Not A WRITER but........

I'm not a WRITER but I have found that I do like to write. It wasn't always this way. A hundred years ago when I was in school, writing essays and term papers was punishment of the worse kind. Of course back in the old days, you used pen and ink. Editing was difficult to do. If you found that you needed to change around some sentences in a paragraph .....Well it was rewrite the whole thing. The process was inhibiting to free flowing ideas.

Add to that, the dread "red" remarks from the instructor. In school we learn grammar (with a capital G), topic sentences, punctuation and after all of that you still have to worry about spelling and proofreading. In the business world we use bullet points and kept it brief. It choked the life out of finding any joy in writing.

My breakthrough in learning to enjoy writing just for the joy of writing came years later. I started keeping a journal. Three pages in long hand, with a pen, everyday.......Everyday. I'd get up early in the morning and write. As you may be wondering.....what can you possible find to fill up three pages everyday. I had no rules about what I should write, the only rule was "three pages. So somedays it was more like a check list of things I need to do, somedays it was writing about what someone in the family was doing, somedays it was about how I felt about my photography but somedays.......nothing........absolutely nothing came to mind. I'd sit, listening, looking out the window and suddenly the pen would drop to the paper and start to write. It might be about the sounds of the morning or the squirrels fighting at the bird feeder.

It started to feel good to write. I didn't reread, I didn't edit. I didn't worry about sentence structure or topic sentences or paragraphs and certainly not about punctuation. Dots, dashes and underlines were used whenever and wherever they fell. And most mornings my pen didn't stutter, it just moved along the page. I was writing.

Writing yes, but how do WRITERS put together phrases like Belle does in one of her blogs.

I knew that he was Alabama good but was he New York perfect?

Alabama good/New York perfect............I wonder how many morning pages I'll have to write before my pen can make word pictures and turn phrases that just tickle my fancy like this one.

Sunday Comida

The menu for our Sunday Comida ..........

Mango Salsa with Tostados
Roasted Pork Tenderloin marinated in soy sauce, ginger and garlic
Sauteed Asparagus
Roasted red and yellow peppers
Bulgar Wheat Salad with Dried Cherries, dill, pinenuts and green onions
Romaine lettuce salad
Key Lime Pie

The food was good, the friends were fun. It was a great Mexican Sunday afternoon.

Shhh........Don't Tell The Orchid Police

My Orchid, originally uploaded by BillieS.

Do these look like happy roots?

This time last year they did not look like this. In fact there were very few roots left. Here is the story.

A year and half ago this orchid and another one were part of a large pot of orchids and bromeliads that I bought at Costco. They were gorgeous with many spikes of flowers. They kept blooming and blooming and I left them with a neighbor when we came back to Mexico. When we went back months later they had just dropped the last flower. I didn't see how I could bring them into Mexico.....make that, smuggle them into Mexico....the car was full and they were just too big. So, I apologized to them for what was coming but told them to do their best.

I repotted them and sat them in deep shade in my magical garden. The next time I was back in Houston and I saw them, their once magnificent thick deep green leaves had been attacked. Some places had been a feast for some insect, and other places they had been bent or cracked. And the roots.....oh, so sad. The once green luminous roots....some were shriveled and brown and some were still giving a valiant attempt to keep the plant alive. I felt so badly about my mistreatment of these regal orchids that I decided that I'd have to risk it all to bring them with me to Mexico so I could take care of them. I became an orchid smuggler. They rode to San Miguel in the bottom of a trashbasket with some stuff on top of them which didn't help their leaves either.

After they arrived I repotted them and left them in the floor of the new shower of the studio so that I could water them with the rain of the shower. They just sat there.....maybe they were still in trauma, maybe they were trying to heal. I wasn't sure they were going to revive. Another trip to Houston was going to leave them alone in Mexico except for Carmela who comes three days a week. So I decided to put them in the laundry where she could talk to them and water them when she came. Between the wonderful light in the laundry, the humidity, the heat and Carmela's sweet talk, they decided to live......new roots.....and.....what is that nub? a new root.

