Parallel lives

Silvia and Carlos Hernandez spent a week in March with me and then a week in Villa Vera. We became fast friends. We live parallel lives! Asimilados!
All of us are children of immigrants: Silvia's father was from Mexico, Carlos's parents Salvadorans who sent him ahead to the US to avoid the war that claimed four Catholic lay workers from Cleveland as collateral damage.
Carlos is an autoworker about to lose his job with Toyota; his plant had the misfortune of being in a partnership with GM, Chevrolet. So, half of it was tooled for GM and well, there is no going back.
We found it amusing that Silivia, who speaks virtually no Spanish, was relying on Carlos, or me, an immigrant, for translations! We drank our Charro Negros and thought about that. Diet coke and tequila.
The one thing we kept going back to in our heads was the US experience of growing up as children of immigrants and assimilating. The irony of me working on assimilating here, in a Latino culture, was not lost on any of us. We just had a grand old time with that and Mexican time!

Taken to my bed...

Just a note to say what I'm up to! I am resting comfortably after oral surgery. In my bed, good drugs, although I forgot starting to take the Cipro until today, 18 hours later. Like I said, good drugs!
I had been enjoying the Hernandezes while they were here and then life took over. But they stopped by this morning, played with Punta and gave me oooh ahhhh sympathy.
The surgery was to implant cadaver bone where an implant had been moved, to make it ready for a bridge. So...I have a cast on the tooth adjacent to the surgery that extends to over top of the surgery site. Very protective.
I am eating a vegan soup I put through a blender in anticipation. It's not half bad, but it is pablum. I also got gnocchi in Cancun Monday. Gnocchi good after 8 days, still not chewing on the surgery side, said Dr. Canales. Basically 25 vegan fat free days is what the healing will take. But I have to sing praises to Dr. Canales! Gentle strong man.
Tomorrow, I may join Carlos and Silivia at Villa Vera, for real papilla...guacamole, no lemon, no chile and some fish broth! Wooohooo!
No OJ, maybe carrot juice. Maybe nopal juice. No sour, no hot. No added flavors! Yessir!

Bites less...

As if it would hurt less to pay the electric bill via a machine, that's the CFE, the federal electric commission, has done here. At least formerly employed staff doesn't have to take abuse. We are always shocked by our electric bills.
And you can pay 24 hours, any day. So I went in and parted with my money early, so no one could see me weep!
Then I had a quickie breakfast and stopped at the Herrera house, since Adrian difn't show up last night to measure for gates.
Picked him up and his helper, they measured. Will be be back in the afternoon with a price! okie dokie.
Texted Dr Salas about my imported pseudoephrine taking away the spins. I guess I'll have to stock up on more when I go back to Ohio this summer. It's illegal here because of all the meth labs; you can't by it and it's even been taken out of Claritin-D. I see a beach day!
Oh well, small price to pay for the war on drugs!

Why I did not go to Soggy Peso last Sunday!

Freddy found a new job and it meant only one person got his undivided attention the previous week. I'm not a prude, but nor do I live to see rump while being served ribs. This went on for an hour as he cut her shirt to shreds.

A breast autograph with the belly button piercing I could have touched was also a bit much for my appetite! There was also a birthday girl getting up and down from the bar at the other end. Fun? Not for me.

What the fugue???

Driving south past the new hospital construction, you see the front of Hacienda Mundaca. Well...
It was hard to recognize with the shop stalls they put in front. But the growing, giant Tinker Toys monstrosity is another matter.
Palapas "they" say. Palapas? Pointing down? Where will the people go in them?
Hope this turns into some kind of museum for Isla Mujeres heritage and NOT some sort of tourist attraction that detracts from what is behind the white stalls, the origin of Isla Mujeres!

Family A-OK in Chile!

Sergio Rodriguez, my all around strongman and hired hand at Zina's Guest House, finally reached his family in Chile this morning. He had bundled up towels and sheets to take to the laundry here on Isla Mujeres and brewed some coffee before sitting down to Skype.
He reached sister Jimena, who told him that Sergio Sr, 76, fell off a horse at his campground in Rio Bonito and hit his head before the earthquake...terrimoto... and mom is resting for a pre-heart attack condition, but otherwise all is well. When can you come to visit, she asked. Soon! He'll go to the consulate Wednesday afternoon and hopes to have papers in order by Friday, then look for air fares.
Friday is also the day he is going to Cancun with me to register on my Sam's Club card and assist in hardware shopping!

