MORE Street Scenes - San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

When I come around the corner and see the man from the mountains bringing either tierra for the summer gardens or firewood for the winter fireplaces, my heart always skips a beat.

I've written about these people before who walk for nine hours from the oak and pine forests up near the extinct volcano south of San Miguel to sell these two items throughout the year.

They can't go home til everything is sold. It's too steep a climb if the burros are still loaded.

Just a week or so ago it was about 2 PM and I saw three men and the elderly woman resting up against a wall before starting their trek back. I can't even imagine their lives.

I feel honored to witness these people. I'm grateful to live in Mexico.

Giggling All Afternoon

My plans were to go to the tianguis on Tuesday, but, it didn't happen.  I was home in the morning when at some point while doing paperwork in the garden I heard a LARGE truck coming up the hill.  It didn't turn as they usually do and continue up the hill.  It revved its engine and jerked around.  Finally I walked into the dining room to see what was going on and...........

 At this point I saw a city truck dumping (which is illegal) on the side of the road.  I picked up my camera that was nearby and started photographing through the screen.  The driver looked up, saw me, jumped out of the truck and gestured to me that it was going to be pushed over the hill!  I kept photographing, much to his consternation.

 This was the pile that was left there.  It was much higher then it looks.  This photo was taken from my roof terrace looking down.
I had once been at a gardening meeting where the head of Ecologia brought up the subject of illegal dumping.  He said, "If you see it, photograph it and get a description of the vehicle".  I did that.

 Much to my amazement, within 30 minutes this dozer was here and scooping up dirt and moving it so fast!                                                           It was funny to watch.

         He made little piles here and there.  Just to get rid of the pile of the dirt that had been dumped.

I think it was a "CYA" operation all based on the fact that the dump truck driver saw me photographing.  No more dirt has been dumped out there.  No more little piles made either. 

                                          I found the whole thing pretty darn funny.  Glad I had my camera!

Hurricane Water

"Hurricane water" is not the Gulf of Mexico.  Although, of course, in my case it usually came from there in the form of a hurricane.
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No, "hurricane water" is the bottled water that you run to the grocery store to buy to tide you over for the three or more days that you might not have clean water from your tap.

In preparation for hurricanes, we would buy canned tuna, bread, peanut butter and things that could be opened with a can opener and didn't have to be cooked.  Along with that I always bought "hurricane water".

After living through three weeks in August 1983 - that would be August 18th - without electricity, one learns WHAT is important in such a situation.  Believe me, water is #1. Add ice to that also, if it was possible to get.

Of course in preparation, we also filled bathtubs and jugs with water to flush toilets and for sponge bathing.

When I left Houston to move to Mexico, after having saved at least 10 large plastic bottles of water in the garage each time I moved, my daughter said, "Mom, its time to give up the hurricane water".

I truly am glad, at this point, that I never have to evacuate again, worry about evacuating or save "hurricane water".  My heart and thoughts go out to all my friends in the Gulf Coast area who are in the "waiting mode" to see if they evacuate or stay in place.

Hopefully, this too shall pass.

Megacable, Telmex, Clinica De la Fe and Me!

 WHAT a week!

I awoke Sunday morning "sicker then a hound dog" - that's pretty sick!  It went downhill from there.
Tuesday I roused myself from bed to drive myself to the clinic.  While driving I realized I was pretty weak and probably shouldn't be behind the wheel of the car - so I went about 20 mph on the libramento.

The doc did tests in the lab, 40 pesos ($3.20), told me I had a "raging" bacterial infection.  I mistakenly thought that was better then amoebas.  Now I understand the term "raging" better.  I've been horizontal for the most part since Sunday morning except when I was indisposed in the bano.  Not fun. The Drs. visit was 500 pesos ($40), the meds were 600 pesos ($48).  An expensive day for me!

During this time of bed rest, there has been the constant banging, tapping and scraping on the wall of the paint crew.  I use that term loosely.  I now understand psychological torture.  I tried for a day to pretend I was watching the musical ensemble "Stomp".   It didn't work.  It starts at 8:30AM and goes til 6PM each day.  Will it ever end?  Hopefully. It has almost been two weeks.

