Maine to Muncie

This hawk photo was taken by our daughter, Wendy, last Saturday during a snowstorm in Portland where she and her fiancé, Troy, braved the weather to get us to the bus station.  We had some fun times with them in Lewiston, where we lived for 22 years before emigrating south.

Here are some of Wendy’s other photos, one of her and Troy and one of Pixie standing next to a huge snowbank.

So our northern sojourn continues, now in Muncie, Indiana.  The weather has improved a bit: still cold but not much new snow or ice.  We’ve been able to use Eric’s Jeep during the day for shopping for all those items we need to bring back because we cannot find them, or find them as cheap, in Mexico (British Blend Tea, vitamin supplements, pajama bottoms, good chili powder, books in English, jeans, sneakers…).  We have been taking Isabelle out for fun excursions with Grandpa and Grandma to Chuck E. Cheese (my first experience with this entrepreneurial phenomenon), McDonalds, The Muncie Children’s Museum, Library, and just hanging around watching videos of Snow White and Winnie the Pooh.  We are marveling at how fast she has grown up and what a talker she is.  Here are the latest Isabelle pictures, from the top: Acting silly at the Children's Museum, Sitting with Grandma, Sitting with Grandpa, and Holding her new princess dolls.

Eric celebrated his 40th birthday this week.  Below are Crystal and Isabelle preparing his cake and Eric enjoying his cake. 

My Aunt Alice, now 93, lives in Indianapolis, and she is now in the hospital after a nasty fall.  We are hoping to have a short visit with her and a couple of her children, on our way to the airport hotel on Saturday.  We will be flying out Sunday morning on our way back to Guadalajara.  

Sad News From Maine

We arrived in Maine last Friday to some terribly sad news.  Our daughter Cassie has worked with autistic children for the past twelve years.  Her first student, and the one closest to her heart, has been Tim Stickney, who she started to work with when he was four years old.  Over the years, many of which she was his one-on-one aide, Cassie and Tim developed a very special relationship.  Although she stopped being his aide several years ago, she still maintained a very close relationship with Tim and his family.  Last week, Tim, now 16, tragically, died when he suffered a seizure in a hot tub and drowned.  As you might imagine, Cassie was devastated.  We were glad to have been able to be with Cassie for the wake and funeral over the weekend.  Hundreds of mourners attended the funeral, a testimony to the many lives Tim touched in his life.  As the priest pointed out at his funeral service, Tim may have had special needs, but he brought all of us special gifts.  Here are two photos of Cassie and Tim:

We spent much of the weekend in Cassie and Alana’s apartment with their dog, Yote.  Here’s Cassie, with her partner, Alana, getting some love from Yote. 

Since Monday, we’ve been in Lewiston-Auburn, Maine, where we lived for 22 years.  Wendy and Troy, newly engaged, live here and we’ve been enjoying cooking and visiting with them.  No photos yet; we took some with Wendy’s camera, but I don’t have access to them at the moment.  I’ll include some next week when I post from Indiana. 

The weather here in Maine has been, shall we say, wintery!  With temperatures near zero and several storms of snow and ice, we are reminded why we have decided to spend our winters in Mexico.  Scraping the ice and snow off Wendy’s car, driving on icy roads, wearing four layers as we venture outside…ah the joys of winter in Maine.  Here’s one sample shot:

On Saturday, we’re off to Muncie, Indiana to spend a week with Eric, Crystal, and Isabelle.  I’ll post some photos and news from there.  

Back to the Cold!

We are getting ready to head north to Maine and Indiana at the end of the week, but we have a busy week before we go. 

I am attending my last meeting as a member of the Board of Directors for the Lake Chapala Unitarian Universalist Fellowship on Tuesday morning.  We always meet on the patio of a local restaurant, have breakfast, then have our meeting.  I am not really a guy who enjoys meetings, so I am looking forward to not having to attend these long meetings once a month.  I am not running for reelection; they will elect a replacement for me next week at our annual meeting. 

