Archive | November, 2022

A Day To Celebrate Gratitude

27 Nov

My first favorite activity to celebrate the US holiday of Thanksgiving is watching the New York Macy’s Day Parade. I remember as a child, sitting with my dad, who loved parades. Every year we said we’d go and never did. At my brother’s house, the TV is so large you can see the performers’ nose hairs.

Turkey day tradition.
Santa closes the show.

A newer tradition that I enjoy is the Westminster dog show. I caught the end in time to watch Winston the Frenchy win best of show.

Miss my puppers.

Of course the day would not be complete without stories of Thanksgiving’s past. The family memories that we are making and passing down are what it’s all about. “Remember the time…”

We saw a dolphin off the back of my brother’s boat. Lisa got the money shot.
Walking the neighborhood.
What it’s all about. Family and food.

DOS TORTAS

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Florida Same Only Different

19 Nov

After two days of intense travel that turned out to be even more difficult than I imagined, we are finally in Florida, USA. If you look on a globe, you’ll see that Bacalar and the Florida Keys are the same latitude more or less. I’m looking at the same swaying coconut palms from our Key Largo balcony.

Raining

There were some sweet moments over the last two travel days, like visiting with this child on the bus who was intensely studying my art journal. I love kids and am so happy that I have enough Spanish language skill to be able to talk to them.

She intently studied every sketch, turning the pages slowly.
Travel Art Journal
Adiós Mexico

Sunrise in our hotel room in Puerto Morelos, outside of Cancun.

Also the delightful couple who are minding our dogs while we are gone. Ben from Ireland and Katrin from Austria.

We will be enjoying my siblings and assorted nieces and nephews and a grand holiday meal. I’m sure all the crazy travel expenses and headaches will fade into the distance. Not!

DOS TORTAS

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Family Reunion Time

13 Nov

Our family has been whittled down to four siblings, myself and three brothers. We are spread about and with the added delight of Covid, haven’t seen each other in six years. We will gather in a weeks time in Florida to reminisce, eat, swim, share, hangout and pass our family lore on to the next generation. I’m looking forward to it.

1981, my youngest brother Michael’s wedding. He died in 2000.

There is something about siblings. We have fought, resented, silenced, made up and reconnected as adults. I think we’ve finally made our peace and there should be no food fights.

2016 Nieces and nephews, spouses and my son at the far end. One brother missing.

So we’ll be packing up and making the trek to the US. House sitters arrive on Wednesday. Wish us safe travels.

Last picture before my mother died.
Mid 1950s

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A Scary Close Call – Hurricane Lisa

5 Nov

Living in the tropics makes us vulnerable to hurricanes, plain and simple. Over the years we have taken measures to ensure our safety and ability to ride out whatever Mother Nature throws at us.

Facing the Laguna.

After several years of mopping up water on our screened porch, we added hurricane shutters. Our biggest threat is wind. I imagined a branch flying through our screens. Yikes.

“X” marks the spot. At the time this was posted, it wasn’t even raining at our house.
Bacalar waiting for the rain from Hurricane Lisa.

Lisa came ashore in Belize, which is south of us.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=-O11pydzb38&feature=share

Since we are not on the ocean, there is no fear of storm surge. We have built drainage both outside and in. At some point we’d like to add solar as back up. The other option is a generator. In the nine years we have lived here, we’ve been very very lucky.

The morning after.

We finally got some wind and a downpour during the night. My wife slept through it all.

DOS TORTAS

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