Stew checked our rooftop weather station a couple of days ago and found that, so far this year, we've had 0.07 inches of rain. That's damn close to zero. He also found that relative humidity during the past week has been in the low double digits, sometimes dipping down into the single digits, particularly inside our …
Continue reading Mother Nature cuts through the gloom of current events
Stew and I are avid movie watchers—this year we had seen most of the Oscar nominees for Best Picture—but we are also impatient with the notoriously long-winded award ceremonies. We record the broadcast so we can zip through the endless commercials, meh comedy skits, acceptance speeches that turn into orations, and other chaff that consume …
Continue reading The unbearable wokeness of the film industry
While living "off the grid" may have an ecologically virtuous ring to it, some definite inconveniences come with the lifestyle, in this case having no garbage pick-up for three weeks, which sent us looking for the San Miguel trash dump. The location of the dump is apparently a well guarded secret, and only Stew's …
After a little over 12 years of service, a few weeks ago we replaced the two monster lead acid battery packs of our solar electric system with a deceivingly petite set of lithium ferro phosphate (LFP) batteries. The change felt somewhat comparable to trading in a lumbering, gas-guzzling—but familiar—2009 Crown Victoria for a snazzier set of …
Just this afternoon, I received this Messenger text from my family in Kyiv. The grammar is not great but their message is clear. I feel frustrated. Wish I could do something for them.We are all in Kyev. It is really dangerously. The real war. I could not imagine such a scenario in the worst dream. …
Ukraine should occupy no more space in my brain than Uzbekistan or Xinjiang but for the whims of fate, in particular my living in Chicago for 30 years, where I made some Ukrainian friends, and the Cuban diaspora after the communist takeover, including two close relatives who wound up in Ukraine. Those connections now fuel my …
San Miguel newbies are shocked to discover that we do have a winter season here after all, with some overnight freezes, sere vegetation and spells of gloominess that might seem interminable next to the eternal sunshine they expected. Our winters are not nearly as bleak, mind you, as the one Gustav Holst depicted in his hypnotic …
In deference to the demographics of our circle of friends, who trend old and often trip over things, yesterday we hired a backhoe and two young guys to clean up the stones that boobytrapped the garden in back of our house, and patch up the holes with black dirt. Alas, by noon the project had …
Continue reading A heart of stone, just in time for St. Valentine's Day
Stew and I believe gray mice are endearing. And apparently so did The Walt Disney Company, who's made billions off Mickey and Minnie, and also Remy, the protagonist of Disney•Pixar's 2007 animated feature "Ratatouille," about an irresistibly charming Parisian rat who aspires to become a chef. A lot of people are unpersuaded by the charm of …
Some people, myself included, make New Year's resolutions that are bound to fail. Take, for instance, my vowing to take up marathoning despite my penguin-like flat feet that keep me from running more than a block at a time. Other people inventory all their defects and deficiencies, the weight of which end up crushing their …
Continue reading How I'm going to make 2022 an exciting year
El Rancho Santa Clara 