Day of the Dead 2009

November 2 is traditionally the Mexican holiday Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. This wonderful holiday is set aside to honor those who have died. It is thought that the dead relatives and friends will come back on this day to reconnect with their earthly lives. As you can see from these photos, it is a celebratory day, not a sad one. And I think it reflects the Mexican attitude toward accepting the inevitable and enjoying the time they have here on earth.

We decided to take the opportunity yesterday to also bury Maggie's ashes. We had brought her remains down with us from Maine and had been trying to decide what to do with them. Since she loved our garden, we decided to bury her between the Birds of Paradise plants, and to sprinkle some of her ashes on the wall. She continually tried to fly up there to see the birds. We lit a special Guadalupe candle to commemorate her grave. The candle is still burning today.





On Sunday, we held our annual Day of the Dead service at our Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. Each year we decorate a large table with traditional marigolds, skulls, and other Mexican Day of the Dead art, and people bring photos to share and talk about during the service. Here are a couple of photos from this year's service.



















When we went to Chapala last night for the festivities, we made a special effort to see the elaborate altar prepared by Maria Elena, our maid. She and her family always have one of the largest altars, and last night was no exception. Here is a photo of Maria Elena with Pixie, Fred and me. Maria Elena is wearing the fleece we brought her back from our visit north.

What's Going on in Mexico Now?

The clouds over Chapala are persisting as the rain continues occasionally. Tonight we had a major downpour, although most days are now rain-free. Soon there will be no rain at all and the mountains will once again turn brown and dusty. Right now wildflowers grace the mountains and provide beautiful color on our daily walks, like this scene I snapped the other day on my morning walk in Riberas del Pilar.

Pixie and I have been working off and on most of the week to get our home, and our lives, back in order after our long summer absence. Besides unpacking the RAV4 with all the odds and ends we brought back, we had to replace our very old washing machine which bit the dust as soon as we got back. This is an example of higher prices in Mexico. The cheapest decent washer we could find was about 4100 pesos, or about $340 USD. But at least now we can wash all those dirty clothes we brought home!

We also had to clean our ajibe (ah hee bay), our underground water stone water tank. The water which is pumped into it by the city had sat stagnant for several months while we were gone, and it was turning green! For about 900 pesos ($72) we had a gang come in, drain the ajibe, scrub it down and let it refill. We replaced all the filters too, so now our water is purified and we're ready to shower and cook. We still drink bottled water because we prefer the taste.

We also had to prune our large queen palms in the back yard. This is a big task, and we hire professionals to do it for 350 pesos per tree. Here is a photo.

So, we're just about back to normal and fitting into our previous life. Since I got back late, I am not teaching now. The semester already started and they found a substitute for my class. That's okay though. I am planning to take some time off and explore some other volunteer opportunities. My new book of poems, Agave Blood, has gone to the printers in Guadalajara and should be ready soon.

When I got back, I was very grateful to see that our friends Susan and Steve Barr had saved all the issues of the Guadalajara Reporter I had missed, so I could catch up on all the local and Mexican news from the period I was away. As I skimmed the papers, I noticed a few big stories which might be interesting to share.

Perhaps the biggest Mexican news over the summer was the July mid-term election. For over 40 years, I think, the PRI party had ruled Mexico. Other parties competed but never won. There was widespread election corruption and Mexican democracy suffered as a result. In 2000, the PRI party was finally ousted when the PAN candidate, Vicente Fox, won the election for president. The PAN party is a conservative, pro-business, pro-NAFTA party generally friendly to the United States. The current president, Felipe Calderon, elected in 2006, is also a member of PAN. In that election, the old PRI party finished a poor third to PAN and the new leftist PRD party. PRI was in disrepute and weak. In this year's July midterm elections, PRI surprisingly surged back into power in the legislature. I think Calderon's popularity has suffered because of the strong war he has been fighting with the drug cartels which has resulted in a large spike in violence, mostly in the border areas. The economic downturn has also hurt the ruling PAN party. Many poorer Mexicans I have spoken with feel an emotional affinity for PRI, crediting them with many of the social reforms like starting the IMSS pension and medical program, limiting the influence of the Catholic church, and building schools and hospitals. Although Jalisco is conservative, Jorge Sandoval, the PRI candidate for mayor of Guadalajara, easily beat the PAN candidate by 48 to 32 percent. This sets up an interesting government for the next three years as PRI will likely block many of Calderon's programs as both parties jockey for the 2012 presidential elections. Mexican presidents are limited to one six-year term. Who knows what will happen if the leftist PRD party also grows stronger?Many Latin American countries now have leftist governments.