Now I think they are going to make it. When they bloom again, you will see pictures.

But, shhhhhh..........don't tell the orchid police that they are here.

New Photographer in the Family

Maxwell who is six years old took this picture. I'm seeing some talent here. Well, yes, I am his grandmother but that doesn't influence my opinion at all!

Now if we can just keep the world from telling him what he is suppose to photograph and how he is suppose to do it, he might be able to keep seeing the shadows.

The Time of the Mangoes

It is the season for Mangoes. I love the color of Mangoes. Yellowy greens to butter yellow to tangerine to red. You are probably going to see some more pictures of them because I love the shape and color although the shape isn't as senual as a pear, it is very nice. And the colors always make me think and feel "Mexico."

Why Do I Photograph?

Photographing claims my world. It makes it directly and specifically my own.

Photographing brings clarity and passion to the act of living.

Photographing is sensual, experiential, grounding.

Photographing frequently, regularly, yields me a body of work.

I'm re-reading Julia Cameron's book The Right to Write, An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life. In the introduction she brings up these ideas about why one should write. I've paraphrased them to help me think about Why I Do Photography. Sometimes writing about why I do it helps me get recentered and rejuvenated.

Is it Coincidence?

I've said it before and I'll say it again, This world is a small place.

Last night I was checking my photo websites and I found a message from a friend and co-worker from the past, Deborah. We worked together on a project at least 12 years ago. She took another job, I moved to another project and we lost direct contact although sometimes I'd talk to someone from that project and we'd talk about the people we worked with on the project. But it had been a long time since I had heard anything about Deborah.

She wrote: I still remember you fondly from (our working together), and treasure the 3 photographs I have from one of your openings. My husband and I just arranged our first visit to SMA for the week of August 11-18, and I was remembering that you often spent time in Mexico, and wondered if perhaps it was in SMA. By sheer "coincidence," I saw your photographs today at (the place) where I work. I knew immediately from the photos without having to look at the info about the exhibit that they were yours. Looking at them more closely confirmed that it IS you, and that you do indeed live in SMA. Do you think we can get together for a drink/meal/conversation while we're there? I'd love to see you! ..........

What is a coincidence?
Wikipedia says: Coincidence literally describes two or more events or entities occupying the same point in space or time, but colloquially means two or more events or entities possessing unexpected parallels, such as thinking about someone and then receiving an unexpected phone call from that person, when it is clear that there is no ordinary casual connection.

Is it a coincidence that I checked the photo website for messages shortly after Deborah posted because sometimes I go for several weeks without checking there for messages?
Is it a coincidence that I am part of a group exhibition that is in a gallery area of Deborah's workplace?
Is it a coincidence that Deborah happened to go through the gallery and recognized my work?
Is it a coincidence that Deborah is coming to SMA out of all the places in Mexico?
Is it a coincidence that we now live in SMA?
Is it a coincidence that Deborah found me on the web photo site as well as my blog?

The same point in space or time.........unexpected parallels?
I don't know why this has happened but I can't wait to see Deborah in San Miguel de Allende.

PS: Deborah, I sent you an email last night. Sometimes AOL will not accept emails coming out of Mexico, especially if the sender isn't in your address book. So let me know here or on the photo website if you didn't get my email.

Tired Mind

I've got a tired mind. It is too tired to blog. I've been processing images from a shoot AND I've started working on learning Spanish....again. Add to that trips to Queretero and visits with friends and I feel like I'm UN-retired!

I've been working with a tutor to review the Spanish I learned in Level I at Warren Hardy's Language School four years ago. She is a slave driver. Thirty pages of homework in two days! Plus trying to remember it all so I can speak Spanish while I am with her. I know, I know, I'm complaining but really I want to do this. From time to time Jose, one of my readers, has gently chided me for not learning Spanish and he is right. Especially now that we are living in San Miguel de Allende full time. So I'm making a commitment. I'm reviewing what I had earlier, then I'm signed up for Warren Hardy's Level II class....Preterite Indicative Tense, Direct and Indirect Object Pronouns. I've heard that this is the hardest of his classes. After that I'm getting a tutor and I will continue to work with the tutor until............ I don't know it might be the rest of my life. It isn't easy for this old brain to keep it all together but I'm going to give it a good try.

