SAW FOUR

Buen dia!

Did you see the movie SAW?

I liked it. 

I think it is one of the best psychological thrillers ever made.

I even liked Saw Two, but they lost me with Saw Three.

I think that's the one where the guy fell in to a pit of hypodermic needles.

I like all kinds of movies, but no one likes to watch them with me.

I talk to the movie.

I tell the characters............do not open that door..............don't go in there.................get away from him.......she should not date him.......or I say....I KNEW that would happen, and then, the worst.......... oh, oh, oh..... or oh my gosh!

Our kids hated how I did that when they were growing up.

If Santa's sleigh was not going to get off the ground I could tell you that before he even got in the sleigh.

I would talk to comedies, westerns, anything: THE LITTLE MERMAID? I knew every time Ursula was going to try and harm Ariel and whoa! THE PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN, don't get me started. 

I could have told you every single thing that was going to happen before it happened.

Like I said no one likes to watch movies with me.

Of course since Senor and I have been in Mexico we have seen only a few movies.

We saw THE HELP which was lovely.

 I knew Hilly was going to fire Yule May before she even hired her and I told Yule May to not go to work there. 

But, did she listen?

And once while in Navojoa I went to the picture show and saw the newest STAR WARS. 

Thank goodness I was the only person in there.

I knew R2-D2 would save them, but they didn't listen to me until it was almost too late. 

Alamos used to have a Sunday movie night at the Museum 

I remember taking our kids to see a movie there and I said something and both our kids yelled.......mom! stop it!

Three years ago I bought a subscription to Mexico Netflix.

I did not watch a thing on it until I broke my foot.

First I watched a couple of movies.

Then I watched  all 6 available seasons of THE WALKING DEAD.

Do you know how many zombies that is?

 I got to where I could identify the Zombies that were killed in the previous episodes and realized they were just using a lot of them over and over again.

And no matter how good I became at identifying this Zombie recycling, I still called out to the characters to tell them they were in trouble.

The first few episodes  of The Walking Dead I watched on my tablet in the afternoon, while Senor was on the computer.

With my ear plugs in I  did not realize how much I was talking to the characters until I noticed the mean looks I was getting from Senor. 

Finally I adjusted to the show and just kept a little pillow over my mouth.

Now that the series is over I have switched back to movies.

None of them are new releases and most I have seen before, a long time ago.  

I felt so sad for the people (well, except for Karen, what a mess she was) on board the Stevens aircraft in AIRPORT 77, I cried as the plane sank to the ocean floor, but I told them I just knew Jack Lemmon would save them.

And that poor girl in THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW who got the infection in her leg.

I KNEW that was going to happen and I told her not to walk past that car with the broken piece of the bumper where she scraped her leg.

I went to the Doctor this week.

I have seen him every Tuesday now for six weeks.

He has always been very nice.

But I must have talked too much while he was removing the cast.

It was just like I was watching a movie.

Senor caught it on camera.

It's not really a movie, just still shots.

Be glad it is not a movie with audio.

And just because I KNOW someone is going to ask me, NO, that is not my other leg on the left of the photo. 

That is the Dr's arm.

And I'm not going to show you a picture of my foot post cast, especially those of you who were grossed out by the orange silk embroidered fabric shown in the last post and emailed me to find out if that was a part of my body.

You silly people!

If that were part of my body would I have even shown it?

okie dokie, that's a take.

We will hope there will never be a SAW FIVE.

Prisoner

 Buen dia.

Here I am.

This is me.

The first photo is of my record keeping on the wall next to my side of the bed.

It requires a little explanation.

You will see that it has been 31 days that I have been in the condition you see in the 2nd photo.

However I actually broke my foot 2 weeks prior to getting plastered.

So it has been 45 days that I have been in this miserable situation.

For the last 3 years I have been walking every morning. 

I like to leave the house at dawn and I walk for 7 miles at a pace anywhere from 12  minutes to 15 minutes per mile.

I cover a lot of territory.

That works for me.

One morning after my walk I went back out to go visit a friend.

Walking up to El Barranca barrio there is a very small street with a very narrow little sidewalk. 

Even though I had my umbrella I noticed the little sidewalk was in the shade.

I decided to walk there and as I was walking I heard an unusual bird call.

When I looked up to see the bird my inside foot, the foot farthest away from the street, hit the edge of the curb, bent down and twisted. 

I hobbled on to my friends home and called Senor to come and get me.

I rested for a day or 2, and took some ibuprofen because my foot was very swollen.

I borrowed some crutches from someone and we proceeded to go on a planned trip to Tucson where I hobbled from store to store or sat in the car and made Senor run my errands.

Back home we went to eat shrimp tacos and while there a curandero (healer) was in town and he came to look at my foot.

He told me to bite down on my handkerchief, which I did while he pressed and pulled and jerked my foot.

I am a firm believer of alternative medicines and I still believe in the work of a curandero.

But it did not work for me.

I  bit a hole through my handkerchief and the next day went for an x-ray at the local Alamos General Hospital.