The big news in today's paper is about a planned fumigation of all of Guadalajara to kill mosquito eggs to limit the spread of dengue fever, which I mentioned in the last post. Sixty nebulizer-equipped pick up trucks will drive around Guadalajara over the next 4 weeks "fumigating" all areas of the city. Residents are urged to open their windows when the trucks come to their neighborhoods to allow their houses to be fumigated as well. They must be using some type of pesticide for this process, but there was no mention in the article about the health concerns of such a practice. The thinking must be that the danger of dengue fever is more of a health threat.

Another interesting piece in today's paper relates to people self-medicating themselves to treat the swine flu. Mexico allows virtually all prescription strength drugs to be sold over-the-counter with no prescription. This can be a dangerous practice as Mexican people, strapped for cash, try to treat themselves with antibiotics which, of course, do nothing to treat a viral disease like the flu. I have also read about people suffering ill effects from using the wrong medication or causing serious drug interactions. Some politicians in Mexico are suggesting the law allowing these over-the-counter drug sales be repealed. By the way, Mexico has also recently decriminalized small amounts of most illicit drugs, including marijuana, cocaine, and heroin. Interesting. Will the US follow suit? Not likely, although some form of legalization might be the only way to curb the drug violence.

I'll cover some other interesting news stories in future posts. Today I'll include one final happy photo. Lisa, Steve and Susan's daughter visited Lakeside last week with her boyfriend, Buck. Here is the happy couple.

South of the Border, Again...At Last!

Well, we have finally made it back to Mexico after a long and eventful visit north to Maine. Pixie drove down, with help from our son Eric, to Muncie, Indiana; alone from Muncie to Memphis; and with our friend Trudy from Memphis to Ajijc. They arrived here Sunday evening after a long drive from Saltillo, and I flew down Tuesday.

We are very grateful to be back home again. Our house is still wonderful. Our friends
Lynn and Gary, who were storing some of their stuff here (they will relocate back to Mexico in a few more years), had a yard sale and sold most of their stuff while we were gone. We bought a few pieces of furniture from them and now have a fully-furnished guest room. They generously left us a few unexpected items which we found upon our return. The garden is green and lush. Our young gardener, Horacio, took excellent care of all the plants in our absence, with some help from our maid, Maria Elena. The weather is in the 80's and sunny, and it was especially good to see so many of our friends here.

Pixie and Trudy had a good drive down. They enjoyed some shopping. Trudy used to live in Dallas and was able to show Pixie around a bit. In Texas they stopped at Willie Nelson's place. Here they are:

The first night after I arrived home, we attended a 70th birthday party for our friend Fred Harland. They hosted a French dinner at a local restaurant, and many people "roasted" Fred. He is not that easy to roast since he is such a perfect guy. Here are Fred and his wife, Mardele:

We are now at the end of the rainy season. The mountains are green and the wildflowers are out. This year's season produced less rain than most years. This raises a concern since this area of Mexico depends on the rainfall from June through October for virtually all its rain for the year. We will see how the deficit of rain will play out in terms of the lake and the underground aquifers from which we draw our water. Speaking of the lake, as you can see from the photo above, the invasive hyacinth they call "lirio," is back. For the last year, since the end of the last rainy season in 2008, there has been almost no lirio on the lake. The rain brings it back, to some degree, but we were surprised to see the amount on the lake now. Here is a closer shot which shows the plant better: keep in mind that this entire area was open water when we left:

