50 kilos of beans delivered as well as 50 kilos of flour delivered.  They are hoping for rice, pasta and cooking oil to be delivered tomorrow.  As soon as they gather food they give it away to those who are in need.  Once that is gone they have nothing left to give.

Can you please help the Isla?  Any amount will be welcomed and used to help the neediest.

I am asking Canadians to e-Transfer their donation to me @ contessa549@gmail.com.  I will then send the entire amount to Dallas, my contact on the Isla, in one transaction thus saving a $3.00 fee per donation.

Americans have a few options.  If you have a PayPal account you can make your donation via PayPal directly to @ dallasyrocio@yahoo.com.  There is no additional fee attached to this donation as it is a direct US to US transaction.  For those who do not have a PayPal account you can still make a donation again via PayPal using your credit card as directed on the site, but you will incur an additional approximate $2.00 or $3.00 service charge. If you prefer, you can always simply e-Tranfer your donation directly to me but there will be a bit of loss because of the US funds going to CAD funds and then back to US funds but it is still a huge help. However you choose to do it, please donate. People that some of you know or see through my photos are in need of food.

February 15, 2020

How the heck can people be so bored during this self isolation time? I didn’t even have time to write a blog last night. In fact to be honest ( and you should know me by now that I am always honest ).  I have not even opened the business mail never mind to even think about starting taxes.  I did manage to create a very special Easter dinner for us complete with “Death by Chocolate ice cream for dessert”.  I have no idea how that managed to find its way into our freezer 😳

Last week Colin used to a mix of Dawn dishwashing soap mixed with vinegar to clean the jets in our bathtub. We have hard water ( comes from a well ) and despite using a water softener we still get rust in those areas.

We woke up to -9c with the wind chill today.  Does Mother Nature not know what month we are in never mind the date?  Is she down with the virus 🙄  I am still wearing two layers of fleece all day long, well at least then we are outside.  Inside I have the sun streaming through our many windows creating a tropical paradise.  We were so enjoying the variety of ducks passing through with all their different colours and mannerisms.  Today while  exercising my knee I was able to observe a bald eagle going back and forth before it started dive bombing the ducks 😯  Of course they all fled but no harm was done. Being able to sit and watch the brilliant white head and tail go back and forth was beyond spectacular.  I did see the white swan again yesterday but not today.

He also worked on changing the vacuum filter as well as the hepa filter but we did not have an extra.

My  knee is still a wee bit swollen but I am no longer in pain.  I would really like to see a physiotherapist to review my knee exercises but they are not deemed an essential service.

When we came back from the grocery store the other day we passed a yard that had some chairs out front. The sign said free. I yelled stop and guess what?  We have a very comfy wooden chair to put in the garden plot for me to sit on when I get tired.

We have been spending time in our new to us garden plot.  I had asked to be put on the list for a different plot as ours was prone to so many weeds being close to the huge grove of trees next to it.  We got an email back in February offering us a new site and sight unseen we took it.  Of course we could not see it until our 14 day mandatory quarantine or whatever you call it was over.  It is wonderful and already set up with raised beds, not too high, but still confined boxes.  It is a bit wider and longer than our previous site and the soil is seems to be really good.  It has taken us quite some time to come up with a plan as to how we want to plant the various boxes but we are finally done with that.  They say that you can still plant peas, beets, kale and carrots with a light frost but we will hold off for a few more days until we are above freezing at night.  I have mentioned before that we are going to also plant veggies in the flower pots we have in our yard.  Who knows if produce will be available all summer?

Sneak peak of the new garden.

I was a bit sad earlier when I read that Covid 19 might stick around until 2021.  I had to shake that off.  We have until mid July to decide about our exotic once in a lifetime trip in October.  We would have to drive the RV to Las Vegas the beginning of October and park it there for a month before we got back and then head south to Mexico.  At this point both the October trip and our winter on the Isla are in the air.  I have decided to put it all out of my mind until the end of June and then I will deal with it.  No sense thinking about it before then as who knows what state the world will be in at that time.

The other side but I did not get the full length.

Mexico is finally clamping down hard in order to deal with the virus and I say good for them.  Sadly this is affecting many of the locals who are out of work because they are not allowed out of their homes.  No work means no pesos to pay for food to feed the family.  Desperate times 😥

My two biggest problems in life are first, that my bangs are so long that I am going to need a bobby pin to sweep them to the side, out of my eyes.  I was due for a haircut and colour last Wednesday.  Colin and I are twins in hairstyle at this point 😛  My second problem is that I am not allowing myself to read a book until I get my inbox down to 40 emails.  Right now I am at 110 in the inbox, way down for over 600.  Overall I have to say that life is very good for us.

Today I started a project that I really hope that you can all help me with.  I have run into two huge glitches but I am working to correct those.  One might take about eight hours online 😯  Stay tuned for that development.

Our resident robins have arrived and they are so happy that they haven’t stopped chirping for hours and hours.  Such a lovely sound.

Today I never left the house all day and barely got off my recliner.  The only thing that motivated me was to get water, to get an ice pack, to go the bathroom, to get lunch, to get an ice pack and later wine and to visit the bathroom yet again. Not exciting but healing.  Colin played a variety of guitars throughout the day, pulled out the patio furniture in the hopes that it will warm up soon and visited our garden.

A few people out enjoying the lake yesterday.

We got back from the garden yesterday afternoon and then Colin took off to the RV for a few moments which turns out to be over two hours. I was so fortunate to see this lone visitor. Where is its mate?  I had hoped to see a tundra swan and here it was.  It spent the rest of the afternoon going back and forth in front of our site.  Today it was nowhere to be seen.

