Living in Yucatan makes it easy for me to put myself into unusual situations and spin stories about them. It is an area rich with possibilities. A few years ago, I wrote a mystery called Madrugada, which has been with an agent for a long time. She says it’s difficult for new writers to break in to the traditional publishing world. So I’ve taken the dreaded and reviled path of “self-publishing,” which has turned out to be fun and rewarding. For my print books, I use CreateSpace, an adjunct of Amazon.com. They’ve been terrific and I’m happy with the result.*

The ingredients for writing a mystery include a good setting and a vivid imagination. Look around you, observe the regular flow of events, and then distort them to your dark purposes. In every situation in life – be it romantic, profit-motivated or power-motivated, there are scenarios waiting to be born where, if you carry a real situation to its possible ultimate conclusion, some kind of violent crime can occur. It’s not always clear who is responsible for the crime, and the mystery novel explores the motivations and possibilities. Ideally, the reader doesn’t know who the bad guy is until the end, if then.

The writing process is long, but it is great fun. There you are – just you and your computer, dreaming up bizarre scenarios, taking people’s ideas and motives to their ultimate expression. Then, the level-headed protagonists get to peel back each layer of motivation until they see who done it. What you are doing is presenting a complex, violent situation, and then deconstructing it, so that the reader can see that the crime makes perfect sense given the circumstances, that indeed, the crime was inevitable.

Mysteries require detail and endless pondering of the possibilities. You have to be on guard NOT to get boring. In a class I took once, the instructor suggested that if we hit a slow spot in the narrative, that we invent a sudden intrusion into the flow. If two characters are chatting calmly, create a sudden event, like a gunshot, an invasion, a TV bulletin, or a naked woman running down the street carrying a large bouquet of flowers. This of course, becomes part of the mystery and has a direct connection to the plot. Every page must be interesting.

You can get lost in your story and in your process. Sometimes I look up and four hours have flown by. It gets addictive.

The book I’m reworking now, Madrugada is set in Merida and in a fictional village called Yaxum. Superficially, it’s about the theft of artifacts from an archaeological site, and associated greed and murder. The sub-theme is the impact of the modern world on small Maya pueblos in the Yucatan. In Spanish, the word “madrugada” refers to the time of day between about midnight and five a.m. It’s my favorite word in Spanish and it’s interesting that there is no direct translation into English.

In the story, there is an archaeological site at Yaxum that is being worked by an American team. It’s a tale of corruption, pride, overcoming personal obstacles, and friendship. As in anything I write, the book takes a strong look at the dark side of human nature. The main characters are an American woman investigator from New York, the Merida Police chief, and the head man of the village of Yaxum. In my experience, there is actually a village and archaeological site that resemble Yaxum. The real situation possesses many of the conflict situations in the book, but in the book I can carry these situations a lot further than they went in real life. Using a real environment as my base allows me a richness of detail I don’t know whether I could have conjured up if it had been totally imaginary. For instance, I doubt I’d be good at science fiction.

I have one mystery, set in Yucatan, currently on the market both as an eBook and a paperback. Deadly Awakening features the same investigator and police chief as in Madrugada. They are wonderfully flawed people who are in Merida close to the “end of days,” which many predict will occur on 12/21/2012, the end of the Maya long-count calendar (a period of over 5,000 years). In Deadly Awakening, there is a truly awful murder scene, which makes international news. There are thousands of spiritual tourists in Merida for the end-of-days, and a number of groups have bizarre, charismatic leaders who don’t see eye to eye.

Right now, 2012: Deadly Awakening is available on Barnes & Noble and Amazon as an eBook and on Amazon as a print paperback. The process of putting it into print was long and arduous, but I as I read it over and over and over again, even I was amused. I actually chuckled. There are photos in both the eBook and the print edition. It’s funny and harrowing at the same time. I love this book.

Now that I’ve finished nudging Deadly Awakening through the print process, I am preparing Madrugada for eBook publication and then I’ll take that to print too. A third book with the same characters, Rotten Fruit, is in the works. A lot of the action in Rotten Fruit takes place, where else, in Oxcutzcab (the citrus center of Yucatan). The dregs of the Las Vegas mafia is involved.

