Brenda and Roy Going To Mexico

A Slightly Smelly Post

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:24:00 +0000

On our corner of the street we are lucky enough to have a water shutoff point underground. I say lucky for this as we can easily see whenever the CEA (water company), guys come and shut off the valve when they are fixing a problem elsewhere and we can also see when they come back and turn it on. There have been times when they have forgotten the return trip to turn it back on; but someone has usually seen them shutting it off so they know what the problem is and call to get them to come and turn it on again. A good thing.

On the same corner; although not in the same spot, we also have a sewer manhole. If there is a problem the same CEA guys come and unplug it or snake it out. A while back there was a problem with it being plugged and it was backing up, not a good thing.
They came and tried to unplug it manually, (you couldn't pay me enough to do this job). As an aside, they always show up in their uniform outfits and they are clean as can be, when they are done their dirty job they are still as clean as can be. How do they do it???
Anyway they couldn't get it unplugged so they called in the big gun.
THE PUMPER TRUCK.
The unit arrived and did their thing and then left. Problem solved, right? Nope, a short while later it was bubbling over again. The truck returned, did its thing, went down to the next corner and did the same thing and left again. A short while later, same old, same old. They returned again, by this time it was getting dark, and they continued working. They worked until almost 10 PM until they finally got it working again to their satisfaction. Our neighbourhood is an older one, developed probably in the 1960's I was told and we have lots of big trees with lots of big tree roots. Apparently the roots had gotten into the pipes and some of the pipes had collapsed/broken or whatever so it was a fairly big job.
They stayed with it until it was working again. Kudos to them.

The guys with the pump out truck.

Hmmmm, I wonder if there is a 12 step program for bloggers who are so desperate for blogging material that they video a sewer being pumped out.

House Construction # 6

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 01:26:00 +0000

The landlords sons new house is coming along. They finished putting up the walls for the second floor and then got it ready to pour the roof. I was gone when they poured the roof for the first floor or the floor for the second floor whichever you want to call it. Roy told me that they did it with a traditional pour using lots of men and labour. This time they decided to get the cement truck along with the truck with the long arm on it for sending the cement right up to the roof. This is more costly; but results in a faster, better pour with no seams to leak, hopefully.

They still had quite a few guys to work; but it was much easier for them than carrying 5 gallon pails of cement up to the third level. This way they just had to spread and smooth it out.

The guys ready to go.

The arm truck which is connected to the cement truck.

Getting to work.

Lazy Blogger and Computer Woes

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:10:00 +0000

It seems that the longer I am away from the blog the harder it is to come back. I am getting really lazy about blogging, I just the "new" has definitely worn off after blogging since May of 2005.

The last week or so has been interesting for me computer wise. My computer decided that it was tired and kept shutting off and turning on, it wasn't the power source, so off it went to the hospital. The fellow thought he had fixed it; but he hadn't. I had been tossing around the idea of getting a new one for awhile now as that one I had purchased in 2004 and other than adding an extra 1 GB of RAM and spending a few dollars here and there on it, it didn't owe me anything.
I talked to a few of the computer sales places in town and got the best price from our regular service guys so decided to order a new one. In the meantime I got them to pull the extra 1 GB RAM out of my old one and put it into Roys old PC which still worked; but was so slow it drove me insane. While I waited for my new one I used that one.

The new one arrived at the delivery place supposedly; but when the fellow went to pick it up it was no where to be found, so he called and ordered another one. This one arrived late Saturday night and he brought it over on Sunday to set it up. After he left I downloaded Skype and my VOIP phone service that I use and I couldn't get the headphones and mic. to work in the front panel. I called him back and he came and tried and he couldn't get it working either. He took it to his shop and ended up going back to Hermosillo for them to get it working.

He came back with it last night about 7 PM and it is all working now. He told me that for some reason those connections on the front had been de-activated, he had no idea why.

Anyway it is all working good now so I have no excuses left.

What I bought was this:

Processor: Core 3- 540 64 bits dual core 3.06 GHZ
RAM: 4GB
Hard Drive: 500 GB
And all the other usual stuff.

I stayed with a PC as I don't have as much faith in the durability of a laptop and we have one already that we can travel with if we want to. I stayed with my old monitor for now.

I probably could have gotten it cheaper if I would have gone shopping in a bigger center; but when you do that you are adding all the other costs onto it anyway so you may as well buy at home IMO.

Anyway I am sure someone will wonder what the cost was, it was 6,500 pesos or more or less $ 496.08 CAD. I have no idea if that is a horrible price or a good one; but it is what it is.

I am also glad I bought from them as they are usually good with their service and also make house calls for 100 pesos, about $7.63 CAD. If they can't fix the problem at your home they take it to the shop and then return it. The house call covers the return part also.

So that has been what I have been up to lately computer wise.