My Mexican Chocolate Pecan Chess Pie

I have a recipe from December 1997 from a Bon Appetit magazine for a Chocolate Pecan Chess Pie. I've used it a lot in the USA because it was easy to make and it always draws raves from the dinner table. When we first came to San Miguel I couldn't find unsweetened chocolate so I made it with what I could find and over time I've adjusted the recipe until I can now call it My Mexican Chocolate Pecan Chess Pie.

1/2 stick unsalted butter
3/4 tablet of Mexican chocolate such as Abuelita chocolate. It will have some cinammon and sugar in it.
3/4 cup of sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon Presidente Brandy
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped pecans
1 graham cracker pie crust - you can make your own or use a purchased one.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Place baking sheet in oven. Stir butter and chocolate in a heavy small saucepan over low heat until melted and smooth or melt in microwave stirring often until blended. Cool 10 minutes

Wisk sugar and eggs in medium bowl to blend. Wisk in chocolate mixture, then brandy, vanilla and salt. Stir in pecans (filling will be thick.) Spoon filling into crust.

Place on baking sheet in oven. Bake until edges of filling puff and begin to crack and center is just set about 30-40 minutes. Here at 6700 feet the filling still looks "wet" but a toothpick will come out clean. The top will crust and crack. Transfer pie to rack and cool completely. Serve with whipped cream or a scoop of ice cream.

I hope you will enjoy it. Joseph did when he came to dinner this week. He had two servings and he cleaned his plate!

What's Up?

Some of the things happening in San Miguel over the next couple of weeks

Ninth Annual Short Film Festival
Annual Chamber Music Festival
Global Justice Conference
Feed the Hungry Fund Raiser
Patronato del Ninos Fund Raiser - A Night in Casablanca
Amigos de Animales Fund Raiser
Symposium on Cuba Today
Announcement about the construction of a San Miguel Opera House
Pozos Art Walk
Theater - Daniel Packard's Live Group Sex Therapy Show
Authors' Sala with readings by Susan Page and Marliene Phipps
Lecture on Codex Mendoza by Guillermo Mendez
Concert of Brazilian and Portuguese Music
Walking tours
Lions Club trip
Lunch Groups
Workshops
Instituto guided trips to Queretero and Mexico City
Rummage Sales
Muffin Sales
Saturday Adventurers tours that Benefits Centro de Crecimiento
House and Garden Tour that benefits the Biblioteca
AND many Gallery openings with work by both Mexicans and Ex-pats.

Oh, and we just finished with the First Annual Sexual Diversity Festival

Is it any wonder that San Miguel is high on many lists of places to visit or live?

San Miguel Rapist Claims To Be Innocent of Rape Charges

Today's edition of the San Miguel newspaper Atencion carries another story about the San Miguel rapist, "Sentencing Not Yet Set in Serial Rape Cases." Scroll down to find the story. In the story the rapist says he didn't commit any rapes. He claims the women consented because the Americans are very liberal. Sure! Let's see. You wake up with a man on top of you with a knife or machete at your throat. Your choice is to get your throat cut, the hell beaten out of you or you get raped. This is not consent!

Fallen Women

It isn't unusual to see women here in San Miguel who have fallen and have broken a collar bone, sprained a wrist, twisted an ankle or sometimes even worse. The many stairs, cobblestones and uneven sidewalks take their toll. So when you see someone limping along wearing bandages, splints and braces or sometimes even using crutches, you ask their story. How did it happen? Did the ambulance come? Did they take you to the General Hospital, De la Fe Hospital or did you go to Queretero? The Fallen Woman gets lots of sympathy and understanding because this has happened to so many of us. If you stay here long enough you will probably have a mis-step somewhere along the way.

