Yes, it's my favorite time of the year where I get to recall the time since my previous Best of BLT. I get to plagiarize myself and wordsmith this page until I can't see straight. If you see past, present, and future tense in these words, have a little sympathy for a want to be writer who flunked at editing. Little did I (We) know... From the 2019 Best of BLT:
Starting off 2019 in Tunisia...Kosovo...US...Mexico...Rome...Paris...LA...quite a trip! I hope 2020 is just as interesting.
It's part Aesop's Fables and so apropos: "Be careful for what you wish for, you just might get it." I'm sure your 2020 was just as interesting for all the wrong reasons! But, I'm getting ahead of myself.
When I last left you, I was leaving for LA to meet a friend for NFL football.
LA...it may sound like a broken record (Google it) but the border crossing into the US ALWAYS is the wild card in going to the US and this trip wasn't an exception. I got in line at 0415 knowing the SENTRI line wouldn't open until 0600. My flight in Tucson was to leave at 840 so I thought I had enough time to cross. Sunday traffic combined with holiday travel had me worried as it was 620 and I wasn't much closer than when I got into line. The SENTRI line was open and I found the same barrier gap and cut across. I had about twenty minutes to spare at the Tucson gate.
With a Christmas trip already booked, I didn't have many days I could spare in the US with my tax situation...actually one day so I flew in on Sunday and flew back the next day.
LAX ranks down there with Charles De Gaulle (Paris) as my least favorite airports. Always under construction and not really coordinated with the other terminals, I was prepared for the worst. Holiday travel would only bring it down further. Other than heavy holiday travel, I have no LAX stories. Flying home in December reminded me that Salt Lake City should be added to the list of worst airports for simple size of the airport alone...St. Louis too!
My friend bought the tickets well in advance of the game. As the company gives me little notice of transfers, I couldn't commit to the trip until about a month before the game. We paid double the face value of the ticket. The beer you see in the photo was fifteen bucks...about a buck an ounce and the game cost about a buck a minute. I wasn't in Mexico anymore.
It was hard to convince me of the truth that it was warmer in Nogales than it was in LA on this December day.
The game was played in a soccer stadium. The Chargers and the Rams were moving to a new stadium for the 2020 season so this was temporary. The Vikings fans, despite being the visitors, outnumbered the Charger fans by about three to one. I didn't really care for either team. I just went for the game. The highlight for me was the halftime corgi race which I posted on Facebook. The Vikings started pulling away in the second half so we left early in the fourth quarter. 39-10 Vikings.
I'm a Lakers fan but hadn't paid much attention to them since they started to slide after Shaq left. Still, a trip to see the Staples Center piqued my interest. All decked out in Christmas attire complete with an ice rink in the square near the Center, I was impressed.
The next morning, I flew back to Tucson with no incident. After several failed attempts, I finally got to have lunch with a former boss when I worked in the Washington DC metro area.
That same evening, the boss had a small Christmas party. Though I arrived later than most, I did show for dinner.
For the first time in I don't remember how long, I skipped the official job site Christmas party. I had no idea as to the location. There were four parking spots. Although it was close to my home, it was in a neighborhood where walking wasn't advised. We are forbidden by our client to take taxis. The company planned on using a shuttle bus from the office to the venue but that was silently cancelled. Those were all the reasons for me NOT to go anywhere.
The following Sunday, I flew home for the Christmas holiday. I haven't flown home for Christmas since I was in Morocco ten years ago. Trust me, that trip was a nightmare. I've been hesitant flying around the Christmas holiday for some time. The sisters told my friend they'd show her around for Christmas even if I didn't show...that sent the mind racing. I worked out the details with the travel and the tax days so my excuses were gone. I flew Delta home using my frequent flier miles. Flying to Omaha through Atlanta from Tucson was inconvenient but cheap not counting the expended FF miles.
This trip had just three of the five Fs...food, family, and friends...no finances nor fhysicians! The first night, we got a five-star tour of the best of Omaha's Christmas Lights. My sister says to Google "Christmas Lights", look for the maps, read the ratings, and plot your course. If you want pictures and video, I have a bunch. Email me and I'll copy some to a drop box for you.
Here's our stops:
The next night was Christmas Eve where we ate prime rib, opened up Christmas presents, and went to hear my sister and brother in law sing before Christmas Mass.
As my sister and husband spent nine years in Saudi Arabia (he has some sort of degree in cheese) and my visiting friend is from Tunisia, in atypical Christmas fashion, I suggested we have something different (Arabic/Mediterranean) for Christmas dinner and that was all the inspiration that was necessary. It was a collaborative effort between my family and my friend but we had:
To avoid too many chefs, I inspected the ongoing cooking process with my eyes closed but making sure it was up to standards by taste testing everything. No one was sent home hungry nor did they complain about the food. It got an "A" for original thinking and quality. Every review I heard was similar.
On our last full day in Omaha, we had a short visit to the zoo...too cold.
We made a couple of visits to Ma.
Back in Mexico, the rain was flooding the streets but I made it back without major delay. I saw snow on the windshields of cars and up at the higher elevations. The snow was gone the next day. Overall, here in Nogales, temps get near or slightly below freezing at night and up to around 70F° (21° Celsius) during the day. While I was home in Omaha, we had the same low temps but it only got up to the low 50 F° (10° Celsius).
We were off from work from 22 December through 1 January. After my return from home, I didn't have much to do other than writing and hanging out. Being the party animal that I am, I checked out the back of my eye lids to bring in the new year.
It was unavoidable seeing the news about Iraq on New Years Eve news. To refresh your memory, Iran was launching missiles into Iraq which eventually led to the drone assassination of Iran's most popular general. We have work in Iraq. Our crews kept working through it all. The closest missile to hitting our job site landed at the airport about 45 minutes from our project.
