Here I am!

OK...lets see...where to begin...first of all, I didn't quite get the order of the pictures down ( that backward thinking thing..) Anyway- I believe i told you all that we would be staying at our neighbors ( across the road and down a bit) house to take care of her after her surgery. She had a hip replacement/ bone graft. Four days before this she fell and broke her other knee cap..if this surgery doesnt take, she will be in a wheel chair in two yeeras with no options. Its very important she heels (!!! hahahaha...) HEALS correctly. ( wouldnt we all be in trouble if we had to heel correctly!!)But I digress....we have been there for 2 weeks on Sunday. We are giving her 1 month so we are halfway there. I have been rather busy changing sheets, emptying bedpans etc and frankly too tired to blog. She has another woman come stay on Thur so we can get into Merida to our mtg so this is our reprieve. BIG thank you to the neighbors without whom i don't know how Id be doing right now. The woman, Carol, is so helpful and kind. She is a southern baptist Republican from Texas amd i have really come to appreciate her...lifes funny huh?..this first pic is a photo of their house. They are in the process of getting thier old palapas roof torn off and a new one put on. They are only here occasionally but plan on retiring here full time. they have lived all over the world. We are going to get some of the old wood to build a little shady roof over our pool and a small front porch. We recently had a two day major wind storm. As it was dying down, John said to me one morning " come check this out". He took me out between the house we are in and the neighbors and he pointed up. This bird was hunkered down riding out the storm in the relative calm of the coconut tree. he apperaed wary but held his ground, well, tree. I got out the bird book but couldnt find it. Birders-if you could find out what it is, let me know. It was the size of a seagull with a large blue beak. The next day, it was gone.

This is a pic of the bedroom we are staying in but its a poor shot. Out the window , over a low sea wall you can see the ocean. Well, YOU can't see it, thats why Im telling you...thats what we wake up too. She has a person come, marseille (who has worked for us on many occasions)EVERY DAY! He cleans the house ( the clean house...) and takes care of the pool and yard....the floors are like glass in here.

Here is a picture of the outside of the house from the beach side. I'm a few feet from the edge of the water where Im taking this from. When we had that big wind, the water came about 3 ft from the wall. Would NOT want to be there in a hurricane. I find there are many reasons to be glad we live across the street from the beach. Sand being another.

One of the last times I was visiting Marcie before her surgery, she took me to her front yard and showed me a tiny little surprise- a hummingbird nest in one of her bougainvilla. It contained two gumdrop sized eggs. We were both amazed that a lizard or snake had not eaten them and wondered if the nest had been abandoned. The other day, Marseille came in the house and said something about taking a picture. Its sometimes difficult for me to understand all of what hes saying so i just got my camera and followed him out. He took me to the same little bush but this time the nest was occupied by mom and one baby. The poor little thing was scared to death but didnt budge. I quickly took her picture and left her alone only to hear the roar of the lawn mower as he started cutting the grass ( Marcies ex-husband was adamant about having a lawn " I didnt move all the way down here to stare at the sand". Really? Because you built your house right on the beach).

I guess it doesn't matter if our safe haven is the crook of a coconut tree, a shot glass sized nest in a bougainvilla, an enormous house on the beach or a little bungalow, sometimes we just hunker down and wait for things to pass. Life goes on with or without a roof, when we lose an egg, when the storm winds blow and when the bedpans are full. The only constant is change. So if things aren't going well for you today, just hang on, it'll pass. If things are going great for you today, savor it, it won't be this good forever. But then that will pass too...and on and on and on until the really big change comes at the end of our "movie". The story of our life. Here's to hoping yours has some interesting twists and turns to spice it up.