In just a little over three weeks it will be Day of the Dead here in San Miguel. We don't usually partake in the festivities (the Jardin will be awash in bodies both local and from other Mexican cities) and neither of us really enjoy crowds any longer.
My sister, her husband, and two friends will be joining us during the time of the festivities, so we may go to the effort to provide the makings for an altar this year.
Unlike the US, where Hallowe'en is the big draw on October 31st, Mexico celebrates November 1st (Day of Remembrance for children who have died in the last year) and November 2nd (Day of Remembrance for adults who have passed on recently). There will be public altars and many homes will have their own particular altar. On the 3rd, the altars will be transported to the local cemetaries and set up on the graves of those being remembered.
What's involved in an alter? Wild marigolds, canes of the sugar plant, small sugar skulls for the children replaced with large sugar skulls for the adults. Toys and candies for the children replaced with food and mézcal for the adults. Not sure what you put out for teetotalers...water? Sodas are uncapped for the spirits' ease in drinking.
Not that trick and treating hasn't begun to catch on, but at least most of the traditional festivities are tied to actual people who have passed on and it's not just a time to dress up and attempt to scare people - oh, and collect goodies!
Sunday, October 11, 2015
Friday, September 18, 2015
A Natural Remedy that seems to work!
I have held off writing about the weather. Of course, that's often what's happening down here....
We've just made our way through the El Grito (the alleged speech made in Dolores (but repeated here and many other places through out Mexico), encouraging the locals to join the fight for freedom from foreign powers.
And then there is always Independence day (the next day) when we celebrate the winning of the War of Independence 11 years later. [It's a really big country; it take a while to reach everyone.]
But today was a little different. A few moments ago (about 5:40 pm Central) there was a loud clap of thunder. And not just a 'clap' but a rolling clap of thunder; ea 'peal' I guess.
We'd recently been made aware of a 'natural' remedy for nervous dogs - i.e., Miyake - and, based on the recommendation of a friend, Michael found that our groomer carried the product: Kalman.
A few days ago we had some warning of an upcoming storm and he gave her a drop under her tongue. And while she was a little excited during the storm, she wasn't doing her shaking/vibrating thing for hours.
Today the peal of thunder was the first indication that a storm was here. And although she had started shaking at the first sound of thunder, she is now (a few minutes later) lying down under Michael's computer (her usual spot) and not shaking! Panting a little but relatively calmer than usual.
Now, I'm not a great believer in 'natural' remedies but this seems to actually work!
And do we have any hint that a storm may occur? Yes, but the map that the BBC uses only notes Mexico City and Acapulco. We sort of guess where those indicators of rain are on the map and take it as an indication that there may be rain in the forecast. Not exactly rocket science, but a guess that is better than any local forecasts. [I.E, we have no local forecasts as we have no airport here, and thus, no weather station.] The nearest is the airport in Leon, which is about an hour-and-a-half away from us. The BBC's maps of Mexico and Central America is about as true as we get. At least it's updated throughout the day!
So the thunder peals have retreated into the distance and it's now 'gently' raining. And Miyake is in much better shape than her usual experience. While still panting, she is lying down and not sitting up, hugging the back wall of the room.
Have we thought of a thunder shirt for her? Yes, but they are about $40 and the little vial of Kalman costs only $7.50. And should last a year or so at a drop a storm!
Plus we'd have to wrestle her into the thunder shirt. And if it didn't work, we'd be back to the Kalman, again. If anyone out there is using the thunder shirt, I wish them well. We'll stick with the Kalman in the meanwhile.
We've just made our way through the El Grito (the alleged speech made in Dolores (but repeated here and many other places through out Mexico), encouraging the locals to join the fight for freedom from foreign powers.
And then there is always Independence day (the next day) when we celebrate the winning of the War of Independence 11 years later. [It's a really big country; it take a while to reach everyone.]
But today was a little different. A few moments ago (about 5:40 pm Central) there was a loud clap of thunder. And not just a 'clap' but a rolling clap of thunder; ea 'peal' I guess.
