Parrot On The Loose

Parrot On The Loose

Yesterday afternoon there was a strange looking cloud hanging around one of the mountains. It looked like it had a hole in the middle.

I was awakened last night at 3 AM by the thunder and lightning of an electrical storm. I quickly unplugged everything and settled in to watch for awhile. There were a few rain drops on the window; but not many. Usually our storms come from the east but this one seemed to have all the action in the south. Roy, as usual slept right through it.
Late this afternoon we were sitting outside on the patio when we heard a squawk. We looked across the street and houses and saw a parrot sitting in a dead tree. Parrots don't usually frequent our neighborhood. There are some that people keep as pets; but there aren't any wild ones that we have seen. Our landlord came up to get a birds eye view, so I asked him if it could survive the winter here, he shook his head, no. He told us that there was a flock a few years ago that would come into the neighborhood in the morning, stay for the day and then disappear at night. He said that they hung around for awhile and then left. We are assuming that someone either let this one loose or it escaped its owners. The photo isn't very good as he was quite a distance away. You can see him better if you click on it to enlarge it.

The sunset on the clouds was really pretty tonight. Here are a couple of pictures.

Backhoe Cleanup

Backhoe Cleanup

About 3 weeks ago the road grader had come down the street to the north of our corner. When he finished grading the street he left a pile of rubble sitting off to the side of the street. The neighbor that lives right beside where they left the pile then decided that this would be a good time to clean his yard up. He is the fellow that you can see in the video I posted on August 25, on the post, "Our Street". His yard is not the tidiest one in the neighborhood. He started cleaning up as soon as he arrived home from work. The way he was working it appeared that he thought they might be coming soon to pick up the graders pile. He cleaned up a bunch of stuff and made another big pile right beside the graders pile. We figured that these piles would remain there until time wore them away.

Well, this morning a backhoe and dump truck showed up and cleaned up most of the piles. They did a so-so job. The majority of it is gone anyway and it does look better.

Surprised us.

Our Street- The West Side

Our Street- The West Side

I tried uploading another video through blogger as the fellow from here http://bnwisla.blogspot.com/ has managed to get one to load. I don't know what the problem is; but mine won't load. Anyway, off to YouTube I went once again.

The other day I posted a video of the east side of our street that I had taken from our patio upstairs. Today I went downstairs and shot the west side of the street. There are only 2 buildings on this side of the block, 1 being our landlords and our place, so there is not a lot to see.

The video shows our landlords driveway, his house behind the mango and limon trees, the ground floor apartment where we spent our first winter down here and up on the second floor our apartment. I had taken 2 videos, the first one I talked about what I was shooting and the second one--the one which I posted, where I didn't speak. Roy thought the quality of this one was better than the one where I was speaking, so it is the one that I decided to post.

Lazy Sunday

Lazy Sunday

We spent a lazy day today. Roy was busy on his computer doing a fantasy football draft and organising his teams, while I was busy emailing and phoning people.

Today is my middle brothers 50 th birthday, hard to believe that the little disturber/instigator is that old. Anyway I figured I'd better give him a call, we hadn't talked for a long time and it was nice to connect again. I then decided to give one of Roys sisters a call and we also had a nice chat. Then one of my nephews beeped via MSN and we chatted for a few minutes with their voice chat, so much easier than typing.

I took a look in the frig and deep freeze and nothing jumped out at me, yelling cook me, cook me. Roy offered to step in and cook something and I counter offered with going out for dinner. We both agreed on that and decided to go uptown to Loncheria Doney, our favorite place to have papas locas. We haven't been there for quite awhile and it sounded good to me. If you are ever in town and want to eat there, just remember that they don't open until around 4 PM. They are also closed one day during the week; but at the moment I forget which day. We sat on the stools outside so that we could catch the breeze and also watch what was going on en la calle (on the street). The food was good as always and we enjoyed our meals.

Loncheria Doney the best place to eat papas locas.

It was just starting to get dark and the view of the church spires in the setting sun was pretty.

After eating we decided to stroll around the Fishermans Plaza (Plaza del Pescador). All the stands were open and the rides were running for the childrens amusement. The vendors selling balloons, toys, cotton candy, etc. were all out in force.
Churros, one of my favorite treats.

We stood and looked out over the harbor for a few minutes and watched a couple of young boys swimming. It is the first time that we have ever seen anyone swimming there and personally you couldn't pay me enough to get into the water there; but they were enjoying themselves.

Part of the new work on a marina for pleasure boats, it mustn't be open yet as there are no boats there. The small boat on the left hand side has been tied up there for a long time and apparently the fellow that lives aboard her is an interesting person. We have never met him.

