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7 October 2010
by
Dave Clingman

 

Our California Trip


Hi guys.

Sorry about the long day between email logs. I'll try to summarize some of the highlights of the past one and a half months in this "weekly log"! Our trip to California was both productive and enjoyable. We drove fifteen hours our first day and then usually about six hours a day during our remaining seven driving days, other than one long day again during our return.

We had three glorious days in San Diego, mostly just relaxing and enjoying life. Andrew caught up with his friend Matt Hall, and spent Friday night and Sunday with San Diego GCNers (from the Gay Christian Network). We both also spent an afternoon with my brother in nearby Ramona. One afternoon we took a walk on the Coronado Island "dog beach" with Mela. She enjoyed playing fetch with a tennis ball, and "chase" with many of the other dogs, though some of them were a bit more aggressive than she liked.

In Coarsegold, we spent many long hours preparing and listing items on eBay to sell that we had picked up from my brother while visiting with him in San Diego area. We also sold a few coins we had picked up here in Mexico, one of which was an 8 Reales coin which went for $170.00 US, quite an impressive profit for us. We are now on the lookout for more coins that might net us a profit. While in the Coarsegold/Fresno area we also visited a few website clients and friends, went to the annual Antique Fair, and bought a trunk-full of business goods, vehicle parts, and U.S. food goodies like Diet Monster drinks and Cheetos!

In that part of California, the weather was clear and quite hot, exceeding 90º (32ºC) almost every day. Here in GDL on those same days, the high averaged around 75º (24ºC).

We stayed two nights in Las Vegas, Nevada on our return trip. We walked along the Strip one evening with Mela, and many people commented how cute she is. It is rare for a dog to be seen on the Las Vegas Strip, because the hotels are not pet friendly. Here in Mexico, most hotels are more lenient about allowing dogs.

Andrew and Mela walked across the Hoover Dam, despite not being aware until the end that it is illegal to walk a dog over the dam. He was duly impressed with the dam and the new arching freeway bridge over the Canyon.

Now that we are back home, work and life are continuing. Andrew has less work now than before we left, but I have some new website work to do. The weather is wonderful with cool mornings and warm, sunny days. We've started turning on a small electric heater for an hour or so in the mornings now.

My shoulder is completely healed. There is still an occasional muscle twitch, but there is no pain and has been no pain for several weeks now. The specialist at IMSS that we saw two days before we left for California was right: alternating cold and hot packs, five minutes each, three times each, every night before bed worked wonders in less than the three weeks he predicted it might take. I am thrilled to be pain free in my shoulder. That pain was rather debilitating, though it probably doesn't seem like it should be. Thank you for praying.

Mela has been chewing on her paws. We first noticed this around the time we arrived back in Mexico. She chews them until they are bloody. At first we thought it was fleas, but the vet says that fleas can't live in her paws since it is not warm enough for them. The vet took scrapings from Mela's paw and ear and examined them under a microscope in search of bacteria. She found none, but she saw evidence that Mela had previously had a fungal infection. The vet gave us a special antibacterial shampoo and spray, but twice daily cleanings and sprayings didn't remove Mela's apparent itchiness.

Now we have Mela on a special food, and we don't allow her to run free in the park. The vet thinks Mela is having an allergic reaction either to her food or to the grass. (Fortunately, the three visits to the vet and all the special shampoos, shots, and pills have cost only about $80 US, about the same as one visit to the vet in California without any extras like examining scrapings or medicines.) The vet says that it may take up to two weeks before the itching will stop once we have removed the allergen. We decided to remove both allergens, and then when the itching stops, we'll allow her back onto the grass. That way we can perhaps determine if the grass is the problem. I rather hope the problem is the food, because though this special food is expensive, I prefer to have her able to run free all around the park.

Thank you for your emails, and for the visits in person (for those we saw in California). Please continue to keep in touch, and remember if you ever want to visit Guadalajara we'd be glad to show you around.

 

Read previous log 21 August 2010

Read next log 26 October 2010

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