diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'bak/oldluxpages/jrnlold/2018/11')
| -rw-r--r-- | bak/oldluxpages/jrnlold/2018/11/food-table-tonight.html | 603 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | bak/oldluxpages/jrnlold/2018/11/food-table-tonight.txt | 68 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | bak/oldluxpages/jrnlold/2018/11/friday.html | 531 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | bak/oldluxpages/jrnlold/2018/11/friday.txt | 69 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | bak/oldluxpages/jrnlold/2018/11/lets-go-ride.html | 418 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | bak/oldluxpages/jrnlold/2018/11/lets-go-ride.txt | 58 |
6 files changed, 1747 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/bak/oldluxpages/jrnlold/2018/11/food-table-tonight.html b/bak/oldluxpages/jrnlold/2018/11/food-table-tonight.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1d3199b --- /dev/null +++ b/bak/oldluxpages/jrnlold/2018/11/food-table-tonight.html @@ -0,0 +1,603 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html +class="detail single" dir="ltr" lang="en-US"> + +<head> + <title>There’ll Be Food On The Table Tonight - by Scott Gilbertson</title> + <meta charset="utf-8"> + <meta http-equiv="x-ua-compatible" content="ie=edge"> + <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> + <meta name="description" + content="Food powers economies, shapes ecology, dictates religious rituals, causes wars, drives the explorations of the unknown, determines the size and shape of our bodies, and, to an extent we are only beginning to realize, shapes how we act, how we think, and ev"> + <meta name="author" content="Scott Gilbertson"> + <link rel="alternate" + type="application/rss+xml" + title="Luxagraf RSS feed" + href="https://luxagraf.net/rss/"> + <link rel="stylesheet" + href="/media/screenv9.css" + media="screen"> + <link rel="stylesheet" href="/media/print.css" media="print" title="print" /> + <link rel="shortcut icon" href="/favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon"> + <link rel="manifest" href="/manifest.json" /> + <link rel="dns-prefetch" href="https://stats.luxagraf.net"> + + <link rel="canonical" href="https://luxagraf.net/jrnl/2018/11/food-table-tonight" /> + <meta name="ICBM" content="20.911754362547363, -100.75172764876405" /> + <meta name="geo.position" content="20.911754362547363; -100.75172764876405" /> + <meta name="geo.placename" content="San Miguel de Allende, Mexico"> + <meta name="geo.region" content="-"> + <meta property="og:type" content="article" /> + <meta property="og:title" content="There'll be Food on the Table Tonight" /> + <meta property="og:url" content="https://luxagraf.net/jrnl/2018/11/food-table-tonight" /> + <meta property="og:description" content="Food powers economies, shapes ecology, dictates religious rituals, causes wars, drives the explorations of the unknown, determines the size and shape of our bodies, and, to an extent we are only beginning to realize, shapes how we act, how we think, and ev" /> + <meta property="article:published_time" content="2018-11-26T10:27:53" /> + <meta property="article:author" content="Scott Gilbertson" /> + <meta property="og:site_name" content="Luxagraf" /> + <meta property="og:image" content="/media/images/original/2018/2018-12-26_141231_mercado.jpg" /> + <meta property="og:locale" content="en_US" /> + <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image"/> + <meta name="twitter:description" content="Food powers economies, shapes ecology, dictates religious rituals, causes wars, drives the explorations of the unknown, determines the size and shape of our bodies, and, to an extent we are only beginning to realize, shapes how we act, how we think, and ev"/> + <meta name="twitter:title" content="There'll be Food on the Table Tonight"/> + <meta name="twitter:site" content="@luxagraf"/> + <meta name="twitter:domain" content="luxagraf"/> + <meta name="twitter:image:src" content="/media/images/original/2018/2018-12-26_141231_mercado.jpg"/> + <meta name="twitter:creator" content="@luxagraf"/> +<script type="application/ld+json"> +{ + "@context": "https://schema.org", + "@type": "Article", + "mainEntityOfPage": { + "@type": "WebPage", + "@id": "https://luxagraf.net/jrnl/2018/11/food-table-tonight" + }, + "headline": "There'll be Food on the Table Tonight", + "datePublished": "2018-11-26T10:27:53+04:00", + "dateModified": "2018-11-26T10:27:53+04:00", + "author": { + "@type": "Person", + "name": "Scott Gilbertson" + }, + "publisher": { + "@type": "Organization", + "name": "Luxagraf", + "logo": { + "@type": "ImageObject", + "url": "https://luxagraf.net/media/img/logo-white.jpg" + } + }, + "description": "Food powers economies, shapes ecology, dictates religious rituals, causes wars, drives the explorations of the unknown, determines the size and shape of our bodies, and, to an extent we are only beginning to realize, shapes how we act, how we think, and ev" +} +</script> + +</head> +<body > + <div class="wrapper" id="wrapper"> + <div class="header-wrapper"> + <header class="site-banner"> + <div id="logo"> + <a href="/" title="Home">Luxagraf</a> + <span class="sitesubtitle">Walk Slowly</span> + </div> + <nav> + <ul> + <li><a href="/jrnl/" title="Stories of life on the road.">Jrnl</a> & <a href="/field-notes/" title="Short stories, snapshots of daily life on the road.">Field Notes</a></li> + <li><a href="/guide/" title="Advice, Tools, Tips and Tricks for Full Time Van or RV Life.">Guides</a></li> + <li><a href="/newsletter/" title="The 'friends of a long year' newsletter">newsletter</a></li> + <li><a href="/about" title="About Scott">About</a></li> + </ul> + </nav> + </header> + </div> + <ol class="bl" id="breadcrumbs" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/BreadcrumbList"> + <li itemprop="itemListElement" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ListItem"><a itemprop="item" href="/"><span itemprop="name">Home</span></a> → + <meta itemprop="position" content="1" /> + </li> + <li itemprop="itemListElement" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ListItem"> + + <a href="/jrnl/" itemprop="item"><span itemprop="name">jrnl</span></a> + <meta itemprop="position" content="2" /> + <meta itemprop="position" content="2" /> + </li> + </ol> + + + <main> + <article class="h-entry hentry entry-content content" itemscope itemType="http://schema.org/BlogPosting"> + <header id="header" class="post-header "> + <h1 class="p-name entry-title post-title" itemprop="headline">There’ll be Food on the Table Tonight</h1> + + <div class="post-linewrapper"> + <div class="p-location h-adr adr post-location" itemprop="contentLocation" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Place"> + <h3 class="h-adr" itemprop="address" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/PostalAddress"><span class="p-region" itemprop="addressRegion">San Miguel de Allende</span>, <a class="p-country-name country-name" href="/jrnl/mexico/" title="travel writing from Mexico"><span itemprop="addressCountry">Mexico</span></a></h3> + – <a href="" onclick="showMap(20.911754362547363, -100.75172764876405, { type:'point', lat:'20.911754362547363', lon:'-100.75172764876405'}); return false;" title="see a map">Map</a> + </div> + <time class="dt-published published dt-updated post-date" datetime="2018-11-26T10:27:53" itemprop="datePublished">November <span>26, 2018</span></time> + <span class="hide" itemprop="author" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Person">by <a class="p-author h-card" href="/about"><span itemprop="name">Scott Gilbertson</span></a></span> + </div> + </header> + <div id="article" class="e-content entry-content post--body post--body--single" itemprop="articleBody"> + <p>We abandoned all pretense of traditional American fare for Thanksgiving this year and instead went full Mexican — tamale pie, chayote squash, ensalda pepino and plenty of salsas. This was partly because none of us like roast turkey anyway and partly because we wanted to eat what was around us. To me if you aren’t eating what’s around you, if you’re always hunting out the familiar foods from back home, you’re missing out on one of the best things about travel. </p> +<p>There are, to my mind three great things in the physical world: <em>phylos</em><sup id="fnref:1"><a class="footnote-ref" href="#fn:1" rel="footnote">1</a></sup>, sex and food. There are many other great things, but most of them are subcategories of these three. The first two you’ll have to figure out for yourself, but food… food is life. Food powers economies, shapes ecology, dictates religious rituals, causes wars, drives the explorations of the unknown, determines the size and shape of our bodies, and, to an extent we are only beginning to realize, shapes how we act, how we think, and even how we see the world. </p> +<p>Food