latitudinal lassitude

We have now been here a week and what do I have to show for it? Not very much, if the truth be told. I am afflicted with that tropical malaise that overwhelms after a couple of days. It’s all I can do to get up in the morning for coffee, shamble around until I can make a decent excuse that it is time to relax and read (aka nap). A late lunch, perhaps the laundry or a snip or two in the garden. More reading (napping) until it’s time for a swim. Margaritas at sundown, dinner, bed. This state of suspended animation usually last three or four days ~ or weeks or months. It afflicts almost all the gringos who come here; we all drag around for a few days and then pep up and get started on our Mexican lives. It’s not that it is so hot, it’s so lulling. The soft sounds of the waves on the beach, the lovely breeze, the musical calling of strange birds, it’s all perfect. And if it’s so perfect, why would you want to do anything else?

Speaking of reading, I have had to give up on “The Prime Minister”, Vol. 5 of Trollope’s The Pallisers. The tapes were in such terrible shape that I finally just put them all back in the box and returned them with a terse note. I still have Vol. 6, “The Duke’s Children.” I’ll read about the prime minister when I get home. By that time I will better appreciate something other than “beach reading.”

We did accomplish one thing this week, however. We made a decision about the floor tiles. When here last April we investigated several options, none of which was exactly right. We revisited two of the tile stores on Wednesday and finally hit on a favorite; it is a true, rich Mexican terra cotta, not the paler version I had originally favored. If you’re going to have a Mexican house, make it muy Mexicana. We’ll go back up to Colima next week and put in an order. Jaime cannot start on the work until the first week in February so we have plenty of time, both to buy and to change our minds!

Yesterday was the 19th birthday of the man I am privileged to call my grandson. We spoke on the phone. He was awaiting the arrival of his main squeeze, Anna, down from Berkeley for the weekend. Happy Birthday Andrew!