Well, yet another month has gone by. They are really flying now. It is getting harder to keep up.
We took a daytrip to the South Campos supposedly looking for a great shell beach somewhere south of town near KM 26. Not much luck in finding the beach but did have a great time checking out the 4WD in the truck. I will never be an off-roader but I can now at least follow other’s tracks.
Regina and Long Hair Larry signed up for Bocce Ball at the last full moon mixer. A few shots attached. They had a bonfire as the temperatures were still coolish. This month will not require a bonfire, a big AC unit would be more appropriate. Update: LH Larry arrived late last night so Regina pared up with Sue and they came in second! Wish I had pictures but no camera last night.
We did take an overnighter trip to El Centro for re-stocking. It was a much more leisurely trip spending the night. That allowed us to buy more supplies, a few of which are in these pictures. Take a look at the Rib Eyes we got at the “Yellow Cow” in Mexicali and note the price. We have already eaten one and it was so very excellent!
OK, now for the serious stuff. I promised to comment on life in Mexico and here are some observations regarding Dentists and Body Shops. Why these topics? Because we needed both of them this year.
I had always wanted to correct my smile. I had this front tooth that was slowly moving back. I went to the dentist to see what they could do about it. I was thinking of braces. They took X-Rays and were thinking implant. Seems that the reason the tooth was moving back was due to bone loss. I go to the most popular dentist among the American community. Her name is Melina and she is a knockout! Still a kid in her late twenties but very professional and speaks excellent English. She loves to sing to the music on her iPod while she is working. She suggested the implant and scheduled for that to be done by Dr. Mora who comes down from Mexicali once a month. His wife is a Periodontist and she comes down with him. While he did my implant surgery, Regina got a deep cleaning from his wife. I was the first appointment of the day and was in the waiting room when they arrived in a huge SUV. They both brought two assistants with them and enough equipment to fill a small office. Surgery went well and I was told to wait six months for healing and then come back. Total cost for the surgery, implant and temporary appliance: $1,400 USD. That was last September. I went back in late March for a checkup. He then placed a cap on top of the implant and told me that there was a small infection and I needed a cleaning to correct that. After I got home I tried to put my temporary appliance back in. No luck. It did not fit. So, I got out a file and tried to fix it myself. I proceeded to saw the temporary in half. Turns out that there was nothing I could have done to get the temporary to fit any more. Now comes the fun part. My dentist decides to get married. The wedding is scheduled for the end of April. I’m the last one to get the news and her next open appointment is in late May. So I go “toothless” for six weeks. I come in for the “fitting” and all goes well. One week later I have a brand new crown fitting perfectly and looking great. Total cost for the crown: $450 USD. That is $200 higher than normal but I was told it was because of the implant. I am one happy camper. They have all of the state of the art equipment here. The only things that were lacking were the computerized X-Rays and one of those fancy “make it while you wait crown machines.” I tried to take a picture of the tooth but none came out. If you want to see their work, you will have to come down and see it for yourself.
Now onto the Body Shop we found. First is a story on how we found these guys. We have friends that were returning to Mexico via the San Louis Rio Colorado entry (south of Yuma). There was a point where there was a two to one merge. Well, someone in the other lane decided to merge between their RV and the car they were towing. Not a pretty sight. He scraped the whole side of their little car. They took it to these guys and were very pleased. We could not see where the damage had been. OK, on to us. Seems that someone (and I will not tell who) managed to back the Toyota into a Palos Verde tree and crunched the tailgate. One of the activity guys at the pool was coordinating work for these guys and I signed up. I still don’t know their names. Well, for $80 USD they came to the pool, took the truck away and returned it early the next morning. I have the before and after pictures here.
We have had a lot of friends come down to their Casa’s this month. It is a who’s who of Northern California. Just to mention a few: Allan and Cindy from Vallejo, Tom and Nancy from San Francisco, Rose and Donnell from Oakland, Roy and Sylvia from Oak Grove, Steve and Deanna from Stockton and Gordy from Truckee. Gardenia and Steve from Belmont have finally moved into their huge house just six blocks up the hill from us. We can’t wait till they get their pool up and running.
We had a morning where the mountains looked like they had snow on them. It was just the sun reflecting as it was 85 degrees then. Also Regina is back into growing Basil.
I’m writing this just after we got back from a two day trip to San Diego to visit with Leslie who was there for a wedding. We had a great time and took in “Old Town” and a quick exploration of La Jolla. We even got to see some fireworks on the third. It was a nice cool 72 degrees when we left San Diego. The temperature maxed out at 115 in Mexicali and settled down to an almost comfortable 97 here at home. This is the first time in forever that we have not attended or hosted a BBQ for the 4th. We just had Hot Dogs, Baked Beans and Pasta Salad on the back porch while watching the fireworks from Pete’s Camp and the Jolly Mon Bar.
You all know how the press is bashing Mexico right now. Kat of "Kat's Korner" found this Article and I was impressed by it. They mention the CNN Anderson Cooper show that brought me to sign up for facebook to complain on his wall how out of date his story was.
Well that is it for now, Feel free to add comments to the blog. It is not like Facebook but we can use it that way.
Larry and Regina
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