Mexico-2020

Last night we dined at Bistro Soleiado, we being Jack and Linda, Carol and myself. It is convenient to where we are all staying and the food is tasty. We arrived after dark but this is what it looks like in daylight. As implied by the miniature Eiffel Tower, this is a Mexican restaurant with Parisian pretensions. It features an American menu, and an entertainer who sings Italian songs.      The above are portraits we took of each other. The group shots taken by the waiter were ... let's just say photography is not his fort é.  It was a quiet evening of refreshing association disturbed only occasionally by fireworks when the staff members made a fuss over someone because it was his birthday. This happened only once ... no wait, it was twice. No that's not right. Three times. No, no, it was four times. Jack suspected people were inventing birthdays to get a free dessert. We sat near the Eiffel Tower enabling me to capture the tail end of the ...

This morning Carol, her sister Linda, and I went in the public ministry together. Other attendees at the service group had arrangements so the three of us flagged a taxi to our territory. We knew it was on the side of a mountain so the strategy was to have the taxi take us to an upper area so we could work our way down without excessive hill climbing. No, that didn't work. According to our territory map the streets we encountered were inaccurate. Consulting Google Maps on my handy iphone confirmed that while our territory map did contain an occasional street name indicating we were in the right area, its configuration was clearly of a different persuasion. When a local taxi driver cannot figure out what is on your territory map you know you're in trouble. Locating one key street, we disembarked with what we thought was a plan. We'd work a cross street then continue working the first downhill street we found. Except every corner led to an uphill street. Oh, the downhill...

 Carol took a photo at sunrise today, while I was still asleep. The clouds and the colors were unusual and well worth capturing in a photo ... The pink sea was a curious sight. Back on February 1st I wrote of a taxi driver who had studied with Witnesses off and on for some time and who accepted my invitation to come to our English meeting. I planned to keep in contact by calling him for taxi service when we needed it but I learned his boss sold the older taxi he was driving and planned to supply him a new one, but he would receive it only in early March. I decided to invite him for lunch at a restaurant not far from where he lives in Zihuatanejo. A few days ago he accepted and we fixed the time for today. Carol and I photographed each other on the van/bus to Zihuatanejo. We met at the restaurant owned by Witnesses and our taxi driver friend knew them. A key purpose of the lunch was to listen to his story and see what could be done to encourage him. His story is a ...

Forty minutes by car north of Ixtapa, on a beautiful shoreline, lies the modest and quiet town of Trancones. Our friends, Jerry and Diane, from Wisconsin, own a car here and had hoped to take us to Troncones last year but some urgent matter got in the way. So they took us there today instead. Jerry, by the way, has long worked with the LDC in building Kingdom Halls in the USA. We arrived at The Majahua Palms Restaurant in time for lunch. Photos follow ...  The waiter obligingly snapped our photo. The bar featuring sculpted and painted wood decor. Similar decor at the kitchen counter. After taking photos, my path back to our table was freshly obstructed by this critter who had chosen his cool spot for a siesta. I considered stepping by him instead of detouring around other furniture but Jerry reminded me of the saying, "Let sleeping dogs lie." I reconsidered and detoured. After lunch we explored the beach ...  This restaurant also has some cabi...

Our midweek meeting last night and our public meeting today required problem-solving skills due to technology glitches, with which I am sure we are all more than amply well acquainted. Last night our chairman announced the opening song whose music and onscreen lyrics stubbornly refused to play. The chairman resigned himself to the impasse and no sooner said we'd have to open with the prayer only when a fellow elder appeared on the platform with a solution. He asked us to find the song lyrics on our phones or ipads while he played the music using data on his own cell phone. By holding the phone's speakers directly on the platform microphone the sound was decidedly adequate. Soon the chairman announced the first part, to be handled by a substitute speaker who was then invited to the platform. But another problem arose. He misunderstood which part he was to prepare and was unready for the part introduced. The chairman, seemingly unperturbed, carried on by handling the part him...

There's a Sam's Club in town. It was Destination #1 today since we happen to have a membership card obtained in Plattsburgh, New York. The bus stops on the wrong side of the 4-lane expressway but an elevated crosswalk enables pedestrians to cross over it and the service roads without regard for traffic. That's Carol and Linda highlighted. I hung back to take the photo. I might add that shopping is not my fort é but I went along to provide moral support and potential help with bags. And to make sure I got peanut butter. Here is the crosswalk from above. By the way, in case you're curious, the hotel offers rooms at $25.00 CDN per night. Wagonman leaving Sam's Club. The wheels lock into floor grooves making it nearly impossible to budge the wagon while descending. After Sam's club a supermarket called Bodega was Destination #2. My translator app tells me Bodega means 'wine cellar' but I assure you it is a grocery store. True...

