More Sunlight, More Firewood, More View

Buenos dias. In the night we woke to a huge windstorm, the sounds were very reminiscent of the ones we heard almost three years ago during Hurricane Norbert. The only thing missing was the constant wail of the sirens. Several times I said to Senor...........what's zat....... Senor, not having being raised in the south, said several times.......what in the hell was that. When I went out at the crack of dawn I saw that all of our ladders which had been leaning against the portal had fallen, all of our plastic furniture was out in the back of the yard, the plastic white tables legs flung like broken stilts to the side, the gleaming flat tops leaning against the coyote fence. The yard was littered with branches and several ten foot tops of tecoma bell trees. And we had a new view of the mountains because most of the plumeria trees were on top of the asador.


Humberto spent four hours this morning sawing the plumeria trunks into firewood which he says need to age for a year. As the morning heated up we realized just how much shade we actually lost. In return, our mountain view which has always been spectacular, is even more spectacular. With Norbert, Mt Alamos got eleven inches of rain in two hours, we only got one half an inch with last night's storm. Thank goodness, the thing we never want to see again are any of his relatives.


I was very worried about downtown and all the banners and flags and pendants and drapes, but a quick tour of town on new old bike showed everything looked normal and one of the city workers told me there was very little wind in town. Soon the kids were on their way to and from school, delivery trucks were at the Mercado, the vendors were setting up their food stalls and the newspaper guys were on the corner. Just normal as can be.


The city worker was busy filling the cans with kerosene and inserting long wicks. The blackened cans will go out on the tops of the homes and businesses on the fifteenth, and will be lighted before the grigo at midnight. More shop owners were busy hanging drapes and flags. The Oaxcan artisans were coming out of their tents after a restful sleep, the music man was putting on a good mix and the shoeshine stand was ready for customers. Yes, just normal as can be.After talking with a few people about the storm, I have learned that the hill tops are the ones that really got hit and that would include us. A few folks out farther in more open barrios also lost a few tree limbs here and there. But overall, no real serious damage anywhere.

Next year when the hot summer sun beats down on us, we will not miss the thick lush plumeria trunks that were broken off last night because the portal will give us shade. The birds who had their homes in the tecoma bell tree tops will find new places to live and as the long hot summer fades into autumn and then to winter, we will most likely toss an aged plumeria trunk into the outdoor fireplace, and sit back and enjoy the view.
adios.............