In February, we were told to go straight home from work. According to the local police, this simple instruction was enough adverse publicity for those planning on any funny business to discourage their plans.
A few days later, we were told to go home early in the afternoon. The local gas station (less than a minute on foot from the project) tried filling their gasoline tanks using drums instead of tanker trucks. The drums weren't grounded and a huge spark ignited the fumes. There was white powder all over the street. My uninformed guess would be fire extinguishing powder. Police quickly cut off one of the busiest intersections around. Apparently, the excitement was gone as we were leaving the job site and nobody was hurt.
The Corona Virus hit Mexico about the same time as Trump decided to take the virus seriously back home. The initial word from our crew is if you go out in the evening, the streets were filled with people carrying on as the start of the pandemic was the same day as a large public holiday. The people thought it was the government extending the holiday. Working Mexicans were given time off from work but, initially, used the time off to head to vacation destinations rather than isolate through social distancing.
Mexico, like many of the US states, found it to be an economic necessity to put folks back to work. We noted several instances of underreporting of actual CV cases. Despite two-month and a two and a half week recesses, our own government is salivating wanting to close down our project one more time using Mexico's underreporting as an excuse. Only time will tell.
The mall across the street took a few weeks but it temporarily closed. The multiplex theater showed just one movie but closed with the mall. When the mall reopened, the movie theater vacillated between opening with socially distanced seating and closing as instructed by the government (speculation about the government role on my part). If the mall was open, the food court businesses were open.
Casinos were/are the first to close. Like a lot of businesses, Starbucks opened and closed with the mall. The Carl’s Jr. across the street remained open but they didn't ask...your food is put in a bag to go. Two drink machines are used by the employees who ask you for your choice of soft drink. McDonalds and Burger King were drive through only. The new strip mall across the street had a few open shops but many are closed. The barbershop at the mall closed and but the one at the strip mall stayed open as long as it could. Being a new business, it didn't have the financial strength to stay open and closed permanently. Finding places to get your hair cut was mostly by word of mouth. My personal gym closed for several months at the beginning of the pandemic. IHOP and TGI Fridays remain closed since the pandemic hit. I speculate is that these firms weren't profitable before the pandemic and may not reopen.
For decades, we American Catholics have taken communion from the hand instead of having the host placed on the tongue. In the foreign churches I've attended, communion is taken on the tongue. In late-February, I drove to Phoenix to visit some longtime friends. The following Sunday, folks were taking communion from the hand and the handshake of peace was had been largely replaced with a Chinese-style bow.
Until the CV situation is under control, I watch Mass on my Slingbox or on the Web.
When we went back to work in June, Mexico went from red COVID to orange COVID. That's when the businesses slowly started opening up.
We've been instructing our crews about learned precautions against the Corona Virus. Our crew likes to greet each other with a skinning the five fingers combined with skinning the knuckles of the fist. Now, it's a bump of the forearm covered by a shirt sleeve or a bump of the shoes.
After Mass, I normally do my weekly shopping with several short trips for the incidental items I've forgotten. Sundays are very easy shopping in all but empty stores. We had a Monday holiday. For something to do, I went to pick up something from Walmart just after lunch time. Carts were full including a big package of toilet paper. Cleaning supplies were gone from the shelves.
Early in the pandemic, I made an evening trip to buy a few things at a local grocery store. The shelves were normally stocked with no noticeable depletions. Toilet paper was limited to three packages. Eggs, bread, and rice sales are limited to one package per family. The local Sam's club was made famous on Instagram with people loading up pickups with toilet paper. Grocery carts were full and nobody was keeping their personal distance from anyone else.
Our guys wear masks to protect the skin from the sun but they resist wearing them in public.
My food and TP stocks were full. I was good before the pandemic. The food shelf and the fridge are stuffed. I use packing tape to keep the freezer from opening. If I used a package of TP, I bought two. My boss said that if he had to quarantine, he was going to do it from my apartment.
It took a bit of explaining to me but the stores started limiting alcohol sales from eight in the morning to eight at night. Mexico claims the breweries and distilleries are non-essential thus limiting sales to prevent a run on alcohol.
Months into the pandemic, there was no beer to be found on the shelves. Even across the border in Arizona, beer had disappeared from the shelving. It took several months for it to reappear. The more expensive grain alcohols remained on the shelf.
Street traffic reduced indicating people are staying home from work. We speculated that when the CV cases began to accumulate, people started paying attention to the personal distancing. The police began ticketing violators and even confiscating children's bicycles if they weren't going to or from the grocery store...car loads more than three were an obvious sign of violators. Police had checkpoints ticketing for all occupants not wearing masks and gloves.
We were shut down on March 30 as the Sonora Government, encouraged by the Mexican Government to close down. FYI, Sonora is a state in Mexico like Nebraska is to the USA. Other construction projects continue to progress. We were considered non-essential. We protested to little avail as our client was telling Sonora to close us down. The next day, we were allowed to remove our computers from our offices and work from home. I always wanted a part time job where I could work at home in my PJs and get paid along with health care...close! The part that's missing from my current setup was "part time" and social interaction after work was mostly nil.
The one part I learned about working from home years ago was that it was often hard to stop working and live life. That's not the case this time.
Trivial note: Since I started working at home, I only wore shoes once when it got too cold for sandals or flops.
I kept busy working at home with a couple of work projects I'd been putting off for a while. Around five or six in the evening, I went walking to get some exercise and clear my head.
Like me, some of the crew were working from home keeping busy while the majority were very bored awaiting the moment when they could return to work. We returned to work in early June. We shut down again in late October through mid-November when a number of new cases were diagnosed on our job. In December, there were limited shutdowns around Nogales.
Some of our married crew with spouses in the US while they're in Mexico abandoned plans for reuniting until CV was stable.
