Words to Live by

Just read this today and thought I'd share it-

I shall pass this way but once. Therefore, any good that I can do or any kindness that I can show, let me do it now, for I shall not pass this way again.

Am determined to put it where I can see it every day. 

Regardless whether one believes in reincarnation or not, it remains an undeniable truth. We pass but once at any given moment. Every day, every hour, every person I encounter at a moment of that day, is a once in a lifetime. It will not occur again. Ever.

Re-Learning

In recent years I have become painfully aware that close to 77 years old, my memory is no longer what it used to be. But it has never been so obvious as since I decided to blog again, now that I have the internet and have so much to report. To whom? Just for the sake of it! At the very least, it'll get rid of superfluous stuff in my brain to make room for re-learning...

Back to the memory bit. Not having used my camera for the past 3 years, I have forgotten a lot of the functions. Yesterday, as I attempted to take photos of the finished parts of the house, I suddenly blocked off. Thinking it was the batteries, I put in new ones. Same result. Then I checked whether I could have forgotten some pics left on the card. Bingo! OK, let's go on with removing old stuff. I must have pressed the wrong minuscule button because suddenly all was frozen, I don't know where or why. I'll have to read the instruction booklet to re-learn how to use my old, but good, digital camera.

In my blog (silent for 3 years) I had used Picasa to touch up the photos. At times it would the lighting, the colour, or a slanted image. The moment I keyed in Picasa, I was notified that I had to install an update. THAT I had not forgotten. I've been doing this for weeks ever since I got the internet. The problem is that once more, much had changed on Picasa. More re-learning...

With the very best intentions in my heart, I had planned on catching up with my blog. Not so. It's as if in the interval from when I left off and now, everything has changed. The internet is NEW. Many of the programs had to be updated and seem as if NEW. Even my old camera appears NEW.

Back to blogging; it might take a while to get ME updated. What's the old saying? USE IT OR LOSE IT! 

No problem. It is said that we use only 10% of our brain capacity. Plenty of room left to re-learn.

At least I haven't forgotten how to read...

What's next?

Before I start, I thought that my blog was now a misnomer since I do not boondock any longer so I added an EX before it. As a result the old blog became deleted, no longer available. I had to rename it to its original. But I made some changes so that I would not be confused with a boondocking writer

What I thought I'd do is pick up where I had left off. But I will have to summarize as too much happened. Getting electricity was a saga. I will put this long and arduous journey in a nutshell. All of us - some 16 families - formed a committee and looked for an official contractor asking for quotations. We got plenty but none that the group would accept. My definition of a committee is a body with many legs but no head...  This went on and on until a final decision got made. We all contributed for the complete works without any recourse from any official and were finally hooked up in September 2014. The cost for each family came up to $8,000 pesos.

Moving from the RV to the house was done in steps. First I needed doors and windows and flooring. $$$ and time involved, of course. The RV included all appliances - fixed - so I had to start from scratch save for a small living room set that I had bought second hand when I had moved to the casita on Juarez in Tequis. My first big purchase was a BED! Double-size, if you please! I had been quite content for years with my single mattress in the RV. I celebrated the Holidays of 2014 with a definite feeling of luxury...

Moving on to 2015! Since 2013 I had been plagued with stiffness and pain in my knees. As a resident I was eligible for Seguro Popular, the equivalent of Medicare. A number of X-Rays showed that there remained no cartilage in either knee. The recommendation was a surgical replacement of both knees. This would be free but there were quite a few hurdles. So I decided to try all that I could before resorting to this last measure. After ozone therapy, which incidentally provided me with considerable relief, and plasma therapy that became too expensive to keep up with I knew that surgery would be a must. I am planning for this within the next few months.

Also, I had been having a problem with my eyes. Thinking that I had cataracts, I went to an eye specialist who game me a diagnostic of macular degeneration. All that I could was retard blindness as much as possible with lutein and zeaxanthin supplements with a number of minerals. Unfortunately they are not encountered in Mexico. Not many blue, grey, or green eyes here. So I have to take the overnight bus to Laredo to purchase them. So far so good...

Oh, I forgot to mention the plumbing, toilet, water hookup, shower, drainage... And the flooring... and the fridge... oh yeah, the stove, table and chairs, etc. Eventually it all got done and completed last month. I have maintained since the inception of this project that my life lesson had to be learning P A T I E N C E. I did! In droves...

Now here we are in 2016 and we finally got the internet since October 2015. Since I had only makeshift storage in the kitchen, no counter, no pantry, I took the plunge and got a carpenter to build these in December 2015. Did I mention patience? Since it has by now become second nature, I no longer fret and fume. Lesson learned.

At this point, I will end this narrative and get busy with photos. That will be my next post. Plus an update on my four-legged family.