Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Cedo

CEDO INTERCULTURAL CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF DESERTS AND OCEANS
is a very amazing group to have down here. They don't mind me sending pictures of things I find on the beach that aren't in my books, and asking them "What is this?"

This was the latest. We had never seen one of these. So I sent the picture off to CEDO and their response is below.



We are pretty sure you took a photo of a cannonball jelly fish.  Here is a scanned copy of the article the CEDO published on these critters back in 1994:






Sunday, September 18, 2011

Conversation with Nena

Diana's grandmother (abuela) is Nena. She's a great lady who takes care of an extended family. Lately she's taken to coming over for visits. She was here for about an hour today, and here are some things I found out.

Diana's mother does live there, but I've never met her. She has seen me, but hasn't met me. I'll have to take pains to be introduced.

Her husband, Diana's father, is "un mal hombre", a bad man, who drinks and doesn't send anything for Diana's upkeep. Her brothers, Christian and Lalo, are maybe from the same father, maybe from a different one, but he's not in the picture either. Cheche, or Andreas, is also her brother.

Lalo is starting school tomorrow, and Christian is starting kindergarten. They're both excited.
CheChe

Christian

Lalo


Diana likes to eat expensive things, and won't eat beans or eggs anymore. I'm not sure what Nena's going to do about that one. Diana even likes to eat at the most expensive chicken place in town. We don't go there (Pollo Lucas) because it's too expensive.

Nena's husband died 17 years ago tomorrow, when he was 42 and she was 37. It was his heart. You can tell she misses him still.

Julia and Sylvia are her daughters, (I think). The newest kid over there, Pablo, is Julia's. She is sick, has been back and forth to doctors in Hermosillo. She has attacks of some kind (maybe epilepsy?), and now she takes pills every night that control it pretty well. But if the free dispensary doesn't have the drug, she needs to buy it, and it's expensive.

Sylvia is married, but her husband was riding his bike last year and got hit by a car. He was in the hospital for a month and is getting better now. I think he's the older guy who smiles and waves at us every day.

In the house to the right that butts up to our garage, live Sylvia, her husband, Julia, Pablo and Ivon, the cousin. Ivon comes over to wash the car quite often. In the other house live Nena, Diana, Laura (Diana's mom), Andreas, Lalo and Christian.

Nena has kids all over the place in the US, none of them legally I don't think, so I won't say much more. One works in a recycling plant in a city close to Canada. He hasn't been back in 20 years.

One of her sons works here, in a restaurant near Calle 13, I think maybe Balboas. His wife is one of the pharmacists at Guadalupana, and she knows me well.

Nena has a friend named Juanita who has a place in Las Conchas, an American lady. She has been good to the family, one time they came by and Nena's place was full of water because it had rained, and the next day Januita's husband and some friends showed up and built Nena a new roof.

But Nena doesn't know where Juanita is; she hasn't seen her in over a year, doesn't know if she's here or in the US. She has her number, and I told her she can call th US from here if she wants.

I think that's about it, but I'm pretty proud of my comprehension. She's great at using simple words and mime.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

More Interesting Local shots

And by "More interesting", I mean hopefully more interesting than the last two blogs.
First, a series of shots of Carl teasing Shadow and Shadow getting revenge:












A razor clam- we'd never seen one here before.




Pretty!

I've always liked this house here in town.

You've seen this same shot without clouds many times

What a difference from day to day

Thursday, September 8, 2011

New walk - different beach and houses

We went to a different part of the beach today, here are some more houses from that section. The water is so calm today.


Ghost crab dug a hole with a porch.




The house are much further back and fronted by dunes here.





  
empty beach except that Blue Heron wayy..down...there...

It's coming up to Independence day again, and everyone's flying the Mexican flag, including us. Viva Mexico!!

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Doctors, neighbors and the Sea

I went to the doctor the other day to get a shot. The shot needs to be administered by a surgeon, so once I got the prescription from my GP Dr. Aburto, got the meds and brought them back to his office, we waited. Any other doctor, even if he wasn't busy, would have you wait in the waiting room. Not Dr. Aburto. He had me take a seat in his office, and we chatted for about half an hour. He's very charming, and needless to say very intelligent. It is an experience I wouldn't probably get anywhere else, to just sit and talk about this and that with my GP. I love it.

We've been spending more time at the ocean with Carl back, lots of walking and bobbing. Even a little swimming. The days are glorious, 42 degrees. AC not optional.


A neglected pool filled with sand..swim up bar and all.

This was interrupted a while back, I'll carry on now. As for neighbors, we're slowing down the traffic back and forth. Too many interruptions during a work day. But we're all still friends. Diana's English lessons commence on Tuesday, with a teacher from the states who spends her time here teaching English. She will teach two kids for an hour and a half a week for 100 pesos a week. Well within our means.

In more class news, we'll be starting Spanish classes again soon. We're excited about that too!

Here are a few shots around town and of today's walk.This car parks across the street now and again, I love it!











 OK, we love our dog, what can I say.


My cherry tomato plant is doing well. All our plant life is thanks to Carl.



Thai Basil and Rosemary


Italian basil is a tree

Little surprise Persian cucumber plant came up months after I planted and gave up. Not sure if it will produce though.