Today started off with melancholy as Andrew, Helena, Alexandria, and Olivia brought their luggage to a waiting taxi at our building entrance and drove off to the airport for their flight home. We much enjoyed the treat of spending time with them especially in this setting. It slowed the progress of this blog so  a little catching up now follows. Late Sunday afternoon included a little souvenir shopping for our visitors ... At one kiosk I got into a conversation with a Mexican fellow and after a while I asked him his name. He said, "Edwin, and what is your name, sir?" "Edwin," I said. "Yes sir, that is my name: Edwin. And what is your name?" "Edwin." He looked at me puzzled. "Your name is Edwin?" He appeared to think I was kidding him. "Yes, my name is Edwin too," I said. He pulled out his wallet and showed me an ID card with his name on it and I sensed he wanted me to do likewise to prove I wasn't joking....

Last night all six of us here were the guests of Jack and Linda (Carol's sister in case you didn't know) Bullock. They arrived from Kelowna B.C. a few days ago and are staying in the Bayview Marina complex about three buildings further along from us. Before riding up to their top floor apartment we showed Andrew and family the Bayview's pool area. Here is a part of the Bayview building from there ... The Bullock's apartment is top left. And here we are coming back from the pool area ... When we arrived at their apartment Linda mentioned supper would follow the sunset, always a priority here because of the spacious and spectacular views. Watching it from the top floor of a high-rise building is no shabby vantage point either. Here we are on the balcony in anticipation ... From left to right: Linda, Olivia, Andrew, Carol, Jack. Clouds indeed add much flamboyance to the picture, but we don't complain about days with cloudless skies. It is in...

We are now six in the condo following the arrival Sunday night of Andrew, Helena, Alexandria, and Olivia. We look forward to our ten days of enjoying warm sunshine with them. A few photos follow. First, here's a view of the golf course across the street from our building ...  ... and, also from the front balcony, a residential section of Ixtapa ... Naturally a top priority on a hot February afternoon is to enjoy a little leisure time by the pool ... ... or better yet, in the pool ... And just to bring things down to earth, here's a photo of Andrew and I washing and drying the dishes. That's Andrew of course by the sink, and me with a dish towel in front of our dishwasher. "You have a dishwasher?" you may ask. "Why are you manually washing and drying dishes when you have a dishwasher at your disposal?" The answer to those eminently relevant questions is that we lack soap pods required by the machine.As for trying to find and purc...

The title represents my Spanish word for the day. Our view here has transformed me into a sunset aficionado. Yesterday while busy at my computer I happened to glance toward the patio doors opening to the balcony. The entire sky was red. I went out to behold a truly awe-inspiring spectacle. The photo below hardly does justice to the impact of being present in the actual scene ... No photo manipulation in case you wondered. Sometimes there are groups standing down by the water's edge at sunset and they will applaud the display once done. It's applause that belongs to our Creator of course. It's impossible not to think of him and his genius when standing before such magnificence. The Story of the Wayward Sweater: Upon our arrival, when Carol disembarked from the plane, she forgot her sweater, a favorite, on her seat. Exiting abruptly into 90 degrees F weather fails to jog the memory regarding a sweater so its loss was noted only later when unpacking. Of co...

Yesterday was an Ixtapa-first for us. This is our 6th time here, each time for 2 months, and we've seen nothing but sunny skies every day. An overcast sky covered us all day yesterday à la Montr é al. This was remarkable enough for me to record it on video. After the sun went down rain began. We saw it from our balcony but I had to stretch out my arm and feel it to believe it. We're back to robust sunshine again but with a fresh perspective on the mellow refreshment of occasional cloud cover and rain. I said occasional. Today, for two reasons, I called the taxi driver who came to our meeting Sunday. One was to get a taxi ride to the supermarket and the other was to invite him to our place so we could enjoy conversation. I learned his current shift was 4:00 p.m. to midnight making him unavailable when I called at noon. Since he is issued a taxi when he reports for work he is otherwise without a car. He thanked me for inviting him though, and also for inviting him to ou...

We have people that fly by our balcony being pulled along like a kite by a motorboat . It looks like an interesting idea but will I try it? I do know the sun here is very strong and its ultraviolet output can probably, sooner or later, eat through whatever tether is holding this fellow up, not to mention his parachute. In my case I'm sure it would be sooner. Also, when done one does not land at a walking pace - unless one can walk 60 miles per hour. Speaking of views, the following photo is not of a sunset but of a sunrise in our neighborhood. Was it taken by me? No it was taken by a brother here who gets up before sunrise. In other news our coffee machine's glass decanter broke giving us the problem of finding a replacement here. We visited markets, department stores, appliance stores, and other suggested establishments all to no avail. Even Google is helpless with this challenge. sigh. We'll get it replaced, one way or another. Did you know we have prote...