The good news is Megacable came, installed the wireless modem in the guest house and the guest, fellow blogger Steve, is in business again with his writing.  Very pleasant and competent installers.  I now have to return the unworking modem to Telmex and hope they don't charge me for "no service" ever.

My dance card, surprisingly, was very full for dinner parties this weekend.  Starting last night.  That is unusual for me.  Sadly all have been cancelled due to the fact that I'm only eating "bland" food.  Doctor's orders.
Actually I didn't even have a regular meal til last night that I cooked.  So to go to someone's home for a fine meal and not be able to eat would not be a nice thing to do.

The other good news is that I'm about eight pounds lighter since Sunday.  Not my idea of a diet but neither was the "cough drop" diet when I had whooping cough.  That was a whopping 35 pounds. 

Amazingly, even though I haven't been out of the house other then the one hour to the Dr since last Friday, I haven't had "cabin fever".  Guess "I have that going for me" as Jennifer used to say.

Street Scenes in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

Driving over to my car mechanic's shop in Col. Guadalupe a couple of weeks ago, I did a double take as I came around the corner and saw this delightfully whimsical mural painted on a white wall.

I'm always jumping out of the car to take photos of something.  I don't think anything of it.  ( I do always pull over and not block traffic).  This time as I was photographing I noticed a couple of policeman watching me.  I waved, yelled "Magnifico" and they smiled and waved back.

Isn't it great?

The guy on the bike leading the psychedelic cow is just fabulous.  A delightful street scene for all to enjoy.

Viva Mexico!

Velcro's Routine

Velcro is becoming as set in her ways as a 70 year old woman who hasn't been married in 35 years.  Because of this the 70 year old woman is trying to decide if she likes having to follow the non-verbal signals from her formerly feral cat, who now allows almost anyone who comes to the house to pet her!

Here's the routine.  Starting with early morning.........say some time after 6AM.  Velcro jumps on the screen door and rocks it to make noise.  This door is the door from the patio to my bedroom.  It is 5 feet from my ears.  Needless to say, it is hard to ignore. Sometimes just to see how long it will go on, I lay in bed and see if she will persist.  She does.  It's easier to just get up, let her in, and go back to bed.  She goes and eats, I presume, then comes down, jumps on her corner of the bed (the one farthest from me) and settles down til I get up.

The minute I get up, she jumps on the counter by the bathroom sink and waits for me to fill the bowl with water.  So I ignore her, brush my teeth, put in my contacts, take my pills then fill the sink.  She is patient.

Next intrusion is when I go upstairs and get my coffee to sit and look out the window, enjoy the view and think about the day.  IF I have made muffins or home made banana bread, then she is up next to me waiting for a very tiny piece.  Not much - just a taste.

Then we kinda go our separate ways.  She to a place to stretch out and sleep.  Me to get on with the day.

IF she wants to go up to the roof terrace to catch lizards, she'll sit on the steps to the roof and each time I walk by those stairs she'll run up, look at me and wait to see if I'll go up and open the door for her.  I usually don't.  When I do, she makes a bee line and is out the screen door up there.

Later on in the day, if I'm on the chaise in the living room watching the news, and Jeopardy, she comes, sits on the edge of the chaise and watches Jeopardy.  I mean at attention.  Darndest thing I've ever seen.

At bedtime, she back on the corner of the bed, farthest from me and sleeps.  Well she sleeps til 3:15AM every morning and then wants to go out.  I've TRIED ignoring her.  She has three ways to make sure that I hear her.  First she jumps up on the back of the headboard and walks across it.  Of course I hear her.  If that doesn't work, she starts pulling on the drapes across the windows and door.  If that doesn't work, her newest trick is she comes over to the rug next to my side of the bed and crinkles it all up, which makes noise.

It's just easier to get up at 3:15 and let her out and go back to bed.  Once, just once, I threw a pillow at her at 3:15 and she did go and lay down and wait til I got up.  But, I worried that she REALLY needed to go out and hardly slept anyway.

