Morning Thoughts

My son and daughter-in-law are iced in. Schools are closed. It took hours for many of the commuters up there, Portland, OR. To get home last night. Scary stuff. Nice to be sitting here in the sunshine and warm weather. But I worry about all the storms up there and people having bad accidents. 

I am waiting another hour before heading out to the spa to swim. It is still a little cold outside. If you are reading this in the cold weather up in the States you will laugh. Sixty five degrees is considered cold here by the locals. That temperature is when Mexicans going to work put on their gloves, hats and winter jackets. The expats still are walking around in shorts. It must seem warm to them compared to the frozen North.  

I feel lucky to be living in the sunshine and to be able to swim year around. 

Still no camera. It comes in a few days. Then I will be back to taking pictures. For now, all you get are these Morning Thoughts. Just keeping it alive, like my little kefir grains.....  Have a great day everyone. And if you are living up in the ice and snow, please slow down. No hurry to your death. 

Morning Thoughts

This is the last day of a nine day celebration of the Fiesta de Guadalupe. Celebrating the Virgin of Guadalupe. I woke up at four am this morning to the sound of the cohetes shooting off and they have been going off all morning long. Today is a national holiday for Mexico. I can't use my swim tickets at the spa on National Holidays and I wouldn't want to because it is too crowded. So it looks like I will just be walking with Chico into town and back. I can hear parties going on all around me in my Mexican neighborhood. 

On about the 20th I will get my cameras from e bay. My friend Karin is bringing them down for me. Then I will be in business again. 

In the meantime, I am limping along on this blog, trying to keep it alive. It is kind of like keeping kefir grains alive. I got some kefir grains a few weeks ago. In order for them to stay alive you have to keep feeding them milk. They grew from one tablespoon to about four tablespoons of grains and so every day I have two more quarts of kefir to drink. I am glad I don't have sourdough starter to feed too.  Did you know that some sourdough starters came over on the Mayflower in the pockets of immigrants? But they always have to be fed, like the kefir little buggers.  Wow, it is almost like having a crying baby in the house. Or that house plant that used to say FEED ME..... FEED ME.....  I don't remember the name of that broadway play but I do remember that plant. 

Things that are living have to be fed, some more than others. So this living blog is being fed a few articles to keep it alive until I get my cameras. Then I will be able to take photos again and get back in business here. In the meantime, Happy Holidays to you all. I am going out to see what is happening in the Ajijic Plaza. Chico will love the walk. 

I hope that we will have a few days of quiet after today but I won't count on it. As soon as I think one celebration is finally over, another one starts.  It is just something I must accept. Some mornings I will be awake at four am because of the loud cohates someone is shooting off. This is Mexico. If you want peace and quiet, don't move here. You will be disappointed. But if you like celebrations, parades, music, loud fireworks, parties, you will love it here. 

Morning Thoughts

Yesterday I got an e mail from my son saying that their house is sold. I am so relieved.  And Chico and I also received an invitation for Christmas Day with my friend. My savior, the one who made me get out of the house and go to the hospital and stayed with me the entire time. Thank you Leslie for being such a wonderful friend!

Another friend is bringing me two cameras that I bought on E Bay on the 20th of this month. It will be nice to have a camera again, one that I know how to use. 

So life for me seems to be getting back on track. Now if only my hair would grow back........

There are lots of Christmas events and celebrations going on now. This is a very social town, especially in the high season. 

I mostly stay home after swimming because I am really tired. Yesterday I was so tired that I forgot to turn off the faucet in the kitchen. I was sitting in my big chair with Chico and Olive in my lap watching a movie on Netflix when I heard a strange noise. At first I thought it was Olive eating but she was sleeping on my lap. I ignored it for awhile. Then I decided to see what it was so I walked into a flooded kitchen. About three inches of water all over. Including under my frig and other electrical stuff. I put on my rubber crocks and spent the next hour mopping it up.  What a mess.   

I don't have anything new to write about. Just feeding the blog so it doesn't die....   I hope everyone out there is doing well and not overwhelmed by the holidays. 

Morning Thoughts

It is cold in the mornings here now but it usually warms up in a few hours. I am still swimming several times a week. Having very little hair makes it a lot easier for it to dry after the swim. At least there is one advantage to being almost bald. 

We are in the midst of the high season now so the streets have bumper to bumper traffic and the restaurants are full and the Wednesday market is difficult to walk down. Everywhere there are new people and I only recognize a few of them from earlier years. Since I am not very social, I don't get involved in all the Christmas activities. I miss my son and daughter-in-law. Haven't seen them for well over two years. That is the hardest part for me of living in Mexico. But of course they are just an airplane ride away. Their lives are a bit chaotic now and having me there would only make them more so. (They are trying to sell their house.) 

Sometimes it is hard to be a parent with grown kids because their problems or dreams can't be fixed or fulfilled by us anymore. It isn't as simple as when they were children and buying them a new toy did the trick. It is hard to know what to do to continue being part of their lives and to help them without making life harder for them and being in the way. So I will be spending Christmas alone. Okay, not completely alone. I have Chico and Olive and maybe my friend in the States will be here by then. She has been paying rent on a house up the street from me for three months and can't find anyone to drive her and her two dogs and all her things down here. Maybe she will make it by Christmas and Chico and I will be able to visit with her and her two little dogs. One of which has a crush on Chico. She brings Chico her toys and sits close to him and stares at him. It makes him very nervous. 

I hope you are all enjoying the holiday season wherever you are living. I haven't been writing much because I am kind of sad right now, missing my family.  

Morning Thoughts

 

I just took this photo of me and Olive. She likes to sit by me when I work at the computer. I don't know what I would do without Chico and Olive. I would be awfully lonely.  We are in the middle of the San Andreas festival. It lasts nine days and something is always going on those days.  Yesterday morning at five thirty a.m. A parade came by my window, with people on horses, people playing huge drums and trombones and people walking with candles. The animals were going crazy and good luck if you thought you were going to sleep in that Sunday morning. And of course the huge fireworks were going off too. My neighbor's dogs freak out and throw themselves against a huge wooden door and bark continuously. Oh no, HERE COMES ANOTHER PARADE...... at least this time they waited until eight thirty.   Chico and Olive are scurrying away to hide somewhere.