Actually, today’s discovery should be titled “when is a grapefruit not a grapefruit?” – and the answer of course is; when you’re in MX and they’re toronja’s (pronounced toronka). Turns out I also have avocado’s like crazy. This day is a collection of disconnected events as are many days, so let’s get into it. I started the day trying my new pin number which worked and then paying up my mailbox for a year so I don't have to worry about that again.

On my return to the compound I found my new neighbor looking at the casita. She turns out to be a lady named Margaret from upper Michigan, down for the winter. I had specifically requested the rental company rent only to young single cute ladies – well, I tried, but Margaret is a very nice retired lady and I’m sure we’ll be friends (I just won’t ask about her politics, you know how those MI Libs can be).

Come lunch time I headed into the village looking for the 15p hamburger place and I was sure I knew where it was – the duh for the day is that I was two blocks from where it is, so bzzzz - no burger. Back to the Jeep and headed for the Italian place, oops, they’re not open yet and so, on over the hill to the Waffle House. I’d been meaning to try this place, so today I did something totally uncharacteristic for me, I had breakfast for lunch? For me, breakfast is 6am – 9am max, here it apparently goes all day as I noted at Chili’s the other day. The baked apple waffle was great, but a bit rich for me mid day, the place was packed so obviously a good return possibility - earlier.

I was over dressed as usual, I’ve not yet learned to remember that at this altitude thin air heats rapidly and cools as quickly. So, first thing in the morning you put on your sweats and get busy with the day and later (like lunch time) you’re still in sweats while everyone else around you is in tee shirts and halter tops looking at you like you’re some kind of alien? – another duh. Plus, only gringo’s wear shorts. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a Mexican male in shorts – ever, only white chicken legged gringos in shorts and sandals truly personifying the “ugly American”.

On my way to breakfast I went through the several traffic lights on the Carretera and at least two of them are a trip, the green lights are burned out and have been since I’ve been here. So, this separates the locals from the newbie’s, if you flinch at an all dark stop/go? light – tag, you’re a newbie. However, even though I know which are burned out and that they ARE the green bulbs, there is still a twinge of discomfort as you roll through wondering if it’s really the green burned out, or maybe last night the red burned out as well??  And then if you’re first in line for the red, when it finally turns green, and basically goes dark, your mind is still programmed to wait for the green light and so there you sit like a fool looking at a dark traffic signal waiting for some divine direction for what to do next.

 Later in the day I went on another quest for a recliner at a local store I had missed, and it may have saved me from another trip to GDL. I’ll sleep on it and then go back again tomorrow and look at it. It’s a nice leather recliner with a spring loaded mechanism for reclining. When you pull out a little lever, YOU VIL RECLINE, IT’S MANDATORY! (I think it's German?) – not like those wimpy kind that require you to do all the work yourself, pushing and straining to get the stupid thing to recline – not this one, when you pull the lever, you better be ready to recline ‘cause it’s gonna happen suddenly!

Random thoughts and observations:
NOB we’re taught to “want” and expect to get it, set your goals high, nothing is impossible. Here that’s not the case, I wonder if little boys look at SUV’s as we drive by and think “I’m going to have one of those one day” – or is it just so far from possible they don’t even imagine that – I wonder.

The other day in GDL a guy was at a Carl’s Jr hamburger place was painting two parking spaces blue to indicate no parking, but unlike NOB he was not using a machine, not even a roller, he was on his hands and knees doing it with a scrub brush with a handle like you’d use to scrub something rough. Then again later that day I saw the same thing used on the side of a new house to paint the stucco. Probably a good way to work the paint into the rough surface, but Stewart and I would still be there on the front of my house in TX if we’d used that technique.

A pleasant day in paradise and I decided to pass on the Day of the Dead festivities this evening.