November Dirt Dwellers in SMA
—Blogpost written by Bob
In this blogpost, we continue our 6-month winter excursion in San Miguel de Allende (SMA), Mexico. We arrived by car on October 15, traveling from near Annapolis, Maryland where we live on our sailboat. This has been quite a change in our life style!
Thursday, November 11
It has been cold the last couple nights, reaching lows of 38 degrees early the mornings but the afternoons still warm up into the mid-70's. By the time we were out and about in the mornings, the outside temperature was typically in the high 50's or low 60's.
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There were a couple things we were planning for the next several days or so: (1) Kali's surgery for neutering and (2) a bus trip to Leon, the leather capital of Mexico. I spent some time early this afternoon, arranging both events. Kali's surgery was scheduled for Monday (in by 9 AM and out by 4 PM with 8 hours of fasting before dropping her off) and our 2-1/2 hour (each way) bus trip was scheduled for next Wednesday. (This was about as much scheduling as we could handle!)
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| A statue of a monk under the bright green leaves in the bibliotheca. |
I met Maggie in the Cafe Santa Ana in the bibliotheca--I was an hour early but enjoyed the solitude. Today we both had delicious BLT's!
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Maggie had difficulty getting money via the ATM downtown today. She was advised to call our bank at home. However, today was Veteran's Day back home and our bank was closed. This was the first time that we had difficulty getting cash.
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| One of the prettiest streets in San Miguel de Allende. |
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| An alleyway between buildings we discovered on our walk back from lunch. |
Since shortly after coming to Mexico, we have been battling with our two cats early in the mornings. They come into our bedroom at 4 AM and scratch on the doors of the armoire which makes the doors rattle--not just once but about every ten minutes or so. This usually succeeds in waking us up. (Kali has been the instigator but Lola has typically joined in. I'm sure their intent is to wake us up so they can be fed.) We've tried spraying the armoire with cat deterrent a couple times and we have used a water spray bottle as a soft weapon many times. Neither has worked to any significant degree. So, we have decided to feed them much later (3 hours later in fact) in the evening, as a start. (If this doesn't work we will try locking them out of our bedroom.)
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I had a small problem with my camera today. The glass in the filter mounted on my best lens (85mm/f1.4D) somehow became loose (it rattles) and I can't get the filter off the camera lens. I tried wrapping a leather belt around the outer surface of the filter to get more grip (as well as using rubber gloves) but nothing has worked. My next step was to freeze water on a saucer, put plastic wrap over the lens, and try to cool the filter so that it contracts and allows me to remove it--this didn't work either.. (The only purpose for the filter is to protect the lens--this mechanical protection can also be accomplished by using a lens hood. I suspect that the odd 77mm fine threads were galled.)
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| The filter came apart upon removal from the lens! |
Late in the evening I tried a trick from a YouTube video which worked great! It involved cutting knife edges into the outer edge of the filter 180 degrees apart and then using a long knife (pushed down into the cut edges and turned counterclockwise) to unscrew the filter. The filter came apart when removing it which is why the glass rattled previously. I put the lens hood on the lens and scrapped the damaged filter.
By the way, one of the only tools I brought with me was a LEATHERMAN multitool--I used this to cut the knife slots on the outer edges. (I also brought a set of small precision screw drivers with me for possible computer repairs. In some ways I felt naked without more tools.)
Friday, November 12
Forty degrees early (but warming to 74 degrees in the afternoon) and a forecast of partly cloudy for the day proved to be another typical day in Mexico's central highlands.
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Today was Maggie's last Spanish class unless she renews for more classes later. We met at el Grandpa & Sons Burgers for lunch after her class. (I had a Philly cheese steak to satisfy my yearning for food from home--it was pretty good!)
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| A beat up VW Beetle in our neighborhood. |
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| Mexican color combinations on Casa Carly. |
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| Old man walking into Fabrica de Aurora with a cane. (This could be me someday.) |
Saturday, November 13
We went out for coffee this morning after having breakfast in our apartment. Of course, we went to Cafe de la Esquina, just a few doors away.
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| This is an image of the door seating area of Cafe de la Esquina near our apartment--this has \been a favorite coffee spot for us. (I used my camera's retouch features for the first time to eliminate the distortion caused by my 20mm wide angle lens.) |
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| An outdoor plant at the cafe. |
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| Kali was sleeping while we were having coffee at the cafe a few doors away. (She certainly looks wide-eyed and bushy-tailed!) |
Today was Penn State-Michigan football day--the game was scheduled to start at noon eastern time and 11 AM local time on ABC. Penn State scored first, a field goal. The final score was 21-17 in a losing effort for Penn State. It was a tough fought game all the way with a couple lead changes. Penn State is now 6 and 4 on the season. (Just one explosive play made the difference in the outcome of the game.)
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Sunday, November 14
Today marked the end of our first month in San Miguel de Allende. I am beginning to miss the water as you might expect since most my adult life has been spent around the water. Lola is missing her outdoor time.
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We won our battle with our cats that I mentioned previously (them waking us up early in the morning) by locking them out of our bedroom all night.
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| Our bedroom door has been kept closed during the night to keep our cats at bay in the early mornings. |
We were both feeling a little under the weather today--so, we stayed indoors and watched some NFL football games. Tomorrow is Kali's surgery for neutering--I can't wait until its over...
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