Crazy Weather

We have been having some crazy weather here the last few days.  We are getting hit with a part of the storm that is giving California a hard time.  The other night we had lots of wind here, it didn't cause us any problems; but I read that it did blow a couple of roofs off of homes here in the city.  These roofs were not cement but laminate so are not too sturdy.  I guess there were some power problems over in San Carlos; but ours was fine here.  The newspaper said that there was hail the size of marbles for a few minutes in one area of the city and that it amazed the people as that is something very seldom seen here.
We have had some hard rain the last couple of days and it poured again this morning for a while.  It is cold for us, todays high being 21 C., ugh!!!  Next week doesn't look much better either.  In other words for us it is cold, wet and muddy right now.
The FAOT festival is on now; but so far we haven't gone to any of the concerts.  We wanted to go to one of them last night that was being held in one of the plazas; it was so cold that we decided to stay home.  This year there are concerts in the auditorium and some also at the plazas.  Hopefully we will warm up and feel more like going to some of the events.
The baby kitten is doing fine and still comes up now and again to eat as do the others.  Now that he is on his own more none of them are coming to eat as often as they did when he was tiny.  He is a nice looking fellow as he has no war wounds as yet.

Congratulations Beto.

Saturday evening was the judging for the Rey Feo (ugly king) and the Queen for the carnaval.
Our young neighbor Beto won Rey Feo.  Thank you to everyone who went and voted for him online.  He was a very happy young man.  He and his entourage were given a police escort (if I understood it correctly) around our neighborhood sometime during the night.  I woke up hearing lots of horns blowing and noise and thought he might have won.  We unfortunately could not make it to the manifestation as I had an appointment, the person I had the appointment with was very late and by the time I was done with that it was too late to attend as we would never have gotten a seat in the auditorium.  Oh well, he won without our voices joining the crowd.  Everyone on our street attended so he had lots of support from family, friends and neighbours.

Please Vote For Beto For Rey Feo

The last time I posted I mentioned that one of our neighbors, Beto is a candidate for Rey Feo (ugly king) for Carnaval this year.  We have been watching the site where you can vote and we have of course cast our votes for him.  Yesterday he was ahead and this morning he is slightly behind.

I am hoping that some of you who read this blog will go over to the site, Guaymas Carnaval Blog and vote for him.  The voting poll is on the right hand bar and all you have to do is click in the little circle beside his name: Jesús Alberto Acosta Langure /PLATA

We are really hoping that he can win, he is a great young man and would make a wonderful Rey Feo.

The street on the north side of our apartment had a perpetual water leak, and it just never seemed to get fixed.  Tropical Storm Jimena also gouged out a ravine on one side of it that hadn't been repaired either.  The ravine didn't matter to us; but it was beginning to collect lots of garbage in it that was unsightly.  Our landlady enlisted the help of her brother, he managed to get some action from the city and the other day the water company (CEA) appeared.  They dug up a deep trench, put in new water pipes and then filled in the trench again.  All the digging and filling also filled in the storm gouged ravine so all is repaired.  Yah, Pancho.

Men on the job.

Young Diego and our landlady watching the action.  Diego of course loved the machine.

A Very Happy And Prosperous New Year To All, Un Muy Feliz y Próspero Año Nuevo A Todos

We are wishing everyone a Very Happy and Prosperous New Year.
It has been an interesting year for us.  There have been some bad times family wise with my mom being ill.  Hoping she will continue to improve now that she has been moved into a Rehab. facility.  All we can do is hope for the best quality of life that is available to her at this time in her life.  Also along family lines I was fortunate to get in contact with some family that I had never met and lucky enough to actually get to meet them this year.  That was a great thing.
 There have been changes in our Mexican family (our landlords) this year as well.  Part of the family has moved into a home across the street, another member has moved away due to job obligations and another one has extended his family.  Mostly good changes all around with them.  Little Diego is now over a year old and is walking, well actually running and is beginning to talk.  He is a real charmer. The neighborhood continues to invite us to their family fiestas and that is nice of them, we enjoy being asked to join in.

It has been a good year for us here and I am finding more and more things here that are keeping me busy, at times busier than I want to be and I am going to need to figure out how to say NO at times; but it is all good.
My Spanish progresses very slowly, not my teachers fault; but mine.  My short term memory does not retain things well because of having Fibromyalgia and I have a difficult time remembering my verb tenses.  Add to that the fact that I am extremely lazy about studying and it is not a good thing.  I keep on with the classes once a week and enjoy the conversation with my teacher.  She is a wonderful lady.
We took a few minutes last night to look at the rare New Years Eve Blue Moon, the landlord came up and looked at it with us and when I said I probably wouldn't be around for the next one, he said that he and Roy would watch it together.  It was of course an evening with lots of fireworks going off.
The city here is gearing up for Carnaval in February.  They showed the contestants for the queen and Rey Feo on the local news the other night and we were surprised to see our young neighbor in the lineup.  I think Beto would be great at this, he is a very genial, fun loving young man and when I find a place where I can vote for him, we will.  Last years Rey Feo was one of the announcers from the TV station and he did a good job.
(Photo taken from Desde Cabina )