About 90% of our international projects were impacted by CV. One of our competitors' jobs got shut down and the Americans got a ride back to the US in a chartered jet. The locals believed the foreigners had brought them COVID and put the foreign population at risk for violence. I've heard various reports from some of our projects. Some stayed open. Some worked from home. Some were sent home. Some have returned to work.
We were told that if we cross the border, it may be difficult getting back to Mexico. Trump closed the southern border to non-Americans. Mexico said the northern border is closed to non-essential travel. My associates and I who have crossed both ways haven't had a problem though Mexico has started asking questions and pointing a thermo sensor at the foreheads of those crossing the border. There is a wait line for those coming to Mexico.
Years ago, while traveling from China to Hong Kong, there was an overhead sign asking visitors to remove their hats as a thermal scanner was checking temperatures. I never saw the detector in several passages. That's an idea. Folks have to walk under the scanner which doesn't work for cars and trucks.
Personally, my electronics kept me occupied. My DVR slowly faded to zero capacity as the reserve of sports and music events has surprisingly halted with little new material added. I never thought I'd see that day. I still have pro wrestling!
The care facility where Ma lives went on total lock down. There were lots of FB posts and we caught glimpses of the resident activities. My sister sent me a phone number. I called and left a message. Eventually, I got a phone call with Ma and the facility recreation director. We friended on Facebook and video chatted. Check out the photo to the right.
As I was returning from my June trip home, I got two texts indicating that Ma fell, hit her head, and broke her hip. The next day, she had successful surgery to have a pin installed in her hip. The rest of the week, the sisters and medical folks scrambled to find Ma a new place where she could have physical therapy. They sent her back to her old home with an around the clock nurse who could help her with physical therapy while Ma quarantined in her room due to COVID. I saw several FB posts from her home and even shared a few.
As around the clock nurses are not cheap, the hunt was on to find her a new home. Thanks to a consultant, the search, another scavenger hunt, wasn't so hard. Because she'd quarantined before, Ma had to semi-quarantine another couple of weeks...i.e. semi-isolate as much as possible but not at every moment...a bit of latitude.
Ma turned 89 this year. She's not much for birthdays. You can't tell by the photo but that's me on the smart phone. Ma recognized me.
New to me is the Zoom app. We have regular Zoom video chats with Ma and the sisters on Thursday mornings. Ma isn't too big on modern technology so patience is necessary. Ma's nurse does a lot of translating. Mostly at night, Ma is up and walking. She needs to be reminded that she needs to use her walker. She often falls asleep during our chats. I'd like to think I'm not that boring!
Three months after her fall, Ma's doctors gave her a clean bill of health though the staff at her home have to remind Ma to use her walker.
My aunt, on my father's side of the family, also lives in a nursing home. She came into contact with an infected staff member. She tested positive for CV and was placed on a respirator. Her husband, my uncle and father's blood brother, was tested but the results are inconclusive and subsequently retested. He expected to test positive but that didn't happen. My cousin, her son, a medical doctor specializing in radiology, prescribed hydroxychloroquine, and she recovered.
My brother-in-law started developing CV symptoms after being exposed by one of his clients. The whole family went under two-week quarantine. Turned out to be allergies...reprieve after two days! "Free Free, set them free..."
Held in my home town, my sister, Gigi and her husband drove their vintage 1970 Chevelle in this weekend rally. Do you see any masks or distancing in the photos of the article? Nebraska is one of a few states without quarantine laws. Social distancing is for losers and masks are for pussies...but it looks like fun... I saw my elementary art teacher and the high school librarian in one of the photos.
My niece announced her engagement on FB. In a Thanksgiving Zoom chat, she gave some details...June 9 "elopement" where they will marry in Colorado. It will be a small affair and few will be invited. It's unlikely I will attend. Her sister announced she's having another child...more duty as a marginal uncle. She was isolation from her husband/coach/teacher who got COVID. She had the two boys while living with her mother-in-law and he's isolated with his father. It didn't help as both ladies eventually tested positive but no signs of the young boys.
See the photo to the left. Recently, the Mexican government added these to the two Nogales, Mexico entrances from Nogales, AZ though the washes aren't always operational. From the article: 'This tunnel contains a mechanism, managed by specialized personnel, that applies a solution of biodegradable and quaternary disinfectant water... to individuals crossing into Nogales, Sonora," the city's Public Health Director Jesús Alberto Dicochea Aguilar was quoted as saying in a news release.'
FYI, Omaha has the hospital where the first American Ebola virus and Corona virus patients were sent. My oldest sister works at the pharmacy there. So far, she's had a few CV patients but has avoided the designated CV wing. While she competes in triathlons and is in excellent health, her age puts her in a risk category.
For my 2019 Christmas trip home, to combat an oncoming cold, I bought hand sanitizer. I felt like a genius keeping it handy for my use. Like everyone else, the hard part about finding any PPE early in the pandemic, Personal Protective Equipment - Masks, gloves, sanitizer, etc., was finding the stores that sold it. I found the unlikely source to be the local Home Depot.
Got to give kudos to my sis for my masks. I had them before anyone here could find them. The youngest sis combines her company work load, makes custom quilts, and made face masks for friends, family, and associates, and repairs hospital scrubs. Her daughter, my niece, pitched in too. I wish I had half her energy! She made the local news. She made the mask I'm modeling at the right. She even made a John Deere green mask for my uncle who is a retired farmer. She made over a thousand masks. I still use the two I have...they hold up better than the professionally ones I use too.
For Easter Sunday dinner, the youngest sis and I video chatted. She made pizza and I made air fried chicken. I've had several conversations with old friends and family members via FB chat. That isn't sacrificing to me. I'm told that me being a social recluse isn't the same as social distancing.
