Category: May 2024

One afternoon we were walking along the beach in Las Conchas near our hotel, and we came across someone with his car stuck in the sand. I do not know why the guy thought he would be able to drive in that deep, soft sand. Too much YouTube and not enough real life, I guess.

He had apparently been stuck for awhile. We were told they had tried to winch him out with no success. In the end, they got him out with a big backhoe. We got there just in time for the grand finale.

Los Conchas is basically just a strip of expensive homes and small hotels and airbnb rentals that stretches eastward along the coast from Puerto Peñasco. Storms have taken their toll, so there are sections of extensive damage alongside multi-million dollar homes.

If you don’t have a seawall, your property will wash away.

Sometimes your property washes away even when you do have a seawall.

This landowner is determined. The volume of cement is astounding when standing at the bottom of it looking up.

Now this is just weird. A red cement carpet to welcome in the seawater?

It looks like a big dragon’s tongue issuing from that huge house. I suppose it’s a boat ramp. And I suppose it is legal?

Just down the beach, this vacant lot is for sale for $849,500 (US dollars).

It has a small seawall, next to a ruined property with no seawall. In the flyer for the sale of the neighboring lot, you can see the large house that used to be where that rubble is now.

If you look closely in the right-hand photo in the flyer below, you can see the beige 2-story stucco house to the left of the lot for sale. You can also see it on the right in the left-hand photo, facing the beach. That house is gone now. There’s nothing left but some steel and concrete.

I don’t know when the pictures for the flyer were taken, but if I was that agent, I’d retake those pictures. Nothing like advertising what happens to those big, beautiful houses built on that beach. Unless she’s expecting someone to buy it sight-unseen. In which case, yes, old photos showing mansions on both sides is probably good advertising.

Despite what the ad is claiming, that simple, smooth, 16′ seawall is not a good seawall. The good ones have a lot more articulation to dissipate the wave energy. And 16′ isn’t remotely high enough.

Here’s some larger walls with better articulation:

And even better than that, here is the satisfied look of a man who knows not to drive a sedan in the sand, and does NOT own beachfront property in Mexico.

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Life Coaching for Neurodiverse Professionals

You would think that anyone living less than a 4-hour drive to a beautiful warm ocean with uncrowded sandy beaches, affordable lodging, and good restaurants (a few of the restaurants are good, not all of them, but you only need a few)…well, you would think that we’d manage to get down there more often!

But John and I didn’t go anywhere at all this year, until finally in May we spent a few days down in Puerto Peñasco and Las Conchas.

We stayed where we did last time, in August of 2021, at a small hotel right on the beach in Las Conchas.

Our unit (same one as last time) is the one on the far right.

One of these days we may rent the big middle unit.

But meanwhile we have been happy with the small unit on the end.

The only thing it lacks is a screen door on the sliding glass door out to the patio. I would love to be able to allow the sea breezes in without the mosquitos.

The first afternoon we were tired and didn’t want to drive out to the touristy side of town for food. So we chose something in the middle of an older section of Puerto Peñasco. I took these photos of how rundown the location was, because of a comment the proprietor made to us that I’m going to tell you about in a moment.

When we arrived, the street parking was full, so we followed a sign indicating restaurant parking in this vacant lot.

It wasn’t a great-looking parking lot and we hoped we wouldn’t run over something that would puncture a tire.

But there was plenty of space to park a large van!

The restaurant itself was cute enough. It is common in Puerto Peñasco to have a mix of well-kept and falling-down buildings on the same block. We ate chicken with mole sauce on the front patio.

The owner came out and chatted with us after we had eaten. She is an expat, from Tucson. We mentioned that we had moved to Tucson from Albuquerque. She made a face and questioned the safety of Albuquerque. Weren’t we afraid to live there?

I looked around at the rundown neighborhood where she lived and worked. Albuquerque seems a lot safer to me than this dumpy town in Mexico. We reassured her that Albuquerque and Tucson were very similar, and Albuquerque did not seem any less safe to us than Tucson.

But she wasn’t buying it, and emphasized again how rough and dangerous Albuquerque is and how she would never live there. Finally, incredulous, I said, “But you live HERE?!?” Later John said I shouldn’t have said that, lol. It just seemed like an expat willing to run a restaurant in a poor section of Puerto Peñasco should not be afraid of Albuquerque! But the reality is, Puerto Peñasco is just a small town and really quite safe, even though there is a lot of poverty.

There is a tourist section on the west side of town, with big resorts and nice restaurants. Here we are over in that section of town on a different afternoon.

It was amazing how much difference some faux turf and umbrellas can make. There was no Mexican old world charm here – but it was bright and cheerful with a sea breeze. More importantly – the chef was good.

So was the company 😉

John ordered breakfast AND lunch. And we were not disappointed.