We'd recently been made aware of a 'natural' remedy for nervous dogs - i.e., Miyake - and, based on the recommendation of a friend, Michael found that our groomer carried the product: Kalman.
A few days ago we had some warning of an upcoming storm and he gave her a drop under her tongue. And while she was a little excited during the storm, she wasn't doing her shaking/vibrating thing for hours.
Today the peal of thunder was the first indication that a storm was here. And although she had started shaking at the first sound of thunder, she is now (a few minutes later) lying down under Michael's computer (her usual spot) and not shaking! Panting a little but relatively calmer than usual.
Now, I'm not a great believer in 'natural' remedies but this seems to actually work!
And do we have any hint that a storm may occur? Yes, but the map that the BBC uses only notes Mexico City and Acapulco. We sort of guess where those indicators of rain are on the map and take it as an indication that there may be rain in the forecast. Not exactly rocket science, but a guess that is better than any local forecasts. [I.E, we have no local forecasts as we have no airport here, and thus, no weather station.] The nearest is the airport in Leon, which is about an hour-and-a-half away from us. The BBC's maps of Mexico and Central America is about as true as we get. At least it's updated throughout the day!
So the thunder peals have retreated into the distance and it's now 'gently' raining. And Miyake is in much better shape than her usual experience. While still panting, she is lying down and not sitting up, hugging the back wall of the room.
Have we thought of a thunder shirt for her? Yes, but they are about $40 and the little vial of Kalman costs only $7.50. And should last a year or so at a drop a storm!
Plus we'd have to wrestle her into the thunder shirt. And if it didn't work, we'd be back to the Kalman, again. If anyone out there is using the thunder shirt, I wish them well. We'll stick with the Kalman in the meanwhile.
Thursday, August 20, 2015
Thank Heavens for Small Miracles
And we have functioning printers again!
The newest cheap-o cartridge for my laser printer was acting up. Over the printed text there were often undulating lines of smeared text. Not so horrible if I was printing a page of a spreadsheet (just print them again until you get a clear version), but really aggravating when printing a transcript for proofing. There was often no way to tell what the text underneath those undulating lines said! [Hope it was right, as it couldn't be read.]
I had gotten a new cartridge that still exhibited this problem. Thought I could solve it by purchasing a new ID tag for the cartridge. Thought - yeah, this is the solution, but as it turns out, the tag that came as part of the refilled cartridge was stuck on with blobs of glue. No joy in Mudville here!
And we couldn't use Michael's printer because it just stopped printing! The new ink cartridge wouldn't fit into place regardless of what we tried.
And after Michael printed a portion of the transcript on my printer and then had to go through and re-print the messed-up pages individually, he announced that it was time to replace both of the printers.
Now, the Office Depot had had printers on sale several weeks ago and he talked me out of buying one for $79 pesos (about $5.25 USD at the exchange rate at that time). (Of course they used the older model of toner cartridges that fitted them - and are no longer manufactured; thank you,Michael.) Obviously today's cartridge refills were full price, but that's how printer manufacturers make money: sell the printer cheap and stick it to the users on the required toner cartridges.
So checking out Office Depot on-line, and comparing what they had in stock with what we needed to replace our current printers, we identified some options. While the most viable option was to get two of the same B/W printers, Michael had had a printer/scanner/color printer and I wanted to get the same for him again.
So we hemmed and hawed and eventually flagged down an employee to make our needs known. We bought a returned Canon scanner/printer/color printer for Michael that was on sale (and since someone had taken it home, it came with both the black and the tri-color cartridges in it at no extra charge. My laser printer was on sale for less than half of the laser cartridge - and it came with one in it (although no knowing that, I now have a spare cartridge).
So the total was about a little less than $2500 pesos - or at today's exchange rate (which was a little over $16 pesos to the dollar!), about $154 USD! Yippee!!!! So we celebrated with lunch at the local McDonald's - where they cook to order - and we ran into a friend who had questions about converting a Residente Temporale visa to a Residente Permanente visa that we were happy to answer.
Once we got home, we quickly installed the new drivers for Michael's Canon and my Samsung printers and they are operational and networked.
