News you can use
News you can use
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My friends, who shall remain anonymous, sent me money to donate for them to a good cause of my choice here in Etzatlan. These good folks have visited me several times. They like my little chosen town. Several years ago a Franciscan friar, a wealthy man, sold all he had and built a lovely hacienda among the trees to house those who need special care, the aged who can no longer live with family as well as the disabled in body, the infirm in mind, both men and women. One hears...
Day three with an unwanted, invasive, intimate companion — the flu. So weak, I feel like a newborn kitten without a mama. While alternative health methods have a long and checkered history of purposefully and purposely cleaning out one’s digestive tract as a measure for optimum good health, if you ask me, such drastic measures are total nonsense. The first 36 hours I spent every 20 to 40 minutes, literally, on the commode, plastic lined garbage can on my lap, inv...
Late in the day, I read a profound passage in a Swedish mystery novel. The daughter asked her father why life seems so much harder in these modern times. His answer was that we no longer darn socks. This makes perfect sense, of course, food for thought for times to come. My grandmother put needle and thread in my hands before I started school. Two things I learned quite young. I embroidered pillowcases with floral borders and I darned my own stockings. Grandma did not have an...
I am soooo bad. The “like killing snakes” part is hard for me. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve been told, “Slow down. You are going at that job (whatever it is) like killing snakes.” Uh, huh. More than one person. Is that a tried and true Montana phrase? I don’t know. Miguel, my physical therapist, tells me the same thing in different words. He says, “No rapido, no rapido!” or “Lento, lento!” “Despacio!”Or “Suave, suave.” Those are the words he says. What I hear is “Sl...
One day Bonnie said to me, “Sondra, you are a turtle. When in a group, you tuck your head inside your shell, listen and watch.” Ever since then, I cannot look in the mirror without seeing my turtle. In a moment of turtle introspection, I realized a turning point has changed the direction of my life. I generally don’t see my turning points until I can look backward. Some positive, others not so much. In my freshman English 101 class at what was then the College of Great Falls...
I could have said “outright lies” but I have no blessed idea how I am going to fill this page so “guesses” seemed the more appropriate word. Most weeks I know exactly what I want to say. It never comes out the way I think it will, but I have a definite idea to start. “I can’t wait to talk about that.” Or, “I want to tell them this little story.” This has been a strangely blank week. Maybe it is the gray skies, make me feel like I followed my son Ben home to Poulsbo, Washingt...
My first husband was quite the — uh — storyteller. Some of you knew Harvey and can verify my statement. Some of his stories even had elements of truth. Others were pure fabrication, even when they sounded verifiable. I was 18 when we married. A naïve 18. This was back in the day when the farthest most people ventured from home was the county seat for official business. Worldly, I was not. I was well-read. However, the majority of books available to me in our little libr...
It could have exploded. Ben woke up and automatically reached for his phone. The auto reach; it is a generational thing. The phone was so hot it burned his hand. He jerked the plug from the phone and from the power strip. The power cord connection to the phone had melted into the phone. The cord itself was fried. He said, “I’ve never heard of this kind of problem.” Oh, man; Oh, crickets; Have to buy a new phone. Ben, of course, has one of those phones with which he does every...
The other day my son Ben, here in Etzatlan to help me in recovery, showed me a video he and his daughter Lexi had enjoyed. The animated video by a German scientist with an unpronouncable name demonstrated characteristics and world migration of Argentine Ants. “Arrgh!,” I shouted. “I know those ants. Intimately. I’ve eaten some. Inadvertently. They are a kitchen plague. All of us here battle them continuously. Now I can name them. Imagine that.” Argentine Ants. These buggers a...
Surgery successful — Hooray! Hooray! I have a repaired hip. My legs are both the same length again. I promise not to show you the scars. The news on the other end of that spectrum is that I will be immobilized for two weeks. My expectation, courtesy of previous experience, was that I would be up and walking the day following surgery. Shattered expectations had my emotions running wildly about unclothed and unfiltered for a couple days. And what is this strange motormouth r...
I’m writing to you today from warm and sunny Glendive. Mom had her hip repair surgery on Thursday, the 26th. Merry Christmas! The post from her original hip replacement had slipped down into the bone. The doctors knew this and knew they could fix it. After opening her up, while she was still awake (with a nerve block), the doctors discovered the slippage was worse than they had thought. The metal post was grinding and eating away the inside of the bone. Mom explained how t...
December comes to a close with Christmas. Whether one believes the Birth of the Christ Child to be myth or metaphor, history or hysteria, is of no matter. My belief makes it neither one nor another. The timeless story is filled with all one could want: drama, animals, mean people, travel, shepherds, kings and a Baby. In my own personal dictionary, incomplete, abridged, and filled with mis-information, the definition of Baby is hope. After a year such as 2019, who can argue...
Lani and I sneaked off to breakfast at Calano’s this Sunday morning. It is something we do now and then. We don’t go often, usually, like today, on a whim. If you don’t ride whims, you are missing out. I recommend jumping on every whim you possibly can. Since Lani and I are the only full-timers here, over these few years we have developed a special friendship. This little outing has become a small enjoyment to which we look forward. It’s nothing special except that we make it...
