The Roller Coaster of Life!

 Hopefully this will post!  Obviously in the last three months, Google has decided to fool around 

with changing Blogpost and the format is completely different

Well we'll see what happens - it is the fitting end to 2020 where nothing was the same, Ha.

Wowza, it has been quite a while since I sat here.  Composed my thought for ya'll and hoped you

would enjoy reading my ramblings.  Again, it has been a good thing that we can't see the future

and have to take it "one day at a time".  Cause otherwise, I would have said, "Stop, I want off of

this roller coaster ride!"

When I last wrote I had reached acceptance that it was going to be a long haul and so best to

enjoy the ride by being patient, finding things that enhanced life and staying in touch with those

I care about via electronic means.  All of that was done.........

Festivities were all virtual!  But, better then nothing.....This was the Independence Day celebration with the iconic symbol of San Miguel, the Parroquia church and the main jardin.

Not even Day of the Dead festivities were held.  In fact, the cemeteries were closed so that there was not a large gathering of people.  Someone caught this man who worked at a vivero (nursery) delivery flowers to someone's house.  Life has its beautiful simplistic moments here.

One day when I was getting cabin fever because I had not been out for months, I got in the car and drove around San Miguel!  When what to my wondering eyes appeared these wonderful fantastical creatures in a row up on the road to  Queretaro.  No, I didn't get out and take these photos but someone did and I'm sure they brought as many smiles as possible to many, many people.  My self included.

On December 18th, two days after my friend Ann Criswell passed from covid, one of my best friends died from a long, long life at 93.  Martha Taylor was like a sister to me and in the last twenty years that I have lived in Mexico, that friendship continued to grow.  In fact any time I went to Houston, I stayed with her.  

We had met in the mid 1990's through the Houston Culinary Guild.  I remember the day we met at a luncheon.  Martha was a quiet woman who only spoke when she had something to say.  Someone was asking her about her latest sojourn to some foreign country and how the culinary world was in this place.  She and this person continued to discuss her adventures.  At that moment I thought, "I don't know this woman but I sure do want to get to know her!"  And I did.  She was a Food Historian, had owned a travel business at some point and grown up in Houston but had the most wonderful open mind about cultures, people and countries that I had never heard of until she told me about them.

She kept a separate apartment at Bayou Bend High Rise so when visiting dignitaries such as writers, other food historians or anyone that she knew in her wide circle came into town, she hosted them.  

On the Acquisitions Committee for the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, I was privileged to go with her several times to their sessions on acquisitions.  It was always an inspiring learning experience. 

I could go on and on.  Never did I show up in Houston that Martha didn't have articles for me to read, a list of restaurants for us to visit that were new in town or an exhibit at one of the many museums for us to peruse.  As I said previously, Martha had a huge curiosity about life and everything in it.

To say I will miss her would be the biggest understatement of my life.  I'm so devastated by the loss of this dear friend two weeks ago that today is the first time I have even been able to write about her.

To be sure, there will never be another person in my life who exposed me to so many avenues of life that I had never contemplated.  Martha was family to me and my family was important to her as well.

In late October I heard from the daughter of my dear friend Ann Criswell, that she had been diagnosed with Covid on her birthday.  Ann was living at a retirement home in College Station, Texas where many  people who had lived there passed on.  Ann fought the good fight but succumbed in mid December to covid.  So tragic.  The outpouring of love for this former editor of the Food Section of the Houston Chronicle was befitting all that she did in the thirty-four years as that editor.  Her many, many kindnesses and accomplishments were written about by many many many famous and every day citizens.  She was one in a million. I was devastated to lose this cool woman friend.

Here's a fun, happy photo of myself, Ann, Martha and my dear sister-in-law, Annette having lunch at a relatively new restaurant in The Heights in Houston over two years ago.  It was the last time I was in Houston.  Having this photo of this sweet memory is a gift of the many times we explored new restaurants while in town.

Moving on to what goes on here at Christmas, I am going to leave you with a couple of fun photos.

Until recently, literally in the last month or so, we have had no traffic lights in San Miguel!  BUT, at Christmas last year, due to tourist traffic, the transitos got creative with an extension cord and a lantern to direct traffic.  This photo makes me smile at the ingenuity and ability to solve a problem, Mexican style.  What doesn't show is that when the transitos at Christmas do direct traffic, people usually bring wrapped gifts and prop them up on the sides of their little step stool.  Don't you just love it?

And, last but not least, a Brit or Canadian who lives here part time, started driving his pink VW a few years ago with a few stuffed animals on it at Christmas.  Obviously, from this photo this year, he has expanded the assortment of paraphernalia that the car is covered with.  Everyone, and especially the kids, get a real smile from this!  Christmas is magical and thanks to Colin, it travels around town for everyone to see and enjoy.

                                                         FELIZ ANO NUEVO - 2021