Such beauty in front of our spectacular vista.

RV Days out of Summerland are being very creative with their marketing.  I can’t see anyone taking advantage of this.

Happy Easter everyone, even though you are on your own – hopefully.

My knee started to throb just before bedtime yesterday and it may be due to my walking too much my first two days out of isolation.  7700 steps and 8000 steps on Wednesday and Thursday.  Only 6800 steps today 😯 I have been icing but it is not much better.  The other issue is that I am breaking in new runners.  Yes real runners, the ones I got  last fall when we went to the chiropractor in Edmonton.  I am having arch pain on the right foot directly above where the knee pain is.  So I was not as active out of the house today.

89.9 per litre.  Rather amazing.  Too bad we can’t drive anywhere.

Sitting at the computer with my knee bent is not helpful either so I am going to make this quick tonight.  I plan to keep icing every few hours until bedtime, perhaps it will help. The knee is only slightly swollen but I do have pain in an area that I have never had before.  Not to worry it will settle down or I will just stay put resting all day tomorrow.

Working on a plan.

Can you believe that we have a 40% chance of rain or snow flurries tomorrow?  Will spring ever come?  I have to say that 18C / 64F today was a bonus.  We are working on our garden and dealing with overgrown seedlings. Photos and details another day.  We have eight large flower pots that we plant every year and this year we have decided to plant six of those ( only because we ran out of potting soil ) with vegetables.  Who knows how summer will unfold and how much produce will be available?  If we have too much we will pass the excess onto the local food bank.

Seen at the nursery but no gracias for $109.00.

The stand was only $11.99 but the beautiful ball was $119.00. A good price compared to the plaque above but much too fragile in the event of wind.

Yesterday we ventured out for our first grocery shop via the nursery to get potting soil, a stop for wine and finally a grocery shop at Save On Foods.  The nursery was well marked with distancing directions and a proper plexiglass shield.  There were many distancing marks within the liquor store and folks were big extra cautious in letting someone go past them.  However the cashier kept poking his head around the shield to talk to us instead of standing directing behind it.  Save On deserves a gold medal. This particular store ( perhaps each store is different ) here in Lake Country deserves a gold medal.  They had one door for entry and another for exit with a security guard at the entrance handing you a huge wipe to clean your hands with and to clean the push handle of your cart.  We already had gloves on and Colin made sure to keep one hand ‘clean’ and the other on the cart and I was the one picking items off the shelves.  Of the items I needed they had no pasta and no baking soda nor romaine.  Colin noticed that the line went clear to the back of the store, mostly because of the distancing spaces so he got in it as I finished up the last of the produce.  I can’t remember but I believe they had 3 or 4 check out tills open.  We were directed to which one to go to by an employee wearing a mask and gloves.  It was very apparent that the conveyor belt had been sanitized as it was wet.  There were two employees, one on the till and the other bagging.  Both in masks and gloves.  I questioned the lady doing the bagging as to her using her gloves over and over with each customer.  She explained that after each us of passed through they sanitized their gloves and then the entire counter, conveyor including any area that you might have leaned on as well as the credit card pad although a tap was all that was needed.  Extremely diligent.  We were both blown away.  Colin had stopped at IGA to quickly pick up salt for our water softener and said they had no sanitizing going on inside the store at all 🙁

Yesterday was our first day out after our 14 day mandatory isolation.  Our plan was to first check out the garden area and Colin started taking the tarp off the golf cart and saw a rip in our heavy duty golf cart over.  He thought the wind must have been severe to cause this amount of damage.  When Colin puts the cover on before we leave, he also ties it in many areas to keep it in place. He then went to check that the batteries were topped up which are under the seat. Big shock. Four of the six batteries were missing.  Why four?  RV’s need four but golf carts need six. Did someone need batteries for their RV over the winter?  However one was damaged and left in the cart, so who knows why it happened. We do have 24 hour security here in the park but they can’t be everywhere. This is the first time something like this has happened to us.

The golf cart is next to the hedge, well off the street.

We later spoke with the park manager. Apparently back in January people came across the lake over the ice with toboggans and stole items from a few other sites on the lake.   Our neighbours two sites over lost a kayak but it was later found.  Our golf cart was on the street side of our hedge. We think that it was a more planned incident as they would have had to have a knife to cut the cover and then tools to remove the batteries. Plus they weigh about 60 pounds each.  So perhaps our robbery was not part of the January incident.  Either way they were being very stealth.

We are devastated.  We have been home for two weeks and never noticed.  As you can see from the above photo the cart is close to the hedge.  The person who did this cut from between the hedge and the cart (maybe ten inches of space ) and removed the batteries from there.  A very tight area.  No one on our street saw anything nor noticed footsteps in the snow. The thief was very clever in placing the cart cover back in place.

The slashed cover.

Our insurance says we have a $500.00 deductible and that we will have to pay an extra 10% over the next three years on our policy. Overall close to $1,000.00 out of pocket for us 😥 Colin spent a good deal of time on the phone and at this point it seems that going with the insurance company is more economical for us in the long run based on the cost of six new batteries, new cables, a repair to the battery holder and a new cover. The golf cart will need to be picked up and taken to a shop for repairs and the installation of the batteries.  I can order a new cover online for about $200.00.

We did get out for our first walk in a long while but it was not as special as it should have been.

Please do the right thing and stay home over this long Easter weekend.