My foot was indeed broken, the outside bone of the right foot, but it was a spiral break and went around and around the bone.

They said I would need plates and screws and nails and that scared me to death.

We went for a 2nd opinion.

We have IMSS insurance and it pays for anything that happens to you, but honestly it takes a long time.

I did not want to wait another 2 weeks just to be seen by a doctor.

We opted for the pay out of your pocket hospital in Navojoa, San Jose.

I was able to get an appointment that very day and another x-ray confirmed the break.

But this doctor did not think I needed all that hardware and said that even though it was a bad break, it would heal.

So I got the cast.

The first week I stayed in bed.

The second week I went from bed to crutches and back to bed.

The third and fourth weeks I graduated to a wheelchair and crutches, but still, a lot of bed rest.

This week I am learning to use a walker.

I have at least one, maybe two more weeks in this cast and then, therapy.

Have you ever had a cast?

This is my first one.

Let me tell you how it goes:

#1

 It itches, but a long pencil with an eraser helps. Stick the pencil, eraser side down into the cast.

 That way you are not drawing weird designs all over your leg.  

#2 

 Your toes will wrinkle up and they will swell up and look like little piggies in a blanket.

 Use a lot of lotion and keep your foot elevated and just do not look at it.

#3

 You are not going to sleep at night. I have tried every position.

 I have tried big pillows. I have tried little pillows.

 I have tried scooting far down in the bed and while lying on my stomach, hang my foot off the end of the bed.

 This does not work if your spouse gets up in the night.

 You are at high risk of getting your foot re injured.

#4 

You have to wrap a plastic bag around the cast when you shower.

 Of course, you can decide to just not shower, who cares?

 If you do shower make sure the whole top of the bag is taped down or it will fill with water and when you get back to the bed to remove the bag the water will spill out and someone (you know who in my case) will have to come and clean it all up.

#5

 DO NOT go on Facebook.

 You will only see fun photos of what everyone else is getting to do.

 You will make yourself even more miserable.

#6

 Leave the bathroom light on, not matter how aggravating it is to your partner. 

You might be mistaken if you think you can make it to and from the bathroom in the dark.

#7 Go slow on your crutches.

 A cast is like a pendulum.

#8 Do not try and kill scorpions or ants or any other kinds of insects with one of your crutches.

 I will repeat, a cast on your leg is like a pendulum and that combined with a serious kill instinct does not mix well.

#9

Don't think, well, this is a great time to finish some of those projects I started because while you work on those projects you will just be thinking about how utterly miserable you are.

 Instead start a series on Netflix and plan to watch as many episodes as you can handle in one day.           

#10

 Ignore your spouse when he tries to cheer you up by saying he will cement in the end of the cast after it is removed and turn it into a flower vase for you.

I can't say I am completely imprisoned.

One day a lady wheeled me down to the Palacio to pay the water bill and we discovered you can really not push a wheelchair on cobblestones.

Another time, on Dia de La Independencia, a lady wheeled me to the parade and left me at the Plaza while she went and visited with her friends. I thought I might never see home again.

Twice Senor has taken me out of the house for tacos, and we visit the doctor every Tuesday in Navojoa, that's a nice drive.

I think I feel like a prisoner because I am not leaving the house at dawn, not making that 4 or 5 mph walk I am used to.

So I am crossing my fat little piggy toes in a blanket that this, like all the other little problems we humans have to put up with, too shall pass........soon.

Que le vaya bien!

Linda Lou 

My Security Clearance

Buenos Dias!

We are having beautiful early mornings here in Alamos.

By eight am, I have been through three handkerchiefs depending upon what I am doing, maybe four.

Hot, Humid.

Only a little breeze today. 

A few sprinkles last night.

 Nothing big yet.

If anyone is wondering about the 'Rain Contest'..... I am glassed out. 

Taking a long break.

But I am hoping for rain.

A few people asked to see the casa, room by room.

I said I have to clean it first.

Well, you can imagine, that did not go over well with Senor.

I wanted to move this and move that and decorate and I got yelled at.

So, of course, when he went to the hardware store I just got one of the guys and we did it anyway. 

I don't think Senor ever noticed.

So here are a few photos.

The photo below was taken when Senor started the kitchen.

Now, unless you are new to the blog, you know Senor likes to do everything himself.

It is certainly not that he doesn't want any helpers.

And he isn't bossy.

He just likes to work. 

So, when 'they' started the kitchen, it was really Senor who started the kitchen. 

Below he is in the kitchen, all by himself.

 I think he had the guys on the roof doing something to the little houses up there that are over the fireplace flues.

 It took awhile to get this technique down. 

The mortar is not set flush with the bricks.

 So he liked working by himself to get the process going. 

Now this was fun for me.

 These are sulphur fired bricks and they are very colorful.

 I got to choose each brick and where it would go.

They all called me the 'jeffa' and I beamed. 

As a result I was always in the way.

 I finally got myself a chair and sat down and used my blue duster as a pointer whenever they misplaced a brick.

