New Kid in Town

buenas dias.

I feel like I have been gone for a week. It has been extremely hot here during the daytime. On Thursday, I put myself in the truck with the a/c full blast and drove to Navajoa. It was 106 there, so I drove back to Alamos, where it was only 100.

Yesterday began with a promise for rain. The sky was full of marshmallows very early, and then they fluffed up into one big cotton ball and by 10am, the sky was cloudless and the air was stiffling.

I thought my next post would show some roof.................but it has not happened. I did not realize how much prep work is involved before putting on a roof. Senor has been spending much of his time on this work and only comes inside when he can no longer stand the heat.

Umberto has been plastering the wall in the back yard.

I have been venturing out, during the heat of the day, just long enough to get a few photos of hummingbirds and brown throated magpie jays. They don't appear to mind the heat at all.

Mornings have cooled down quite a bit and work time is good until around 9am. I love these mornings, they are very cool and comfortable. They are good mornings for rides on new old bike. The evenings are very cool and pleasant and a good time for watering the plants and sweeping the day's dust off the floor.

I said, last year, that September was the hottest month. Senor did not agree with me until September came this year.

On my drive I noticed fall colors are popping up on the mountain sides and there is a little yellow glow in the sky. It is getting dark now around 6:30.

We are definitely into fall.......

I have fired the kiln several times this week during the night and have come up with some beautiful tiles for the bathroom. I will turn a few into Mexican Window pendants and I think I will have a giveaway. I will let you know how and when we will do it.

The Mexico Etsy Team had a great giveaway for Independence Day and an artist from Estonia won one of my mariposa bracelets. You can see the mariposa bracelets at my etsy shop http://glasspondstudio.etsy.com/ and you can visit Silja's shop at http://5erg.etsy.com/

There is a new kid in town......................he has actually been around for several months now, but he is very elusive. Just when I think he is coming up our street, I run out for a picture and find he is not there. The wind is only carrying his tune here from the other side of town. One day I got very lucky. I thought he was several streets over and went out with my camera only to find he was right in front of the house.


(Senor just came in and said it is the perfect time for him to read college football on the computer. I said it is a perfect time for me to take a siesta......................)

Play the video to hear the new kid who delivers propane casa to casa. I hope it makes your day..........................linda lou

The Roofing Inspector

Hola, we had a great storm yesterday.

It started at three in the morning with alot of lightning and then came the rain. Around six thirty I hopped on new old bike to go to my yoga class and as I went around the corner near the Chalaton barrio a huge crack of lightning came down and the rain started again and I went home as fast as I could. The entire day was overcast and breezy and very comfortable.

Late in the afternoon some boiling clouds appeared to just remind us that the monsoon season is not over yet, but there was no more rain. Okay, so you already know where I am going with this post, but do not get in a hurry and scroll down to see the roof inspector. Just go with me here.................

Senor is so sweet. The other day he brought me a present..............a huge container of paint.
Then he said......................the sooner you paint the vigas in the two side rooms, the sooner we get the roof on. Well, I painted those vigas for those rooms in a single day. I only stopped for a few little breaks. When I was done I noticed a rash all over my arms where I had leaned against painted concrete. I hope I am not allergic to the paint and the vigas.....................

The paint is called espresso and looks great on the vigas. I will have to wait until the light is right to get a good photo of the vigas for you, but the wood forms Senor used for the vigas have made all the wood indentations in the concrete and it is very impressive. Standing below the vigas, you cannot tell they are concrete. It took me a while to get a system down, but after trying a roller and then a paint brush, I discovered that a sponge and a smash, squish and scrub technique works best. It is pretty messy, but that system gets the paint down into any holes caused by air bubbles.

So there, if you are planning to paint any concrete vigas this weekend, remember smash, squish, scrub and you will be done in no time.

Senor has been concentrating on his wiring and junction boxes, both of which need to be done before the roof goes on. Below is his diary of what all these wires are. He usually leaves this out in the Hilton Garden Room overnight. I guess he has it all memorized in case it gets blown away or rained on in a big storm.

