God Bless Us, Everyone

My trip to Iowa was emotional, sad and wonderful all at the same time. Terry had a beautiful send-off and hundreds of people attended. He was a good man who was so involved in his community and church that he will be truly missed be many. I was so grateful to be there for my sister.
Iowa is cold. I spent my childhood there on a farm, but somehow I never realized how cold it was until coming back straight from Mexico as an adult. Absolutely freezing. We had a blizzard! 50 mile per hour wind, snow, nearly zero degrees Fahrenheit. Add in the wind chill factor and it is not fit for man nor beast. Yikes.
Meanwhile, while I was braving the cold, Patrick, Jack and Rudy picked up Patrick's brother Neil in Loreto on the Baja peninsula. Then the four of them crossed the Sea of Cortez to Mazatlan. They had a good crossing. Some of the time they had so much wind that they sailed with only a reefed main and no jib and still did 6 knots. At other times, they had to motor. But even so they made the crossing in 55 hours, so they were making good time.

We are having some goofy luck right now on several different fronts. Our 1 month old Honda 2000 generator has just stopped working. There is no way to get it back to America for them to fix it under warranty and it looks like they do not sell that model down here, so parts are not easily avaliable. Rudy is having another bad hot spot outbreak and his neck is a mass of sores. Despite having reservations for one year at El Cid, they did not have room for us on a dock with power, and will not have room until after Christmas. And last but not least, somehow all 150 gallons of fresh water that Patrick made on the crossing has gone missing from the tanks (a leak, or open spigot?). Despite all of these tales of woe, I can't feel anything but gratitude for all of our many, many blessings. Everything that matters is just perfect.
A very merry Christmas and a properous New Year to all of us!