We met Henry at the house today, that's his handsome face at the left. I told him I had to have a picture of him, he wasn't thrilled but I think it came out fine.

Looking at the skylight and considering rain, neither of us think that much water will end up on the hall floor. The wall will get wet, water will go into the pond and the planters but that's fine. If a hurricane comes through I could put some lexan or boards over the opening above, although I really don't think I'll need to. I am going with the thoughts from mcm in the previous posts comments, once I'm living there and see how it works I can change things if needed.

The other thing about this set up, there is a dry well in the hall very close by, it's a little to the left of where I was standing to take this picture. I took this a little after noon and I'm really happy with all the light.

If there is water on the floor, or when the floor is mopped, we can squeegee the water into that dry well and it's gone. The well currently has a concrete cover that is really heavy. Mimi asked for a lighter one and they are going to have one made from iron with thin shutters on it so you can't see into it but water passes freely.

This is the same well that bubbled up in the last huge rain. Henry looked at it then and immediately said they should have concreted the drain pipe into the well so that it can't back up in heavy rain. They've done that now and if the water can't drain fast enough it will back up the pipe and on the roof and then drain, better than bubbling out in the hall. Inside the hole, there are drains from the air conditioners and we can sweep water into it. That water will drain out through the ground rather than down the well shaft.

We talked about colors today. We've decided on a creamy yellow for the front, darker than a pastel but not bright. The trim is off white per the historical regulations. The garage door will be made from iron with wood behind it. The iron will make it stronger and not susceptible to sun and rain warping. It's automatic, I'll have to be careful that no one is walking on the sidewalk when I hit the remote as it will open from the middle across the sidewalk.

We finalized the design for the office wall that is next to the garage. That wall used to have a doorway into the garage, which used to be another bedroom. The previous owners bumped the wall out inside the doorway so they could get the nose of their car into it. It's actually convenient since the garage, having been a bedroom, is not deep enough for a full sized car.

The bump out in the next room, now our office, was pretty ugly though. You can see it in this picture of the office before they started demolishing it. They tore out the brick bump and are going to use dry wall (in Mexico!!) to continue the wall level with the rest of the wall in the office. That still leaves another 1.5 feet for the nose of a car - love those 2' thick walls! On the office side, it will have concrete shelves and a niche for some kind of art or a statue perhaps.

There is still so much left to do... I'm doing OK with the waiting but I admit that it is getting harder as things get closer. I'm now just wondering if we will be in by Christmas.

I finished the last of these antibiotics last night, for the last 3 days though I've had the runs and a strong pain in my lower abdomen. It is bad enough that it hurts to change position, like standing up, and going over topes and bumps in the road is not good. I got scared a little, we are heading back to Akumal today and the idea that I'd get back over there and be sick again really freaked me out. So, last night I called and went in to see the doctor. I actually saw her partner who is this world famous guy that everyone is in awe of. He's a nice guy, his English is excellent as he was the head of something in London for years. He uses all these British expressions which I found endearing.

He examined me and said that there was no bleeding or other major abdominal trauma, which was my big fear, and that between taking the anti-parasite meds for 5 days and the antibiotic for 8 days I had wiped out everything in my intestines. He gave me a script for some super probiotics to replenish my gut bacteria. So far, I haven't been able to find them at a pharmacy but I'm trying a couple more today. Meanwhile, I'm taking 2 of my regular probiotics whenever I eat. ¡Ojalá que esto esté acabada pronto!

More house updates, are you sick of this house yet?

The exciting change this week is they have torn off the front of the house! Next they will break out the doors to the original height, they had been bricked in and were originally about a third higher.

There was a tile Virgen de Guadalupe on the front that someone had painted over.

They cleaned her up and saved the tiles and we will put her in a favored spot so she sees the sun again. I asked about why anyone would do something so disrespectful and the guys said it must have been an evangelical. Then they spit. My sentiment exactly.

