Medical Tests and Other Stuff, in Chacala

Today is the Saturday before Christmas. Which is not one of my favorite days of the year. But I like it better in Chacala than in other places I have spent Christmas.

This morning I wanted to make a quick trip into Las Varas to get the results of my A1C glucose test. I got up, had breakfast, and walked out to the road. Someone came by immediately and gave me a ride into town. I walked around the corner to the Analysis Laboratia place. The lab technician had my envelope ready. I can't remember if I mentioned that you can just go in and ask for the results of whatever test you want to take them do on your body fluids. No prescription needed if you know the name of the test in Spaniosh. The results for simple tests are usually ready later in the same afternoon . The actual testing in done in Tepic, about an hour and a half to the north. They fax the results down to the Las Varas office. The results didn’t look good. They are presented in a different measuring system than they use in the U.S., so I need to go do some internet research to see just how bad. I have been trying to get by on some cheaper diabetes drugs without the newly discovered side effect of causing the retinal wall to bleed. They have just this lovely side effect in my regular drug Avantia/Avandia. I guess I will have to take my chances with the side effect roulette. At $45 a week, U.S. that’s $6 a pill. And I am taking the smallest dose. The size I probably should be taking is $10 a pill.
Bizarro. Walked across the highway from the lab, heading back to Chacala. A non-Chacala collectivo, with a load of people heading to work in Chacala, stopped for me. The driver knew my name, as did most of the other passengers. It feels odd but nice to have so many people know my name. They seem friendly, so I don’t think they are making fun of me.
I borrowed Guuillermo’s ladder again, and installed a blue tarp sun screen on the west side of the patio. I hate those tarps, but Dona Lupe likes them, and it’s okay. It was scary installing it. The wind was blowing in gusts and the tarp was flying all around. But it worked out. We are having another crazy weather day. Very unusual for Chacala. Sunny, windy, a little rain, sunny, windy, changing very half hour or so.

I have been invited to a couple of gringo-oriented Christmas Eve festivities this year. Don’t know what I will do. Maybe have some quiet time at home. Some people who were here last year brought me a New Yorker, a new Shambala Sun, and three mysteries that look great. How nice. Really. Last week Marjorie brought me the best chocolate bar I ever had. I had eaten it in about 10 hours. In three pieces. Dark chocolate is soo good. It’s a new treat for me. And I really like it.
The Shamabala Sun is a very easy reading Buddhist-focused magazine. I have kept the copies I brought withme, and also those that have come my way in Chacala. I have re-read the ones I have again and again, so it’s great to have a new one. I have already read a good article by Sylvia Boorstein (?). I always like her stuff. She writes like she’s a friend of mine. One thing she mentioned was how comforting rituals are for graduating, dying, marrying, etc. Maybe because they remind we all go thru these things. Changes, I mean.And another editorial, which I have only read part of, seemed to be suggesting we consider what it would like if we treated everyone the way we treat those we love almost unconditionally: like our babies, for example.

I am going to finish that one after I finish trying to cook a large double chicken breast on the gas burner. The wind is blowing so hard I have to keep checking a burner every minute or two. To make sure it hasn’t blown out, and to re-light it if is has. I have foil wrapped all around the stove sides and the pan, so it’s going okay for the moment.

I have been so overwhelmed with appreciation for my lovely life these past few days. I am so lucky. Tomorrow I am going to mess with plants. Now that some wonderful people brought me a gunny sack of dirt, and I got some more buckets, I am all set. I am ruminating around about planting a few things in the dirt.