Late musings

I have been very lax in keeping this screed up to date. I have no excuses. It is not as if there has been a dearth of events to report. Just lazy.

San Miguel is growing like a bad weed with a new real estate office opening every week it would seem. Some new construction projects have the locals and foreign community alike up in arms over the impact this will have on their town. One is an eight story condominium that disturbs the usual 3-story limit and doesn’t “fit” architecturally with the activist’s view of how the universe should unfold. A number of town meetings have effectively cornered the new city administration so they will probably be more careful in what they approve in future. We also have, not one, but two new box-store supermarkets (Gigante and Comercial Mexicana) and an Office Depot and rumor has it that Walmart is about to begin construction. So we will be over-retailed. What is wrong with that? No need to go to Queretero or Celaya for shopping – as long as you don’t need a good Home Depot.

Some interesting data is finally being generated on retirees living in Mexico. The latest from the US of course migrationinformation.

Sister Joan and her husband Darrell visited for a couple of weeks in Nov/Dec and overlapped with a (first) visit from brother Al and his wife Fran. We had a good time in a variety of ways. Got to have a look finally at the local golf course – a nine-holer just five minutes from here. Brother Al brought his clubs and thru a friend of mine joined a local group a couple of times for their regular Wednesday tournament. The course is deceptively difficult with narrow fairways lined with fir trees and super-fast greens. It is quite well kept and in addition the club boasts a swimming pool, tennis courts and well-equipped gym as well as restaurant and bar. My excuse is that I have a shoulder problem that acts up whenever I swing a club. But I may give it a try again. Al and Fran were impressed with SMA and I expect they will be back in future for longer stays.

Played some more crib with Joan and Darrell and they brought with them a lovely set of dominos which we tried out a few times. I have since spent a nice afternoon with other friends learning the basics of the traditional game and am finding it interesting. I am still not sure what games the Mexicans play in the local cantinas but will eventually learn.

Later, over Xmas and New Year, I had the pleasure of David Black’s visit. He was working hard on his novel manuscript and we took in a number of College Bowl games – always betting on the underdogs. He claims to have made considerable progress on the novel and we look forward to reading some of it soon. Had some friends over for dinner a couple of times and David regaled them with some of his poetry.

Had to go back to the drawing board on my solar water heater. At least now I have all the leaks fixed and have changed the collector since my original idea, (aside from turning out to be an eyesore), did not work due to the collector tube thickness. I have the holding tank insulated minus a top and I think it will work when I get it covered and we get some good sun. (Hard to believe but the last week has been cool, windy and rainy.) I will report again on progress - when it works!

I indulged myself before Xmas and bought a pool table to use up the newly acquired space on my roof deck. It is a good size from the “Pool Project” people in DF and I can spend far too much time “practicing”. One goal would be to beat brother Al at 9-ball but that may be just a fantasy. I play with a few regulars frequently at the local sports bar but barely hold my own.

While the group was here we took a couple of days and visited the famous, (infamous), Edward James park, located in the middle of the Sierra Gorda. James was clearly nuts. Reputed to be the bastard son of Edward VII, he was a millionaire from an American railroad family and a patron of the arts who moved to Mexico in 1947 to grow orchids. When they were destroyed by frost he switched to architecture and built a monument to surrealism called "Las Pozas", just outside of Xilitla. He bankrolled Salvador Dali for a year or two so that shows you where he was coming from perhaps.

The drive to Xilitla crosses at least three steep mountain passes with wonderful mountain vistas and interesting sub-tropical vegetation. The road is good with little traffic but it is twisty. We overnighted in Jalpan which is the location of one of six missions built around 1750 in this area and run by Father Junípero Serra who later built missions in California. It is a beautiful little town and was all lit up for Xmas. Unfortunately it was a tad cold in the mountians there and we had some trouble staying warm.

We drove to Xilitla the next day to have a look at the surrealist concrete structures of Edward James. We could see another route back on the map and enquired locally of the road condition but the gas station attendants said it was “very curvy”. Having just spent a day and a half on what we considered “very curvy” roads we elected to return the way we had come.

That ingrate Chile-Willy has not returned and hopes have faded. He had been planning his escape for several months I believe. The new access to the roof made it easier and he got out thru my bedroom late one night in early January and has not been seen since. Too bad, he was almost trained. That is probably what tipped the scale for him.