Globos in Ajijic

On a recent Saturday afternoon, Kelly and I sat on a rooftop in Ajijic, at the home of some friends who live right in the village. We enjoyed the company of a variety of other people, but there was another reason we spent most of the time on the roof rather than two floors below, where the delicious food was.

Globos!

The annual balloon competition takes place every September, around the Independence Day celebrations. Believe it or not, this lovely thing is made mainly of tissue paper. People work together on their globos, whether it's a family, a neighborhood or a business.

We were several blocks from the soccer field where the globos were being launched, and that was fine with me because while most of them got off to a good start, I'm not very Mexican in my ideas about what is safe.

They go aloft -- and some go very high indeed -- due to being little hot air balloons, and the heat is supplied by kerosene-soaked cotton or rags that are set on fire just before blast off.

I'm glad that all this takes place in the middle of the rainy season. Here is the pretty one above, crashing and burning.

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This is one of the more elaborate globos. To see a whole slide show of the many photos Kelly took that day, see http://www.flickr.com/photos/kellyhart/sets/72157607290460439/show/ and click on "slide show" at upper right.

September 11 Thoughts

I may have mentioned here that my father was a noted science fiction writer, Cordwainer Smith. That was his pen name; as a college professor and political scientist, he kept that identity secret and went by his real name, Paul M. A. Linebarger.

Well, recently I re-did a large website that I have about his science fiction and added a blog. This afternoon, I posted an uncharacteristically personal (for that website) entry, and as I was washing some dishes just now, it occurred to me that some of you readers might enjoy it:

http://cordwainer-smith.com/blog/september-11-thoughts-of-my-father.html

Introverts, Extroverts, Paranoids, Drama Queens...

We're all here. I'm sure we have our Mexican counterparts but right now I'm thinking about us foreigners. The drama gets pretty intense at times.

Okay, I'll fess up that Kelly and I are the introverts and the extroverts -- both of us. We do enjoy going out now and then, we like talking with people and meeting new people. But when it comes down to it, both of us tend to be happiest working on our many projects: writing, gardening, learning new things.

For example, when Kelly's sister was here, she got us started with Wild Goose Chi Gong. I really took to it and am learning more, bit by bit, via DVD. This form of Chi Gong is known as a "medical" type, and I must say that seeing the health problems of other foreigners here has me on a fitness kick, losing weight, getting more exercise, and almost completely eliminating wheat and all sweeteners from my food.

That leaves the paranoids and drama queens. I'm sure I could qualify for one or another title now and again, but I was actually thinking of various other people and events over recent months. (Add drama kings, it's certainly not just women.) I will spare you the details of these sagas.

I was chatting about this over lunch with friends today, a couple who have been here several years longer than our nearly three years. The woman commented that one of the main things that she loves here is the sense of  community among the foreigners.

People tend to know each other, help each other out, make allowances for each other's foibles (however massive), and be warm and friendly to a degree she doesn't see in the US. Her husband pointed out that we all came here from someplace else.

I'm a bit nuts, some of them are a bit nuts. And maybe you'd fit right in too!

American living abroad? You can vote.

I didn't realize till we looked into it that any American living out of the country, whether civilian or military, is entitled to vote in national elections in the state where they last lived in the US.

Get all the details, and fill out a form to apply, at

http://votefromabroad.org/

They give various tips, including the comment that may reassure some of you: Voting only in federal elections only cannot be used to affect the determination of federal or state tax liability.

Please spread the word on this. It looks like the election in November may need our votes.

Kelly's Photos Around Our Lake Chapala Area

I'm busy on a new website (about learning Spanish... will write about it when I get it up, within a few weeks, I hope) and so I have been neglecting a lot of my ordinary activities... like writing here.

So when my husband Kelly mentioned that he was posting a bunch of his newest photos to flickr, I thought, "Aha,instant blog entry."

Take a loook: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kellyhart/

And I'll be back here again pretty soon!