January 26, 2006

January 26, 2006

La Feria, Texas to Nuevo Progreso, Mexico & return

YEAR 2 DAY 223

 

Today was partially cloudy and warm.

This morning after regular chores I went down to the office to pay for another week. Then I phoned Encore Sunshine RV Resort to find out why they had not yet credited my account with the $15 refund. Not surprisingly, I encountered resistance, from "Mary Jane", one of the morons that I dealt with last week when I was trying to get directions. Mary Jane said one of her "managers" wanted to speak to me about last week's incident. Well, Mary Jane, I don't really give a right royal **** that your manager wants to speak to me. I want a refund ! ! ! She was going to have her manager " Michael" phone me. Okay, Mary Jane ... you do that !

We left for a day trip to Nuevo Progreso, Mexico. First we stopped at the La Feria Post Office to pick up a batch of our mail forwarded to us here by Sharon. Then we headed south on Hwy. FM506 until it ended at the Rio Grande River. We turned west on Hwy. 281, to Progreso, where we parked, and walked across the bridge to Nuevo Progreso, Mexico. We walked around doing comparison shopping on medications at a number of different pharmacies. We made decisions, then made our purchases, at 2 different pharmacies. I bought some substitutions for regular meds of mine, as well as buying some new meds to try, that I had done some Internet research on. I'm determined to solve some problems that have been plaguing me since last summer, when I ended up in the hospital in Kenora.

We had lunch at an interesting looking restaurant. The food was mediocre. Oh, well, win some, lose some. Then we walked around town some more to do some comparison shopping of eyeglasses and lenses. I made my decision, and ordered a new pair of lenses for my existing eyeglass frames. Included in the purchase price of U.S.$45 for bi-focal lenses, was a free eye examination. Gee ... my last pair of lenses, purchased in Ottawa, cost $265. And that did not include the cost of the eye examination. Some things are truly a bargain in Mexico. Dentists and opticians, but for Canadians, not pharmacies. It’s certainly easy to buy prescription medications in Mexico, and a lot cheaper than buying them in the United States, but not cheaper than in Canada.

After buying my lenses, we wandered around, shopping like tourists. We shopped for, but did not buy, some Mexican clothing for Joanne’s little nieces. We bought some Mexican pastries at a bakery. We bought some chocolates at a department store. Oh, boy ... Creminos, which we had purchased once before, a month and a half ago in Los Algodones, and Nugs and Coconugs, which we had purchased a year ago in Nuevo Progreso. We were getting tired, so it was time to head for home. We walked back to the bridge, then across back into the United States. We drove north on Hwy. FM1015 to Mission, then east on Hwy. 83 back to La Feria.

Back at the trailer, I phoned Encore Sunshine RV Resort again. Mary Jane answered. Before I could read her the riot act, she very, very quickly transferred me to Michael. He and I had a brief discussion, and he agreed to process a $15 refund to my credit card. Smart decision, Michael ! Turns out Michael is originally from Winnipeg, having moved here to the Valley about 10 years ago. Yeah, Michael ... I don’t really care, just process my refund, and do it promptly !

I was feeling weak and tired, so I laid down and read for half an hour. Then I spent some time setting up a spreadsheet to track my medication purchases and compare costs between my Canadian purchases and Mexican purchases of prescription medications. While I was at it, I completed my 2005 medical expenses records keeping for income tax purposes. Then I did today’s accounting.

We had supper, then watched some TV, while I worked on this journal entry. It's now 10:20 P.M., and we're watching the weather forecast on the late news. The jet stream cold front is turning northeast, and just isn't going to make it quite this far south. AWWWWWWWWWW ... isn't that a shame ? ! Today's temperature of 78 degrees made The Valley the hot spot of North America.

DSK