Yesterday I traveled to the dentist. This lady’s office was maybe ten miles from where we live here in Sanborodon, Ecuador. She looked my teeth over well, showing me where I needed nine fillings, a heavy cleaning, my left front tooth rebuilt, three extractions, a prosthesis, and one root canal. The total price on all of this would be 700.00 American.

I grind my teeth and have done so since late childhood. The teeth on my upper jaw have split and fallen apart, for all practical purposes. I knew I had banged up teeth, but I didn’t know to what extent, because I never go to a dentist. In America medical care is for the wealthy, not us average folk, I am fond of saying. For that reason I never go to doctors of dentists. The pain usually subsides.

Since I am trying to stretch my money I have decided to get everything except the prosthesis, and two of the extractions. That move alone will save me more than 400.00. Should we remain here for the long term, maybe then I shall complete the job. Yesterday, Thursday, 7/14/2022, I got the tooth rebuild, six fillings, and the root canal. I shall return on Monday to complete this task. I well may also get another custom made bite guard. Ten years ago mine I had made down here cost me 20.00. American, only. I will find out what it costs now, come Monday.

I usually get an entire physical, including a liver check, blood check, heart exam, and a prostate exam. Last time I did some four years ago, I only paid 20.00 American. If one has arthritis this person may book a curing session at selected offices, purchase a bus ticket here in Guayaquil to Lima, Peru, for 20.00 American, so I have discovered, and have it completely cured if in its early stages. What can’t be cured is the bone damage, if in its late stages. The excruciating pain can be treated.

During this curing session one must enter into a health spa setting, where he/she is treated by repeated soaking inside natural, heated mineral springs, getting frequent messages, and drinking selective herbal potions. The ingredients are a carefully guarded secret, where suffering patients arrive in from all over the western world to take part in. Many suffering Germans and Spanish swear by these cures, so I am informed. The doctors are natives practicing traditional medicine, who engage in a series of ritualistic dances while the proceedings are taking place. Never fear, since these natives are well known outside of American boarders for cure illnesses such as many types of cancers that highly skilled western doctors can’t, or refuse to do so out of an intent to service their own insatiable greed levels, as in the case of today’s American medical system. The general process takes more than a month to complete, and costs 2500.00 American, including room, food, nurse care, medicine, and everything, at the time of this writing, 7/15/2022, 1402.

Just for the record Cuban doctors have a world wide reputation for their abilities to cure cancers. My wife has a cousin who was dying of brain cancer in America, where the doctors sadly informed him that he was beyond help. His family flew him off to Cuba, where he was cured in fairly short order. That was over twenty years ago, and he still lives today.

Well, enough of my rambling. Today we didn’t do much. We awoke at 0630, ate rice, fried eggs, and ham. We hopped a taxi around 1000, rode to the mall up a ways from where we live, then purchased a can of paint for our worker to complete his job task for the day, which is to paint the outside security walls inside and out, and to paint the exterior of our concrete and tile home. I walked back over to the lady who sold me the bollo day before yesterday for 1.25. I was going to buy four. She wanted 2.50 today for only a fish bollo and nothing else. Unless I lost something in the language translation, it was because today was Friday. I wound up buying a hotdog and a coke for one dollar, then eating a plate of rice and beans when I made it back home. Otherwise a bollo can’t be beat for quality or price anywhere in Ecuador. Here, bollo and Chau flan are the travelers perfect food, since the price nor the quality can’t be beat!

Well, its been awhile since I put anything on this blog, so shame on me! Over the past three days I’ve tried to make up for that time lag. Part of what caused such an absence was the Covid 19 lock down deal, and me having to fight for my unemployment benefits. I also wrote a short novel during that time called “They Called Him Ringo Arenas.”