Now, I am going to show you all of his wires. They are everywhere..................................

See the styrofoam stacked below? That will be on the roof. But, do notice the wires hanging there, captured in the photo.....................................

The electrical box and alot of wires in the laundry room below..................................

The cute little wood forms used to make the concrete junction boxes are leaning against the wall.....................................

Wires coming out of the tubes........................

Wires and tubes coming out of the beams......................

Wires on top of the vigas and tubes filled with more wires.............................

More wires and wire filled tubes.................................

Some very scary looking wires and tubes are surrounding the painted vigas.........................

Okay, okay, I am done with the wires.....................

So, here is the story.....................

Senor came to me and said.......................the roofing inspector is here........................and knowing the routine now....................................i said..........oh, my, the roofing inspector..........................i did not know we had roofing inspectors here........................what did he say........................

he said.............it's a good thing we aren't in king county anymore...........................

adios! linda lou

Dia de Independencia

Hola, buenas tardes,

The night of the Palacio festivities we drove through the Plaza, and in the Palacio we could see the chairs were set up for the inauguration of the new mayor. The Plaza was very festive and alot of people were sitting and talking, children were playing, vendors were selling and the dessert ladies had out long tables of Tres Leche Cakes (three milk cakes).

A few blocks from the Palacio several women sell tamales from their casa, so once we got home we turned around and walked back to buy tamales and empanadas.

On the walk home, we got involved in a street soccer game, playing well into the dark with about ten young boys. Senor hit a tope and the tamales went flying, but he quickly saved them and proceeded to score a goal and skin his knee at the same time. The boys whooped and hollered and did not seem to mind a bit that we had joined their game. When we decided our legs could not take anymore we called hasta luego and gracias and many more than ten boys' voices called goodbye to us. We looked up to a high stone wall to see that we had drawn a crowd......

Back home we devised this plan to stay up until midnight to hear the 'grito', but that didn't work. At midnight when the first fireworks went off, Senor shot out of bed thinking a gun was going off. As soon as he realized those were fireworks, he said.............oh, yea, the fireworks, we should go and watch.............and went back to sleep. I watched outside from the garden room. The fireworks were brief, but I could hear alot of screaming and yelling from town, so I imagine everyone had a very good time.

We were up early to go to the parade and below are some photos from Dia de Independencia. The parade here in Alamos begins with all the children from the entire municipality of Alamos, carrying their school flag and the Mexican flag, wearing their school uniform and marching to a cadence through all of the streets of the historical district. There are many, many schools and they all wear different colored uniforms. The pictures below are only representative of a few schools.

Some of the schools will have drummers, usually girls, and coronet players, usually the boys.


Below, the secondary schools are marching. The teachers march along with the students, calling out the cadence for them. The hill top ahead is the Mirador. They will soon turn left and head toward the Plaza de Armas.

After the schools go by, the famous little red train, pulling the younger children, goes by. Their school flag is the red banner on the train.

Then come several bands.And, then comes the newly elected PAN mayor and his family. Behind them are all of the municipality employees that will begin working for the new government administration.Then come the horses.
Once the parade has gone through the historic district and around the Plaza, it goes to the Alameda and back to the Plaza where the horse dancing begins.

After the dancing, the mayor and his family began walking up Calle Juarez for the third time and all of the horses and horse dancers took off behind them, dancing to the Mariachi band.

The musicians below headed toward the arroyo and Senor and I headed toward the little Sonoran hot dog stand at the Alameda. After we ate, we went to the arroyo where the Tecate stands were already open and men were already waiting in line.

Yesterday, we had big plans for the afternoon............maybe watch a little baseball, some soccer, the horse dancing competitions, eat a little carne asada, but it was just too hot for us. I think it was one of the hottest days we have had all summer and there was absolutely no breeze. I am one of those people who hates to miss anything. If something is going on, I want to be there to see it, but we did not see anything else........by one o'clock we were walking home................. turned on the mini split, and slept the afternoon away..................