It’s been coming for a while now, but today we knew it was time to put Lucy to sleep.  She has been on a fast slide over the last few months, and a neurological disorder that kept her legs from getting instructions made it nearly impossible for her to walk and made her incontinent.  The last few days have been very hard for all of us.

Dr. Cesar came to our house to see her several times, and he took care of ending her life for us, too.  He is very gentle and she went to sleep with us singing to her and petting her.

Lucy – aka Lulu or Lou was the first dog Paul and I got together.  She came from a shelter – she’d been discovered in a house that was left vacant… she was extremely thin, but very sweet.

She became the matriarch of our Black Dog Farm, and Paul even designed the logo for the gate based on her likeness.  She taught our Scottie, Angus the ropes – and later when Henry joined our pack she taught him, too.  Angus died about 5 years ago of cancer, and she and Henry were best pals from then on.  By the time Coco joined our pack this year she had backed off from most pack leader jobs, letting Henry teach Coco the rules of the house.

We are all in a bit of shock, we loved our Little Lulu (can you hear me crooning the Little Lulu song to her?)  and hope she knows how much happiness she brought to our lives.  Rest In Peace, Lucy.

It has been another week between posts!  What is wrong with me?  Can’t I think of interesting things to say about Mazatlán?

Well, yes… and no.

After living here more than three years I have to admit every impromptu parade or quirky item being carried on a bicycle doesn’t cause me to run for the camera anymore, it is just life as usual.  Wonderful life as usual, but still.

I have to admit, too, that I am probably more involved in Facebook than I am in the blog lately.  Former Mexico City blogger now living in Dallas, Jesus Chairez linked to an article on his Facebook status that is about blogging being on the decline. It made me think about my blogging habits lately.

Partly I am busy.  We’re having a bunch of people over for Christmas dinner, snowbirds are back and there is more going on socially, the Mazatlán cultural calendar is in full swing, and I am having fun reading, knitting, sewing, and cooking.  But it’s more than that.  I love Facebook, really.

It’s so immediate, and it has been so wonderful in enhancing my knowledge of others and them of me.  For example, here are a few things I have posted lately – that in the past might have been worked into some kind of blog post.

Paul’s daughter posted the picture above that she saw on the subway wall in New York City.  It’s an advertisement for visiting Mazatlán, with a picture of one of our most photographed streets, Angel Flores.  Of course someone took some liberties with the photo as the water is on the wrong side but hey, we know we are special for being a historic city on the coast, and we’d like more people to visit, for sure!  Of course I shared the picture on my wall.  (Do I sound like I drank the Kool-aid?)

Then one day after the dogs had eaten I returned to the kitchen to find Coco having placed her plastic steak chew toy in her food dish.  I thought it was funny, and so did lots of others.

I also got some comments when I decided to quit reading two of our local forums.  It was my Christmas gift to myself, to take a year off from reading some of the most infuriating and thoughtless emails under the guise of being about Mazatlán.  I can stay informed lots of other ways, and if I miss something because I don’t read the forums, you know what?  I don’t care. Besides, most activities around town are on my radar because of Facebook, anyway!

I also enjoy interacting with a bunch of Mexico bloggers and former bloggers.

I’ve had a Facebook badge on the left side of the blog for a while now, and occasionally I get “friend requests” from people I don’t know.  If you do read the blog and want to friend me, please include a message with the friend request or I might write back asking how I know you!

So this is a roundabout way of telling you that I’ve been two-timing the blog with Facebook.  I do see a lot of fun stuff around town, though, and am going to be better about keeping you up to date!

I know a lot of my readers like to know what’s going on about town.  I have written about the updating going on at the Plazuela Hidalgo (also known as Lion Park or Plaza de Los Leones) on Angel Flores in Centro.  Here is a picture of the Plazuela when they had removed the walkway surface but before much had been done.  The picture at the top of the post is a side view of the front of the library with the gold painted lions guarding the door.  The building has been repainted, the plantings improved and sod laid.  Not to mention the new cobblestone sidewalk, below.  They’ve even installed new, large, garbage cans!

The La Siesta Hotel is a landmark on the malecón.  I believe after the Belmar Hotel had its sidewalk canopy collapse last January the La Siesta probably decided to take a look at their canopy, too.  One thing led to another and we have been watching them work on the building for quite a while.  Below is a picture of the building partway through the work.

They have added a lot of new steel to the balconies and reconfigured the windows, etc.  I love the new look which is getting close to done, below.

Also on Olas Altas, a building is being remodeled to be a small hotel, I believe.  They have been working on this a while, and are adding another story – with the use of a pumper truck for their concrete.  Amazing!

We’re amazed because most often we see buckets being used to move concrete from the street to the roof, or, like in the picture below, bricks from the street to the house.  Access is a huge issue in the narrow streets of Centro, and while the small hotel pictured above is only a couple of doors away from the project below, the delivery arrangements and access are totally different!