Christmas Eating

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 22:58:00 +0000

Well, we ate our way through Christmas again this year and our tummies thanked us.
We spent Christmas Eve with our landlords family and had a lovely dinner with them. She is an excellent cook and we had stuffed pork loin, breaded fish and shrimp, mashed potatoes, pasta salad, beans, ceviche, etc.. All excellent. It was cold so she also had atole, which she told me she had made with pinole (sweetened toasted corn meal) for a change, along with other refrescos. We waddled back upstairs to sleep it off until Christmas Day.
Christmas Day we went out to San Carlos to have late lunch/early dinner with our friends there. One lady brought a flan for desert, we took the caramel sauce for the Christmas pudding and some gingersnap cookies and their company from up north helped her prepare the usual turkey dinner. Again all was delicious and we vegged out and visited.
We haven't been doing much else since then other than eating the rest of the cookies that I have been making lately. It has been chilly here so I have been baking to heat up the place. Naturally once it is baked we eat it.
It has been cold and snowing up in the mountains in Arizona so we have been getting a lot of cold air here from that. Thankfully the last few days it has begun to warm back up a bit.
I have a post to make about the despedida de soltera that I went to a few weeks ago; but have been lazy.
Happy New Year to all.

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 18:19:00 +0000

Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year to all.

Feliz Navidad y un muy feliz año nuevo a todos.

Bad Blogger Guilt

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 21:11:00 +0000

Yes, OK I have been missing from this blog for quite some time. Long enough that I have been getting emails wondering if we are all right. Yes, we are fine, I have just been lazy about finding things that are blog worthy, in my opinion.

My days are spent doing the same old things. Paying bills, getting groceries, running errands, taking art and Spanish class, laundry, cooking and all the usual day to day stuff. Nothing real exciting or even interesting for a blog. I guess things here seem so normal to me now that most of the time I don't take my camera with me, so don't have pictures of things other people might find odd; but are just normal to me.

I did make a couple of posts on the art blog, link to that blog is on the right hand side of this blog, I quit posting my paintings on here as I thought I was boring everyone and if you were interested you would go to the other blog.

I sent a couple of pastels paintings north to Canada hopefully they will get there before the Christmas mail rush. In fact they should be there by now I think. I haven't talked to anyone lately so am not sure.

It has been chilly and windy here for a couple of days and my aches and pains have been bad, in particular my neck and shoulders. I have Fibromyalgia so I ache worse when it is cold and windy. I skipped art class one day and the next day headed uptown and bought some wheat. I came home and sewed myself a wheat bag. If you are not sure what this is, it is very simple. It is wheat, seeds of course, sewn into a cloth bag of whatever size you want, as long as it will fit into your microwave. You then heat it up in your microwave, time depends on the size of the bag. When it is comfortably warm you take it out and put it onto your achy areas. It really seems to help and yesterday I managed to make it to art class, as I could actually turn my neck again without a lot of pain. Yay, wheat bag. You can also add some aromatic herbs to your bag if you like, lavender is one that lots of people like. I didn't as I have allergies to a lot of scents and don't tolerate scents close to my face very well. I also sewed a door snake to block the drafts coming in under our door.

The landlords sons new home is coming along. They put the roof/ceiling on for the first floor when I was in Canada in August and are now working on the walls for the second floor rooms.

Festival de las Calacas 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda) — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 02:41:00 +0000

This afternoon we went downtown to the Festival de las Calacas which they have every year on the weekend closest to the Dia de los Muertos. It was again held at La Plaza de la Pistola, which is a block north of Serdan at around 21 st. Street.

It was supposed to have started last night; but this afternoon there were still people setting up their altars. Every year they have a competition for the schools and choose which school has the best altar.

I was kind of disappointed with it this year, it seemed like there was a lot less stuff going on than other years, unless things start to hop later this evening. Too bad if this festival fades out, it is a lot of work for the people involved; but is also a nice event for the spectators to view.

Here are some photos of the Calacas and some of the altars. As usual you can click on the photos to make them larger.

Shoe shine anyone?

How romantic !

Another part of the festival is an art exhibition. The class I am in at the Casa de la Cultura, has our paintings on display that we have finished so far in this class, (September and October). Some of the paintings are in oils and some are pastels. There are other paintings also from other classes and others that I am not sure where or whom they are from. They are displayed in one of the buildings at the Plaza de la Pistola.

Here is a sampling of the art displayed.

Michells Birthday Party

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda) — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 22:36:00 +0000

Thursday evening I skipped art class and Roy and I went to one of the landlords grand daughters 9 th birthday party, (turned out class was cancelled anyway because of the holiday). The party was held at the Salon de Eventos Titanico where they have pools and water slides. With the heat here the kids were just loving being in the water.

Snacks, corn on the cob, fresh fruit and drinks were enjoyed by all, followed by a meal of Pastel Sorpresa, salad and beans. Cake of course followed, along with goody bags for all. We gave our goody bags to some of the kids and received big smiles in return.

(Pastel Sorpresa is basically a huge sandwich with various filling, covered with yellow cheese and decorated with some chilis and eaten with a fork. I kind of remember something similar to this being served at showers, etc. in Canada; but don't remember what it was called.)

