TUESDAY

…….I left the house about 10:30 wearing my light sweat shirt over a t-shirt. A light jacket would not have been a bad idea though. My first stop was the post office to mail a post card and I almost did not go in because there was a closed sign in the window. After getting closer than across the street I saw people inside so I entered and found business to be moving right along. In Mexico you must put US postage as well as Mexican postage on stuff going to the US so that meant 44 cents for US and an added 88.5 cents Mexican. I mailed the card to Terri on this date and I am interested to see how soon she gets it. Packages I have sent to Natalia [the ones she received] from Castle Rock took 30 days to arrive. Natalia once ordered a pair of reading glasses from the US and after a month she contacted the dealer via email and complained that they never arrived. She was told no problem; they would ship out another pair to her. Natalia asked them to send them to Canada because her sister would get them and bring them with her when she came to visit in a few weeks. They did that and her sister brought them with her. Two months after the sister went back to Canada the original glasses arrived at Natalia’s house. I sent a Christmas card to Natalia from Kelso on Thanksgiving and it did arrive just in time for Christmas. … . . After leaving the Post Office I began my several block walk to the library [walking on the sunny side of the street] for another book and found Nancy Morgan at the park where she volunteers as an aid to tourists. She has a daughter who graduated from Castle Rock High school many years ago and I had first met her last year when I was here. She is a friend of one of the lady’s in my bowling league. Nancy was talking with another couple and introduced me to them as Arthur and Lottie. Nancy went on to explain to them that I was staying with Natalia and asked them if they knew Natalia and Arthur said Natalia was his Aunt. It was discovered that Daniel, who met me at the airport was his uncle.  This evening after  Natalia arrived I asked her about it but she said no such person exists.. . . . . The library was next on my list so I went another 6 blocks or so and traded in my Hemingway book for a Balzac [I have always wanted to try reading his work. The little park right in front of Macaw’s is just across the street from the library so I found a sunny bench and sat down to read. It was getting time to eat something about the time Nancy came by on her way home so I walked with her to her new abode, she had moved since last year and she showed me the  building she rented in. She pointed out the second floor apartment on the left where she lives and the second floor apartment where her daughter lives. She then pointed to the top floor and told me that is where her other daughter lives. I didn’t go in because by this time I was hungry and wanted to get some lunch at Macaws again. I spent an hour eating and reading then I got cold enough to pay my bill and move across the street to another sunny bench to continue my reading. I stayed there as long as I could. The wind was blowing in off the ocean and it was getting cold so I moved inland a few more blocks and bought another of those ice-cream bars I had yesterday. The Twenty Peso one. I found another park bench in the City Square out of the wind and ate that and read Balzac until I was almost shivering. I was home by 4PM. It took me twenty minutes to get warm. I almost put my jacket on in the house! During the course of the day I stopped by the beach and took a picture of the wild waves coming in. I am going to spend the rest of the evening attempting to post it on this blog. With luck I will learn again how to do it sometime before I go to bed. There is a tiny surfer in the picture, just to the left of center.