Category: Mexico

Evening run

I am trying to get some running in during the evenings. Though I am not an evening exerciser, I have fallen into about 3 hours of extra time in the evenings. I have about an hour and a half on Monday and Friday nights now that I did not use to have free. When my son goes to chess class, I used to go with him. But now I have found a park nearby his chess class that is great for running. There are several people there running at night and it is somewhat well lighted.

Last Friday I ran there and got soaked from the rain. Normally it would be from sweat, so I figured it was no big deal. But because of that, I really was not motivated to run a long run on Saturday with rain soaked shoes. So I bowed out of the Saturday run.

Tonight I ran some intervals at the track. They have a very nice 400 meter dirt track at this park. There are no lane markings, but for my purposes, it is fine.

If you have Google Earth you can copy and paste these coordinates into your search bar and it will show you my new park I have found. 20.975291 N, 89.656806 W

New Consulate Dedication

Today the US Consulate in Mérida (where we live) moved into their new building. I have not been able to get any information on the old building other than it is old. One local told me this last weekend that she thinks the old building has been used by the Consulate for 50 years or so. But one of the new Consulate officers told me that he thinks the old one was only about 15 years old. I tend to believe the local lady more since she has lived here all of her life and the officer has only been here about 6 months.

It was an honor to be there. The reason we were invited to the dedication ceremony (other than we are US citizens) was so that our son could sing the Star Spangled Banner with a group of US children. It was very enjoyable to be part of the event and to be able to feel like we were part of something special. The US Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza was present at the event. We were able to meet him and chat just a bit. He is a good man, if for no other reason than he is from Texas.

The US Marine Corps sent two young men to be the honor guard for the event. They did a great job in representing the Corps as they raised the flag at this historic occasion. One was from North Carolina and the other from Colorado. They were between 20 and 22 years old based on how long they have been in the Marines. They are both stationed at the US Embassy in Mexico City. Though I thanked them for their time and being there for us today, I regret that I did not take the time to express my appreciation for their service to my country by serving in the military. I don’t think our service men and women hear it often enough. They should be proud to serve, which I am sure they are. But they should also be encouraged by the public for the service and protection that they give to keep us free.

Hopefully I will have a picture to include in here soon. We were not allowed to take our cameras in to the event. Though, had we arrived an hour late like most people, we would probably have been able to have the camera. Though normally prohibited, there were many who had cameras. We got there on time and the security guards had not yet been told that it was OK to allow cameras. We have some friends that will be sending us a few pictures. I also might be able to snag a picture or two off of the newspaper’s website tomorrow.

Tilley Hat

Last week I was walking downtown during a big Tilley LTH6tourist time. I was walking with another “gringo” when we were approached by a salesman. He asked where we were from and I responded with the name of the area of town where we live.

He said (in his perfectly broken English), “No, you from Canada porque you wear Tilley hat. Tilley are originado de Canada.” I was instantly impressed. If you don’t know what a Tilley is, it is because you have never met a person wearing one. You can’t spend much more than just a couple of minutes with a Tilly hat wearer before he will tell you all about it.

They are pretty distinctive. I would say that I could pick out a Tilley in a lineup of fine hats. I was really impressed that this Mexican fellow would recognize a Tilley. They are not cheap and therefore I am sure that he has never owned one.

I won’t go into all the details of why a Tilley is such a wonderful hat, you can read that at their website. I will say that I love mine. I have the LTM6 model, which is the one in the picture (click for a bigger pic). It is comfortable, does not look bad after being sat on and really looks sharp in general. I could go on and on. They really are all they are advertised to be.

Quittin’ the day job

I have found a source of income that just might have me turning in my ordination papers.

As you may know, my son and I played in a chess tournament over the last two weekends. We did not do very well. But, we did place. We each took 5th place in our divisions. And there were even more than 5 people in each!

For his 5th place spot, he won $150 (MXP). My 5th place garnered me $250 (MXP). That is about $36 US Dollars. That will keep us eating for a few days.

I think I will hold off on contacting my source of income for a little while until I know we can do this well on a regular basis.

Exchange a VCR and buy a belt

There is a chain of discount stores here in Mexico that Wal-Mart bought out some time back called Bodega Aurrera. As we were in need of a new VCR and my wife was headed to Aurrera to do some shopping, she picked up a combo DVD-VCR player today. I mention Wal-Mart because, regardless of some people’s opinions, it is still one of the easiest places to exchange or return merchandise in my opinion. Most stores here will require that you fill out the warranty card in the store each time you purchase an electronic item. This causes you to have to return the item to a certified repair center or directly to the company. The store will not take the item back even if it was dead right out of the box.

We went back to Bodega Aurrera (Wal-Mart) this evening to return the unit. They switched it out without any problems. When we got it home, we found that it worked perfectly.

While there I needed to purchase a new belt. We did not see any right off in the men’s section. I thought it was odd and teased to my wife that it probably was not the season for belts so there were none on the racks. After a fruitless hunt all through the section I went and asked one of the workers in the men’s department about them.

I laughed with the answer all the way back to where my wife was standing. It seems that they have not received their shipment of belts yet for the upcoming season. So, yes, there is a season to buy belts.

It is funny that they sell pants year around.