One Year and Counting

Preparations for Nov. 2, Day of the Dead (All Souls Day) celebrations now going on around town remind me I have been in this country a year now – almost a year in this old house! I have to say on balance it has been a good one with much less stress than I had prepared for and considerably more progress on living quarters than I expected. Indeed the house is far enough along that I will hold a small housewarming party to coincide with the visit of sister Joan and spouse Darrell arriving on 8 November. I will try to keep it half neighbors and half other folks I have come to know.

On the down side I have not seen nearly as much of other parts of this country as planned. That will hopefully change in the months ahead. In fact I am planning a trip to Puerto Vallarta in early December to meet up with a cruise ship carrying several of my University graduating class celebrating 40 years. Yikes! It should be a bit of a blast to see them again. Still to be worked out is who will sit the dog and cat.

Nor have I found time to experiment with Mexican cuisine to the extent I anticipated although I have done some and have found some good things in the process. I have found the standard mexican fair can be unatractive and not very good. But hidden among the junk are some delights and there is a growing interest in "fusion" that apparently has been taking Mexico City by storm with line ups in front of some of the more renowned young chefs who have earned a reputation in this area. There are two or three restaurants in SMA that are on this track. Unfortuantely they are charging Mexico City prices.

Mexico is struggling with the after effects of two recent hurricanes that blasted through the Yucatan. The relief effort is pretty impressive in my view with all of the TV, Arts and Sports personalities trying to outdo each other in activities aimed at raising funds and donations in kind. It will be a while before things are back to normal however, as there was considerable wreckage.

I finally bought some living room furniture having been using the patio hammocks as my lounging equipment up till now. It turns out that my new door is not as big as I thought and the new stairs, with the rail up are not much wider than the earlier version. Consequently we had to lift the couch and love seat up over the top of the house and drop it into the garden on the other side – much to the amusement of the locals I am sure. The house (particularly the walls) still looks a bit too “minimalist” for my liking but it is slowly filling up with stuff. It is truly amazing how much we gather in a short time.