Two Steps Forward and One Step Back

One and all,

Little new in life, as I continue to mend very slowly. As I mentioned a couple of days ago, there is a good day, followed by a not so good day. The positive, I guess, is that Polley and I are continuing to get out at least once a day and in most cases twice.

Tuesday evening we grabbed a cab and headed for a little Italian pizza place, Pomodoro y Basilico (Tomato and Basil – how bad can the place be?) In my best Spanish I told the cabby where it was, but he was very skeptical. However, he quickly and efficiently followed the directions and we arrived. It sits back in a little plaza, Plaza Romy, and so many are not even aware of its presence. But because of that, it is a quiet and charming place, back on the street from traffic and other noise. Polley and I used to think they had the best Pizza in PV, but our little nightly haunt, El Patio is Mi Casa, has even better. However, Pomodoro does have some very intriguing combinations of toppings. This time it was a white sauce, with potatoes, sausage, machego cheese and a mystery herb. Very good, but can’t match the crust at El Patio. Polley and I caught a cab back, with a stop at El Patio for a couple of beers before my nightly exercise of getting back up the hill. As I back improves and I move a bit faster, I discover that in the last 5 weeks (5 weeks today) I have really gotten out of shape. I gave gone from walking a 100 plus miles a month, to traveling about 1/3 of mile, twice a day.

Yesterday, we went down the hill at noon and met for lunch with our good friend George, his partner, Pat and a lovely friend of theirs, Molly. We had seen George a couple of days earlier, but had not met up with Pat or Molly. It was great fun to see them and we had a lovely lunch at our daily watering hole, La Fuente del Puente. Good food, great friends, and some very lively conversation. It felt like the PV we had come to know. However, by the time the two hours had gone by I was pretty wiped out. George had brought some new meds that had helped him in his recovery of a very similar problem, so I was anxious to give them a go. Sad to report that there did not seem to be much immediate relief and, in fact, because of the busy morning, ended up with a lousy evening which accounts for the title, “Two Steps Forward and One Step Back.” That has been the nature of our ten days here. There is certainly improvement, but after each good day, comes a difficult day and a reminder that this is not going to fix itself as quickly as I might like. Still, the weather is great and we are finding the means to get around and see some people. Just is a little more of a production than one might wish.

We spent last night in eating our leftover Pollo Felice. We are certainly saving money on this trip. Perhaps we can have a real blowout once mobility returns. More to come.