I had a "falling" yesterday but I'm probably not going to get much sympathy. I fell out of a chair sitting at my desk. Yes, that is right, I fell out of a chair. The internet stopped working and I shifted in my chair to look around the monitor at the cable modem. The next thing I knew I was on the floor and the chair was laying on its side. I'm not sure if I was really dazed for a few moments or just surprised to be on the floor. But I picked myself up and thought, I'm okay. Then I felt a cramp on my side. Huh oh, had I broken a rib against the arm of the chair? The pain would ease and then cramp up again when I moved. I took two Aleve and layed down for a few minutes. Then I started to realize that my backside was throbbing but the Aleve helped that too. After about 30 minutes I went off to the Digital Camera Club Meeting and the ribs didn't hurt anymore but I found that I was sitting down very carefully. Well this morning sitting on my injury is NOT comfortable. I don't even have a bruise on my side but do have a considerable bruise on my backside.

Now how am I going to get any sympathy or understanding from this injury? There is no bandage, splint or brace for anyone to see and I don't plan to show anyone my bruise. Besides, a story about falling down a narrow flight of steps or twisting an ankle when you stepped off the high curb at Pila Seca and Zacateros, is much more interesting than telling a story about sitting in a chair at your desk and falling out of it.

Painting in Plein Air

Tuesday I found my friend Daniel Rueffert conducting a painting class in the open air or as the French Impressionist called it "plein air." I captured the moment with the LensBaby.

Batter Up

While we were back in the USA, we took care of a couple of our grandsons for a week. This is Will who will be seven years old in a couple of weeks. This boy either has a glove and ball or a bat in his hands most of his waking hours. One day we figure that he talked to me for about an hour about baseball and which of the players used steroids, who is the best hitter on his and his brother's little league teams. But then he had Pawpaw out playing catch with him then watching the Astros game with him. We figure that he talked baseball for about six hours straight to Pawpaw. During every Astro game, he is watching the whole game and swinging at pitches....while he talks of course. He is working on being a lefty and a righty at the plate. And when he is really swinging at the ball, he can connect. He went to a baseball camp and was clocked at 40 MPH when he pitches. They are not wild pitches.....over the plate. This obsession isn't just during baseball season. It is 12 months a year.

Brother Jack who is 10 years old is also a wonderful baseball player. He plays on a couple of little league teams. He plays as pitcher or catcher or I've also seen him in the outfield and at third base.

Can you imagine what their parents life is like? It is either going to practice, a little league game, a Rice University game or to see the Astros. Oh then of course they do have to go to school and do homework.

Raising boys is for much younger people than we are now!

The Kids Are Here

Although there are American families with school age children who live in San Miguel full time, summer brings a flood of vacationing families. Some stay for a few days but others come and rent houses and stay for one or two months. What a wonderful cultural experience for the kids. But the question that I'm sure some of you who have kids are asking, is what do you do to keep them busy.

First of all there are a couple of the language schools that offer classes from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM. The kids learn some Spanish, take field trips, and do some handicrafts or maybe make tortillas. The kids seem to love it but what is even better for the Moms is that they meet other Moms and kids who are visiting so play dates can be arranged for the afternoons or weekends. And many of the bi-lingual instructors at the language schools will babysit at night. The Instituto Allende has also started offering workshops for kids. I don't know much about their program but since they offer Spanish and Art classes to adults, I think the workshops will cover the same subjects. The Golf Club has offered a kind of day camp of tennis, golf and swimming.

For field trips and to help the kids burn off some of that energy, you could go the Botanical Garden and hike many of the trails. Or a trip to the hot spring and cave, la Gruta, for comida and a day of swimming. There are some places where you can book horseback rides. Or if you can arrange a 1-1/2 hour car trip, you can go to Bernal and hike this huge monolith of a rock. In a way similar to Enchanted Rock in Texas or Ayers Rock in Australia. Bernal is very touristy on the weekends with lots of little stalls and shops selling stuff. The kids might want to take a soccer ball along for a bit of footwork in the plazas. You can have lunch at one of the places in town before you come back. A trip to Pozos is a little closer. The kids can explore some of the remains of the mining school or the old church or maybe take a guided tour of one of the abandoned mines but I'm a little leery of that one. Again there are some great places to eat in Pozos. They can take tennis lessons at La Aldea Hotel or swim there. A trip to Guanajuato to see the Mummies, the silver mine, history museums and some old haciendas. I'm sure there are a lot of other things to do that I just don't know about.