We started to walk toward our bus stop, past the Plaza de Tres Presidentes, when a couple of clowns (actual clowns, not just goofy people) called us over. They were going to put on a show and were recruiting an audience. We walked over and sat down and after awhile they apparently decided that they had enough people to begin. They did some comedy routines, some acrobatics, some juggling, etc.. The crowd kept growing and eventually they had a pretty good audience. They were quite funny and the crowd loved them. We watched their act for quite awhile before hopping on our bus and heading home.

A nice relaxing evening.

Our Street

Our Street

I just noticed that blogger now has a video upload button so I thought that I would try it out.

From our patio, this is a view of our street/neighborhood here in Guaymas.

Well, bloggers video upload didn't work; so here is the video that I went and uploaded on YouTube.

Then And Now

Here are some comparison photos of the plants from the past few months to now.

Desert Rose- November 9th/2006.

Desert Rose-August 25th/2007.

Hibiscus- October 4th/2006.

Hibiscus- August 25th/2007.

Agave- March 1st/2007.

Agave-August 25th/2007.

Plumeria- March 15th/2007.

Plumeria-August 25th/2007.

Random Shots

Random Shots

View of the port cranes from our patio.

View of the neighborhood from our patio.

Our Wondrous Mini Market

Our Wondrous Mini Market

Wow, I am impressed with me, 2 posts in one day.

There are some things that I am used to that I just cannot find here (foodwise), or if you do happen to find them in a store in San Carlos they are very expensive.

Here's just a short list of some of the things: tomato paste, canned tomatoes, onion soup mix, dry mustard, pickles, molasses, basil, etc., this is just a few things off the top of my head. You get used to compromising or doing without these things.

In Canada I used a lot of the herb/spice Basil. Here I haven't been able to find it anywhere and had given up asking for it in stores.

Yesterday when I went to the mini market, he had a sprig of a plant on his counter. I asked him what it was and he told me it was Albahaca, which is the spanish word for basil. At first I didn't think that I had heard him right and so asked him again. Sure enough that was what he had said. I told him that I have looked high and low for it here and couldn't find it. He told me that it isn't used much here, most people use epazote instead. He asked me if I would like some as he has lots in his garden, sure I said, thinking that he would get some for me some day. There was another fellow in the store that had been chatting with him and he asked him to go and get me some. A couple of minutes later I had a sprig in my hand and now it is sitting in some water waiting to root before I plant it. The leaves are smaller than the basil that I am used to; but it smells the same.

This is the same mini market where when I asked about dry mustard, they told me you can't buy it here. Then they proceeded to tell me that you can get it in Hermosillo, about 1 1/2 hrs. away and then brought out their own can and gave me some. Wouldn't take any money for it, just gave it to me. You just never know where you will find some things!

There is a mentally challenged man who lives up the hill a couple of blocks from us. The other day when I was in the mini market he was sitting and watching the goings on in the store. I had never seen him in the store before, it is about 5 blocks from his home and I was a little surprised to see him there. Yesterday when I walked into the store with my empty egg carton, he followed me and insisted on filling the carton for me. He started closing it and there were only 11 eggs in it, so I asked him for one more and showed him the empty space. He filled it and very carefully closed the lid and took it to the counter for me. He then followed me around the store and as I picked out things he would take them and place them on the counter for me. When I finished the storeowner introduced me to his new "helper", we shook hands and I told him I was pleased to meet him. He didn't say much; but seemed happy with his new position. I am sure that the tips he will get will be helpful to his family and I think he will do well in his new job.

In Canada I worked for over 5 yrs. with mentally and physically challenged adults. A big part of my job was to go out into the community and try to find employment for our "clients". It was a challenging and rewarding job and I loved it. Here they just cut through the red tape and give them a job if they have something that they can do. Gotta love it.

We were so busy chatting as he was ringing up my purchases that neither one of us noticed that he had not charged me enough for one large item. When I got home I noticed that he had short changed himself by around $10.00, so I had to turn around and go back. I showed him the bill and teased him that he wasn't going to get rich like that. He was quite happy that I had come back and told him, as he hadn't caught the error.

You just never know what you will find at the mini market.

Thunder And Lightning

Thunder And Lightning

We get quite a bit of lightning here, not much rain; but lots of lightning. Most of the time it is what I call "heat lightning", you get to watch the show; but you know that it is not going to rain. With these distant lightning shows we don't usually hear any thunder.

