Taking stock

I won't go into reasons it has taken me nearly three weeks to blog. Well, OK, at the top of the list is that I am feeling a good bit lazy and am at odds with my blog is supposed to be anyway. Foreigners are supposed to stay out of Mexican politics - we all agreed to that to stay here - so commenting on current events is something to be careful about. So...
Is it about living the dream in a tourist destination? Is it about managing that dream without melting down? I mean in the psychological as well as physical sense, because to me, it's hotter than paradise now and multiple sclerosis at that point defines me. My friends here know I say I am shorting out when I am too hot, and God only knows if they know what I mean. Multiple sclerosis is a disease of the central nervous system and I liken my wiring to that an old house. The frayed wires don't conduct electricity so well in the heat, but the natural vitamin D is soothing to my immune system, which controls the MS. I also supplement with prescribed Vitamin D3, more on that later. Oh, I see blog definition ahead.
Today I took my interferon shot, with is classified as an immumodulatory, and and am resting inside in the AC, which had been running more or less at full tilt for two days now. I know, you have it worse. But I'm pondering this question of what the blog is supposed to be. So...
The AC is running at full blast, the bill will be hard to pay, and eventually, the hurricanes will make it unnecessary. Eventually, the hurricane plan will take over. But first...
In checking the generator, it was determined it need a new spark plug. Very simple. A small motor plug, like for a riding lawn mower or...a generator. I bought my generator at Costco the spring after Hurricane Wilma nearly six years ago. And so did a lot of other people. Last week, said spark plug could not be found in Cancun by Carlos Telliz, my cabbie and man in Cancun, a Chilango who can find anything. We started at Costco. No hay! One to hardware stores in the small motor section of town. None. He has a friend who is an electrician who goes frequently to Merida and Carlos bets he can get one.
Enter Facebook. A woman from Brewster OH brought me one last week. Ex boyfriend is sending two to Johanna, who is arriving in a month. I'm covered. And neighbors are probably covered as well in that case!
So now I am on the issue of the cartridges that are filters in my Intex above the ground pool. A sweet little thing that is 10-feet wide in its circle resecting diameter. Cheap at Amazon. com.
For a pool I got at Sam's Club last year, no filters. I am on the last of the filters, which the handy man has been able to make last about to about a month or so through careful washing and care in rinsing these five buck filters. Oh, but in Mercado Libre, the Mexican equivalent of eBay, they want WHAT???
Not that I have a problem with that, but you have to wire, as in Moneygram to them, before they will ship. There is not PayPal for transactions totally within Mexico.
I hate feeling like this, needy. I have just shot an email to a mid summer renter arriving by car with her dog. Could she carry six in her car if I send them from Amazon? She'll be using the pool, after all.
So politics aside, what kind of marketing push pull system puts me in this situation?
I have lived with these pools since I hand carried the first 8-foot one in a storage bin in luggage (when luggage wasn't such an issue) nearly six years ago and have now bought my fourth version by buying at two of the four stores in Cancun that sell Intex pools, not filters. Chedraui used to sell the filters, not anymore.
Costco was the latest place I saw a hard side pool Intex with the same filter. They had no filter cartridges for sale either. Nor Soriana, where I bought the first 10-foot pool. Nor Cherdraui, where I bought filters the first two years. Everyone just came to know if you bought a pool at Soriana, you could get filters at Chedraui. Or from Oscar the pool tech and designer of real in-ground pools. He has some clients that have them for their kids, to keep them out of the adult pool, which is no deeper. a little under 40 inches. He hasn't a clue where to find the cartidges now.
I haven't seen this filter on sale in Isla Mujeres or Cancun for more than a year! See what a good stock-piler I have been?
We were down to two when Tanos arrived with three. Enter the woman from Boston and her dog. We shall see. Will she really understand?
People who want to move here wonder every day what lies ahead. Let me tell you a bit using Vitamin D3 as an example.
In research and university affiliated hospitals in the US, doctor are prescribing what seem to be mega doses of Vitamin D3. Family history of osteoporosis, colon cancer and auto immune disease and patients are reflagged for it. So, I take 5,000 to 8,000 IU, international units, a day.
I bought well in Ohio last October and Johanna brought me some. After months of looking, I found some Nature Made in Walmart. At a glance, I assumed they were 4000IU. So held them a month or so and I popped them open. And looked closer. They are 400IU, the current MDR, not withstanding all the hot shot doctors in teaching hospitals in the US, los Estados Unidos de America. Not to be confused with los Estados Unidos de Mexico.
I love the latter. I am confident that the forces of good will prevail in the drug war and have nothing to say about those waging the wars nor their foot soldiers. It's all in the marketing.
Which brings me back to how I've spent the last month. Conniving. Getting pool filters, spark plugs, maybe get some Vitamin D3 to me here in Mexico.
I guess this is a redefinition of the blog. Enough with the snapshots and light text about this or that repair or the dog's life. What is it like to live here? Even with a little money, you have to get used to being poorer here. Because there are some things you just can't get here with any amount of money and are therefore dependent on the kindness of strangers.
So, in the future, I'll be using less snapshots and more thought about what it's really like to live here. That's all I have to talk about with some authority now. First, let me see how I can get some high dose Vitamin D3. I'll check back later.