Don’t worry, I helped him eat it all.

I also got the mother’s day special salad. It was an excellent salad! Luckily we had a refrigerator in the room, because we did not finish that seafood tower.

Speaking of different parts of town, there are two different roads that have shops for tourists. We don’t recommend the Malecón, unless you enjoy the hustle. We prefer the Cholla Mall on Rodeo Drive.

The shops at the Malecón are cheaper, but the proprietors are all doing the hard sell, trying to call you into their stalls. They vigorously hawk their wares. The shops on Rodeo Drive carry nicer things and the proprietors generally let you browse in peace, more like how we are used to in the US.

Also Malecón tends to have touristy souvenirs, whereas Rodeo drive has more things John and I would actually consider buying for our house. We bought outdoor terracotta wall sconces for the exterior lights on our house. The sconce doesn’t look like much in this photo, but at night the light will shine through the cut-out patterns and it will be pretty.

I’m looking forward to John getting those installed.

There are also lots of places around town to get pharmaceuticals and have dentistry and other outpatient work done. We’ve never tried to get medical work done in Mexico, but it is common for people who live in the southwest to go across the border for medical care. Often the care is quite good and affordable.

We always like to imagine that our country is the best at everything, and it’s true, if I needed complicated surgery I would have it done in a large US city at a hospital with a good reputation. But our rural outpatient medical care isn’t necessarily any better than across the border; sometimes it’s worse.

The next day we went back over to the tourist sector because I wanted grilled fish tacos. When we arrived, the restaurant we had chosen was still serving breakfast, so we had an hour wait until lunch time. We walked along the beach and pretended we were guests at the resort.

Almost no one was there. I don’t know how they stay in business. There are lots of half-built houses and half-finished hotels in Rocky Point, and lots of beachfront houses and vacant properties for sale. Lots of hopes and dreams, but not a lot of actual tourists.

Look at that empty beach! And that’s the “busy” beach. The beach were we stay, a few miles east of there, is even more deserted.

The wait for the fish tacos was worth it. And John loved his Mexican burger with Oaxaca cheese, chorizo, and roasted poblano pepper, among other yummy things.

I also had the most awesome virgin cocktail. I want to try to make it at home someday. It consisted of lime juice, lemon juice, sprite, mashed strawberries and sweet basil garnish. I’m always reluctant to buy virgin drinks because they charge you the same price as with alcohol and I feel like I’m paying for more than I get. And they aren’t always any good either, because they often depend on the alcohol for the kick. But in this case, the flavors were strong enough that it did not just taste like over-priced sprite.

John had a virgin piña colada.

Our entertainment consisted of house sparrows nesting in the palapa roof. We watched the parents bringing food to the baby birds.

Here’s another restaurant with a very pretty patio where we went the next day.

This one had a tame sparrow begging for food.

At both of those restaurants we were the only ones out on the patio. Just us and the sparrows.

Next up: Mexico – Part 2, stay tuned.

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Life Coaching for Neurodiverse Professionals

This is one of those posts that I had written and then forgotten to publish, so it’s slightly old news, but still funny.

I think I mentioned already that I started a Meet-up group to have people to go dancing with (because John really doesn’t want to dance). The advantage of starting the group myself, is I get to choose the events. I prefer outdoor patios and plazas, and I’m starting to get familiar with the local bands.

I scheduled our first meet-up at St. Philips plaza, where there are 3 restaurants, a large plaza with a stage, and regular live music. I chose a night where they had a band I knew was danceable, and posted the event.

The day before the event, a guy posted to the group saying he was legally blind and asking for detailed directions. I wondered how he would find us, but I posted directions as best I could. Of course there was no way for me to know ahead of time what table we would be seated at, but I created a table sign and posted a picture of that for everyone. But I didn’t know how much good that would do him.

On the night of the event, I got there half an hour early because I knew there can be a wait for a plaza table (and we can’t reserve them ahead). Sure enough, there was a half hour wait. So I sat on a bench in the front to wait. I was quite nervous about the whole thing. I didn’t know any of the people coming and had no idea how it was all going to work out.

After a bit, I noticed an elderly man getting out of a taxi cab. He stood on the curb, a little hunched over with a backpack on his back, and looked around vaguely. I realized he could be my legally blind meet-up member. I went up and asked, “Michael?” He was so relieved. And I have no idea how he would have found us, had I been seated somewhere at all the tables in the plaza.

We got seated and people trickled in, found my table sign, and soon I had a decent sized group. Everyone was super nice, and they all helped out with keeping an eye out for Michael, who could see well enough to find the dance floor on his own (aim for the stage), but could not find our table coming back.

At the end of the evening, Michael asked for a ride home to save on cab fare. I was the only one going in his direction, so I agreed to do it. Although I didn’t really want to be tagged as Michael’s designated ride from here on out for all our upcoming events. But I figured I’d worry about that later. I got him home safe and myself home safe, and called the whole night a success.