• The chorus of birds you hear in the morning becomes more interesting as you begin to identify the distinct birdcalls.
• When walking outdoors, you automatically cross to the shady side of the street.
• You are no longer intimidated by the visa renewal process at Immigration.
• When you visit your city of origin, you sometimes get lost.
• You get angry when you see foreign tourists throwing garbage downtown.
• You order home delivery from Messina’s pizza. And you like it.
• You barely glance at iguanas of geckos in your yard.
• You can walk through the “fresh” fish section of the mercado without gagging.
• You can distinguish which vendors are passing by on your street from their sounds. The mechanized ”moo” for the dairy guy, the flute tune from the knifegrinder, the calls of “paletas” or “naranjas dulces.”
• You start feeding the feral cats, or better yet, adopt one.
• You know that ceiling fans have a right way and a wrong way.
• You know the name and chisme about the Governor of Yucatan.
• You learn to take naps.
• You no longer dash out to see every parade and celebration in the city.
• You actually buy dirt from the guys with the mules and flat carts.
• You know your neighbors.
• You don’t say no when a guest asks to smoke in your home.
• You don’t go out of your way to avoid glorietas. (traffic circles)
• You know where to join the line on Sunday morning to for the best cochinita.
• You can pay your real estate taxes and fidecomiso without a lawyer.
• You have a Mexican driver’s license.
• When the electricity fails, you open your door, look at the neighbors who have also opened their doors, and join them in a shrug. Oh, well.
• You know the names of at least six types of peppers.
• You learn the beauty, entertainment value, and art of gossip.
• You, as a man, will realize you will never have to wear another necktie.
• You, as a woman, are thrilled to know you will never again have to wear nylons. (Remember nylons?)
• You are comfortable sleeping in a hammock.
• El Diario is delivered to your door.
• Your favorite event at Carnaval is the children’s parade.
• You become less compulsive about the perfection of the walls in your house.
•  You aren’t ashamed to ride in a calesa, even by yourself.
• You give money to old women begging without considering whether or not they really have fat bank accounts.
• You integrate the soul-stanching effort to be polite at all times, no matter what. (I’m not there yet.)
• You are chilly in temperatures below 75 F.

Know some more?

Turtle in our garden

Turtle treat

This box turtle has lived in our garden for nearly twenty years. He emerges only in the rainy season. This morning, he graced us with an appearance.

Patty’s Birthday

Once a month, Remixto and MexicaChica put on a decorous brunch at Roger Lynn’s gracious Casa Mexilio, one of the oldest privately owned hotels in Merida. The courtyard here is especially lovely and I enjoyed leaves falling into my food. (No, really, I did.) There were six of us at our table to celebrate Patty B’s birthday, and other tables were grouped under trees and among flowering plants. The food was first-rate and presented beautifully. I would have taken more pictures of it, but it was hard to hold back. Remixto and MexicaChica are the two new companies that put on that dynamite cooking class I took a couple of months ago.

Lechon Benedict - an inspired idea

Another Car Crash on Our Corner

Today I was sitting at my computer all the way in back of the house, when I heard the unfortunately familiar sound – the screech of brakes, and then the impact. This happens regularly on our corner despite the traffic light (downtown, Calle 58 and Calle 51). I am am always impressed with how rapidly the emergency teams respond and how efficient they are.

Today it was a pickup truck and a car. It was hard to tell who had run the light. One man, who had been sitting in the back of the pickup on a propane tank, was injured. The paramedics came within a few minutes, followed by an ambulance. They removed him immediately, put him on a stretcher into the ambulance, and were off to the hospital. Then the bomberos, the fire department, responded because of the propane tank. After careful examination, they decided it was intact and safe. There were lots of police cars and other unidentified officials. Several newspapers were there. Here are some pics.

A few minutes after impact

Injured man on stretcher

Paramedic

Examining the propane tank in the truck

Bombero

Fire truck

Photo of the day

All together, there were eight marked municipal police cars, one small police truck, an ambulance, two paramedic motor bikes, two fire trucks, and about 50 personnel.

We continue to get the most unbeleivably rude calls from Sky’s collection agency. This occurs in cycles, and when we eventually clear it up, they apologize and go away. But a few months later, they are back, even ruder than before.

The other night a woman called asking for Jim. I asked who was calling and she said, “You know who this is. Put him on the phone.” I took a hard look at the receiver, not sure it was operating correctly, and said no. She said, “You have to put him on the phone.” I hung up.