At the same time as the Corona Virus was coming to North America, I was coming down with my annual crud. My crud has a few more / different ailments than the Corona Virus. Swell! I slipped under the illness paranoia dining on Claritin D and aspirin until it went away in a week.
After about a month, the local Walmart got serious about CV. It seemed to be the CV innovator for the other local grocery stores which are chain stores too. Entry to the store was confined to one of the two doors. Hand sanitizer was given to the patrons. Grocery carts got sanitized. They recommended that one person per family be allowed to shop in lieu of the whole family. This was later made a rule. Other grocery stores were limiting the number of customers inside and those that were waiting in line to get in kept the proper distance. Plastic screens (aka sneeze screens) were mounted at the cash register to protect the customer and cashier. After about a month, folks started wearing masks. If you didn't have a mask, you didn't go in. The credit card key pad and the pen to sign your credit card receipt still are suspect. I began bringing my own pen and used the hand sanitizer going in and going out. The six-foot rule...well...
Normally, the exchange rate on the peso is eighteen to the dollar. It dropped to 22 to 23 to the USD with the pandemic but has returned to the normal rate.
As part of my mental wellbeing, I go walking after I finish my work from home at the end of the workday. During our second COVID shutdown, I got a call from our safety manager instructing me to go in for a COVID test. We were told to go in early in hopes of getting our test results the next day. I went in early but it didn't help. DHL was the limiting factor on getting the tests to the lab and they weren't in any hurry. It took almost a week to get my results back from the lab. Now, we use our own drivers to hand carry the samples to the lab and get same day results. Still, I wasn't rattled as I hadn't been feeling ill at all. We had two swabs; nose and throat, and a blood sample. Before the swab tests, we were told in English that if we felt like puking, don't (his words...not mine). I didn't. We got our tests late Monday. Mine was negative. During my December trip home, I got a COVID blood test that came out negative. These tests are good for all of about five minutes until COVID is a thing of the past.
Years ago, one of Bluelou's medical consulting staff prescribed 5,000 units of vitamin D daily. I had a deficiency. I was avoiding the sun instead of worshiping it. I figured that recovering from skin cancer was a good sign to kiss the beach world goodbye. This diagnosis was made in my last China assignment. I got the notification the day after I returned to China from being home on leave. Timing is everything! It was a rare but unlikely scavenger hunt I lost. Best I could find was taking ten multivitamin tablets daily. I was taking one multivitamin anyway. Ma sent them by mail...one pill. Well, in my last tour of doctors, my GP told me that it's thought that vitamin D is a good defense against COVID-19. I'd read the same on the web and it was confirmed by a nurse. Who am I to argue? The macho part of me says "come and get me" but the logical part of me says a slight variation of the line from the movie Fried Green Tomatoes "leave me alone but if you try, I have insurance".
Our first shutdown lasted just over two months (late March to early June) and the second two and a half weeks (late October to early November). Going back to work after the second shutdown was just as unnerving as going back to work after the first one.
For 2020, I made two trips home (June and December). On both trips, I stayed in hotels visiting a few friends and family as part of the Five F's ...food, family, friends, finances, and fhysicians...but no fhun! (There goes that damn spell check!). I made one trip to visit friends outside of Phoenix in February along with four shopping trips to Tucson.
I bought plane tickets to fly home in April but cancelled the flights a few weeks later. An airplane seemed like a flying petri dish. The tickets were refundable. Given the financial strain created by the pandemic, the airlines offered me credit. A few weeks later, I postponed my appointments in hopes that life and travel will return to normal. For the June trip, I tried using the cancellation credits from the April flights. Even with the credits given by Delta and United, I would have had to pay for the remaining balance. American, AKA Nickel Dime Airlines, was super cheap so I expected to be hit up with fees for things we normally take for granted such as seat changes, luggage check in, etc.... They emailed me a couple of weeks prior to my flights noting that the flights I'd selected were full and suggested that if my travel plans were flexible, I could reschedule without charge. The alternative flights they offered didn't work for me so I checked in early and waited.
Flying home in June was surreal and not much different in December but I'd come to expect the flying conditions. Crossing the border by car at 0700 there was no wait in the SENTRI line and almost no wait in the general line. I was overdue for the five F's. At the airport, there were so few people waiting in line for the security inspection that the global entry line was closed. I was given a pass indicating I was eligible for the cleared treatment but not many of the privileges normally given to global travelers was given to me. One of the TSA agents expected travel to pick up in July.
No problems flying home. I did laugh at their hypocrisy about American's concern for COVID-19 and social distancing. The flights I took were 80-90% full with no passenger spacing seen. As the passengers were deplaning, they announced that in order to promote social distancing, passengers in the front of the plane (business class) would get off the plane first. Maybe they cleaned the airplane to new levels. I was fighting the person next to me for the arm rest. Six feet was a fallacy. How was this social distancing? How was this different before COVID-19? The only difference I saw was that we passengers (sheep) and flight crew wore masks and only the business classes passengers were served snacks and drinks. I had the same pilot on my flights from Phoenix to Omaha and Omaha to Dallas. On both flights, she passed through the plane and back sans mask even though the rest of the passengers and staff were wearing their required masks. American announced before the passengers boarded the plane: no one would be allowed to fly without a mask unless there were extenuating circumstances.
American's flight schedule appeared to be returning to normal a few days after I flew to Omaha. Click on this link for American's response to a lack of social distancing on their flights.
One of our guys flew his girlfriend into Tucson on Delta. He said they separated their passengers by maintaining empty seats and empty rows to promote social distancing. I have no doubt that social distancing with United or Delta versus virtually no distancing with American explains the dramatic price differential between Delta and American.