In the evening a stroll into town for dinner and then give the kids some time to run around in the Jardin or listen to the Mariachis, get an ice cream cone or see the free entertainment that happens several times a week in front of the Parroquia.

So, don't hesitate. You can bring the kids to San Miguel.

Rain Last Night

The rain started in the afternoon. A silent soft rain that didn't tap on the windowpanes but fell lightly inside the open windows before we realized it had come. The rain came and went with the clouds that slid across the tops of the hills and over the town.

Just a little rain....maybe more than a drizzle at times....but not enough to keep us home. The umbrellas, one lemon yellow, the other navy blue, kept the rain off on our way into town for dinner. Up Orizaba, then Ancha de San Antonio, a turn to Hernandez Macias, Umaran to the Jardin. A table by the window at Cafe San Francisco with a view of the Parroquia and the darkening wet streets with people walking in the rain. Would it rain in the window? We decided to chance it for the reward of watching the world go by.

A tequila and a margarita were on the table before the wind picked up and the rain began to fall in silver streaks in the headlights of cars and to blow in our window on the Jardin. The waiter appeared and shut the window so we now had a dry and cozy view of the downpour. No walking in the rain now. If you had to be out you ran or clustered under the porticos or as some in the restaurant did, you just stayed at your table talking and watching....first the gutter filled with water rushing downhill but soon the street was a sheet of flowing water sparkling with the reflections of lights around the Jardin.

We too, lingered until the rain became lighter. It took a while to find a taxi to bring us home. Home to bed, to listen to the the lullaby of a light rain on the window and the leaves of the tree outside the bedroom.

This morning is very quiet. Even the roosters seemed calmed by the rain. The air is cool, the sky is blue, the sun is warm.....not a cloud in the sky, but we had rain last night.

Stuffed to the Gills

When I started to write this entry and typed in the title "Stuffed to the Gills" I thought is this really a phrase? What does it really mean? I've heard it. I've used it. But what does it really mean? I went to Wikipedia. It isn't listed there and I was invited to create an entry for "stuffed to the gills." No not me....at that point I wasn't sure it was really a valid descriptive phrase. I did a Yahoo Search and found an explanation in The Phrase Finder:

It means "full up [with food]". The image is of a fish prepared whole for cooking, with stuffing in its belly.

This is what I meant with "Stuffed to the Gills."
This is from the front seat of the SUV during our recent trip back to Mexico.

News Report on San Miguel Rapist

Many people have googled to my blog looking for information about the San Miguel Rapist. The local English language newspaper, Atencion, has an article in today's edition about him, the investigation and his capture. Scroll down in the "News" and you'll see a picture of him and find the story.

The Mercado

Yesterday was a walk into town to go to the big Mercado. I love the walk through the market. No frozen or canned foods here. Just fresh vegetables and meats.

Today Carol Schmidt sent a link to an article in the San Antonio Express about the big market in town and the Tuesday Tiangus up by the highway. I don't know how long the link will work since sometimes you can only access an article in a newspaper for a day or two but Ron Bechtol's writing describes these markets better than I can.

And now a confession. We have never been to the Tuesday Tiangus. I have friends who tell me that you can go and dig through piles of clothes on the ground and you might find a designer blouse or that some vendors sell mace. But they also say you need to watch out for pickpockets. Somehow, fending off pickpockets or finding a designer blouse in a pile of clothes on the ground have never been high on my list of activities on a Tuesday, but I may have to go. I'm also hearing that the fish there is very fresh. Besides, I think I just need to take in the sights and the smells. Oh, and I'll take my camera along too.

