Here’s the latest on my weekend wanderings and wonderings:
On Saturday 6/20 at 1:12 p.m. I wrote
8425 steps so far today.
The workmen are still trimming and mowing the property. I don’t know how they manage to survive out there dressed in heavy jeans, boots and hooded sweatshirts. Do they think 68 degrees is cold?
Possibly their clothes are kept wet. They don’t look wet, though. I’m astounded.
This place is on an appreciable slope, so mowing isn’t easy. And they don’t appear to work with the slope much. They go straight up it as often as they go along with it. They’re hard working dudes, for sure!
Slept ten minutes less than eight hours last night
But that’s just what was captured by my smartwatch. I slept two hours (at least) before it started keeping track at 10 p.m.
Jon read the post I published earlier today
…and texted me asking for my pensionado application expediente number so he can track it, too. He then reassured me that even if the status changes from Received to Under Review this coming Monday, I won’t receive anything before July 22nd about whether it has been approved or tagged for outstanding issues. So, I can relax totally about that. He says once the status leaves RECEIVED, it takes one to three months to hear anything back.
So, now I hope the status DOES change before he gets back from his trip
I’d love to become “tico-ized” (Jon’s term!) by Sept. 11th, the one year anniversary of the pensionado application. That would be fabulous. (Also probably a pipe dream!)
Weighed 145 This Morning
I’d love to get to 135-140. 135 would be just ten pounds above “underweight” for my height. I don’t want to get underweight but would love to be halfway between underweight and overweight, which is 135.
My Left Thumb Blew Its Blood Vessel Again
Every time I give it something a little bit intense to do, it ruptures subcutaneously and fills with a black bruise, which never lasts long, but Jeez Louise! It’s getting old! So, I rebandaged it to protect it.
Had Some of the Most Recent Crockpot Soup
… the one I made using cilantro coyote and Swiss chard (instead of celery) for the leafy vegetables. Not BAD, but it’s my least favorite concoction to date.
I’m not a big cilantro fan (it tastes like soap to me), or Swiss chard, either. Gonna stick to celery, carrots, sweet corn and potatoes from now on.
I probably should have just tossed the “mystery bag” I brought home from the feria last week, but that seemed wasteful, so I’ll choke my way through the rest of this “meh” concoction and consider it a culinary experiment that failed to pass the taste test.
Today, Sunday June 21… 9:22 a.m. 8826 steps so far
I walked with C.G. this morning down on the futbol/track field for an hour between 6:50 and 8. We confirmed my dog sitting hours during the time she and her hubby will be away. They’re gonna store food for me during the hours I’m there, too. Sweet of them!
New experience ahead: I joined a drum circle!
At 10 AM I traveled to San Francisco with Cindy Winder to attend my first ever drumming circle. I also got my first ever extended look at San Francisco de Grecia, something I’ve wanted to do for quite some time and never gotten around to doing, although it isn’t very much farther up the road from where I live.
San Francisco seems larger than San Isidro de Grecia but neither is much more than several blocks in length along Calle San Isidro.
I Had a Wonderful Time!
Ed Tucker, a wonderful guy, hosted this month’s gathering at his place, which is absolutely stunning.
As it turned out, I already knew about a quarter of the attendees — none of them super well, but we’ve crossed paths numerous times and recognized each other.
Among the people I already knew were Diane Cooner and her husband Miguel (they were my next door neighbors in El Cajon when I lived there so we’re fast friends already and it was a wonderful surprise and gift to see them there), Forrest Halford, Ed Tucker, Cindy Winder, Cindy Thomas (I knew OF her, but we met officially today), and Merlinda. The other participants were all lovely people, too, but holding onto new names is next to impossible for me. It will take repeated exposure to lock the new names in.
Cindy and I stayed for an hour
She has two kettle drums, so I played one of them about a third of the time. I played maracas and a tambourine the rest of the time.
I was able to hold my own, as a newbie, with people who have had a lot more experience. I have a good sense of rhythm and of when a different instrument should be added to enhance a piece.
Cindy Winder wants me to get together with her — now that she has seen that I’m not hopeless as a player — to learn a drumming counterpart to some of her drumming sets. She says she has wanted to teach someone for a very long time how to do it, and she thinks I’ll be able to. I’m all for it.
I got lots of pix and some videos (YAY!), and some other people sent me theirs, so below are links to videos of some of the drumming sets we did, as well as to some of the best still images I took:
https://www.facebook.com/reel/2270959827040735
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1718158312801412
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1039106659057012
https://www.facebook.com/674337914/videos/pcb.10165386783252915/2259796134838159
The available “miscellaneous” instruments…
Players brought their own instruments
plus some additional ones that could be
swapped out to add flavor to a set on a whim…
Ed Tucker (right) showing a newbie how to play a kettle drum
Cindy Winder with her two personal kettle drums…
“Play? Did someone say PLAY?!”
Forrest, Miguel, Diane
If I get some additional great photos from others, I may add them here…
Thunder, Lightning and Rain Now at 4:51 p.m.
Lost power for a minute, so I’m going to shut this down and enjoy the light show now!