Under The Mexican Sun

We arrived at the Kingdom Hall (see photo) at 8:50 a.m. for the 9:00 a.m.service arrangement. No, Evel Knievel was not going out in the ministry today, but a local brother does get around on this nifty motorbike. Carol and I were accompanied by a Mexican sister, Marisol, who appears in the photo collage below that includes other scenes from our territory. Marisol wanted to make a return visit on an interested person before we went to the assigned territory. We walked a distance only to learn the person had gone to work at Sam's Club. This being Mexico, we walked the short distance to Sam's Club to find her. As the saying goes, 'Things are different in Mexico.' For example, if no one responds when you call at a door it is acceptable, and sometimes successful, to call at the window. Marisol told us of when she went to Germany to visit her son who now lives there with his German wife. An agent at the airport asked her what brought her to Germany. She ...

Today was one of those quieter days permitting reading, conversation, and meditation, the kind of things that enrich the soul. Some Bible reading was followed by reading about the physics of rainbows. It was all highly interesting but I will resist the impulse to go into details. Oh yes, and Carol sewed a button onto one of my shirts for which I am very grateful. I told you it was a quieter day. On our way to the pool this morning we passed an iguana making his way up a palm tree with remarkable ease. I don't think it was Jorge, but  he may well be a relative. He walks up a vertical surface as effortlessly as we walk along a horizontal one, maybe more so. If you would like to have him for a pet just email me your request and I'll deliver him mid-March. (It's a joke! It's a joke!) In other news, we brought along a bag that folds into a pretty small wad that we carry with us in case of need. It has frequently served as an object of curiosity about our fami...

If it's Sunday it's go to the meeting, which we did, accompanied by Elizabeth a sister we've met staying in the same building as us. I got to chat again, in French, with two brothers from Valleyfield, checking out people we know in common - quite a few as it turned out. Afterwards we returned home, then went out for a walk to central Ixtapa for an early supper in a recommended restaurant. We were accompanied by Elizabeth and Mirza, a Mexican sister. The photo below shows the restaurant looking empty but by the time we left it was filled to capacity. The food was tasty, the service ... ummm ... unhurried, and the conversation stimulating, not once turning to the subject of shoes. I josh. And on the walk home we discussed various scriptures read at the meeting today. Iron sharpening iron so to speak. As for the weather? A screen shot from my weather app says it all ...

Last night we attended the midweek meeting which started at 6:30 pm. The timing assures we will not be heading home too late at night. Some interesting math: Exactly five and a half hours separate this midweek meeting from not being a midweek meeting. Speaking of math, besides Bible-based learning at the meetings I've also been learning from the book of creation. I've been reading a well-written book on physics that's been teaching me much about atmospheric pressure, hydrostatic pressure, gravity, astronomy, and many other things. The outstanding feature common in all these subjects is how much genius is involved in the way things work. Here's a quote from the book making this point ... "The things we don't see at first, and take for granted, like gravity and air pressure, turn out to be among the most fascinating of all phenomena. It's like the joke about two fish swimming along happily in a river. One fish turns to the other, a skeptical look on its f...

Bodega Aurrera is a small version of the superstore we usually visit in Zihuatanejo (henceforth to be called by its nickname Zihua to save wear on my keyboard). It is a bit closer so we chose it as our destination today, for the first time. Yes, besides groceries you can also buy other things here such as toaster ovens and car batteries. On our way out through our building's gates we saw a bus go by. 'Just missed the bus,' we thought. But no, the driver had spotted us and stopped. 'How kind,' we thought. 'He's going to wait for us.' But no again. The driver put the bus in reverse and backed up to where we were coming out. I haven't been on a Montreal bus in a while so I can't say if they extend similar considerations. It is very handy that the bus stops right at the front door of Bodega Aurrera. It is fine store as you can see in the photo below ... ... but the bigger place still wins. While in this store I noticed a short fellow pil...

We took a bone-shaker bus to Zihuatanejo today where, among other things, I resumed my quest for portable bean shade, if you get my drift. My weather app read, "89 degrees F, feels like 94." Personally, I find such reporting a tad cheeky. I may need to be told many things for my benefit but I most certainly never need to be told how I feel - and I felt markedly hotter than 94. So we stopped at a sheltered, beach-side restaurant for lemonades. To think I was scraping rock-hard ice off my windshield about 10 days ago ... Diving pelicans provided entertainment as shown in the following video. Note in particular the highest bird. I slowed the video at the moment of the plunge so his feat can be better appreciated. How these birds do this into three feet of water without knocking themselves senseless is a mystery to me. On the other hand, if they do knock themselves senseless, how could I tell? Resuming the trail along the beach we met two sisters doing cart witnessin...