A fun evening as usual.

Three pools and 2 water slides.

The birthday girl with her cake and gifts.

Grandma holding the newest grand child who was making a very funny face.

Shopping North Of The Border

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda) — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 00:57:00 +0000

Naturally, while I was in Canada I did have to do a bit of shopping. I didn't have much of a list of things to buy as I hadn't had time to think about it and didn't really have a lot of room for many purchases anyway, as I was already bringing some things home of sentimental value.
I always have a sort of general list of things such as: Twizzlers licorice (red, of course), Werthers original candies and some art supplies. Where I was staying in small town Saskatchewan and Alberta there wasn't much in the way of art stores; but I did manage to get to one in Edmonton the day before I left and found a few things that I wanted. The sweet tooth items of course were easy to find. I never realized that I didn't even eat one chocolate bar or bag of Ketchup chips while in Canada, until I was home and talking about the trip with Roy. I guess some things have really gone off of my radar.
One day while wandering around a store with my daughter in law I did, (casually), stroll by the camera counter and saw a camera that interested me. I don't like to spend a lot of money on cameras as I am always afraid of either: losing them, breaking them, having the humidity kill them or just plain wanting a new one, so it was initially, the price on this one that drew me in. I wrote down the name and model number and when we got back to the house I did some checking online. It seemed to have fairly good reviews for what I wanted it for.
The camera I have now I bought in Albuquerque, New Mexico when we were there doing a house sit in September of 2006 and it was around $200.00. It is a Nikon Coolpix and only has 6.2 megapixels and a 5X optical zoom. This camera was bought just before the anti shake feature came out on the cheaper models and it also takes really poor low light shots. My hands tend to shake and also a lot of the events we go to are in the evening, so I was getting very frustrated by the poor quality of pictures that I could take and had almost totally quit taking my camera with me to events. I know, not a good practice for a blogger.
I did go back to the store the next day and buy the camera. It is a FujiFilm FinePix S2900 and has 14 megapixels and a 18 X Optical zoom. It also has the anti shake feature and takes pretty good low light pictures. I looked at the pictures on my sisters and also on my sons, 52 " screen TV's and they were very clear at that size, nice.
I haven't had much time to play with it yet and discover all the features; but so far I am happy with it. It is bigger than my other one which is not the greatest thing, it is not something that you just shove into your pocket or purse; but the bag I bought has enough pockets for me to put stuff in that it will eliminate the need for taking a purse. I need to figure out the settings as some of the pictures I took were on the wrong setting until I realized it and changed that. Lots to learn; but so far so good.

Some examples:

Taken in my sisters back yard in total darkness, with flash.

Without the zoom.

With 18 X Optical zoom.

No zoom.

Again 18 X Optical zoom.

Where Do I Start?

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda) — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 18:24:00 +0000

It has been over a month since I actually blogged, not because I have been lazy; but because life intervened.
I flew to Canada on the 1 st of August and arrived at the hospital my mom had been sent to, on the morning of August 2 nd., after travelling for 22 hours. I can now say I have spent the night in the Calgary airport, something that was not on my bucket list, by the way.
Moms husband, my siblings and their spouses had been sitting with mom for a couple of days by this point and we all continued to sit with her until she passed away on August 4.
Then ensued the usual funeral planning and so on. A very sad time for all the family. Mom will be greatly missed by all her family and friends.

While I was in Canada I was told that one of our favourite dogs, (some friends of our belonged to him), Geordie passed away. Another sad thing, and we will miss him a lot as I know our friends are. RIP Geordie, you were the best of the best. I still have ice cubes in the freezer for you, can't seem to bring myself to throw them away yet.

There were some bright spots during the month I was away. I got to visit with some of my aunts and uncle and cousins that I haven't seen very much of in the last many years.
I got to spend a lot of time with my new grand daughter, she is a joy at 7 months. I stayed with them for a week or so in their new,(to me), home. We went camping for a weekend and I got to go out on their fishing boat.
I also got to visit the acreage that my sister and husband have just purchased and finally met some of the girlfriends of my nephews.
I got to spend a bit of time with some of my step-grandchildren, which was lovely, as the last flying trip I made there I didn't get to see them. They are growing up so fast it is amazing, they are fantastic kids.

I have many pictures to share of the new grand daughter another day.

Since I have been home I have signed up for and started another art class, it should be interesting. More on that later also.

Then there is the usual laundry, grocery shopping, etc..

Roy got his top plate while I was gone and it didn't fit well, so I went with him to the dentist on Monday to discuss that, hopefully that was resolved Wednesday morning.

It also is time for us to re-new our FM3's, I hemmed and hawed about changing to an FM2 again this year; but in the end went the easy way and just continued on with the FM3. I just didn't feel like dealing with new requirements right now.

I went to the immigration office on Monday to see what they were requiring this year, as with the new laws I wasn't sure what was happening. It seems that they are still doing the same as they did last year and required the same documents, which are as follows, (remember this is for a renewal, not a first time):

1. photos: 3 front shots, 3 side shots, infantil size, white background, colour photo, no glasses, etc..