Pixie and her friend Kathy are teaching a 14-week course called “Rise Up and Call Her Name,” a UU program about various goddesses.  It meets every Monday from 2-5.  They will be meeting tomorrow at the synagogue where we hold our services.  While she’s there, I will be at the dentist getting a filling fixed before we leave.

Every Tuesday at noon, Fred Harland and I run a learning seminar at the Lake Chapala Society.  We show a podcast from the TED conference, then we lead a discussion of the lecture.  Last week I showed a lecture by the autistic activist and animal specialist Temple Grandin.  The TED Conference brings speakers together from all over the world to address important and interesting issues every year.  You can watch the lectures at the TED.com website and download them to your computer.  This week, Fred is showing a lecture by Thomas Barnett discussing new plans for the defense Department readiness.  We always have a good crowd since this time of year we have many “snowbirds” here looking for interesting things to do. 

Wednesday evening, our monthly New Hampshire/Maine group is meeting at Brian and Evelyn’s house.  We meet at someone’s house for drinks, then we go to eat at a restaurant.  It’s fun to get together with other New Englanders to share stories and opine about the Patriots, Red Sox, etc.  We have about 25 members at the moment. 

Thursday, I have to meet with my doctor to make sure my Coumadin level is adjusted to avoid getting any more blood clots on my flight to Boston on Friday.   And Pixie and I have a meeting to plan services for our Fellowship for the coming year.  We have selected the theme of “aging” for 2011.  How appropriate.  We have to think of topics for monthly presentations on this topic for the coming year.  So, that means another breakfast meeting. 

Friday morning, we’re off to Dallas, Chicago, and Boston, then a two-hour bus ride to Portland and to Cassie and Alana’s house for the weekend.  We’re then off to Lewiston-Auburn, Maine to visit Wendy for a few days, before heading to Indianapolis  and  then Muncie  to visit Isabelle and her parents for a week.  Weather permitting, we’ll be returning to Guadalajara on January 30.  Chuy will be bunking with Jeanne and Paul and his buddy, Curly, while we are gone. 

We had a sad event here this week.  An American who was the partner of one of my fellow writers in the Writers’ Group was murdered in his home in Riberas.  The crime seems to have been a home invasion-robbery and not related to the drug violence in Mexico.  But it was the first violent death of a gringo that I know of since we’ve been here, and it has shaken our community. 

I will share some photos of our trip when we return.  We are bracing for significantly colder weather in Maine and Indiana, of course.  But I am sure we’ll survive. J.  So I’ll sign off until we return. 

Feliz Año Nuevo

Well Feliz Año Nuevo, everyone, or as the Mexicans say, “Feliz Año!”  Make sure if you write this to use ñ instead of n, as it will drastically change the meaning of the word año.  (You undoubtedly don’t want to wish somebody a Happy New Anus!).

Anyway, we survived our noisy Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve celebrations here in the village.  Our Mexican neighbors are very friendly, courteous, and noisy!  Christmas Eve is very full of music, fireworks, bonfires in the streets, and general merrymaking!  And New Year’s Eve is pretty much the same.  And the parties tend to last all night.  But we stayed up late and wore earplugs to bed, and we were no worse for the wear.  Chuy did NOT like the fireworks, though, and stayed close to us.  On Christmas Eve, when the fireworks were loud, we even tried to sleep on top of Pixie’s head for comfort!  But we all survived and are now setting out to see what 2011 will bring. 