Another legacy of the rainy season here is a rise in the number of cases of the tropical disease, Dengue Fever. This is a disease many of us northerners are unfamiliar with, but it can potentially be serious, even deadly. It is a mosquito-borne virus which is more rampant during the time mosquitoes are breeding. The rainy season creates standing water which allows them to breed. The majority of cases are mild to moderate and go unreported. A few cases, however, are of the hemorrhagic type, similar to the Ebola virus in Africa. The local paper reported last week that the government has reported that there may have been as many as 20,000 cases of Dengue in our State of Jalisco. Since this disease is preventable with some common-sense precautions, like cleaning up standing water and turning over garbage cans, there is a big public health effort, especially in coastal areas, to get people to take the mosquito threat seriously.

Our son, Eric, came to Maine with his family in late September to help drive Pixie back to Muncie, but also to enable my dad and stepmom, Joy, to see their great grandaughter. Here is a happy photo:

And while I am in the business of providing happy photos, here is a great one of our three children (from left) Cassie, Eric, and Wendy, with Isabelle, posing in front one of their favorite stores, when they were children visiting thier grandparents, the Granite Hall Store, purveyor of many types of"penny" candy.

This morning I was able to finally return to the Ajijic Writers' group. Today was a special day was we celebrated Alejandro Grattan's 75th birthday. I was also awarded this year's literary award for the best poem published in El Ojo del Lago. My photos came out abit blurry, but here''s one of Ken Clark, one of our fellow writers, congratulating Alex.
So. we are getting back to our Mexican life. However, while I was at the Writers' Group this morning, Pixie received word that her brother, Dallas, has suffered a heart attack and received a stent overnight. He seems to be resting comfortably today, as far as we can tell, and should remain in the hospital for several days. This has been a difficult year, as we are reminded once again how precious life is and how quickly things can change. I send Dallas the very best and wish him a speedy recovery!

Preparing to Return to Mexico

These are the Webbers. Curt and Judy have graciously opened their home to us for what has turned out to be three months, much longer than our original plans. We are staying upstairs in their Auburn home and feel welcome and loved. When our plans to return to Mexico became derailed in August because of my medical problem, they immediately made it clear we could stay until it was appropriate to travel back to Mexico. We have enjoyed cooking and sharing meals with them, meeting their family, chatting over Red Sox games, upgrading Judy's computer, and most of all, being in a supportive and welcoming environment while we gathered our wits after our abrupt change in plans and the painful loss our our little companion, Maggie.

Judy and I had known each other for many years while we both worked for Literacy Volunteers, first as tutors and later as trainers. When we joined the Auburn Unitarian Universalist church in 2003, they were both long-time members. They have been to visit us twice in Mexico and plan to return again this year. Pixie and I value their ongoing friendship and will miss them when we finally do leave for Mexico!

Our son, Eric, and his wife, Crystal, and Isabelle will be flying into Portland on Saturday. We will all be visiting my Dad and Step-mom, Joy, in Waldoboro for Saturday and Sunday, joined by our daughters Wendy and Cassie. Dad and Joy will be able to meet their great grandaughter Isabelle for the first time. Then, on Tuesday, I will take Crystal and Isabelle to the airport to return to Indiana, and Pixie and Eric will set out in our car, for Muncie. Pixie will visit for a few days in Indiana, then head out for Memphis where she will meet up with our good friend Trudy, from Ajijic, who will drive with her back to Mexico. They should arrive home around October 11 or 12, and I will be flying down on October 13.

I am doing well, as all of my treatment for my blood clot has been successful and stable. I am taking Coumadin, probably for good, since I have a genetic factor for clotting and a vena cava filter to stop any pesky clots that might try to cause trouble by finding their way into my lungs. So, that's all good news, and I am "good to go. " I have been cleared to fly, which should not be a problem because I am on anticoagulants. Many friends have come forward to welcome me to their exclusive "Coumadin Club!"

