If we are never sick again it will be too soon.

When you have 4 kids and one gets sick it seems like the sickness will never end. Especially if it begins to rebound (knock wood; not yet) and ping pong, the first to get well is now sick again. Pikey has a weak chest. Anytime there is a sickness meandering about he will get a cough. He’s been with cough and sore throat for over a week. He will take garlic (our drug of choice) for a day here and there but nothing consistent. Then Jesse fell with a tummy thing. Tummy things are pretty common; we can never figure out if it is the pool water (definitely had Ellen vomiting one night) full of tourist gunk or bad food or mom’s bad cooking or some tummy bug. Thankfully we’ve found a cure for amoebas, which used to be our downfall, by taking prophylactic Amenox which cures us for 3 months at a time. Which reminds me, we are overdue for our next dosage. It seems like the boys have been playing on the computer 24 hours a day “sick” with some unknown malady. It is hard not to fall into suspicion of using a sickness to avoid, um, what? The Caribbean? The sun and sand? Honestly, it is just a suspicious adult mind. But still it is hard. At any rate, yesterday Sissy came down with the unknown malady and was running a low tempertaure. Everyone just seems low energy and interested in TV/computer and pretty much nothing else.

I was already getting sick of the kids’ sickness which seemed really not all the sick to me, but sagely kept my mouth shut. This afternoon Jamie and I were hammered by the malady and finally know what they’re going through. We were on errands with Ellen (who is the only one to avoid the plague of listlessness thus far) and both felt like we’d been hammered with an anvil. Horribly fatigued and achey and listless. Luckily, my sister had included a bevy of Oscillococcinum with my folks in March and thus far we’d had no need for them. I dosed myself and Jamie and only a few hours later and some much needed rest I am feeling much better. The boys have been doing garlic for a few days now and this evening they seem much recovered. I’m hoping that between the garlic and the Oscillococcinum we’ll beat whatever this is but it sure feels like flu. Hopefully we’ll get the lazy Mexican version and not the Type A American version. Ever since we began coming to Mexico for winter we’ve missed colds and flu and it has been lovely. So I guess we have been overdue.

Since the kids have been laid low we haven’t been out to see the turtle progress, but Ellen and I took a walk tonight and saw two brand new nests; one from the 29th and one from last night. I bet that as I type, there is a mama turtle on our beach making her nest. I’d really like to get all the kids well and head down to Akumal to snorkel and see them outside the cover of darkness. Jamie and I have been trying to put the palapa a bit to rights; we’ve done some painting and replaced our old poste vigas with beautiful square zapote and (can’t remember the wood) vigas. They turned out beautifully and when I get the ceiling painted I’ll take a before and after. We got our bodega door installed and now only need some cosmetic cement work around the door frame.

We’ve had the most awful luck getting a window guy out here. We keep getting promises from everyone we meet but no-one really wants to do the work. We need a sliding glass door made and our gigantic window installed (and one pane of glass replaced). I had a bite from one guy who actually came out and measured but I totally screwed up the proposal by offering more work (cabinets). I think I overwhelmed him and since it is a large job instead of a medium sized one he’s no longer interested. Sigh. We’ve been going at it for about a month (yeah, we’re on Mexican time) kind of half-heartedly, but this next month we’re going to have to get serious if we have any hope of closing the bodega. So I guess I need to kidnap a window guy and hold him hostage until the sliding glass door is done. I don’t think we’ll do cabinets until after the “season” (hush hush; we’re not superstitious) or tile the upstairs (though Ellen fell in love with some blue tile on sale at Cerramat today) or paint. That way we won’t be bored in winter.

I’ve been reading about Xclak and the Chinchorro bank down by the Belize border and I have a new destination in mind. I think that when we head out we’ll spend some time in Chetumal, as they have an RV park or two, then spend some time in the Xclak area before traversing DF. I’m sick of avoiding DF just to get out of the country and this year I’m bound and determined to cross it on a Sunday rather than take the day of bypass to avoid it. But honestly, I’ll be tickled just to hitch up and hit the road. Doesn’t matter which road or where it goes.