We got to meet quite a number of old friends as well as meet new ones at the Zihuatanejo Kingdom Hall today. Here's a photo from near the platform ... The meeting went very well. The Watchtower Study conductor here does an excellent job. The commenting is lively, the reading is high quality, and of course the scriptural instruction itself is invigorating. That may explain why, once the meeting is over, this congregation breaks out in applause. I met one sister whose brother is a lawyer who assisted me years ago when I got sued by a disgruntled soul. (I am pleased to report the disgruntled soul lost.) I also met a brother from Quebec, not far from where we live, who spoke little English and was pleased to meet someone he could converse with in French. And I met another sister who was eager to introduce me to her brother because she thought we looked so much alike. We kinda did too. I should have thought of getting a photo at the time. Maybe next time. Afterwards we hopped on...

The photo below was taken from our 3rd floor balcony. Can you spot the creature sunning himself? It should be easy, he's dead center. Climbing to that height and going out onto a limb qualifies this lizard for a job with Cirque du Soleil. The photo below is of the tower at the Marina, about a ten minute walk from our place. Having once worked in the architectural field I have an interest in unusual building design features and I found one here. You will notice a small access panel on the underside of that upper floor, above the highest of those round masonry openings. The photo below is a detail of that area. I wonder who gets the privilege of using that ladder. Below is a short video taken on the beach at sunset ... And the photo below was taken minutes afterwards. Notice the moon.(Please. It's why I took the photo.) What kind of a day was it? Here's my weather app report. Lovin' it.

Today we stayed home and enjoyed our balcony as a reading room. In my case I also used my Apple earbuds to enjoy a recording of Elgar's Cello Concerto with Yo Yo Ma on the cello. What a marvelous piece of work! Evoking sadness and melancholy at the start, it moves on to striving and resolve, leading to victory, and on into joyfulness. It concludes with the original sad theme suggesting a new challenge, requiring a new conquest. Here is a link to it ...      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rVW4Z70TfE Questions From Readers Department:      Question #1:  Love that mini video! Is that your balcony?      Answer:  No, that video was taken at the restaurant downstairs. Video of balcony to follow.      Question #2: What’s wrong with a cap?  When it comes to other people? Nothing. When it comes to me? Google grants me only 15 Gigabytes so I can't list everything. The main thing wrong with...

From our accommodations to the center of Ixtapa it's is a fifteen minute stroll along a pleasantly landscaped and manicured sidewalk. The only thing to watch out for is a possible falling coconut from a palm tree which, in view of the occasional coconut on the ground, is a sobering enough thing to watch out for. We went in search of a few things among which was a straw hat for me. In my case this is not an effortless quest. Evidently I have a large head and the standard one-size-fits-all doesn't. But I believe I am certain to find exactly the right fit whenever we make our first visit to the neighboring local sellers in downtown Zihuatanejo. So today I returned home hatless with my topmost toasted. I have more to say about the required accoutrement in the attachment at the end of this post. *** We interrupt this blog to bring you a poetry alert. Be warned this post includes a poem. This is not a drill. *** This evening we enjoyed supper on our back balcony in company with...

Today's agenda called for gathering supplies. This we accomplished by taking a bus for a ten minute ride to Zihutanejo's mega store, and a taxi back. I have read online reviews that this store, similar to a Walmart Superstore, is not renown for its friendly helpful service. I will not devote any prose here to refuting such reports. But the selection is pretty good if you can figure out where things are. Back from the hunt. Our back balcony/deck is a great place to relax. And we are gradually learning how to do that. Lesson one for me was to stop checking my ipad, cell phone, or computer when I hear message alerts, mainly because they are not message alerts. It's been a wind chime.  We have already met a couple we know from previous visits. Sunday meeting is at noon. One impressive feature here is spectacular access to the sunset every evening. Here is a sample from yesterday. Yes, sunsets are more flamboyant with lit clouds but we haven't had any of those yet...

It's the day before our planned departure and looks like our stoic car is going to miss us.

There is something about arriving at an airport that runs a chill down the spine. To deposit one's hind quarters on an airplane seat is enough of a user-unfriendly process, to which one must add the unpredictable yet certain glitches. In this instance, as the clerk handed us our boarding pass for Mexico City he advised us our connecting flight to Ixtapa had no available seats. But not to worry because we had been placed on Stand-By. In the nicest terms I could muster I summarized the news to make sure I grasped it accurately, "So we will possibly have to wait in the Mexico City airport anywhere from 24 hours to 24 days? This is surprising news considering we purchased our tickets eight months ago." "There is nothing I can do about it ... unless you wish to speak to my supervisor." "Now there's a conversation that might be worth having." The manager was (figuratively speaking) an earthquake-proof masonry wall registering 40 degrees below zer...