A local report

Hello again to everybody.

    We are back again with no real earth shaking events to report, at least from around our little mud hut in the Sierra Madre Oriental country.   Beyond a three-day episode last week when El Gringo Viejo had to fire up the old fireplace, even the weather was tolerable enough for the December - January time of the year.   There were four mornings when the temperature hovered in the mid-30s, once even flirting with the dreaded 32F figure.   Each afternoon managed at least the mid-60s, and the departure morning, yesterday, followed a day when the temperature made it to 85 F. 

      The flowering trees and the other growies around the area and on the property are already showing signs of the "reton~o".   Our monstrous old mesquite tree is probably in its last demise.   It is an ancient tree, but now seems destined to serve for firewood.   We shall give it another year.   It is being replaced by two medium-huge ebony trees, which is appropriate, because ebony is the State tree of Tamaulipas.   The two trees are about 35 feet tall and of almost equal form and dimension.   They are also close to coming together to form a solid, dark green wall on the upper-west side of the property.   (upper-west side?)

    

Clay-coloured Robin, aka Tropical Robin

     This has also been a very intense episode of birds.   We have had bunches of the old regulars, but also new arrivals.   One of interest is a medium-small bird that is navy-blue in colour, with a black beak and apparently a thin red line across the throat.  He seems to delight in jumping into our large tray of water (we call in Lake Guerrero), and thrashing about with glee.  He'll jump out and shake off like an old shaggy dog, and then fly up to a nearby branch to air and sun dry.   The rest of the topic might prove boresome, so suffice it to say that every day, all day, almost without respite, there were passages of parrots, song birds, ground birds, warblers, etc. without end.   We even nailed a couple of really good navel orange halves onto the flamboyan tree in front, and waited for the attack of the orioles.   This time, however, they were joined by mockingbirds, clay-coloured robins, green jays, and summer tanagers, at times simultaneously.   Every now and then there would be smaller birds swarming looking for fruit flies and other treats around the oranges.

      Another sign of the times is that the Old Gringo encountered a little convoy of American fishermen heading down to the real Lake Guerrero with their boats and trailers in tow....about six trucks.    It used to be a very common sight, and perhaps the event is going to start being repeated.   The last time coming up, another little caravan of trailer/motor home people was seen heading towards the Emerald Coast of Vera Cruz probably for the Winter.   There used to be 50 to 60 rig caravans....sometimes more...."doing Mexico", which I always thought to be a ridiculous way to see and engage a country.   But...to each his own.
      Topics for the days ahead will deal with the continuing saga of  the War in Mexico, the elections to be held in Mexico in July and in United States in November, the lunacy of the gun control nuts and their allies in the Department of Justice and the ATFE, the bitter silliness of the marxists in Chilpancingo, and probably the Gringo Viejo's lecturing of the media, the dumboe missteps of the Republicans, the hypocritical jibberish of the Democrats and the American left in general, and other pleasantries.

     We shall be mulling over the dull, pointless, meandering lack of substance of the Republican Primary.   The candidate who will say...."O'bama's Socialized  Medicine Initiative will be repealed as my first act....could win the nomination and election.    If he can then say, "I shall sign the Balanced Budget Amendment and forward it for ratification by all fifty-seven States of the federal Union.... I shall order the design and implementation of a complete embargo and trade suspension with Communist Red China.....Once empowering legislation is forwarded to my desk, that legislation will implemented....I shall immediately order the lifting of any and all suspensions of deep water or any other drilling prohibitions in the Gulf of Mexico that were put into place during the previous administration......I shall immediately implement procedures that will result in the elimination of the Departments of Homeland Security, Education, Energy, Labour, Commerce,  and most of the Department of Health and Human Services.   In the Justice Department we shall de-activate and disband the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives division of the Justice Department, and the United States Coast Guard will return to detached and independent service as America's only free-standing military service serving principally inside the territorial domain of the United States of America."
     This "America needs jobs" goat barf is tiresome.   Platitudes aspirate.

More later, and thanks for your attention as usual.
El Gringo Viejo