They also tore out the concrete shelf they had built on the patio outside the master bedroom. I agonized about this and had Henry come over and help me decide. I really wanted more light below over the indoor pond. I have visions of orchids blooming there and didn't think there was enough light. Henry's point was that without the shelf, rain would come in and get on the hall floor. Well, it's just water and it isn't cold and I can squeegie it into the drain... I decided light was more important.

This is a pic of one end after they tore out the shelf above. If you look back to the last blog entry you can see the amount of natural light at the far end, I used the flash in that picture so the closest part of the wall is not natural light.

I think it was a good decision, ask me again after a torrential tropical downpour :)

Henry has an incredible eye and he is a perfectionist. A few weeks ago, he looked at the completed guest bathroom and didn't like the way the walls looked. He had them tear it all out and redo it.

He said they had used sand from different loads and it created a color difference. Once he pointed it out, we could see it but we didn't really notice it before. He also thought that crew had too many tiny cracks on the finish and that they hadn't kept it wet enough while it was curing.

This is with about half of it torn out, they took all of the walls down to the initial concrete covering the block.

So, after making them tear everything out, he brought in another crew to redo it, what an insult! They were all working away very diligently and without the usual banter, I think he scared them all. He also sent me an email to make sure I understood that there would be no charge for the additional work!

Have I told you internet, what a fantastic architect he is? I love him as a person as well, I consider him a friend now. His work ethic and his honesty and attention to detail is something I forget to mention. He has a design sense that is incredible and that style tends to be what everyone notices, there is a lot of integrity behind it though.

This has been the most incredible journey in renovating this house, I've enjoyed it in ways I never did when doing other renovations in the US. A big part of that is the confidence I have in Henry.

So, even when you are laying around feeling sorry for yourself the world keeps going and things keep happening and it doesn't all stop and stand around and pat you on the head and say pobrecita - which I think is really wrong.

Now that I feel good again though, I'm kind of glad.

More ironwork is appearing at the house and it is beautiful. There are 3 of these windows upstairs, I love the way they look.

These are the doors to the half bath and my hard-won bodega. There will be another like them over under the stairs at the right, hiding the pool equipment.

Like most doors here, the glass part opens separate from the iron part if you want to let in air, there will also be screening on the iron part. Every door here has about a half dozen combinations in how it can be opened, with or without glass, screen, small sections separate from the larger ones, etc. I love it!

You know what else? Outside of the round decorative windows, we have no windows! None! Only doors, all of them have window openings in them with glass and with just screen but there are no window sized windows. Now, I don't recommend using the doors at the front of the guest bedroom to walk out, it's a long drop. Still, they are doors and not windows. I wonder what the Feng Shui is on that?

The bog boxes over the inside pond are built, I even understand how they intend it to work and it is very close to what I asked for. Close enough that if it isn't just right, I can fix it.

After a lot of thought, we've decided to have them break out the shelf upstairs that reduces the light coming down the wall over the pond. I wasn't happy with the amount of light and I was worried that the orchids and ferns I want to grow on that wall and in the boxes wouldn't be happy.

The shelf above kept rain out and gave us a place to put plants in the private patio outside our bedroom. I decided I'd rather have to clean up some rain in the hall and have more light.

Plus, when I started thinking about that shelf upstairs I knew it wouldn't work that well with us. It would look dramatic with a few carefully placed plants on it. That's not going to happen with me, I'd see a spot that another plant would fit and pretty soon it would be a chaotic jumble of plants, not at all as I know Henry envisioned it and not what I'd want to see either. Better to remove the temptation and have a cleaner look upstairs and more light down.

I'm starting to reconsider the idea of the timber bamboo in back too. I'm afraid the huge culms will come up under the patio and pop the stones out plus they shed leaves all year and that's a pain in the pond and the pool. I may go with just different types of heliconia and some gingers. We wanted the bamboo to block the view of this hotel in back but the look of it is growing on us and anyway, we live in a city and that's what there is here.