Whew!!!!
The newest cheap-o cartridge for my laser printer was acting up. Over the printed text there were often undulating lines of smeared text. Not so horrible if I was printing a page of a spreadsheet (just print them again until you get a clear version), but really aggravating when printing a transcript for proofing. There was often no way to tell what the text underneath those undulating lines said! [Hope it was right, as it couldn't be read.]
I had gotten a new cartridge that still exhibited this problem. Thought I could solve it by purchasing a new ID tag for the cartridge. Thought - yeah, this is the solution, but as it turns out, the tag that came as part of the refilled cartridge was stuck on with blobs of glue. No joy in Mudville here!
And we couldn't use Michael's printer because it just stopped printing! The new ink cartridge wouldn't fit into place regardless of what we tried.
And after Michael printed a portion of the transcript on my printer and then had to go through and re-print the messed-up pages individually, he announced that it was time to replace both of the printers.
Now, the Office Depot had had printers on sale several weeks ago and he talked me out of buying one for $79 pesos (about $5.25 USD at the exchange rate at that time). (Of course they used the older model of toner cartridges that fitted them - and are no longer manufactured; thank you,Michael.) Obviously today's cartridge refills were full price, but that's how printer manufacturers make money: sell the printer cheap and stick it to the users on the required toner cartridges.
So checking out Office Depot on-line, and comparing what they had in stock with what we needed to replace our current printers, we identified some options. While the most viable option was to get two of the same B/W printers, Michael had had a printer/scanner/color printer and I wanted to get the same for him again.
So we hemmed and hawed and eventually flagged down an employee to make our needs known. We bought a returned Canon scanner/printer/color printer for Michael that was on sale (and since someone had taken it home, it came with both the black and the tri-color cartridges in it at no extra charge. My laser printer was on sale for less than half of the laser cartridge - and it came with one in it (although no knowing that, I now have a spare cartridge).
So the total was about a little less than $2500 pesos - or at today's exchange rate (which was a little over $16 pesos to the dollar!), about $154 USD! Yippee!!!! So we celebrated with lunch at the local McDonald's - where they cook to order - and we ran into a friend who had questions about converting a Residente Temporale visa to a Residente Permanente visa that we were happy to answer.
Once we got home, we quickly installed the new drivers for Michael's Canon and my Samsung printers and they are operational and networked.
Whew!!!!
Monday, August 17, 2015
Dental News
Although I still haven't managed to add the photos to my exposé on the cobblestones here in San Miguel, I have celebrated the end of my dental process with photos of my walk to the dental clinic that's been doing the work.
This photo is taken from the parking area of the best gym in town (at our corner, too, not that it matters) looking across the highway that goes to Celaya and Costco/Home Depot/Sam's Club. This is where I time my crossing carefully to make it across the road between the cars speeding down the highway towards the glorieta (roundabout) where the highway meets the Libramiento (ring road) around town. Reminds me of those warning signs on the Interstate 5 near the border control point that warn of people crossing the highway - only we don't have any warning signs here. It's take your life in your hands time!
The shop on the left is the Pharmacia Guadelejara - a good source for inexpensive drugs. Antibiotics (and perhaps some other drugs) require a prescription, but otherwise it's walk up and place your order.
Next to the pharmacy is a building that formerly held a Brazilian restaurant (recently closed) and then an appliance store for upscale kitchen hardware. The brownish buildings at the far end are part of a small shopping center with offices, shops, restaurants, and a bank.
After crossing the highway I walk in front of these buildings and turn left into the shopping center at the bus stop where there's usually a small crowd milling around. An intercity bus (Coordinados) stops there as well as an intracity bus that heads out to the sports center (Unidos Deportiva) outside of town. Some of the intracity buses fo three-quarters of the way around the glorieta, depositing passengers safely at the Mega parking lot; others drive straight through the glorieta and drop passengers for Mega at this point.
This is the shopping center. Shops and restaurants along the left side; more of the same at the far end. The unfinished building in the center of the photo is unnamed at this time; probably a restaurant with underground parking (the building took over part of the parking spaces) They've been working on it for about a year now. I walk through this center towards the back and out to the Libramiento.
