Sheryl Update

On Wednesday I got my Avastin treatment. The treatment itself is fine. The ordeal of being admitted to the hospital each time is getting old. It was much easier and faster in Panama.

I got there early so I hung out with a duck in the parking lot. The hospital isn’t near water so it was strange to see him there.

The usual assortment was in the room. I always take the granola bars and an apple when I leave. Next time I may bring a bigger purse for the cookies.

There were only 2 cokes vs the usual five. I don’t drink coke anymore so not a problem.

If I could bring a cooler next time I could bring the yogurt home.

The fruit plate is always good. I usually eat this before anyone even comes in.

They start by putting saline through my port. In Panama this is a five minute procedure. I sit in a chair, in my normal clothes. Here they have me in the hospital gown, lying in the hospital bed with this paper over my head. You would think the were doing surgery with the care that take in doing something that is similar to putting in an IV.

In the US you get those socks with traction on the bottom. In Panama you don’t get any foot ware. In Mexico you get these slippers which are a tripping hazard for me. I have 2 different socks on because one is a compression sock.

Breakfast was really good. There wasn’t lunch this time which was fine with me. Its never good.

After waiting 90 minutes after treatment to be released and get my invoice, they had screwed it up. I have to go back next week to get it sorted out.

And then the best part of treatment day. I came back to the apartment and Jeff had made me chocolate covered strawberries.

On Tuesday we were making a recipe that called for eggplant and a lemon among other things. We had ordered them online with a bunch of other things a few days prior but were shorted the eggplant and lemon.

Jeff placed a quick door dash type order for one eggplant, 5 limes and a lemon.

Since it wasn’t much I went to get the order. It felt heavy for so few items. Turns out it was 5 bags of limes and a lemon.

I think we have margaritas in our near future.

We are still finding dragonfruit but there is les and less of it in the stores. We are becoming dragonfruit horders when we do find it.

Besides obsessing about fruit it was also laundry day. We have a system down. Clothes, sheets and towels the can go in the dryer we bring to a place to have them done. Clothes that we want to lune dry which is most our clothes we do at the laundramat.

We usually try to go to local coffeeshops, but on Sunday we were in the mood for the familiarity and strong air conditioning of Starbucks.

Everything in Mexican Starbucks is almost exactly the same as in the US. The food is a little different. We each got the poblano, potato and cheese wrap which I don’t think they have in the US. We also got the lemon loaf which I’m happy to report tasted the same as in the US.

The merchandise was the same. It felt so refreshing to have no knowledge of any of it. I had no idea how any of it was produced, shipped or forecasted.

One thing that was different was when they washed the floor while we were sitting in the table on the right. Nothing had spilled it was just their floor washing time. We kept moving to get away from the wet mop and they kept washing right up to each of our tables.

But even with that it was a nice bit of air conditioned Americana.

On Saturday we didn’t do a lot. We went to the gym by Uber due to the heat and didn’t go outside until sunset when it cooled off.

Then at night we went up to the rooftop deck on our building and ordered in tacos.

On Friday we zoomed with our friends Denise and Carlos. We met then when we were in Bogota in 2024. Denise is from Brazil and Carlos is from Argentina. They have done a ton of traveling but are back in Sao Paulo. It was great to reconnect with them. We had most of our call in Spanish which was a first for me since prior to this call we talked in English. My Spanish classed are finally paying off.

It’s been a quiet week for us. It’s still really hot so we can’t be outside after 9am and before 6pm. But it’s a great time to talk about how much Mexicans love Coke.

It doesn’t seem like the healthiest thing to drink in this heat but they don’t agree.

Uber drivers are drinking it.

It was the first thing this family unpacked at the beach.

And you get free macaroni if you buy two bottles at once.

For years in Seattle I complained about the rain. Now, here in Merida I love it. It’s still boiling hot here but for about an hour after it rains it cools of enough to go for a walk.

And sometimes there are rainbows.

Jeff and I bought this beautiful hand truck a few days ago. It was only $30 and so far is one of best purchases. In other apartments we have had doormen that will bring our groceries or giant water bottles up to our door for a small tip. But in our current apartment there are no doorman and there isn’t cart to ferry things from garage to apartments. And me having a hernia doesn’t help.

It works great for bringing groceries from Uber to apartment.

But the real magic happens when we refill our 20 liter water bottle. We have two so there is always an extra waiting to be filled. We secure it to the hand truck and take a little walk. Jeff even color coordinated with this tree.

Two blocks away is a place called “The Water House.” It is a refill station. For the equivelent of seventy-five cents we can refill our bottle with purified water. Not only is it a good deal, it’s good for the environment. Once it’s filled Jeff puts it back on the hand truck.

And then we head home. We’ve been doing this every few days in the evenings when it’s cooler out.

Here’s a fake photo of me pretending to pull the hand truck. With the full water bottle I could probably do it, but would rather not.

Now that I realized I can upload videos Jeff felt that a video of the process would be riviting. I told him that I would lose readers. He has assured me that this is an exiciting video for all.

On Sunday it was still sweltering hot. But it cooled down enough in the evening to watch sunset from the rooftop.