The creepy stalker lady called over and over and over again. I told her to stop calling and she said, “I’ll never stop calling you.” A Spanish-speaking friend of ours who was at the house told her to go to hell. Then I took the phone off the hook.

The cycle before this, the bill collector threatened to come to the house to collect. I encouraged him to do so, and said he would meet the police here.

This outrageous stuff is especially amazing in a country that is generally so polite. There is no attempt to actually find out what the problem is, or ask whether it has been taken care of. Just an onslaught of insults and threats. I can’t believe this method is ever successful with anyone.

Even if we had problems with Cablemas, which we don’t, there is no way we would ever again deal with Sky under any circumstances. Sky should realize that this kind of bad behavior reflects on them and affects their image.

In all fairness, the Sky company representative who came to collect the box was totally professional and apologetic, but as he explained, they farm out the collection jobs to other companies. He promised that it wouldn’t happen again, but we have gone through several more cycles now.

We recently bought an answering machine. Remember those? A great invention.

Here are some photos and a bit of commentary about my last couple of weeks in Seattle. I’m back in Merida now. Whew!

Family

My sister Leila has an electric car. It’s a Xebra, made by a company called Zapworld.  Unfortunately, it is rarely in operating order, so she’s thinking of selling it. It would be fabulous if only it worked. It’s cute and running it is free. No gasoline! She plugs it into a 110v outlet for an hour or two, and then it will go about 30 miles at speeds up to 35 mph. Well, she says she may not sell it after all because it’s so much fun to drive. It needs a new charger.

My niece Celia, who goes to a nice suburban high school just outside Seattle, says that a whopping 95 percent of the kids in the school drink alcohol and smoke marijuana, pretty much on a daily basis. Most kids are high while  in school. I think it takes a lot of grit and determination to maintain yourself in the five percent who are different. You go, girl.

My niece, Celia

Keith and Richard’s

One delightful evening I went for dinner at Keith and Richard’s at their home on Capitol Hill. Here are some pics of them and their garden. Keith is a landscape architect.

Keith G. in his award-winning garden

Garden

Keith divides outdoor spaces into "rooms."

Garden

Richard cooked dinner.

There were four for dinner. This is Curry and Richard.

World's most polite dog

Tim the sculptor

We walked around the corner to the home of their friend, artist Tim D. Here’s what that looked like.

One of Tim's cars

Statue for sale

All of Tim’s statues are outdoors, in the untrimmed yard. The place has a wild look.

Wall outside Tim's house

Tim has his demons.

This is my favorite. It’s a mummy, or maybe a zombi. He has moss growing on his arms.

Mossy zombie

Pig truck

Here’s another interesting vehicle. It was picking up a load of cheese from a manufacturer.

Handmade pig truck

Jeanne

This is my friend Jeanne Sather. She maintains a superb website called Assertive Patient (www.assertivepatient.com). This site is an invaluable resource for people living with cancer and for their loved ones. It is also a revealing collection of stories about the medical profession, banks and money institutions, gardening, and raising children. The site can be painful to read.

Jeanne makes and sells original and unusual jewelry which you can see and order from her other site, Charmed Jewelry.

Jeanne Sather

These are Jeanne’s sons, Akira and Robin.

Akira and Robin

It was Robin’s 20th birthday. He’s about to go to Japan on an exchange program for a year. Here is a picture of Jeanne’s photogenic ex-stepfather.

**************

Mexicans in Seattle

One day, in the process of cleaning up the two units in our duplex and getting them ready for new occupants, I needed some heavy lifting done. I drove up to Home Depot where at any given time there is a crowd of unemployed men looking for daywork. I hired Angel, from Oaxaca, and Abel, from Veracruz. Abel was a tall, sad looking young man. I asked him why he was up here and he said he makes more in the USA in an hour than he makes in Mexico in three whole days. And that’s IF there is any work, which there seldom is. But he misses his parents terribly.

These guys are giving up a lot to come here to support their families. Home, siblings, kids, fiestas, home-made food, music everywhere, flowers, people you have known all your life. I wish for them that they will be able to go home soon, where the human environment is warm and beautifully complex, and find work that can support them.

**************

Margaret and Beta

My friend Margaret chauffered me around on a mad run of last-minute errands the night before I left. Then we went to a vegan restaurant where her companion, Beta, was welcome. The waitress brought him a bowl of water without being asked. Actually, letting the dog in was the best thing about the restaurant, Chaco Canyon. Vegetarian, okay. But vegan, not good. Everyone in there was very thin and intense and politically correct.

