Sometime in July my cell phone quit working, I'd only had it a year. That required some haggling with Verizon as I was not due a discount on a new phone yet and I can't let them change my contract because the plan I have that lets me call Mexico is no longer offered. I got a phone, not one I loved but an ok one, for $50 and no extension. Friday morning I did my usual morning ritual and groggily went over and dove in the pool at Country's. Except, the almost new cell phone was in my pocket. One of the downsides to small, thin and light in a cell phone. I paddled around for about half and hour and only noticed the phone when I got out. It was dead.

I reactivated a really old phone I still had around, except that it got no reception in the RV, the battery only lasted a couple hours and it kept switching to analog to search for a network. I never got a call on it and trying to call for my voice mail didn't work either.

So, finally I went back to Verizon today and got a refurbed phone like the one that went swimming. So, now I have a phone again although I have to get my ringtones back and configure this one the way I want it. The really good news is that when they were trying to figure out the first phone in July, they managed to upload all my numbers to the Verizon server and there they stayed so I got them all back in this phone. Sheez! Anyway, if I haven't answered your call give me another day I just got all the messages.

Also, hurricane Dean has been wobbling around on whether he will directly hit our condo in Akumal or move north or south of it. Either way, he won't be far and while I certainly hope we don't get the eye I also know that there will be damage from a close miss. Today, it looks like he is heading for our friend Kathe in Calderitas. We're hoping he stays north of her. I can tell you from obsessively watching WeatherUnderground all day and night that forecasts more than a day or so out are not worth spit. The computer models have had Dean all over the Yucatan coast and even missing it at one point.

All that is certain is that Dean is one big MF hurricane! Category 4 off Jamaica but expected to be Cat 5 when it slams into the Yucatan somewhere. Anything over a cat 3 is big and dangerous, when the winds hit 155 mph and they call them cat 5 they are also usually hundreds of miles wide. This is a picture of Dean taken from the space station, a couple hundred miles above it.

Oh, and the cable internet here has been flakey so I haven't even had a solid connection there. I'm just not able to communicate easily these days, mercury is hiding or something.

I never get the touristas in Mexico, whether it is because I'm cautious or because I have a hereditary cast iron stomach, who knows. I'm rather proud of that for no known reason but I have been brought low the last 24 hours. I've spent most of that time perched on a throne of sorts. What did I eat? Why, it was Cal-Mex fast food, El Pollo Loco to be exact and right here in over-developed Palm Springs, California. Not everyone who ate that particular meal got the runs, Mimi didn't. Country had a short bout but I was the one who suffered all night. I'm better today but then all I've eaten is oatmeal. I'm going to try some Ramen... maybe.