Border Chill

Hola! It is almost siesta time here.
The plant truck just went by, but most of the plants look as hot and humid and wilted as we do. It is 95 degrees out and the humidity is 75%.

BUT there is a cloud cover and it looks almost like a repeat of yesterday.


The cloud below has moved down off the top of Mt. Alamos.

Now it has increased in size and darkness and is heading down the street from the south.

Meanwhile, another stormy batch of clouds has decided to make a run from the east.

The two systems collided over our house, with a light rain and some thunder and lightning and before we knew it, they said goodbye to each other and a little sunset appeared in the west.

While the sun was peeking through on the horizon, lightning flared up over the mountains in the north. When we went to bed, around nine, a little rain was still falling, but the crickets were chirping and the fireflies were out and the wind was very still.

Senor said there were too many systems going on and no one could take charge............

We returned to Alamos early Thursday. We had planned to be back Tuesday, but Senor ordered an additive to go in his roof mixture. He thought it would be in Tucson on Monday, but no, it was in Phoenix on Monday. So we had to wait for it to be shipped to Tucson.

On the drive home, Senor and I had a border spat.

We never see anyone at the main crossing and we never stop.

At KM 21, we always drive through and sometimes we get a green light and sometimes, red. We rarely get asked any significant questions.

The problem is Senor drives through as the light is green and he hesitates ever so slightly. It is like he is stopping and waiting for a red light. All the while I am saying...........go! go! keep going!

Okay, I think I have probably already told you about this. But, it drives me crazy........especially if the light turns red while he is just sitting there..............and not going through at a faster pace.

Well, this time he hesitated and I kept saying............go, go, hurry, hurry, keep driving!!!

Senor calmly continued through on the green light and then, parked the truck. He looked at me and said............. you drive...................

He has parked the truck almost right on the other side of the light. We are practically still in the lane. You can't just stop right here!...................now they will come out to talk to us for sure...................i said.

He just got out of the truck and walked around to the passenger's side and stood there, waiting for me to close my mouth and get out and go get in the driver's seat.

So, I thought for sure someone would come running out to say something, like, what are you doing?.....................You two people look highly suspicious changing drivers in the car lane here, let us see your passports.

But nobody came to say anything and Senor and I did not say anything for a couple of hours. Later he said he did not like me to tell him how to drive.

Now I do not think I am bad about that. I usually do not tell him when I see topes coming, I do not tell him about the construction in the right lane, I do not tell him about the surveyors that are just standing in the road ahead, or the goats that look like they are fixing to make a mad dash across the highway. I figure he can see all that. So if he hits a tope going thirty and everything flies off the console and onto the floor, I think, that's ok, he just missed one, but I do not say anything.

Maybe I just still need to chill out on the border crossings. Even if we get a red light as he hesitates, the most that usually happens is someone might want to come out and practice their english or talk about Alamos.

...............or we need to flip a coin on the drive south now as well as the drive north. If I win, I will drive through as quickly as I can. If I lose I will keep quiet.

...............or next time, I will have a peanut butter sandwich handy and start eating it at KM 21.

Before I go, the tiny yellow butterflies are everywhere. They are very fast and do not like to have their picture taken, but Senor was able to sneak up on some of them and quickly take their picture. If only he were that fast driving through the border crossing.....................

I hear thunder................adios, linda lou

The Pantheon

Buen Dia.
It is very hot out, something over a hundred. We are now through working for the day and hibernating in the back room with the mini split.

Senor is getting very good lately about taking photos. I do have to delete some of them because they are out of focus. Sometimes he accidentally takes a video instead and it is usually of his shoes, but he really seems to enjoy looking for the camera and taking a picture now and then.


He took the beautiful sunset below and the first lily bloom. I cannot recall the name of our lilies, but they are night blooming only and live just through the dark. Most are pale white with maroon centers and light streaks of pink on the petals.

Year of the Gun was a bust. The dvd would not even load. Nothing. Nada. Zip.

So we sat out in the dark, in the garden room and listened to the crickets chirp.

This morning I was up at five and on new old bike for a ride out to the Pantheon, which is the cemetery. I detoured through town to check the water level in La Aduana Arroyo and there was a little trickle. The ride took about half an hour because of the detour.

Below are the gates to the main entrance of the Pantheon. I rode all around the cemetery until I found a smaller open gate and went in with new old bike. It became crowded very quickly and as I turned to go put new old bike outside, the caretaker came up to me.

He said something very quickly in Spanish and I said I did not understand and could he speak more slowly. He pantomimed a scene about my bike by shoving something imaginary way above his head and pretending to walk off. I finally realized he was telling me to leave my bike with him to watch because otherwise someone would lift it up and walk away with it.

I shook my head and he followed me outside, where I locked up my bike to the lamp post. He stood over me and watched what I was doing. When I was done he said........tiene usted llave.....do you have the key..............i said, si, senor, tengo llave.....yes, sir, i have the key....................bueno, he replied.