2. recent bank statements, we had bank statements from both Canada and Mexico so I was told I didn't need to get translations of our Canadian statements, (according to the lady I spoke with anyway, your mileage may vary on this one).

3. copy of our passport photo and information page.

4. The paper you get printed out after you fill in the form online.

5. A letter asking for your FM3 to be renewed (more or less).

We returned Tuesday morning to the office and gave the guy all our papers and he printed us out the papers with the numbers and passwords to check the progress online and told us the cards would be ready in about a week.
Pretty simple again this year, as it was last year; but then we don't have our cards yet lol. I will let you know when we get them or if there are any glitches to be ironed out. So far when I put our numbers in their site I am getting a pop up saying they can't be found. We shall see.

When we returned home from immigration Tuesday morning we were sitting and cooling off when suddenly the air conditioner in the living room quit. Roy had had a problem with it when I was away and the landlord got someone to come in and apparently he glued the one part back on; but a little crooked. It is now very noisy and Roy was sure when it stopped that it had burnt the motor out. I went and checked on the bedroom one and it was also off along with the bedroom light. I went downstairs and talked to the landlord who explained that a brother in law had done some work awhile back and switched out a 70 Amp breaker for 2 - 30 Amp breakers, (not good), so basically the breaker had flipped. He reset it and everything was working fine again.
I then tried to get a hold of a fellow to come and look at this noisy one and order the part and fix it, I couldn't get his number to work for some reason and ended up having someone else call him for me. They couldn't get him on the phone and left a message. He never showed up or called before I went to art class and when I returned home he had not appeared either. I will tried again on Wednesday and still couldn't get him, so called someone else. The other fellow showed up around 6 PM or so and took away the fan to go and order/buy a replacement today. Still haven't heard anything from him this morning. We are without an air conditioner in the living room so we are a bit warm, we have the bedroom one going with a fan directed out to the living room and it is OK.

I had spoken to my Spanish teacher and she told me that our lesson has been changed to Wed. mornings as Bliss is taking a guitar lesson on Tuesdays. This works out better for me as well, as my art classes are on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so will be easier to go to Spanish class on Wednesday mornings. A good change for both of us.

I finally finished a pastel painting of a cat that I had started before I headed to Canada and am still working on the oil painting of the Bird of Paradise that I started during the 4 week summer session class. I have had very little time or energy to do much with those as I had to get my drawing ready for the painting I am going to be doing in class this session.

Tuesday evening while I was at art class we had a short, heavy rainstorm, so the hills should stay green for a while now. I was amazed to see how green they were when I arrived back home a week ago, there had been a few showers while I was gone and everything looked so fresh and green in comparison to how it was when I left. Wednesday because of the humidity from the rain the "feels like" temperature at 11 AM when I went to Spanish class was 46 Celcius. A bit warm even for me.

The landlords grandchildren seem like they all grew a foot in the month I was away, hard to believe they can change so fast in a month.

I have been home for a week now and feel like I have been running ever since I stepped out of the airplane. It is good to see family; but it is even better to be home.

More later.

Rest In Peace Mom

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda) — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 04:28:00 +0000

End Of Summer Class

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda) — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 06:23:00 +0000

Thursday was the last day of classes for the summer session at the local Casa de la Cultura. Friday night there was a concert at the Auditorium for the dance, music, pantomime, and other students. It was well attended which was nice to see.
The first act was this young trio who did a recitation. I was impressed that they all remembered their lines so well. They were definitely cute.

I got a few pictures of some of the dancers.

Some of the stuff I just plain forgot to take pictures of. The pantomime had people laughing as it was pretty funny and well done.
Considering that the class was only 4 weeks long the performers did well.

This is supposed to be a traditional dance of the Yucatan.

An Evening Out

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda) — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 04:47:00 +0000