My question is, "How can a creature who doesn't speak get their way almost all the time"?

At least I don't have to go walk her every day and every night.

Going "with the flow" - Part II

I pride myself on being able to go with the flow about 99.9% of the time.  Yesterday I hit the .1%, I'm embarassed to admit.

Dealing with companies and systems in Mexico sometimes do that to me.  Usually I can go to a "calm place" but NOT yesterday.

The saga began on August 9th when I went to Telmex to set up wireless internet for the guest house.  In the past I didn't provide that service and it was up to the tenant to set it up.  Always it was done with Telecable which is the alternative internet carrier here. 

I would have done the same on the 9th of August but a few days prior, the new owner of Telecable who is now Megacable began offering 120 channels of TV service for 100 pesos.  From the lines in their building it appeared that all 180,000 inhabitants of the area known as San Miguel and its environs were trying to get that service.  Hence, I decided to go with Telmex.  It seemed logical since the telephone service in the guest house is Telmex.

Upon arriving at Telmex on the 9th of August, the service was set up, the wireless modem was handed to me and I was gone in 15 minutes.  I was amazed, shocked and disbelieving that anything could be so simple.  But, I convinced myself that I had not had to deal with Telmex in eleven years and happily they had obviously gotten their act together.

Au contrare!

On the 14th when the new tenant of the guest house arrived, he was presented with the wireless modem, the instructions and the 1-800 number, if he had any questions.  He is tech savvy so I had no doubt it would take a few minutes.

Oh trusting me.  Telmex had never turned the service on.  Said they were having server problems and didn't know when they could turn the service on.  Meanwhile, in my house I have Telmex internet so we knew it was a bunch of hooey.

So Friday morning I trooped to Telmex with bill to show when I came in, explained my problem at the local office and was told there was nothing they could do.  ONLY the 1-800 people could do something.

So, off to Megacable I went.  Are you still with me?  The plot thickens.  A new employee helped me fill out a contract for wireless internet service. I signed the contract and was told a technician would bring the modem in 1-10 days..........Aaargh.  Then about 1 1/2 hours later the new employee called to say I had an unpaid balance on this address.  I told him that had been an administrative error that was resolved last April and that I had all the paperwork showing that.  He, of course, asked me to bring the paperwork.  Off I went again to Megacable.

It was jam packed with people.  I sat down and patiently waited 45 minutes to see the new employee.  I go into a "zone".  I was fine.  The new employee saw me and smiled.  As it was my time and he finished with the customer prior to me, I got up and walked to sit down in front of his desk at the urging of his supervisor.

THEN SOMETHING HAPPENED.

A lady who had walked in not even five minutes before cornered the new employee, handed him her problem paperwork and off he went with her!  I sat another 30  minutes, fuming.

Then I did something that I have never done before in the forty years I've been in Mexico, I told off a Mexican man.  I told him what he had done was wrong.  That that was poor customer service.  That I was displeased and they needed to have a number system or something so that people went in proper order.

He apologized and apologized.  I was of course sorry that I said anything.  I re-explained everything to him, pointed out the woman who had helped me in April and the fact that while he was off helping the other woman she said she remembered me and would explain it all to him.  So he made copies of my receipts and I left.

At 5:30 last night he called to say that the only way they could set up the contract was to use my address and not the guest house.  Whatever.  Yes, of course, I said.

Then I apologized to him for saying those things to him.  He was very, very gracious and said he had learned a good lesson.  He said his supervisor had told him the same thing after I left. 

Even though I wasn't rude to him, I felt bad that I even said something.  Guess I didn't "go with the flow".  I was more like a tidal wave.

I'll let you know if or when we get the internet in the guest house.  It will probably be about the time the walls get painted.......................oy vey!

Going with the "flow"............

I had stayed home most of the week and by Wednesday, after a full week of not being on the bench in the jardin, I felt a need to walk down the hill, buy a paper and watch the world go by.

 After a while of reading the paper and looking up to see what was going on around me, I noticed this couple dressing and all in one color.  Hmmm, what the heck was going on?

