Reflections of the summer days gone by from the comfort of my Colombian home

I feel like I have been traveling and sick all summer. Yesterday I finally made it back to Colombia. I was in the US for about two weeks, sick almost the entire time.

I still feel that I am not back to 100% yet. I am also buzzing with all the energy that has remained with me from being in the US. Yesterday I walked around my house thinking of what I need to get done and how I feel behind in life, in my garden, and my writing.

Yet all I wanted, and all I did, was sit and watch the birds on my porch. It was the only thing my body could physically do after traveling. Even though I tested negative for COVID, the residual effects are still slowly subsiding. The exhaustion remains, and the need to do that is leftover from the US. My body was in a state of shock.

I tried to explain how I felt last night to my boyfriend, as I could not sleep It is as if I have to stay busy in the states. Everyone running around, living is so different than the life I live.

I guess I have become a person who putters. I remember my grandmother as happy and content around the house. I feel like that now. Except I do not tinker in the sense of not getting things done (as my grandmother often would do), yet puttering as a form of contentment.

I have a lot of work to do, as my garden looks like I abandoned it for two years, not two weeks. It’s unreal how fast things grow, of course, except what I planted, no those seeds did not succeed, except my coffee tree; it is growing! So small wins, I will accept, and of course, more squash. I love squash, but I will have squash coming out of my ears. So we will not starve with squash.

While I was in the US, I felt like a crazy person, kind of. I have been telling my family to prepare for a grid shutdown and doing as big sisters do, bossing them around from afar. Yet when I went shopping, all food in stock was more expensive but available.

I could not afford to live in the US on my income right now, which I know for sure, but luckily it seems everyone is hiring, so I would be ok. So I accepted defeat; maybe my intuition is off, maybe what I read is skewed, maybe it is me. I often assume things are me since I tend to go off the deep end a bit; it’s genetic.

Then it started. My sister’s friend calls saying she does not have electricity, and then another friend. It was like a slow tumbleweed of people in southern California experiencing a brownout.

It was also some of the hottest summer days; it was over 100 degrees in Pasadena. It was hot, even for me, who loves the heat. No wind, no shade, just the hot desert sun was beating down. Luckily my sister had air, so we did not bake in the house, but if you know anything about California, when it’s hot, along comes the fires.

A few days before there was a fire in the mountain, I tend to worry about my sister. She lives on a one-way street in the mountains of Pasadena; they are always on fire.

I have called her multiple times, telling her to leave not for fear of burning alive but for the air quality. My nurse brain kicks in, thinking they are ingesting all that smoke; it is almost worse than smoking a pack of cigarettes. She never listens.

Yet when all her friends told her they didn’t have air, she looked at me. She said you have been saying this for almost a year. Do you think she has prepared mentally or physically? No, of course not.

I am not saying this to be correct, but as a concern for her safety and my nephews. The US is a country in turmoil, every cell in my body felt it, and when the energy reports came in, I said I needed to get out of here before they shut down the airport.

Luckily I did and will choose the dangers of Colombia over the unknown risks of my neighbors to the north. Yes, I will never deny Colombia’s issues, but at least I do not have to rely on any grid support in a worst-case scenario.

I am back on my porch, where I feel the happiest, calmest, and listening to my crazy dog’s bark at a cow. The neighbor stopped by yesterday asking if we want to adopt another dog so it does not get put down or thrown to the streets.

Of course, we said if they can not find a home, we will take him; he is a good dog, just big. Soon we will be the home of the rescue dog’s life could be worse.

The birds are active, and I have seen a few new ones; the hummingbird makes her daily rounds to say hi. I will slowly start puttering once I have completed my daily online tasks.

How has your summer been?