Yesterday was Roys birthday and also our anniversary so we decided to head out for dinner. The place we like to eat overlooking the bay wasn't answering their phone when I tried them to see if they were open. On to Plan B, we decided to try a restaurant that we have heard good things about; but have never tried. The restaurant Oeste in the Armida Hotel.
This restaurant is known for its steaks and its decor is very interesting. The walls are covered with mounted animal heads, not something I really care for and definitely not the usual restaurant decor here. I prefer my wildlife hunted with a camera; but it was different to see here. I guess if you are trying to beat the heat this is the place to go, the air conditioner was set to sub-zero in the frigid zone and I just about froze to death. I would take a sweater if we went again in the summertime. I am pretty sensitive to the cold now though, so for others it would probably be fine.
We took a look at the menu and decided on Chateaubriand for 2, which included salad bar, baked potato and some veggies. We ordered our beverages and snacked on the usual totopos and salsa, while checking out the decor. Hmmm, I felt kind of guilty ordering meat in such an atmosphere with all those eyes staring at me from the walls.
The meal came and it was very good. There was probably more meat on my plate than I have had in many years. I am not much of a red meat eater, when my kids were young they used to laugh at me and call me a vegetarian, which I have never been even close to. Roy managed to eat his portion by skipping a trip to the salad bar. I couldn't resist a bit of salad and managed to eat about 1/2 of my portion of meat.
The meat was flavourful and tender, very good. The baked potato was good and I really enjoyed it. I don't use the oven in the summertime so miss having baked potatoes. Veggies were a cauliflower/broccoli combo and were also OK. Salad bar was lettuce with adds on of veggies, nothing exceptional; but all was fresh and crispy and there were a couple of dressings. I chose a cream dressing, kind of a ranch type and it tasted nice, not like a bottled one here which I don't care for.
Overall, I would say the meal was very good. Baked potato is something that very, very few restaurants in Guaymas serve so it was nice to have that.
Service was prompt without being a nuisance, no loud annoying music, the washrooms were well equipped with the necessities and clean.
This was the most costly restaurant we have encountered so far in Guaymas, the cost for the Chateaubriand for 2 was 460.00 pesos about $ 37.63 CAD and our total bill came to 508.00 pesos, which is about $ 41.56 CAD.. High for here; but it was a good meal on a special day and we enjoyed it. I don't mind paying more as long as the food is good and this was.
So if you are a meat eater I would recommend trying this place.
They seem to cater to the business clientele that stay in the hotel by the look of the other patrons there while we were.
The camera was left at home so no pictures of the decor.

Opening Of The Art Walk For The Festival Mar Bermejo

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda) — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 05:29:00 +0000

Friday night was the opening ceremonies for both the Mar Bermejo Festival and the Art Walk that is showing during the festival.
The openings were held in several venues with the first one being at the Casa de la Cultura at 6 PM.
There are two different areas of art work at the Casa de la Cultura. In the patio there are large works of a size specified by the committee for the display, quite a large size. I have no artwork in this exhibition as I have no where to place a work of this size after the exhibition and therefore didn't want to do one. The second display is in the gallery at the Casa de la Cultura by an artist by the name of Zacarias Paez Casanova according to the banner on the outside of the building. With the opening ceremonies out of the way refreshments were served and people viewed the works, mingled and chatted.
All the pictures in this post are from the Casa de la Cultura, my camera didn't like the lighting at the PincelArte gallery so none of the photos from there turned out..
The second or third opening was to be either at the Civic Auditorium or the PincelArte Gallery, due to a bit of a mix up they were both scheduled for 7 PM.
We decided to head to the PincelArte gallery as that is where my classes paintings are displayed. I was asked if I could put the name tags on the paintings done by my class, as it hadn't gotten done in the shuffle of activity. That done Roy and I viewed the displays and chatted with people until the heat in the old building drove us to find some cooler air.
The building that houses the PincelArte gallery is around 200 years old with the old style ceiling used here at one time and there is no air conditioning in the gallery.
Roy and I headed outdoors and walked over to the malecon and sat on the sea wall to drink a nice cold coke, we could have had drinks inside the gallery; but opted to get outside and try to cool off. We decided that we weren't going to bother going back in there to see the opening ceremony and just sat and relaxed.
I am not sure when or if the mayor and others ended up there as they were also doing an opening ceremony at the Civic Auditorium where there is more artwork displayed in the lobby. The state governor was in town and was supposed to be at that part of the opening and then there was an opera there afterwards.
We never did head over there, as we were hot and decided just to go home.
I enjoyed the evening despite the heat, Roy I think was somewhat bored as I ended up chatting with quite a few people about our class and the art displayed by our class, not too riveting for him as he has heard it all before.
There are many activities going on everyday until the 13 th, and as far as I know it is all free so if you are from this area come on downtown and enjoy yourself.

This is the banner for the summer courses at the Casa de la Cultura, it has nothing to do with Mar Bermejo, I just thought it was cute.

This seashell painting is my favorite one of the whole exhibition it is lovely.

One of the paintings by the artist in the gallery, Zacarias Paez Casanova.

Art Route During Festival Mar Bermejo

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda) — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 16:44:00 +0000

The inauguration of the Art Route for the Festival Mar Bermejo is going to be on Friday the 8 th of July at 6 PM at the Casa de la Cultura.
This year there will be exhibits set up at various places including: the lobby of the Civic Auditorium - open from 9:00 to 20:00 hrs., in the central patio and also in the gallery room at the Casa de la Cultura - open from 9:00 to 19:00 hrs., the gallery PincelARTE - open from 17:00 to 20:00 hrs. and you can also view the photos from all the past Carnivals in the usual room in the back of the Civic Auditorium which will be open from 9:00 to 20:00 hrs..
The paintings from our last class are supposed to be exhibited in the PincelARTE gallery or this is what I have been told.

So Alan and I went to our classes yesterday, me to art and him to guitar. He seemed to enjoy it; but we will see how the 4 day a week thing goes as the month progresses. He is used to going to school everyday so he should be fine.

