I can’t believe it, but I killed another camera. Rummaging in my purse for my frequent buyer card at the Soriana checkstand there was a thunk and another camera went to its final resting place. I have the crummy camera on my ipod touch or the mediocre camera that I can borrow from Paul. Not such great choices. I need a good camera. With shock absorbers, if possible.
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It is the time of year here where there are lots of snowbirds leaving. To those of you not familiar with this system, we keep track of who is coming or going in order to welcome or say goodbye as the case may be. The 28th saw Colin and Contessa leave. Yesterday Mary and Tom left for Oregon and Canada. Michael leaves on the 8th. Ingrid and Frank leave on the 18th. Sandie and Mike leave right around then, too. We want to make sure to have a dinner-lunch-walk-drink-whatever with people before they leave and sometimes it make my head hurt to keep track! Just kidding, I am joking around trying to make these farewells a little less sad.
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Paul’s only good pair of walking sandals – Teva’s – bit the dust here a couple of weeks ago. We tried to glue them as they had a flapping tongue (you know what I mean) but the repair didn’t hold. He ordered a pair on eBay and crossed his fingers, but in the meantime we decided it was time for a shopping trip to the Big City since shopping options here in the provinces are pretty sketchy. Instead of driving to Guadalajara this time we are taking the bus, and I am excited about visiting a whole shopping mall devoted to nothing but SHOES! We also need some clothes and electronics (possibly a camera?) and cheddar cheese and who knows what else so that should be fun. Friends have turned us on to a reportedly great Indian Restaurant that will probably require numerous visits and maybe a cooler fill up before we head home.
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We just recently purchased a 1+ bedroom house right near the main plaza that we plan to use as a rental. It needs some work so we are in the midst of cleaning, getting painting done, the tinaco cleaned, a bunch of carpentry done, etc etc. It will be a fine house – and really the work needed is pretty minimal. We hope to rent it to a tenant who will be here 6+ months a year. I’ll put a page up here with information and pictures once the work is done and it is ready to rent. We have another month or so to wait for our final documents arrive and once we get a tenant we get to experience first hand getting set up with an accountant, with Hacienda for taxes and all that. That should be fun!
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Last night was the Luna Gallery opening – Transformations, art from recycled material and found objects. Wonderful works, and a fun event- as always! Tomorrow is First Friday art walk again – I am looking forward to it. In other art news, our friend and excellent artist Ann Hankel’s monoprint is featured on the cover of the April edition of M! Magazine. (The April issue will be up on the first.)
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Last Sunday the group we bike with got up a bit early and participated in a group ride on the malecón. The paper said 200 riders were there, leaving from Valentino’s at a little after 8 am. Our group was even listed in the paper, which was nice. Our group ended up at Shrimp Bucket for breakfast and watched a huge bunch of Amigos de los Animales have a group dog walk. Sometimes you have to pick among two very fun events, and it can be hard! The picture at the top of this post is of some of us as we chatted before the ride started.
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Now I am off to get back to my knitting – I am almost done with my latest project! Hasta pronto!
norm
April 1, 2011You might want to look at the diving cameras, the underwater cameras are built to be dropped, stuffed in a dive bag, general misuse and they are water ready.
Les in Texas
April 1, 2011I might be jumping the gun here, but please put me on your list of prospective tenants. Today (finally)is my last day of Census employment after 2 years of on-and-off operations, and I’m raring to go.
Zoe
April 2, 2011I am flabbergasted and excited for you. A new house? That was a surprise to read but what a fun project. See? There is just too darned much catching up to do and this has to end! Is it almost martini time? Exciting, too, for your bus trip to Guad and with the tolls and gas..buses are hard to beat, especially for a short(ish) jaunt. Paul has a senior card, yes? Bus ticket is half with that. I wish you luck on the Tevas and glad you could find a pair, however the mails seem to have taken a decided downturn.. I just ordered on ebay a silver plated spaghetti fork/spoon (don’t laugh, it was $4.99) so we shall see. So sad as the mails were so good when we first moved here.
Nancy
April 2, 2011Norm, Thank you, that is a great idea! I am going to start doing some research right now!
Les, Hey, you are on the list! When do you think you will be coming to Maz?
Zoe, Yes, the new house is exciting for us, too. I spent my whole career in property management and I swore I’d never have another rental, but… It’ll be fun to go to Guad – Paul’s sandals came in the mail yesterday, so I am hoping things are improving mail-wise. We do need a get together, fo’ sho’.
Brenda
April 2, 2011Roy has trouble finding shoes down here as he wears size 12 and that is an uncommon size here. Sometimes Coppel has them and he will buy a few pair at a time when that happens.
Otherwise we take them to the shoe repair man who can fix anything for about 30 pesos. We have used this one guy many times for different shoes for both of us and it is always next day service, actually it could be same day service if I was energetic enough to go back uptown later on in the day and get them.
Brenda
April 2, 2011Oops hit the button too fast.
Have fun on your trip.
Enjoy your rental days to come. I swore I would never do that again either and still don’t intend to.
Les in Texas
April 4, 2011Nancy,
Thinking of flying down late-April to early-May. Want to reinforce the positive vibes I had from the trip to Maz in 2009 and physically lay eyes on places to live…maybe even commit to a 12-month lease if need be. Have a trip to Florida in May and one to New York in early June. If all the pieces fell into place, I would be looking at coming back full-time in June.
Les
Contessa
April 6, 2011Hola Amiga,
Finally have wifi tonite, our last in the USA!! How exciting about your new other home! Please give us all the details of the Guad trip.
mary klassen
April 17, 2011Just found your blog via Contessa and Colin’s blog. I live next door to the RV park on Stone Island in the winters and in Northern Canada during the summer. Thanks for taking the time to blog.
MY blog if wish to browse
http://www.maryslettersmx.blogspot.com/