Last night we got to watch the brilliant lightning flashes and also to hear lots of thunder. The moon and clouds were obscured by some light cloud and we thought that we might get some rain. The thunder when we get it, is much louder here. It rolls around the mountains, booming, echoing and vibrating. It is a wonderful spectacle to watch. We sat outside until around 11 PM watching the show, until I decided that it was close enough that I should come in and unplug things. We went to bed, still seeing the bright lightning flashes through the curtains and listening to the loud thunder. A short time later the wind started gusting and I ran outside to move the chairs to the far end of the patio so that they wouldn't blow away. Roy, by this time had dozed off! It was sprinkling rain and the lightning was great. I watched for a few minutes and headed back to bed. It didn't take long for it to begin to rain in earnest.

This morning the street is wet and I can see where the water ran down it all the way to the corner. There are some good sized puddles on the low spots of Ciros roof, (flat roofs remember) and on our patio. I don't know how much rain we had as my homemade rain gauge,( cut off pop bottle), didn't pass the wind test. Oh well, it is wet, which is nice. The only not nice part of it is that the humidity will be horrible today. The sun is out and it is hot, a normal day here.

Hurricane Dean is making its way across the Yucatan Peninsula and we hope that it has not/will not cause further loss of life. One of my blog amigos, http://bnwisla.blogspot.com/ has already posted this morning saying that they are fine. Thank goodness, hopefully so is everyone else in the path of the storm.

Meeting New People

Meeting New People

8:40 AM- temperature 88 F./31 C., humidity 84%. Heat Index (or "feels like") 108 F./42 C. Step outside into our sauna. Smile.

When I started this blog, I never thought that it would become a way to meet new people; but it has turned out this way. Some we meet only through email and some eventually in person. It is interesting and enjoyable to answer peoples questions and also to meet them. At times we feel slightly at a disadvantage as they know all about us and we know very little about them. It can be a bit disconcerting, as they remind us of things that we have seen or done.

A couple of days ago I spent a fair amount of time cleaning out several of my folders on my email. When people write and ask questions, I usually keep their emails for a few months, so that I can refer back to them when trying to answer. A back up for a bad memory on my part. I was in a "housecleaning" mode the other day, and managed to downsize one folder from 20 pages of saved messages to only 8 pages. Until I looked back through them, I hadn't realised just how much communication is generated by the blog.

When we were over on the Baja we received a couple of emails from some people who are living on their boat in San Carlos, they are also building a home there. They had some specific questions about something I had written on the blog and I answered them as best I could. A few days ago, they emailed again and invited us to meet them and a friend of theirs for dinner at La Barca restaurant here in Guaymas. Naturally we agreed and the five of us spent an enjoyable couple of hours visiting over dinner. As usual, we had taken the bus uptown, so they offered to drive us home. We tried to show off our view from the patio; although it was dark and you couldn't really see anything but lights and mangoes. We visited here for a while longer before they headed back home. A nice evening with new acquaintances. They are going to be away for a month or so and we wish them well with what they need to do in the USA and also on their trip.

This post seems to be about communicating so I will mention that I have been emailing back and forth lately with a fellow blogger from Isla Mujeres. http://bnwisla.blogspot.com/ We have been watching the predictions for Hurricane Dean and it appears right now that it may be a Catagory 5 by the time it gets there and that they may get a direct hit from it. We are hoping that everyone over on that side of the country will stay safe through Dean.

Laundry Day

Laundry Day

Hot- 34 C./93 F., humid- 63%, and overcast today, and time to do laundry.

Everybody needed to drink lots today, including this little fellow.

Meteor Shower Or Rain Shower?

Meteor Shower Or Rain Shower?

Last evening we decided to go to San Carlos for dinner. There is a restaurant there (Mexico Gourmet) that is run by a group of students, learning the trade. Everything that I have heard about the food and service has been good and I have wanted to try it out for some time. We arrived there early, around 6 PM and it was closed!! We ended up going for pizza at our friends restaurant (Marias Pizza) instead and it was a warm dinner. One of their air conditioners had broken down and they couldn't get it fixed until today and the other one, just could not keep up with the heat. Regardless of the warm temperature we enjoyed our pizza and visit and headed home to sit on the patio to watch the Perseid Meteor showers.

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/11jul_greatperseids.htm

We drove home past the Delphinario and the beachs at Miramar. It was wall to wall cars parked and lots of people in the water. Busy place during the summer.

It had been getting more and more overcast as the evening progressed and by the time we got home we couldn't see any stars at all. Our landlord was disappointed and we were also. Instead we sat and watched a beautiful show put on by mother nature. The lightning was impressive as well as the thunder. Better than any man made pyrotechnics. I unplugged the computers and TV and unhooked the cable, just to be safe. We turned off the air conditioners and opened all the windows to let the breeze flow through. After a couple of hours, we actually got a rain shower, so we went to sleep listening to the sound of raindrops. Not a usual occurance here.