At home, I saw differing degrees of COVID-19 prevention. Medical businesses were by far the strictest expecting clients to be compliant. Chain businesses were mixed. Staffers generally wore masks but in my unofficial observation, more folks (customers) were without masks than with them. I warned my medical providers that I would be coming from Mexico. According to the rules, those coming from foreign countries needed to be quarantined. Mexico fits that requirement but I spent no time in quarantine.
I made a mega-mistake when I went to the local outlet mall on a Saturday afternoon in June. There were lots of folks without masks. I had a mask but I was a small minority. I did a quick about face and headed to the car. I saw nothing there worth risking my health.
While dining at Hooters in Omaha, I tried connecting to their Wi-Fi. Some genius decided to hide in their release notes that Hooters had taken all COVID-19 precautions including staffers wearing masks and spacing between tables. By connecting to their Wi-Fi, I would hold them harmless if I were to contract the corona virus in their restaurant. I assumed that lots of folks agreed without reading this fine print. Even a marginal lawyer could break this agreement in court. What does this have to do with Wi-Fi? I didn't agree and used my cellular internet. Can anyone clear this up to me? I returned in December. The bartender wasn't wearing her mask nor were the two cooks. While it fit the doctor prescribed diet, it didn't really fit my idea of COVID compliant.
During my June trip home, I had my first sleep study. Because I grew up in a large family and we lived by a busy highway, I need noise to sleep by at night. I turn on the Slingbox to make noise to help me sleep. I sleep better when I can find something I can totally focus my attention upon such as a movie, an athletic event, or WWE. When I was in Armenia, the stress from the project made it such that I couldn't stay awake at night nor could I stay asleep. This hasn't gone away. A friend complained my snoring was audible from two rooms away through the walls. Truth be told, I didn't know if I snored while I slept or not. I needed to visit my general physician to get a recommendation for the sleep study. As luck would have it, the sleep study folks were about a quarter-mile away from my hotel. Sleeping with that equipment and trying to keep it functioning was a challenge. The sleep folks say sleep is better on the side but the testing equipment required that the test subject lie on their back. That means more sales created by perhaps a few false test readings. I did need a CPAP. I did my training via Skype video conferencing. The video conference I had with the sleep technician didn't stick in the brain long so I went slowly. At least, I didn't have to fly back home for the training! Another mask in my life...joy!
Someone at the company warehouse, post office, or border thought they needed the actual mask more than I did as it was missing when I got the rest of the shipment. When I got everything, I waded into the water rather than dive head first.
Living abroad is like a protracted scavenger hunt; I always have to go look for something and I generally don't find what I need in the first place I look. A key factor is that I know what I'm looking for but don't know the word or words for what I need. Distilled water, in Spanish, is "agua destilada" according to my translator app. After I showed her the translation, the first pharmacist tried selling me hand sanitizer. I found the water at the same chain but second pharmacy location where I was told to go by one of our local engineers. As they didn't have the correct change, I had to charge my purchase of just over a dollar to my credit card but I had what I needed.
The whole package will work internationally and comes with a travel case. It's heavy and bulky, and isn't very portable but it has a power adapter similar to a laptop which works anywhere in the world. It shouldn't count against my carry-on limits because it's covered under ADA, the Americans with Disabilities Act and I'll have a doctor's note with me. I did my homework! Even the cleaner has a case. During my December trip home, though I had my documentation ready, I went through airport security without a hitch.
I can only picture in my mind if the flying inspectors in the third world countries question me about my chick magnet. Kind of like my scavenger hunts, I often have to play charades to demonstrate what I need/want. Though I have no formal training, I'm an effective actor. I'm doing a mental workout of this scene for these folks so I'm ready for a demand performance/encore. Anyone remember the movie Bachelor Party and the scene with Nick, the male stripper? A similar motion with a bend of the wrist worked in Turkey when I needed the urinal. A point without delay guided me to the restroom.
The big question, after a few weeks, is does it work? If you believe the app for my smart phone, my score kept improving where I've gotten a perfect score of 100/100 possible points. Well, if I fall asleep on the couch without the CPAP, that doesn't count. It's like making a noise in the woods, if nobody is there to hear it, it's not a sound. Well...something like that. The point scale gives huge consideration proportionally to actual time I wear the mask yet little proportional consideration to the actual air stoppages I have while in use. I'm getting a couple of hours more sleep in a night so that's worth all the trouble. Because the machine isn't too portable, I don't get up in the middle of the night to move to the couch. I sleep in one shift and that's it. I generally wake up thirsty after a CPAP sleep session. The distilled water is for the CPAP built-in humidifier but I still wake up parched. I can bring a bottle of water to bed or head to the fridge but getting up or removing the mask during a sleep session counts against my sleep score...if only it had a built-in hole for a straw that seals shut when not in use! I'll adjust the humidity level and see if that works rather than the default setting.
Seven hours of sleep creates the optimum sleep score. Often, I wake up before seven hours. Knowing I'm not going to sleep anymore, I'll remain in bed to get that big sleep score as if there were some reward for a big score.
Next gripe: though you see me in my glasses, eye glasses aren't too effective worn over my mask. No, I don't wear my contacts to bed.
Like wearing a cast on a broken arm or leg, try alleviating an itch under the mask without breaking the seal. It's inevitable that the nose will itch just after putting on the mask.
The CPAP has a cellular transmitter to send the results back to the sleep folks and confirm to my insurance company that I'm using my chick magnet! We weren't too sure the cellular function would work in Mexico but it does. I'm wondering what happens if I transfer to another project in some remote country. It has a memory card slot for just such an occasion. You need an SD card and send it by snail mail. A friend/colleague of mine has the same CPAP. He confirmed my suspicions...the unit doesn't work in the more remote world locations. I'm wondering why they can't make one that connects and transmits over the internet by Wi-Fi? Stay tuned. They probably have some option I'm unaware of. I tried contacting the manufacturer but their response to my query was like deer in the headlights.