Pixie has had a rough year, and is looking forward to getting the long drive home over with. We are grateful to Eric and Trudy for helping her with the drive. We are looking forward to being home, in our own house, finally. Our next-door neighbors, Ron and Pat have been just wonderful, checking on our house and even arranging for a new satellite provider for our TV since our last one suddenly went out of business. What wonderful neighbors. Our friend Antonio, who has done all the work on our house, has also been watching the house and fixed a gas leak and water leak while we were gone. Our friend Fred, gave him money for parts to do the repairs. Trudy and Lew have been paying our bills. Maria Elena and Horacio, our maid and gardener have been working without pay until we return. And many of our friends have been sending us encouraging emails while we have been gone to let us know that we are not forgotten just because we are not there. Our friends here in Maine have also been wonderful, inviting us to dinner, letting us use their cars, and giving us such emotional support. We are bathed in ABUNDANCE! We feel such gratitude for all the love that surrounds us.

I have a few remaining Maine photos to share:

Here's a photo of me with my dad on a recent visit to Waldoboro.

Now a couple of photos to clarify some facts about Maine cuisine. We really do have bright red hotdogs and, this year, very inexpensive lobster!

And, so, I will next be posting on this blog sometime after October 13, from Mexico. Pixie will be taking the camera to take photos on way back to Mexico. I will be here, cameraless, Pixieless, but with good friends until I can return. So, for now, I'll sign off from Maine.

Maggie 1998-2009

Our little 9 pound Shi Tzu, Maggie, died on Monday. She had been through so much with us for the last eleven years, and her loss, so suddenly, has been devastating.

For those of you who knew Maggie, you can understand her loving way and her ability to worm her way into everyone's heart. She greeted us every morning with her wet kisses. She protected us from "big" dogs by fiercely asserting herself and never backed down from a confrontation. When I walked her, she never learned to walk calmly, but always pulled on the leash, at least until she got tired. She hated being alone, and would follow me from room to room when we were alone in the house. She was a good traveler, always watching to see what was interesting outside and, when nothing was going on, preferred to nap in the backseat. She was a good listener, cocking her little head and looking intently at you, even when she probably understood nothing you were saying. She loved going on walks, and would watch me intently every morning to see if I was heading towards her blue leash, which meant "walk!" In other words, she was a wonderful dog and companion for us. She made the trip from Maine to Mexico (she hated the snow!) and, finally back to Maine. There is now a big hole in our lives that will accompany us home to Mexico.

Here is a poem I wrote which, I think, captures her spirit:

How My Dog Loves a Walk

She lives for the moment.

When I lace my shoes

She stares, intent,

On the possiblilty

That this time

I will take her

When I open the door

And walk out, into the sun.

To her, nothing else matters.

Even on the leash

She is jubilant,

Nose to the ground

For excretory smells,

Overlooked morsels.

She’s consumed with potential.

She’s older, yet

She tugs at the leash

Hoping I will speed up

And really let her

Into the brush

Into the possibility

Of something she can catch.

Upon meeting another

Canine friend, she immediately

Whiffs his private parts,

Which gives her some

Prehistoric satisfaction.

She know where each lives

And pulls me toward each

Place where there once

Was a dog.

And she’s unconcerned

With mud, seed pods,

Vehicles and hazards,

I try to avoid

For me and for her.

She would be muddy, smelly,

And dead

Were it not for my

Wisdom and caution.

But I wish I could

Live with such

Single-minded enthusiasm

And unspoiled love.

So, we are still in Maine. I am doing well, anticoagulated, and anxious to return to Mexico. Pixie will head down the 29th of September with our so, Eric, and go to Muncie, Indiana where she will visit for a few days. Then she'll drive to Memphis and meet our friend Trudy, from Ajijic, who will drive with her down to Mexico. I will fly down to join her about October 14. We will be grateful to be home again, in nuestra casa!