I submitted this novel to a publisher known as Pen-it publications. The work was accepted, the cover designed, the edits completed, and then nothing. I found out that the owner sold the company, and three manuscripts that I submitted, signed the contract for, were professionally edited, and the book cover designed, are still yet to be put into print. I asked the new owner how things were going, and he simply sent my request to another person. At the present time I don’t know what the deal is with my three books. When I do I’ll certainly keep the blog updated.

Not much has gone on today, 7/14/2022, at 1158. I woke up at 0630. I took a breakfast of rice, fried egg, and sliced ham. I went out on the porch to drink my coffee. I spoke with my neighbor who hails from California named Juan. He seems to be a good person. He is retired from the US military and work in Boeing as an air craft mechanic. He is Ecuadorian by heritage. Around 1000 hours I walked over to the administration office to access their Wi-Fi, so here I am. My wife informs me that she created a dentist appointment at 1400, I think, or was it 1300? I can’t rightly recall. I am not personally crazy about going, but I know I have banged up teeth, since I have always ground my teeth at night. All of my teeth on my upper mouth are split in two, except my front teeth, and they are chipped. More than likely the dentist will want to pull my split teeth, but I do not intend on allowing this. We shall see in time, I suppose.

I have a few personal concerns. One of my greatest concerns is the fact that I am 55 and do not have any retirement savings, and only 7 thousand dollars in savings. What am I going to do about this? What alternative approach can I devise to navigate around this uncomfortable situation that I could navigate around in my elderly years? The wife and I intend on remaining here in Ecuador until September 10th. We are then hopping on a plane, jetting back up to Tampa, Florida, then jetting out to Sandiago, California, where we intend on catching a cruise ship to Hawaii. This cruise is a two week deal, plus three or four more days out to kick around. I can’t wait. What we are going to do after that, I haven’t clue, which is where our plan becomes a bit sticky. We are living fat today, and high up on the hill. We are thinking about jetting out to Las Vegas, working six months there since salaries are good and living relatively inexpensive, then jetting back down to Ecuador, and living here for six months. We could do it here, since one can easily function here on 500.00 USD a month. That one potential for a future retirement, so stay tuned for more information in this chance all, or nothing lifestyle I live. In the end, no matter what, if I can’t do anything else I can always write about it.

Today nothing big has yet occurred. We both arose from bed, washed, then made breakfast. Around 0900 we headed out to the mall so we could purchase paint, brushes, and other artifacts. When we made it back into the gated community, Zoilita was there with her brother, who my wife hired to do the work of painting the house. The house is a small Italian villa styled one. When we made it inside, Zoilita had a bollo for the wife and me. This we halved, then served it up with rice.

Well, my money is holding out wonderfully. The wife had a friend named Sherry who showed up the other day with her son, visiting Ecuador. These two people were from Denver, Colorado. Sherry is in the process of acquiring a dual citizenship, since life in the US is becoming so ridiculously expensive, and she will be retiring in three years or so. Her retirement and eternal house payment back in Denver will not cut it. She might as well rent the house out and move on somewhere else.

Our days thus far are fairly simple. We awake, we eat breakfast, we go uptown, buy needed items, then return back to the house. Our days usually wind up by the poolside. My wife says she is glad she retired out of the US public school system. I wish I was retired from something. My personal failure in life was not finding stable employment with a pension and benefits, retirement and otherwise. My entire life has been lived on the edge, hoping for a windfall or a stroke of luck. What else may I do when nothing I try really works out?

dogs with french fries, and dancing. I am sore from it this morning. Many women were doing rather risque dances in fancy dresses, bikini bathing suits, and shorts, but so it is down in the tropics. Personally, I had a real blast! I’m sitting in a plastic chair by a wall plug in our largely unfurnished home at this very moment. The time in Ecuador and date presently is 0958 7/11/2022.

