I've been 'out of service' for a week now. I came down with bronchitus, started with a dry cough and got to the point where I couldn't take a deep breath and the coughing spasms were pretty bad too. I finally went to the doctor and he gave me some grief that I was a step away from pnuemonia and I should have come sooner. Got a shot of cortisone, scripts for more cortisone, antibiotics and some kind of lung liquid. He said the liquid could have the side effect of making my hands shake and if that happened to back off on it. So, Mimi has me hold out my hands at night and so far I'm not shaking. All the stuff has actually helped a lot, the cortisone shot got me the biggest relief as the lung spasm stopped and I could get a full breath again. I haven't had a lot of energy but I'm feeling a lot better. One more day on the antibiotics and a few more on the cortisone. I'm looking forward to that first rum and coke when all this is done.

Unfortunately, Bobby and Mimi seem to have picked up the cough but they are not too bad and seem to be getting better on their own. When we were in San Cristóbal we went to an herbalist that our friend here Roberto told us about to get him 2 kilos of this lung tea. It's weird looking stuff, twigs and roots and bark. We got some of it back from him and we've all been drinking it. It does seem to help but it dawned on me the first time I had a cup that I had no idea what was in it and it might not be the smartest thing in the world to just drink a bunch of unknown roots and twigs. I didn't get high and my lungs felt better although the stuff tastes worse than dirt even with huge gobs of honey and a couple limes in it.

We did go into Cancun the other day to look for material to recover a chair and to just poke around. You can still see the damage, that area was hit so much harder by Wilma and there is still a lot of work being done and a lot more to do. We stopped on the way to visit our friends Scott and Karen at their place in Puerto Aventuras. Karen says she has been cleaning mulch off the walls but they really didn't have too much damage even from water.

Karen told us about a great restuarant on the way out of Cancun, Fonda Argentina, and we had dinner there. Fantastic! Everything is a la carte but the amount of food is huge and the meat is delicious. Mimi and I split their smallest rib eye steak, 400 grams, and we brought a huge piece home with us. The chimichurra sauce was to die for and I brought some of that home too. This is my second Argentine restaurant, we ate at one in Guadalajara before the Lila Downs concert too. I think this one was even better but it's sure become my new favorite regional food. I really hope I can get to Argentina someday.

Somewhere in this last week of coughing and laying around, I went into Playa to go grocery shopping and get my hair cut. I've always said that with hair as short as mine there are only 3 days between a bad haircut and a good one. Well, it's been about 5 days since this haircut and it still looks like a short mohawk. Really bad. I've gotten my hair cut here before, it is a shop in the grocery store Chedraui, but I guess it was a better day. Between being sick, looking like a pointy head freak and not allowed a cold beer, I've not been the happiest camper around. Things are looking up even if the hair isn't growing as fast as I think it should.

Mimi is going to Cozumel tomorrow with Bobby and Patti to meet her friend Shann who is going to be there for the afternoon on a cruise. I'm going back to Playa to take the chair to the upholsterer - I found some fabric in Cancun - and perhaps see about getting the hair evened up a bit. I may not have the nerve for that although I'd really like to get rid of this weird ridge that runs from my forehead to the back of my head.