They progressed in their costumes.  I loved sitting and photographing.  Watching them out of the corner of my eye.

At full tilt, here they are!  Quite a different type of costume from other mimes I've seen throughout Mexico.

They were quiet (ha, mimes) and unassuming.  The lack of color in their costumes made them even more startling and attractive, I thought.

When I left home that morning, I certainly didn't expect to see something this poetic and magical.  Such a gift. The gift the week before was listening to the Chamber Music students.  It's always something in the jardin.

As we were all enthralled with the mimes, this old friend and that old friend showed up.  Some who I had not seen in months.  Many of them were those who we always had lunch together with in past years.  At least once a week.  We were known as the "lunch bunch".  It just happened. All of us showing up. It wasn't planned. 

Great to see Margaret and Ward who live most of the year in California but have a house here and show up every now and then. Tom back from Dallas.  Emmie from Guatemala where she sells yachts and sail boats on the Rio Dulce.  What a fun group.

And, super to see this dear friend,  Hugo.  He and his wife Donne were some of my first friends in San Miguel when I moved here.  Lots of fun and silly memories we have from the last eleven years.  Donne and Hugo are moving to Kerrville to be near kids and grandkids.
Totally understandable.  They will be greatly missed.

Going "with the flow" is the only way to live here.  If I had tried to imagine that few hours happening the way it did, I couldn't ever have planned for that day to happen that way.

It's the surreal way that Mexico happens.

Renting in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

When rentng in Mexico, including San Miguel de Allende, it is expected that the tenant maintains everything and pays the bills agreed upon at the signing of the lease or the verbal agreement. The bills are usually the telephone, electricity, propane gas, water and anything else one wants for comfort in living.

I have abided by that agreement for eleven years! I love the houses.  A few months ago the owners of the property and collectors of the rent from me on both houses stopped by to tell me that if I needed ANYTHING done I should call them.  Imagine my surprise.

As the paint began its annual peel down the wall once the rains began, I wondered if I should follow up with them and have them handle repainting the wall.  I've done it more times then I can count.  When I have the painter here it is scraped and painted in a day.


After pondering, I thought, "What the heck, why not?"
It would save me quite a bit of money - materials and labor. 

A week ago the owner came and we agreed "they", whoever that was, would be here to scrape on Saturday.  In my mind it would be four or five guys and it would be done in hopefully two days.

Two people came with two little scrapers, about 2 inches wide.  After the first day I went out and looked.  I estimated at that rate it might be done by mid September.  I didn't want to look a "gift horse" in the mouth but I felt that I probably should say something about the amount of manpower.  In a polite and discreet way.
I did.

I suggested that rather then one or two people working a few hours that possibly more people for longer days needed to have larger scrapers.  Actually that worked for a couple of days.  The photo above and the photo below are five days of scraping and, oh yes, painting the gate.

At this rate, hopefully it will be finished by this time next week.
  I figure its another lesson from the Universe on patience and letting go.

When do YOU think it will be finished?

Helen Gurley Brown

I'm sure there are many people who have no idea who Helen Gurly Brown was.  She died yesterday at the age of 90 years old.

Helen Gurly Brown was the Editor of Cosmopolitan magazine.  A magazine I read back in the late 70's and 80's.

I read that magazine because of the underlying message, to me, which was, "You can do it!"  At that point I needed to hear that affirmation.

In addition that magazine told me what it was like to be a single woman.  Whether you had children or not. Whether you had ever been married or not.

My life had radically changed in 1978 when my husband died.  I at 36, with three teenagers was the sole breadwinner from then to now.

I had married at 19.  Had no idea what a single life was like or would be like.  Many articles in that publication were helpful.  Better then Better Homes and Gardens or Ladie's Home Journal.  A few of the articles were on dating.  Something I had not done in almost 17 years.  I had no clue.

Initially I read many self-help books.  Attempted to go to a Parents Without

Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend

It started out as a snuggle up on the bed under Grammy's fluffy blanket.  But when Sebastian decided to close the door for us, hanging on the wall behind were all the "jewels".  Just costume jewelry to me, but to Matilda, truly jewels.

