I’ve been thinking about how I’ve been spending my time, which then led me to a question. But first, my morning. After I got my wee one off to school, I went to the gym to exercise, got a healthy tonic drink at a little cafe on my way to the lake, where I meditated. On my way home I bought some pillows. Next I went home and continued some reading that I’ve wanted to do for quite sometime but never made time for, and some writing. I planned what we would have for supper, took some pictures, and walked the dog. Then I realize I sound like a retired person–not that there is anything wrong with that. Some of my favorite people are retired. I hope to be one some day. It’s just that I’m in my mid-forties, I’m about twenty years early. I’m doing my life stages totally out of order.
Which leads me to the question. If I’m doing them in the wrong order, once I do this retirement stage, do I have to go back and do one that I missed, like the teen rebel or the mid-life crisis? Hmmmm….could be very interesting years ahead. Stay tuned.
And now, the latest bug-updates. This is the place to come to get over an insect phobia. Lately I’ve spent too much time trying to manage some of the pesky little vermin, mainly lice and fleas. Living in a tropical locale has made me bug-tolerant. For example, last night there was a spider on my bed and my first response wasn’t to freak out but rather to think, “One less spider to crawl into my bed, and up the leg of my pjs.” When it rains a lot we seem to have more spiders and scorpions in the house. I’m getting more accurate at throwing shoes at spiders on walls and ceilings. “Mad skills,” as Kier would say.
I checked Cali for nits again today. I didn’t find any, but gave her one final shampoo with the lice ketchup packets. I bought her two decorative pillows for her bed, but put them in the safe solitary confinement with her stuffed animals and other lice-free bedding. Finger-crossed, but I hope I did my last lice-laundry, 3 loads of her bedding and clothes. Please, please I hope we have them licked. Next I checked the dog, who has had fleas for weeks. We have taken him to the vet every week to get a new flea treatment, but the little buggers just don’t seem to want to die. The vet was baffled and called his other vet friends in the city for advice. He tried a new cream on the pup last Monday. Today I checked him and they were gone. Meanwhile, I noticed new bites on my stomach under the waistband of my jeans. Coincidence? I think not. Our fly swatter has gone missing and I keep forgetting to buy another one. It’s too bad that dog isn’t more effective at catching them. That’s the end of my bug-update for today.
I walked with the doggie into town to get a few groceries. He really is a magnet for the wrath of stray dogs. I wonder if they would care about him as much if he were neutered. Afterall, they are latin male dogs. If our doggie was ball-less, maybe they wouldn’t feel as territorial, and would just mock him instead. Someone needs to do a study… or not.
I ordered a movie from one of the movie making dudes here. They download whatever you want to watch, burn your disc, you get it in a few hours. In this town, it’s very difficult to get real dvds, cds, computer programs. Everything is a knock-off. You go in and request what you need and they burn you a disc or two. You can get any season of any show for about $6. A movie costs $1.20, computer programs $8. If you don’t want to be part of the local black market economy and want a certified original, you’ll have to get someone to bring it from the U.S. or go to the city to buy it in a mall. But if you are going to live above that line, you can’t watch tv since the local cable company here is using a feed from who knows where in the U.S. Every so often it goes down and all of a sudden we are getting the local news from a different state. That’s simply how things work here. We have direct tv in our house, and even the source of that is under suspicion. That being said, I’m not above keeping it on and watching it regardless of its shady origins.
In the evening I went out for papousas at a Salvadorian restaurant with three other women. The one woman is a doctor here in town and the other one registers voters for a living. There is an election here on September 11. She was telling us that the elections are fair, it’s just the losing parties who say the elections aren’t fair. She said the biggest flaw in the system is that the illiterate people can’t tell who they are voting for because the ballots are confusing. She said sometimes representatives from different candidates will go to the polling stations, ask the illiterate people who would you like to vote for and regardless of their answer, show them the name of the candidate they are representing. She has been doing her job for over twenty years and says she has seen it all. It was interesting hearing her talk about the political system.
The girls are home, they had a great time at the waterpark. Cali is happy because her sisters have returned to cook for and argue with her. Everything is back to normal in our girl world.