Domingo 15 -
Sábado 21 Septiembre Started out for a
walk into town sunday about noon to see when/if the city would be
having any celebrations, commemorating the 1810 cry for independence
from Spain. We got as far as our front gate and the rain commenced.
At this point a discussion ensued about the benefits of not getting
wet. We retreated back inside.
We had purchased
some totopos (tortilla chips) a while ago at the Soriana store
. The bag said that they were sazonado (seasoned). Yum!
More like yikes! They were hot hot hot! Also a bit less than
crispy. We found a hole in the bag, which had caused the softness.
Being who we are, not liking to waste food, Dan made a suggestion of
cooking a dish with the chips, and Carmen proceeded to do so. The
dish was done totally on the stove top in a skillet. Fried some
ground beef with onion. Added a can of black beans including the
juice, plus some water, sour cream, then the hot chips broken up and
stirred well until most wetness was gone. Heated well. Topped off
with cheddar cheese and covered the pan until cheese was melted, then
left it sit for ten more minutes while she had a bit of a spanish
lesson. Being that the chips were already spiced, no other
seasoning was needed and it was most scrumptious!
She would have
baked it in a small rectangular pan in the toaster oven, except for
the fact that she had earlier made a pie in that pan. We had a few
bananas of just the right ripeness for banana cream pie. Actually
she took a third of the filling before bananas were to be added and
turned it into chocolate pie filling. We pigged out for our three pm
meal.
We were still
looking forward to some celebrations for las Fiestas Patrias.
Dan had read in the online edition of the local paper (El Mundo de
Cordoba) that the annual parade was canceled in Fortin because of
fear that the teachers (out on strike, protesting education reform)
would gather here and disrupt the celebrations. We heard nothing
thruout the gray, misty day. A bit after 10pm, we turned on the tv
in our bedroom to see what was happening around and about. One
channel was covering the events in Mexico City, another those in
Xalapa, the capital of Veracruz state, another in Veracruz city and a
fourth channel covered the festivities in Orizaba, the city to the
west of us. At each location, a politician would ring a big bell in
the tower above, followed by numerous Viva's (“long live”)
honoring Mexican independence, the heroes of that struggle, and
ending with three Viva Mexico shouts. The new president
Enrique Pena Nieto did the honors in DF, while the governor held
forth in Xalapa and the mayors of Veracruz and Orizaba in those
cities.
It was raining
steadily in Mexico City and Orizaba, but the other two cities were
more or less dry at the moment. Huge crowds filled all the public
squares where things took place. Following up the cry (el grito)
and flag-waving, the national anthem was sung by all, capped off with
a fuegos artificales (aerial fireworks) display. Here is a
link to a video of this event (on Youtube) at the zocalo in Mexico City..
About this time we heard fireworks in the direction of
downtown Fortin. We dashed up to the top of our rooftop mirador
and watched. Fireworks in a cloudy sky appear different from
what we were used to. With the heavy low fog, when each rocket was
fired off, a bright spreading glow appeared close to the ground, then
nothing 'til the rocket got above the cloud bank and sparkled the sky.
Colors were all in red, white and green, the flag colors. An
exciting night, and all was quiet again by midnight.
Monday morning was supposed to be the driest day for awhile, so Carmen quickly hopped out of bed and got the laundry going and hung it outside. Dan took the opportunity to paint/seal the spot behind the chimney where he had patched in some stucco. Sometime after breakfast we heard a band downtown. Time to hustle into town – we do love parades! By the time we got there, the band had disassembled and was leaving the park. Guess is was an impromptu appearance by a group that was disappointed not to have been allowed to march in an official parade; bummer. We did a wee bit of grocery shopping and walked on home. The rain, which was not predicted to start until afternoon, started as we were a couple blocks from home. Yep, the laundry got put back into the washer on spin cycle and then into the dryer. This is only the second time we have used the dryer since it was installed last spring. And yes, the quick-drying red Acriton sealant had time to harden up before the few drops of rain.
We have found that
the radio station XHFTI-FM here in Fortin has a great news coverage
from 7-9 in the morning, and the commentators speak very clearly. Dan
can follow almost all of the reports. This supplements national news
from the tv we watch in the evenings.
Cecilia
who lives a block from us, and sells StanHome products, stopped by
today and invited us to her home to see this really gorgeous plant,
which had bloomed the night before: She called it dama
de noche (lady of the night). We later
looked it up to learn it's Hylocereus
undatus, also known as
Red
Pitaya, Dragon Fruit, Strawberry Pear, Night-blooming Cereus, Queen
of the Night, or Honolulu Queen. Read more here. She will start a plant of this for us, so now we must
figure out where we can put it, since it likes to climb into the
upper story of trees! Probably the back fence where we can manage
it—might even get some tasty fruits, which Dan remembers fondly
from Guatemala. She also gave us two other plant starts. Later in
the week smiling Cosme stopped by with another new plant that we had
to have. So far we have not found its likeness on the internet and
the name he gave us is definitely not correct. If Ania can't
identify it we'll try Dave's Garden forum again. Here's a picture of it:
Much of this day
has been a lovely light rain. We did not expect a garbage pick up
on monday, since it's a long holiday weekend, but we saw the truck,
so quickly hung our bags on the outside of our fence. We noticed a
whole large bag of garbage spilled along the road a ways from us,
probably fallen from a vehicle, and sure enough, the collectors
gathered it all up too. Never saw that happen in the US.
We had walked past
the Telcel store earlier and it was still closed, so Dan drove past
there to see if by chance it was open. We're trying to get
accustomed to the lateness that folks here arrive for everything, but
still get it wrong sometimes. Dan parked the car and Carmen sat and
waited. Almost immediately, a policeman came and stood behind our
car, which was at a corner but clear of the don't park here area. A
truck parked ahead of us. The policeman looked the truck over and
talked to the couple who was unloading snack foods for a store there.
When they were ready to leave, he had them come back and talk to
him. They were given a paper to read and afterwards, it seemed that
money was paid to the policeman. Perhaps they did not have the
proper sticker in their windshield for the deliveries they were
making? We have heard that can be a problem. Meanwhile, Dan was
taking a really long time. Then another policeman arrived. Carmen
was getting most worried that we were in trouble. One just never
knows for sure. Dan arrived and all was well. He had our dead cell
phone checked out, thinking we needed a new battery, but the clerk
said that it just needed a jump start, which Dan then thought would
take but moments, but took maybe twenty minutes. We arrived home
with our ice cream melting a bit.
The news reports
here are full of the flooding situation in Guerrero, where the
community of La Pintada, near Atoyac above Acapulco, had a hill slide
right thru the center of town. Many were lost, and the death toll
keeps rising. Plus there are towns that no one has even been able to
get to, with all the landslides, big and small, blocking the roads.
We are happy to be on the mostly flat top of a ridge, with paved
roads draining away past us and downhill.
We found a few ants
(different than the usual ants) on a long stretch of kitchen counter
where they had not been seen before. Carmen did an extreme cleaning
there and put ant bit killer all along the back edge of this counter,
cleverly thinking this would surely take care of the problem. The
next morning, there were hundreds of ants there. They had found a
ziplock bag with bread and some how got inside and had told all their
relatives! After watching them carefully, there was a tiny hole
found at the end of the counter for their entry. We remembered that
we had some of those plastic ant baits. Put them out and two days
later the ants finally started indulging in the yummy filling to take
back to their homes and hopefully never to return again?