Margaret and Beta

The bird of Seattle

This is a picture of a banana slug, the mascot of the City of Seattle.

Free pet

The Journey back

This is me on the inter-terminal train in the Houston Airport. I’m at my most exhausted, schlepping two heavy suitcases, a purse full of small weighty items, and a package over six feet tall containing a new grill for our Honda Passport, which I’d crashed last month. (See my article called Automobile Accident.) I had many unkind thoughts about Cesar, the man who smashed into me as he tried to pass me when I was turning left. I thought about him as the handle from the box dug into my hand. I thought of him as Continental was telling me they were so sorry, but they couldn’t fit the box on the plane. (They did.) I thought of him when people pointed and commented at the crazy lady with the bizarre assortment of luggage. I frightened small children.

BG and auto parts

***********

Seattle Cat Needs a Home

For my Seattle readers… This is Pumpkin, a four-year-old neutered male cat who is an excellent mouser. Unfortunately, he also kills birds (hey – he’s a cat) and his owner can’t stand it any more. He is clean, trained, indoor-outdoor, not annoying, and I loved living with him for two weeks. If you are interested, contact me, and I’ll forward your questions etc. to the owner.

Pumpkin

Detail of Tim’s Wall

Ceramics

An Idea For Our Time

I’m in Seattle right now, and staying in my friend Susan’s townhouse in Jackson Street Co-Housing. She went back east to visit family and I’m living with her dog Wolf, and her huge orange cat, Pumpkin.

Wolfie

Co-housing is defined as an “intentional community” where buildings are erected according to a communal style design, or existing buildings are “retrofitted.” Co-housing developments have individual self-contained residences and also community facilities. These may include a dining room and kitchen, children’s play areas, free internet, pools, gardens, and in the case of Jackson Street Co-housing, a hobby room and a secure indoor garage. Some rural co-housing communities have substantial acreage and raise a hefty percent of their own food.

Jackson Street Co-Housing

The overriding philosophy is to have a low impact on the earth and learn to share resources. Everything here is meticulously recycled. In this house, there aren’t any disposable paper products, zip lock bags, or any disposable plastic.

The food served in the dining room is mainly vegetarian. This urban development has vegetable and flower gardens on the steep paths between the buidings. I only ate in the community dining room a couple of times, but I had my own cloth napkin sealed in a bag with my name on it, waiting for my next visit.

Often, a core group of people will get together to organize such a community. They might buy land, hire architects, and get the residences going. Other people who share their values, buy into units.

People depend on each other. If you need a ride, or need to have your child watched for a while, or you want to borrow a book, share a cup of coffee, or whatever, there are people all around you who are here because they want a semi-communal lifestyle and they’re (reasonably) available to each other.

You can sign up for meals or stroll in and ask the cook whether there is enough for another person on a given day. They serve meals about four times a week, and people take turns cooking. Saturday morning there were three kinds of quiche, with fresh fruit, juice and coffee. Meals cost $4.00 for a guest like me.

Here is a group at dinner. Attendance is sparse because it’s a holiday weekend and the majority of community members are out of town.

The population is multi-generational, ranging from small children to people in their 80s. The community values their elders and are meeting these days to talk about how to be more supportive to them. Several of the older people were instrumental in designing and bringing the place into being about ten years ago

I’m staying in a three-story townhouse, but there are “flats,” apartments in an elevator building. Living units range from studios to three-bedroom homes. Legally, the co-housing developments are structured as either co-ops or condos. This one is a condo. There are 27 separate units.

The residents have regular business meetings and decisions are made by consensus. I am hoping to attend a meeting. There are no leaders.

Of course, everyone knows everyone else and are closer than most neighbors. They are genuinly helpful and friendly. Before I came, Susan circulated an email so everyone would know who I am, and everyone greets me as I walk through the beautifully gardened paths between my house and the parking area, the trash area, the communal building, or the street.

The only drawback to this place that I can see is that the internet system is truly awful and I had a heck of a time getting up on line. The DSL operates in fits and starts and my service goes in and out. But in a way, it’s in tune with the place. No one gets too pushed out of shape though, and yes, they will get to it and have it upgraded, but there will probably be a few community meetings to figure out the specifics.

