Summertime in LB

After asking what we do in all our spare time, the next question is: “how hot is it?”. Well, this summer was very hot and humid, but that’s not a very descriptive answer. When playing pickleball there are little wet spots from droplets of sweat flying on to the court. The ATV seat can give you 3rd degree burns and the pool got up to 95. Okay enough of that whining! It is still beautiful… especially with cold drink in hand.

Despite the heat we managed to play lots of pickleball. Love how the game seems to bring people together. And very thankful to those who have been so kind to allow us to play on their courts.

Rotary gave money for the purchase of school backpacks that are remarkably (2-3 higher) pricey here. We had the fun part of the job of handing them out. They were even stocked with some school supplies but when boys got pink pencils they were quickly up at our desk looking for a trade. All that hard work, justified driving to a French bakery in SJD.

Actually we drove there for our health care maintenance appointments. My mammogram was reasonably priced and efficiently done. We have been happy with the Opthamology care. And it’s pretty nice to get a room on the beach to go to afterwards….(in Cabo)

We fell out of our 3x week gym habit once the kid’s summer camp began and yard pruning began. It’s a program that’s been around for about 15 years and enrolls about 200 kids. They stay busy learning about how to protect and preserve the ocean. When pool days roll around they are ready to cannonball ! Wait I meant to say learn how to swim. And Brant as a swim teacher learned lots more Spanish phrases…. Like stop splashing, or machete… copa… machete… copa. I have to say the kids were very cute (and funny).

It ended with taking the kids snorkeling. The seas got a bit rough and there was a lot of seaweed. Needless to say I was a little worried I’d lose sight of one of the kids. I think I can speak for both of us when I say we were exhausted at the end of the day. The margaritas on the beach that night seemed much stronger than usual.

This is is a program sponsored by the town with lots of contributions from gringos as well as many locals. During the winter movies are shown on a screen in the cancha. The earnings from that buy rash guards and snorkeling gear and more. While the money is important it is amazing to see the huge number of volunteers that help. Many of the younger volunteers did the program when they were kids. A woman who did a pedicure on me told me how much fun she had doing it as a kid but still remembers how tired she was at the end of the day. And yes, hopefully in part this is a little bit of a break for those working parents trying to get through the summer.

One by one we watch the restaurants close for a few weeks. Bit by bit you realize you see the same 50 people everywhere you go…, though it used be the same 25. LB is growing.

On weekends the tents go up on the beach. Why not? Much cooler by the shore.

Scrabble, chess, boggle and floating in the pool watching the stars and a multitude of home maintenance projects. The painting gets a bit tedious but the clerks in the paint store are extraordinarily patient with my bad Spanish. Though I think they look a bit scared whenever I come in. I spent a week sorting out what color I wanted to paint my shower but she very patiently (and with great sadness in her eyes) explained I had a choice of 3…. White, black or gray (in 5 not 50 shades)…. Or transparente. I was a little slow to catch that last one.

There is more time for staff to chat at restaurants. So wonderful to hear from the waitress at Tios (and the wife of our Mar y Sol gardener) that their son is in university to become a physician. And nice to see them having enough time to walk on the beach together.

Finally we began the laborious task of closing the house down, doing it slowly over the course of a week. That’s when we found out a hurricane was on its way and expected to hit in 4 days… which was later changed to 3. The pace picked up but we managed to complete it. Brant has become excellent with those shutters (except for the perilous one on the side of the house).

I feel like this is the end of a year and much like New Years…. I feel badly about things not done…that no mosaics were made, few knitting projects completed, still no fluency in Spanish, the mural remains incomplete as well as many paintings, not enough SUP or fishing time… and forgot to revarnish the doors.

On the other hand, we truly feel a bit more a part of this community, and have met so many helpful, kind and interesting people. And we really did get a lot of projects done … and when it’s 93 you do them slowly… and when it’s 80 you go biking, or hiking or kayaking instead. This could take awhile….

Now off to South Dakota, then Canadá then Sequim and Shingle Springs.

PS… We were amazed by how many people checked on us when the read about Hilary. Thanks for your concern. fortunately it swerved a bit and gave us only much needed rain. Sadly they experienced flash flooding north of us. Still it does not take much to push the sand around. We put a lot of work into preparation and the town works hard on clean up.