While on a cruise to Antarctica in 2007, we had the good fortune to befriend a woman from San Miguel with whom we have remained close even as our life situations have changed. It's those kinds of friendships that make San Miguel a special place. Sadly, about three years ago she had a stroke that initially …
Continue reading Wondering about the inevitable: Who's going to take care of us when we can't?
Going on vacation while you're retired may sound like an oxymoron to those still driven by the nine-to-five workaday life. Not so much, though, I've found: Even in retirement one quickly gets entangled in schedules, routines, things that need attention, that eat away at the time every day that should be reserved for imagining and even …
When we first moved to Mexico some 13 years ago (!) Stew and I used to be far more adventurous. On weekends, or even weekdays, we used to leave town and point our car to wherever, in search of whatever. Sometimes there were quaint towns, tumbledown churches, markets selling weird stuff, stunning landscapes or, sometimes, …
Continue reading Putting wonder and wandering back in retirement
Sandwiched between Christmas and New Year's, my birthday on December 30 traditionally has been half-forgotten but not this year, when I will hit the big Seven-Oh. Birthdays that end in zero are usually met with anticipation; they mark a passage to a new stage in life. When we turn twenty, college graduation and the beginning of a career—even …
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 …
When I was growing up in Cuba and later in the United States, attention deficit disorder was no front-page news. I don't think many people had even heard of it and those who had probably weren't paying much attention to the phenomenon anyway.Still, I suspect that I had a touch, or maybe a big dollop, …
What was meant as a glib reply to a friend's e-mail yesterday unexpectedly set off some ominous arithmetic in my head: On Dec. 30 I turn sixty-five and officially join the Medicare "generation."Our family doctor of some twenty years marked Stew's induction into the ranks of the elderly last year with a prostate exam, of …
Stew, with his remarkable recall for dates and events, casually mentioned on Sunday that November 7 would be the anniversary of the Great Border Crossing. I, the one with a far foggier grasp of birthdays and most other significant historical markers, replied: "The what?"Indeed Wednesday was the seventh anniversary of our voyage from Chicago to Mexico …
San Miguel de Allende at times feels like Medicare Junction. It can be full of bad news, illnesses and other problems that tax one's optimism while, ironically, reminding us how essential optimism is to a sane, healthy life--however many years of it we have left.The, hmm, "advanced" demographics of a retirement outpost like San Miguel--hell, …
According to Mr. Conventional Wisdom, that notorious bullshit artist, happiness in life is an inexorable downward slide. We may be happy when young and carefree, when zits and sex are our main worries. Or perhaps during the 30s and 40s when we fall in love, buy a house and develop a career, and if we're …
El Rancho Santa Clara 