El Presidente

Hola!
We are caught inside a cold front. The cold air has also brought us some rain, always needed here......................but the temperatures have been around forty in the early morning light and not gone above sixty five for the day.

I have been cold for days, even when the sun is finally higher in the sky.
Senor took the shot below before one of the rains. Wow, I loved all the convection oven comments. What great information.
I put off cooking in it. I don't really know why, but it was a little intimidating.
Then the other night, I baked enchiladas. Someone gave me a package of really fresh tortillas, so it seemed like the thing to do. I filled them with chuleta, which is a smoked pork, onions, cheese, sweet potatos, peppers and cilantro. They were very good.

I have been hard at work this week.
A friend decided to revive an old tradition here, a Christmas Bazaar. I agreed to help her. The keyword here is help. Somehow, I was chosen to do all the running around.

My friend sent me to the Mayor's secretary, who had been authorized to print a flier for us.
The secretary was not at his desk, so another person told me to wait.

I waited two hours for the secretary, only to be told I had to see the Mayor first.
I really did not want to see the Mayor, or El Presidente as he is called.

After another hour, I saw the El Presidente.

El Presidente, who speaks very good English told me I would need to see the Event Director to get the flier printed.
Then he told me he lived once in Washington State's Snohomish County, in the town of Sultan.
He worked on a tree farm, painting creosote on trees. I did not ask him why he painted trees with creosote.

He said the creosote and the cold were too much for him. He moved back to Mexico.....................

Do you want coffee....he asked.......................no thank you, I said.........................
He did not say anything for a long time and just stared off into the distance and tapped his fingers on a tablet of paper.

Should I go and find the event director...........i asked.........................no, he will come here........................he said.
Then, he left the room.

I just sat there and looked around the room. I mean, really, how many people get to sit in a Mexican Mayor's office, for petes sake.....................

Lots of framed photographs, piles of paper, a boxed bottle of tequila, some books, a large oval table for ten, a tea service, a telephone.

The best thing was the music. Kenny G and his oboe from the Greatest Hits of Kenny G.

I was alone in there for around half an hour. I could have memorized all of his to do list had it been in English.

Finally, the Event Director came. He, too, spoke very good English.

You cannot have the event where you want to have it............said El Presidente....................you have to have it at Casa de la Cultura........................

Now that is a tough place to get to, so right away, the red flags and bells and whistles are filling my head, but a foreigner sitting in a Mexican Mayor's office does not exactly have a say in these things.

El Presidente said goodbye and the Event Director took the fliers and told me to return the following day, again to the Mayor's secretary, to get them.

The next morning I went back to the Mayor's secretary. They were playing classical music. I waited two hours and the secretary told me to go to the Event Director's office on the lower level. I did that and received the fliers.

Now, if you are not as tired from reading about this, as I was tired from going through it all......you have a problem...................

At the end of the second day, I took a three hour nap.

I am supposed to return to see the Event Director on Monday. I am trying to think of ways to get out of it. I think my friend should go.



Somehow, I found the time to decorate two more trees with lights.

And, I read that the Mayor is having a Christmas lighting competition. But, it is for the front of your house, not the back. The best lights get a prize. I figure I know him well enough now, I should be able to go over and tell him to be sure and look in my back yard.

Senor turned on our mini split the other afternoon, while I was putting up more lights, so I would be warm when I came back inside.

Our mini split has deceived us. It is supposed to be both an air conditioner and a heater. It is just an air conditioner.

People are always giving us or loaning us things. They do not feel sorry for us. It is just that they have been in the same position of doing with less during a remodeling project. They know what it is like.

So, we have yet another new toy, on loan.........................

We rearranged the Hilton Garden Room to accommodate the fire pit. The view is not as nice, but we use the fire in the evenings, so there really is not much to see by then. We started with our chairs three feet away and this little guy puts out so much heat, that we had to slide back another three feet.

Fortunately, we have lots of wood and I have lots of colored Christmas lights from the mercado.

Later in the day, I will light the fire and go a-stringing.

On, Monday, I will ask the mayor to consider my backyard for the competition.

adios, linda lou