(Domingo 21-
Sábado 27 Julio ) One day this week
we headed into Córdoba to pay our annual voluntary IMSS medical
insurance fee. You might recall we first signed up in July 2012
while we were down here for several weeks getting the house ready for
our move last September. Our benefit year started on the first of
August, so each year in July we have to pay the annual cuota
for another year. The whole process took about an hour or so, and
was much easier than the initial sign up. The lady who processed our
paperwork remembered us from last year, and typed up the few pages we
needed when we told her there were no changes, including an order to
a bank to receive and deposit our funds to the IMSS account.
Documentation that was need this year was a fotocopy of the first two
pages from our original inscription, plus a fotocopy of the receipt
we would get from the bank. We headed further east down Avenida 11
and over to Avenida 1 to the Banamex we had located the year before,
and paid our premiums for the year, MX$3733.30 each (about US$300).
When we finished at
the bank, we took advantage of being near the new Soriana HiperMart,
and did some shopping in the huge new store. Bought some Heileman's
Old Style beer which Soriana imports from the US and sells for MX38
per sixpack (US$3). How Mexican supermarkets can import beer from
the US (and Guatemala), and sell it for less than Mexican brands, we
haven't figured out. Along with some other groceries we found and
bought a virtual clone of the RummiKub game, so Frank & Ania
don't have to bring their set over when we have game night at our
house.
Early in the week
two young fellows from the city came around taking a census of
household pets. Turns out there is a new city law that is supposed
to safeguard the care of family dogs & cats. The were handing
out 12-point reminder cards of how to be a responsible pet owner, all
of which we are already doing. Dan told the guys that no hay
problema, our two gatos were being treated like rey y
reina (king and queen) in our household.
Tuesday was Dan's
birthday, not just a regular año más, but the big 7-0, and Ania & Frank came over to celebrate
with a special meal Carmen put together: Roast pork, mashed potatoes
& gravy and fresh broccoli, washed down with some Zinfandel and
followed by a carrot cake made even more scrumptious by the addition
of dried Michigan cherries. He is thankful he still has (most of)
his hair (only partly gray), his good health, and an active interest
in this new life in Mexico. Both of us are benefiting from the
improved diet due to the great variety of inexpensive fresh, local foods,
with Carmen approaching the same weight she had in high school, and
Dan not far behind the same goal.
