Going down (Six Feet) again...

Several years ago we were visiting our kids, Michael and ReBecca, when they recommended a TV show. It just happened to be showing a review of the first several episodes that weekend and we had a look. We were immediately taken in by the family drama of the Fishers.
For five seasons, from 2001 to 2005, we became devoted to watching the HBO series, Six Feet Under. Even as we were traveling around, we made a point of being somewhere where we could put up our dish and catch the weekly episode. Without a doubt, one of the best dramas ever (yes, better than The Sopranos)
If you have been a fan, you know what I mean. If you want to have a look, the Movie Channel is rerunning the series every weeknight, (11pm eastern)
In this time zone, it airs at 10 pm, and has become my nightcap, replacing The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.
I am a fan of Jon and Stephen and have enjoyed their irony and wit. Lately though, much of their grist comes from the mess that is the US Health Reform debate and the rampant polarization in the American politicians and populous. Rationality has gone out the window, in favor of hateful diatribes. The humour is strained like the feeling you get when someone tells a really tasteless joke -- just not funny, but sad and embarrassing.
Back to Six Feet, you can catch up to the current story line at the the tv data base site
http://thetvdb.com/?tab=series&id=75450&lid=7
Wikipedia has an good summary of the show, where I found this quote, "Six Feet Under has frequently been described by critics as one of the greatest television series of all time. The series is noted for its exploration of mortality and death in western society."
We are currently in the middle of season two, so there is a lot of good story still to come.

Ida - anti climactic.

3 pm Sunday, and all's well. Even though Ida grew to Category 2, it remained well off shore.
I kept an eye open off and on through the night, and it remained weirdly calm. This morning we were all bringing our furniture and furnishings out of safety storage, and we are back to normal.
Oh well... I got back to electrical and cabinet building. Then on to the regular 3 pm volleyball match.

Here come the rains...

It is about 4 pm Saturday, and Ida is moving more away from land and is projected to pass between the Yucatan and Cuba.
Everyone is storm-proofing their palapas. All left is to bring in our couches and big chairs. Then the two satellite dishes.
It has been raining heavily off and on with more to come. There is a lot of standing water in the park already. Fortunately they just added three truckloads of gravel to our street. I'll try and get some photos in the early am.

Stormy weather...

In the next couple of days we will be here to experience first hand a named storm that is coming this way.
“Ida” started out a couple of days ago as a Tropical Depressions was up to a category 1 Hurricane, but it is now back to a Tropical Depression. After crossing parts of Nicaragua and Honduras, it is back out to sea, but still only with 35 mph winds and is projected to pass on the other side of Cozumel (Paamul in on the mainland opposite Cozumel) with 45 mph winds.
There are discussions here in camp, and our Paamul daily e-mail newsletter has distributed some information and advice for preparation. We will be bringing in our loose chairs, tables, and other outdoor items, probably tomorrow night. At this point, no one I have heard plans to evacuate.
Tonight, all is calm, perhaps the proverbial calm before the storm.
I’ll add more as it develops.

Back on the Beach.

When pulled in Saturday afternoon, the senior gate man, Sixto, greeted us with “Welcome home”. And home is what it feels like, seeing our many neighbours and friends who are part of this winter community.
We carefully backed our trailer in, and have been sorting and cleaning to restore the living conditions.
Our back yard garden thrived over the summer and will have to be trimmed back again. We are working slowly, as we are adjusting to the heat and humidity.
This morning is gloriously pleasant, air temp 81, as I’m sitting outside in a light breeze and Susan has gone for an early snorkel swim. The Caribbean water is a balmy 82.
Now back to my list of things to do.

Travels with Charlie...

Years ago, when I was still in my teens, I read Steinbeck’s Travels With Charley, a documentary of he and his dog, outfitting a camper-truck and crossing the continent. That book along with other wander-writers like Kerouak, planted seeds of the wanderlust which in some way, I’m sure, contributed to our current lifestyle, that of full-time RVing.
I am joined in this adventure by my wife Susan, who along with our dog, Pippin, have been up and down and across this continent for many years.
But I am truly blessed to also share it with Charlie... Charles Dickens that is. How did he get on board, you may wonder?
Susan, in her previous life, was a thespian and besides gracing stages all over Canada, was a reader of books for broadcast on the CBC. She has a wonderful voice and a great command of various British accents.
When we began our long RV trips, we fell into passing the miles by her sitting beside me reading to me aloud. In a short while, she recommended we try Dickens.
Wow. So many rich characters, and so many engrossing moral explorations, so many pages. Our sharing Dickens has become one of my favourite parts of our travels. The miles and hours fly by. One year, as we were approaching Canada and our home town, we spent an extra night on the road in order to finish Nickelbey or Copperfield, I don’t remember. (Susan just told me it was A Tale of Two Cities.)
We have dipped into other authors but return to Dickens as the standard of pure enjoyment. We are now on Little Dorrit, and as we are reach our beach destination, it will be put back on the shelf, to be continued next spring on our way back north, when once again, Charlie will rejoin us. Wish you could too.