Beach Dog

I want to grow up to be a beach dog! Mommy took me to the beach yesterday!
We were are a place called Mar y Sol with mommy Zina's friends. Mommy had me walking on a leash. Then she'd let go and say "Punta Come!" Sandy took me for a walk on the beach. Then, when everyone was sure I knew how to act, Mommy untied the leash. Then Rick picked me up and sang a Willie Nelson song.
"Mommies don't let your babies grow up to be beach dogs" is the song he sang as we dance for probably 20 minutes. I was asleep when he got done. Today, I'm pretty sleepy. I dug a lot of holes near the water yesterday!
Today, we are not going to the beach. Mommie is going to the laundry and when she comes back she says we will see how I act on the rooftop patio of Zina's Guest House.

100th Anniversary!

Cruz Roja Mexicana, the Mexican Red Cross, is celebrating it's 100th anniversary this year. The fundraising season was kicked off last night with a 350 peso per person dinner, cash bar extra, at Zazil Ha, the restaurant at Hotel Na Balam, on Playa Norte.
Music by La Clave, a terrific salsa band from Cuba, which started us off with dinner music.
It was a truly enchanting evening under the stars! I did not win the drawing for the flat screen Sony TV with surround sound! Congratulations Enrique Lima!

Punta speaks

That's me, Punta, the day after I got to Zina's Guest House. This lady, Zina, needed me more than she ever knew!
The first night, I didn't sleep at all because she has an apparently dangerous dog living in what she calls a mirror on her dresser. So I was on alert all night, if not barking, at the very least growling so he wouldn't get her.
So I rested yesterday.First I fell asleep with my chin facing up. Then I changed all my directions at once.
I kept repeating. Then I rounded up all the toys and put them in the kennel; I know the other dog does not go there.
I went back to "go bed" for another few hours of sleep. Then Zina invited me up to her bed.
It was great! But then, I looked a the mirror and there he was again. The dog I think is going to bite my new owner!
Since I can only see the dog from the bed, mommie Zina said I can't stay. She told me "Go bed" and it got down and she quit taking pictures.


I wasn't counting, but Zina said I slept for 8 hours before we went to sleep. And then we slept for 9 hours. I think the dog in the mirror is scared. I only saw him again in the morning and he only needed a quick bark and went away!

Hasta luego, foodies!

Linas Johansonas crave bacon and eggs his for his last breakfast on Isla Mujeres, so we returned to the scene of the first Isla Mujeres meal - La Bruja Restaurant in La Gloria.
Milda wanted arrachera beef fajitas. She had fajtas of various kinds during her visit, but not beef.
Me, owner of Zina's Guest House, I just wanted huevos Mexicana. Well, not just. We all shared guacamole first and had OJ. Linas had watermelon water, too.
Linas and Milda own Milda's Market in Union Pier, Michigan. A bit on the brisk side for daily swims, the vacation was a relaxing time to read and nosh. Milda was glad to get a few new ideas for her deli and not cook but one meal, a breakfast, while she was on vacation. And glad to bring home gifts for her nieces and salsa for her hairdresser! A real vacation! From one foodie to others: I'll miss you guys!

Boca 2009-2010

She was expected to start "school" this week with Alan. Boca was the brightest doggie dog I ever knew.
Her life was cut short by exuberance - in the rain a week ago, when we got home after dinner at Mango Cafe, she wanted to get into the house quick to go to the bathroom on her dry diaper/pad. Not in the rain, oh no.
She jumped from the golf cart, aiming for the top of the landing two feet away. It was slippery and her front paws gave way. Her hind paws never made it and she took the impact of the cement corner on her lower abdomen.
She was a good patient, not complaining after the first 8 hours, when she groaned and growled in pain, a rumble kind of sound. She tolerate the injections, the IVs. The bundling to the ultrasound. The bladder injury was a rupture by the time she was autopsied Thursday, after an unremarkable ultrasound.
It is hard without her. I have been interviewing replacements for Guest House Dog. I have settled on a dog I first called Tippy, but have decided to name Punta, Puntita. Her remarkable physical characteristic is a white tip to her black tail and natural white French tips on her nails.

She seems smart enough, quick enough, and cute. But I am not quite ready to receive her. She is not Boca amd I still weep for her. She was smart and kissed me good night and had her ears up for trespassers. She had refined her growls and barks and obeyed her commands. Awhh....doggie dog!