Settling In

It has been one month since moving into this house on the hill. I still have to pinch myself to believe that I am living here, its so beautiful. Now that the rainy season is getting under way, there are more cloudy days (no more sunny blue skies day after day after day). This is a nice change, for when it rains regularly it will cool off the nights to make for better sleeping. Thus far we are not sweating buckets, but July will be hotter. The breezes up here are the lifesaver.

Biggest news for us, is the announcement of our oldest child, Emily marrying Luke Boles this summer in Alaska.

BIg excitement is letting the cats outside here. Sheila was going stir crazy being in all the time playing with the hair ties, playing in boxes,and getting bored. First onto the upper level patio/deck and they love being in the fresh air. Sharmaine ventured up some stairs to the roof and then cried and cried for she couldn't figure out her way down or didn't dare go down the stairs. Later, when Sheila was determined to be free and climbed up a screen and out a hole, I let Sharmaine out too on the ground level. This is where all the gardens are and immediately they found a little lizard to chase, and within seconds, Sharmaine chased it into the lily pad pond. It all happened so fast, she was in shock landing in the water, and me being so protective of her, in one second looking at her little head above water and not knowing if she would swim, I fetched her out of the water.


Cable T.V. came with the the rental house, something we are not used to. After months spent reading books in our spare time, now there is the temptation to turn on the tube. Quickly, the U.S. news stations with umpteen commercial breaks have bored us. BBC is somewhat interesting. The only channels we watch are TCM for movies and another commercial free movie channel. So it is back to the books, which is mucho better. Last summer I ordered online Amazon and used bookstore sellers, a bunch of books which we brought back to Mexico last August. These books were chosen from a website I discovered called International IMPAC Literary Dublin Award. Books of high literary merit written in any language in the world and translated into English are nominated by libraries from major cities around the world each year. Then a shortlist is made, and a panel of international judges picks the yearly winner, which just happened for 2007 with Norway author Per Petterson winning for his book Out Stealing Horses. In the awards archives going back to 1996, is the very long list of titles and descriptions of the books for 12 years. Here lies a wealth of possibilities for great reading adventures for years to come! When I ordered my books last year (many of them used, and cheap) I simply picked out the winners for every year going back to 1996 for my collection.

Currently, I am reading "The Elementary Particles" also called "Atomized" by Michel Houellebecq. I can't put it down! Here's a synopsis:

About the Book:

Half-brothers Michel and Bruno have a mother in common but little else. Michel is a molecular biologist, a thinker and idealist, a man with no erotic life to speak of and little in the way of human society. Bruno, by contrast, is a libertine, though more in theory than in practice, his endless lust being all too rarely reciprocated. Both are symptomatic members of our atomised society, where religion has given way to shallow 'new age' philosophies and love to meaningless sexual connections. Atomised tells the stories of the two brothers, but the real subject of the novel is the dismantling of contemporary society and its assumptions, its political incorrectness, and its caustic and penetrating asides on everything from anthropology to the problem pages of girls' magazines.

One good thing "green" we are doing here which we didn't in Minnesota, is composting. Our landlady has the spot in the garden, and its so simple. Considering there are no recycling programs in our town, I feel we are at least doing something beneficial. It hurts to throw the glass, plastic, paper, aluminum into our garbage after many years of St. Louis Park recycling. About all that is done here is pop cans. Maybe someday! Little by little, improvements come. With the Mexican government planning for greater tourism for Mexico, they have big plans for this part of the Pacific coast in development. To get an idea of what they are planning, take a look at the website Riviera Nayarit (Nayarit being the name of the state we live in, adjacent to Jalisco (state which PuertoVallarta lies in). Once this gets rolling, maybe there will be more local interest in cleaning up garbage and keeping it clean.

It has to start with the children and education. I think most Mexicans want a clean and beautiful environment, but there are those who have really bad habits and litter everywhere. Dirty diapers even! It is especially bad when the tour buses arrive from the big cities and people leave their garbage all over. If there were garbage cans on each corner, they would be stolen. Cementing them in would work, but then the city would have to pick it all up....great, that's what should be done! Don't know why it isn't. A good website on keeping the planet and your world "green" and clean, etc. is National Geographic's the Green Guide. We are hanging out our laundry to dry on the line in the sun, and have been since last September. Saves on the electric bill and besides, most rentals don't have a dryer. The other saver, is to not use air conditioning. We did not have it in the past two homes we rented, and here there is a bedroom one, but with being at a higher elevation and having breezes, we may not need it. Thus far, our electric bill has been as low as under $25 and as high as $65 in the hot rainy season when we had fans running 24 hours a day. Still, much lower than the $250+ gas bills in Minnesota winter time.

That is all for now folks, having a problem with my one computer so couldn't put more photos on this posting. Wanted to show you the kitties having big wrestling matches. But next time.