Valle de Juarez Taking it easy - again

FRIDAY   3/15/13   Hacienda Contreras RV Park

I’m having a problem with accessing the Internet on the Dell computer that Barb Contreras so nicely loaned me.  Not sure what the problem is – maybe it’s just really slow or probably there are connection issues. 

As soon as my ankle swelling went down I started walking each morning and I think I’ve overdone it … I didn’t sleep well last night; had some back / leg pain – took an aspirin but still couldn’t fall asleep until after midnight.  Feel better this am; wonder if I should wait a day to walk again – yesterday 2+ miles easy walk but then I baked and cooked for the barbecue last evening and cleaned house – ugh – the upholstery and rug.  Will have to attack this issue when I can get materials for help – vacuum, upholstery cleaner, rug shampoo, etc.

It’s nice to wake up to quiet and a pretty patio garden.  It rained last night, just a sprinkle but I covered things on the patio with a new tarp from Rodriguez’s ($100 = $8.33).  I’m letting Lincoln out whenever he wants to go except later in the evening so I won’t have to keep opening the door to check on his return.  During the day he jumps on the screen door and comes in the little “window” around the door handle.  If it’s not open I can hear him on the screen so I open it for him and he joins us.  Eleanor still has little to no interest in going out and I’m relieved because she would be more prone to wondering off due to her feral nature.  I really think she has an infection of some kind in her mouth – teeth, gums, etc.  I really can’t see anything but she has a malodorous breath and she occasionally appears to be in pain when eating anything that requires chewing.  I’d like to take her to a vet but it’ difficult to find one who’ll treat a cat!  Interesting!

              Doug's sister, Diane, from Medicine Gap, Alberta walking in front of the Community
                         Center, laundry, shower rooms and Barb and Sal's apartment

This is high country, the immediate region is hilly but it’s very easy to see off into the distance; it’s surrounded by higher mountainous areas; the altitude here is 6500+ feet.  The RV park of 3 hectares – with an additional 1-hectare across the road for farming – is quite flat and grass covered.  Barb and Sal have planted many, many trees  - pines, flowering, shade and have left some beautiful old trees – one is an oak like tree I see here in Mexico and Guatemala – it’s huge:  probably 30-40 feet tall with a branch span of thirty feet and a trunk of giant girth.  It reminds me of old oaks in California (like at the ranch) and also plane trees in France (Aix en Provence, etc.) and Europe, or maybe the gigantic trees I saw from time to time in India..  [I found out that Sal, himself, planted it when he was a child – so it’s about 50 years old]. A rock wall delineates the park’s perimeter, hand built like so very many wall fences in Mexico, about 4-5 feet tall.  Barb is saddened by the construction of a Pemex station right “next door” to the park; but last evening I told her I think it may possibly bring more business to the park.  She said few visitors pass who aren’t specifically looking for this RV park – I guess we’ll have to wait to see what effect is will have on the serenity of this little bit of heaven.

                   I've become fascinated with the appearance of the sky when I'm living at a high
                                 altitude.  It feels like I can reach up and touch a cloud.

Today, as yesterday, is a little overcast so far.  It makes for a good day to read, knit, dream, relax.  A couple who I’d met the first two days I was here, Paula and Jerry Gale from Nova Scotia, returned last evening and we ate dinner together at the barbecue.  They invited me to visit them in Nova Scotia if / when I drive there (4,000 miles from here or from British Colombia – for me in California it’d be closer to 5,000).  I’m still interested in traveling across Canada in the summer months and would love to see Nova Scotia and Newfoundland as well as the Eastern seaboard of the US, leaving for warmer climes in the late Fall.  I’d have to do some planning to afford that.

Afternoon:  Internet connection is down for everyone.  It’s been really cool and gray all day; a couple of sprinkles here and there; mainly just gray.  I’ve been reading, playing Sudoku, watching DVDs, kinda’ just notin’ much.