Christmas was a lot of fun, and very Mexican.  We attended the Christmas Posada in San Antonio as we have done in the past.  It seems as though the entire town comes out for the processions which occur on the nine days leading up to Christmas.  The posada consists of singing and reenacting the various elements of the nativity story, with various homes serving as stations for the reenactments.  Here are some photos which capture the posada we attended:

Christmas was a bit sad this year as it was the first we had not spent with at least two of our children.  We had been planning to have been in Maine and Indiana early in December to celebrate an early Christmas with everyone, but, as has been previously reported in Maine to Mexico, events made that impossible.  We did go to Cathy Roberts’ home (Cathy is a friend from Maine who owns a lovely B&B here in Ajijic ) for dinner.  Our two friends from Kennebunk, Ron and Jean were also there.  We met an interesting couple from Ireland there too, Andy and Siobhan (pronounced Shi-vón) who came here 3 ½ years ago to adopt a Mexican baby.  They return every Christmas so their daughter, Jessica, can appreciate her roots.  Here are photos of the gang at dinner and Andy, Siobhan, and Jessica:

Our friends, Fred and Mardele Harland, had a house full of children and grandchildren.  Matt and Renatta were visiting from Erie, PA with their two boys.  Readers of this blog may remember that Matt is the physician who helped me a couple of years ago when I suffered a head injury when Pixie was up north tending to her ill mom.  We also visited them in Erie on our way to Maine the summer before last. 

Their other son, Chris, and his wife, Becca and their two boys were also visiting.  They both live and work in Delhi, India, now, but make regular trips back to the US to visit family.  Fred and Mardele also visit them in India. 

 Ron and Jean hosted their friends, Tom and Penny, visiting this week from Kennebunk.  We had planned        a hike up the mountain in Ajijic to the small chapel.  Unfortunately, Ron and Jean both came down with bad colds, so I took Tom and Penny up the mountain.  Here are photos of us and a view from the chapel:

 

I am including a few photos of some interesting details of our temporary rental here in the village.  Below you can the big tree growing in our central garden with an orchid growing in it.  I’ve included a few architectural details and our not-so-scenic views from the roof!

 

 

 

We are looking forward to our long-delayed trip north in mid January.  Pixie’s face has healed nicely and both front teeth are in good working order.  We are being ever-so-careful on the cobblestones these days. 

Navidad in the Village

Here is a painting of the Virgin of Guadalupe painted on the side of a house in our new neighborhood.  This image, although obviously religious, is also a symbol of Mexican national pride.  We often see the image displayed with a Mexican flag.  It’s a uniquely Mexican symbol.  Last week was El Dia de la Guadalupe, and families set up makeshift altars to her image all over the village.

As Christmas approaches, we are settling into our village home and recovering from the hectic month we’ve just had.  Pixie’s mouth and teeth continue to improve.  She’s had a root canal on the tooth that was reinserted.  The front tooth next to this one was also injured, although it did not come out.  She had to have a root canal on that one as well.  Our dentist, Dr. Garcia is working very carefully to be sure that he does not cause any problems with the injured teeth.  It looks as though both teeth will be fine.  She’s finished her dental work for now, although he wants her to return for an x-ray next week.  She feels lucky the damage could be repaired.  Pixie’s lips and mouth are just about completely healed, although she has a bit of swelling that she is treating with warm compresses.  We delivered a Christmas basket to Dr. Garcia and his family on Monday to show our appreciation. 

We are grateful to have the ordeal of moving behind us, at least for a couple of months.  Our little house, although small, is certainly adequate for a temporary stay.  We brought our plants with us from the old house so the garden is much more lush.  We turned over the key to our old house to Sra. Romero, the new owner.  She lives in Guadalajara and plans to spend a couple of weekends a month at the house.  I don’t think she liked our decorating.  She told us she intends to sell all our furniture and paint the inside all white.  Go figure!  Anyway, we are happy to turn it over and not have to worry about it any more.  We are hoping to find a beautiful rental in a couple of months as the snowbirds return north and many rentals become available.  In the meantime, we are happy here. 

Chuy is having to adjust to the new surroundings as well.  We have a much nicer walking space.  Yesterday, he made a friend with this Chihuahua. 

Where we live is very Mexican and very colorful.  People sell food on the street and families sit outside and drink cerveza and play their music.  So it’s not exactly a quiet neighborhood, but the people are very friendly and it’s fun to walk around and explore.  Here are some photos from our new neighborhood.  Notice the large wok-like vessel.  The carniceria, or butcher shop, is cooking pork scraps in lard.  The Mexicans love these carnitas, but we vegetarians, not so much.   The bottom photo shows the outside of our new house.  The entire width of our house is the width of those metal garage doors.  The white and brown building to its right is not our house, but our neighbor's.

