Today In San Miguel

We are now temporary residentes. We can stay here a year and don't have to return to the states each six months. All we have to do is renew each year for a fee. We have decided to instead apply for Residente. No more fees once it is granted, we would qualify for government health insurance at $300 mas o menos more or less each year. We would also qualify for senior citizen status, much like senior citizen discounts in the US. One drawback to resident is the car would have to be taken back to US and sold.

Living here is unique. At 6:30 to 7:00 a man walks down the street clanging a bell of some kind to announce the garbage truck is coming. I, hurriedly, put on shoes, unlock the door, and grab the bags of trash. Then I go outside and wait with my neighbors. "Buenas diaz, Maria," I say. I help the little old lady across the street carry her garbage and lift it up to the men in the truck. Then it's back to bed.
Around 10:00 a truck comes up and honks his horn. It's the milk truck delivered the old, old fashioned way. A neighbor comes out with a bucket for his milk which is dipped out of a big milk can. We get our milk at MEGA, the big supermarket packaged like the milk in the US. The big difference, you can buy milk refrigerated or in boxes that sit on a shelf.

At night around 8:00 or so, a man pushes a cart up the street yelling something that sounds strangely like an inmate in an asylum might yell. I don't know what he is saying, but he is either selling nuts or corn nuts or ears of corn.

Lately, around six, black clouds roll in and you first see lightening then thunder directly overhead. The uvia comes down in sheets and the wind blows, then come morning everything is dry and sunny. We were dining one night at El Pergaso. We could see the buildup. It was warm on the upstairs terrace, out in the open watching the sunset, We finished our dinner and the skies opened up as we paid our check.

Tonight we ate at Hecho. Sue Reid invited another couple to dinner with us. Their names were Jan and Roger Capps. The name didn't mean much, but the surprise was Jan and I went to Madison High together. I recognized her right away, but had to ask her name. Roger knew Sue from the U of O, Now it turns out that Roger is the brother of Doug Capps who lived down the street from us in Portland. Liz and Doug Capps on 32nd Ave. I said we have some friends in PDX who are Ducks and asked if they knew Mike and Patsy McKelligon. Jan said of course we were sorority sisters at Alpha Phi. Well, I said the McKelligon's son Kevin married my daughter, Gilyn. Sue said she knew Patsy's sister, Libby.

Only in San Miguel. BTW we asked where they are staying and they are staying in the same complex that our friends Marsha & Darryl are renting for the winter here beginning in November