Everything AND the kitchen sink (taps).

(This was written a couple of days ago as we stopped in San Miguel de Allende, but I didn’t get on line to post it.)
This trip has been unique for all the stuff we have packed along. Our palapa life is still a work in progress, so we spent time during the summer, collecting stuff to bring down. The Yucatan of Mexico had a lot of home furnishing shops but nothing to compare with the goods available in our weekly Canadian Tire flier. Irresistible deals each week, and we kept stocking up -- tools, kitchen appliances and new taps, a dehumidifier, fans, a compressor, weed whipper, lighting, and most recently, Christmas decor.
About midsummer, patio chairs came on sale at a local shopping centre, and we bought a set (non-folding) that I would have to figure out how to pack. I managed to build a little platform on our rear bumper and bound them on.
We were also on the lookout for a good table. At our Guelph recycle depot, we found a solid oak pedestal leaf table, similar to the one we had and sold 3 years ago when we cleared out our house. As solid wood, it should handle the Caribbean humidity, and it was built to be to disassembled. In its various parts it was stored about the trailer, mainly in the rear storage box, where the 2 satellite dishes used to ride. And those big dishes? They took up residence in our soon-to-be hot tub, which is riding on our couch. (What? A hot tub? More on this later.)
In Texas, we toured the discount outlets for bedding and pillows for a new folding guest bed.
We are driving down through Mexico this fall with fellow Canadians and palapa neighbors, Dale & Sue Urquhart. Here in San Miguel de Allende, we have gone out together to scour the artisan shops for Mexican style decor, lighting and ceramics.
Our trailer is stuffed -- three more days and we can begin to unload.

Notes from Half Way

It is hard to believe we are only about half way to our destination. This is our seventh winter trip with an RV but this trip the miles seemed to go slowly. It could have been the weather -- we were dragging a cold front all the way to Texas. Each night we stopped we had our furnace and an electric heater going and still we had to dress in layers. This trailer is well built, I think, but with single pane glass and the many venting windows, it's not quite winter rated.
When we stopped in Little Rock, the park was adjacent to a bicycle path along the Arkansas River. Susan had been biking almost every day up in Ontario, so we unhooked our 2-wheelers and went out. It was a beautiful path and we managed to put on about 10 miles, but it was still quite cool, and we were both wearing jackets, and me a toque. We were quite a sight as we met and were passed by serious bikers in their spandex and aerodynamic helmets. We must go back there in a warmer shorts and t-thirt season.
We made our first two day stop in Austin, and took an afternoon to check out some shops, including a good 2nd hand bookstore that gives good value on trade ins. Susan is a high volume consumer of books and we are carrying 3 boxes with us, trading and resupplying where she can.
In the evening we went out again to join the small crowd to watch the bats come out. The Congress Bridge in downtown Austin, is home to a huge bat colony. Every evening at sundown, millions of these tiny bats swarm out to do their evening hunting. They are a popular tourist attraction and very ecologically correct as they eat tons of insects.
We are now at our regular rest stop in San Benito in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. The area had many (about 50) rv parks and is the ultimate destination for many snowbirds. This is our 5th time through here, and while it is familiar, and a mecca for shopping, it is not our cup of tea. Comparing it to Ontario, and many of the other parts of the US we have traveled through, the “Valley” seems quite shabby. It does not seem very prosperous, even though there are miles of irrigated farmland all around. And if you take out the big box stores and malls, it appears very dilapidated, even slummy. I think the winter Texans around here mostly are here to enjoy each others company and live a low impact retirement.
Most people here have a very limited experience of Mexico, having only made day trips to one of the service towns across the border. Or they hear the news about the narco violence that unfortunately happens in a few bigger Mexican border cities. I have been following some discussion forums that address this subject, and there seems to be a broad consensus that the simplest solution would be decriminalization. Gone would be the huge profit motives on the criminal side, and much of the huge expense of the (losing) drug war. Many wise people, including conservatives agree that the costs of the “war” is too high, education and rehabilitation more effective, and the moral high ground of prohibition is a losing cause.
'Nuff for now. In a day or two we cross over and down.

A special Thanksgiving.