On a Saturday I saw an orthopedic specialist. He said, “I can fix your hip and leg.” I’m kind of backward when it comes to medical issues. I didn’t go to him for a fix. I went for a referral to somebody who could make me those horrid ugly black shoes where one shoe is built up with a two or four or six inch sole — you know the kind — the ones I’ve been too vain to consider. The doctor also told me the ugly black shoes would not help. I like to think I am smart. I like to thi...
I’ll dither around before I talk about that which I need to talk. Because that is the way I am. Look the other way. Put my head in a bucket of sand. Pretend I don’t need you. In truth, it’s been a rough couple of weeks, what with losing phone/internet service for one of those weeks. That was an eye-opener. Try it. I’d have sworn I didn’t use my computer, except for writing, more than an hour a day. Well. Well. Well. Fooled myself. Sure did accomplish a lot of small put-aside...
Good afternoon, this is not Sondra. After calling my mom for several days, and impatiently wondering where she has gotten up to without alerting me to her travels, I found out her phone and internet lines have been cut. Leaving her all out on her own, with only her friends and local animals to talk to. She does have a Mexican cell phone which costs about $13, so you know how great it works. I never call it unless I know she’s traveling, so this wasn’t my first thought. Whe...
Rain, “lluvia” in Español, pinging on my Mexican tile roof, sounds like the clatter of typewriter keys hitting the platen. Do you remember that rapidly rattling noise? Woe is me. These old bones are having a down in the damps kind of day. Two tropical depressions off the Pacific coast ganged up to slather the sky with black clouds, each pregnant with rain. Rain every single day since my party a week ago. Rain in November! This is the dry season — isn’t it? I am contrary...
This was not my idea, to have a party. It was sloppily put together. Any party, even pot luck, takes a lot of work. I didn't really want to do it. I was tired and in pain from the long bus ride. Bah humbug. I rode the bus, one more trip to Mazatlan. In the four-year process, all that was left for me to do was pick up the card moving me from temporary to permanent status as a resident. This is not citizenship. I'm not dual. Too old to think about that. In October, the senorita...
Nobody told us. Well, nobody told me. I’m from a family of workers, obsessive workers, one might say. In my family, sloth is a mere breath removed from slovenly and slatternly. Nobody ever said choices were available. Not that I would have availed myself of other choices, probably, life being what it is. Work being a necessity for survival. Until the day I retired myself to a quiet corner of another country. Thus removed from everyday obligations of my former life, I’ve tim...
“This is the way we brush our teeth, brush our teeth, brush our teeth. This is the way we brush our teeth, so early in the morning.” News headlines to nursery rhymes, that’s me. When I read that a toothbrush has been devised with artificial intelligence, that ditty swept full blown through my mind. How nice, I thought. Aw, a new relationship. “Uh, hate to mention, but you need to pay more attention to your left lower molar.” “Gee, thanks. Will do.” With rolling eyeballs, I d...
Ever have a day when everything you touch turns to mud? For one thing, it is raining. Tropical Storm Priscilla hovers off the coast in a direct line up and over the mountains to the west. Not far in a straight line but not even airplanes fly ruler straight; certainly not proverbial crows. Nevertheless, storms bring clouds bring rain. Rain is a good thing. Rain is precious. I like rain. It’s just that I’d made outdoor garden plans for today. Be flexible, right? Shifted gea...
Editor's note: See Festival photos at www.havredailynes.com. October is the sweetest month, well, unless one is up to one's hocks in snow, and not the first snow of the year at that! Betrayed by September, that generally docile month. October, sing raptures of October. Hay is stacked, grain is harvested, garden largess fills rows of jewel-toned jars in the cellar. Yearlings crowd trailers on the way to market. Bank account is fat. Whoa - don't forget to sing flip side of that...
When one lives in a tiny community, little things can tend to balloon into huge importance. When I say “small community,” I don’t mean a place numbered in four digits, where you might recognize a couple thousand through ordinary daily contact: That young man with the ponytail works at the glass repair shop, the woman with red hair and big glasses clerk at the IGA and that over-dressed couple walks around the park every day with their dog, Riley. A place where you might know 20...
Stand on the curb of any street in any town in Mexico and look up. No, not that high. Those are just the ubiquitous buzzards, turkey vultures, also fondly, tongue in cheek, called the Mexican Eagle. Yes, lower down, that’s what I want to show you, the leftover-spaghetti-mess of wires criss-crossing overhead, connecting each habitation to power, cable, satellite, internet and phone services. When I lived in an apartment on a busy street In Mazatlan, for entertainment, I w...
After two weeks at a beach resort in Mazatlan, I wanna go home! Not that I don’t love it here. I do. I do. What is not to love? Fantastic balcony view. Comfortable room. Staff who treat me as though I am special. A city I know well. I sleep to the rhythmic sea-song of surf pounding the seawall. But … oh, that trickster little word … but. I must make a decision. Nothing momentous. This is a small thing. Nothing to do with the fate of nations. An unfortunate aspect of my psyche...