Delayed Return

Once again, we have learned that life is unpredictable. Last week, which was intended to be our last week in Maine, I went to see a hematologist to check to see if maybe we might check to see if I had any particular bleeding or clotting factors which would have helped explain my brain bleed in March or my blood clot in April. She thought I probably didn’t have such factors, but she did some blood tests just to check. Luckily, she also ordered another ultra sound to check on the status of the clot in my leg, just to see how it was progressing. To make a long story short, the clot had grown, probably because of the long drive to Maine, and was now all the way up my leg into my lower abdomen. Up to now I had not been on anti-coagulation drugs because of the brain hemorrhage. I had no pain or swelling and felt fine.

Now, my condition was life-threatening because of the danger of a pulmonary embolism if a piece of the clot should break off and go to my lung. So, last week I had a filter installed in my vena cava vein, in my abdomen, to prevent such an event. I saw a neurologist who approved me going on Coumadin for anti-coagulation. This will, over time, dissolve my clot, and prevent it from growing in the meantime. It’s possible I could have the filter removed within the first 41 days, but that depends on how fast the clot dissolves.

Needless to say, we have opted to stay in Maine and get this taken care of before returning to our home in Mexico. So now we are relaxing and enjoying a bit of Maine summer heat and grateful that I went to see the hematologist. I am forbidden to drive back to Mexico, so Pixie will be driving the car back; several people have offered to fly up and help her make the trip. But for now we are just recovering from the drama of the last week.

Here are a few more photos to share:

Last week we went to Reid State Park with our daughters Wendy and Cassie. Reid is a beautiful beach framed by the typical Maine rocky coastline.

And here are Wendy and Cassie, enjoying some sister time at the beach. They don't get to see each other as much these days, since Cassie lives in Providence and Wendy in Maine.

We met our friends Kevin and Judy Simpson at one of our favorite Italian restaurants a week or so ago. They are about to celebrate their fiftieth wedding anniversary.

We went up north to Solon, a small town north of Skowhegan, to scatter Pixie's Mom's ashes. We met at Chet and Barby's (Pixies aunt and uncle). Chet is an interesting man who has lived his life in rural Maine. He loves vintage cars and trucks. Here he poses with a 1954 Solon fire truck he bought recently. He's got it running and in good shape.



My dad is a lifelong watercolorist. As an eye surgeon, he always needed something to exercise his left brain, and chose painting. He has, if I say so, become an excellent artist. When he is in Maine, he goes once or twice a week with his group of friends to a painting/critique session. I accompanied him on a recent outing and was pleased not only to see him paint, but to appreciate the high regard his fellow artists have for him.




Finally, here is my annual photo of my dad and stepmom, Joy, on their porch in Waldoboro.

Family and Friends in New England

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We had a rare family reunion of sorts last weekend in Gloucester MA. My two brothers and I were able to be together with my dad, a very special time for us all. My brothers, from left, Fred, of the Philadelphia area, and Brackley, from Las Vegas, and I with my dad who celebrated his 89th birthday in June. We were all in Gloucester to celebrate my sister-in-law, Heidi's, birthday, a great excuse for a party.

Here are our youngest daughter Cassie (left), and her partner, Alana, posing in front of one of Cassie's self portraits in their apartment in Providence. We will be retuning to see them again in Preovidence on our way home.

Here is Pixie posing with her siblings at a family BBQ last Sunday: from left, Vance, Tex, and Liana. Her other borhter, Rick, was not there.

Here I am posing with our neice Jan ( Tex's daughter) who will continue the family tradition of attending Brown University in the fall. She received an almost full scholarship to Brown and, at this point hopes to study history. I am very proud of her!

Here my cousin Sally poses with my Aunt Mary, my dad's big sister, at the Gloucester BBQ, who celebrated her 94th birthday this week. She still calls my dad her "baby brother."

Here we have my neice Ariana (left, Brackley's daughter) and Loren, her friend form Tel Aviv, hamming it up before for the camera. Ariana produces a weekly television show, "Taylor Thursday" on You Tube from Las Vegas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkE5aHbui48

We had a long-awaited reunion of our gourmet dinner group. With us, this is three quarters of the group: from left, Betty, Gene, Kathy and Doug, and their new additon Zephyr. Both we're hoping they make it to Jalisco for a visit next winter.

