Muy Contento

I've have spent this Sunday gardening. First it was on the patio working on my orchids and taking care of the new plants in the beds. And while I was working on what was there I was thinking about what next. How are the plants doing and if they don't adapt what I might try next. What I might buy at the San Miguel Orchid show. Under the tree, what I might plant that needs some shade but really good drainage.

Next I went up to the terrace carrying the box of plants and succulents that Ed brought me. Last year I bought a wrought iron baker's rack from and Karen and Jim planning to use it to plant succulents but I didn't have the right soil or pots for succulents so it was just a kind of messy place to put leftover pots and plants. Now it was refitted with the right pots and the right soil and I had a few succulents so I started filling the pots with the them.

Then I sat down in a chair on the terrace and relaxed. I could hear a lot of fireworks. Too many fireworks for Carly. She stayed with me on the terrace for a bit but then she went downstairs to the studio to her bed. She does not like the big boomers and these were big boomers and they seemed fairly close by.  I don't know what the occasion was today but I could also hear drum and bugles and a Mexican band playing for the Dancers.

There was a hummingbird attacking the blooming firecracker plant. A big lime hanging from the lime tree, A huge, beautiful yellow hibiscus bloom. A cool breeze. A blue sky with fluffy white clouds.  The sounds of Mexico. And so the time flew by with me just sitting in the chair looking and listening and thinking about what an amazing life I am living. I have so many blessings everyday.

It is hard from me to write about what I was feeling but I'm sure you have felt moments like this also. I was in a bubble of contentment and peace and thankfulness. No amount of money could have made this day any better.

Muy Contento

The Posada Across the Street

In the last post I was a little sad that I had not seen a neighborhood Posada. Oh, the Posada led by the San Antonio Church was wonderful but there is something very special to me when it is a grassroots event. Ask and ye shall receive.

Last night just as Carly and I were getting ready to go to bed, I heard singing in the street. We flew back to the upstairs studio to get the camera and when I looked out the window, there was the Posada knocking on the door across the street asking to come in. I was afraid that by the time I got the camera and got outside that they would have moved on so I decided to shoot from the window.

It was a good decision because just after I took this picture, the door opened and this was the house that gave Mary and Joseph room in the stable. The little house is about 10 feet wide but still all the people who had been in the street, maybe 75 or 100 people, followed Mary and Joseph into the house. I love the small bouquets. I love the candles. I love the kids lighting sparklers. I love the music. I love celebrating Christmas in such an intimate way. How blessed I am that it all happened in the street by my house.

Staying Put

A few weeks ago an architect brought me a proposal about building a new house on a great piece of property. I immediately was taken with the idea. I don't really need more house but it would be lovely to have a lot that was large enough to have garage, a garden, a bedroom and studio on the first floor. I checked with my financial advisor and we talked numbers. After he told me I could do it if I could hold the line on the cost within certain parameters, the fantasy of building another house occupied my every thought. Then the owner of the lot decided he didn't want to sell.

I was disappointed but I was in lust with the idea of a new house. I looked at a couple of new houses and checked out another lot but as the days passed I started to think about what building another house would mean. It would take at least a year, maybe a year and a half. In many ways building a house is a very creative endeavor but it is also stressful.

Is that the way I want to spend my time? You know at my age even though I feel great, time is limited. Today I've been thinking about Joan Rivers. A week ago she was still moving and grooving. Her death is another reminder of why I came to the decision that I want to travel more and do more photography more than I want to build another house. I still have my bucket list and my blue highways list. I don't want to put those things on hold for a year.

So I'm not building or buying another house. I have some things that I want to do to Casa Mercer to spruce it up but I think I'll just stay where I am. Unless.......

Help Wanted

Shot from my front door last night. It was shot at 1/5 sec, f1.8, 1600 ISO. I'm using a 45 mm f1.8 lens on the Olympus OMD E M-1 so it is the equivalent of a 90mm f1.8 lens. The lens weighs maybe 5 oz. I really, really like this lens. It is sharp and has good contrast. A similar lens on a full frame camera would weigh in at a  pound or more and probably cost 3X as much.

