From The Deck in San Felipe

Posted in From the Deck

By Christian Nagel

*********

A group of friends were discussing and wondering why the life-span of dogs in general was relatively short, and by comparison humans lived much, much longer.
**********

A young boy, the son of one of the fathers present, interrupted and said he knew the reason why. Seeing that the group could not arrive at a suitable solution they granted the youngster a hearing. What follows I received in an email and I cannot remember who the author was.

**********

Posted in From the Deck

If there is one thing Chuck and I are experts at it is eating out.  For the last nine years we have had at least two meals, often three or more, a week away from home.  However, the frequency does not necessarily make us gourmets, not by a long shot.  While in Chico and Paradise we tend to frequent the same few establishments with little regard to gourmet standards.  If anything, a reverse polarity may apply.  We are not gourmets.  We like regular everyday “American” food, assuming you consider Mexican cuisine American.. which I do.  Those that don’t seem to forget that there are three America’s, North, South and Central.
**********
Contrary to our normal behavior at home (in Paradise) though, when we are in San Felipe, we cook more and eat out less, at least a little less.  So far this trip we have had breakfast out only once, lunch twice and dinner once.  We have been here ten days, so maybe we are not eating out any less, just cooking more.  Which would make sense since we are not having lunch at work.
**********
At any rate, we are being a bit more adventurous in our choice of restaurants.  On past visits we had stuck pretty close to Rosaritos, Karen’s (Baja Java), with an occasional “fancy” meal at El Nido or Baja Steak (which was new last year and is closed this visit).  This week we have tried a couple of new places (new to us, not San Felipe).  We had breakfast at Chuy’s last week and were please.  The food was fresh and tasty and the service very good and pleasant.   Yesterday we had lunch at La Vaquita which is really a dinner house and bar.  We had heard rumors that it was one of the favorites for the locals and can see why.  The food  and service was excellent and atmosphere very pleasant.  It looked like there were set for entertainment in the evenings.
***********
La Taza is still our Internet Cafe of choice.  They have an open network now so we can make calls or use our computers while sipping our mochas.

Posted in From the Deck

Pictures from our walk at Pete’s Camp with friends, Rod and Rita.  The tide recedes about a half a mile twice a day and you can walk all the way out through tide pools.  The shells are beautiful!

Read more about Sand Dollars Here.

Posted in From the Deck

How do you spend a sand dollar?  Yesterday we went to Pete’s Camp at low tide and walked nearly to water’s edge collecting sand dollars.  One of the incredible attractions of San Felipe is the extreme tides that cause the shore to expand thousands of feet each day, exposing anew miles of tide pools filled with shells and yes, even sand dollars.  One afternoon stroll could easily fill a coffer the size of shoe box.
************
The locals collect and paint them.  You’ll see them on everything from picture frames to tissue boxes.  We passed a palm tree sporting a sand dollar ‘skirt.’  In mass they seem to become common and trivial.  Yet, each one taken separately is a work of art and wonder of creation.
************
Cut off from the net, not even a hard bound encyclopedia in the house, I’m left to ponder their origin and purpose.  I don’t even know if they are or were living creatures or the cast iff homes of such, like sea shells.  Each one bares a delicate floral bloom or star light emblem.  Their not quite perfect circular design is broken on three sides with symmetrical slits which on closer observation are found to be centered in ‘petal’ of yet another floral pattern on the reverse side.
************
One older and larger remnant appears to have outgrown these slits leaving only a scalloped edge as evidence of them and more questions as to whether they are the ruins internal growth or intrusions from outside.  Nearly twelve later, away from the shore, their surface still feels moist.  Are they still growing?  Did I blindly destroy a living creature’s existence in my eagerness to catch their beauty and bring it home for me?
************

Posted in From the Deck

Sunny and bright this morning.  Beautiful on the deck this morning.  Can’t quite get the hang of this sleeping in though.  I woke up once at 5, managed to go back to sleep but  than again at 6 and gave up and got up.
*
I spent the morning reading about publishing online newsletters and making notes for coming blogs.  At this time I am doing a lot of lists with possible topics and writing a few articles that might fit those topics but it is impossible to really make any decisions about topics or titles until I have internet access and do research on the keywords.  Key is the operative word there.  Success on the internet depends on selecting phases that people are going to be searching Google, Yahoo or one of the hundred other search engines.

Posted in From the Deck

Saturday, 3 January 2009
_
We work early to fog, condensation dripping from roof over the rooms where we ran the heat.  By mid-morning the fog had blown back out to sea and the air was pleasant in the sun but still a bit cool in the shade.  We had breakfast at Chuy’s Place and it was very good: machaca con huevo y jugo de naranga apretado fresco (shredded beef scrambled with eggs and fresh squeezed orange juice… I think).  This was are first visit to Chuy’s, although I had heard good things about it.  It lived up to the good reports.  Friendly, clean, good food and service.  I forgot to get a picture .. will try to catch it next time we go “down town.”
_
Our home here in San Felipe is only about a half mile from the main roads or the beach.  The roads in town are pretty bumpy and it is slightly down hill to the sea, which I suppose is a good thing if there are every any tidal waves.  We could easily walk to most anything, but coming back will take some getting use to.
_
The men from Samisa (the HVAC place) just left and have found and fixed the problem with the new A/C/Htg unit we put in last winter.  It was just a mixed up in the wiring.  Seems to put out plenty of heat now and turns off properly when it is supposed to.
_
Chuck seems content to read or play Bejeweled.  I’m a bit bored, can you tell?  I think it will be better when have  Internet access, Satellite Dish and met more people here.
_
The town looks abandoned.  I think all the drug killings in the border towns have scared many of the snowbirds away.  Many businesses have closed up.  The owner of George’s a long standing restaurant in town is converting his carport into a small cafe.  I thinking he too may be looking to shut down the big restaurant down town.  Another steak house which had just gone up last year is empty and for rent.  We haven’t been to Karen’s (Baja Java) yet to get the local scoop on the news.
_

Posted in From the Deck