I clean the mask weekly. Filters are supposed to be changed every one or two weeks. I change mine every month but my non-professional inspection (non-smoker) indicates I could stretch filter changes even further apart. The water tank gets washed every week. I found replacement filters on Amazon but will probably get some lecture from my sleep folks about voiding the warranty.
I can't help but wonder what the housekeeper thinks when she sees this space age contraption. A friend of mine uses one and I saw his CPAP which resembles mine. My first impression was "WTF!" but I didn't ask. My friend explained.
On a different subject, I Googled the domain of my web site and found that, instead of me linking to Wikipedia, they used one of my photos. Look at the photo to the right with the actual link further down the page.
If anyone remembers the failed attempt to take a RZR ride in Las Vegas, part of my October Tucson mission was getting the RZR trip in motion by trying on their biggest crash helmet. No, their biggest helmet didn't fit me but I wasn't discouraged! I bought an XXXL crash helmet from Amazon. I didn't see anything bigger. I did have a crash helmet with my quad that actually fit my head but gave it away with the quad when I sold it before heading out to Turkey in 1994. Besides RZRs, they have the Polaris Slingshot (3-wheeler street legal motorcycles) for rent too.
Amazon, FedEx, and the vendor said the helmet was delivered to the Nogales AZ post office. With several of our crew making separate visits to the Nogales AZ post office, nobody picked it up. I was stumped. A friend said Amazon would still give me a refund...and they did!
I tried a different vendor/model on reorder from Amazon. In my initial order, I ordered a closed face helmet. To allow for easier fit on the second order, I changed my order to an open face helmet and goggles. About a week after I got the refund, my warehouse guy called me and told me I had a personal order to pick up from the warehouse. It was a closed face helmet but it's the size I ordered. It's a very snug fit but I haven't seen a larger size than an XXXL. I wasn't changing anything because I had no idea what I'll end up with. This is a bucket list gig and I wasn't not taking any chances where I'd ruin it. I canceled my order for the goggles before the order was shipped as they were no longer needed. FedEx delivered the originally ordered helmet to our freight forwarder rather than the post office. Mystery solved!
I just needed to pick the helmet I want to keep. I chose to keep the first helmet. I called Amazon and explained the situation: reestablish the first charge and send a return material authorization (RMA) for the second helmet. They said I could keep both...no idea if that meant at no cost. No, I want to pay for what I have. Nope! Keep your helmet. I had a label to return the second helmet and dropped it off at the UPS on the Arizona side of Nogales (more later). I was refunded the purchase price less a 15 percent restocking fee for the returned helmet. When it was really close to the ride, I found a XXXXL crash helmet on Amazon but sizing variations made me question if it would fit me and with all of the turmoil in getting what I had, I wasn't going to change a thing. I could have signed a release and rode without a helmet. Nope!
On our planned day off, two weeks after our second COVID shutdown created over two weeks of unplanned holiday, I drove to Tucson for my RAZR ride.
I didn't want to go alone so I asked several folks. Having been burned by friends who planned on making trips but cancelled at the last minute without bothering to ask if they owed me anything, I told everyone they weren't going with me until I saw their cash or they could make their own reservations. I was driving my vehicle. I'd split the cost of my car if anyone wanted to ride along. If they wanted to drive, they'd best rent their own UTV. Being a passenger just didn't thrill me like driving would. Nature didn't thrill me like driving this UTV.
One of our crew who expressed interest in going was terminated. Another got flown home due to food poisoning complicated by diabetes. Two were asymptomatic but tested positive for COVID. Another had full blown COVID, and one couldn't get his fiancée across the border. Was I cursed or simply bad Karma? Was it something I said?
My bucket list ride didn't start off like a dream...more like a nightmare. The low tire air indicator suddenly lit up in my company car...hadn't lit up the day before. That tire was only flat on the bottom. Actually, it wasn't noticeably low so I let it go. The line of cars to the SENTRI border crossing blocked the entrance to the SENTRI lane so it was stop and go at just after 0600. When I crossed the line, it was easy. First stop was Walmart. McDonald's catered my breakfast as it always does when I cross into the US and I ate it on the way to Tucson. Here goes the bucket list. I got lunch at Wally World and a few more drinks at the Circle K next door as there wasn't much on the trail. We were a bit late starting but we got to drive the UTVs to the park...sweet! In Arizona (and Mexico), UTVs are street legal. I hated every moment of wearing that damn crash helmet. It was XXXL but didn't have a millimeter to spare. It was a crunch and my ears were smashed. The ride wasn't difficult and brought back instincts of riding my quad oh so many years ago. Next time, I'll book the half-day ride instead of the full-day but I wasn't going to complain. I was just enjoying the ride. The body held up well but it took a few days to get back to normal.
I was surprised by the variety of vehicles on the trail. One guy rode his pedal assisted fat-bike of that constantly undulating road. The biker said he lost and found his wallet and phone along his ride. They fell out his pack. That's happened to Bluelou too...three times! He loaded up his bike and put them in his crossover and headed home. I wouldn't take either on this road. The road was just rough enough that the constant shaking would create the equivalent of 30,000 miles on the sturdiest of vehicles and any micro-bump would rattle for the rest of the life of that new truck. We saw someone in a four-door VW/Mercedes hatchback. The tour company owner said he's seen a Prius on the trail. The most surprising vehicle was a 4WD truck built for the trail but pulling a mobile home trailer. Pulling mobile homes are difficult enough on interstate highways. I had to wonder what inspired someone to build a road like this. I ate my share of dust. I kept the jean jacket on for the full ride. Any time I could, that helmet came off. We rode for 130 miles. Of course, I had to make a FaceBook post. Total tab was surprisingly steep at $615 plus a free crash helmet and a restocking charge for the second helmet.