We awoke the following morning. The wife and myself had beans, rice, and ham for breakfast, served up with two cups filled with steaming black coffee. By 0930 we were heading out the door. We walked to the small strip mall area outside the security gate of the community where we live. We both make our way into the Coffee & Sweet shop and purchased a chocolate crescent so we could get on the internet. We played around on the internet where we readily texted and spoke with family for two hours. I carried three thousand dollars with me, intending to live on two, and use one for our cruise to Hawaii. I put this money into my wife’s Ecuadorian bank account, since leaving cash at home is unwise, especially with our side door being a security risk since it doesn’t lock. Theft is a potential here that cannot ever be overlooked.

By three we had made it back to the neighborhood where we lived. An old friend was in town and contacted my wife. She met us by the pool around 1800. Her and her son spoke with us and we ate dinner in the cafe near the sweet shop. We walked back down to the neighborhood where we live, showing them the house, which was empty since the tenant had exited recently. After their visit we walked with them back out the front gate where they met the taxi and were on their way toward the beach. The wife and I rounded the evening off with a few shots of duty-free Wild Turkey bourbon. then went off to bed by 2300. The date was 7/12/2022.

On the twenty seventh of June, 2022, I stepped into the property manager’s office. For the past two months my wife and I frequently informed her of our intent to move. When I finally handed her the keys, she only smiled, now claiming she demanded a notice in writing of my intent to move, so therefore she was extending my lease another month, and my permission for her to do was not needed! I protested, but my individual rights meant nothing.

The system inside this aged-out mill town didn’t require this property manager to inform me of my intent on moving out. Her being from and antagonizing demographic didn’t help any arguments in the matter I might have against her. When I refused to hand her two thousand dollars in hard cash, she simply plugged it into a computer program claiming that had not fulfilled the lease obligation. Other property managers would simply assume the claim at face value, and totally disregard my claim that the property manager was unjustly attempting to extort two thousand dollars from me.

So we both loaded up. I rode several hours out to my parent’s place for a week, since I had not visited them for the past two years due to Covid 19, my own exposure, and their sickness in general. Both had C19 and were treated for cancer. They came through with flying colors, thankfully. My time at mothers place was great. I lounged around chatting with them and hanging out. Mother’s cooking was the always the best. The only one who was ever better was great grandmother, but she has been gone since 1986. Now mother sits in the chief cook’s seat.

After my week at mother’s place ended, on Friday I headed back over to uptown Queen Metro where I met up with my wife at the eldest daughter’s apartment. From there we said good bye to the girls, and motored out toward Tampa. In Tampa we both stayed four days with the wife’s great aunt and uncle, then headed on out to the airport when our flight time neared.

Everything went pretty smooth. We made the flight. No flights were delayed. The plane took off and landed smoothly. American airlines didn’t feed us, however. All they had for us to drink was water or soda, not anything else as international flights usually do. Forget being fed real food. We had ginger crackers with Pepsi, and that was it. We also had to pay forty five dollars on our credit card, since they wouldn’t even accept cash at all. We passed through all of the security checkpoints without any hitch, and we were both finally on our way.

The plane finally landed at the rather small airport in Guayaquil, Ecuador. When we exited off the plane and picked up our luggage, we were met at the front entrance by my wife’s niece, who is around 35 years old. She is a general manager for a restaurant chain. She appears to be doing fairly well. Her niece is a lively woman. She cheerfully motored us both over to the home of wife’s adapted sister, Zoilita. Here we spent three days walking around the neighborhood where she lived, buying three dollar plates of fish, rice, and tropical vegetables.

My favorite dish is called a bollo. It’s made of cooked plantain mixed with fish, shrimp, onions, and other vegetables, and rolled into a long round bun sort of deal, wrapped in palm leaves. Boyo makes an outstanding breakfast when it’s served up with coffee, I think. One can buy this dish in a large serving at the time of this writing, for two dollars American.