I’m enjoying the meals and my neighbors. There is wonderful six-year-old named Hannah who lives next door. She’s a brilliant little girl who plays independently for long periods, does not scream, and is comfortable with adults. We who don’t ordinarily live around children forget how exciting it is to see ordinary objects through a child’s eyes. I like hearing what Hannah has to say.

This little boy is the son of the guy who prepared brunch July 3. We had three kinds of quiche, plus fruit.

The co-housing movement originated in Denmark in the 1960′s and co-housing communities exist all over Europe. There are 115 of them in the USA. See www.cohousing.org for a full background and a directory with descriptions of all the USA communities.

I’m told that the units here sell for between $200,000 and $400,000 depending on the size and configuration. They are well-built, attractive structures, with balconies, bay windows, large kitchens, and a lot of windows. There is also a monthly maintenance fee, as with any condominium.

I got to know several people in the two weeks I was at Jackson Street and hope to get to know them better on another visit. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience and would consider living here if I ever returned to the USA full-time.

Every few months I come to Seattle for a few weeks. It is such a contrast to Merida that for the first week or so I feel like a foreigner. Here are a few sights I saw that aren’t notable if you are here a lot, but for me, they were strange. In another week or so, this newness effect will wear off and I’ll be just like the rest of them.

The New iPhone 4

The day before yesterday, the new iPhone was released. I happened to be driving through an upscale shopping area, University Village, where there is a big Apple store, and saw the lines. This was in the early afternoon and there were several hundred people lined up for blocks in either direction to get their new phones.

There was one line for people who had pre-ordered and another for people who hadn’t. They took five people from the pre-ordered line for every one from the non pre-ordered line.  The people I talked to in the non-pre-ordered line had been there since five a.m.

Happy customer with new iPhone4

Next on line being greeted and escorted into the store

Brent and Ara

Pepper and Barb

Nick Smith from Oakland

 Nick Smith is visiting from Oakland and wasn’t buying a new phone. He just came down to the Apple store as a tourist. I asked him why so many people were all excited about the phone.

“I guess because it has video chat. There’s a little camera right in the phone. Also it has a good GPS feature.”

He said that he didn’t need it, and was happy with the phone he had.

Stan is on the pre-ordered line with his friend Angus. He’s buying the iPhone4 because “it has a better screen and a better processor.”

Stan and Angus

 Several people told me they were buying the iPhone4 because “it’s the latest thing.” They weren’t concerned with new features. The recession is not visible in Seattle, or at least among this part of the population.

Un-pre-ordered line

Taken from my car - the end onf the non-pre-ordered line

 The people at the end of the non-pre-ordered line, several blocks from the beginning of things, were grouchy and disorderly. No sun, no snacks, no visual contact with the mecca, the Apple store.

Since the day after the phone was released (yesterday), the news is that the phone has a design flaw. Apparently, if you are right-handed and hold the phone in your left hand, you cover part of the antenna (or one of the dual antennaes?), reducing the reception. If you put the phone down on a surface, it has five bars, but if you are holding it, you only get three. My god!

A young guy interviewed on the news said, “I’m sure Apple will make good on it. I’m not worried.”

And he is probably right. This company has generated a huge fan base because they are reliable and trustworthy and genuinely produce superior products. Years ago, Apple Mac computers were appreciated mostly by the less technically savvy of us because their interface is so intuitive. But now, Apple has become the darling of the tech population as well.

According to my site statistics, many more people who access gorbman.com have Mac operating systems rather than Windows or any PC system.

Apologies for the blue pictures. I had my lighting set wrong and I don’t have photo fix software with me.

Hairless Cats as Service Animals

This is Sam and her service cat, Baby Charlie. I was in a restaurant on Queen Anne Hill with my friend Richard when Sam walked in. She says that Baby Charlie lowers her blood pressure. She takes him everywhere, even when she rides her horse. Baby Charlie sits in front of her, clinging to the horse.

Sam and Baby Charlie

Baby Charlie is very cuddly.

Sam says that Baby Charlie is a Temple Cat and the breed is Egyptian.

I’ve been watching the congressional hearings (the US House Energy and Commerce Committee) and BP is not taking responsibility. Tony Hayward, the CEO, says he is sorry, he feels terrible about this, and admits it’s a terrible disaster. Poor Tony. Tony is responsible for this disaster, but hedges every statement by saying he had no direct knowledge of what was going on. He is the CEO, for god’s sake. He is delegating the responsibility and the blame to little people, far down the corporate food chain.