The trail passes through a federal park. We stuck to the main road with a detour to do some easy rock climbing. About midway through the trail, there was a sign stating "dirt road". The dirt started about fifteen miles back. This begged the question: was this sacred dirt?
We never got above 35 MPH on the trail but we passed all the other vehicles like they were standing still even when we were doing 20. Even on the public asphalt roads, I may have hit 40. The speed limit on the public roads was generally 35 but a few spots were 40. The speed limit posted in my UTV was 35.
I forgot my wrist GPS that would have made a tracking trail. Next time I guess. I have an older model GoPro camera I bought for the Australia trip...and it made it to Greece as well. It didn't make the trip either. I didn't want to tape a GoPro camera bracket to my new helmet. My cameras didn't make the trip. My phone worked for any photo I needed. All of my tech goodies stayed in Mexico. I just wanted to ride.
For those of you considering a similar adventure. There's a show on Fox Sports Network and on YouTube known as Destination Polaris. Basically, it's an infomercial for Polaris motor sports and their rental locations. They feature various locations primarily in the US and Canada but they do have some international locations too. I watch the show. Although they're quite expensive, like my scuba diving adventures, I recommend a guide. They know where to go to make the most out of your adventure and maximize your trip time and money. They also act as your support group in case of emergencies not to mention keeping you from getting lost all while keeping you safe. My guide had a tablet computer connected to a GPS with mapping software and trail data.
Having owned an ATV before, I'm giving you my own advice which mimics that of my tour guide. Before you buy an ATV or UTV, it's best to rent one to see if you like them before you drop the serious cash on a unit. Like a boat, motor home, or other large recreational investment, I think renting is the way to go. Renting a UTV is expensive yet far cheaper than the cost of owning one. UTVs require a 3/4 ton pickup truck and/or trailer for transportation to the next ride. If you can't do the maintenance, a trip to the dealer is a shocker. They keep looking for things that may or may not need fixing which means revenue for them from you. You'll need space for storage: garage, driveway, rental storage unit...while I enjoyed the riding and the freedom to take a spontaneous ride, after the ride, I headed to the gas station and the car wash. A two-hour ride quickly burns the daylight from a whole day. I often felt because I had an ATV, I felt obligated to go for a ride. I HAD to go for a ride if I wanted to go or not. If you rent...the vehicle becomes someone else's problem. Before you buy, think it through. Cost is not just for the vehicle. The vehicle is just the beginning. Like scuba diving, the cost of diving is minimal...it's the travel, diving, etc. Your next challenge is finding places to ride legally that are open to the public. Riding on the streets...I only know of Mexico and Arizona. I'm sure you can find places online but you will have to trailer the vehicle to your ride destination.
For the married guys who want to take their family on a UTV run (and stay married), I'd recommend taking baby steps like a rented convertible car on a trial run and see how that sits with the whole family. My guide told me about how gung how the man generally is/was about the trip but the wife hated it. Years ago, the famous Mr. Ed and I rented a convertible for a beach trip. Along for the ride, was his girlfriend. It was a gorgeous fall day. We were waiting for his girlfriend to get home from work. Upon entry into her apartment...her first words weren't "hi" or "hello" but "I've got news for you, that top isn't going down on the way!" Ed and I had dreamt about taking a convertible to the beach and with one sentence, the trip tanked. The trip went downhill from there...the wind put knots in her hair. FYI...Mr. Ed didn't marry her.
July and August are monsoon season in Mexico. The guys at the warehouse sent video of golf ball sized hail (Photo Right). Once again, the rain gauge on site said it was raining cats and dogs. I have photographic proof (left). That day, the rain gauge indicated 0.58 inches (1.47 cm) of rain.
It had been a while since we'd had big bosses from the home office. The bosses stopped flying anywhere when COVID hit the US in February/March but they returned in early July. When I asked my local boss what the temperature of the visiting boss was, he said he didn't know. That evening, the site managers got a meeting notice for the following morning. The local boss was no more. That answered my question. Maybe he was smarter than the rest of us figuring out how to get to somewhere else...
I worked with his replacement in my last China stint. He was an intern that we gave grunt work tasks to accomplish and to his credit, he did. I'm closer in age to his father whom I'd met on the second Beijing project prior to meeting his son. On the job site travel schedule, I thought I was going to rendezvous with another colleague from the same China project way back in 2003 and also in Jakarta. Nope! That was his son. Face it folks, in spite of his denials, your author is getting older.
Between transfers to new work and terminations, we've had considerable turnover this project. As a joke, I looked over at one of my colleagues in a mock observation: "you're still here?".
My former China/Jakarta colleague is currently in Beirut and was during the recent explosion. I'm told that one of our staff just happened to be video recording at the time and in the general direction of the explosion and recorded it all.
My gym reopened several months after they were shut down by the Mexican government with limited capacity and limited hours for week nights only. I gave it a chance to get a few more open hours and establish itself in COVID conditions. In college, they call it the Freshman 10...the weight people put on in their freshman year. I call mine the COVID 15. I thought that I may have needed to cross over to Arizona to buy a stationary bike but for now, I'm good at the gym. There are no organized classes; only limited weight machines, free weights, and cardio vascular machines. My guess is that it’s operating at about ten percent of its' pre-COVID self. Monthly prices went up but the Peso tanked in the pandemic. Three gyms in my immediate neighborhood remain closed.
One of our crew and his wife spotted three cockroaches in the dining room of our former but no longer favorite restaurant. Is it really a Mexican restaurant because any restaurant in Mexico is Mexican? The scary part of living in Mexico is realizing that food hygiene isn't always a priority. Seeing proof of this is worse!
