• 28Jun

  You know you live in a hot and humid place when…

  weather 9 Comments
  • After shower baby powder is a must
  • The only seats that get much use are those under
    ceiling fans
  • Sometimes you go grocery shopping to cool off
  • The dogs will lie down only within fur ruffling
    distance of the fan
  • You give up vacuuming in between maid visits
  • You know why all cookies and crackers are packaged
    in single serving bags
  • Wearing a dress makes you want to snitch your
    husband’s cotton mid-thigh undies
  • Taking the dogs for a walk early in the morning is
    the only way
  • Waistbands get wet first
  • Dripping and mopping is considered polite
  • The middle of the day is inside time
  • You remember to put down the shades on the
    west side in the afternoon
  • You use zip lock bags for everything
  • Maybe you actually would wear a mu-mu
  • Basil in a pot can actually get too much sun
  • You actually would rather have a glass of cold
    water than anything
  • You will keep on writing your blog post even when
    perspiration runs down your back
• 27Jun

  Normal life

  dogs, our new life 7 Comments

  I haven’t written much lately because it has just become normal to live here now so it seems like there isn’t much to say! We work on our Spanish, shop, cook,visit with friends, walk the dogs, read, eat out and the rest. More or less the same things anyone does anywhere. But living here makes all the ordinary things so much better.

  For example, yesterday we wanted to take a walk in the afternoon. It’s much too hot to just walk around town in the afternoon so what did we do? Walk on the beach!

  Speaking of hot, it has started to heat up here for the summer. A couple of days ago it was as though a switch had been flipped - both the heat and the humidity ratcheted up a notch. We have been turning on the air conditioning (using “dehumidify”) in the evening if we watch television and then when we go to bed. When we open the bedroom door in the morning, the humidity hits you hard - but in 5 minutes you have forgotten about it.

  We now try to walk the dogs in the morning as early as possible so we aren’t out in the blazing sun. Our bandanas are always with us for mopping the perspiration. We use up a 5 gallon water bottle every couple of days. We eat salad for dinner. I’m loving it. If it wasn’t for the condensation that drips all over when you try to sip from your glass it would be perfect! (I probably should make a bunch of La Gringa’s Inventions since we sure don’t need to wear socks ourselves…)

  I’ve been snapping pictures of Henry whenever he cuddles up with his toys. He almost always has a toy nearby, or if he’s sleeping he uses one as a pillow. The pictures above were taken over the last week.

• 24Jun

  A few new bloggers on our blog roll

  blogging 4 Comments

  I’ve added a few new blogs to our blog roll recently and I thought I’d bring them to your attention.

  Chantel is moving to Manzanillo - she lives in Western Canada and just sold her house. Follow along as she and her beagle make the move to her favorite vacation destination of ten years.

  Erika in Mexico City - Erika moved to Mexico City from Toronto in 2006. She has had several jobs and tells about her life in Mexico City in a voice that I find interesting and appealing.

  Gary in Mexico City - Gary moved to Mexico City from Britain in 2005 and teaches Business English. His photos are great and his insights into life here are fun to read.

  Linda and Bill in Alamos - Linda and Bill are currently on their way to Alamos from the Pacific Northwest. They’ve bought a house and are eager to get to work on it!

  I hope you’ll check their blogs out when you have a minute.

• 20Jun

  Judge not…..

  maz odds + ends, random 14 Comments

  I’m not a kid anymore. And sometimes it is never more obvious than when I see little gaffes that I can just imagine my mother sighing over. And then I need to slap myself and remember that pretty much anything that someone decides to wear should be fine with me if it’s fine with them.

  I most recently heard my mother sigh (in my head) when I saw this:

  
  and then this:

  
  Coincidentally, I needed some new underwear. And also coincidentally, I own some racer back shirts. So, I was looking for a racer back bra. Unless you want a thick and heavy sports bra, you are out of luck around here. The only thing they had at Fabricas de Francia, our biggest department store, was a regular bra with a little hook thing that might work for ladies who always have assistance available when getting dressed.

  I asked my daughter in law if they had them in Mexico City and she hadn’t seen them there. So, possibly the reason all these women wear visible straps is because they haven’t seen the perfect thing in the stores? Here’s what I mean:

  
  By the way, I know the top photo needs a different undergarment entirely. I haven’t done any research on what to wear with a top with a hole in the back. Ladies?

• 19Jun

  Oldies but goodies

  maz odds + ends, random 8 Comments

  The historic center of Mazatlán has many beautiful homes. Some have been restored to modern standards with new plumbing and updated electrical and some have been maintained by their original families.

  There is a historic commission that oversees the district and there has been a pretty successful effort to make Centro an appealing place with a program for placing utilities underground and installing curb cuts for wheelchairs and lighting in the sidewalks. I love living here.

  There are a lot of buildings here in Centro that would be wonderful homes if people with energy and money were to take on the challenge. The vigas (roof beams) on many have fallen in - but these old concrete and brick buildings will stand for a long time even without any protection from the weather.

  Many people lament that (I have read this about other cities with historic cores, too) too many gringos move in to take on challenges like this and “force out” the locals. I don’t believe that this is exactly true, since all of the ruins I am talking about are unoccupied or barely occupied.

  Real estate prices are being driven up, but taxes are still low so there isn’t the same effect like there is when gentrification happens up North.

  Here in Centro in Mazatlán, I feel that gringos have upset the balance a bit…or maybe we do at first. For example, it took Paul and me a while to figure out that our block has kind of a pet crazy guy. He taps a coin on our gate and grins vacantly at us. We figured out to give him a peso or two. But it did take us a while and I imagine people wondered if we would ever “get it.” I know it’s a little frustrating for our neighbors to try to communicate with us. But overall I don’t think there are bad feelings towards gringos here.

  I just thought for a minute and in our immediate vicinity there aren’t more than two gringo households on any block, and many blocks none.

  Many of these houses will probably never be brought back to life since they are probably owned by families where a whole bunch of siblings owned a piece many years ago and through deaths, etc. the project of even tracking the heirs all down to see if they did want to sell would be a daunting one. So they sit, old and beautiful, but they sit.

  I have been collecting pictures of ruins on my Flickr page, here.

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