The rock in the outside pond has got a layer of concrete over it now. It was leaking and there were so many fine cracks on the rock that it was decided to just cover it with concrete. They did a good job of staying with the shape and hopefully it has cured the leak. Algae will grow on it anyway as it is underwater so I think it will look fine.

Oh Hai!

I missed you too!

I was a leetle depressed because after taking all those tests and while waiting for the results, I got sick again. Fever, chills, then what felt like the beginning of yet another UTI.

I am worn down from all this and it has not helped my outlook one bit. If you add to that the fact that I am mourning my life as I knew it and bemoaning the fact that I have to give up everything I really like this year - woe is me.

It's not really true that I have to give up everything I like but when I'm laying in bed freezing with chills and my joints aching from fever I can very easily convince myself that not being able to smoke cigarettes, eat whatever I want and drink the same is giving up everything that makes life worth living. Add in that I need to change my favorite pastime from laying around with a laptop to doing something that involves actually moving... well, the end is nigh.

But then, I went to the appt with my doctor and she told me that, even before the last episode, I had a low grade infection in my bladder. It could have been there through all of this last year + of feeling like shit and getting sick all the time. She thought the fever was probably it moving into my kidneys as well. The antibiotics were not enough or long enough or something to really get rid of it and so it periodically flared up.

She put me on a different antibiotic for 8 days and then 3 days after I finish that she wants another test to be cultured to make sure whatever it is is either gone or they know exactly what it is.

I've been trying to get that culture test done for over a year. Some of you may remember my frustration with the doctor in California last summer for refusing to do that but insisting that I just go on yet another run of antibiotics.

The good news is the ultrasound showed the key organs looking pretty good. I have some 'mud' in my gall bladder but no stones, so whatever I had last month was not a gall bladder attack. I have low cholesterol, normal blood sugars, everything is functioning and few things out of the normal.

After 7 years of living in Mexico half the year or more, I have only one, very common parasite that usually causes no problems. It's called endolimax Nana and does pretty much nothing in the way of harm to you.

Even so, la doctora wants to treat it as she says in some cases it can contribute to not feeling well. I decided if I have it then Mimi probably does too and she was resistant to the idea of collecting her poop every day for 3 days. So, she's taking the meds as well and our friend Nana is on the way out.

Oddly enough, I started feeling much more optimistic about life as soon as the appointment was over and even before I started taking the antibiotics. I've decided to replace smoking, drinking and eating with growing orchids - we'll see how that goes.

Oh, and I've lost 9.5 kilos since the lung doctor told me I had to lose weight to improve lung function. That was about 6 weeks ago. The week or more of almost no eating with the e coli and all certainly gave me a boost along the way but I have continued to lose since then. Unfortunately, that's where the no drinking and not eating much comes in. I need to get more of the moving around stuff going and hopefully that will be easier without this constant infection.

Let's see, what else have I done to improve my health? Oh, I went to the convenient vaccine clinic across the street from the doctor and had both a pneumonia vaccine and a flu shot. They even gave me a little booklet like we have for the dogs to keep track of all vaccinations.

So, there's the health update and hopefully I will continue to feel better and finally get rid of this year of getting sick.

I have nothing but high praise for the doctors and facilities I've been to here in Merida. I have to say, they make Kaiser in Marin look rather shabby. If you add the fact that each and every doctor has spent a lot of uninterrupted time with me listening, questioning, discussing and really paying attention then you will begin to see why I dread ever having to see another doctor in the US. These are experts in their fields, using top of the line equipment and yet still showing compassion and humanity and caring. Damn! I forgot that was even possible from the medical profession.

Wondering about the first picture of Señor Butt Crack? They were setting up for a big concert for youth in the parking lot next to the RV park. Mimi went over and took a bunch of pictures and I thought that one was the true gem. He's actually not mooning her, he's sitting on a drum seat testing the drums. I didn't post the pic of the drooping stomach that keeps the pants from coming all the way up. The rest are Hombre and Cuba playing here in the park, and one of Tita hiding in the grass and watching them.

