Monthly Archives: July 2022

Rants and raves, Uncategorized, Writings

Things that happen — or don’t — when your debit card dies and goes to finance heaven

Thirty things I can not do — according to the 876 e-mails that I just deleted — now that my only debit card has been hacked and terminated by my bank:

  1. Buy tickets for the San Miguel chamber music festival’s new season.
  2. Help the Democratic Party defeat the existential threat to democracy that is the Republican Party by donating to 73 candidates for various state and national offices who are currently soliciting me for funds to continue their campaigns.
  3. Take advantage of the special discount being offered by several companies on photo-printed coffee cups, T-shirts, and aprons – and of course, photo books.
  4. The latest one-day-only Kindle book deal of the century! Just for me!
  5. Free shipping – for today only! – on lots of stuff that I don’t need, never wanted, and didn’t ask for.
  6. A 50 percent discount on New Yorker magazine. Ends very, very, very soon!
  7. Twenty-five percent off all personally designed birthday and thank you cards. Extended offer! This won’t last forever. Why are you hesitating? Surely you know somebody with a birthday coming up soon.
  8. Pay my New York Times subscription which has detected a problem with my current method of payment and even after some 30 years as a subscriber has no desire to cut me some slack.
  9. Take advantage of Kayak’s and Skyscanner’s alerts on the price of airplane tickets to Boston, Providence, San Diego, Sacramento, and Reno. Prices going up very soon! maybe in the next few hours! Don’t hesitate!
  10. The last chance to book car rentals at soon-to-go up prices for the just mentioned cities. 
  11. Last chance (again) to get a New Yorker subscription (which I already have) – save 86% on the cover price! (Lots of these. Lots and lots and lots. The equivalent of the inserts that tumble to the floor when you open a magazine.)
  12. An opportunity to get summer fun flexibility by booking a Lake Tahoe vacation rental NOW!
  13. Invitation to donate to Alex’s GoFundMe account. (Who is Alex? I don’t know.)
  14. PayPal has selected ME to apply for its exclusive credit program and they are giving me $40 off future purchases – if only I could.
  15. Last chance to get $50 off certain health and ancestry deals with 23andMe, now that they have a chunk of my DNA sample and personal data.
  16. Today only’s special 40 percent-off deals from Amazon. Is this a duplicate? Is this a repeat? It sounds sooooo familiar….
  17. Purchase the perfect bra from Natori.
  18. Use the limited-one-time-only special credit from Uber Eats.
  19. The last chance to have my gift matched at several non-profit fund-raisers.
  20. Migrate e-mails to a new cloudHQ email address.
  21. Save 20 percent on Rick Steves travel bags.
  22. A free trial on internet-based security cameras.
  23. Incredible deals, this week only, at La Comer supermarket.
  24. Starbucks: Become a member, win incredible prizes!
  25. Renew my now-discontinued Prime subscription. Only days left to do so.
  26. Watch the 88 best movies on Netflix — which will soon discontinue my subscription when my next monthly payment comes due if I don’t cough up some dough and replace my credit card with one that works.
  27. Only one day left to take advantage of the clearance program that will enable me to by-pass airport security lines and stick my nose up at the hoi-polloi.
  28. A chance to bring someone I love for free on Amtrak’s limited-time-only two-for-one hot summer deal. Seriously hot. As in, this is one hot summer and the AC on Amtrak sucks.
  29. Unlock Expedia’s rewards benefits.
  30. Win a custom-designed Airstream trailer and Ram 1500 truck from Omaze.

I also can not:

Pull pesos out of an ATM machine. 

Order a new book from Kindle.

Pay for a meal in a restaurant.

Buy a case of wine.

Load up on dwindling medications.

Get U.S. dollars when I fly to Boston today.

Pay for a hotel room.

Pay for the rental car I reserved a month ago

Pay for gas when I drive to Rhode Island.

On the other hand:

I can sit and read a book

I can write to people

I can call family on the phone and chat

I can sit in the courtyard and ask the birds how they managed before the Internet.

I can turn off, tune out, and drop out.

I can go for a long walk in the countryside.

I can sit in the Jardin and listen to Mariachi bands as the sun sets.

I can sit on the roof terrace and watch the sunset.

I can count the church bells and make sure they are keeping proper time.

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Colonia San Antonio, photography, San Miguel de Allende, Uncategorized, Writings

In the Garden

And I turned to you and I said No guru, no method, no teacher

Just you and I and nature And the father in the garden

–VAN MORRISON, “IN THE GARDEN”

So I sit here in the garden, in the early summer light

A cup of coffee grows cold beside me

In the stillness that morning brings, fleeting stillness

The workers next door have not yet stirred to break the silence

With their hammers and saws and boisterous shouts.

There is still room for the birds in the dense green

To sing their songs, perform their magic,

Find love among the branches.

I don’t know the geography of this garden by name,

Only by the heart, defined by what my eyes take in:

The delicate flowers, the flirty birds, the twisty vines,

The shaded coolness of the branches. So many voices

of green, vying for my attention. I know

Only that it is too beautiful for me to rise and exert my will

Where it is unwanted, unasked for, upon another day.

An empty bag awaits upstairs with a ticket to somewhere far

And I only know I don’t want to leave the garden.

I want to sit here in the peace, in the coolness,

Listening to the plants breathing ever so lightly

Parsing out their secrets ever so lightly

Unlocking a state of grace ever so lightly,

Grace I can not achieve no matter how hard I try.

Outside, mothers and fathers walk their children

Hand in hand to school as church bells chime,

A touch of grace all its own.

I see their shadows pass on frosted windows,

And I sit and listen to the plants.

And listen to the birds.

And listen to the silence.

And my coffee grows cold for I dare not move

I can not move,

I don’t want to move.

I want only to become one

With the stillness.

In the garden.

While there is still time.

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Colonia San Antonio, photography, San Miguel de Allende, Uncategorized, Writings

Waddup? Nuttin, you? Nada. So, howzabout a cat and cacti picture then? Cool. And some dancing girls.

“The Cat in the Cacti” was one of my favorite Dr.Seuss books to read to my sons when they were toddlers. They did not grow up confused, but I did. Still am, I guess.

You want to hear about how my IT wizard supercharged my streaming media speed so that I can actually watch a movie uninterrupted (sometimes) off my FireStick?

Nah. Me neither.

How about the coming Sriracha shortage because drought conditions in northern Mexico are killing off the chiles harvest and the hot-sauce factory has closed?

You already know that one, huh?

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