We had a nice rain in the night again last night with lots of thunder and lightning. This morning is cooler and we have the door and windows open which is nice. At around 9 AM it was only 28 C. with 74 % humidity which made it feel like 31 C. so cooler than it has been, well for us anyway. It all depends on what you are used to.

Spanish class this morning and some errands and then art class this afternoon.

Rain

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda) — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 16:41:00 +0000

We had a nice little shower at some point during the night. I have no idea how much as a rain gauge is not something we have here, not really a necessary thing usually. It was enough to settle the dust anyway. It is cloudy this morning and a bit cooler so we have the windows and door open. The temperature at 8 AM was 27 C. with 84% humidity and the "feels like" temperature was 31 C. so it feels great. Nicer weather than Saturday afternoon when we had a big dust storm, my allergies did not like that so I was really plugged up yesterday. Great to have a bit of rain to get all the dust off of everything.
No rain pictures as I slept through it all.

Summer session art class starts today so I will be busy for the next month as I think class is 4 days a week. We also will be taking our paintings from the last class over to the gallery sometime in the next week for the Mar Bermejo Festival.

Exhibition At The Casa De La Cultura

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda) — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 03:50:00 +0000

Tonight was the wrap up exhibition for the classes at the Casa de la Cultura. The paintings were all displayed and the musicians all set to play and show off what they have learned.
Roy and I took one of the landlords grandsons with us to the exhibition as he is thinking that he might take a summer class at the Casa de la Cultura and I thought it would be nice for him to see what had been done during the past classes. He seemed to enjoy it and still seems interested in taking a class so we will see if his mom goes and signs him up. I told her I could take him with me on the bus to the class and bring him home with me also.
Here are photos of some of the art displayed and a few of the performers also. We were sitting near the back and I couldn't see over heads to take pictures of the smaller children, I didn't want to stand up and block other peoples views so less pictures. No big deal. The people taking classes range in age from about 6 or 7 yrs. old and up to older than me. A very diverse group to teach and my hat is off to all the teachers for the job they do.
The summer class starts on the 4 th of July so I will have a busy month as I think we can attend class 4 times a week. We also will have our paintings displayed during the Ruta de Arte for the festival Mar Bermejo. The paintings will be displayed at the new art gallery close to the City Hall.
Looks like a hot, busy month coming up.

Singing group.

Rock group.

Guitar class.

Older group of guitar players and singers.

Just Hanging Out

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda) — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 01:25:00 +0000

Nothing new or exciting to report, just the same old, same old routine. Spanish class, Art class, running errands, groceries, laundry, the usual life stuff.
I finished my oil painting at class, it is posted on the Art Blog if you want to see it just click on the link on the right hand side. I also finished a Pastel painting at home that is for the landlords grandsons birthday. I forgot to take a picture of it before I took it to be framed; but will when I get it back. I have started another pastel at home and another oil painting in class.
Class for this semester is done pretty much, we go on Monday to have snacks and put up all the work from the semester and then there will be an exhibition at the Casa de la Cultura on Tuesday evening at around 6:30 PM.. Come on down and see all the students work.
Our artwork is also supposed to be on exhibit at the new gallery in centro during the Mar Bermejo Festival, which is I think around the 8 th and 9 th of July. The gallery is located close to the Palacio Municipal, basically only 1 building in between them. Very easy to find.
Summer class begins on the 4th of July and runs all month with a bit different format. The class I am taking will be on Mon., Tues., Wed., and Thurs. from 4 PM to 7 PM so that should keep me busy. Then a month off before the classes resume in September.
Lots of different classes offered so if you are in the area, head on down to the Casa de la Cultura and sign up for something. I am sure you will enjoy both the classes and the language practice.

Summer is here so stay cool and don't get sun burnt.

Summer Fruit

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda) — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 02:10:00 +0000

The sun on the one variety of Mango looked so pretty this afternoon that Roy sent me for the camera. The landlord has 5 or 6 different varieties of Mangoes; but I don't know which is which. They look pretty and always make me think of ornaments hanging on a Christmas Tree. The first kind will be ready by early July and the latest ones in August.

There are Bananas growing also; but it was the wrong time of day to get a good picture of them, they are in the shade so I tried from above and below and neither one is very good; but it will give you an idea of them anyway.

The limes are pretty close to ready, some are, some aren't. These are the little limes, Key Limes maybe?

The peaches won't be ready for awhile and the landlord said that they won't get that big because of the heat; but that they will be sweet.

It doesn't look like there are many, if any Avocados on the tree this year, the wind blew off the blossoms before they could be pollinated I guess.
Looks like a tasty summer coming up.

Marine Day

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda) — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 16:44:00 +0000

Yesterday was Marine Day in Mexico. Every year a different port city is chosen as the home port for the day and this year Guaymas was the home port. There had been an exhibition, ExpoMar, set up on the malecon since around the 27 th of May; but we hadn't managed to get down there yet. We had some stuff to do uptown yesterday so we went to have a look.
The president of Mexico, Felipe Calderon was to visit Guaymas and do various things. He gave the tribute to the men and women who serve and to the fallen from the flagship Usumacinta_.