One interesting aspect of our neighborhood, and indeed of Ajijic in general, is that very Mexican neighborhoods exist quite well side-by-side with more up-scale gringo homes.  The Mexican neighborhood we are in is adjacent to one of the most posh gringo areas at Lakeside.  So when Chuy and I take our walk, we start in our poor Mexican neighborhood but soon find ourselves among million dollar homes in Las Salvias, a gringo neighborhood.  Here are some photos of this area:

Although Christmas here is more religious and much warmer, there are many Christmas traditions.  Tonight we are going to the Posada, or nativity procession, in San Antonio, the neighboring town.  We have gone several times, and I have posted photos of this posada before.  We had a special musical service at our UU Fellowship last Sunday.  We attended a Christmas party with some writer friends of ours last Monday, and we have our New England Gathering tomorrow night.   We will be having Christmas dinner with some Maine friends.  We are wishing we had been able to make our trip to see our children in early December, as planned, but we are now scheduled to fly to Boston on  January 14, to Indiana on January 22, and back to Guadalajara on January 30.  We will surely be in for a climate shock!  But, of course, celebrating a late Christmas with our family will be wonderful.

So, we are finally getting some down time and enjoying the Christmas season.  To all my family, friends and blog-followers around the world, I wish you Feliz Navidad y Feliz Año Nuevo!

Good News All Around

Finally, I am able to post again. It’s been an exhausting week, needless to say, but things are looking up at the moment.  The best news is that Pixie is recovering very well from her injury to her mouth.  The tooth which was reinserted successfully and, so far, seems to be staying in place with no problems whatsoever.  She has a fabulous dentist, Alberto Garcia, in Chapala.  He not only reinserted the tooth in the middle of the night, he has been caring for her ever since.  He has completed a root canal on the reinserted tooth, and is in the midst of a root canal on the other front tooth, which was also traumatized in the accident.  So far, everything is going very well.  Pixie’s mouth has little swelling left, and she is able to eat soft foods (she was on a liquid diet for two weeks!).  So that is good news.  We’ve rescheduled our trip north for January 14 through the 30^th.  

When I first met Dr. Garcia, I was very impressed.  He is a kind man who works slowly and carefully.  I had three crowns done for about $150 US apiece.  He impressed me so much that I wrote a poem about him which was published int he Lake Chapala Review.  He was very pleased with the poem and told me he would "never forget" that I wrote a poem about him.  Here is the poem I wrote in 2008: 

Mi Dentista

Going to my dentist

Is Mexico itself.

It’s a long, slow process,

But full of care

And courtesy.

He chats when I sit in his chair,

Not to rush

Not to rush me.

I wait as he sets up his space,

Fills my water glass,

Lays out his tools,

Stopping to ask of my family,

Telling me of his,

Asking if I have pain today,

Always deliberate,

I do not feel rushed.

At last, ready to work,

“Are you ready for the pain?”

“Yes!” I continue the joke,

But he wants to be sure

I know it’s a joke.

“Up your hand,” he warns,

“If you any pain.”

Managing alone, stepping to

Retrieve a tool,

He works competently

Checking on my pain

And I drift, relaxed,

As he works

Carefully,

Lovingly,

On my old, battered, tooth. 

“You are a good dentist,”

I proclaim, after I rinse

And spit.

“I hope I am,

Sometimes I hope I am a good dentist.”

“You are.” I reply. 

Glad to be

Enjoying my afternoon

With this kind man.  

