Sorry I Am About Fermin.....

Sorry I Am About Fermin.....right around Christmas he and Yesenia came down with Covid and Yesenia was sick for awhile but did recover. Then out of nowhere Fermin took a turn for the much worse and went to St Joes - apparently he was coughing up blood before he arrived at the hospital.  There he was put on a ventilator - which means this was serious - and then he was bumped to a regular hospital room and was communicating for a day or two - then he turned worse.  I heard nothing about him for a few days and then I spoke to Lara, Yesenia's friend, who told me Fermin was not doing well at all.  Then things progressed to where he was put on life support and yesterday the family was going to yank the plug but then changed their mind and decided to send him to dialysis - apparently his kidneys are no longer functioning.  Covid really screwed him over - not only is there significant lung damage but his kidneys have shut down, too and it really does seem hopeless at this point.  Ay carumba, I genuinely like(d) Fermin - and soon he is to be no more.  I will miss him and his rent money and his willingness to do work around the house cheap.  He (was) a very happy go lucky guy and from what Juan's son next door told me, he didn't believe in vaccines.  And now he's essentially dead without life support.  God how awful.  I will miss him for selfish reasons and because he's just a decent guy.  

Making lemonade out of lemons, there is an upside, though I'd rather that Fermin lived instead.  If Yesenia moves out, which I believe is likely, I can grab the guesthouse to empty the contents of M's damned living room into and get her off my ass.  Plus I can process things on my time and not hers, and we would not drive each other as nutty while I was doing so.  So there is an upside but I'd rather that Fermin had never contracted this damned virus to begin with.  With Fermin gone, all those cans will be gone as will the guys he work(ed) with - and remember that brother of Fermin's who at the lake told me I had another family now?  That's gone, too, but I don't think they really cared for me, anyhow.  And his young cousin really did not like me - I won't have to worry about ever seeing him again, I guess this is a small upside to this horrible situation.  

I will always be grateful to Fermin for taking me to the lake last July 3rd.  All my years in Arizona and I had never been there.  I even was able to see the damned river that young people go tubing on our way to the lake.  Without Fermin, I likely would never have seen the lake.  And due to Fermin, I was even able to cling onto him and jet ski across the lake and that was very very very cool, it sure was.  But now his family has no reason to be in touch with me or Mom, and they will slip away now, for better or worse.  At least I had the chance to get out of town and see something new and that much is indeed very cool.  

And there will be no more picking up clothes or giving clothes away to Vanessa at the Hotel Fray Marcos lounge in Nogales, Mexico.  That I will (kind of) miss.  

I do have some good news, however.  It seems as if I am up to $25 and beyond on what seems to be the at the moment at least very generous Drop App.  All this week I get double credit on surveys and this indeed is racking up the points for me - very grateful.  Right now I could even cash out for $25 though I am not going to - I will take cryptocurrency instead so that I learn something about it.  And I am on the Coin App and have close to 20K points there - just need 10K for my first cash out in crypto.  Crypto is not the safest bet out there but then again, what exactly IS safe these days?  And I believe I am going to get the $200 worth of crypto on the Social Good app.  So out of nowhere I am acquiring crypto and this is something new to keep me on my toes.  Just hope when I get home tonight that I don't hear that Fermin is dead.  This is probably likely and I don't understand why they are putting him in dialysis - I guess because it's a shock and they don't want him dead.  

Thursday - two days from now - I will be going to Nogales, just for one day.  I will take the early morning shuttle there and will hit the Goodwill up for whatever deals I can run across and then will spend the evening at the Siesta Motel - but just for one night only.  Then on Friday back to the Valley - it will be good to get out of town for sure.  And I could use some more light  clothes - nothing heavy really needed due to global warming - and shoes and maybe some kind of housewares.  Things are going to change now with Fermin gone I'm afraid.  And not for the better except the potential ease of processing all my stuff.  

Moving along, I have a feeling my days of long haul international travel are a thing of the past.  I think I will apply for a passport card that will let me enter Mexico and that is mobile and small and easy to carry in a wallet for neck safe or such.  This damned virus - it really has turned the world upside down and I am starting to finally grasp that easy travels - that was a point in time that is no more.  And now with this omicron virus and who knows how many upcoming mutations there will be? - things will never quite be what they once were, but in my case perhaps that's not such a bad thing as how things were did not work very well for me, anyway.  It's amazing that I am here at the library and it truly seems like a morgue - the Cholla Branch of the Phoenix Public Library very close to the now closed and done MetroCenter.  I wonder if it's the area or the virus or probably both?  

Right now what I can be doing is getting ready for this trip to Nogales for one day.  Dreamer me, I had dreams of perhaps one day living in Nogales, on the US side to be clear, with Fermin and Yesenia as friends.  You just don't ever know what the real world has in store for you, do you?  But there will be time to spend looking for goodies at the Goodwill and for that much I am glad.  There is not much else I care to do in Nogales, really.   I won't have time to do much of anything, really, other than the Goodwill.  And I will not be crossing into Mexico - I will be too tired to deal with US CBP and there's really nothing I truly NEED on the other side of the border, either.  

At any rate, I am glad that I have discovered this library and I'm glad that Nita is in tonight for group.  At least I will have 2.5 hours of not being directly in the middle of everything and for that I am truly glad.  

More later, Rob