You know, as you get older and supposedly more mature, you start to look at issues with a broader scope – the adamant one-dimensional viewpoints of our youth slip away, perhaps unfortunately, as we learn more and see many sides of things. I know I’m certainly less vehement about a lot of things I used to think were clear. And on some issues, my viewpoints have changed dramatically. Like, I think police are necessary and we need more of them (speaking of the USA). Although generally I think it’s a bad practice, I can understand why some people might need guns (although that is certainly out of control). Although I can’t possibly understand all the issues, I think the USA might be right in sending troops to Afghanistan. I don’t know where I am any more on unions. Maybe waterboarding wasn’t such a bad idea, all things considered. Etc.

But certain issues are inviolate. They haven’t changed for me. Equal pay for equal work. Non-discrimination. I’m against hurting or killing people, especially children. Abortion rights yes. No on capital punishment. Health care for all Americans. A better educational system. Gay rights absolutely. I think the government has to impose rules of behavior and protection and even of ethics. (although they are hardly perfect themselves). And I think leaders, especially obscenely paid ones, should take responsibility.

In my plodding, middle-aged way, I was well on the road to thinking corporations had been unfairly portrayed as bad guys. I worked for Boeing for a number of years and thought they were ethical and reasonable with workers and with the way they made their products. I lost the “evil corporation” fervor of my youth. I mean if it weren’t for commercial competition, we wouldn’t have…(fill in the blanks).

But this BP thing has blown my perspective all to hell. BP are bad guys. BP knowingly, against the advice of their own engineers, followed unsafe procedures in order to save money and time. They had no emergency plans in place.

There was apparently a choice at some point between doing things one way or another in building the catastrophic oil well (known within BP as the “nightmare well”). One method cost seven million dollars more than the other, so BP chose the less expensive option, which was known to be less safe. Other oil companies have said they would never have used that method because it was dangerous. Tony said he wan’t part of that decision -making process and couldn’t comment on it.

In a five-year period, BP had 956 unsafe practices reported by government monitoring agencies, while Sunoco had six and Exxon had one.

There is a safety mechanism available, a remote shutoff control that is used by many oil drilling companies, according to the Wall Street Journal. BP did not choose to invest in these products. This mechanism could have prevented the disaster.

Every time a congressman asked Tony a question, he would say, “I was not party to that information,” or, “I was not part of that decision-making process.” When Henry Waxman, committee chair, asked who WOULD have known the dangers associated with this particular well, Tony said, “the drill team.” Give me a break.

From the Washington Post:

“There is a complete contradiction between BP’s words and deeds,” Waxman said. “Under your leadership, BP has taken the most extreme risks.

“We are seeing the same corporate indifference that cause collapse on Wall Street.”

And may I say here that Tony Hayward was awfully calm and quiet. The congressmen asked him repeatedly to speak more clearly and please speak directly into the mike. His affect was flat, his face never changed, he barely moved, his voice had zero inflection, his answers were fully rehearsed. I wonder what could have caused him to be in such a state? Well, considering that he has the the environmental future of the globe on his shoulders, he is hardly to be blamed for calming himself down before this appearance. We wouldn’t want him to have a nervous breakdown.

The oil disaster continues unabated, all efforts to halt it or slow it down meet with failure, and the environmental damage, so far limited to the US Gulf coast, is increasingly disastrous. Thousands of people are out of work, all the wildlife in the affected areas – marine, avian and land creatures – are dead or dying. There are dire predictions of the oil contamination spreading to Florida, to Mexico, and to the USA east coast. If it continues for years, it may affect the entire world.

When we watch CNN and they are talking about the Gulf disaster, there is almost always an inset shot of the massive amounts of oil, shooting powerfully into the surrounding waters. Up to 120 million gallons so far. I’m not a marine biologist, but it seems to me it would take many many years for this to clear up, even if they managed to stop the flow right now. And it hasn’t even been slowed down. After 59 days.

The live-camera shots of the oil billowing into the Gulf makes me ill. So does the footage of the oil-covered marsh birds, being cleaned, one by one, a tiny fraction of the bird population. No fish. No shrimp. No crab. No plants. No algae.

