Expats in San Miguel, for the most part, don't have terribly complicated or consequential agendas. Few of us oldsters are working on a cure for cancer, cracking the mysteries of nuclear fusion, or training for the next moon launch.So it doesn't take much to get us excited. Take the opening of a new HEB supermarket …
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A beautiful morning in the neighborhood
When the garage door slowly clanged open yesterday morning, it gradually revealed a stunning slice of our garden. At this early hour, about eight, the air was bracing, almost cold, and the mountains rising over the horizon still had a hint of the bluish morning fog. On this, the weekend when Mexicans are celebrating the …
Life in the age of conspiracies
Over dinner a few nights ago, Stew, two friends and I, talked—actually gossiped—about another couple of guys we all know. This other couple is very politically conservative and believers in conspiracy theories of all sorts, from jet contrails causing cancer to Neil Armstrong not really having landed on the moon, and, I imagine, the entire …
Constabulary notes from here, there and yon
The rainy summer season is slinking away without the landscape reaching its peak kelly-green hue: We've had only half the amount of rain we normally get. I gauge rainfall by the amount of water collected in our cistern and it's only half-full. No reason to panic though: As I write this, dark clouds hover auspiciously …
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An American suburb in Mexico
Yesterday, growing a bit restless at the ranch despite the spectacular weather, Stew and I drove to Querétaro, to check what the hubbub surrounding the grand opening of an HEB supermarket was all about.And a hubbub it was. HEB's extra large parking lot was packed, and there were at least a dozen cars waiting to …
The vanishing world of library books
The main San Antonio Public Library is hard to miss even among the mid- and high-rise buildings sprouting downtown.This striking building, built in 1995, is visible from one of the expressways that slice and dice San Antonio's downtown and it first strikes you as a not particularly welcoming concrete box.But despite being squat, the library …
Our share of the blame for the trade gap with China
Many San Miguel expats, including Stew and I, travel north of the border and make shopping one of the main events of our visits. When it's 102 degrees outside in San Antonio, what better place to be that in an air-conditioned store or a movie house?We continue to be dazzled by Walmarts so large you …
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A peaceful eye amid a hurricane of discord
When we visit other towns for more than a fast flyby, Stew and I often make two stops, one at an A.A. meeting and the other at a Unitarian Church, if nothing else just to have some face time with the locals, shake a few hands, not feel like complete outsiders.And so for the past …
An encounter with old age, opioids and Berniecare
SAN ANTONIO, Texas—Two weeks ago today, we came here for Stew to have spinal surgery. Our sojourn has delivered unexpected encounters too with the uncertainties that lie ahead as we both age; a brush with the notorious opioid oxycodone; reminders of what it would be like to live back in the U.S., and the wonders …
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Tiptoeing through the succulents
Initially my interest in succulents and cacti (the latter a subset the succulent family) was mostly practical. The soil around here is very poor and rain comes only during a narrow, three- or four-month window; the rest of the year the landscape is bone-dry. Succulents seemed custom made for such harsh conditions, though I quickly …
El Rancho Santa Clara 