After our three day stay at Zoilita’s place, I really hated to catch a taxi out. We had to make it out to Sanborodon, where my wife’s and our home is. The house is twelve years old and was rented out for the past eleven years. This will be the first time we have actually lived in it. Mainly all we do is walk around in the general area. I bought three thousand dollars in cash with me. I plan on living on two thousand, and taking the final thousand on the coming cruise to Hawaii with me.

Saturday when we made it to the house, Yonalita, the wife’s niece, picked us up again inside her small economy car, taking us to a really good diner with live music and a beach party type of scene. If one doesn’t like to party, then they certainly do not need to spend time in Ecuador, that’s for sure. The food and the music was really good, and topped off with droughts of beer and sangria wine.

Last night, Sunday night, we went to a pool party. A movie company was filming clips for a music video. I got to play an active part of this new experience. There was lots of splashing around in the water with adults behaving like spoiled kids, soap bubbles and suds, beer, and servings of huge hot

As always, they want to first expunge the demographic who will potentially react to their gradually imposed self-serving political agenda in the most organized, threatening manner. The system of persecution always commences with a face being held before the group, magnitude levels on past events being drastically elevated, and a call for direct action made. Such makes great appeal to the motions of those who will give in to the proposed message. Next in the growing policy of persecution is a blatant denial of opportunity to qualified individuals, which is what those who dare to open their eyes are witnessing in our present day throughout many US states, as I have already discussed. Let there be no doubt where the Anglo Saxon does notice and will resist, on one level or another, if for no other way than to simply flip ‘em all the bird, and fly to a land far far away, high on the next good breeze.

In the end, such grotesque observation wasn’t the true reason all by itself, that I finally exited this area of the United States in which I lived for so long. I had lived in this specific mill town outside of a large town known as The Queen City for one year and 10 months. My leasing contract was for ten months, not month to month. During the Covid era prices leaped up more than double on everything. The news media blamed it on the forces of supply and demand, but the US government committed the same sins as the old Wiemar Republic and other civilizations going back to the days of glorious Rome, by saturating the economy with loads of worthless banknotes in hopes of subsidizing the economic system, and giving it a much needed new boost. Truth is, the US economy has operated on borrowed subsidization since 1983. This massive unsustainable hike in cost of living was only the onset of a great finalization long coming.

When I moved into my new apartment my rent was twelve hundred dollars a month. In all honesty the place , Continuum Apartments 115 over on Choo Choo drive, wasn’t really worth any more than 500.00 a month at best, even for a two bedroom place such as the one my wife and I were living in. For three months the place had no maintenance, no after hours emergency assistance, the grill area didn’t have gas in supply and was filthy, and the pool’s water was often green. After my first year there the property manager named “Nit-wit- with a knee in the posterior,” as I sarcastically referred to her, hailing from an antagonistic demographic, crassly jacked the monthly fees up four hundred dollars. When the note returned from my ten month lease, my monthly lease fee was a whopping two thousand dollars, in a painted over five hundred dollar a month mill-town.

That night I got on a cost of living comparison website. I was astonished when I discovered larger metropolis areas such as Nashville, Tennessee, for example, had a substantially lower COL than this shuttered up mill town with an overused face and a thick make over paint job. The place reminded me of a worn out prostitute caking on the make up and wrapping it in second hand thousand dollar dress, in hopes of fetching a much higher price for her used up offerings. I couldn’t take any more of the nonsense the place and the people running it were so full of. Why not be near the beach, for crying out loud! At worst, for the same price I could live in Tampa, Florida, in one example among many. Jobs are very plentiful there. Why not pull up and move to Tampa?

Cleaning the apartment out was a huge hassle, since my wife didn’t acclimate her style of life to the lifestyle, we had been living for six years or more. It broke my heart to throw away so many items that had gained sentimental value over the passing of time. Finally, after so much work, the apartment was cleared, and our belongings packed. It was very difficult selecting what must go and what we should hang onto. Practicality finally reigned supreme in our decision. I put in my notice at work on my property maintenance job. I only had time for a five-day notice, rather than a full two-week deal.