Trump's decision is cynical and stupid, but this environmentalist just can't get worked up about it. Last night it rained at the ranch, furiously, but only for an hour. It was hardly enough to officially end the dry season but comforting to hear that the clouds haven't forgotten their function is not just to decorate the sky. The rain came …
Continue reading The United States just pulled out of the Paris climate change agreement. So what?
After eleven years here, Mexico shouldbe home to us. But it's not that simple. In a recent post, fellow blogger Steve Cotton wondered if his house on Mexico's Pacific Coast was a "home" or merely a "house."For expats that's not a fatuous question. Stew and I vote in Chicago, our last foothold in the U.S.; have …
How talking to a young servicemanrekindled an old serviceman's prideVietnam may have receded so far in the past that few Americans remember how badly G.I's were treated when they returned home. It's a fading memory, except for us, the veterans of that war. I still remember yard signs in 1967 and 1968 that read "Sailors and …
Security in Mexico worries expats but we don't even want to talk about it. On March 13 a woman friend was kidnapped in broad daylight in downtown San Miguel. She's still missing. The event was confirmed by the U.S. Consular Agent here, who passed on the news to the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City. But for several days …
Despite their often gruff appearance,succulents have a tender, flowery heartSucculents are split-personality plants, scornful and hostile one day, inviting and flirtatious the next. Cacti, a member of the succulent family, in particular sport razor thorns that warn strangers not to come near, but then, maybe the next day, or month or year, will set seductive …
Early in the day is not the time to make plansbut rather to contemplate what's around youIt may sound odd, particularly to those still employed, but the freedom to do nothing when one retires brings a certain guilt, not to mention boredom. What should we do to justify our consumption of the earth's oxygen and sunlight …
In today's toxic political climate, not knowing what's going on may be the best way to retain your sanity.By all rights those of us who have retired in Mexico behind the Tortilla Curtain should be spared the political chatter and acrimony that permeates even conversations at strip bars back home.But even here, seven hundred miles south of the …
The rainy season began last night. Maybe. The sis-bam-boom of thunder and lightning, and the crescendo of fat raindrops pounding the skylights, was a welcome spectacle last night, assuming it was the overture to this year's rainy season.The all-night rain ranged from furious to gentle and back again but it never seemed to quit. Our cheapo …
Americans may brag about their huge, brightly lit, centrally located markets, but in San Miguel we have something far more interesting and fun yet: An endless collection of hole-in-the-wall family enterprises, scattered mostly along cobweb streets that radiate from the two central markets, and where you typically transact business under a fifteen-watt bulb.You need to …
Continue reading Foraging through San Miguel's retail haystack
For several days in November, after he turned seventy, Stew grew glum and picked up the annoying habit of starting sentences with "I've been thinking..." without ever getting to the predicate.Thinking about what exactly?Apparently Stew was bothered by visions of a Piper Cub flying overhead pulling a banner that said "The End is Near. Do …
El Rancho Santa Clara 