Leaving the shopping center I walk on the sidewalk (!) past the TelCel offices (the cell phone service which we use - the driveways are for their parking lot). When the sidewalk ends (and it does), it's on to the dirt path alongside the Libramiento.
Here's the walk alongside the highway. We walk on the dirt path rather than the paved shoulder because cars zip past on the roadway as they come up the hill and make the curve (we hope) - and they're not too careful about observing the painted line denoting where the shoulder is located! Shoulders are used for many things here in Mexico: pulling over to let another vehicle pass; passing another vehicle; driving on when you're a slower car than others in your lane.
This photo shows the edge of the parking lot for the new Burger King (just out of sight), the Pemex station next door, and some offices along the Libramiento. There is no sidewalk here, so one has to be careful of cars entering/leaving both the gas station and the new fast-food restaurant. At the far end of the picture is the used car display area for the local Nissan dealer.
Having made it safely this far, we then head off overland on this little path, cross a cobblestone road, walk past the next set of offices (sort of maroon in the picture), then walk along the shoulder (watching for on-coming traffic) and eventually reach the dental clinic (it's in the building in the distance). The whole trip takes 15-20 minutes and you hope there's no rain 'cuz those dirt paths turn into mud holes!
On Saturday I finally had my permanent bridge cemented into place (it fits so much better than the temporary, which kept coming unglued between appointments). There's only a second cleaning left for this afternoon and I'm free! Until next year or until something else goes wrong with my mouth! I've been dealing with this process since May, when a tooth broke. Of course, we had a 5-week cruise booked for later that month, so the process has taken a little bit longer than normal, but my mouth is back to near-normal.
This photo is taken from the parking area of the best gym in town (at our corner, too, not that it matters) looking across the highway that goes to Celaya and Costco/Home Depot/Sam's Club. This is where I time my crossing carefully to make it across the road between the cars speeding down the highway towards the glorieta (roundabout) where the highway meets the Libramiento (ring road) around town. Reminds me of those warning signs on the Interstate 5 near the border control point that warn of people crossing the highway - only we don't have any warning signs here. It's take your life in your hands time!
The shop on the left is the Pharmacia Guadelejara - a good source for inexpensive drugs. Antibiotics (and perhaps some other drugs) require a prescription, but otherwise it's walk up and place your order.
Next to the pharmacy is a building that formerly held a Brazilian restaurant (recently closed) and then an appliance store for upscale kitchen hardware. The brownish buildings at the far end are part of a small shopping center with offices, shops, restaurants, and a bank.
After crossing the highway I walk in front of these buildings and turn left into the shopping center at the bus stop where there's usually a small crowd milling around. An intercity bus (Coordinados) stops there as well as an intracity bus that heads out to the sports center (Unidos Deportiva) outside of town. Some of the intracity buses fo three-quarters of the way around the glorieta, depositing passengers safely at the Mega parking lot; others drive straight through the glorieta and drop passengers for Mega at this point.
This is the shopping center. Shops and restaurants along the left side; more of the same at the far end. The unfinished building in the center of the photo is unnamed at this time; probably a restaurant with underground parking (the building took over part of the parking spaces) They've been working on it for about a year now. I walk through this center towards the back and out to the Libramiento.
Leaving the shopping center I walk on the sidewalk (!) past the TelCel offices (the cell phone service which we use - the driveways are for their parking lot). When the sidewalk ends (and it does), it's on to the dirt path alongside the Libramiento.
Here's the walk alongside the highway. We walk on the dirt path rather than the paved shoulder because cars zip past on the roadway as they come up the hill and make the curve (we hope) - and they're not too careful about observing the painted line denoting where the shoulder is located! Shoulders are used for many things here in Mexico: pulling over to let another vehicle pass; passing another vehicle; driving on when you're a slower car than others in your lane.