As tiny as she is, the more we piled on the happier she was.  It brought back memories of all the other granddaughters playing at my house in Houston many, many years ago.

The kids, Sebastian and Matilda came over yesterday for lunch.  Matilda loves to help me cook.  Stirring and breaking eggs are her favorite things.   Oh, and pouring things into the cooking dish.  I have a little step ladder that is perfect for her.  She has her own apron and knows right where it is.  I'm continuing the tradition started twenty years ago. 

In fact, Jessica, who will soon turn 21 was on the cover of the Cooking Section of the Houston Chronicle about 17 or 18 years ago baking Christmas cookies with Grammy.  THAT was a really fun experience. She was a mini celebrity at school when that happened.

Where was Sebastian while Mati and I were cooking and playing dress up?  In "his jungle" with a new dump truck he got that had a shovel and a rake.  Yup, he was raking rocks and dirt and having the time of his life with his daddy.

What was Grammy doing?  Smiling and storing up wonderful memories.

Mezmerizing Music

The Chamber Music Festival is going on for over two weeks here in San Miguel with quartets such as Pacifica, who I heard last Saturday night.  Breathtaking. They are Grammy winners and the resident quartet in NYC at the New York Met.
The Cassat Quartet and the Atlanta Chamber Players remain to be heard, among others.  For other information, search San Miguel Chamber Music Festival.

Sold out audiences at every performance - often small children - who sit totally still throughout the two hour performance.

There are many, many music students also who come to be mentored, to perform on stage and to enjoy the same music that we, paying customers, get to hear.

Today a few of the music students had an impromptu performance in the jardin during lunch time.  People stopped and listened for a while and then moved on.  NOT this little tike above and in the bottom photo.
He was mesmerized by the music and the performers.  He hardly moved. 

 His big brother, who wasn't so big, watched him closely to make sure he didn't fall or get hurt.  The little one was oblivious to that and just watched and listened to the music - from beginning to end.

Possibly a future performer?  Hope so.

Last Week in Photos

Life interrupts sometimes and there is just not enough time to write a post.  With a houseguest to show Mexico and San Miguel de Allende to,  it was chock-a-block full.

We started out at the Tuesday Market.  That is such an overload of visual stimulation I felt that if that was survived then the rest would be easy. 

The very first thing we saw upon arriving besides the turkeys, rabbits, wild birds and other assorted creatures in cages was this clown.  I've never seen a clown at the Tuesday Market before!  The children were in awe. My guest was equally surprised.

Colorful as the clown were the tables set up with nuts and candies for sale.  The presentation is always something to enjoy.

That night, for some reason, the mojigangas were in the jardin.  Playful as always. they enjoyed dancing at us and dipping and laughing.  What fun!  And what an eyeful for someone coming from the USA.

A trip to Atotonilco is always awe inspiring.  The one thing I had never seen before is this new statue of Hidalgo.  Well done.  They have also added a paved plaza in front of the church and painted all the houses in town.  Prior to UN World Heritage designation, the whole town was white.  I'm not sure how I feel about the change of painting everything. 

There were the usual side trips to various restaurants.  All delicious. Dinners and lunches were with various friends.  The arts and crafts fair at the Instituto was Saturday.  But, of course, the highlight for me was going to see the grandkids at the Real de Minas pool on Saturday.

Here's Sebastian getting ready to turn around and jump back in the pool.  That's his daddy's hands holding on..............

As all kids are, they will stay in the pool til their fingers shrivel and they are waterlogged.  Here they are coming to Grammy wrapped in big towels.  They wanted a little snuggle time.

There isn't a Grammy I know who doesn't revel in hugging and loving their little grandchildren.  What a happy treat.

The weekend was finished out by having lunch in the country at Nirvana restaurant.  A delightful and delicious experience.  My order was huitlacoche and squash blossom soup followed by salmon covered in a mango chutney sauce, fresh vegetables and a delicious rice.

The food, as I said, was delicious and the grounds were incredibly beautiful.  Sorry I didn't get a photo of that but you can rest assured, next time I will!