My photo of the Usumacinta.

There were Naval training demonstrations put on and he inaugarated/opened several things around town. He then toured the ExpoMar exhibit on the malecon.
It was kind of up in the air as to when he was going to be at the malecon some sites said 11 AM and some said 1 PM.
We arrived shortly after 11 AM and the area was closed. I asked one of the security fellows when it would re-open and he told us 2 PM. We then asked when the President was to arrive and he told me, shortly.
We hung around and waited until just after 12 noon. There was some action with vehicles arriving in a cavalcade and lots of helicopters; but no President.
We had other commitments so we had to leave without a view of his arrival. Oh well.
This is, as far as I know his second visit to Guaymas since becoming President. The previous one that I know of was on Oct. 15, 2008.
We were surprised that there were not many people around the malecon, there were several protests going on a block or two away on Serdan and lots of people were around there. We stayed away from that area and went on to do our own little mundane errands and headed home.

One of the photos I took of all the vehicles that arrived on the malecon at one point; but 1/2 hr. later still no President.

One of the smaller boats patrolling the bay at the time. (My photo)

Photo taken from: http://www.expreso.com.mx/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=18435:elogia-a-fuerzas-armadas&catid=2:general&Itemid=17

Photo taken from: http://elvigia.com.mx/main/

The Presidents address:

Guitarist Francisco Bribiesca

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda) — Sat, 28 May 2011 04:47:00 +0000

This evening we went to the weekly concert at the Casa de la Cultura. They have a free concert of some sort every Friday evening at 7 PM as part of the Peña Cultural Season.
Tonight it was classical guitarist Francisco Bribiesca, if I understood correctly he has played something like 800 concerts over the last 10 years in countries all over the world.
He played works by various worldwide composers some of which were Ireland, Mexico, and Argentina. In every concert he plays a song that is dedicated to is little son.
We enjoyed the concert and evening out.

This, That and The Other

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda) — Sun, 22 May 2011 04:49:00 +0000

The new art gallery in town, Pincel Arte de Guaymas, is open on Saturdays and Sundays from 10 AM to 6 PM, (according to their sign), so this morning we went downtown to have a look at what is displayed. It is on the street where the Palacio Municipal is, beside the P.M. is a white building and the next building houses the gallery on the second floor. The stairway is quite steep so if going be careful on it.
The building itself inside is interesting. The lady told us that the building is around 200 years old and it still has the old wooden floors and the ceiling is of the old type that was used here many years ago. It has wooden beams, the bamboo poles all across, then some matting and if it is like other old buildings that I have been told about, it would then have a foot or two of dirt over that. This construction was supposed to keep the building much cooler in summer I have been told. I am not sure if this construction has the earth on top of the bamboo poles as of course you can't see and I never thought to ask the lady if she knew. Sorry, I never thought to take any pictures of the interior of the building. There are seats and benches placed in all the rooms so you can sit and view the art if you want.
We wandered around and looked at the art, signed the guestbook that the lady asked us to and headed over to the Malecon.

It was pretty quiet over on the Malecon being before noon on a Saturday, so we sat and relaxed and looked out over the bay.
There is a big blue ship, boat, dredger ???? in the bay still, it was there when we were down there the last time and is still there. I read that they are dredging so that it is deep enough to accommodate about 15 Navy ships that will being coming in to celebrate Navy/Marine day on June 1 st., so perhaps this is what it is doing. Not sure.

There is also 1 big Navy ship that we could see, docked at the moment. It is hard to see in the picture as it is gray.

There is lots of other action in town with troops training for their demonstrations that they will be putting on for the Marine Day celebrations, I am sure that they will want it all to be perfect as the President of Mexico, Felipe Calderon is supposed to be here to help celebrate on June 1st.

One new thing to view on the malecon was this giant necklace of plastic bottles. The artists have placed a sign beside it explaining it. A young boy came to look at it while we were looking and he said to me, "I can read that, it says Don't throw garbage". Hopefully the message will sink it.

After our fun we headed over to the grocery and did our big shopping for the month and grabbed a cab home.
This afternoon we headed downstairs to a "come and meet me" party to welcome young Santiago, landlords new grandson, into the world. Snacks and conversation flowed.
A good day all around.

