January 2008

My Grandmother Gauger kept an immaculate, sweet smelling house. She was a wonderful baker, grew flowers, spoiled her grandchildren rotten, wore flowered dresses that she sewed herself, never used strong language except in German, and wouldn't dream of going to town except in black pumps and hose. In short, Grandma G. was a sweet little old lady - EXCEPT- Sunday afternoons when Pro Wrestling was on TV. She'd be yelling and hollaring and totally caught up in the whole thing.

The Running of the Bulls, Taxco style. Years ago, Alice and I had gone to the Running of the Bulls during the Festival of San Fermin, in Pomplona, Spain. Because of the huge influx of young foreigners, this was a festival fueled, in part, by large amounts of cheap vino tinto. The festival of Sta.

I finished working at 4 pm, so I feel like a kid who got let out of school early. Today is the Fiesta of Sta. Prisca, there´s been all sorts of venders and a big brass band on the square, that even had 4 guys just in the rhythm section. Its like the marching bands in India, I don´t know if they´re really good or bad, but they are lots of fun.

I'm not in the habit with going home with strange men that I meet at breakfast, but I did this morning. I was at my favorite little hole in the wall (Gaby´s Economical Kitchen), having the usual Huevos a la Mexican.

Well, I´ve really come down in the world, at least here in Taxco, and I think it´s all good. Usually I stay at the Posada San Javier, way up on the hill. It´s got beautiful grounds, a swimming pool that´s too cold to use, and it´s really quiet - but - its also gotten too expensive, especially since I´m on the road longer this year, I really need to watch the budget.

Well, I'm just checking as, as I´m checking out, and won´t get to a computer for awhile. It's a llllooooonnngg bus trip tomorrow from Guadalajara, to Mexico City, then a 3 hour bus ride to Taxco, with a change of bus terminals thrown in for good measure. I've gotta pack, too bad, there´s something going on in the town center tonight, I left when the band was just warming up, and they had guys on stilts dancing in the crowd, it´s some kind of kids program. Wish me luck for getting up at 5 AM, I haven't seen that hour in awhile.

There's a famous mexican dish of raw seafood, called "vuelve a la vida", or "come back to life" that's supposed to be good for, among other things, really bad hang overs. I didn´t have a hang over, just a bad cold that was hanging on, and I found some stuff at the pharmacy that was my come back to life remedy.

Chip chip chip - my wish list for shopping is getting a little bit smaller, but I still have a ways to go. I´m not running at 100%, the cold that I´ve been holding off for the last week has finally caught up with me.

Spent the whole day pounding the pavement. I´m always looking for new suppliers, but my old suppliers still have the best stuff. I stopped at my tin guy, his painted tin this year is absolutely great, and I stopped at the one man who makes the big outdoor animals, he´s developed deer that will make our real deer look twice.

I feel like I need to apologize, these really are going to be pretty B O R I N G - I love being in Tonala, but it's just a week or so of hard work.