I followed him back through the gate and he started talking and waving his hand through the air. I think he was telling me something about the graves, but I am not sure. He may have been inviting me to sit down for desayuna (breakfast) because he sat down on a grave where he had earlier laid out his tortillas and a little plastic baggie of salsa. He also had a bottle of juice which he offered to me. I do not generally like to decline gifts, but I did.

I said gracias and started walking around the Pantheon.

After a while of looking at graves and names and dates, I came around a rather large stone grave and he was standing right there. I just about jumped out of my skin. It scared me to death. I was already scared because I had seen two large gravesite holes about eight feet deep with nothing in them.

He smiled and asked me something. It was difficult to understand him. He didn't have any teeth, but I think he was asking me who I was looking for. I asked him where the foreign graves were located. He walked ahead of me, through alot of tall grass, to the opposite side of the Pantheon. We went up a slight incline and near the top he turned and smiled a very toothless smile and said................aqui. Then he turned and left me alone.

I was fascinated by what I saw and read. I counted at least fifteen gravesites with what I will call American names since I don't know the true heritage of any of the names. Even more fascinating were the dates of birth. Many of those birthdates were from the late 1800's and the deaths ranged from the 1960's to the 1980's.

Some of the graves had names that are still familiar here in Alamos, where relatives still live. And there are probably even more gravesites of foreigners that I did not see.

A very popular club here in Alamos, is the History Club. I believe I have read that they have all of the facts for all of the graves. I think it would be very interesting to know more. While looking at some of the graves, I could only imagine what it must have been like here in Alamos, when they were alive. There are a number of books on life as it was here years ago. I will definately have to read some of those.

I brushed against a tree branch while I was walking and a swarm of little honey bees came out of the branch. I scooted away as fast as I could, waved goodbye to the caretaker and went and unlocked new old bike.

When I rode away I couldn't help but think about the graves in the Pantheon. Last year's Day of the Dead came on the heels of Hurricane Norbert. We went to the Pantheon for a short while one night. Very few people were sitting with their departed loved ones. There was very little celebration.

I think people were still in shock and in awe of what Norbert had done. Maybe this year's Day of the Dead will be a merrier, happier time for the town and the Pantheon residents as well.

Happenings in the Yard

Buen dia!

Last night we had two very different evening skies.

The photo above is the eastern sky.

Immediately after in the photo below and across the street, is the western sky.Alot has happened in the yard in the last week.

The grass and weeds grew.

There are very few brown patches of tierra in the yard now.

The amapa tree is full of leaves.

It is in the center of the photo where Umberto is shoveling sand. Last year it did not have any leaves, but it did have one lonely lavendar flower. Beneath it is the big bushy limon tree. The plumerias are on the edges of the photo. And I am standing alongside the big palm tree.

The gardenia bush bloomed.

It has had buds for two months and they just kept drying up and falling off.

It smells so wonderful.

The limon tree by the amampa has bloomed again.

It is covered with hundreds of tiny fragrant white blossoms.

There is another limon tree back by the big palm.

I wish I could send you the smells.

The rabbit garden has new ears.

Flopsy
with her new baby ear on the left

Mopsy

with her new baby ear, also on the left

Peter

standing guard at the back gate

Two butterflies were mating in the limon tree.

I took twenty-five photos and only one was in focus.

A mama quail came to visit.

Senor took these photos of the quail. Isn't she beautiful?

He took about twenty-five photos and they are all in focus.

It was hard to choose which photos to show you.

Below, the quail is watching Senor.

Senor planted three types of corn in his new garden plot on July 1st.

They are already about four inches high. In the photo he has dug little holes around the baby stalks to loosen the hard dirt.
A second, smaller plot behind this one has melon seeds in it.

So, we are off to Tucson later this morning. The furniture is supposed to arrive early or late Friday or early or late Saturday. This is the first time we have used movers for anything.

Don't they know people have things to do, schedules to keep, crops to plant, butterflies and cactus to photograph? Grass to mow? Sunsets to watch? Quail to feed?

Seems like they should be able to say.........10am Friday or 3pm Saturday. I know I am probably wrong, there are all kinds of delays on the road for a mover. But I hate to leave my gardenia plant! Senor hates to leave his corn!

What if we come back Sunday or Monday and the corn has already got corn and the quail are eating it?

So, instead we will each be running to the truck, trying to beat each other to the drivers side. This will happen each time we get out and back into the truck, all the way to the last time we get out and in before the border crossing. I want to drive across the border crossing without getting so upset at the hawkers. I will feel more in control if I am driving. Senor wants to be the driver. In my last border crossing post I said we will flip for it. I will not be happy if I lose. Senor will not be happy if I win.

I have a baby shade on my 'Tucson To Buy' list. I am still planning to write NO, GRACIAS on the outside with a big black sharpie and pull it down when we get to the hawkers. That will help for future border crossings. But for this crossing I think I will just write it on a piece of paper and tape it to the window.