has always been a big part of our travels, even if I don’t often write about it much. Sometimes we refer to places we’ve been by which foods were really good there. Colorado and its Palisade peaches. The UP and its cherries. Louisiana and its boudin. Florida and its gulf shrimp. </p> +<div class="picwide"> + <a itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" href="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-12-26_141200_mercado.jpg " title="view larger image"> + <img class="u-photo" itemprop="contentUrl" sizes="(max-width: 1439px) 100vw, (min-width: 1440px) 1440px" srcset="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-12-26_141200_mercado_picwide-sm.jpg 720w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-12-26_141200_mercado_picwide-med.jpg 1170w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-12-26_141200_mercado_picwide.jpg 2880w" src="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-12-26_141200_mercado_picwide-med.jpg" alt="mercado san juan de dio, san miguel de allende, mx photographed by luxagraf" data-jslghtbx="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-12-26_141200_mercado.jpg" data-jslghtbx-group="group" > + </a> +</div> + +<p>In Mexico it’s the guavas and green apples and strawberries. But even more than any specific foods, in Mexico food permeates nearly every aspect of life. Food is everywhere all the time. Sometimes for just dinner, sometimes for ceremony, sometimes for sale. I doubt you could walk more than 20 feet down any street without passing some sort of food. There are so many things to try that we’ve been here months and I haven’t even scratched the surface of what’s available. </p> +<p>Partly that’s because I tend toward a slow, systematic exploration of food. While I love eating prepared food, especially street food, what I really love is the markets. I didn’t plan it, but it just some happened that our first place was a block from one of the bigger markets in town. It’s not necessarily the nicest, nor does it have the best stuff, but <em>Mercado de San Juan de Dios</em> is still my favorite.</p> +<div class="picwide"> + <a itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" href="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-12-26_142003_mercado.jpg " title="view larger image"> + <img class="u-photo" itemprop="contentUrl" sizes="(max-width: 1439px) 100vw, (min-width: 1440px) 1440px" srcset="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-12-26_142003_mercado_picwide-sm.jpg 720w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-12-26_142003_mercado_picwide-med.jpg 1170w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-12-26_142003_mercado_picwide.jpg 2880w" src="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-12-26_142003_mercado_picwide-med.jpg" alt="mercado san juan de dio, san miguel de allende, mx photographed by luxagraf" data-jslghtbx="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-12-26_142003_mercado.jpg" data-jslghtbx-group="group" > + </a> +</div> + +<div class="picwide"> + <a itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" href="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-12-26_141134_mercado.jpg " title="view larger image"> + <img class="u-photo" itemprop="contentUrl" sizes="(max-width: 1439px) 100vw, (min-width: 1440px) 1440px" srcset="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-12-26_141134_mercado_picwide-sm.jpg 720w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-12-26_141134_mercado_picwide-med.jpg 1170w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-12-26_141134_mercado_picwide.jpg 2880w" src="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-12-26_141134_mercado_picwide-med.jpg" alt="mercado san juan de dio, san miguel de allende, mx photographed by luxagraf" data-jslghtbx="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-12-26_141134_mercado.jpg" data-jslghtbx-group="group" > + </a> +</div> + +<div class="picwide"> + <a itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" href="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-12-26_123558_mercado.jpg " title="view larger image"> + <img class="u-photo" itemprop="contentUrl" sizes="(max-width: 1439px) 100vw, (min-width: 1440px) 1440px" srcset="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-12-26_123558_mercado_picwide-sm.jpg 720w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-12-26_123558_mercado_picwide-med.jpg 1170w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-12-26_123558_mercado_picwide.jpg 2880w" src="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-12-26_123558_mercado_picwide-med.jpg" alt="mercado san juan de dio, san miguel de allende, mx photographed by luxagraf" data-jslghtbx="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-12-26_123558_mercado.jpg" data-jslghtbx-group="group" > + </a> +</div> + +<p>I like to go and search out things I don’t recognize, and then buy them. But then rather than rush in I get one new thing every time I go. I always start with fruit because there’s really no such thing as a bad fruit. Once I’ve tried all the fruit on offer I move into vegetables and after that different cuts of meat. Lately I’ve been exploring Mexican cheeses, working my way through a variety of queso oaxaca, quesa fresca, and some other round one I haven’t even learned the name of yet. I’m also on the hunt for a good cotija cheese. </p> +<p>But it’s not just exploring the variety of foods, I also like to try things from each vendor to see who has what I like the best, at the best price. I get perhaps a little obsessed. I’ve had dreams about buying fruit. I recognize that this is a little odd to most people. </p> +<p>But sampling and talking to people is what makes it fun. To me that’s the point of exploring food in another culture, to get to understand the people growing it, selling it and making it. It’s a way into a culture, for me particularly I guess. I’m not always that outgoing so sometimes I can make connections with people through food much easier than talking. And to me there is no better way to start to understand the daily lives of the people around you than to go to the local market and see what’s there, the food, the people, how it all fits together.</p> +<div class="picwide"> + <a itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" href="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-12-26_141304-1_mercado.jpg " title="view larger image"> + <img class="u-photo" itemprop="contentUrl" sizes="(max-width: 1439px) 100vw, (min-width: 1440px) 1440px" srcset="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-12-26_141304-1_mercado_picwide-sm.jpg 720w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-12-26_141304-1_mercado_picwide-med.jpg 1170w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-12-26_141304-1_mercado_picwide.jpg 2880w" src="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-12-26_141304-1_mercado_picwide-med.jpg" alt="mercado san juan de dio, san miguel de allende, mx photographed by luxagraf" data-jslghtbx="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-12-26_141304-1_mercado.jpg" data-jslghtbx-group="group" > + </a> +</div> + +<div class="picwide"> + <a itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" href="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-12-26_141231_mercado.jpg " title="view larger image"> + <img class="u-photo" itemprop="contentUrl" sizes="(max-width: 1439px) 100vw, (min-width: 1440px) 1440px" srcset="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-12-26_141231_mercado_picwide-sm.jpg 720w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-12-26_141231_mercado_picwide-med.jpg 1170w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-12-26_141231_mercado_picwide.jpg 2880w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-12-26_141231_mercado_featured_jrnl.jpg 520w" src="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-12-26_141231_mercado_picwide-med.jpg" src="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-12-26_141231_mercado_picwide.jpg" alt="mercado san juan de dio, san miguel de allende, mx photographed by luxagraf" data-jslghtbx="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-12-26_141231_mercado.jpg" data-jslghtbx-group="group" > + </a> +</div> + +<p>When I first got here I went to the center of the market, bought a couple tacos and a coke and sat and watched. I watched what people bought, how they examined it, what they picked, what they rejected, what they asked the vendor to get, what they insisted on getting themselves. I watched how they handled it, what was delicate, what was not, who was careful with what they were picking out, who was not (the latter were probably buying it for someone else). </p> +<p>I came back the next day and spent another half hour watching. Then another. Then I walked around the every stall, looking