I installed folding baskets on the new bicycle a few days ago. Now it's easy to ride to the market a block away and carry home two big bags of stuff.

A month or so ago I bought a new bicycle. It's an elegant green Raleigh Passage 4.0, and while it is working out well enough for me I had a serious bout of buyer's remorse after it came home with me. First of all, it is new and shiny - and I perceive it to be more of a theft target than the venerable beaters that fill all the local bike racks in the bicycle-loving town. It also leaes me in the position of being the one who will need to experience the first dings and the sizable depreciation (Ack! It wasn't even on SALE!) that accompanies new stuff. In hindsight, I would have been a LOT more comfortable waiting for the right used cycle to show up on Craigslist, and fixing it up a bit. Oh well, as Pat points out, at least it was only a bicycle with a couple of hundred bucks involved, not a car.

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We got a great card and letter from a friend in California yesterday. I replied this morning, and since the stuff I was passing along to her was about what I might have updated other passers-by with here I thought I'd be lazy and just drop some exerpts in today....

Thanks for taking the time to pass along all the news. It's nice to still feel connected to folks we care about in a place we have (some) fond memories of.

My, my, aren't you the busy one! (she has been going to school, has new career, engaged in creative stuff, running household...). I'm glad you found something you enjoy enough to dive into like that. I am still searching for my next pursuit. For the past few months since we acquired the house, I have been absorbed in all the projects and chores, but at some point when things slow down, I will be looking for something to be engaged in. Still want to try painting full time, but the idea of a fun challenging workplace where I can earn a few bucks and interact with some nice smart people is appealing too...network engineering job opportunities here are limited, but there have been several I could have snagged if I had been ready. I may need to hit a boot camp for Cisco certification to enhance my prospects, given the long hiatus from wage slavery. Pat is still on salary with the CA outfit, and travels a lot at times, so I will probably wait until that ends before I consider full-time work. I wouldn't want to neglect the house upkeep and dog-care with no one here ten hours a day most of the week.

We still want to work toward a full-time life in Mexico some day, and this may mean trying to find an opportunity to live there seasonally for a few months at a time to validate it as something we really will embrace long-term. This would mean not being tied down to a full-time job here with limited time off, so I (we) might explore contract work with 3-6 month engagements with (hopefully winter) months off. We also need to explore finding a short-term housemate, like a grad student, to watch the place while we are away in Mexico for the winter.

I'm starting a ten-week advanced Spanish class in a few weeks, hoping to polish that up a bit. Still haven't made any new Latino friends here, but I'm looking. Only about 10% of the community here, so a bit less visible. There is one good panadería here, and I can find local Spanish newspapers there. I asked a couple of lawn care workers in the neighborhood where I could 'conocer algunos Latinos', and they suggested either a local Hispanic Catholic church or a cantina popular with locals.

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Seeing the contagion spread from the sub-prime debacle has reaffirmed my unease with all manner of shady hedge fund machinations and the precarious debt and liquidity house of cards that seems to pervade the whole spectrum from household to national and international economies. As the chief guy at www.minyanville.com ominously warns, the wheels of the economic cart are wobbling and in imminent danger of falling off. (Ah, what fascinating days for Gloom and Doom economy watchers - like Watergate or impeachment hearings for political junkies...)

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I'll have to post a new garage photo to show you how EMPTY it looks now that I have disposed of all the empty boxes and put up shelves for what we still have. New rule - if there isn't available storage for it without increasing clutter it can't be here - if it is irresistible something else will need to go to make room. I try to keep in mind that if Mexico happens in a couple of years, almost everything will need to be jettisoned, and the less the better or we may be anchored here by the inescapable mass of stuff, like little planets in orbit around the Junk Star.

Well, enough for now - if either of you has a reason to attend a conference or has business in Denver be sure to let us know, and we will try to get you up to Fort Collins (and maybe a day in Wyoming). Otherwise, no doubt one or both of us will find some reason to be in the Bay Area at some point, and will try to show up at your door with a nice oakey Chardonnay in hand.

Saludos,
Stan

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