As my sister and her husband were between houses (they sold their house and were waiting for the completion of their new house), my Slingbox went into storage. I got word that Slingbox has stopped making Slingboxes and will stop supporting them in two years. I saw articles and advertisements about YouTube TV. To make it work overseas, you need to connect through a VPN but it works. I got TV affiliates from Oklahoma City until I made my December trip home where I finally established my YouTube TV "home". The picture is out of this world as long as the internet is working. Compared to my Slingbox and TiVo, it's pulling up the rear. Commercials skip in 15 second intervals. That doesn't make sense to me either. Although I can watch my beloved Huskers, I'm not sure I want to given how they played. YouTube TV doesn't have EWTN so Mass is on the free side of YouTube.
As the pandemic is ongoing, I see the list of work we are bidding on for the fall but many of our current jobs haven't mobilized because international travel is all but impossible. The bids for the new work are delayed until all of the bidding contractors can visit the work sites. After a lot of soul searching, I don't feel so bad being here in Mexico rather than a location a bit more "foreign" knowing I can be through the US border in about fifteen minutes without issue. I'm thinking this is why God put me here so close to home. To get to Mexico, we fly to Tucson followed by an hour-long drive.
It took a couple of months after we restarted but the burrito lady (keep hitting the button on the right) FINALLY returned to work. She was working from home too. Her daughter was bringing our orders to work.
After almost two years of living in Mexico, only my recognition skill for Spanish food names has improved. The first priority is always survival. I switched my cell phone translator to Google. At the tip of a colleague, I can open the program and turn on the camera translator and it translates the scanned word to English.
The over commercialization of Christmas isn't limited to the US. Walking through a local store, similar to Walmart, I noticed they were well underway with the stocking Christmas merchandise and decorations on 17-October.
I voted in the fall election by absentee ballot. I printed the ballot that was emailed to me, marked my choices, scanned the document, and emailed it back to the voting commission without leaving the office.
Ok...I had to do it...you know when I start a sentence that way, it really wasn't a must do. in this case, it was a must do. I bought a new laptop. My go to laptop wasn't behaving...the keyboard/mouse which I never liked anyway, was starting to act crazy. The new laptop is much like the one it replaces except I'm going back to Dell. The old HP had all the buzzers, bells, and whistles but I had to fix the screen as it came apart and these new mouse/keyboard issues made me question the durability of the HP. No, I haven't dropped the HP but it sure acts like it. My 14-inch Dell laptop purchased in 2013 still works but the screen is too small. I'm sure the HP will act as a server for media. While the unit is no longer made by Dell and the OS is subpar, rest assured, it's hot! If you want to know the configuration, click on this link.
Hope you enjoyed my FB post of me in my Halloween Costume.
COVID-19 Jury Duty 0. And the winner is: Me. My jury service was postponed one time as I was 'overseas' in Mexico. Nothing changed about that. I'm still in Mexico. The next running of the doctors was just before Christmas. For my rescheduled my jury duty, two of the scheduled days conflicted with my doctor appointments. I worked with one of my doctors to have an excuse to miss a part of it due to a legit medical procedure. My conscience took over as I was prepared make further travel plans and take vacation to reschedule it to January when I didn't have medical visits. I was calling the jury duty folks with excuses at hand when I learned my jury duty got canceled on account of COVID-19.
I'm not opposed to jury duty. When I do retire, I will happily do my civic duty. But when I come home for a week to ten days, my time at home is consumed with the five F's. Then I hop on a jet and go back to work. Most folks get jury duty on top of work and vacation. Jury duty is part of my vacation.
The company planned a potluck Thanksgiving. With COVID still a reality, I've been squeamish about going to any large gatherings. I was prepared to announce that I wouldn't be going. With this last job shutdown, wiser heads prevailed and it was postponed indefinitely. I wasn't worried. I had turkey legs in the freezer and smoked turkey legs in the fridge. I have boxed stuffing left over from last Thanksgiving that I didn't use if I wanted to make it Bluelou authentic. The gravy was only a can away!
Thanksgiving was the aforementioned turkey leg, carrot, and potato prepared in the crock with the canned gravy. There's one more crockpot believer in the world.
Last fall, we had our family reunion. On the last day of the reunion, the entire family was there for dinner and pictures. After I returned to Mexico after the reunion, I sent an instant message to the sisters asking if we'd have another reunion this year. Silence was the only reply. How apropos!
On the Sunday following Thanksgiving, we had a Zoom chat with the sisters, their husbands, nieces, nephews, and great-niece and great-nephews. Not all of the family showed for the Zoom chat but we had ten computers online. Just like the 2019 family reunion, it had all of the chaos, kept everyone COVID free, and we didn't have to leave the comfort of home. Bluelou confession: I've been just as happy video chatting with friends and family for decades. I’ve been waiting for everyone else to catch up!
Christmas was a Flintstone sized baked smoked Turkey leg split into two for another colleague and I. He made the baked potato, and I fixed the salad.
Next year, Bluelou has his fortieth high school class reunion (COVID allowing). Because of CV, the prior class will have their reunion. In all likelihood, it will be combined with ours. As my two best friends are in that upper class, it should be interesting. I scheduled the next round of doctors to coincide with the anticipated reunion dates.
Bluelou's itching for Las Vegas! It's a seven-hour drive from here. My favorite parts of Vegas are the shows and the food. I can eat just about anywhere but the shows could be much further in the future. In my last Vegas visit, I did note that I could shoot a whole clip of AK-47 ammo for under $30. I could put a major hurting on my credit card with this.
2020 for me...one tick off the bucket list surrounded by a whole lot of nothing! I’m not down. It's only because the years leading up to it were spectacular and I probably needed a break. Let's hope 2021 is better for all of us!
Feliz Navidad! Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Happy Kwanza! Happy Chanukah!