things over, figuring out who had the best of what, how things changed from day to day, what time the new stuff arrived, how it was rotated, who cared if you grabbed the fresh stuff in the bins under the display and who didn’t, who pulled their their borderline fruits and veggies, who didn’t, which butcher got whole animals and cut them down, which got the halves and quarters already cut. All these details tell you stories about the people behind them, and if you want the best possible local ingredients you have to go out and learn these stories. </p> +<div class="picwide"> + <a itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" href="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-12-26_141244-1_mercado_hixGkHl.jpg " title="view larger image"> + <img class="u-photo" itemprop="contentUrl" sizes="(max-width: 1439px) 100vw, (min-width: 1440px) 1440px" srcset="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-12-26_141244-1_mercado_hixGkHl_picwide-sm.jpg 720w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-12-26_141244-1_mercado_hixGkHl_picwide-med.jpg 1170w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-12-26_141244-1_mercado_hixGkHl_picwide.jpg 2880w" src="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-12-26_141244-1_mercado_hixGkHl_picwide-med.jpg" alt="mercado san juan de dio, san miguel de allende, mx photographed by luxagraf" data-jslghtbx="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-12-26_141244-1_mercado_hixGkHl.jpg" data-jslghtbx-group="group" > + </a> +</div> + +<p>Sometimes of course you do things even though you know better. I buy most of my fruit from a woman who is slow to rotate things and I have to carefully look over every piece I buy, but I like her, she teaches me the Spanish words of veggies I don’t know and I sometimes help her translate words in her daughter’s English homework. People are more important than ingredients.</p> +<p>When I finally had a few ideas about what was going on in the market, I dove in. I started to buy all the things I didn’t recognize, didn’t understand, and didn’t normally eat. I figured out how to eat cactus — it’s delicious, though tricky, like a strange combination of asparagus and okra — then I went for chayote, except that while I was studying it there on the counter at home, trying to decide what to do with it, Corrinne dove in and fried it up with potatoes, onions, garlic and mint. The kids, who had never seen a guava until about two months ago now plow through about 10 a day. At first we scooped the seeds out, but then we noticed the locals never do that so now we just eat them whole, seeds and all. They’re also big fans of the <em>elote</em>, boiled corn on the cob you can get on just about every corner.</p> +<p>I head over to market generally every day, partly to get out of the house, but partly because there’s still so much there I don’t understand yet, so many foods in so many stalls, it’ll take me months to get through them all, and that’s only one market in one town. It would take years just to even scratch the surface of one place. Because after I figure out what I like and where to get it I like to figure out where it’s coming from, who’s growing it? What do they do? Why? How? You pull at one tiny thread and you can follow it forever. Like I said, I recognize that this is a little odd, even obsessive.</p> +<p>Luckily my family is usually game to go with me and try new foods. The other day I came back from the big market outside of town with a cup full of dried, salted, chili-covered sardines and even my kids all had one. Only one of them actually like it, and in this case, I think she liked them more than even I did, but it makes me happy that they’re all willing to at least try new things. That’s long been my motto: try anything twice.</p> +<div class="picwide"> + <a itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" href="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-12-26_135339_mercado.jpg " title="view larger image"> + <img class="u-photo" itemprop="contentUrl" sizes="(max-width: 1439px) 100vw, (min-width: 1440px) 1440px" srcset="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-12-26_135339_mercado_picwide-sm.jpg 720w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-12-26_135339_mercado_picwide-med.jpg 1170w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-12-26_135339_mercado_picwide.jpg 2880w" src="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-12-26_135339_mercado_picwide-med.jpg" alt="eating tacos in mercado san juan de dio, san miguel de allende, mx photographed by luxagraf" data-jslghtbx="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-12-26_135339_mercado.jpg" data-jslghtbx-group="group" > + </a> +</div> + +<figure class="picwide"> + <a itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" href="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-12-26_135311_mercado.jpg " title="view larger image"> + <img class="u-photo" itemprop="contentUrl" sizes="(max-width: 1439px) 100vw, (min-width: 1440px) 1440px" srcset="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-12-26_135311_mercado_picwide-sm.jpg 720w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-12-26_135311_mercado_picwide-med.jpg 1170w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-12-26_135311_mercado_picwide.jpg 2880w" src="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-12-26_135311_mercado_picwide-med.jpg" alt="eating tacos in mercado san juan de dio, san miguel de allende, mx photographed by luxagraf" data-jslghtbx="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-12-26_135311_mercado.jpg" data-jslghtbx-group="group" data-jslghtbx-caption="My daughter's favorite taco stand in the market. You can get 5 little tacos for 30 pesos (about $1.50 US). She's on her second plate in this photo."> + </a> +<figcaption>My daughter’s favorite taco stand in the market. You can get 5 little tacos for 30 pesos (about $1.50 US). She’s on her second plate in this photo.</figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>A lot of people seem to obsess over food in other ways. Like health. I seems like nearly everyday there’s some new food discovery that either kills you or cures you of everything. Then there’s the whole fear of foreign food. You see this when chefs <a href="https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/craving-the-other-0">talk</a> about “elevating” street food (so they can overcharge you for it). You also see it in people’s fear of getting sick from food they’re not totally comfortable with. I’ve overheard tourists around here telling each other not to the street food, but yet they go to the restaurant up the hill and sit down to a dinner made from the same ingredients, from the same markets, coming from a kitchen they <em>can’t</em> see. That’s far more likely to get you sick than the stalls in the market where you can see for yourself every step of the process. </p> +<figure class="picwide"> + <a itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" href="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-12-26_134116_mercado_01.jpg " title="view larger image"> + <img class="u-photo" itemprop="contentUrl" sizes="(max-width: 1439px) 100vw, (min-width: 1440px) 1440px" srcset="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-12-26_134116_mercado_01_picwide-sm.jpg 720w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-12-26_134116_mercado_01_picwide-med.jpg 1170w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-12-26_134116_mercado_01_picwide.jpg 2880w" src="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-12-26_134116_mercado_01_picwide-med.jpg" alt="mercado san juan de dio, san miguel de allende, mx photographed by luxagraf" data-jslghtbx="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-12-26_134116_mercado_01.jpg" data-jslghtbx-group="group" data-jslghtbx-caption="This is what a clean kitchen looks like. Yes, it's a stall in a market, but trust me, this is where you should eat if you don't want to get sick."> + </a> +<figcaption>This is what a clean kitchen looks like. Yes, it’s a stall in a market, but trust me, this is where you should eat if you don’t want to get sick.</figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>Sometimes it blows my mind how little people understand food and, more importantly, food preparation. I do have an advantage I suppose, having worked in the restaurant industry for about six years, but most of what helps me comes from learning the basics of microbiology. All the restaurant experience did was provide practical examples of microbiology in action. If you food is bad, you’ll smell it. Trust me.