This photo shows the edge of the parking lot for the new Burger King (just out of sight), the Pemex station next door, and some offices along the Libramiento. There is no sidewalk here, so one has to be careful of cars entering/leaving both the gas station and the new fast-food restaurant. At the far end of the picture is the used car display area for the local Nissan dealer.
Having made it safely this far, we then head off overland on this little path, cross a cobblestone road, walk past the next set of offices (sort of maroon in the picture), then walk along the shoulder (watching for on-coming traffic) and eventually reach the dental clinic (it's in the building in the distance). The whole trip takes 15-20 minutes and you hope there's no rain 'cuz those dirt paths turn into mud holes!
On Saturday I finally had my permanent bridge cemented into place (it fits so much better than the temporary, which kept coming unglued between appointments). There's only a second cleaning left for this afternoon and I'm free! Until next year or until something else goes wrong with my mouth! I've been dealing with this process since May, when a tooth broke. Of course, we had a 5-week cruise booked for later that month, so the process has taken a little bit longer than normal, but my mouth is back to near-normal.
Friday, July 24, 2015
I Was Just Going to Post...
A few nights ago (Tuesday night) we had rain. I know I write a lot about the weather, but it didn't just rain, it RAINED! There were a series of three storm fronts that arrived in the evening, around midnight, and around 3 am. Each had it's own series of lightning with crack, sizzles, and power outages. Followed by thunderclaps that reverberated, set off car alarms, and all that sort of thing.
The dogs, of course, were up on the bed, shivering.
Then on Wednesday night we had a repeat, but only twice during the night. There was no early-morning rain storm. But all the other events were present and accounted for! Luckily, the power outages were again brief occurrences.
The last night (Thursday) we had no storms. Nothing, nada, nil! Peaceful and quiet, we hardly knew what to do with ourselves. There was some distant thunder (and the dogs had freaked out already), but there was no rain nor lightning nearby.
We were hoping for a repeat tonight, but at 6:30 pm, another storm rolled in. The only good part was that, again, the rain cam straight down. When the wind blows while it's raining, there are usually leaks around the casements on the rooftop so rain drips down onto the second floor from above. Hopefully the rain was vertical tonight, too.
Other than that it was a good day. Yesterday we finally got around to having our hairs cut after our last cut before the back-to-back-to-back cruises. Chemy, as usual, carried on a complete conversation with others in the shop (in Spanish of course) while cutting our hair and it took about the usual amount of time (10 to 15 minutes apiece). Don't know how he does it, but he does....
Today we had our services folks over in the afternoon to install new light fixtures for the ceilings in our three most popular bathrooms. Maybe we should have visitors more often? Things are finally getting done! We even had them hang the carpet runner on the wall in the stairwell between the rooftop and the second floor....
UPDATE - It seems to have continued to rain throughout the night in one continuous flow! Still dripping when I awakened at 5:00.
Here's a photo from last night in Centro - and no, that isn't people on the rooftops relieving themselves. In an old town such as this, roofs are flat (often turned into gathering areas - ours has it's own bathroom) and the water gathers there and escapes via rain spouts. Makes walking on the sidewalks a bit tricky when folks wash down their rooftops during the day! You can tell it was pouring down as the water is aimed out into the street.
The dogs, of course, were up on the bed, shivering.
Then on Wednesday night we had a repeat, but only twice during the night. There was no early-morning rain storm. But all the other events were present and accounted for! Luckily, the power outages were again brief occurrences.
The last night (Thursday) we had no storms. Nothing, nada, nil! Peaceful and quiet, we hardly knew what to do with ourselves. There was some distant thunder (and the dogs had freaked out already), but there was no rain nor lightning nearby.
We were hoping for a repeat tonight, but at 6:30 pm, another storm rolled in. The only good part was that, again, the rain cam straight down. When the wind blows while it's raining, there are usually leaks around the casements on the rooftop so rain drips down onto the second floor from above. Hopefully the rain was vertical tonight, too.
Other than that it was a good day. Yesterday we finally got around to having our hairs cut after our last cut before the back-to-back-to-back cruises. Chemy, as usual, carried on a complete conversation with others in the shop (in Spanish of course) while cutting our hair and it took about the usual amount of time (10 to 15 minutes apiece). Don't know how he does it, but he does....