Now some experts are saying that even if they manage to construct “containment wells” to redirect the oil and siphon it up normally, that still might not work. It might not even work to build two wells. They are predicting mid-August as the time the first one may be finished.

Tony Hayward earned a salary of 4.7 million dollars in 2009.

The torrent of oil gushing from the deep seems like as much of a threat to the world as global warming.

Rather than succumbing to them, we have discovered a couple of easier ways to deal with these disgusting insects. The trick is prevention. It’s almost impossible to keep them out of our big open homes here in Merida, but we try.

All our windows have screens, of course. As do the doors. That’s in addition to two big metal gates, also throughly screened. We keep compulsive watch for cracks or openings in the screening, or places it has departed from the wall.

Our own little patio carcel

One of the best things we did a few years ago, was to screen in our entire patio (above). Yes, it gives the patio a prison-like look, but we are pleasantly incarcerated under a bug-prooof open roof. We had metal workers design a giant framework and then carefully attach panels of screening. It has worked like a charm. The only thing I would do differently would be that instead of using black metal, I would have painted it white because the black iron absorbs the heat and sends it into our living area.

This arrangement is also a 100% effective security measure. In days gone by, especially if the house had been vacant, we’d find that entrepreneurial folks had lowered themselves from the roof into the house with a rope.

We had a pencil tree that grew so high in the patio garden that it’s little branches poked right through the screening, so we trimmed it back and patched the miniscule holes it had made.

Jim has taken a liking to blue screening. At first I thought it looked tacky (well, it still looks tacky) but it blocks some of the sunlight. Right now, we are having an unprecedented heat wave here, and although there has been very little rain, we are suddenly getting waves of mosquitos.

Blue screen panels for shade

Blue-screened window. Tacky but effective.

Fully screened and barred rooftop palapa room

Our other lines of defense against mosquitoes are repellent  products. One is called Ultra 30 insect repellent, made by REI. It comes in a lotion and is 30% DEET. REI also sells a liquid called Jungle Juice made by a company called Sawyer. This lethal stuff is 98% DEET and you are advised not to apply it directly to your skin. Duh. (I do it anyway if I’m going to an exposed place at night). These products also protect you from ticks, flies and other despicable creatures and in the case of Jungle Juice, possibly from other human beings. These products are so effective that I think of them as suits of armor. Don’t drink them. You can order them from the REI website.

And we have those eye-catching orange spray bottles of RAID in every room.

We’ve had a spate of record-breaking heat here in the last 30 days. You can talk about shade, fans, airflow, etc. all you want, but when it’s this bad, the best solution is air conditioning. Lots of it. The most and the strongest you can afford. If you are lucky enough to have a pool (we aren’t), that does help a lot too, but you can’t stay in it day and night.

We aren’t security experts, but we’ve found that the best defense against theft is redundant security. That is, if there is a lock on the front door, you might also consider putting good locks on all the inner doors as well.

The only break-in we’ve had in about 20 years (well before the patio prison was installed) was when someone very tiny cut a hole in the roof of our palapa and squeezed in. They stole a hammock. They had to go out the same way they got in, because the two doors to the palapa have strong locks on them. Thus, they couldn’t carry anything large or heavy, like the refrigerator. Even if they’d gotten out of the palapa doors, they still wouldn’t have been able to get into the main part of the house because there is yet another locked gate.

We don’t lock every little door all the time, of course.

Oh, the heat is awful. Last week we went to the beach for a breather, but it was hotter in San Crisanto than it was in Merida. We took our 15 year-old malamute, Cujo, who is a real trouper. He was glad to be off leash, but he just found a shady spot and lay quietly. We gave up after two or three hours, when the electricity went off, so we didn’t even have fans to move the stifling air around on the patio. When we got back to Merida, poor old Cujo collapsed on the street getting out of the car and couldn’t get up. Getting his 130 pounds into the house was difficult. Dr. Tony Rios from Planned Pethood, the legendarily fabulous vet clinic, came immediately and carted him off to the clinic where they put him in a zero degrees C room for two hours. He revived well.

Magnificent San Crisanto beach

It’s too hot to walk early in the morning or late at night. It’s too hot to transplant my baby tomato plants into the ground. I don’t remember it ever being so hot here for so long. There are a bunch of storms predicted, and I wish they would come now. Meanwhile, we have our trusty LG air conditioners.