</p> +<p>Contrary to what you’ve probably seen on TV, most of running a restaurant does not involve cooking. There is some of that, but mostly you stand around and wait. Technically you’re chopping stuff, but after a few years you can do that without thinking about it. So really you’re just standing around. Then for about three hours you’re so busy and focused it feels like only ten minutes went by. But mostly you wait. You smoke a lot and stand around a lot. And for me, standing around smoking, I needed something to read. There’s not a lot to read in restaurant, so I read all the bizarre food industry trade magazines that would arrive every day in the mail. </p> +<p>One of the things that you learn from reading these bizarre magazines — which would have cover stories on strange things like how to entice millennials with foods that remind them of their favorite sitcoms — is that real food poisoning, the outbreaks that the CDC tracks, not the ones where you mistakenly attribute some diarrhea to whatever bizarre food you ate most recently, the real outbreaks, almost always come from vegetables, particularly vegetables that grow on the ground and have to be harvested by hand. Because the people harvesting the food don’t get paid enough to take bathroom breaks, so, well, you do the math. From my anecdotal observations, if you really want genuine food poisoning, a bout of salmonella say, eat asparagus, preferably raw. </p> +<p>Which is why I find it hilarious that so many people here are deathly afraid of street food, but in the next breath tell me how they don’t need to wash their veggies because they get them at the organic market. WAT?! And no, I never say anything. It’s not my place to shatter anyone’s carefully constructed delusions. Though I did write this. So now you know. Wash your veggies, eat where you can see the kitchen. You’ll mostly likely be fine.</p> +<p>That said, I eat unwashed strawberries all the time and regularly get gorditas from a place where they use dirty rags from god knows where to sop up the grease just before handing it to you. But I have a stomach of steel. I’m not sure which came first though, my stomach of steel or my willingness to eat anything at least twice.</p> +<p>But more importantly than a strong stomach, I eat at that place because I see the people around me doing it too. They’re still here so it must be fine. That’s the part of food that a lot of people seem to forget — ingredients are nothing, people are what matter. I could spend the next ten years practicing making tamales, but I’ll never be as good at it as the abuelas sitting on every street corner here (don’t buy their tamales though, they aren’t selling the good ones).</p> +<p>When Thanksgiving rolled around we wanted the foods we were excited about and that happened to be tamales, chayote and tomatillos, so that’s what we made, and man was it good. So good it makes you thankful that you have the opportunity to explore food rather than be ruled by it, by the need for it, as so many are here and everywhere. Thankful that another country would even let you come to it, let alone have free run of the place to meet its people enjoy its foods. </p> +<div class="footnote"> +<hr> +<ol> +<li id="fn:1"> +<p>Greek, “to love”. <a class="footnote-backref" href="#fnref:1" rev="footnote" title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the text">↩</a></p> +</li> +</ol> +</div> + </div> + <div class="entry-footer"> + <aside id="wildlife"> + <h3>Fauna and Flora</h3> + + <ul> + + <li class="grouper">Birds<ul> + + <li>American Coot </li> + + <li>Bewick's Wren </li> + + <li>Blue-gray Gnatcatcher </li> + + <li>Broad-billed Hummingbird </li> + + <li>Cassin's Kingbird </li> + + <li>Cattle Egret </li> + + <li>Crested Caracara </li> + + <li>House Sparrow </li> + + <li>House Wren </li> + + <li>Inca Dove </li> + + <li>Northern Shoveler </li> + + <li>Ring-necked Duck </li> + + <li>Ruddy Duck </li> + + <li>Vermilion Flycatcher </li> + + <li>Violet-crowned Hummingbird </li> + + <li>White-faced Ibis </li> + + <li>White-tailed Kite </li> + + <li>White-winged Dove </li> + </ul> + </ul> + </aside> + + <aside class="margin-left-none" id="field_notes"> + <h3>Field Notes</h3> + <ul> + <li><a href="/field-notes/2019/01/drinking-water-mexico">Drinking Water in Mexico</a></li> + </ul> + </aside> + + </div> + </article> + + + <div class="nav-wrapper"> + <nav id="page-navigation" > + <ul> + <li id="prev"><span class="bl">Previous:</span> + <a href="/jrnl/2018/11/lets-go-ride" rel="prev" title=" Let's Go For a Ride">Let's Go For a Ride</a> + </li> + <li id="next"><span class="bl">Next:</span> + <a href="/jrnl/2018/12/mary-wild-moor" rel="next" title=" Mary of the Wild Moor">Mary of the Wild Moor</a> + </li> + </ul> + </nav> + </div> + + + + + + +<p class="comments--header">6 Comments</p> + + + + + + + <div class="comments--wrapper"> + + <div id="comment-3694" class="comment"> + <noscript class="datahashloader" data-hash="default"> + <img class="gravatar" src="https://images.luxagraf.net/gravcache/default.jpg" alt="gravatar icon for Jonathan" /> + </noscript> + <div class="comment--head"> + <span class="who"><b>Jonathan</b></span> + <span class="when">December 27, 2018 at 7:45 a.m.</span> + </div> + + <div class="comment--body"> + + <p>Midnight Oil?</p> +<p>Also, did you ask people if you could take those photos :)</p> + + </div> + </div> + + <div id="comment-3695" class="comment"> + <noscript class="datahashloader" data-hash="d64f4854965b2b1c3ecafee4b2a66fac"> + <img class="gravatar" src="https://images.luxagraf.net/gravcache/d64f4854965b2b1c3ecafee4b2a66fac.jpg" alt="gravatar icon for Scott" /> + </noscript> + <div class="comment--head"> + <span class="who"><b><a href="https://luxagraf.net/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Scott</a></b></span> + <span class="when">December 27, 2018 at 7:49 a.m.</span> + </div> + + <div class="comment--body"> + + <p>Jonathan-</p> +<p>Yes, not one of my favorite songs of theirs, but it happened to come on Pandora while I was writing it, and it fit.</p> +<p>As for the photos, no I did not. But I didn’t shove my camera in anyone’s face. I wasn’t talking about street photography in that piece. </p> +<p>While cultural norms regarding public spaces vary, I haven’t seen anyone here balk at being in the background in anyone’s photos so I don’t think anyone cares.</p> + + </div> + </div> + + <div id="comment-3703" class="comment"> + <noscript class="datahashloader" data-hash="default"> + <img class="gravatar" src="https://images.luxagraf.net/gravcache/default.jpg" alt="gravatar icon for DREW ELDRIDGE" /> + </noscript> + <div class="comment--head"> + <span class="who"><b>DREW ELDRIDGE</b></span> + <span class="when">January 02, 2019 at 2:36 p.m.</span> + </div> + + <div class="comment--body"> + + <p>All good thoughts on the “street meat”, but what about the water? When in India they didnt warn us too much about the food, but the water on the other hand could and would clean you out.</p> +<p>So, if you are washing your veggies in waste water, whats the point, and you may be doing more harm than good in some cases.</p> +<p>Are you sticking to bottled and filtered, or are you all drinking whatever, whenever?</p> + + </div> + </div> + + <div id="comment-3704" class="comment"> + <noscript class="datahashloader" data-hash="d64f4854965b2b1c3ecafee4b2a66fac"> + <img class="gravatar" src="https://images.luxagraf.net/gravcache/d64f4854965b2b1c3ecafee4b2a66fac.jpg" alt="gravatar icon for Scott" /> + </noscript> + <div class="comment--head"> + <span class="who"><b><a href="https://luxagraf.net/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Scott</a></b></span> + <span class="when">January 02, 2019 at 2:57 p.m.</span> + </div> + + <div class="comment--body"> + + <p>Drew-</p> +<p>So, water. Definitely more complex than meat. Short answer, we use bottled water. The longer answer ended up too long for a comment, so I put up a new article on <a href="/field-notes/2019/01/drinking-water-mexico">drinking water in Mexico</a></p> + + </div> + </div> + + <div id="comment-3705" class="comment"> + <noscript class="datahashloader" data-hash="default"> + <img class="gravatar" src="https://images.luxagraf.net/gravcache/default.jpg" alt="gravatar icon for DREW ELDRIDGE" /> + </noscript> + <div class="comment--head"> + <span class="who"><b>DREW ELDRIDGE</b></span> + <span class="when">January 03, 2019 at 9:14 a.m.</span> + </div> + + <div class="comment--body"> + + <p>You just happened to sit next to a PhD student studying water management heading to San Miguel….. I guess now you know why you got on the flight you got on. Maybe by making that contact it will save you or your family some tummy aches down the road. Good stuff.</p> +<p>So weird how everything seems connected at times. I always think of the article you wrote on the Aspen grove. there is an Aspen grove feel to this world.