Today we had our services folks over in the afternoon to install new light fixtures for the ceilings in our three most popular bathrooms. Maybe we should have visitors more often? Things are finally getting done! We even had them hang the carpet runner on the wall in the stairwell between the rooftop and the second floor....
UPDATE - It seems to have continued to rain throughout the night in one continuous flow! Still dripping when I awakened at 5:00.
Here's a photo from last night in Centro - and no, that isn't people on the rooftops relieving themselves. In an old town such as this, roofs are flat (often turned into gathering areas - ours has it's own bathroom) and the water gathers there and escapes via rain spouts. Makes walking on the sidewalks a bit tricky when folks wash down their rooftops during the day! You can tell it was pouring down as the water is aimed out into the street.
Photo by Maru Balderas Lopez
Friday, July 17, 2015
Cobblestones
...or cobblerocks, as Ilike to call them. Forget those snugly fitted pavements you may be thinking of. Or cobblestones are actual rocks that haven't been dressed in any way. And depending upon where you live in the city, they are more carefully placed -- or not!
I had planned a photo exposé of the pavements in various parts of town, but some of the 'photos' turned out to be videos. I'll try again next week. and update this post.
Other than that it's been same-old, same-old. Things have dried up a bit, but there are still the occasional nighttime rain storm - two of which I've managed to sleep through, even with Michael inviting the dogs up on the bed and their shivers! Guess I must have been really tired. Or there was one-too-many margaritas enjoyed earlier.
I had planned a photo exposé of the pavements in various parts of town, but some of the 'photos' turned out to be videos. I'll try again next week. and update this post.
Other than that it's been same-old, same-old. Things have dried up a bit, but there are still the occasional nighttime rain storm - two of which I've managed to sleep through, even with Michael inviting the dogs up on the bed and their shivers! Guess I must have been really tired. Or there was one-too-many margaritas enjoyed earlier.
Thursday, July 2, 2015
Rain, again
I don't think we can blame it on global warming, but it's been a real rainy season for us this year. In particular, this week. I know it's only Thursday, but it has been raining most days since last week!
And not just a gentle rain, but thunder-and-lighting rain. (Miyake is spending a lot of time in our bathroom - her 'safe' room. A couple of nights ago it not only rained hard, but there was wind and it blew the rain against our southern-facing house. So a combination of heavy rain and blowing wind against the french doors in our bedroom.
Time to find those spare bath towels and put them under the windows and doors in the house that face south. Luckily not many windows/doors face in that direction but there were enough. And there was lightning, of course. On bolt struck very near our house (maybe a block away) and we lost power for a while. Needless to say, Miyake was shaking in the bathroom for a while - well, most of the night. Didn't even want to come downstairs for her breakfast! And yes, we took breakfast up to her. Spoiled, I know.
The weather report has shown it to be rainy all this week. The report we see is from bbc.com and it focuses largely on other parts of the world. It starts of with South America, then moves to Africa and the Middle East, then India, Indonesia, Australia, and Japan. Then finally gets to Central America and that's when Mexico is shown. They seldom say anything about Mexico - and only Mexico City is marked on the map - so we sort of guess whether the rain that is shown will encompass San Miguel or not. It usually does.
At least it is cool here during the summer what with the clouds and occasional rainfall. Other parts of Mexico are shown with temps up to 40 degrees Centigrade (that's about 104F - yikes!!). What's a little rain among friends, eh? At least we not in the Yucatan, poking out in the Gulf of Mexico/Caribbean where it's both hot and rainy, i.e., humid. I keep telling Michael that we could move to Puerto Vallarta if he wants ocean, but he protests that the humidity would do me in (and he's right!).
So we keep a supply of bath towels at the ready - easy to do with dogs that require baths and lots of towels - and place them quickly when the rain begins.
