Last Four Days of 2021 in SMA
—Blogpost written by Bob
In this blogpost, we continue our 6-month winter excursion in San Miguel de Allende (SMA), Mexico. We arrived by car on October 15, traveling from near Annapolis, Maryland where we live on our sailboat. This blogpost describes our last four days of 2021 in San Miguel de Allende.
Sunday, December 26
This morning was another cold one (in the upper 30's or lower 40's). I slept in late. Finally, around 10 AM I got out of bed and took a nice hot shower and got dressed. (Maggie was up early doing laundry--she's such a trooper!)
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I was listening to music on my iPad as I made the bed--K.D. Lang's outstanding version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" brought up my spirits considerably. I couldn't get enough of this song for some reason--I must own six versions (and I played every one in the morning), including an instrumental one by Chris Botti, the famous classical trumpet player.
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| We ate lunch (delicious hamburgers) at the Food Factory today. Oh, and we shared lemon pie for dessert. |
After lunch at the Food Factory, we drove to La Comer (the supermarket) to pick up a few extra things, including a 20-liter jug of purified water (which was heavy!). (I think I am all set now for the 2 weeks that Maggie will be back in the U.S. visiting her adult kids and grandkids--she leaves tomorrow.)
When we were at La Comer, I was seriously looking at a pair of very heavy socks to wear around our apartment with its cold floors. I didn't buy them for whatever reason, which I regretted later in the evening.
In the evening we huddled around the propane heater while we were watching a football game. We heated up a frozen pizza for dinner--unlike other frozen pizza's we've had here, it was awful!
Monday, December 27
We were up relatively early for Maggie to catch a cab to the local bus terminal for her bus trip to the Mexico City airport. From the Mexico City airport, she flies to Houston to visit her son and grandson. She will also be visiting her daughter and granddaughter in Chicago, as well as her oldest daughter near Pittsburgh. It was sad for me to see her go...
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| Maggie leaving in a cab for the local bus terminal to catch her bus to the Mexico City airport. |
Maggie agreed to bring back some varied types of decaf tea for me and some good (U.S.) peanut butter. (The peanut butter we have purchased here has been terrible! Maggie plans to buy some in the U.S. and bring it back.)
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| Mexican peanut butter is a pretty sad excuse for peanut butter. |
I moped around the remainder of the day, watching a minor college football bowl game, etc. I decided to start the cats' training sessions. I thought that having them come to me when called would be start and I would reward them with one dental treat each time they responded to my request throughout the remainder of the day. (It worked only once and only after they realized that I had a treat for them. More on this tomorrow...)
Tuesday, December 28
I slept in a little bit this morning--it was cold outside the three blankets I had over me. Even though it was 58 degrees outside at 9 AM, it felt colder inside our apartment. My goal for today is to write a convincing email to our landlord to release us from our lease so that we can move to another place (maybe even near the ocean!), salvaging our last two months (February and March) of our winter getaway. Taking a very conciliatory note in my email, I accomplished this goal by 10 AM. (I got a positive response from our landlord just after lunch!)
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I made scrambled eggs and placed them in a folded-over flour tortilla for breakfast. While I can't call it "huevos rancheros" because I didn't add any salsa, it was still delicious. (I seldom eat eggs for breakfast--so, this was a rare treat for me.)
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Before the college football bowl games started, I investigated alternatives for our failing GPS. I came up with the following four alternatives:
(1) buy an identical (used) replacement on eBay ($60) with Mexico maps
(2) buy a newer model GPS and add the Mexico maps
(2) buy a newer model GPS and add the Mexico maps
(3) Use our cell phones (the problem with this alternative is that we do not always have cell coverage)
(4) Use our built-in GPS in our Toyota Prius (which probably does not have Mexico maps)
Alternative #1 became my clear favorite and I later purchased it--to me, it was a so-called "plug and play" solution with the least amount of things that could go wrong.
Alternative #1 became my clear favorite and I later purchased it--to me, it was a so-called "plug and play" solution with the least amount of things that could go wrong.
I spent most of the afternoon looking over possible housing near Puerto Vallarta for February and March. I had a lot to choose from just on AirBnB. I sent links to the best alternatives to Maggie who is currently in Houston.
Wednesday, December 29
I locked our cats out of the bedroom last night so that I could get a full night's sleep--it worked! (Otherwise, they wake me up by rattling the doors on the armoire because they want to be fed early in the morning.)
I watched college football (minor) bowl games on my iPad all day. (FuboTV used in conjunction with my VPN with it's server location in Washington DC was amazing! Most of the minor bowl games were covered by ESPN which we couldn't get here in our apartment in San Miguel de Allende.) Because our apartment was so cold during the day, I watched the bowl games while in lying bed and under several blankets--it was a real lazy day.
When it was time for bed (for real) I had to battle our two cats for space.
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| I had to battle Lola and Kali for space in bed in the evening. |
Thursday, December 30
Our landlord, an attractive young lady in her 30's, checked in on me this morning and carried a 20-liter jug of purified water up our front steps. This made me really feel old! I told her that I didn't need water quite yet but that I could handle it when I do--this was my inner macho voice talking.
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I watched minor bowl games again today, cheering for other BIG-10 teams to win. First, I cheered on Purdue, a BIG-10 team, to beat Tennessee and they won. In fact, all three Big-10 teams in bowl games won today!
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I spent a lot more time searching for a place to stay near Puerto Vallarta--I have a lot of them to choose from. Maggie and I communicated on our choices by text messages throughout the day. I didn't even leave our apartment today...
Friday, December 31
I just had to have fresh strawberries in my last breakfast of 2021 since we had just enough leftover in our fridge. (Strawberries are grown year round here in Mexico. Even in December, we ran across roadside stands selling strawberries and they are very flavorful.)
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| My last breakfast of 2021--sliced strawberries on Cheerios with milk. |
I decided to make a trip to La Comer (the supermarket) today to pick up a few small items (like "Cheez-its" for one) and then go out for lunch at the Pizza Guy restaurant. At the Pizza Guy restaurant, I had eggplant parmesan--it was absolutely delicious! (For some reason, I really craved good Italian food today! I also bought a cold cut sub to eat at home during the Penn State bowl game tomorrow.)
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It felt a little odd to me to be driving today without Maggie. During our travels in Mexico, the non-driver was always the navigator--so, today I had no navigator. (It's good that I knew my way to La Comer and back!)
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I lot of famous people died this week: John Madden, Harry Reid, and Betty White (age 99), to name a few. They were all older than me by 10 years or more but, still, they were a reminder of my mortality.
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We hope everyone a Happy New Year! Thanks for following our blog!
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