SolMate Santiago Logs
Log #71, August 2008
Posted Friday, 29 August, 2008
Le' Go!
Comin' down ... almost
The hold up
Back in the far corner of the RanaQuemada fruit farm drooped a jumble of lime trees, more dead than alive. In the pruning, we discovered why.
One scrawny mass of brown sticks received last rites. The terminator selected two promising green twigs for life; big hopes. Then sawed off the parent. Timber!
Not timber. The whole tree stuck, midair.
Stan spliced two ladders together, clambered two stories to find a big ole termite nest glued to the upper branches ... set up as a convenient buffet line. The whole shootin' match was in-turn glued to the neighbor's roof. Next trip up the ladder, along came the big gun - terminex.
Darn termites have chomped every tree on the plantation, so we got nasty with them. After poisoning, he hacked the limbs free with a machete, just like a native. Then burned them (just like a native). Left the nest up there - hope new renters don't move in.... Ojalá.
Posted Saturday, 23 August, 2008
One More WA Post
Beaver Lake
Yep, I'm back in the steamy southland enjoying mis gatos y mi marido, but I couldn't resist sharing an idylic WA evening spent on the lily-padded Beaver Lake, just east of Seattle near Issaquah.
Bob catching (a few) and releasing
The little electric putt-putt was awesome, cuz it didn't even say putt-putt. It was so quiet that we had to peer over the stern to verify a turning prop. Perfectly soundless way to enjoy the lake.
Janell piloting
Notice the two demanding jobs aboard were taken? My job was to quaf Sierra Nevada and slurp pasta salad and just-picked strawberries and blueberries.
Heron watching us watching him
If you've been dutifully watching the weather on Stan's pages, you may have noticed that we're smack in the middle of the rainy season - don't miss the graphic at the bottom of his hurricane page. Since I joyfully returned to the fold, Tropical Storm Iselle tripped past Manzanillo, soaking our newly planted herbage, then turned harmlessly west.
Now another depression is setting up to tip the watering can. It's rained three inches in the ten days I've been home, and then there's been the additional entertainment of numerous really impressive thunder storms.
We don't mind a little rain cuz it's keeping things wonderfully cool; and the ceiling fans Stan installed while I was away are another big plus. All in all, summer's good.
Posted Sunday, 17 August, 2008
The Whole Fam-Damily and Then Some
Here's another page of pictures of family and friends with whom I spent time during my sojourn north in July and August.
My friend, Susan, manages the West Somerset Railroad Association in southern England. I couldn't resist sending her this picture of a WA steam engine, plunked down in a little green spot by the Columbia River in Wenatchee. Susan says that if your heart palpitates when you view this picture, you have train spotter potential.
Engine 1147
Tuesday, 12 August, 2008
Lake Chelan Class Reunion
Here's a whole page of pictures of the women's lunch and the evening BBQ on the 9th of August.
There are also more pix of the BBQ on Brad's Picasa Web Site.
Saturday, 9 August, 2008
Still on the Road
I've been digging around thrift shops, my favorite haunts ... in Seattle and Wenatchee ... donating the government's money to charity.
Though I'm not thrilled with Washington's money handling, the BurntFrog tax rebate is paying
for this visit to the folks. The windfall, however, is being stretched mighty thin. There are the thriftshop donations, van parts and prescription glasses to pay for; plus there's the new extra-baggage charge. I'll be hauling an additional suitcase when I re-cross the border, stuffed with the Caravan's power steering pump.
Walking bridge over the Columbia River
Bridge carries peds and utilities
Another item on the shopping list was a tip cleaning kit from Norco Welding Supply. Norco's just across the river, close enough for a forced march, sorta. I followed the bike riders and carriage-pushing mamas to the walking bridge, heading north to get south. From afar, the walking bridge looked like a freaky crossing, but the wide, stable walkway and osprey on high took my mind off scarier variables, like swinging out over nothingness at a ridiculous height.
Osprey sharing their perch with pedestrians
Walking with the peds wasn't the most direct route to Norco. On the other side of the river, there were four train tracks blocking the way between here and there. Circumventing Great Northern's barbed wire required another mile's detour ... still in the wrong direction.