Crowing at the Break of Dawn

Cock-a-doodle-doo. I love waking up in the morning in the half-light still quiet of the night to the sound of the roosters around us. I know this must be a little weird because so many people complain about the roosters waking them up in the morning. The cock-a-doodle-doo is a much better way to wake up than the buzz of an alarm or a radio telling you who was bombed last night. For me, there is something about that cock-a-doodle-doo that says you are in San Miguel, you are living your dream, you are connected to a simple life.

I always thought that the rooster was crowing to welcome the day but I quickly found out in San Miguel that the rooster can crow all day long and sometimes even on a bright moonlit night. I did a little research and found out that the rooster is crowing because he wants the other roosters to know that this is his territory and these are his hens. Stay out!

Whatever the reasons for his crowing, at the break of dawn he reassures me that I'm in the right place.

Epson 4000 - Clogged Nozzle Anxiety III

I still get regular hits from google from people who are searching for "Epson clogged nozzles" or "clearing clogs on Epson." So readers, there is a problem with Epson's Pro printers. I know that very few of you are interested in photographic printing or in the Epson 4000 printer but for those few who are searching, I'm posting my latest news. I've written about Clogged Nozzle Anxiety here and here.

I'm convinced that the problem isn't really clogged nozzles but instead is some engineering problem with the ink delivery system to the nozzles because as you try to clear a "clog" other inks will suddenly develop problems and randomly drop out or return only to drop out again. I've been using Epson printers for a few years and the printers I've had in the past didn't behave this way with clogged nozzles. Someone wrote me that they thought the problem was the UltraChrome Pigment inks and the piezo-electric technology of the nozzles. I don't agree. My 2200 printer uses the same UltraChrome Pigment inks and the same piezo-electric technology for the nozzles but I can leave it sitting for months, turn it on run one or two nozzles cleans if necessary and it is ready to print. No so with the big 4000 Pro printer.

I've been out of town and left my printer sitting for two months with a humidifier running to be sure that low humidity wasn't a problem. Still after two months of being shut down, I was expecting problems when I turned it on and I had them. First nozzle check was good except for some drops in yellow. I did an auto check and everything was dropping out except the matt black and photo black. I worked with it yesterday trying cleaning cycles and nozzle checks and it would almost correct then something else would drop out. I was using up a lot of ink.

On the Epson 4000 group, many people are used a "puddle clean" to get their printer "unclogged." I've said before that I'm not a printer tech and I didn't want to have to do that but I didn't seem to have another choice. I printed out all the messages on how to do a puddle clean. There isn't just one nice PDF document that goes step by step with pictures but instead there are numerous entries about how to do it and some of them seem contradictory.

This afternoon after reading all the messages and making some notes it was time to to start on it. But hoping for a miracle, I printed another nozzle check. No yellow and the light magenta and light black swatches were very spotty. Epson has recently posted a new firmware release and so before I started into the guts of the machine, I thought I might as well try the new firmware although Epson doesn't say it will fix clogging/ink delivery issues. Some other people had reported that they thought it had helped. It installed without a problem. I then ran an auto nozzle check. The first set of blocks had no yellow and very spotty light magenta and light black. Second set, yellow was okay but still a few spots in the light magenta and light black. Third set was perfect except for a few smudges of magenta in the yellow. But the auto check stopped at that point. I didn't have to do a puddle clean. Was it the firmware or the printer angel sitting on my shoulder? Don't know but I'm ready to print and I hope it will stay that way.

So for those of you looking for a solution to "clogged nozzles" download the June 26 firmware release. Oh, and pray for the printer angel to come sit on your shoulder.

First Day Back

This morning we started in trying to put away the things we brought from Houston. More clothes....now we will really be here full time. More dishes....not a lot but I had Gorky Gonzales dishes in Houston too and I wanted to have more than 8 place settings here. Cuisinart....I've missed having one here. More books.....well, what can I say. I like books and I wanted more of cookbooks here as well as a few others. I'd love to have all of my photography books here but I packed six or seven boxes of just photography books for storage. No where, absolutely no where for them here.

