Waiting on the Rain

Where I live now, in western Mexico, there is a definite rainy season. It typically begins in early-mid June and lasts until the end of September and sometimes into early October. I came here from Houston, Texas near the Gulf of Mexico, so the idea of a season when it rains was a bit confusing to me 7-8 years ago when I first came to Ajijic for a visit. When I moved to Houston in 1999 from Dallas, where I had lived for the previous 25 years, I thought my toes and fingers were going to grow webs because it never STOPPED raining. It either was raining or the humidity was so high you could see the air!

Well, today is June 10, 2012 and I am waiting on the rain like an expectant daddy waited patiently for the nurse to come our of the double swinging doors in the maternity ward to announce whether it was a boy or a girl (circa 1950s). Lots of anticipation, impatience, and frustration at not being able to do much to help facilitate the deed.

For the past week or so Mother Nature has been teasing us here with clouds, thunder, cool winds, and no, no real rain. See the other part of this story is that here in Ajijic the locals say the "season" hasn't really started until it's raining so hard that the streets flood and water is rushing down to the lake. So even if we have a "llittle" bit of rain, enough to make your windshield a mess, that doesn't count.

So, I am waiting. Just this evening, the clouds have come, which drops the temperatures at least 10 degrees (thanks to God something the Mexicans say in Engligh -- translation gracias a Dios), the wind picked up, and it looks promising, but Mother Nature wants to make sure we're really ready and grateful for it when it does arrive. She can be so heartless sometimes, and obviously not menapausal or chubby!

Mother Nature, I am soooo grateful for the rain, to make the dust go away, and the mountain turn a beautiful lush green, and everything to grow like a house-of-fire, and the house to cool off so I can sleep through the night without a cool wet washcloth to ease my discomfort, and for the lake to fill up again.

So, tonight I sit with my washcloth at the ready, every fan in the house blowing away, the windows open, and a cold glass of water at my side, offering up my prayers. I would do a rain dance, but I'd get too over heated and sweaty and it would take me hours to cool off enough to get ready to go to sleep.

High today: 96
Temp in the house: 82
Relative humidity mid-day~15%
and did I mention   N O   A I R   C O N D I T I O N I N G!!

A few words on Pinterest

A few months ago I began noticing friends on Facebook were talking about this thing called Pinterest. My obvious first question was, "What is this and how do you pronouce it." Didn't know if it was a new foreign word I hadn't seen before or a new cyber word like Google, Groupon, etc. The comments being posted by my friends were exuberant, verging on obsessive and made me curious. I have really well educated, intelligent friends and family so I thought, "what the heck, I'll check it out."

So, just before Christmas I decided to Google Pinterest (how 21st century is that) and find out for myself what all the fuss was about. Huh, I don't understand. What are you supposed to do with it? How does it work? What's it for? etc, etc. etc. Then my Nephew, Mike, asked his wifeMarisa, who uses Pinterest what it was...she explained that it was a website for crafty people. (All this was done via Facebook -- another obsession I have developed). Well, I'm crafty. I love to knit, crochet, cook, read, etc. I looked at the site again and I still didn't get it. I was beginning to feel really old at this point.

We went to Dallas after Christmas to visit my brother and his family and Mike and Marisa were there with their Blackberries, iPhones, iPads, etc. So I asked them about Pinterest and the expression on Maria's face went from "oh it's nice to see you Aunt Donna" to "here let me show how cool this site is and all the cool things you can do on it."

Well, today is January 24, 2012 -- a few days shy of a month since I was in Dallas and learning from my resident "expert" about Pinterest and I too am hooked. I have 12 followers now and I follow over 50 people. I have created several of my own collections of "stuff" and can spend hours on the damn thing looking around. I now understand all the comments like, I think this is going to be a problem and I spent hours on the computer today on Pinterest.

I too am a new joiner. I found a meatloaf recipe (Paula Deene) that I'm making tonight. I have found knitting stuff, quotes I love, recipes, and pictures of places I want to visit and I've only just begun. This probably won't impact my knitting time too much, but it's a great place to find things that you like, pin them, and find more.

Happy Pinning Everyone! If you haven't signed up for an account, I encourage you to do so and explore the things you love!

Just a quick update

It's been a really long time since I've posted anything here. I got a replacement iPad for Christmas (2011) and I've been busy adding bookmarks and finding stuff in the app store.

Roy had some serious skin surgery in the early part of December so we didn't get to Texas till after Christmas. Visited JoAnn in Longview for a few days, then into Dallas for a few days. I got to see all the nieces and nephews and met the newest member of the Frizzell family, Lucy, what a cutie. Kathyrn was so cute this year, not so shy and spent a lot of time sitting and talking with Roy. Sergei was home from Texas Tech and it was great to hear how he's enjoying college and studying architecture.

We then went to Houston for a couple more days. I got to spend a couple of nights with my friend Susan which was so fun. We went to Berings one morning. I haven't been there for years. THE BEST hardware store in the world. We also went to Goode Company Seafood for dinner. Another place I haven't been to in years. I had the sweetest, juiciest fried oysters --- yummy!!!!

The bad thing, for me, about going to Texas in the winter is I always get sick. So again this year, I got a sinus infection which I came home with. I've been back 11 days and finally am feeling better. I'm going to suggest that we celebrate Christmas in July!