47 thoughts on “Card from Mexico”

    1. Steve: Come on down. The weather’s fine. Went to Rancho La Mesa once a few years back. There’s a better place nearby, however. On the other side of the same small town.

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    1. Señor Lanier: Datura is a mixed blessing. When it’s like it is in the photo, it’s spectacular. However, as the flowers bloom en masse, they do the same when they shrivel up, turn brown and fall to the ground a week later. They you have lots of stuff to pick up and toss into the trash. It can be a real headache. But, so far, worth it.

      Mostly one sees this yellow variety. There is also a pink one. I stole a cutting of the pink one last year, got it to root, very easy to do, and planted it in the yard. A couple of days later, I thought to myself: Are you nuts? I yanked it and threw it away. I already have two daturas to battle with all summer. I sure don’t need a third.

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  3. You brought up something I have been thinking of for a few weeks. The disappearance of postcards.

    I use to enjoy seeing them on hotel counters and wire racks or on tall wire racks in front of drugstores or five-and-dimes.

    The other item was processed slides or view-master reels allowing you to bring home local attractions without a camera.

    I do have a b&w card from the ’20s of Patzcuaro though. No one sends cards anymore. Sad, I say.

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    1. Tancho: Postcards are still around, but not as much as before, as you say. Few people send postcards now because few people send mail of any sort. Not necessary.

      View-master reels! You gotta be pretty old to remember those things. I remember them.

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    1. Carole: I remain surprised at how some of the same plants I had in Houston, where they did virtually squat, go bananas — so to speak — here. The climate is not all that different, and the part that is different, one would think, is no big deal. My Mexican winters aren’t much different than Houston — milder in the daytime but often freezing at night — and summers here are cooler, of course, but you’d think vegetation would like Houston’s summer heat. It’s the summers that differ most.

      You plant something here, and it takes off wildly.

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    1. Mark: Hanging in there. Hanging in there. After I hung this photo here, I noticed that, if you magnify it — and I’m not urging anyone to do so — it’s clear I had not shaved for a couple of days. I am appalled! I do not like to resemble the geriatric, Gringo hippies that are so common below the Rio Bravo.

      I later went inside, shaved and showered. I now am quite spiffy and respectable again.

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        1. Mark: Tell Suzie to dump your crazy butt and come live with me. I’ve seen her. She’s a cutie.

          But wait! I’m married already. But, but, but … I’m Mexican, so I can have two wives, two homes, whatever. It ain’t that rare. Yes, let’s do that, but don’t tell my child bride.

          I’ll have two child brides! Suzie will learn what my first child bride has long known. Older guys are better. Well, sometimes. In my case, yes.

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            1. I think old Cassidy, sober, might have thrown his hat in with the Pubs over Dems nowadays given the Pubs are more apt to support libertine values that the now fascist Dems rail against…

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              1. Mark: The Beatniks were a free-wheeling lot, unlike today’s official Democrat Party line. As for the Democrats being “Fascist,” most are not. It’s mostly the goons rioting in the street that we can correctly label Fascistic. Most Democrats, I am convinced, simply think they are voting for the “nice” party, the one that treats people with “fairness.” It’s poppycock, of course, but that’s how they see it.

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                1. Agreed, but the Dems utter silence in the face of these countless insults to the very fabric of our democracy gives those fascist goons cover. Therefore they are complicit and closet fascists in my humble opinion…

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              2. Mark: Not enough room to reply to your other comment below it, so I’ll reply here. I agree. The silent Democrats are much like the silent Mohammedans. They are all enablers, as the psychiatrists say it.

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      3. Musn’t look like a “gringo hippie”! Old farts mostly. We all have a little stubble or something. We’ve tired of the razor. The act of shaving. Hell, we don’t care! it’s a bit more distiguished, must shave the neck though up to under the jaw line. Don’t wanna look like a hippie, even though I was once back when.

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        1. Perry: I try to shave every other day to keep neat enough. One has to present a good face to the world. That’s how I see it. Oddly, during my work life I never had to shave or wear a tie or shined shoes, none of that stuff. I’m likely spiffier now than I was before retiring.

          As for being a hippie, I never was one. I did vote the Democrat Party for decades, however. That’s even worse. I now wallow in shame.

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  6. I have a pink one that I’ve had for about a year or so. It blooms profusely and the blooms fall off and then, about 3 days later, it blooms again! Does that about 4 times, and then goes dormant to get its energy back again, and then starts all over … love it, but it doesn’t have the aroma of the yellow/cream ones. Loving this time of the year.

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    1. Peggy: I did not know that the pink ones put off less smell. This yellow one is right outside our bedroom window, and the aroma comes right in, big-time. It’s nice.

      If you’ve had yours only about a year, you likely don’t know that if you don’t cut it back every winter it will keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger. You may want that. I don’t. I whack.

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  8. I wish I were there with you too! You are wearing a light jacket and a beanie. It is supposed to get to 98 degrees here today in Colorado. I’d love some light jacket weather!!!

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    2. P.S., Mike: Now that ain’t no beanie on my head. Beanies are for kiddies and PeeWee Herman. It’s a watch cap, the type of thing favored by Jack London and myself.

      Beanie indeed!

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  10. I’ve been thinking of heading over your way for a week or so sometime. Was there once for a couple of days in 2011, also stopped for a couple of days each in Uruapan from where I made a day trip to Volcán Paricutín and the state capital. I’ll be staying away from the datura though. My experience with that was a little too intense.

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    1. Peter: Correcting the volcano name led me somewhere interesting, something I had never noticed or known. Seems there are two ways of looking at it. One is Parícutin. The other is Paricutín. Different accents. Even Wikipedia mentions the two ways. But Wiki seems to prefer the accent on the last syllable, as do I.

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  12. I too wish I were there, but alas, I’m stuck here. I’m fantasizing about escaping to San Francisco this weekend, but there are no obvious leads. Friends are mostly already busy or out of town. Meanwhile, it’s supposed to reach 108°F here over the weekend. As you might imagine, that’s not much fun.

    Saludos,

    Kim G
    Redding, CA
    Where the words “hellishly” and “hot” are often found together. At least in the summer.

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      1. I’ve become oddly fixated on the performance of my car’s air conditioner, driving around with a thermometer measuring the temperature of the center vent to make sure it’s performing at top condition. Haha!

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  13. Felipe,

    I am here. Well, sort of. I’m in Gringolandia, aka Ajijic. Weather is perfect, and we are enjoying our visit. Hope to make it to your neck of the woods someday, perhaps on another visit.

    Regards,
    Troy

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    1. Troy: While I’ve been in San Miguel a million times, or so it seems, I’ve been in the Chapala area no more than five times even though they are about equidistant from me. I’ve spent one night there on three occasions. I find downtown Ajijic difficult to navigate, exasperating. Were I forced to choose between the two Gringo-infested locales, I’d likely go to San Miguel, but maybe I’ve just not been in Ajijic often enough. It strikes me as more a meat-and-taters type of place while San Miguel is more artsy-fartsy.

      When you get over here, I’ll treat you to a cafecito on the plaza. My town is better than both Ajijic and San Miguel combined, but don’t tell anyone. It’s a secret even though the increasing number of Gringos settling here, to my dismay, can’t seem to keep their mouths shut. Downsides are that it’s colder, and it’s not so easy to live here if you don’t speak Spanish.

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