The other thing that has been keeping us busy is selling our house and finding a new place to live.  We have moved into our temporary rental in the Ajijic village.  We were supposed to close on our house today, but there was a delay as the money from the buyer was not sent to the correct account, so the transfer of the money took a bit longer.  We are now scheduled to close tomorrow at 4:00; let’s hope there are no more delays.  At any rate, we are today spending our first night in the new rental .  It’s in a very Mexican neighborhood, complete with live music and lots of character.  The house is a hacienda style, which means that the house wraps around a central garden.  It’s very Mexican and a bit dark in parts of the house, so we are using lots of lamps to make it bright.  Here are some photos of the house taken tonight, right after we moved in. 

You can see the house is very Mexican.  In the bathroom above, you can see they have a funky sink that looks like a bowl on the counter, but is actually a sink with a drain.  This type of tile/ceramic is called Talavera, and is very typical of this area of Mexico.  

We are exhausted with moving.  We will be glad to have some down time after we close on our old house and get it cleaned.   In the next entry, I’ll include more photos of the neighborhood; it’s very interesting.  Soon, we will be looking for a more permanent rental.  For the moment, we just need to catch our breath.   

Unexpected Twists

Well, as John Lennon has pointed out, life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.  I have been thinking about John Lennon more these days and listening to his music.  Perhaps this is because he was shot on my 30^th birthday.  As I approach 60, it’s difficult to believe that was 30 years ago. 

Anyway, back to the unpredictability of life, we have decided to postpone our trip north because Pixie injured herself Sunday night.  We were walking back to the car after viewing the fireworks at the fiesta when she fell on the cobblestones and hit her face.  She knocked out her front tooth, bruised her lip, sprained her finger and banged up her knee.  Our wonderful dentist met us at his office at 1:00 AM and was able to reinsert the tooth.  He thinks it has a good chance of “taking” since the bone did not appear damaged.  But she will need a root canal in a few days to help prevent infection.  Mostly she needs healing time.  She can’t eat solid food and is still very uncomfortable.  So we have decided to postpone the trip until January or February.  The dentist, Alberto Garcia from Chapala, would not even take any payment for his two hours of emergency care.  “You are my friend,” he pointed out, “And I didn’t really do much.”  Not do much?  I beg to differ.  We will be sure to buy him a nice Christmas gift. 

The other big news is that our house sale is now assured, regardless of the peso rate, because we have decided to accept payment in pesos.  We can invest the money in banks here with a guarantee of 8%+ returns, then, when we choose to, change the money into dollars and transfer it to our bank in the US.  The danger of this is that there could always be a devaluation in the peso, but that seems unlikely for awhile.  So now we will definitely close on the house and move into the village on December 14.  I’ll post photos of the new digs after that.

Despite Pixie’s accident, we had the 60^th birthday bash for me at Delicias Restaurant in Chapala last night.  We had over 50 friends gather for the occasion.  Unbeknownst to me, Pixie had asked our children, Eric, Wendy, and Cassie to each write a letter to me which could be read at the party.  She was going to read them, but could not, obviously.  My friend and MC for the evening, Fred Harland, read them.  They each wrote beautiful, eloquent letters that left many of us teary-eyed.  I was blown away.  How do I deserve such wonderful children?  The party was a great success with the staff of the restaurant preparing a wonderful Mexican buffet including hand-made tortillas, chicken mole, pork chile verde, chicken fajitas, frijoles, chile rajas, soy with brown sauce, red rice, and chile rellenos.  Four of the dishes were vegetarian; remarkable for a Mexican meal!  Some of my writer friends composed poems for me, including Don Edwards, Mark Sconce, Susan Wagner, and Mel Goldberg who wrote an Italian sonnet in honor of the occasion.  Here are some photos from the evening:

  

So, as Pixie convalesces and we putter at some remaining packing, we are concentrating on making the move and starting to think about when we can reschedule our trip.  By the way, we received full refunds from American Airlines, with no penalty for cancelling.  Amazing!  


If you are interested in seeing two short films of the castillo fireworks in Ajijic Sunday night, go to this link and click on the film photo: http://picasaweb.google.com/110328210164523410324/AjijicCastillosNovember2010?authkey=Gv1sRgCPXNhsLyzf6rbw#