Thursday February 9, 2012

Larry --my faithful maid -- decided to run the vacuum. I cleaned some in the bathroom area to at least make it look I was helping.

I showered and dressed and sat on the patio in the sun for awhile. The people parked across the street are always outside and I thought the lady was working on some type of craft so I walked over to see. I introduced myself and she told me her name was Judy and her husband was Ken. Her Sister, Jan is traveling with them as well. Judy said they live outside of Vancouver and her sister lives with them. She and Jan ran a grocery store for years while raising the kids. Ken was a master mechanic for heavy equipment, primarily for Wabco, and has been to Peoria several times for training at Wabco. Larry came out of RV and came over to introduce himself and we all talked for a long time.

We left to go to the flea market around 1:00. I have almost used the entire bottle of the JoJoBa oil that I bought last week so wanted to pick up more today. I found the vendor and bought a large bottle of the oil. While talking to the guy who sells it, he told me the oil stops the itch from mosquito bites almost instantly. He said he and his wife use it on their grandchildren all the time for their bites.

We walked through the flea market for awhile and bought a chili dog and beer and sat down to listen to the music. They always have live music and there was a guy playing guitar and signing today that was very good.

We left the food area and both bought a pair of sandals for wearing around the house. They are advertised as 'Birkenstock Ripoff's', Larry bought a pair last week that he really liked so I decided to give them a try myself.

We came home and I laid down for awhile to read as my back was bothering me today. There is no pattern as to when I have the back pain but when it starts, laying down is the only thing that relieves it.

We sat outside and had a beer and Don, our next door neighbor stopped by to chat. He and Cynthia are on Security Duty for the park tonight so he was in the golf cart when he stopped. Earlier today I offered the rest of the tamales we bought on Tuesday to Doris, who is parked behind us, but she said she had some frozen. I saw Cynthia outside when we were leaving so I gave the tamales and a couple of the tomatoes to her. She told me Don loved tamales and would appreciate. We talked to Don for quite awhile. Since we arrived here, the park has had a problem with a sewer smell that comes our way when the wind blows. Tonight we started smelling it again. Don told us they were changing out some pumps on the sewer tonight to try to correct the problems. Will be great to get rid of the smell as at times it gets very bad.

Again we opted to skip dinner. We are like a couple of kids about eating, I guess. We seem to have a late lunch each day so never seem to be hungry at night. 

Friday February 10, 2012

We left for Los Algodones around 8:30am for our dental appointments. Larry returned to Dr. Gaspar at 9:30 to have the root canal and post finished on his tooth. I headed to Dr. Juan(Dr. Castro's office) to have my crown cemented.

I discussed again with Dr. Juan my treatment plan. He told me that he is going to wait to crown my posterior teeth until next year. He also told me he wanted me to see the implant dentist today. He said if I get the implant done this year, he will place the tooth on the implant area and do the remaining crowns at the same time. Dr. Juan had the office lady make an appointment for a consultation with Dr. Garcia for 11:30 today.

Dr. Garcia's office girl drove over to pick me up from Dr. Juan's office. I had a moment of indecision when she asked me to get into her vehicle to drive back to her office. In the past the other office's have come to get me and we walked to the other office so I briefly had vision's of abduction about being in a vehicle --kinda like not trusting a stranger when I was a child!

We arrived at Dr. Garcia's office without incident. I really wondered why she drove over to get me as it was no more than 4 or 5 blocks to walk. With all the pedestrian traffic it took much longer to maneuver through the streets driving than if we had walked. I met Dr. Garcia, who was in his late 30's and EASY on the eyes, as most of the dentist's I have seen here. He was very nice and spoke very good English. He took an xray of the area and determined I had enough bone support for the implant. He explained the procedure and that he wanted the area to heal for at least 6-8 months before affixing the post and crown. I told him I would have to plan to complete next year when I returned, which he agreed would work fine. I made an appointment for Monday at 11:00am to have the implant placed. After leaving I realized I did not even ask the cost but from previous inquiries assumed we were talking about $1,000. This is about 10% of the cost elsewhere so still a bargain. Judy from across the street told me she had 3 implants about 4 years ago in Canada and paid $8,000.

I walked from Dr. Garcia's office back toward the stained glass shop to talk to Luiz about the pieces of glass I ordered 2 weeks ago. Again he told me it would be next week. I told him I was coming back on Monday and he agreed it would be ready around 1:00pm on Monday. As I left, I was doubtful that it would be completed by then but hey, everything here is Mexican minutes and Mexican days, which means it's never going to happen at the time they tell you.

I walked to the plaza to meet Larry. We planned to meet there after his appointment with Dr. Castro, which was at 11:30. When I arrived he was not yet there, which did not surprise me as it was only about 1:00. As I mentioned, in Mexico, appointments occur anywhere from an hour to two hours after appointed times. I sat down at a table outside and order a BIG Pacifica beer--our norm! Reuben, our normal waiter was breezing back and forth and I ended up with a different waiter. Reuben did, however, give me a 'high-5' as he buzzed by my table. He is really a busy man and takes his job seriously as he never slows down. I'm sure his tips reflect his efficiency!