Hopefully it will be clear on the 28th as there is supposed to be a total Lunar Eclipse.

Surfing YouTube

Surfing YouTube

Every once in awhile, I head over to YouTube and do a search for "Guaymas". Today I found quite a few that I hadn't seen before. There are new ones on the Delphinario, which I found interesting and then I found the one below. It is a very good representation of our area and is posted by user: bungolio. It shows all of the highlights of our city and I enjoyed it very much, I hope you do.

The Excitement For Today

The Excitement For Today

Just because we are living in a different country, our lives here are not as exciting as you might think. We are not running around everyday doing "touristy" type things. We do our chores, cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc. the same way anyone else does. Which doesn't give me a whole lot to blog about. As it is very hot here right now, we are spending lots of time in the apartment and a lot of that time is spent on the computer. As an aside, I do enjoy the emails I get from readers. Needless to say, with this hectic existence, it doesn't take much to cause excitement in our day at the moment.

Today the road grader came by and graded the streets on the north and east sides of our apartment. Naturally, I had to get the camera out and take a couple of photos of the man at work. That my friends, was our excitement for today.

Cloudy Day

Cloudy Day

It was unusually cloudy for here yesterday, which made it cooler than normal also. We headed to our favorite taco stand for shrimp tacos and then we went downtown to the plaza to feed the pigeons and people watch. It was nice to sit and just enjoy the coolness for a change. Our cokes gone and the pigeons fed, we headed back home.
It rained for awhile and then drizzled on and off for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Very strange weather for us. We also got another shower sometime during the night. We have been having some clouds the last few days; but until yesterday no rain. It is cloudy today and cool enough that we have our air conditioners off again, that makes 2 days in a row. CFE (power company) will not like that. Smile.

Here's a couple of cloudy sunset photos. Take note of the crazy wiring system we have on the pole right beside the apt. and this is only part of it. Yet everything works well and our power rarely goes out and when it does it is just for a minute or so. Go figure.

Roy figured out a way to get some of the high limes off the tree yesterday and of course the trees are still loaded with mangos. I should be making cake using either one today while it is cooler, instead I am being very lazy and doing nothing. Oh well, it is Sunday, isn't it?

An Unusual Happening

An Unusual Happening

Street dogs are a common phenomena here and I think all over Mexico. On our street there were 3 dogs when we moved here and since then 1 more joined the trio. They don't bother anyone, they know everyone in the neighborhood and only bark at the strangers. Everyone throws out their table scraps for them and as street dogs go, ours were in pretty good shape. This is not the case for all street dogs. Most of them live a very sad life. We have seen many with their ribs sticking out, patches of hair missing and awful looking growths on them. Some of them are not a sight for the faint of heart. From what I have seen it seems that the poorer the neighborhood, the worse shape the street dogs are in. "Our" street dogs were only a problem a couple of times a year when lots of other dogs would come "visiting". For a week or so we would have lots of noise at night and then things would settle down and the visitors would go home. They are just kind of there, people pet them as they walk by and are greeted by their wagging tails as they come home in the evening.

This peaceful co-existence ended today. This morning we heard the dogs making a lot of strange noises and looked out of the windows to see what was going on. There was a truck and 2 men attempting to catch the dogs and put them in their truck. This truck was equiped for the job by having 5 cubicles to put the animals in after they were caught. It looked like any dog catchers truck would look anywhere else and we couldn't believe it. We never imagined that the city actually owned or used a truck like that. We have not seen this happen before and just stood by the windows, watching with our mouths open. They managed to catch the 2 female dogs, loaded them up and drove away. The 2 males disappeared for the day; although this evening they are back and looking very lost. They keep wandering the street as if looking for their missing companions.

I don't know whether the plan was just to capture the females to reduce the number of babies born or if the males were just quicker and warier. I should add that although we know that puppies were born once, none of them ever survived long enough for anyone to see them. One of the neighborhood ladies informed me via phantomine through our windows (we were both watching the capture), that they would be put down.

I realise that this is probably a necessary occurance; but I could have told the men several other neighborhoods where their services are more needed than they were here. For some of the dogs that we have seen, it would be a kindness to them to be put to sleep to end their suffering. These dogs were healthy and causing no one any problems or maybe I should say, they weren't bothering us. Perhaps they were bothering someone else and they phoned the city to have them come and do their job. Who knows, they are gone now and the street seems different.