But, of course, I was still in the way and more than once when I was told to get a four inch brick I got a six or eight instead.

I must have not caused too many problems because it is done.

We are waiting for the tile to arrive.

Below you can see Gerty the goose on top of the space where the refrigerator will go.

Finally they have stopped moving her.

They all said....no cutsey stuff in the work area.

 And they would move her.

Now they are leaving her alone up there.

I think they got tired of lifting her, she is very heavy.

This is all just the main sala. 

I think you will figure out the locations of the areas.

In the photo below the kitchen is in the back in the center, and under the window.

The open door to the left of the kitchen goes into the fake kitchen.

In these two photos, I am standing in the bathroom.

Well, one of these days,it will be the bathroom and I am looking toward the laundry/work room and then, toward the kitchen. 

You can see Gerty way back there. 

In this photo I am in what will be the bedroom. 

You can see the floor is completed in all the rooms.

It just needs to be cleaned someday.

 Back in the sala.

See the old Daffodil painting?

We still have it and I like where we have put it.

I got a few grumbles out of Senor because he had to get out the ladder and take time away from working to put the painting up for me.

The bright white shape on the right side of the photo is going to be the front door.

Now I am not showing you our current bedroom or our bathroom or the fake kitchen.

 They are bright and airy, and you've seen them before and they do not look any different.

But, here is a highly confidential area. 

I refer to it as Senor's current tool placement work area.

WHOOOWEE, I am not allowed to touch anything in here.

I should not touch anything in here.

Believe me, I have tried.

........put that down..........that has to stay there..............don't touch that...............i need to have access to that.............you can't put this over here...............where did you put the hammer...........where are my nails.............wait, did you move that light fixture!...............no, you cannot move the stove against the wall.........no, you cannot hang a painting over here..................this is a construction zone!!!!

This is where all the secrets are kept, all the papers, all the drawings, all the sharpies and mechanical pencils, tools

and all kinds of little contraptions that look to me like they belong in the garbage.

This a high security area and I do not have the security clearance required to enter.

However!

I have high security clearance to spend time in a comfortable chair on the lovely portal.

And that is exactly where I am headed right now.

Que le vaya bien!

Linda Lou

DUCKY

 Okie dokie.

Hola.

More than a few people have asked me to see photos of Baby Eli, or Ducky, as I call him.

So here he is in two photos I just could not resist sharing.

Of course, that is me and I am with him in Texas, visiting his great grandfather, my Dad.

This was in mid-April and he was seven months old.

It is absolutely amazing how much he has changed just in these two months and on the fourteenth he will be nine months old.

The photo below was taken about a month ago by our daughter.

It is, I think, the sweetest photo I have ever seen.

There's a lot of love in this photo.

So, that is Ducky.

We skype several times a week and I get to see all the good stuff his mama makes him eat.

I always make a point of telling him about the ice cream and cake we will have next time we are together. The really good stuff. Cake might be his first word, you never know.

His mama is very good about briefly leaving the room when we have these private talks about cake and ice cream versus blueberry banana oat flax cereal and rice cakes.

I have also been asked to share photos of the casa, room by room, so you can see all the updates.

I will do this, but first I have to clean the casa.

So be patient.

In the meantime the cereus cacti are starting to bud out so you may see those first and I have a special story about a little basket of flowers that I want to tell you.

Enough for today. 

I hope you enjoy that second photo as much as I do.

I look at it every day!

Adios y que le vaya bien!

Linda Lou

Life is Good

Buenas Tardes.

How in the %@$! did it get to be May?

Last I remember I was sitting at the Starbucks in Obregon wondering why I could not get a peppermint mocha and suddenly I wake up and it is May.

And it is hot now and the tourists are gone and the black hooded orioles went with them, town is quiet at night and our air conditioner is not working properly.

At night you can hear ice cracking inside of it.

Senor says this is not true and it is not a problem for him.

He must be losing his hearing because I am going to be a problem for him if he does not get it fixed.

This happened last year, too, and it only got repaired when water started pouring out of it over my side of the bed.

Enough of that business.

Look what I have.

 Of course it is real!

How can you question that?

We went to Elektra here in Alamos and looked at stoves.

Then Senor and I drove to Navojoa and looked at stoves.

 Then we drove to Obregon and looked at stoves.

We found one in Home Depot, put it in the back end of the car and drove it home.

Whooweeee, that was a twelve hour day.

I went to Elektra the following day to pay our phone bill and saw the exact stove we bought in Obregon.

Not only was it 3 minutes from our house, it was a lot less expensive.

No, it is not hooked up.

But look below where Senor is doing all the stuff you have to do to hook up a propane stove.

How does he know how to do this?

I don't know.

He just does.

When I am cooking I will be looking at all this pretty sala in the photo below.

Until it is ready, my 2 burner hot plate and my little toaster oven and the big asador in the yard can put out some real good meals.

Not too long ago we put two big geese on the spit and had thirty-two people at our dining tables.

Life is good.

Que le vaya bien.

Linda Lou