 

This image would have been better, and certainly would make a better print, shot at a smaller aperture and lower ISO and that would require a tripod. I have a small travel tripod but still it would be a nuisance to carry to dinner or a cocktail party. I want to go out to photograph at night with the camera on a tripod and no other agenda but a photo shoot.  I'm hesitant about doing that by myself. If I'm going to do some serious night photography, I need to hire an assistant who can be on the watch for what is happening around me while I'm setting up the shot.

 

Anyone looking for an occasional night time job?

Afternoon Rain

It is 5:00 PM and it is raining. The second hard rain this afternoon. It is especially loud in the studio because of the skylight over the stairs. I love being on the second floor where I can see the mountains fade into the rain but what is close by becomes saturated with color. When I focus on the raindrops against the window everything else disappears into a blur of watercolor. Seeing something as simple as the raindrops has brought joy to my heart on a difficult day.

My Street at Night

It wasn't exactly the middle of the night. More like 5:30 AM, the first day of Daylight Savings Time in Mexico. And it was the day that Senor de la Columna is brought to the San Juan de Dios church for Easter. It was really, really hard to roll out of bed but I had not been to the procession in several years and I wanted to go see it.

I love the colors of the lights and the shadows. There is something so peaceful about the street but also it is erie. I like photographing close to home. This shot was handheld. Not quite good enough for a print so I'll probably have to roll out of bed another time and head down the street with the camera on a tripod.

The Story on My Street Tonight

There is much wind and finally a few drops of rain fall against the window. When I got up to close the window in my studio, I saw three people huddled on the ground. A round little woman dressed in pink was squatting against the wall. A man without a shirt was lying on the ground. A boy about 13 years old in a plaid shirt and jeans was partially sitting on the man and trying to hold him down. I watched for a few minutes and it became clear that the man was very drunk. So drunk that the boy could keep him from coming to his feet and although he was thrashing about he did not appear to be trying to hurt either the woman or the boy.

Did the woman and boy go get him from a bar? Has he spent all his week's pay on drink? Are they waiting for someone to come get them? How are they going to get him home? Are they homeless?

I looked out my other window and several of the neighbors are in the street looking at what was happening.

The sprinkle of rain became harder and the woman got up and covered the man with his shirt. When I looked out again a minute later the man was sitting up but swaying. He had his shirt on and the woman and boy were sitting on each side of him in the light rain. He is not stable enough to stand. The woman wiped a cheek. Rain or tears? The neighbors have put on jackets and are still in the street watching.

Oh, my heart is breaking for this boy who is trying to deal with the man. I'm sure it is his father. What should I do? Should I call the police? If they come and take the man away will it cause more problems for the family? Why are the neighbors just standing there?

I decide to go out and see what I can find out or if I can help. When I come downstairs from getting my jacket, the police have arrived and are putting the man in their truck. The neighbors gather around the woman and the boy and take them into their house. As I come back from walking Carly, some of those neighbors are coming back from the tienda and going into the house with drinks and snacks.

I am relieved because it seems that the neighbors are helping this woman and boy. But my mind is filled with stories of the life of the boy before tonight and what his life will be like in the future. 

I can't write these stories but they are there waiting for a writer to pluck them out of the air and put them down on paper. And yes, I am sure there were stories on the streets that I lived on in Houston but here the street is so much closer.  

A Death in the Neighborhood

This afternoon around 3:30 I heard voices in the street and about the time I went to the window to look out I heard a siren. It was an ambulance. I opened my front door and there on the sidewalk was one of my neighbors who lives across and about four or five houses up the street. He was lying there with people standing around in a half circle. The ambulance crew checked him and quickly loaded him in the ambulance and his wife got in the front seat. Other members of the family were being hugged and comforted. The ambulance left but not with sirens blaring.

I went out and talked to another neighbor who told me that he heard people and when he went out the man was just lying there and he immediately thought that the man was dead. But he didn't know what happened.

I looked out the window again about 7:30. There was a crowd gathered in front of the house and I saw the coffin being taken into the house. The young men in the family were bringing in folding chairs from the furniture rental place up the street.

I'm overwhelmed with sadness for the family. He and his wife were not old. I'd guess between 45 and 55. He sold small punched tin pieces from the trunk of his car in front of the San Francisco Church at night. She sells snacks from the front room of their house and they have a few video game machines that use to be frequented a lot before cell phones with their handheld games.