</p> + + </div> + </div> + + <div id="comment-3706" class="comment"> + <noscript class="datahashloader" data-hash="d64f4854965b2b1c3ecafee4b2a66fac"> + <img class="gravatar" src="https://images.luxagraf.net/gravcache/d64f4854965b2b1c3ecafee4b2a66fac.jpg" alt="gravatar icon for Scott" /> + </noscript> + <div class="comment--head"> + <span class="who"><b><a href="https://luxagraf.net/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Scott</a></b></span> + <span class="when">January 03, 2019 at 9:48 a.m.</span> + </div> + + <div class="comment--body"> + + <p>Drew-</p> +<p>True enough. Another thing I learned, 44 is approaching the age where you can stop worrying about metals in your body. By 50-55, you’re unlikely to ingest enough heavy metal to have any effect before you die anyway (statistically speaking anyway). Unless you’re somewhere things are off the charts, like Detroit. Or on a Navajo reservation. For the kids though, metals/chemicals in the water definitely matters.</p> +<p>As for the Aspen grove, I also think about about that all time. That idea is actually one of the cornerstones of the book I’m working on. I definitely think everything is connected. And even if it’s often very difficult or even impossible to see the connections, the process of looking for them makes life a lot more fun and exciting. To me anyway.</p> +<p>[For anyone else reading this, that does not mean everything happens for a reason, the world is far more complex than empty platitudes will ever allow for.]</p> + + </div> + </div> + + </div> + + +<div class="comment--form--wrapper comment-form-border"> + +<div class="comment--form--header"> + <p class="hed">Thoughts?</p> + <p class="subhed">Please leave a reply:</p> +</div> +<form action="/comments/post/" method="post" class="comment--form"> + +<input type="hidden" name="rder" value="" /> + + + <input type="hidden" name="content_type" value="jrnl.entry" id="id_content_type"> + + + + <input type="hidden" name="object_pk" value="280" id="id_object_pk"> + + + + <input type="hidden" name="timestamp" value="1596833315" id="id_timestamp"> + + + + <input type="hidden" name="security_hash" value="787bef4da03663ee0252f02e0c1224fd410e1a3e" id="id_security_hash"> + + + + <fieldset > + <label for="id_name">Name:</label> + <input type="text" name="name" maxlength="50" required id="id_name"> + </fieldset> + + + + <fieldset > + <label for="id_email">Email address:</label> + <input type="email" name="email" required id="id_email"> + </fieldset> + + + + <fieldset > + <label for="id_url">URL:</label> + <input type="url" name="url" id="id_url"> + </fieldset> + + + + <fieldset > + <label for="id_comment">Comment:</label> + <div class="textarea-rounded"><textarea name="comment" cols="40" rows="10" maxlength="3000" required id="id_comment"> +</textarea></div> + </fieldset> + + + + <fieldset style="display:none;"> + <label for="id_honeypot">If you enter anything in this field your comment will be treated as spam:</label> + <input type="text" name="honeypot" id="id_honeypot"> + </fieldset> + + + <div class="submit"> + <input type="submit" name="post" class="submit-post btn" value="Post" /> + <input type="submit" name="preview" class="submit-preview btn" value="Preview" /> + </div> +</form> +<p style="font-size: 95%;"><strong>All comments are moderated</strong>, so you won’t see it right away. And please remember Kurt Vonnegut's rule: “god damn it, you’ve got to be kind.” You can use Markdown or HTML to format your comments. The allowed tags are <code><b>, <i>, <em>, <strong>, <a></code>. To create a new paragraph hit return twice. </p> + + +</div> + +</main> + + + + <footer class="bl"> + <ul class="footer-nav"> + <li><a href="/blogroll" title="Sites that inspire us">Blogroll</a></li> + <li><a href="/contact/" title="contact luxagraf">Contact</a></li> + <li>Follow Along: + <ul> + <li><a href="/jrnl/feed.xml" title="RSS feed">RSS</a></li> + <li><a href="/newsletter/" title="Luxagraf Email Updates">Email</a></li> + <li><a href="https://www.instagram.com/luxagraf" rel="me" title="luxagraf on Instagram">Instagram</a></li> + </ul> + </ul> + <div class="support">Support luxagraf: + <div class="donate-btn"> + <form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_top"> + <input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_s-xclick"> + <input type="hidden" name="hosted_button_id" value="HYJFZQSBGJ8QQ"> + <input type="submit" name="submit" title="Donate to luxagraf via PayPal"> + </form> + </div> + <div class="donate-btn"> + <a class="liberapay-btn" href="https://liberapay.com/luxagraf/donate"><span>Donate</span></a> + </div> + </div> + <p id="license"> + © 2003-2020 + <span class="h-card"><a class="p-name u-url" href="https://luxagraf.net/">Scott Gilbertson</a><data class="p-nickname" value="luxagraf"></data><data class="p-locality" value="Athens"></data><data class="p-region" value="Georgia"></data><data class="p-country-name" value="United States"></data></span>. + </p> + </footer> + </div> + +<script> +document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function(event) { + var leaflet = document.createElement('script'); + leaflet.src = "/media/js/leaflet-master/leaflet-mod.js"; + document.body.appendChild(leaflet); + var lightbox = document.createElement('script'); + lightbox.src = "/media/js/lightbox.js"; + document.body.appendChild(lightbox); + leaflet.onload = function(){ + var detail = document.createElement('script'); + detail.src = "/media/js/detail.min.js"; + document.body.appendChild(detail); + + detail.onload = function(){ + createMap(); + var open = false; + } + + } + + lightbox.onload = function() { + var opts= { + //nextOnClick: false, + captions: true, + onload: function(){ + var im = document.getElementById("jslghtbx-contentwrapper"); + var link = im.appendChild(document.createElement('a')) + link.href = im.firstChild.src; + link.innerHTML= "open "; + link.target = "_blank"; + link.setAttribute('class', 'p-link'); + im.appendChild(link); + } + }; + var lightbox = new Lightbox(); + lightbox.load(opts); + } + + + + //delay loading of gravatar images using noscript data-hash attribute + dataattr = document.getElementsByClassName("datahashloader"); + for(var i=0; i<dataattr.length; i++) { + var c = dataattr[i].parentNode; + var img = document.createElement("img"); + img.src = 'https://images.luxagraf.net/gravcache/' + dataattr[i].getAttribute('data-hash') + '.jpg'; + img.className += "gravatar"; + img.alt = "gravatar icon"; + c.insertBefore(img, c.childNodes[3]); + } + + + + +}); +</script> + +<script> +<!-- +// Register our service-worker +//if (navigator.serviceWorker) { +// window.addEventListener('load', function() { +// if (navigator.serviceWorker.controller) { +// navigator.serviceWorker.controller.postMessage({'command': 'trimCaches'}); +// } else { +// navigator.serviceWorker.register('/serviceworker.js', { +// scope: '/' +// }); +// } +// }); +//} +//--> + +<!-- Piwik --> +var _paq = _paq || []; +_paq.push(["disableCookies"]); +_paq.push(['trackPageView']); +_paq.push(['enableLinkTracking']); +(function() { + var u="https://stats.luxagraf.net/"; + _paq.push(['setTrackerUrl', u+'piwik.php']); + _paq.push(['setSiteId', 1]); + var d=document, g=d.createElement('script'), s=d.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; + g.type='text/javascript'; g.async=true; g.defer=true; g.src=u+'piwik.js'; s.parentNode.insertBefore(g,s); + })(); +<!-- End Piwik Code --> +</script> +<noscript><p><img src="//stats.luxagraf.net/piwik.php?idsite=1" style="border:0;" alt="" /></p></noscript> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/bak/oldluxpages/jrnlold/2018/11/food-table-tonight.txt b/bak/oldluxpages/jrnlold/2018/11/food-table-tonight.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e4f7c0c --- /dev/null +++ b/bak/oldluxpages/jrnlold/2018/11/food-table-tonight.txt @@ -0,0 +1,68 @@ +There'll be Food on the Table Tonight +===================================== + + by Scott Gilbertson + </jrnl/2018/11/food-table-tonight> + Monday, 26 November 2018 + +We abandoned all pretense of traditional American fare for Thanksgiving this year and instead went full Mexican -- tamale pie, chayote squash, ensalda pepino and plenty of salsas. This was partly because none of us like roast turkey anyway and partly because we wanted to eat what was around us. To me if you aren't eating what's around you, if you're always hunting out the familiar foods from back home, you're missing out on one of the best things about travel.
+
+There are, to my mind three great things in the physical world: *phylos*[^1], sex and food. There are many other great things, but most of them are subcategories of these three. The first two you'll have to figure out for yourself, but food... food is life. Food powers economies, shapes ecology, dictates religious rituals, causes wars, drives the explorations of the unknown, determines the size and shape of our bodies, and, to an extent we are only beginning to realize, shapes how we act, how we think, and even how we see the world.