I sat in the sun listening to the band and drank beer for about 30 minutes before Larry showed up. He had a composite filling on the tooth that had the root canal. He shared the rest of my bottle of beer and then we ordered nachos and another Pacifica. It got so warm sitting in the sun that I had to move to the other side of table into the shaded area. The town was crawling with people today so we decided not to stay too late before heading back.

When we headed for the border, Larry went to get in the bicycle taxi line and I walked over to Dr. Castro's office to make an appointment for a cleaning. They tried to make my appointment for early Monday morning before my surgery but had no room to squeeze me in. They went ahead and scheduled me for February 22, which is the day before we are due to leave Yuma. I asked Almeda, the office girl, if she knew how much Dr. Garcia charged for the implants and she told me they were $1,000, so I guess that will be my Birthday present for this year--possibly Christmas and Anniversary next year as well! I agreed with Dr. Juan, however, it is still cheaper than doing a normal bridge and then end up loosing one of the abutment teeth in a year or two.

I walked back across the street to find Larry. We waited about 20 minutes for our turn on the taxi. The guy who drives the taxi is very comical and kept us entertained while waiting in line. We made it to the car and home by around 3:30.

When we arrived back at RV, we found that the sunscreen for the windshield and wipers had been installed. We had called two times this week and left messages with Specialty Sewing trying to find out WHEN they were going to come out to install the screens but no one ever called back. The neighbor's across the street,Jan and Judy, whom we met a few days back came over to see the screen. They are Canadians from BC and are here with Judy's husband Ken. Jan is a sister to Judy and the 3 of them live together and get along wonderfully. Jan and Judy are very talented at sewing and had made a cover for the windshield of their motor home, which is smaller than ours. They looked at the wiper blade covers and we all agreed they did a lousy job on fitting them. We plan to send them back when they come out to place the rest of the screens we ordered. Jan and Judy sat on the patio and we all talked for awhile and then Ken joined us. We talked until after 7:00 and no one had eaten dinner yet. They all left and Larry and I went to Appleby's to grab something rather than trying to cook so late.

After we had dinner, we drove over to Frye's and bought a few groceries and headed home.

Saturday February 11, 2012

Decided to do the laundry today since we will be going back to Mexico Monday for my implant. Cleaned house a little while I got the laundry started.

Judy and Jan came over and we talked for a long while. We really just kicked back today and didn't even leave the RV. Larry put the awning out on the motor home and later the wind picked up and we realized something was wrong with awning as it would not retract. He found the book on the awning but could not see what the problem was. He walked up to the resort office to ask about someone to call. He called Ron's RV Repair and they came within 30 minutes. He worked on the awning and had to drill and place a screw into one of the rollers on the end. We retracted it and ran it back out a couple of times and all seemed to be working. When I wrote out the check the guy told me $175 for what he did. We both were a little shocked in the price since he probably was not here 40 minutes and Larry had to help him on the repair besides.

When the RV Repair left the awning was extended out and then the wind got strong again so we tried to retract and again it would not work. Larry called Ron's again and he came right away again. I was working on the laundry so I was not outside when he checked it out again. Basically he spent 15 minutes and picked up his ladder, told Larry he thought it was the motor and Larry would have to order a new one. He told Larry that when he got the motor, he was sure Larry could replace it. Larry told him he did not even have a ladder that tall and probably not the tools either. Ron told him he could probably borrow one of his ladder's if needed. Like sure we can do that but not exactly sure HOW we would even haul it  if we did use it. Bottom line was he helped Larry roll the awning in and left.

When I came outside Ron was gone and when Larry told me the story I was furious! I wasn't even sure what we should do as I felt we got ripped off about as bad as possible!

Monday February 13, 2012

I have been fuming about the awning business since Saturday! I want very badly to call and give this guy a piece of my mind about the charges and the service. Larry just picked up the phone and called Ron's. Of course Ron got smart with him when he discussed the situation with Larry. Told us to sell the motor home and buy a tent if we didn't want to pay those type of charges! Jerk!

The guys came with the rest of the sunscreens early this morning and surprise--surprise--out of 3 window screens and 4 wheel covers, only 3 of the pieces fit properly. They installed one of the side windows and 2 of the wheel covers and took the rest back along with the wiper blades that do not fit. I wonder how these people make any money with all the mistakes!

We were getting ready to head to Los Algodones for my 11:00 appointment when the phone rang. The call was from Dr Garcia's office cancelling my appointment for today. His office girl said he was suffering from high blood pressure today and not coming into office. Larry said it was from a drunken weekend, which I agreed. The guy is probably only 38 years old so pretty bad if he has these problems and they are not from drinking! Anyway, I didn't want him working on me if he is not feeling well. They rescheduled my appointment for tomorrow at 12:00 so something to look forward to for another 24 hours!!!!

We drove into Yuma and both got a haircut then Larry hung out at Starbucks and I shopped at Dillard's and Penny's for awhile. We had lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings and drove home. It was so windy and quite cool it wasn't even enjoyable being outside. The neighbor's behind us were setting outside having their 'happy hour' but I didn't fell like joining them as it was so cold.  I did set on patio for a short while so Raven could get his outside time. He is the only one of the 3 cats who really enjoys being out this year. At home we cannot get Tucker to come in the house but he is very spooked most of the time here when he's out.

Watched 'The Voice' tonight, which is one of my favorite shows and about the only thing on TV that I bother watching.