He was a handsome man with a mustache. About 5ft 9in and slender. His clothes were not expensive but he wore them with style.

I've been thinking about the last time I saw him. I think it was last Friday. He was standing in front of his house when I passed by. We nodded and said Buenas Dias.

Of all of the people who might have died on my street today, never, ever, would I have expected it to be him.

I Never Thought I Would See the Day.....

I've had my house for 12 years and I never thought I would see the day when I could go on line and order from Amazon and have it show up at my door but it has happened.

I needed a travel tripod that would fit in my suitcase and not weigh too much. I have a tripod I love but it is too long and too heavy for the current luggage restrictions on airplanes. I was on line looking at tripods, thinking that I'd have to have it shipped to one of the services that brings stuff across the border when I noticed that Amazon said that the tripod was available for global shipping. Whoa! Would this be cheaper and/or faster than the local services I had used in the past? I decided to give it a try.

I placed my order on the afternoon of January 26th
The tripod shipped on January 27
January 28 it arrived in Mexico City
January 29 it left Mexico City
January 30 at 2:30 PM UPS rang my doorbell.

I paid about 10% of the cost of the item for shipping and handling but that will vary based on the size and weight of what you are ordering.

I did not have to pay any sales tax since it was being shipped outside of the USA. That saved me about 8.75% of Texas sales tax which just about did away with the cost of shipping and handling.

And then the cost to clear customs was about 18%. A little more than the usual 16 or 17%  but maybe there are brokers involved.

I am amazed. I never thought I would be able to order from Amazon and have it show up at my front door in FOUR days. Besides that I really like this colorful 15" tall tripod. Red is a good color for me.

Volkswagen in Mexico

Before four Volkswagen Beetles arrived in Mexico in 1954 for an exhibition featuring German industry, Mexicans mostly owned big imported American cars that carried big price tags. The small and less expensive Beetles caused quite a stir in the Mexico City exhibition and by 1961 a few hundred Volkswagens a year were being assembled in Mexico from kits shipped in from Germany.

In 1967 Volkswagen opened an auto plant in Puebla and started cranking out the little cars. After Germany cancelled production of the Beetle in Europe in 1978, Mexico exported the car to a number of European countries.

When we started coming to Mexico in the 80's there were a lot of Beetles on the street. Let me correct that because there was not anywhere near the density of cars on the street as we have now but the Beetle was a high percentage of them. Mexico City's taxis were mostly Beetles or as the Mexicans lovingly call them Vochos.

But all good things come to an end. Production of the Mexican Vocho ceased in 2003. But that doesn't mean they are gone. There is a Vocho that lives on the street behind me and it is still a working car.

I think this Vocho that I photographed was a 1993-1995 model because of the shape of the vents on the rear "hood." I'm sure some of you car guys can identify the exact model and year. How do you guys do that?

At any rate, this particular Beetle has seen better days and since it survived San Miguel's cobblestone streets for almost 20 years, it explains why Mexicans loved them.

This Morning

Looking out the kitchen window at 10 o'clock this morning the mountains are still shrouded in a fog although the sun is shining in town. It is a beautiful morning, clear and cool. A soft rain last night left a wet footprint on the patio and the colors are vibrant. I love my little patio. It was one of the things I fell in love with the first time I saw this house.

There is something so special about the mornings in this house. One morning last week I woke up and looked though the tree foliage outside my bedroom window. The sky was a neon blue. Really, neon blue! Such an amazing color that I was afraid to move for fear it would disappear. I don't think I've ever seen that color in the morning sky before.

I have made breakfast, had coffee, read emails and now, a loaf of banana nut bread is in the oven. It is filling the kitchen with warmth and a wonderful smell that is so comforting.

It was just a week ago today that I returned to San Miguel and the return this September is so different this year than it was last year when I came back for the first time after Ned died. Then I wasn't sure if I would stay in San Miguel or not but within a week or two I was pretty sure that I would. This year there were not any questions in my mind about living here. I truly came home.

Every morning last week when I woke up, my soul was filled with peace and joy but it was not a shout-out-loud joy. It was more like a sense of being in the right place. I do not know what tomorrow will bring but I am so thankful for this moment; the smell of baking bread, my hands in warm soapy dishwater, the view out the kitchen window, the birds chirping away on the patio, Carly napping near by. I am blessed.