The only real drawback is that to reach Mega (our local grocery store that is right behind our garden wall), the local bus stop, and cab rank is that we have to walk down our street and turn right past the gym and Mega's loading dock. And I do mean 'down' the street. Which means any loose dirt uphill from us washes down the street, floods over the sidewalk, and deposits mud that we then need to walk through. Yuck! Given a day or so, the gym sends their man-of-all-trades out to shovel the dried mud from the sidewalk, but we invariably need to walk through it before that takes place. So we hop from clear spots on the sidewalk to empty gutters (they seem to be pretty empty - though narrow - for most of the way) to the cobblestones in the street.
Yes, we could always go in the opposite direction: walking up to the cross-street, across to the Libramiento, and down to Mega/bus stop/cab rank. But if we're walking into town that puts us on the wrong side of the road (the Ancha), so we don't usually go in that direction. You should see us streaking across the highway to Celaya, looking for all the world like those warning signs around the nuclear power plant on the way to San Diego! But it puts us in a position to cross the Libramiento on the correct side of the glorietta (avoiding the elevated walkway that feels like it's about to collapse) to gain better sidewalks for our stroll into town.
Centro is quite nice (except when it rains and the downhill streets turn into gushing rivers), but life is a little more exciting out on the edges of town!
And not just a gentle rain, but thunder-and-lighting rain. (Miyake is spending a lot of time in our bathroom - her 'safe' room. A couple of nights ago it not only rained hard, but there was wind and it blew the rain against our southern-facing house. So a combination of heavy rain and blowing wind against the french doors in our bedroom.
Time to find those spare bath towels and put them under the windows and doors in the house that face south. Luckily not many windows/doors face in that direction but there were enough. And there was lightning, of course. On bolt struck very near our house (maybe a block away) and we lost power for a while. Needless to say, Miyake was shaking in the bathroom for a while - well, most of the night. Didn't even want to come downstairs for her breakfast! And yes, we took breakfast up to her. Spoiled, I know.
The weather report has shown it to be rainy all this week. The report we see is from bbc.com and it focuses largely on other parts of the world. It starts of with South America, then moves to Africa and the Middle East, then India, Indonesia, Australia, and Japan. Then finally gets to Central America and that's when Mexico is shown. They seldom say anything about Mexico - and only Mexico City is marked on the map - so we sort of guess whether the rain that is shown will encompass San Miguel or not. It usually does.
At least it is cool here during the summer what with the clouds and occasional rainfall. Other parts of Mexico are shown with temps up to 40 degrees Centigrade (that's about 104F - yikes!!). What's a little rain among friends, eh? At least we not in the Yucatan, poking out in the Gulf of Mexico/Caribbean where it's both hot and rainy, i.e., humid. I keep telling Michael that we could move to Puerto Vallarta if he wants ocean, but he protests that the humidity would do me in (and he's right!).
So we keep a supply of bath towels at the ready - easy to do with dogs that require baths and lots of towels - and place them quickly when the rain begins.
The only real drawback is that to reach Mega (our local grocery store that is right behind our garden wall), the local bus stop, and cab rank is that we have to walk down our street and turn right past the gym and Mega's loading dock. And I do mean 'down' the street. Which means any loose dirt uphill from us washes down the street, floods over the sidewalk, and deposits mud that we then need to walk through. Yuck! Given a day or so, the gym sends their man-of-all-trades out to shovel the dried mud from the sidewalk, but we invariably need to walk through it before that takes place. So we hop from clear spots on the sidewalk to empty gutters (they seem to be pretty empty - though narrow - for most of the way) to the cobblestones in the street.
Yes, we could always go in the opposite direction: walking up to the cross-street, across to the Libramiento, and down to Mega/bus stop/cab rank. But if we're walking into town that puts us on the wrong side of the road (the Ancha), so we don't usually go in that direction. You should see us streaking across the highway to Celaya, looking for all the world like those warning signs around the nuclear power plant on the way to San Diego! But it puts us in a position to cross the Libramiento on the correct side of the glorietta (avoiding the elevated walkway that feels like it's about to collapse) to gain better sidewalks for our stroll into town.
Centro is quite nice (except when it rains and the downhill streets turn into gushing rivers), but life is a little more exciting out on the edges of town!
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