+
+Food has always been a big part of our travels, even if I don't often write about it much. Sometimes we refer to places we've been by which foods were really good there. Colorado and its Palisade peaches. The UP and its cherries. Louisiana and its boudin. Florida and its gulf shrimp.
+
+<img src="images/2018/2018-12-26_141200_mercado.jpg" id="image-1791" class="picwide" />
+
+In Mexico it's the guavas and green apples and strawberries. But even more than any specific foods, in Mexico food permeates nearly every aspect of life. Food is everywhere all the time. Sometimes for just dinner, sometimes for ceremony, sometimes for sale. I doubt you could walk more than 20 feet down any street without passing some sort of food. There are so many things to try that we've been here months and I haven't even scratched the surface of what's available.
+
+Partly that's because I tend toward a slow, systematic exploration of food. While I love eating prepared food, especially street food, what I really love is the markets. I didn't plan it, but it just some happened that our first place was a block from one of the bigger markets in town. It's not necessarily the nicest, nor does it have the best stuff, but *Mercado de San Juan de Dios* is still my favorite.
+
+<img src="images/2018/2018-12-26_142003_mercado.jpg" id="image-1796" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2018/2018-12-26_141134_mercado.jpg" id="image-1790" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2018/2018-12-26_123558_mercado.jpg" id="image-1786" class="picwide" />
+
+I like to go and search out things I don't recognize, and then buy them. But then rather than rush in I get one new thing every time I go. I always start with fruit because there's really no such thing as a bad fruit. Once I've tried all the fruit on offer I move into vegetables and after that different cuts of meat. Lately I've been exploring Mexican cheeses, working my way through a variety of queso oaxaca, quesa fresca, and some other round one I haven't even learned the name of yet. I'm also on the hunt for a good cotija cheese.
+
+But it's not just exploring the variety of foods, I also like to try things from each vendor to see who has what I like the best, at the best price. I get perhaps a little obsessed. I've had dreams about buying fruit. I recognize that this is a little odd to most people.
+
+But sampling and talking to people is what makes it fun. To me that's the point of exploring food in another culture, to get to understand the people growing it, selling it and making it. It's a way into a culture, for me particularly I guess. I'm not always that outgoing so sometimes I can make connections with people through food much easier than talking. And to me there is no better way to start to understand the daily lives of the people around you than to go to the local market and see what's there, the food, the people, how it all fits together.
+
+<img src="images/2018/2018-12-26_141304-1_mercado.jpg" id="image-1795" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2018/2018-12-26_141231_mercado.jpg" id="image-1792" class="picwide" />
+
+When I first got here I went to the center of the market, bought a couple tacos and a coke and sat and watched. I watched what people bought, how they examined it, what they picked, what they rejected, what they asked the vendor to get, what they insisted on getting themselves. I watched how they handled it, what was delicate, what was not, who was careful with what they were picking out, who was not (the latter were probably buying it for someone else).
+
+I came back the next day and spent another half hour watching. Then another. Then I walked around the every stall, looking things over, figuring out who had the best of what, how things changed from day to day, what time the new stuff arrived, how it was rotated, who cared if you grabbed the fresh stuff in the bins under the display and who didn't, who pulled their their borderline fruits and veggies, who didn't, which butcher got whole animals and cut them down, which got the halves and quarters already cut. All these details tell you stories about the people behind them, and if you want the best possible local ingredients you have to go out and learn these stories.
+
+<img src="images/2018/2018-12-26_141244-1_mercado_hixGkHl.jpg" id="image-1794" class="picwide" />
+
+Sometimes of course you do things even though you know better. I buy most of my fruit from a woman who is slow to rotate things and I have to carefully look over every piece I buy, but I like her, she teaches me the Spanish words of veggies I don't know and I sometimes help her translate words in her daughter's English homework. People are more important than ingredients.
+
+When I finally had a few ideas about what was going on in the market, I dove in. I started to buy all the things I didn't recognize, didn't understand, and didn't normally eat. I figured out how to eat cactus -- it's delicious, though tricky, like a strange combination of asparagus and okra -- then I went for chayote, except that while I was studying it there on the counter at home, trying to decide what to do with it, Corrinne dove in and fried it up with potatoes, onions, garlic and mint. The kids, who had never seen a guava until about two months ago now plow through about 10 a day. At first we scooped the seeds out, but then we noticed the locals never do that so now we just eat them whole, seeds and all. They're also big fans of the *elote*, boiled corn on the cob you can get on just about every corner.
+
+I head over to market generally every day, partly to get out of the house, but partly because there's still so much there I don't understand yet, so many foods in so many stalls, it'll take me months to get through them all, and that's only one market in one town. It would take years just to even scratch the surface of one place. Because after I figure out what I like and where to get it I like to figure out where it's coming from, who's growing it? What do they do? Why? How? You pull at one tiny thread and you can follow it forever. Like I said, I recognize that this is a little odd, even obsessive.
+
+Luckily my family is usually game to go with me and try new foods. The other day I came back from the big market outside of town with a cup full of dried, salted, chili-covered sardines and even my kids all had one. Only one of them actually like it, and in this case, I think she liked them more than even I did, but it makes me happy that they're all willing to at least try new things. That's long been my motto: try anything twice.
+
+<img src="images/2018/2018-12-26_135339_mercado.jpg" id="image-1789" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2018/2018-12-26_135311_mercado.jpg" id="image-1788" class="picwide caption" />
+
+A lot of people seem to obsess over food in other ways. Like health. I seems like nearly everyday there's some new food discovery that either kills you or cures you of everything. Then there's the whole fear of foreign food. You see this when chefs [talk](https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/craving-the-other-0) about "elevating" street food (so they can overcharge you for it). You also see it in people's fear of getting sick from food they're not totally comfortable with. I've overheard tourists around here telling each other not to the street food, but yet they go to the restaurant up the hill and sit down to a dinner made from the same ingredients, from the same markets, coming from a kitchen they *can't* see. That's far more likely to get you sick than the stalls in the market where you can see for yourself every step of the process.
+
+<img src="images/2018/2018-12-26_134116_mercado_01.jpg" id="image-1797" class="picwide caption" />
+
+Sometimes it blows my mind how little people understand food and, more importantly, food preparation. I do have an advantage I suppose, having worked in the restaurant industry for about six years, but most of what helps me comes from learning the basics of microbiology. All the restaurant experience did was provide practical examples of microbiology in action. If you food is bad, you'll smell it. Trust me.
+
+Contrary to what you've probably seen on TV, most of running a restaurant does not involve cooking. There is some of that, but mostly you stand around and wait. Technically you're chopping stuff, but after a few years you can do that without thinking about it. So really you're just standing around. Then for about three hours you're so busy and focused it feels like only ten minutes went by. But mostly you wait. You smoke a lot and stand around a lot. And for me, standing around smoking, I needed something to read. There's not a lot to read in restaurant, so I read all the bizarre food industry trade magazines that would arrive every day in the mail.
+
+One of the things that you learn from reading these bizarre magazines -- which would have cover stories on strange things like how to entice millennials with foods that remind them of their favorite sitcoms -- is that real food poisoning, the outbreaks that the CDC tracks, not the ones where you mistakenly attribute some diarrhea to whatever bizarre food you ate most recently, the real outbreaks, almost always come from vegetables, particularly vegetables that grow on the ground and have to be harvested by hand. Because the people harvesting the food don't get paid enough to take bathroom breaks, so, well, you do the math. From my anecdotal observations, if you really want genuine food poisoning, a bout of salmonella say, eat asparagus, preferably raw.
+
+Which is why I find it hilarious that so many people here are deathly afraid of street food, but in the next breath tell me how they don't need to wash their veggies because they get them at the organic market. WAT?! And no, I never say anything. It's not my place to shatter anyone's carefully constructed delusions. Though I did write this. So now you know. Wash your veggies, eat where you can see the kitchen. You'll mostly likely be fine.