Then I scheduled our next Meet-up at the same venue, but a different band. A couple of days before the event, Michael posted to the entire group and said, “Can somone give me a ride from Grant and Campbell area? I’m legally blind and don’t drive. But not in your car Kristina. I had a problem with the exhaust smell.“

It was the funniest message I’ve seen in a long time and I’m still rolling on the ground laughing. He posted that to everyone! “But not in your car, Kristina”. I’ve been fired from the task of providing free rides to near-strangers! How low can I go?

I sent the message to John saying maybe I don’t want to replace my Mini Cooper after all (we’ve been meaning to replace it, because it’s getting quite old). And John replied, “It’s a FEATURE!” So it’s our big joke now. My car is so bad, people would rather pay for a cab than bum a ride with me. So now I don’t have to give people rides.

Although this spring when I had good friend come visit and I was talking about getting a new car, she politely suggested I not buy another Mini Cooper. (Right, Tracey?) LOL.

Also thanks to Tracey for the great photo of lights at night that I’m using on the Meet-up site. I actually think Tracey’s daughter Amy took the photo, so thanks, Amy.

And thanks to all of you who have been willing to ride in my car recently!

To send me a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com.

Life Coaching for Neurodiverse Professionals

Peak pool season has been eventful this year. Thank goodness I didn’t have a big line-up of visitors expecting a pool-themed tropical vacation. That would truly have been a disaster, because my backyard was out of commission for most of May! At peak pool season! And then my pool got knocked out of commission on top of it.

It all started suddenly, early one morning the first week of May, when diesel-belching, earth moving equipment appeared in the alley immediately behind our house. When I went out to investigate, I was told they needed to replace the city gas line.

They cheerfully explained that they would not impact me. But not impacting my gas service did not mean not impacting me. They start work before 7 am, and they leave their machinery to sit and belch diesel fumes all day long even when they aren’t using them. When they are using them, it’s super loud. It’s been impossible to enjoy the backyard.

I naively thought it would take a few days. Four weeks later, I think they are finally done. It was a nightmare.

Meanwhile, we had an insane pollen season this year, due to an overly wet winter. I have never seen so much pollen in my life, and I’ve lived on both the east and the west coasts. How is it that there’s more pollen in Tucson than anywhere I’ve ever lived? (Don’t visit me in May if you have allergies.) Everything got completely coated in sticky yellow-green.

I was trying to keep the excess pollen vacuumed out of my pool, but what I didn’t realize was our filters had become caked with pollen. At one point I emailed John, complaining that something was just wrong, I could not get the pool clean. “This is Sisyphean!” I said.

This is what my pool looked like on May 21. It was green! I’ve never seen anything like this before.

Finally it dawned on me to ask John to clean the filters. Note to us all – if mechanical equipment isn’t working, clean or change its filters!

After he got the filters clean, the water started clearing. At first. But by May 25 it was green again. What’s going on?

We did our best to clean it out, and then went camping for two days. When we got back, our pool looked like this.

Can you believe that color? What should we do? Did we need to drain it and start all over?

Apparently our cleaning efforts were too little, too late. My guess is, we didn’t have enough circulation for too long, due to pollen-clogged filters, causing our problem to escalate into an algae bloom. I’ve never experienced that in the 3 1/2 years we’ve owned this pool.

It was evening by the time we got back from camping, so we just shook our heads and went to bed. The next morning, which was yesterday morning, the pool guy came. John and I take care of all our own cleaning and maintenance, but we hire a company to do the weekly chemical balance for us so we don’t have to store pool chemicals. Our technician took one look at that hot mess, and applied a shock treatment.

Meanwhile, John and I are continuing to run the filter pump on high 24-7, I’m brushing the pool twice a day (sweeping the sides and bottom), and John’s hosing the filters out every evening. Here it is how it looks today, just one day after the shock treatment.

It’s like a miracle. Fingers crossed we’re good now.

Meanwhile, as of yesterday I think they are finally done working in the alley.

And through all of this, the alley construction, the green pool, everything, we’ve had a nesting dove watching over us. She doesn’t seem to ever leave.

Although actually, I looked online and the parents share nesting duties. Often it’s the dad on the nest during the day and the mom at night.

Also, I believe the nesting dove is a white-wing dove, not a mourning dove. They are hard to tell apart because I can’t see its wing in the nest. But I have been seeing this white-winged dove hanging around late in the day, and wonder if it’s the other parent.

It’s a poor photo, but you can still see the white fringe very distinctively.