We have iron! The ironwork has been delivered to the house and most of it is installed. I love it. Mimi had the idea to take the design from the old iron door that was removed from the kitchen. We decided on a piece of the pattern for the stairs. We're going to hang the original yellow door on the wall of the upstairs terrace.

We spent the last few days mainly hanging out at the hospital/medical center. I've had an ultrasound, given blood, pee and I'm in the process of donating 3 days of poop. Once I have all the results, I'll go back to the doctor with them. Yesterday, we went back over with our friends Kathy and Jaime and the kids. Jaime had a physical therapy appt and Kathy had picked up the MRI of her brain.

This had to be scary, she's a trooper and acts like it is nothing. Having 3 doctors tell you that you have to get a brain scan right now is cause for worry. It seemed that Jaime, Mimi and I were more worried than she was but I think she just hides it well.

Anyway, we walked in to her doctor's office and I think she was just going to make an appointment for 'some other time' but I asked if he was there and the receptionist said yes, have a seat. Heh! Kathy was stuck. Did I mention that she couldn't walk unless someone had her arm or she could hold on to the wall because the vertigo was so bad?

So, I help her into his office and you could see the shock on his face. He took the MRI's and spent at least a half hour studying them in silence. Kathy and I sat there and watched him. It was hypnotic and felt to me like we were just floating and waiting.

Then he told her that there was nothing in the MRI's, no tumors, nothing to worry about. I thought all the air sucked out of the room for a minute, whew! He was funny and caring and very perceptive about her, plus he said her name in the most sexy, amazing way. Not the usual Spanish pronunciation of Kathleen but almost Italian sounding.

She kept telling him that this vertigo only happened occasionally, it wasn't a big problem, etc. I kept my mouth shut, hard to do but I did. He seemed to see right through her though and said that it was not ok for her to be like this at all and they had to find the answer. He told her that her hardware was fine so the answer was somewhere in the software. I like that analogy. So, he wants blood work and other stuff to see where the 'software' problem is.

After all that, Kathy was still barely walking so we took her to the hotel and got the boys and went off to Mimi and my favorite taco stand, Tacos Arabe. We had a blast, the kids are great and Mimi becomes a 10 yo playing with them.

Today is Ellen's birthday. She is the youngest and is a funny, beautiful girl. She reminds Mimi and I so much of our friend Tucci in Seattle. Something about her eyes and the shape of her face makes us think of what Tucci must have looked like as a child.

Happy Birthday Ellen!!

We're in Mérida, arrived Saturday night, and I have an appointment tomorrow with my doctor. Don't worry, I intend to stick with this until I get some resolution.

Saturday morning before we left, I went into Playa and with Mimi's not very precise directions I found the place she took the picture of the blue vine, Petrea volubilis. It is a beautiful restaurant called Cueva del Chango on 38th near the beach around 5th in Playa. I didn't go into the restaurant but it seems to be set in a garden with streams and flowers and shade.

As I was standing at the entrance looking at the vine growing up and over an arbor, the waiter asked me if I was there to eat. I said no, I was interested in this vine and he motioned an older guy over and said he had it in the nursery attached to the restaurant. So, I took a tour of the nursery and it was incredible. It wound back into the middle of the block and had lots of ponds and water plants and orchids and all sorts of stuff I crave. I bought the vine and then started just looking and asking about all the other plants.

There's a water plant I really want, called a Water Banana or Giant Arum, Typhonodorum lindleyanum. This is a picture of it taken at the Singapore Botanical Gardens by Wilson Wong.

It's no relation to a banana, it's actually an Aroid and related to Philodendrums. It grows with its roots in water, I think it would be perfect in my new outside pond, see the latest picture of the pond above - isn't it gorgeous?

