A Beautiful Day in Sunny Mexico

We have just spent another beautiful day here in Tijuana, where the weather is, from what I'm told, a little nicer than what many of you are experiencing. It was sunny and breezy and about 75 today. It was an uneventful day mostly, but I wanted to at least post a note so no one would worry.

Over the last few days I have had a series of treatments, including my hi-doses of vitamin C, the infamous B-17 (that's the stuff that can't be used in the USA), and this stuff called Perftec, which does something in conjunction with oxygen, so I have spent a lot of time hooked up to an oxygen tank as well. Yesterday my treatments started late morning and seemed to take the entire day. I finally was able to get up and around near 8:30 p.m. I was about to go stir crazy!I'm finished with all my treatments for the week now, so now it's back to the at-home supplements and pills and shots. Today I went to the pharmacy and spent another $1000 on those new meds, but now I'm all squared away. It sure seems like this treatment option is not a cheap route to go. I am so thankful though, to be blessed to already have the money I need, thanks to continued donations and gifts from friends and family.

Since today's treatments took less time, we has quite a bit of time to explore a bit more of Tijuana. Nothing exotic; just a nearby church, grocery store, and later a lighthouse. The grocery store was entertaining. Many of the items were difficult to identify, and some things that are common in the US are sold at Mexican stores but with very different packaging and flavors. Cough drops come in grape and pineapple flavors, and Tang comes in 16oz packages in a wide array of flavors including lime, coconut, pineapple, and something white that was unidentifiable. Yogurt is sold in apple flavor. Laundry detergent comes packaged in bags, and one kind advertised lime-scented detergent. In the deli/bakery section, pastries and breads were piled high on racks in the open air, with no covering of any kind. Kelloggs makes a lot of cereal kinds you've never before seen or heard of! It was very interesting.

A short walk in the other direction reminded us how close we really are to the American border. When a person walks out the doors of the hospital here, the predominant sight is that of the front gate of a bull-fighting arena. It's a hugh red and white arched gate, behind which is this enormous empty parking lot. At the back of that is the arena itself. You can't see much of it. Anyhow, on the left side of this gate, about 2 blocks down, is the beach. On the right side of the gate, there are some offices and eventually a restaurant. Just beyond that is the fence separating Tijuana from the US. You can walk right up to it. It's metal and about 20 feet high. Through it you can see an expansive empty area we refer to as "no-man's land," that place that is carefully guarded day and night by helicopters, lights, and video cameras. Oddly enough, on the USA side, there is a well kept park, with picnic tables and everything. On the Mexico side is a working lighthouse and a street that takes you down to the beach behind the bull-fighting arena. Tonight, at the park, they were all set up to do some TV interviews with the beach as a background. We could tell by the chairs and microphones, spotlights and video cameras. We never did figure out what was going on with that. All of our sightseeing today was certainly an education for all of us.

Tomorrow we are leaving the hospital for our return. We will be staying in San Diego for a few days and doing a little sightseeing if possible. I feel pretty good, right now, so hopefully that will continue. We will be back on Monday evening at 8:05 p.m. I think there will be a rude awakening given the weather I have heard about. It's pretty late right now and I'm tired, so I'm done for today. I'll let you know if anthing important comes up. I seem to be having trouble putting coherent thoughts together. For now, it's adios, amigos!