Victory for Maxie

What a big victory! Today Maxie has been without a seizure for a whole month. We are so excited that we are celebrating with chicken and cake...two of her favorite things!!!

Hurricane Dolly

Hurricane Dolly hit Reynosa and the Rio Grande Valley! It seemed to go on and on and on as the rains came and the wind blew. I felt pretty secure inside my house with Opie and Maxie, the guard dog and four cats. It wasn't too bad while I had electricity and could use my computer.....and then we were in darkness....and silence, except for the constant groaning of the trees and the banging of sheet metal and the pattering and beating of the rain. Opie would see the shadow of a tree blowing and would bark at it. Actually, it did look kind of scary through the curtains. During the early evening hours, a tree in my yard was plucked up by the roots and tossed over my van. Another tree was pulled from it place in the dirt and was leaning on the tree that was on my van. I had to wait all night and till after 8 a.m. today to actually look at my van and see what the damage really was. I could tell that the windows were fine and the tires were good. But how about the roof? For that, I had to wait until Don Ebodio cut the tree away and took it off the van. You would think that we were unveiling an expensive painting or a magnificent statue......and it was just my dirty, leaf-covered van. And there it was! One very small dent!!! I think I will just leave it there to remind me that angels were holding the branches and the trunk as the tree gently fell on top of my van!!! Our God is mighty in the wind and rain but gentle as He cares for His children!!!!!!!

Maxie Update

Maxie has been seizure-free for SIXTEEN days!!!! We are partying with sugared flour tortillas!

A Stolen Bicycle!

Chiquita, my guard dog (and now I only have one guard dog. Sigh!), was barking quite a bit this morning. Finally, I stopped going to check on every person that walked by our gate. And, then the phone call came! Had I heard all the excitement and commotion outside? Lupita, my neighbor, has had a handy man working for her for the couple of days. He needed something from the hardware store and Lupita needed drinking water, so she took him in her Jeep, dropped him off at the hardware store, bought water, and went back to pick up Don Octavio. On arriving back at her house, Don (a polite term for an employee or gentlemen, not his name, by the way!) Octavio noticed that his bicycle was missing. Lupita who is pretty vivacious and easily upset went goofy asking the neighbors about the bicycle. The lady in the yellow house (we don't know her name) which is next door to Lupita's saw the drunk from the last house in the row, take it and ride off. So Lupita stormed over to his house and gave them 5 minutes to produce the bike or she was calling the police. Since the drunk somehow escaped from jail (where he definitely should be), he started yelling and running around like a rooster with its head cut off, blaming his woman. One of the other drunks who hang around that house got all bent out of shape and promised Lupita that if she gave him 10 minutes, he would get the bicycle back. She said he could have 10 minutes and no more. So the guy takes off running, leaving the others yelling and ranting and raving!!!!!!! In less than 10 minutes, the bike was back although it was covered with mud.

Things have quieted down. Chiquita ate her chicken and rice and went to sleep. Opie and Maxie never knew what happened. And, I only heard the story from Lupita as I was safely in my house, talking on the computer to my friends in Africa and Texas about tortillas!!!!!!

Another Update on Maxie

Maxie has been seizure free for 11 days now! And she is a whole lot more active. Opie and I are so happy that she is more like herself.

Maxie Update

Maxie is doing great! As of today, she has been free of seizures for 7 days! She was groomed last Friday and did well. I am so happy!

Things you find in Mexico

* the local homeless mute/deaf guy directing traffic around potholes

*the neighbors stealing my large plastic garbage bag and adding their garbage to mine

*the city garbage truck (very undependable) and the garbage collector with a cart and horse (or mule) racing to get to the garbage FIRST

*roasted corn venders selling in front of the church during the service AND people in the congregation going out to buy their corn AND coming back in to eat it as church goes on

*bottles of beer left on tombstones for the dead

*minibuses running red lights....and the traffic cop is right behind them, watching

*vehicles making left turns across two or three lanes of traffic, acting like the other lanes are "in the way"

*people going through other people's garbage and carting home stuff to then "pick and choose" what they want and/or need and putting the rest back in the garbage so someone else can go through it and cart some more of it home, etc etc etc

*people making steps with stones, bricks whatever so they can reach over your wall and help themselves to lemons and cactus,etc....it is "legal" as long as they are not actually in your yard!

*real siestas from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. during the hot summer weather

*Imagine living in two worlds, this and Texas, both unique and exciting!