The End Of An Era

It seems that the new year is going to bring drastic changes to my neighborhood.
For days, around the houses and at the entrance to the big hotel, I have seen homemade banners and signs decrying the government and asking for help.
The citizens of my shantytown are sent packing.
For many, many years now, the good folks down the hill have built a most eclectic village, unfortunately on somebody else's land and now they are being evicted.
The lady at my tienda said that she has lived nearly thirty years here.
From what I hear, they are being removed to make space for new condos and hotels.
On one hand I feel sorry for them, even though they knew they were living on borrowed time.
On the other I wonder what that will do to me and my-oh so quiet- neighborhood. Will all this construction scare away the animals I see on occasion and will it, maybe, make it easier to sell the house.
We shall see in the new year.

Rapaciuos Rodents

The mornings are getting cold here, well, cold for an elderly gent such as I, with thinning hair and even thinner blood.
So I decided to get out my sweats and
behold.
The rapacious rodents had chewed a big hole in my Dracula sweat shirt, a treasured item from the time we did Dracula for the first time in San Diego, and some enterprising person had these sweats made up and sold them.
So the question is, do I wear it with the hole, or can I find a smart way to repair this sizable hole.
Throwing it out is not an option.
The other-not so favorite sweat shirt- is of course unscathed.
One can fault the rodents for many things, but to my regret, they do have excellent taste.

The 24th

It is the 24th, and I had hoped to spend the day in Halbyhoffburg a.k.a. Ajijic but, due to the vagaries of fortune, what with the death of Antonio my friend and house-and-doggie sitter and snowstorms in the NW, I am celebrating this day, surrounded by some of the Worthless Ones, roasting a chicken in the oven and drinking too much cheap red wine.
By myself.
I have no decorations, no mistletoe nor ordinary pine branches decorated with baubles and lights. Nothing.
I, at this time of my life, do not much like Christmas.
I always liked to be with my family, to hear what was happening to all of the wonderful and wacky girls and boy, and James and Kathy delighted in telling me.
This time they are not here.
I shall eat my chicken,drink my wine, yell at the Worthless Ones and eventually go to bed and wake up to yet another day.
Merry Christmas to all
Love and kind thoughts
Me.

In loving Memory

In Mismaloya, at the dining table where we spent so many ours talking. Erik took this picture.

Farewell

I was expecting a call from Antonio this Saturday so we could spend the day, his day off from work, together.
I got a call, but not a nice one.
Antonio had died form a heart attack, alone in his apartment on Thursday.
Farewell my good friend, and I shall miss you and all the wonderful times we had together, more than I can say.
Farewell.

The Last Goodbye

An article on the BBC made me think of my father who died from cancer of the lungs.
The doctors at the hospital decided that, towards the end, he would be more comfortable at home.
Later my mother told me that when he died she, and one of my sisters, got him ready for his final journey.
What to some may sound like a quaint, even barbaric rite, now sounds to me like the final show of love to one you have shared a lifetime with.
Chuck died in a hospital, and I saw him being wheeled out on a gurney.
But I still had the time with him as he drew his last breath.
Is there ever a right way to say goodbye, I wonder.
My mother did it her way, and I did it the best way I could.
I guess we all do the best we can.

Treats ?

Yesterday, after my fifth visit to Immigration, I finally got my coveted visa, and I decided for a treat to celebrate.
I bought a big bag of dog food ( I was almost out anyway )
I bought a big bottle of dish washing liquid
and I bought a new mop....

I've got to get a life.

Nativity Ducks

A Change I Can Believe In.

Another One

The worthless Ones, particularly Piggy, have a special bark for things out of the ordinary. It can be anything from a garbage can left in the street to creepy crawlies on the floor whilst watching the tely, so when I heard this bark I set out to check and see what might be the cause.
It came from the spare room, and I checked and found nothing and went back to doing whatever I was doing .
But the bark persisted, so I returned and checked more thoroughly and there, under the bed, on some rolled up carpets , was the cause.
A snake.
I went to get my trusty cleaver and a broom, but by the time I got my snake killing equipment together, the snake had hidden in one of the rolled up carpets.
Now, doing nothing was not an option. I would never be able to sleep again, knowing that a snake was hiding under the bed, even if it was in another room.
So I dragged the rolled-up carpets out on the deck and unfurled them over the fence that faces the jungle and watched as with a thump and a mighty squiggle the snake fell out of one the carpets and landed in the undergrowth.
Out of the house.
And it was a sizable one, this snake. Compared to the one I killed the other night, this was easily twice the length and twice the girth. Big one.
All this snakery makes you check twice before you sit down on the couch and be sure the lights are on before the in-the-middle-of-the- night trip to the loo for a pee.
I hope it is temporary.

My House

I was expecting James and Kathy to show up, so Sunday night when I heard the car door slam, I jumped up to go and turn on the outside lights for them and stopped in my tracks for there, in the middle of the hallway, was a snake, right in my path.
I yelled at the mutts to back off, which they didn't
I yelled at James and Kathy to remain outside, which they did
And rushed to the kitchen to grab my snakekilling cleaver and hack the serpent to many and squiggly pieces.
Then, and only then did I open the door, knowing Kathy's intense dislike for snakes, particularly
live ones.
I scooped the still moving parts in to a plastic bag to be disposed of later and sat down to have a pleasant visit with James and Kathy.
With the mutts, the rodents, the bats and now snakes, it is getting to be a bit crowded in my house.