How to keep my head when everyone's lost theirs On the Monday before election day Stew and I left on a three-day excursion to Pátzcuaro, a beautiful colonial town about three hours from San Miguel. And on the day after the election, while sitting on a bench in the main square of Erongarícuaro, a nearby …
Strangers we knew
People we meet are the most memorable part of travel In the 1993 movie "Six Degrees of Separation" the character Ouise (Louise) Kittredge, played by Stockard Channing, gave us this bon mot about how all people on this planet are related to one another, by blood, accident or coincidence. "I read somewhere that everybody on …
Dogs and Cats are on the Menu
Served with sides of racism and xenophobia about immigration If we all could get past the sheer lunacy of Trump's assertion that Haitian immigrants eat the dogs and cats of people of Springfield, Ohio, or destroy the local economy, this could be a propitious moment for both parties to inject some rational, fact-based thinking 0n …
Cat people of the world, unite!
The Republican run for the White House turns even uglier Kamala Harris hasn't yet been formally nominated as the Democratic Party's candidate for president but the mud-slinging already has begun. A 2021 rant by JD Vance, now the GOP vice-presidential candidate, has resurfaced that targets Kamala Harris, Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, and Secretary of Transportation Pete …
The buzz of electric vehicles
Our brief flirtation with electric cars During our frequent trips to Queretaro we've noticed an increased number of Chinese car dealerships, many offering electric models. Forget the familiar Chevy, Ford and Toyota names and tune your ear to exotic brands that sound like a dim sum buffet: Geely, Jac, BYD, Omoda, Danfeng, Saic, Baoyun and …
Gay Pride Mexican Style
Mexico City's celebrations are among the largest in the world and also the liveliest and most fun The Stonewall Riots in New York, triggered by one police raid too many to extort and harass the customers of that gay bar, took place on June 28, 1969, a date that by now is marked in most …
Hot enough for ya?
Climate change? Heat dome? Or too much whining? For the past three or four weeks we've been hit with temperatures routinely in the 90s that on a few days almost reached triple digits. May is supposed to be our hottest month, but that has meant highs in the 80s, with only a few days in …
Flowering succulents to the rescue
Blooms that bring cheer when we most need it A few days ago while brushing my teeth I noticed that an otherwise unremarkable-looking potted cactus the size of large grapefruit that had sat on the counter for months, perhaps years, had sprouted a beautiful bright-yellow flower on top. This fellow goes by the name of …
This blogger is old
How i went from 'getting old' to 'being old' Lifestyle preachers may talk about "70 being the new 50" by profiling some 85-year-old guy who swims a mile a day in Lake Michigan in the middle of January. Such inspirational epistles never impressed us though. Less so after my husband Stew underwent serious spinal surgery …
Canines at the gate
What we've learned from the dogs that visit us daily When we bought the land for the ranch about 15 years ago, even before we began construction nine months later, a motley welcome wagon of "campo dogs" began coming to visit and indeed never left. Their numbers varied and sure, at first this bony, flea-bitten …
El Rancho Santa Clara 