My Internet Was Down

Today there was a segment on Sunday Morning News about our dependency on Smart Phones and Tablets. Some people even say they are addicted to staying in touch all of the time and become anxious and depressed when they can't. I can relate to that feeling. This past week I was without Internet for four days. That means that I could not get email, I could not do searches, my Vonage phone did not work. I was totally out of touch with my family. This week there were reasons that I really, really needed to be in touch. Sooo, I was anxious, depressed and angry.

The Internet being out reminded me why it is hard to live here. I can put up with the bells, the roosters, the noise in the hood, the shopping challenges but doing business in Mexico seems terribly complicated and customer service is so far from the US model that it is hard to recognize that it exists.

You can't call the cable company and tell them that your cable is out. Oh, there are phone numbers but no one ever, ever answers. The only way to let them know is to go there, take a number and wait in line. I estimate that the cable company is about 3/4 of a mile away from my casa. I walked there, took my number, waited and reported that my cable was out. They told me that they would check it out in the office and call me in the afternoon if they needed to come to my house the next day. It was two days later when the cable guy showed up at the door but the Internet had started working about 30 minutes before he knocked. He told me it was a system problem but he checked out my modem anyway.

I was ready to switch to TelMex for the Internet and I still may. Some people I know have both MegaCable and TelMex because they do business via the net and they can't be down for several days at a time.

All of this just points out how dependent we have become on technology. When we first started coming to San Miguel there wasn't such a thing as Vonage phones or MagicJack or Skype. And the Internet was slow and not dependable at all. No one had a cell phone of any kind much less a Smart Phone. In fact, it could take you a year to get a phone line in your house. Here we are 12 or 13 years later able to connect with the world. And we expect that technology to be available all of the time or we start to have withdrawal. I think it is stuff like this in San Miguel that just snowballs for some people until they decide to head North. I wasn't a happy camper last week but I'm not heading North.

The image is of shadows on the terrace. I have a new photo toy I'll tell you about in another post.

Re-Entry

I'm back in San Mighel de Allende but as usually happens there are some re-entry problems. One of those problems is a big one. I'm not sure yet exactly what it is but it could be a monitor on the way out, a bad graphic card or some other computer problem.

At first I was sure that it was the monitor and I was making arrangements for someone to import a new one for me. This was after I had spent several hours researching Samsung monitors. Why Samsung monitors, you ask. Because Samsung monitors are made in Mexico and I figured that I would be able to either find a way to buy the one I wanted on line in Mexico or Samsung Mexico could help me.  I was wrong. I did find a phone number for Samsung but it went back to the USA. The customer service rep there spent considerable amount of time  trying to find a way for me to contact Samsung MX but he couldn't do it either.

Last night about eight, the thought finally came to me to start the computer in safe mode and see how the monitor looked. It looked okay. Sooo...it may not be a monitor problem. My computer tech is out of town but will be back and will check out the whole system. Until then, I'm on the iPad and you will not be seeing any pictures.

Another problem is the pigeons. I have a pair that are trying to nest in the portico. I've broken the eggs, torn down the nest and I go out about every 15 minutes to chase them away but those stupid birds are not discouraged.

I'm thankful to be home. I'm thankful that the Internet was working when I returned. I'm very happy to have Carly home. I'm surprised that the weather isn't as hot as it has been sometimes in May. In fact, the nights are cool. Charles will come and figure out the computer problem. I WILL WIN the battle with the pigeons. Life is good!

Contentment on A Saturday Morning

Fruit Vendor in the Jardin - March 2013

In the distance roosters crowing

Patio birds chirping merrily

Cool, quiet house

Carly curled on blanket

Breakfast...bisquits, bacon and eggs

John's homemade blueberry jam
Delightful

Saturday morning

Not leaving the house

Organic market, not today

Piddle with ideas

Photos, drawing, writing
Satisfaction

Cyber travel

Artist's journal websites

Mexico City to New York City

Email connections with friends

Photos from Gary in London

Connected to the world

Enjoyment



Friday of Sorrows

Tonight I photographed some of the Viernes de Dolores altars in my Colonia. If you would like to see some more of the images click here to go to the gallery.