Anyway, I asked the old guy if he knew them and he said he has them out at the rancho. Considering how things are going with my Spanish we could be truly communicating or something else. I went on about how it grows bare root in water and he kept saying yes, that's it... so maybe.

First thing Sunday, we went by Theresa's house with a cutting from the new vine. If anyone can grow it, I'm sure she can. She came with us and we went to take a look at the house.

The pond looks great, the pool has its waterfall installed and I loved it and the big surprise was the outside shower that appears to come out of rocks on the wall. That's it to the left.

We sat on the steps in the shade with a nice breeze and talked and hung out for awhile. It was the first time we've spent so long there, no workers, just enjoying the coolness of the breeze and the space.

We met up with Kathy, Jaime and the kids Sunday night and had a great time. Went to the plaza grande and walked around, had a few drinks, watched the break dancers. What I thought was the coolest part, I used my iPhone and the free wireless in all the parks of Mérida to send a picture of the family (minus the boys who stayed at the hotel) to their grandparents in California!

Anyone know what this vine is? Mimi saw it in Cancun and took a picture for me. It's gorgeous, I'd love to know what it is.

So, again we didn't leave for Merida.

I have to confess, I've been sick for what seems like weeks. After the e-coli or whatever that was, I was starting to feel better but still not eating much when I had some kind of stomach attack. I don't know if it was my gall bladder or gas like I have never experienced. It was in the area of my gall bladder, it was incredibly painful. It lasted all of one night and the area was sore to the touch for days afterwards. I was throwing up, mostly from the pain I think. I took pain pills and all kinds of stomach pills and eventually, it faded.

Ok, that kind of spooked me and I was really cautious about eating for a few days after that. Then I started feeling like I had a bladder infection starting. That's when I really started pushing to go to Merida so I could see my doctor. We had committments though and couldn't have left until today.

The bladder pain got worse daily, I was drinking liters and liters of water and it helped a little. Not much room for food. This morning I had one more trip to Playa I had to make and we could leave. The cramps got really bad after I got up and within an hour I couldn't stand up straight or keep from making a lot of moaning sounds. So, I started taking the numb it pills that I hadn't wanted to take. I peed orange so they got there but the cramps and pain didn't let up.

Finally, I couldn't take it and we called the Roving Doctor again. He said I could come in and get a urine test and find out what the bacteria is in one day but he also said that no matter what it is the drug is going to be Cipro again. The thought of trying to ride in the car to Playa was too much. Mimi went and got me the Cipro. Of course, now that I'm on antibiotics, a test won't show anything.

Basically, I have eaten very little in weeks and I have spent most of my time laying in bed with the computer. I had some fairly good days and I've been out and about a little but it just feels like I've been sick since we got to Akumal. I keep worrying that they are all connected and I know I really need to get to my doctor and lay it all out for her and get some tests done. First though, I have to get back to Merida.

Yesterday, when we tried to light the refrigerator in the RV it wouldn't light. Mimi sprayed it and messed with it in vain. But, happily, today it lit. Things are looking up. Either the orange pee or the Cipro are taking effect and I can stand up straight and the cramps are gone. I still have that last errand I need to run in Playa but I'm going to try and do that in the morning so we can leave.

Since I'm laying all this health stuff out there for the internets, I should also say that when we were in Merida I went to the lung doctor and got the diagnosis that I expected but hoped wasn't true. I have stage 2 COPD as a result of almost 50 years of smoking. It could very easily have been much worse, like stage 3 or 4 or lung cancer. It's incurable and the best result is that you slow the advance and keep what you've got working as long as possible. Which, could be a long time. I'm not saying I'm on a time table here. One of the main things I need to do is lose weight and get in better shape. I'm sure I've made a start on the weight these last few weeks so that parts good.

OK, confession is done. Give me some Hail Mary's and I'm out of here. Don't expect this to become a woe is me medical blog, this is as HDR* as I intend to get. If you don't know what HDR is then you are not a child of the 60's. On the other hand, if you do know what it is - dude, you're old!