Beginning a New Year in SMA
—Blogpost written by Bob
In this blogpost, we continue our 6-month winter excursion to Mexico. We arrived in San Miguel de Allende by car on October 15, traveling from near Annapolis, Maryland where we live on our sailboat. This blogpost describes the first three days of 2022 in SMA. (At the end of January we will be moving to near Puerto Vallarta on the coast for our last two months in Mexico.)
Saturday, January 1
This morning I slept in until about 8 AM. I fed the cats right away before they had a chance to tear the place apart.
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| Kali starts out the new year in a box. Cats can't seem to resist an empty cardboard box. |
I went back to bed for awhile and watch the news on my iPad. Both cats joined me in bed.
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Penn State's bowl game (the Outback Bowl) started at 11 AM local time. At half time Penn State was ahead by a score of 10-7 but eventually lost to Arkansas by a score of 24 to 10.
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I talked to Maggie in the early evening and she was very sick. She had administered a home COVID test and it was negative. Her symptoms seemed consistent with a very bad head cold.
Sunday, January 2
This morning Maggie tested positive for COVID on a home test, even though she has been vaccinated twice (once with the single-shot J&J vaccine and a second time with a two-shot Pfizer vaccine). Maggie is currently in Arizona visiting her youngest daughter but has quarantined in a hotel room. (She was feeling better by noon, probably because the was vaccinated so effectively.)
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Kali was in one of her lovey-dovey moods this morning where she climbed all over me and purred, getting as much attention as she could. (She does this to Maggie quite frequently.)
I've never had another cat quite like her--it is really unique behavior for a cat.
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I watched some NFL games in the afternoon and ate leftovers for dinner. I didn't leave the apartment again today.
Monday, January 3
I started this blogpost while at a nearby coffee shop, Cafe La Esquina. I was up early to take down our Christmas decorations in our apartment and to clean up somewhat in advance of the maid’s weekly visit. Our landlord had advised me that she would be taking photographs in the morning for the new ad to re-lease our apartment. The maid, Remedios, arrived as I was leaving for breakfast.
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| My first latte of 2022. (This was the first time I wrote "2022" and had it wrong initially.) |
The sky was overcast and the outside temperature was in the upper 50’s. The sun didn’t appear until several hours later. Today was my first day out of our apartment in the new year.
In the morning, I felt like I had lost contact with Maggie—the last I heard from her was at 7:15 PM yesterday via text message. I knew she was in a hotel near her youngest daughter but I wasn’t even sure if it was in Arizona or New Mexico. (Because I knew Area 51 was nearby, I assumed she was in New Mexico.) My emails and my most recent texts had gone unanswered—I hoped it was because she was sleeping. Of course, I thought about the possibility that she could have been in a hospital somewhere on a ventilator. I felt helpless and distant.
Meanwhile on the news this morning I read “In Florida, (COVID) cases have risen 948% over the past 14 days." (So much for banning COVID health mandates and the irrational "right-wing" opposition to vaccines!)
When my breakfast (omelet) arrived, I ordered a second latte. As usual, my omelet was artistically presented along with a small side serving of fried potatoes and a spoonful of mole on the side—it was all very tasty.
As soon as I returned to our apartment (about 10 AM) I tried calling Maggie on her cell phone. I got through and, though she sounded awful, she was feeing a little better. My worst fears were put to rest. We talked about the need for her 10 days of isolation and how it would impact on her remaining visits. (I think we agreed that she would spend the remaining days of isolation at her hotel in New Mexico and then fly back to Mexico. However, I had my meds shipped to Rachel's house in Chicago that have to be forwarded to Maggie in New Mexico. I never thought that we would be safer in Mexico than the U.S. with respect to COVID!)
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| The long skylight in the hallway between the kitchen and the bedroom. |
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| The skylight in the bedroom provided a lot of daylight. |
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