Merry Christmas

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas. We are about to find out what Santa left. Through the day the family will gather. Looking forward to seeing all the grandchildren. Good food is ahead today.

I hope that this image isn't too dark, too off color. I'm working blind with a new program and an uncalibrated laptop. It looks terrible on my monitor but I'm trusting that the camera got it better than I can do.

Christmas Color

I know I've been missing in action but I'm half way back now. At least I can give you a photo of Christmas cheer.

The Virgen de Guadalupe

Honoring the Virgen in the Parroquia Church in San Miguel de Allende.

A Free Flu Shot

I've had a heck of a time getting my regular flu shot this year. One day when Ned was out in the car he stopped at the De La Fe hospital and got his. I stopped by Chelo's Pharmacy a few days later to get mine. Chelo gives the shot in the back of the store. She was out of vaccine. She told me that the hospital was out also but they would have it the next week. The next week I was going to Houston. So I thought no problem I'll get it in Houston. When I stopped in at the drug store care clinic in Houston there were seven patients ahead of me. So I thought, okay, I'll get it when I get back to SMA. By the time I tried to get the shot in SMA, Chelo and the hospital were out again. I tried again on the next trip to Houston but this time the care clinic in Houston was out of vaccine. So I thought no problem, I'll get it when I get back to SMA.......are you getting the picture? This routine went on for about four rounds. When I asked at Chelo's this week, they were still out of vaccine but they told me the health center in La Lejona and the hospital had the vaccine.

We decided to try the health center since we had never been there. It would be a good idea to know where it was located. We didn't have an address but we knew where the Colonia was so we drove to La Lejona and started asking people where the clinic was. We only had to ask four times before we found it. Thank goodness, La Lejona is a small Colonia.

Before you went through the gate, there was someone with hand sanitizer and you had to clean your hands before you entered. Right outside the front door, there was a man at a table and we asked him where to go to get a flu shot. He said to turn right and go to the desk. We looked inside the health clinic and thought that this could take the rest of the day. It was crowded....mostly with women and tiny infants. Maybe this was baby check-up day.

We picked our way through the mamas and babies and presented ourselves at the desk. She had a tablet with a list of names and she wanted to add our name to the list. No one was marked off the list and once again we thought it was going to take the rest of the day. We gave her my name and age and address. She filled out a small printed form and motioned us into a exam room. She came in with us, carefully washed her hands, prepared the injection, and gave me the shot.

She handed us a copy of the small form and Ned asked her where do we pay. She told us that we didn't pay for the shot. It was free! Thank you, Mexico

Fried Zucchini

Have you ever cooked for someone who is taking chemo? Up until now, we were blessed. Ned ate anything and everything I put in front of him. In fact back during the summer while having both chemo and radiation, he gained some weight.

Since he started on a different round of chemicals it hasn't been as smooth. The first three weeks, he just wasn't eating as much as he usually did. The next three weeks he had some food preferences and potatoes were high on his list. Well here it is at the end of the treatment and there isn't much that tastes good. One night I made a lovely roasted pork tenderloin and some roasted vegetables, including roasted baby potatoes. He ate a bite or two of everything but not with any gusto.

You know what he will eat.....fried chicken (only legs and wings), mashed potatoes and cream gravy. Yesterday I asked him if any vegetable sounded good. He mentioned fried zucchini. Last night I made milanesa de pollo (it is fried) and fried zucchini. He ate that. Even went back for a small second helping. We seem to be on a fried diet.

The lady in the photograph has a chicken tienda in the back of the big mercado in the center of town. Her place is maybe four feet by 6 feet. In that space is a big refrigerator and a counter with several different containers of mole. She is always nicely dressed and smiling. It is interesting most of the places that sell only chicken are run by women while the places that sells meat and sausage are run by men.

I was surprised yesterday in the mercado. It wasn't a busy place at noon. Usually the aisles are full of women buying veggies and meat for their comida and the little counters that serve food are full as well. The economy here in San Miguel is really hurting. I hope that the snow birds and Canadians arrive soon.

It is a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

The sunrise this morning was one of those that wrap around the sky. It wasn't just in the East but it reflected in the clouds in the west as well. What better way to start the day!

Because I was snuggled all warm in my bed I almost missed getting a picture for you even though we had gone to bed early.....like really early. The electricity went off about 7:15 PM last night. We had just settled down in front of the TV for some sitcoms we like. There are only about three that we like on all of the networks. All of them were suppose to have new shows last night. Why do they show one new show for the season and then two old ones? That is so aggravating. Oh, but I digress. Back to the electricity.

Back in the 80's when we traveled in Mexico you always took a flashlight and you would also find candles and matches in your hotel room because it was expected that the electricity would fail. Even when we bought our house in 2002 it wasn't unusual to have blackouts and brownouts in San Miguel but the infastructure has been improved and it doesn't happen very often anymore.

I don't know what was going on last night but when the lights went out we went up on the roof to see what sections of the city were affected. At first it looked like everything was out in town but the lights came back on and stayed on north of the Centro. In our Colonia, they would come on and stay on for 10 minutes or so then go off again. Finally about 8:15 they went off and they stayed off until sometime during the night.

Could it be that everyone putting up Christmas lights caused a power failure? Just a thought.

Too Late for Olivia's Cafe

I don't know how long Olivia's Cafe has been open but because we have been gone so much I didn't see the sign until the last few weeks. The cafe is in my Colonia at the bottom of Veinte Ocho de Abril.I love the sign. It looks so cheery and bright, I just knew that the food would be good. When I passed by this morning on my way to the mercado the door wasn't open but when I went by on my way home it was. I headed over to take a look in, see the menu and find out what hours they were open. A beautiful young woman was there doing some cleaning. I asked when the Cafe would open. She told me that she was packing up and closing it down. Oh, no! My first thought was that it was the economy. That wasn't the reason. She and her partner had a falling out and they just couldn't manage to continue on with the Cafe.

Que Lastima! I'm too late.

Although this Cafe didn't close because of the economy it was a reminder that the small family restaurants in our Colonia are struggling. We haven't been eating out much during Ned's treatment but we are going to have to make an effort to support our neighbors. Besides I love being able to walk a block or so and sit down to a nice comida.

I think that maybe I should start taking my readers on a restaurant tour in the Colonia. It will give me something to blog about and give my neighbors some advertising.

Flying South

Although we know from having lived in Houston that icy, snowy weather seldom lasts more than 24 hours, we were worried that we might have ice on the freeway overpasses when we headed to the airport at 8 AM on Saturday morning. It was sunny but below freezing. The water had for the most part dried up on the roads and we only saw one car that had spun out on an overpass. There was still a sprinkling of snow on the ground and some little puffs of snow remained on the trees. We made it to the airport just fine.

We did run into one problem once we were in the airport. The overhead train that takes you from one terminal to another wasn't in operation because of icing so we had to take the underground train and go through security in Terminal B. This meant that terminal B security was way overloaded and the lines were long. I was delightfully surprised with the TSA people who were directing traffic and checking passports and ID's. They were smiling and friendly, working as fast as they could. Their attitude kept everyone in line relaxed and sure that TSA was doing the best it could under the circumstances. Once we got to the scanners the TSA agents were focused but still operating at a good speed. So what we thought would be a bad experience when we arrived at Terminal B and saw the long lines, turned out not to be so bad after all.
The first picture is shortly after we took off in Houston. Houston is flat and green. And the last one is our approach into Leon. I love to see the mountains from the air.....the folds and ridges. I'm so lucky to live in two such different places.