Today's Garfield cartoon is perfect, it's in the ongoing scenario of "we're bachelors baby" and some of the foibles of single guys. Jon looks down at the table and blows, he and Garfield are totally engulfed in a cloud of dust, he says "I think it's time to dust" and Garfield says "is it July again already?" This perfectly describes Casa Abuelo because as documented it's dusty for 8 months and anything more serious than a cursory dusting is a total waste of time, time that is better spent doing something really really necessary and productive like organizing the sock drawer for instance. Hey, I still wear them once in a while in the "winter" so they need to be organized and immediately accessible.<< MORE >>

Yes, it's official (at least in my book) the rainy season is here a month early this year. How can I tell you ask? - simple, we only have prolonged power outages during the rainy season and at the moment it's been off for over 12 hours. About 9:15 last night everything "blinked" out and about 2 seconds later I heard the big bang in the distance telling me a transformer had exploded, either that or we're under attack by Islamo-fascists. << MORE >>

Ok, so I'm in a contentious mood this morning and I'm finding any reason I can NOT to study my Spanish, so I'll use this time to gently disagree with a couple of things life has dealt me. << MORE >>

It's that magical time of the year when migrations occur and many things change, the most noticeable is the annual northern migration of the white haired (and in some cases hairless) Canadian Snowbirds to their ancestral hermitages. Each year the frigid winds of Fall drive them in droves to the sunny shores of Lake Chapala where they spend the Winter sunning themselves while shopping in places like Tonala and eating in local restaurants punctuated by trips to explore neighboring curiosities and purchasing Mexican artifacts they dutifully carry back to the northland in the Spring.<< MORE >>

Like a character in a movie where they distort the scene and the character is suddenly moved to the front while everything behind them fades back, except this time the background was being brought into focus while the character sort of faded in - and this time it was me in this scene which was in a Mexican mercado in a small town in the mountains of central Mexico. << MORE >>

And so it arrives one day, not with trumpets blaring or sirens with flashing lights, but on silent cat's feet at 5am in the predawn darkness when Max slipped up on the bed and laid by my ear purring softly (I ignored him until 6am)<< MORE >>

I'm overdue for an update and starting to get the usual "are you ok?" sort of comments, so just a note to assure y'all that everything is great and Max and I are fine as frog's hair (yes they do, but you have to look real close!)<< MORE >>

As those of you who have followed my adventure know, I truly love this place and while it has its quirks at times they can be overlooked for the most part. However something started December 27, 2008 that couldn't be "overlooked" for many reasons and now it has to be written.<< MORE >>

Good news, bad news, the final horizon? I received a call at 8am this morning, it was an expected call and so not a nasty surprise as are some "good news-bad news" calls that arrive at our domicile with a raucous jangle, or if you're a techie, some goofy excerpt from a song by the Grateful Dead on your Blackberry.<< MORE >>

You probably never did this, but I've always done my own taxes, and of course for many years with Turbo Tax on the PC. So, you start out and as you work your way down through the pages entering what you made there is a box at the top that tells how much you "owe" to the government - like they've not bled you enough already.<< MORE >>