Just Another Day

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda) — Fri, 20 May 2011 23:50:00 +0000

Just another day in the neighbourhood here.
I had to go uptown to pick up the framed hummingbird picture and took in the cat Martin to be framed. Yesterday the teacher had told me that students from the Casa de la Cultura get a discount on their framing there as they get lots of business from the students. He couldn't remember if it was 10 or 15 % and it turned out to be 10 % which is not a great amount; but is fine when I wasn't expecting it. The hummingbird frame is about 1 inch wide, cedar in a reddish brown colour and glass (anti reflectante) it was 210 pesos, ( around $17.54 CAD) and it looks nice. The frame for the cat, who is huge, will be 408 pesos or about $34.07 CAD..
On the way to the bus to take the cat uptown I was asked by someone if I did fish pictures, last night someone asked me if I did people. People are very interested in commenting on what they are seeing and is kind of interesting.
After picking up the picture and dropping the other one off, I headed down to the Post Office and mailed my granddaughters picture to her in Canada. I hope she likes it if/when it arrives there. Canada Post is talking strike so who knows.
I then headed over to Calle 9 to Orti Mart, a large stationary store. I was looking for some different pastels; but they didn't have anything different. They did have some acid free pastel paper so got some of that. We chatted about the lack of art supplies available in Guaymas; but they don't seem interested in supplying more and said that they don't have a catalog to order from. The fellow serving me had to look at my picture and then took it over to the boss to show him. We chatted about my classes and the boss asked me if I sold any paintings. He then offered to buy the hummingbird from me, I took it home with me and it is hanging on my wall over the TV at the moment and that is where it will stay. Interesting chat though.
Tired of shopping and walking I headed home to relax. A pleasant morning uptown.

Losing Focus

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda) — Thu, 19 May 2011 18:18:00 +0000

When I started this blog it was for our family and friends to keep track of what we were doing without emailing everyone. It has expanded to include lots of blogger friends and other people searching for information about our city, state and Mexico in general.
The blog has been up and running since the beginning of May 2005, so it has been 6 years so far.
Our lives have changed dramatically since the first posts as we had no idea that from spending one winter here in Guaymas , we would end up living here permanently for all these years.
Our lives have gone from excited exploration of our new city and area to a now more relaxed normal way of life, it just happens to be in a different country.
As time passes our lives change and our focuses in life change. I have found in the last while that I have been posting more and more about my artwork and less and less about our life here. The majority of things here now do not seem strange to us, it is our normal and I view it through different eyes than a new comer would. I realized my mindset change the other day on our Girls Day Out . At the moment I am sitting here and thinking how different some things seem to others that now are usual daily events for us and I have to try and get back into that mode of thinking for this blog to go forward with any interest to anyone other than me.
One change I have made is to open up a new blog for posting of my artwork. I will be trying to post it there rather than here so as to keep the focus here more on Mexico.
The new blog is located here: Art By Brenda so if you are interested pop over and have a look, if you aren't interested you won't have to be subjected to it on here. So far the new blog has a pretty boring title; but I have always gone by the premise of KISS.
Have a good day.

Girls Day Out

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda) — Sat, 14 May 2011 16:33:00 +0000

A friend who spends the winter in San Carlos is getting ready to head back to Canada for the summer, she decided that her, her friend who is visiting from England and I should have a girls day out before they leave.
We headed to a little town close to Guaymas called San Jose. We took a look at the church, sat and had a pop at a little store on the plaza and then headed over to visit a fellow who has a used articles store. This little old gentleman has quite the story to tell of the bad storm that sat over us for approx. 36 hrs. a few years ago. His home was destroyed and he was injured saving a child. He is now in a wheelchair and a local group built him a small home and set him up with a used article store in part of his house. He is interesting and fun to visit with and we chatted for awhile.
Then we headed over to a seniors home for men. I had gotten to know these men after the same storm mentioned above. Their home was also destroyed in the storm and they were moved into the womens seniors home beside the place where I was going to help teach the children English once a week. I used to buy a bag of candy and go to visit them before my classes every week. They began calling me the candy lady and I always got a big welcome when I arrived, they do love their sweets !! I hadn't been to see them since they moved back out to San Jose. One of the men told me that he had had a heart operation and showed me the round object placed under his skin, I am assuming a pacemaker or something to that effect. We chatted with them for a bit and also with the lady working there, there are only 10 men now and 1 woman: whereas there were 14 previously, I didn't ask any questions as you can probably figure what happened to the others at that age.
Our visiting over we took the new highway between San Jose and Empalme and found a bathroom and a fish taco place, after eating some good food, we set out to find the giant cactus. I had been to see them there about 5 yrs. ago and knew where they were in a general type of way. We got into the general area and then asked a lady, she didn't have a clue. We drove for a bit and came to a workshop where a couple of guys were sitting. I got out and asked and he know where I meant right away. He gave us the most precise directions I have ever been given here and we arrived there shortly. I don't think either of my friends had ever seen such big cactus and I just wish that I could remember better the other 2 places out in the desert where there are even larger ones. Our landlord took us there shortly after we came here and besides not knowing the area, all the roads in the desert look the same to me. I was not going to start roaming around sand tracks in the desert to find them so they had to make do with seeing those. If you have never seen huge ones before these are pretty impressive; but the ones out in the cactus forests in the desert are even grander. It is too bad we had not gone a week or so earlier as they had just finished blooming and by the look of it had been loaded with blossoms. They decided that they would go again next year; but earlier in the year to try and see all the blooms.
We then headed back home where Roy was looking after his buddy Geordie the dog. A fun day with friends and a good way to end their winter here.

Church at San Jose.