+
+That said, I eat unwashed strawberries all the time and regularly get gorditas from a place where they use dirty rags from god knows where to sop up the grease just before handing it to you. But I have a stomach of steel. I'm not sure which came first though, my stomach of steel or my willingness to eat anything at least twice.
+
+But more importantly than a strong stomach, I eat at that place because I see the people around me doing it too. They're still here so it must be fine. That's the part of food that a lot of people seem to forget -- ingredients are nothing, people are what matter. I could spend the next ten years practicing making tamales, but I'll never be as good at it as the abuelas sitting on every street corner here (don't buy their tamales though, they aren't selling the good ones).
+
+When Thanksgiving rolled around we wanted the foods we were excited about and that happened to be tamales, chayote and tomatillos, so that's what we made, and man was it good. So good it makes you thankful that you have the opportunity to explore food rather than be ruled by it, by the need for it, as so many are here and everywhere. Thankful that another country would even let you come to it, let alone have free run of the place to meet its people enjoy its foods.
+
+[^1]: Greek, "to love". diff --git a/bak/oldluxpages/jrnlold/2018/11/friday.html b/bak/oldluxpages/jrnlold/2018/11/friday.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..39409f0 --- /dev/null +++ b/bak/oldluxpages/jrnlold/2018/11/friday.html @@ -0,0 +1,531 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html +class="detail single" dir="ltr" lang="en-US"> + +<head> + <title>Friday - by Scott Gilbertson</title> + <meta charset="utf-8"> + <meta http-equiv="x-ua-compatible" content="ie=edge"> + <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> + <meta name="description" + content="Halloween, expats behaving badly, dia de muertes and at long last have you left no sense of decency sir?"> + <meta name="author" content="Scott Gilbertson"> + <link rel="alternate" + type="application/rss+xml" + title="Luxagraf RSS feed" + href="https://luxagraf.net/rss/"> + <link rel="stylesheet" + href="/media/screenv9.css" + media="screen"> + <link rel="stylesheet" href="/media/print.css" media="print" title="print" /> + <link rel="shortcut icon" href="/favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon"> + <link rel="manifest" href="/manifest.json" /> + <link rel="dns-prefetch" href="https://stats.luxagraf.net"> + + <link rel="canonical" href="https://luxagraf.net/jrnl/2018/11/friday" /> + <meta name="ICBM" content="20.914440272344017, -100.7472215376291" /> + <meta name="geo.position" content="20.914440272344017; -100.7472215376291" /> + <meta name="geo.placename" content="San Miguel de Allende, Mexico"> + <meta name="geo.region" content="-"> + <meta property="og:type" content="article" /> + <meta property="og:title" content="Friday" /> + <meta property="og:url" content="https://luxagraf.net/jrnl/2018/11/friday" /> + <meta property="og:description" content="Halloween, expats behaving badly, dia de muertes and at long last have you left no sense of decency sir?" /> + <meta property="article:published_time" content="2018-11-03T23:34:04" /> + <meta property="article:author" content="Scott Gilbertson" /> + <meta property="og:site_name" content="Luxagraf" /> + <meta property="og:image" content="/media/images/original/2018/IMG_20181002_074946260.jpg" /> + <meta property="og:locale" content="en_US" /> + <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image"/> + <meta name="twitter:description" content="Halloween, expats behaving badly, dia de muertes and at long last have you left no sense of decency sir?"/> + <meta name="twitter:title" content="Friday"/> + <meta name="twitter:site" content="@luxagraf"/> + <meta name="twitter:domain" content="luxagraf"/> + <meta name="twitter:image:src" content="/media/images/original/2018/IMG_20181002_074946260.jpg"/> + <meta name="twitter:creator" content="@luxagraf"/> +<script type="application/ld+json"> +{ + "@context": "https://schema.org", + "@type": "Article", + "mainEntityOfPage": { + "@type": "WebPage", + "@id": "https://luxagraf.net/jrnl/2018/11/friday" + }, + "headline": "Friday", + "datePublished": "2018-11-03T23:34:04+04:00", + "dateModified": "2018-11-03T23:34:04+04:00", + "author": { + "@type": "Person", + "name": "Scott Gilbertson" + }, + "publisher": { + "@type": "Organization", + "name": "Luxagraf", + "logo": { + "@type": "ImageObject", + "url": "https://luxagraf.net/media/img/logo-white.jpg" + } + }, + "description": "Halloween, expats behaving badly, dia de muertes and at long last have you left no sense of decency sir?" +} +</script> + +</head> +<body > + <div class="wrapper" id="wrapper"> + <div class="header-wrapper"> + <header class="site-banner"> + <div id="logo"> + <a href="/" title="Home">Luxagraf</a> + <span class="sitesubtitle">Walk Slowly</span> + </div> + <nav> + <ul> + <li><a href="/jrnl/" title="Stories of life on the road.">Jrnl</a> & <a href="/field-notes/" title="Short stories, snapshots of daily life on the road.">Field Notes</a></li> + <li><a href="/guide/" title="Advice, Tools, Tips and Tricks for Full Time Van or RV Life.">Guides</a></li> + <li><a href="/newsletter/" title="The 'friends of a long year' newsletter">newsletter</a></li> + <li><a href="/about" title="About Scott">About</a></li> + </ul> + </nav> + </header> + </div> + <ol class="bl" id="breadcrumbs" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/BreadcrumbList"> + <li itemprop="itemListElement" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ListItem"><a itemprop="item" href="/"><span itemprop="name">Home</span></a> → + <meta itemprop="position" content="1" /> + </li> + <li itemprop="itemListElement" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ListItem"> + + <a href="/jrnl/" itemprop="item"><span itemprop="name">jrnl</span></a> + <meta itemprop="position" content="2" /> + <meta itemprop="position" content="2" /> + </li> + </ol> + + + <main> + <article class="h-entry hentry entry-content content" itemscope itemType="http://schema.org/BlogPosting"> + <header id="header" class="post-header "> + <h1 class="p-name entry-title post-title" itemprop="headline">Friday</h1> + + <div class="post-linewrapper"> + <div class="p-location h-adr adr post-location" itemprop="contentLocation" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Place"> + <h3 class="h-adr" itemprop="address" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/PostalAddress"><span class="p-region" itemprop="addressRegion">San Miguel de Allende</span>, <a class="p-country-name country-name" href="/jrnl/mexico/" title="travel writing from Mexico"><span itemprop="addressCountry">Mexico</span></a></h3> + – <a href="" onclick="showMap(20.914440272344017, -100.7472215376291, { type:'point', lat:'20.914440272344017', lon:'-100.7472215376291'}); return false;" title="see a map">Map</a> + </div> + <time class="dt-published published dt-updated post-date" datetime="2018-11-03T23:34:04" itemprop="datePublished">November <span>3, 2018</span></time> + <span class="hide" itemprop="author" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Person">by <a class="p-author h-card" href="/about"><span itemprop="name">Scott Gilbertson</span></a></span> + </div> + </header> + <div id="article" class="e-content entry-content post--body post--body--single" itemprop="articleBody"> + <p>It was a week of Fridays. Some weeks are like that, you’re forever on the edge of a weekend, but never quite there.</p> +<p>The first Friday that week was a Tuesday. I got fired from the programming job I’ve had for a couple years now. I wasn’t particularly surprised, companies are made of people, when the people change, the companies change. These things happen. But hey, if <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4tbZ7xnEjk">you ain’t got no job…</a> it’s Friday. I walked down to the tienda and grabbed a Modelo. As you do. Maybe it was two. It could have been three. But no more. Their fridge is much colder than ours and they’re only thirty feet from the front door. Never buy more than you need.</p> +<div class="cluster"> + +<figure > + <a href="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/IMG_20181002_074946260.jpg" title="view larger image "> + <img class=" " sizes="(max-width: 1439px) 100vw, (min-width: 1440px) 1440px" srcset="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/IMG_20181002_074946260_picwide-sm.jpg 720w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/IMG_20181002_074946260_picwide-med.jpg 1170w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/IMG_20181002_074946260_picwide.jpg 2880w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/IMG_20181002_074946260_pic5.jpg 648w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/IMG_20181002_074946260_featured_jrnl.jpg 520w" src="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/IMG_20181002_074946260_picwide-med.jpg" src="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/IMG_20181002_074946260_picwide.jpg" src="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/IMG_20181002_074946260_pic5.jpg" alt="None photographed by luxagraf" data-jslghtbx="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/IMG_20181002_074946260.jpg" data-jslghtbx-group="group" data-jslghtbx-caption="Some days you're the spectator, some days you're the spectacle, some days you're both."