So, now googling white-winged dove instead of mourning dove, I get, “White-winged doves incubate their eggs for 13–19 days, depending on the temperature and elevation. The female usually lays two white or creamy buff eggs in the nest on consecutive days, and then both parents take turns incubating them, the male during the day and the female at night. To keep the eggs cool, the parents press their bellies against them, absorbing some of the eggs’ heat.“

Way to go daddy bird! He’s got the hottest shift. We were wondering whether they were actually somehow cooling the eggs rather than warming them, because it’s 100 degrees out there!

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Life Coaching for Neurodiverse Professionals

We have a very determined dove nesting in our potted guava tree in our backyard, just a few feet from our house.

No matter what happens, she does not move.

Biska is curious and got up into the plant pot and was trying to climb the tree to get to the dove. She broke off some lower branches and was generally being a nuisance. So John installed this temporary cardboard barrier to discourage Biska.

The whole time John was working to set up the cardboard, the dove just sat there on her nest. It’s a very small tree and the dove is only at about head height. John was inches from her as he worked. I also had been sitting in those chairs before I knew she was there, but I’ve since moved the chairs away.

Biska’s like, “I want to play with the bird in there!” But now she knows she’s not supposed to put her front paws up there, and she’s a pretty well behaved dog. I occasionally have to call her away, but she is mostly ignoring the bird now. We’ll see what happens when there’s baby birds!

Here you can see how close the tree is to the house.

It seems like a poor place for a nest, but my friends tell me that the nesting dove’s biggest threat is the ravens, who will try to eat the eggs. So maybe it’s a genius place for a nest. Being so close to the house and guarded by a dog might deter the ravens.

It’s been two weeks, and we’e never seen her leave the nest, no matter how close we get (we’re trying not to harass her, but it is our backyard).

We first noticed her on May 15th. It’s now May 29th. Those chicks are due!

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Life Coaching for Neurodiverse Professionals

On April 11, Callan and Guen got officially engaged!

The wedding date hasn’t been set yet but the location will be in Twin Falls, ID, where Guen’s family lives.

Congratulations!

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Life Coaching for Neurodiverse Professionals

Let’s start with this incredible photo of my nephew. Way to go! Looking GREAT! What a lot of effort that must take.

Sorry that photo is a bit blurry, it had been passed around various family member’s cell phones a few times before I got a hold of it.

Next up, Laura is now an officially certified open water diver. The training for that is intense! She can now go on diving trips around the world, as well as nearby trips held every weekend in Monterey Bay.

Congratulations, Laura!

And lastly, I finished my Master’s Naturalist certification. I now know far more than I ever thought I would about the Sonoran Desert. The problem is, the environment is so huge and complicated that there’s still vastly more that I don’t know than I do know. John likes to quiz me and I’m like, I have no idea! I don’t know even a fraction of all the weeds and shrubs and prickly things in southern Arizona.

Here’s a secret if you’re in Tucson and hearing birds and someone asks you, “What bird is that?”, just guess “house sparrow”. Practically every single recording I take has house sparrows in the background. So you’re bound to be right!

I did a lot of writing for the certification program, including a very long blog entry (that they haven’t posted yet). I’m hoping I have a chance to post that here for you soon.

At graduation we each got a mineral. The one they gave me is a small piece of quartz and pyrite (fool’s gold), about 1.5″ long. I like it a lot!

My certification class was an enormous amount of work and it was part of the reason I got so far behind with this blog. It went for an entire semester, from January until May.

We have one more congratulations post coming up, and then back to regularly scheduled programming.

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Life Coaching for Neurodiverse Professionals

I have two or three Kudos posts to write. Let’s start with the new jobs!

Guen has a new job this month and so far it’s going very well. I think she’s been there about 3 weeks, she loves the job and they love her too. It’s a full-time position in home health care. Congratulations, Guen!

My brother Mark also has a new job. At his previous job he had been a manager with a large number of employees. He had just been promoted to Director level when suddenly they laid off half of their staff, including Mark. He was quickly able to get a new job with a company he has worked for previously, up in Milpitas, CA in the Bay Area. He and Jonathan will be up there for now, with Yang and the younger two still in San Diego. Mark says Yang will stay in San Diego until their younger two kids are through high school, which is still a few years yet.

John’s long-time friend Gerald has also gotten a new job offer. He cautions that it is still in the early phases (various hoops to go through yet, I assume he will need a clearance, etc.) If it all works out, he will be moving from the Chicago area to Washington DC. That will be a huge change for him because he has lived in his same apartment for decades.

The job itself will be a huge change for Gerald too. It’s not clear to me what he will be doing, but my guess is that it could involve translating technical documents for an intelligence agency (Gerald can read technical Arabic). That is a far cry from his current position of teaching physics to freshman at a small liberal arts college. Congratulations Gerald! It’s hard to make such a big change at our age. Way to go!

More kudos coming up in the next couple of posts, stay tuned!

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Life Coaching for Neurodiverse Professionals