Hiatus

There will be a hiatus here as my computer has expressed its desire to go to America for a facelift.
Being as my computer is as dear to me as...well, any inanimate object that answers almost all of my questions and rarely questions me, keeps me entertained and requires only occasional feeding and NO watering...I'm giving in to the request.

Hopefully it will come back ready to play again, happy, fit and trim. A week? Two? We'll see what happens.



laptop flying away by ginalin


In the meantime it's What's in that....Friday. And since I'm taking a break, I suggest you do the same. Go buy a rotisserie chicken (in America, they are found in the grocery store deli section, or maybe a street fair (more fun than the deli section); here they are found at Pincho Joe's or Dinghy Dock on the weekends). They are between 6 - 8 bucks and will feed everyone or one, lots healthier than fried chicken too. Fix up some potatoes, find something green and wa la. Yet another yummy, inexpensive meal!

I'll be back soon. Y'all be good...and if you can't be good at least be nice. Nice is good.

Three King's Day

First, I cannot share photos because my computer ate my photo program, but it shall return, just unfortunately, not now (I managed to load up this photo with a program I'm very unfamiliar with and it took 15 minutes...I'll figure out how to get my old one back and share the many more I took for all of us today).

Second. I will say this quickly and hopefully without expounding on it too much. What a disappointment (overall) this Three King's Day has been. The Three King's (and there were only two kings, luckily we tagged the third at the last moment - and his performance was amazing!) did not come in over the sea, did not reign in the plaza, but rather in the muddy, newly cemented walkways of the children's park. Still wonderful for the children (especially the very young ones who don't know yet what they're losing in the old way by the sea), still well done, but the reasoning for this that I and others were told, for safety? Safety from what? This event has been held in the plaza for many years and no child has ever been hurt by horses that I ever heard about, and I've asked. I asked many local Culebrense and many were disappointed that tradition seems to have gone by the wayside.
And it continued. No horses in the ball field. No horses much at all. A friend of mine who I've shared 3 Kings Day with since I moved here (minus the first year, she hadn't moved here yet), asked around. More locals disappointed and wondering what was going on. And what WAS going on? Why is this being changed? Even Genesis was open half a day! I would have bet money it would be closed. And yes, I know the economy is grim for all of us, here and everywhere else, but still...to give in to the whole gotta make more...just seriously disappoints me as a newcomer and many who have lived here all of their lives. Another shame shame on you, Senor Mayor. Where is your heart for the people that you promised? They cry, you don't listen. Culebra loses her heart identity little by little and for what? Noise, chaos, children not knowing how their families used to live...how YOUR family used to live, Senor Mayor. What a terrible loss. May the Three Kings bring you the humbleness to tell the people you will make things right next year. Starting this year.

Ok. Point made. Tradition is going out the windows of time and it is sad.

But I do have some excellent photos...if I can get them onto my computer and thus...to your eyes! I'll be working on that.

Some (more) words

Tomorrow is Three King's Day, the official last holiday of the Christmas/New Year season around here. And it must be true, since I'm hearing tired, though very grateful, grumblings of locals about the crowds, the fast drivers, the trash. Yes, we're glad you showed up. Now...could you just chill out and pick up after yourselves? That would be lovely. Then we could be tired with smiles instead of tired with 'grrrrrr...'


So on this 5th day of January, your resolutions have been barely but truly tempted; how are you going with life? Reality will set in quickly, soon we'll have (not soon enough) a new President, and the regular ebb and flow of life will renew itself. I think the world needed a time-out, even though in many places, there was not only no time out, but an escalation of the insanity. Hold fast. Life is still very very good, when one considers the alternative (slightly trite, but mostly true).

I was going to open the cart tomorrow, though I've never opened on 3 King's Day before. I felt obligated somehow, as if my financial situation should override my sense of what this day is about here. Or what it used to be about. Anyway, before I got more confused, I decided I won't open. Instead I'll go watch the children open gifts from the Three Kings, see if the paso finos are going to be around and then head out on the water.


In the meantime, here are some quotes to ponder (or not) that I found and like, apropos of a new year. Happy 3 King's Day eve. May all your camels have grass to eat.

A dream written down with a date becomes a goal. A goal broken down into steps becomes a plan. A plan backed by action makes your dreams come true. ~Gregory Scott Reid



Reduce the complexity of life by eliminating the needless wants of life,and the labors of life reduce themselves. ~Edwin Teale

There is no more fatal blunderer than he who consumes the greater part of his life getting his living. ~Henry David Thoreau

I know I'm in my own little world but that's okay, they know me here. ~Unknown

Your profession is not what brings home your paycheck. Your profession is what you were put on earth to do with such passion and such intensity that it becomes spiritual in calling. ~Vincent Van Gogh

Time in the wild reminds me how much of what I ordinarily do is mere dithering, how much of what I own is mere encumbrance. The opposite of simplicity, as I understand it, is not complexity but clutter. ~Scott Sander

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass... It's about learning to dance in the rain. ~Unknown