Lst Saturday, we met up with our two good frineds from our old UU congregation, Mary Kay and Claire, and went to one of the free LL Bean free concerts last Saturday. The band was Blues Traveler, and the company was wonderful. They hope to visit us next year as well.

We will be visiting in Maine until next Friday, August 14, then head down to Providence for another visit with Cassie and Alana, and on to Muncie for another visit with Eric, Crystal, and Isabelle, before the long drive back to Mexico. It has been wonderful to see everyone and demonstrate that we are both fine, and to confirm that our friends and family are still intact. It has finally stopped raining in Maine (for now) and we are able to enjoy the summer Maine is famous for. We has lobster the other day ($4.99 a pound) and Heidi cooked steamed clams for us in Gloucester. We will soon be back in our home in Mexico, resuming our life there. Thanks to everyone here for their generous hospitality and love!

Back in Maine

Well, here we are, back in Maine, at least for the next several weeks. While here we are staying upstairs in this, the Webber homestead. Curt and Judy, who have appeared on this blog during their October '07 and November '08 visits have generously provided space for us and Maggie to live while we become reacquainted with our old stomping ground, so to speak. We have been having comfortably cool weather, generally fair, and been able to enjoy being off the road for awhile!

On one of our first evenings here, June Spear, a former colleague of mine at Central Maine Community College, hosted a gathering at her home for some of our friends and colleagues. Here are some photos:

Here are June (on the left) and Judy Frost, the librarian at the college. (Sorry Judy. I should have taken a photo with your eyes open!). June was an excellent adjunct faculty member 12 years ago before I quit being department chair. Judy is a good friend and confidante, whose husband, Rick, is the librarian at the Lewiston Public Library, and made it possible for us to access Rosetta Stone to study our Spanish before moving to Mexico.

Lucy Coombs and John Blois are former colleagues of mine from the Humanities Department at CMMC. Lucy took over my job as chair and has clearly been much better suited for the rigors of that job! John teaches, among other things, Asian studies. Here is a link to a You

Tube film he produced on a recent rip to India and Tibet with his sons. This is footage of a traditional Tibetan home: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD2ajb8hwYA

And here is Pearl Sawyer who I only came to know several years ago in our Unitarian Universalist church inAuburn, Maine. Pearl began writing poetry later in life and has been an ongoing inspiration to me in my own attempts at poetry as well as a loving friend.

Liette Morin, left, worked in the cafeteria at CMCC, and helped me many times with my quilting. She always encouraged me and taught me many tricks. She is a creative and loving force in this community. Bonnie Santos taught for CMCC for many years and regaled us at the party with her stories of living in France as a child.

Lloyd Pulsifer has been a friend, and co-Sox fan, for many years. He chairs the Machine Tool Department at CMCC. Kathy, his wife, is a nurse, and has been a former student of mine. They are both avid followers of "Maine to Mexico!"

While on the trip up, we stopped for a brief visit with our friend Fred and Mardele Harland, from Ajijic, who were visiting thair daughter and family in Erie, PA. Their son-in-law Matt, a physician, was instrumental, when visiting Ajijic this spring, in convincing me to change medical care and get the scans I needed to diagnose my brain hemmorhage. (I still don't think he looks old enough to be a doctor!) Fred, also shown here, is a dear friend and fellow member of our UU fellowship (as is Mardele) as well as a member of our Great Books discussion group.

We visited my dad and stepmom, Joy, in Waldoboro this past weekend. You can tell they both love spending time with Maggie. We are planning to return for another extended visit before we leave Maine in the middle of August.

Here's Pixie and our oldest daughter, Wendy, soaking up some rare (this year) Maine sun while on our visit in Waldoboro.

Our youngest daughter, Cassie, who has been attending her MFA program in Hartford, Connecticut, these past two weeks is suffering from a stubborn urinary tract infection, so we are modifying our plans and will go to Providence next week to be with her. I will probably do another update from New England before we start our return trip south.

I hope all our friends in Mexico are enjoying the rainy season and the cooler weather. We miss you all, and look forward anxiously to our return which we plan for August 29.