Friday, August 27, 2010

The Innocence of A Child

 

 


Last weekend, while visiting "the man's" daughter and family, little Aiden managed to spill water on his t-shirt. He was NOT happy.

Grandpa to the rescue!

"Stick your arms in your shirt", he said. Aiden did, with his assistence. Grandpa turned the shirt around so the wet part was in the back. But, all Aiden could see was a dry shirt. He was happy!

About an hour later the same thing happened again.

Now the shirt was on him as it had started at the beginning of the night. He had turned it around again.

A little two year old was no the wiser..........and still happy. A precious experience to witness. The innocence of a child.
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Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Mexico's Bicentennial 2010

 

 

 

 



It has ALWAYS been that one can walk to the jardin at night in San Miguel de Allende and see some kind of activity.
Be it mariachis or, the estudiantes in their velvet Renaissance costumes from Guanajuato or assorted other things.
But pretty much you can count on something going on............

Now, add to that the bicentennial and the lightshow on the buildings in the jardin area and every night is full of energy and people.

We trekked down the hill one night to see the light show, a few nights after it started. Obviously lots of other people had also. Alas, no light show. No explanation other then that "it hadn't happened the night before either". No announcement, just whispering from one person to the other, "no light show tonight". No one got excited or angry. Some shrugged.

The jardin being what it is the show of the milling people was enough for us to watch. People in costumes with lanterns performed on the stairs next to the Parroquia. Vendors were selling food. People were singing aNd walking around. Children were playing with balloons.

The lighting that night had a surreal quality to it. Like we were watching a scene from an old time movie. It was lovely.

Eventually after walking and watching for a while we taxied back up the hill. Such are the things in San Miguel that I enjoy so much. Never knowing what will happen..........
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Tuesday, August 24, 2010

It's SO NICE To Have a Man Around the House!

 

 

 

 


i have lived in my house in Mexico for nine years, give or take a few months. During that time I've dealt with driving rain from all directions in what I call the "six towel night" or in bad instances, the "ten or twelve towel night".

I've used velcroed weather stripping, silicone and of course the towels to stop the flow of water through the metal and glass windows. Sometimes to no avail.

"My Man" has come to the rescue.

He owns apartments. Old apartments. He has owned old farmhouses and old buildings that he has personally restored. Board by board. He's a Virgo. Need I say more? He took one look at the "sorry ass" repair jobs to the windows and stripped all the gook off of them. He even took them out and repaired them. Can you imagine? Even those yahoos that I paid to do this work never did such a thorough job. They didn't come close.

We had several rains before heading up here to West Virginia. The ultimate test to see if the new repairs and materials were the answer. YIPPEE is all I can say. NO MORE TOWELS.

It is SO NICE to have a man around the house! In more ways then one............
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Saturday, August 07, 2010

American Airline Strikes Again!

It all began at 5AM Tuesday morning with the alarm announcing wakeup time. Bounding out of bed,we were ready by 6:15 to take the taxi to the bus station for the 3 1/2 hour trip to Mexico City for our flight to Dulles via DFW.

After a hair raising ride (and I do NOT exaggerate) from the North Terminal bus station to the airport, we arrived at the American Airlines ticket counter to be informed that there was mechanical problems with our plane. Hence, we would NOT be leaving at 1PM, but 2:30PM. No problem, except that we would then miss our DFW connection. Oh well, we thought, we won't have to run through the airport. Little did we know.

We DID leave at 2:30, feeling that all was well. After talking with others waiting for AA flights, we felt fortunate. One woman was supposed to have been in Denver at 1PM. She informed us of this at 2PM and wasn't even leaving Mexico City til 4:30PM!

So we left at 2:30, no problems, landed at DFW at 5PM. (We have now been up 12 hours). But, hey, we got throug customs and immigration with no snafus. Yee ha.

We take the tram or "skylink" as they call it, only to be informed at Gate 39 that it was now not the departure gate and we needed to go to Gate 6. We took a cart. Gate 6 informed us that the plane wasn't leaving at 8PM but at 10:55PM! And, oh by the way, go to Gate 4. Gate 4 sent us back to Gate 6.........

While waiting and waiting, we met several people who had been delayed many times going to San Francisco, Austin and just about any other place you can mention. It seemed to us just a major operational snafu - not bad weather.

The good thing was we met this amazing woman named Kathryn from Austin, trying to get home to Austin. At 86 years old, she was the most interesting person we met all day. She grew up in Port Lavaca on the family homestead. A delight to talk with.........Her memorable line of the evening was, "Well, I guess we're just too tired and old to revolt". It made me laugh out loud even as tired as I was.

We FINALLY departed DFW at 12 midnight, arriving at Dulles at 5AM. Eight hours after our booked arrival. We were goosey we were so tired. An hour drive to reach West Virginia. Needless to say, it was an adventure - not one I ever want to repeat.

Oddly, I had the same experience with American Airlines thirty years ago trying to fly from Seattle to Houston. It took eleven hours and I swore I would never fly American again. It took me thirty years to forget that vow.........I won't forget again.........NEVER again.

Monday, August 02, 2010

Life Interrupts!

 



So many things to post about, so little time. I promise I'll post in a few days when I get to the USA. Life is good, interesting and not what I expected. But, isn't that the fun of life? Never knowing what to expect...........

See ya down the road in West Virginny.......
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