I’m out on the patio upstairs, the sun is down but it’s still mostly light.  I brought my book and a glass of wine intending to sit and read in the coolish breeze.

But as soon as I sit down the evening captures me.  Someone is playing scales on a muted trumpet and the notes lilt up and down, mesmerizing me.

People pass by, scraps of conversation lifted on the breeze.

Cars pass by, mostly soft whooshes but once in a while an unmuffled roar.

A dog in the distance, who-hooing, not dogish at all.

The trumpet continues playing, I might be at a jazz club listening to someone warm up.

I miss the old man across the street, air conditioned now, not sitting outside in his white plastic chair talking to everyone who passes by.

The trumpet keeps playing.  A magical moment, I am glad I was here for it.

In Mazatlán, shrimp is king!  It is a working city, and a lot of the work has to do with fishing – and of course shrimp is a big part of our fishing industry here.

The shrimp boats are these crazy kind of winged creatures – I can’t say I really understand how it all works but I believe the “wings” are structures that help them haul in the nets.

During shrimp season there are always a few of them on the horizon.  The other morning I counted 15!

We have read in the paper that the price of diesel has risen so much that the shrimpers weren’t sure they’d make enough on their first run to pay for the fuel to go out again.  Paul wondered (being originally from the Midwest) whether it was kind of like the farmers always complaining about their crop yields.

Anyway, the shrimp are now in, and the shrimp ladies who set up their ice/buckets/shrimp sales offices on the street now have nice fresh shrimp to sell.

I’ve added a few links to our Resources page (see the top menu bar) that I thought I’d bring to your attention.

One of the things I have missed a bit is access to magazines.  Sometimes you just want to peruse Wired, the Utne Reader, or Time.  (A thread on a local message board supplied these links.)  My favorite is MyMagazines.  They have full copies of magazines with a nice reading interface.  The other one, Magatopia, has links to tons of magazines.  Most go to the magazine website and have limited online content.

Google Book Search is an interesting way to while away an afternoon! Check it out!

When I was a kid I have a very vivid memory of riding in the car with my mother from Stinson Beach to San Francisco and being shocked and amazed by a huge group of migrating Monarch butterflies.  The experience has stayed with me for more than 45 years….and I intend to get to their winter resting place near Morelia before too long.  The link here is to Journey North, a group who tracks the migration and has many interactive maps and daily update maps.  You can even participate by reporting Monarch sitings.