The highlight of our summer was the birth of our first grandchild.
Amelia Margaret Joy Armstrong arrived August 29.
Susan and I were delighted to be at the hospital to welcome her. The delivery went smoothly and quick, mother ReBecca and father Michael did well too. So for this month we have been in and out of Toronto visiting the little darling. She is doing what most newborns do, feeding and sleeping and fussing on her own schedule. And now, at 6 weeks, is smiling and gurgling. Yesterday we were all together along with our daughter Juliet and her husband Bill, for Thanksgiving dinner. It was just wonderful but sad too, as it will be spring before we see them all again.
Oh yes, here are the requisite baby pictures.

The frost is on the pumpkins.

Sorry, I have let ‘Palapa Life’ fall into a coma, dormant, hibernating, I guess. Summer has slipped by and finally I'm back.
This morning, there is frost, and we are anxious to return to our home on the beach.
Today’s forecast high for Guelph is 7C (44F) with lows this week under freezing with snow flurries expected in a few days. Checking the weather for the Mayan Riviera, this week it will be around 32C (90F) with lows around 25C (77F). Perfect! My apologies to my nordic and Saskatchewan forefathers. I never liked the cold -- never will.

We have been in Guelph, Ontario, enjoying these last five months, this thing called Summer of 2009, which was, hmnn... elusive.
This was our third summer in southern Ontario and while we are becoming fond of the place, the people, and the things to do, mother nature gave us the cold shoulder for much of it. There was a lot of rain, drizzles and overcast. We are parked at Guelph Lake Conservation Park which is large and green and tranquil. It has great hiking and biking trails and for Susan it is great swimming, except this year it was late getting warm enough, and this fall it got frigid weeks ago.
My tennis was often bothered by the wet, with many cancellations and postponements. However, I got a lot of play, social and competitive, and was able to contribute to our club’s winning in league play.

At last we are into final days.

Our Caribbean Beach Home...

This is now the street we live on. We are #179 Jungle North. Ours is the reddish one with two windows on the front.
When we first got here a year and a half ago, the yellow palapa next to ours (far side) was the only one being built. By that spring, there were three more under construction. This has been a busy and noisy winter as our street now has 14 new palapas. The last three available lots on our block will be starting construction this summer.
Of course we are not finished. Hmnnn... We will be adding some more landscaping and garden planting out front.

Our (close to) beach front House... From our front steps we are a 1 1/2 minute walk to the Caribbean water. I counted it out, 160 steps -- about 400 feet. Just far enough to be sheltered from the salt and sand that blows and close enough to hear the waves lapping on the shore.

Our jungle view -- as you may have gathered from previous postings, we back on to the jungle. Our back yard is a mostly clean pallet of gravel, that we put in after we cleared the swamp that was there when we started. We saved a few larger trees, and then tried to build some garden around them. Along with our neighbors Bob and Dot with whom we share our sections of the back yard, we (Susan and Dot) have added about 75 different plants, many from other gardeners in PaaMul and some from the very economical nurseries around here. Things grow well here in the tropics and we hope it will thrive. Fortunately, our neighbors, Doug and Darla, who live here full time, and are avid gardeners, have agreed to add some water to help our plants through the dry season.

The Inside Scoop.

Several people who have read this blog and then come to visit, have said that it is more than they imagined. Perhaps they are being polite and complimentary, but I have a hard time finding angles to photograph that represent the whole thing.
Here are three pics to represent some of our palapa interior.
The lounge and kitchen still need lighting and cabinets.
The baño is a composite photo to show the wide view.
The loft shows our guest quarters for the moment.

Colours... For followers of this blog, you may remember some of our tribulations about choosing colours of tiles and grout. The same happened for our paint colours. We had a few ideas, a bunch of paint chips and still, it wasn’t until we tried our fifth colour that we settled on this interior colour. Amarillo Neapolitano is the boldest of the lot and when we add some wall hangings it will be done for now. Good thing about paint - you can always change your mind.

A palapa is an odd kind of thing. Essentially it is a grass shelter (a big grass shelter - ours covers about 1000 sq. feet, plus loft and balcony.)
It is partly a spiffy tropical home with tile floor and counters, full kitchen and bath, living and dining areas, storage room, laundry, sleeping loft and balcony. It seems out of place to me that someone parked a trailer in our house! So maybe, it is really just a partly walled covered parking garage. Most of the palapa owners here have integrated their trailers as part of the permanent fixtures, and many have taken steps to blend them into the over-all appearance, with paint, wood or stucco coverings. As we are full-time rv’ers and will be taking our trailer with us when we leave, it is just a trailer parked in a grass palapa for the winter.
And certainly much more than just a trailer.