It is going to take some work to get these all put away and it really highlights the need to finish furnishing the studio which will include some bookshelves. Also, we need to re-do the kitchen including cabinets and countertops and make some storage in the dining room. So it looks like another construction project coming up soon.

Next on the agenda for today was a trip to the grocery store. Ned went into town for the mail and then we met up at the grocery. It feels good to walk to get to where you want to go. Bread, bacon, mayo, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, avocado, eggplant, spaghetti, tomato juice, mangos etc. Now we have enough for dinner tonight and breakfast in the morning. A dozen roses for the table. Not too big a load to carry home.

It is starting to look like home. Tomorrow I'll go to the Ramirez Mercado and buy some vegetables for dinner tomorrow night to go with whatever meat I buy at the Carniceria across the street. And of course, fresh flowers come in on Wednesday afternoon so I'll buy a big bouquet to put in the niche for the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Good to be home.

Home

We are back home in San Miguel de Allende. We left Monday after I saw the eye doctor.

And by-the-way she thinks my new eyes are doing great. I definitely have great distance vision although the mid-distance and close up isn't as good as I'd like for it to be. She thinks with a little more time, those will be fine too. I'm not worried about it. If I have to wear glasses, I'm alright with that so long as I can see at all distances very well. Right now I'm using some drug store glasses until my vision settles in and the brain has some more time to adjust to the new lenses.

On Monday afternoon we drove to Laredo. Although we don't usually make reservations, Ned made us some at the Family Garden Inn. We are glad he did. Mexican schools just started their summer holiday and the place was packed with families from both sides of the border and with men in company pickup trucks who must be working in the area. I don't think we would have gotten a room if we would not have had reservations. The Family Garden Inn isn't elegant but they let Taylor the dog stay there and they have a open air kitchen in the "garden" where you can get hotdogs or fajitas, steaks, chicken dinners. They food isn't bad and it is definitely convenient when you are traveling with a dog.

This morning we crossed the bridge about 6:30 and pulled up in front of our house before 4:00 PM. It is a long drive but I love the wide open views across the semi-arid valleys to the mountains....seeing all the colors of greens and ochres, the mountains like folds of a cloth with cloud shadows moving across the landscape.

It is always wonderful to circle the glorieta and start down the mountain into San Miguel and see it spread out and climbing up the mountainsides. To pick out landmarks, the churches, the calles Cinco de Mayo and Ancha de San Antonio. And as we get closer to start looking at the shops....here is a new one, oh that restaurant closed, that remodeling is coming along.

Although we hear there has been rain, today everything looks dusty. Carmela has kept the plants watered and the house clean. Still the house just doesn't look right until we are here for a day or two. We need flowers in front of the Virgen of Guadalupe, books rearranged, fruit in a bowl, windows open....then it will be like home.

There is a full moon tonight. We are waiting for it to appear over the mountains. Then off to bed.

Heading Home

If all goes well this time tomorrow we will be in Laredo on our way back to San Miguel de Allende. We are ready.

We head back to San Miguel with a sense of relief that the San Miguel rapist is behind bars. I've talked to several of my single women friends in San Miguel and they are all emotional and relieved. Everytime they left their homes they looked in the faces of Mexican men wondering........could this be the man? When they took a cab and the driver started some friendly chit-chat as the drivers in San Miguel have always done there was a hesitation to talk........could this be the man?

We had a good time with the Grandsons during our babysitting week but it reminded us that our child rearing days are in the past. We can visit, we can babysit but it is nice to turn them back over to their parents.

Today, we have been organizing stuff. Ned has picked up the boxes of books and negatives that we are taking back to San Miguel. He is the master packer having loaded up the Ford Explorer so many times so he has his loading plan ready.

So hopefully by noon tomorrow, we'll be on the road again. Next post from San Miguel de Allende.

San Miguel Rapist Jailed

It is true. The San Miguel rapist has been caught and is in jail. His identity is confirmed by DNA.