Finally, I found the welders just north of the driving bridge, which, from afar, didn't look all that daunting, so I transacted business, then short-cutted back to East Wenatchee. Short-cutting was vewy scawy: insane traffic; skinny sidewalk; waist-high railing on the drop-off side; no rail between peds and huge semis blowing past, shaking and rocking the walkway. Just braving the traffic required extra self-motivation. Muttering and whining, I saved a good mile and a half extra hike, but next time, I'll detour.
Shorter but taller,
the driving bridge caught between traffic signals, looking innocent
Tuesday, 5 August, 2008
Two Churches in Guadalajara
The Cats Meow Touring Team, Robin and Martin
A fun way to visit the central plaza in Guadalajara is to park at the southern end of the Metro and train into centro. From Ajijic it's a bit of a pain to get to the Metro, cuz the last station's on the SW side of the city, and the Chapala Hwy comes in from the SE, requiring 1) finding the Periferico heading West, and 2) figuring out how to get on it.
Highway signage ain't the greatest.
This particular trip's touring team was sponsored by The Cat's Meow, intrepid boaters, tourists, and cat lovers. Squeak and Toes were tucked in their own private bedroom in Ajijic while the rest of the team toured.
Santuario del Carmen
Navigating the Metro was the easy part of the tour. We could have been on any subway in any city in the world. Helpful maps and guides were posted inside and out. But, as usually happens when I emerge from underground, I got all twisted-sister.
So we looked to heaven for guidance...and figured the steeples jutting into the sky were the cathedral's at the foot of the plaza. By the time we'd marched the few blocks to the target church, however, I'd figured out we were heading in the opposite direction from the plaza, and had homed in on the wrong church - 'cept it turned out to be a nice mistake.
Santuario del Carmen steeple
Normally, the ostentation of gilded cathedrals puts me off, but Carmen was a different sort of structure, and being located by the university, served a different clientel.
The guidebook recommended viewing the soaring stained glass steeple from the horizontal, choosing a bench directly underneath. None of us could bring ourselves to do that, but tried to capture the color and tranquility of the place with our cameras, without disturbing.
Cathedral
After Carmen, the overdone main cathedral on the plaza was gaggy. It was also full of tourists and noisy, no resemblance to a sanctuary.
Public confessions
The touring team lingered just long enough to wonder at the type of confessions one made in the exposed confessionals dotting the church's perimeter, and to creep down the stairs underneath the alter to take a peak at the cardinals' coffins. Dating from the 1500s, these were bones of the infamous cardinals who first subjugated the natives. But that's a different rant.
Friday, 1 August, 2008
While You Were Away...
Bucky's abscess
Kitty's aren't allowed outside, but regardless, Bucky can find ways to hurt herself. This winter she broke off half of her canine tooth. How she clunked her tooth, we can only guess.
Last week she managed another wound. Who knows how? Dra. Gaby says she's fine, keeping it clean all by herself, and healing nicely.
Ill-fated cedar tree
The replacement orange tree
Lots of stuff going on around the old homestead while I was off babysitting Georgina. Stan took advantage of the lack of semi-adult supervision and chopped down one of the eyesores in our front yard.
Nurseries abound in Manzanillo with many replacement trees to choose from. Stan set off in search of a sweet juicer. At his favorite vivero, the proprietor led him to a passel of little citruses. To determine the type of tree, the old guy plucked the leaves off a couple and chomped down on them. From the taste of the leaf he determined which of the little twigs was suitable for orange juice.
With the spindly little guy, so judiciously chosen, planted in the cedar's spot, the front yard looks alot better.
In the meantime, while Stan was digging up trees, I was reinstating a bunch of our archived web logs to our new SolMate Santiago site. Now that we have more server space, I've been slowly, slowly bringing back old logs. So far, I've gotten all the way back to mid-2004. Links to the old logs are listed right here on the left.
SolMate Santiago contact: mj(at)solmatesantiago(dot)com
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