When we get back I plan to show you that we only need sixteen more beams before we get the roof on. It will go fast, like the happenings in the yard, I hope.

Senor says we are leaving in fifteen minutes. Ha! He is not even packed.

YES! I will beat him to the truck!

Pulling Senor's Leg?

Hola!!
The western sky last night.And below, the eastern sky last night.

Some nights we are just a color palette. I hope you will not get bored looking at my pictures of the sky because I can just never take enough!
I have never lived where I could see such dramatic colors in both the east and west at the same time.
And you know, the mornings are often the same way, colors in both horizons, but I am usually at the track or now, on new old bike when that happens.

Speaking of 'you know what', LOOK! I went to Alexis's yesterday and bought a basket. He said he needed an hour to attach it, so I went to the mercado and bought some plastic flowers and when I got home, I decorated the basket!

And, by the way, the basket holds alot. Yesterday I basketed...........my camera, the plastic flowers, one topochico, four chicken quarters, two onions, one package of chorizo, three slices of chuleta, three avocados, a box of milk and a loaf of bread and a new umbrella. I still could have crammed more in there.

When I rode to the track this morning, I got some hoots from the guys at the Pemex. I am sure they were laughing at me. The women waiting there for the bus all pointed and smiled. One guy drove by in his truck and yelled, "right on! hang loose!". I guess that was a good thing.

The new sewer system is going in. I hear that the new treatment plant is somewhere out north of the La Aduana arroyo. Maybe I will ride out there and find it. It probably is not much to see........a sewage treatment plant, yahoo!.............. but it would be good to know where it is actually located. Alamos has had a sewer system for quite some time, this is just an updated project.

A few of the streets are being dug up and large new pvc pipes are being laid and connected. There is good and bad news about this..... good news? of course, updated services.

But I doubt they will replace the beautiful old cobblestoned streets with cobblestones.

The street below used to be a lovely cobblestoned street, very, very pretty. I think they will resurface it with the octagon shaped concrete pavers that are prevalent in many towns in Sonora. I wish it could be different. I wish they would replace the stones, but I don't think they will. Maybe if they laid the pipe down the side of the road? Then they could save half the road and half the stones?

No worries, they will do what they need to do and there are still many, many cobblestoned streets in town.

It is overcast here today. There is a steady breeze that is keeping the temperature down for now. By 1pm it could be pretty hot. Still there is no serious humidity, that will come any day, I am sure.

The gardener next door told our gardener (that would be either senor or myself, and in this case, it was senor) that the monsoon season has come and gone.............. he believes that we will have an extremely dry and hot summer...........jeez, we had what? one day of heavy rain and two with sprinkles.

I certainly hope he is pulling senor's leg..........

adios, linda lou!

Meltdown

When I stepped outside the gate of our yard last night, this is what I saw. I love being able to see both sunrises and sunsets from our casa. Eventually this turned a brilliant pink.
There was no wind yesterday. There were no clouds in the sky.

But, there was no humidity........ I won't lie.................. it's hot, but it could be worse.
I sure hope the monsoon season has not already come and gone with the one big storm we had the other week..............June 24th, remember that date, that is when it is supposed to begin.

When I was out at the airport the other day, on my new old bike, I should have taken photos of the airport. I was so excited about my bike!

So yesterday, around 5:15am, I hopped on new old bike and first, I went to the track and walked around it five times and then, I rode back to the airport.

Alamos Airport is now an international airport.

The airport runway is 5,000 paved feet.

Below is the entrance to the airport.

The tower..............

the hangar...................



the front of the hangar....................notice in the tower photo you can see there is a fence that seperates the hangar and the runway from the.............HORSES.

and a very handsome young colt...............

I rode new old bike a few miles farther on down the road toward San Bernardo. I didn't make it to San Bernardo, I am not exactly sure how far it is, but the dirt road I traveled became busy with trucks, their beds filled with school kids in uniforms on the way to COBASH (High school).

I do think I went two or three miles beyond Rancho Palomar, a very popular hunting ranch and bed and breakfast. I eventually turned around in the dust and headed home.

I really never felt hot while riding. I was riding fairly fast, so the wind was nice, and there were a lot of morning people out, watering the dirt in front of their casas, cooling down the street, the dust and heat. The taco man on Hidalgo almost threw his bucket of water on me again, he didn't see me coming.

Once I pulled into the gate and stopped, the heat hit me. I went to look at the thermometer.

My candles had a meltdown while I was gone. Senor said he would not last much longer.

It was only 9:30am. That was a long bike ride.

I tried to revive myself with a very cold bottle of Starbucks Frappuccino that we buy in Navajoa at Ley or Sorianna.

But eventually I had a meltdown and really did nothing for the rest of the day. I laid in bed and read, studied my spanish books and tried to think up new creative art projects to do. I think I will make a papier mache cake cover. I rarely bake a cake, but it sounds like something to do and then, I will need a cake cover for it. I will let you know how that goes.

adios.