I've talked with my friend who was raped and she also confirms that the information is true. She gives credit to the team of State Police who have worked this case day after day.

Another Rape Attempt

The San Miguel rapist tried again at 1:00 AM Wednesday morning but this time he wasn't successful. Carol Schmidt has the story on her blog, San Miguel News.

This time the woman got a good look at him. Maybe enough evidence will accumuate to help the police solve this case.

Courage of Reimagination

In Monday's Houston Chronicle Business Section, Scott Burns has an article about a couple who are early retirees and living in an RV. He talks about the Courage of Reimagination and how they stepped outside the box for retirement.

I think that all of us during our 30's and 40's while we are working and raising children think about what we want to do when we retire. During that time we lived by a golf course and I always thought that what I would do after retirement was work on my golf game and play several times a week instead of just on Sunday or Holidays. I'm not sure when I started to realize that the golfing wasn't going to be enough. Maybe it started to happen as we traveled in Mexico on vacations, maybe as I became more passionate about my photography, maybe as we realized that the home and golf course were a long way from the activities and galleries of the innercity.

Now some of our old friends tell us that we are really adventurous for selling our house in the USA and living full time in Mexico but our move to a "different road'' didn't come in one sharp 90 degree turn but rather it came in a winding fashion of lazy curves. It wasn't an acute fever that came suddenly but rather as a small itch that slowly grew bigger. So now we find ourselves on a road, a different road, that I never could have imagined 25 years ago. Adventurous? It doesn't seem like it but maybe we did have to have the courage to reimagine our lives.

Another New Lens - Part 3

I saw the Eye Doctor again last Monday and was scheduled for the second cataract surgery on Wednesday but I didn't decide to go ahead with it until around Tuesday at noon. Finally I put all the pluses in place like being able to see without glasses for most things and seeing them very sharply. Also I was seeing whites that were not a dimmed dingy yellow through my "new" eye. So why wait? Why wait until December? One thing the doctor said that really brought things into "focus" (sorry, but I couldn't resist) was that I was seeing with two different viewing systems and she thought the vision would be much better when both eyes were on the same page.

So Wednesday at 9 AM, we arrived at the surgery center. The staff remembered me from three weeks ago. It all went well but differently. The first time I didn't "see" anything through the eye while they were doing surgery but this time I could see a yellow circle and sometimes some blue. The bandage on the eye seemed a little loose so the nurse who was helping me after the surgery taped it again. That bandage was really uncomfortable so I was more than ready to take it off at 5 PM. Sure enough when I went in for a checkup the next morning I had 2 small scratches on my eye so I was given some ointment for the scratches. This eye is more bloodshot and traumatized than the other eye as a result but getting better everyday.

I don't know why but the anesthetic seems to hang in my system longer than I expect. So for a couple of days, everytime I could find a place to stretch out, I'd take a little snooze. Actually I don't think that is a bad thing after all the stuff we have been doing for the last two months.

I can already tell that both eyes are working better together, so by the time the inflammation and swelling has gone and the stitches are taken out, the eyes should be amazing.

I'm glad I did it and have new lenses to see all the things in my world.

Less than a Fortnight, More than a Week

Less than 14 days but a little more than a week....at least we hope that it is only a little more than a week. That is the time frame for heading back to San Miguel de Allende. We are ready.

We came back to Houston on May third. So much has happened in two months. As I look back it is amazing at all we have done. Our house was sold and we signed the papers on it, packed what we wanted to keep and put it in storage, had an estate sale, cleared out the house (no easy task) and turned it over to the new owners. Since then I have had cataract surgery on both eyes. We saw doctors, visited the Austin, Texas branch of the family, stayed in a friend's hi-rise condo, entered into a contract to buy a lot in the innercity of Houston (still have to close on it before we leave) and now we are in the middle of taking care of the children in the Houston branch of the family. In between we visited with friends, went to dinner at new places and did a bit of shopping.

We are ready. Ready to head for our home in San Miguel de Allende.