></a> +<figcaption>Some days you’re the spectator, some days you’re the spectacle, some days you’re both.</figcaption> +</figure> + + +<span class="row-2"> + + +<figure class="pic66"> + <a href="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/20181010_181546.jpg" title="view larger image "> + <img class=" " src="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/20181010_181546_pic66.jpg" alt="flexible photographed by luxagraf" data-jslghtbx="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/20181010_181546.jpg" data-jslghtbx-group="group" data-jslghtbx-caption="Pretty sure I was never this flexible."></a> +<figcaption>Pretty sure I was never this flexible.</figcaption> +</figure> + + + + +<figure class="pic66"> + <a href="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/IMG_20181112_162020720.jpg" title="view larger image "> + <img class=" " src="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/IMG_20181112_162020720_pic66.jpg" alt="Jumping photographed by luxagraf" data-jslghtbx="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/IMG_20181112_162020720.jpg" data-jslghtbx-group="group" data-jslghtbx-caption=""Elliott, are you jumping off the book shelf onto the bed again?" "...""></a> +<figcaption>“Elliott, are you jumping off the book shelf onto the bed again?” “…”</figcaption> +</figure> + + +</span> +</div> + +<p>The next Friday was Wednesday, Halloween. </p> +<p>It’s not much of a holiday down here and honestly, aside from some candy corn I brought down for Elliott, who has been obsessed with the stuff ever since he discovered it last year at Ron’s house, we were pretty much going to skip Halloween this year. </p> +<p>That said, the girls’ dance teacher wanted to take all the kids down the Parrochia/Jardin area after class on Halloween, where, apparently, the expats hand out candy. I thought, well isn’t that creepy of them. But then I’m always slagging the expats and I’ve been trying to do that less so I didn’t say anything. It turned out to be way creepier than even I had imagined, but the kids got to walk around town in their costumes and really didn’t care about anything else. They had a ball. </p> +<div class="picwide"> + <a itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" href="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-10-31_175853_halloween.jpg " title="view larger image"> + <img class="u-photo" itemprop="contentUrl" sizes="(max-width: 1439px) 100vw, (min-width: 1440px) 1440px" srcset="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-10-31_175853_halloween_picwide-sm.jpg 720w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-10-31_175853_halloween_picwide-med.jpg 1170w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-10-31_175853_halloween_picwide.jpg 2880w" src="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-10-31_175853_halloween_picwide-med.jpg" alt="halloween, san miguel de allende photographed by luxagraf" data-jslghtbx="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-10-31_175853_halloween.jpg" data-jslghtbx-group="group" > + </a> +</div> + +<p>After the girls’ dance class was over all the kids changed into their Halloween costumes and Michelle, their teacher, the six or so other kids, their families, and the five of us all walked the half mile or so down to the Jardin. There, in exchange for candy, a bunch of older expats took pictures of the all the kids. Not weird at all. Uh…</p> +<p>I might not have thought anything of it if the expats had been taking pictures of <em>all</em> the kids in the Jardin, but they weren’t. They were taking pictures of the Mexican kids. That our kids were taken for Mexican was an accident of assumptions — since we were walking with a group of Mexican families, we must be Mexicans. </p> +<p>It got me thinking about <em>why</em> we all take all the pictures we take. The kids — regardless of nationality — didn’t seem to care, by the end they had buckets full of candy and for children, candy transcends all. </p> +<figure class="picwide"> + <a itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" href="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/IMG_20181031_180431569.jpg " title="view larger image"> + <img class="u-photo" itemprop="contentUrl" sizes="(max-width: 1439px) 100vw, (min-width: 1440px) 1440px" srcset="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/IMG_20181031_180431569_picwide-sm.jpg 720w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/IMG_20181031_180431569_picwide-med.jpg 1170w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/IMG_20181031_180431569_picwide.jpg 2880w" src="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/IMG_20181031_180431569_picwide-med.jpg" alt="None photographed by luxagraf" data-jslghtbx="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/IMG_20181031_180431569.jpg" data-jslghtbx-group="group" data-jslghtbx-caption="Who watches the watchers? Um, me. The guy in the middle is innocent he's a professional hired by a local children's charity, he's the only one here who knows what a speed light is. The rest are guilty."> + </a> +<figcaption>Who watches the watchers? Um, me. The guy in the middle is innocent he’s a professional hired by a local children’s charity, he’s the only one here who knows what a speed light is. The rest are guilty.</figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>The next Friday was Thursday, Dia de Muertes. Despite the name, around here celebrating Dia de Muertes takes two days. </p> +<p>Day of the dead is a colorful holiday, lots of marigolds, elaborate family shrines, candles and, at night, fireworks. We went out wandering the town in the morning, watching people set up all the painstakingly handmade decorations. I hardly took any pictures though. The expats with their cameras in the Jardin the night before was still in my mind and then, unfortunately, we kept running across more people with cameras behaving badly. Normally I hardly notice expats or tourists, but for some reason they were all over the place for day of the dead, and behaving obnoxiously.</p> +<p>We watched people shoving cameras in the locals’ faces while they tried to make shrines for their dead, the parents they missed, the children they’d lost. And let’s be clear, it wasn’t “people” it was, in all three cases I witnessed, white males of a certain age. And it wasn’t just any locals. They sure as hell weren’t shoving cameras in the face of the guy covered in tattoos with a prominent 13 on the back of his head, no they were doing it to the grandmothers and grandfathers, the people who, again, were least likely to protest. </p> +<p>And I point that out not because the guy has gang tattoos, but because his tattoos make him photographically interesting, more so than a grandmother to my mind. But then he’s intimidating and the grandmother isn’t. Or so you’d think. But the only public act of violence I’ve seen in Mexico was grandmother beating a guy with her purse when he got in her way at a parade, so it’s not like old Mexican women are helpless. </p> +<p>Still, you have to wonder what makes people think it’s okay walk around shoving your camera in a grandma’s face, while she’s in the midst of a celebration designed to honor the dead. It’s rude any day of the week. And, after the experience in the Jardin the night before, I couldn’t help thinking — to what end? Why are we even taking all these pictures? To remember? Are our memories that bad? To show others? To impress our friends with… what exactly? How little you understand the culture that’s been kind enough to allow you to visit it? I don’t understand how anyone comes to think it’s okay to behave this way. </p> +<p>I do know where the idea for the image comes from though — National Geographic. But National Geographic photographers don’t get those images by rudely shoving a camera in someone’s face. Shoving cameras in someone’s face is something shitty photographers do — the people who take pictures no one will ever care about precisely because they have no empathy, no feeling, no soul, lack even the self-awareness to recognize that there is a soul. These are crappy selfies in which the self just happens to be outside the frame.</p> +<p>The people making art out of the beauty they see around them, the people whose images could actually end up in National Geographic don’t take pictures like that because there’s no beauty to be had that way. They don’t take pictures without permission, they don’t take pictures without first getting to know a person, even if only for a few moments. </p> +<p>On Dia de Muertes I watched shit photographer after shit photographer behaving like asses and I didn’t want to be like them, which is why there’s so few images in this post. I’m too shy to go out and meet people and ask to take their photographs, so I took the other sensible path — I put my camera away. The only pictures I have of Dia de Muertes are of me, my family, and few of the public decorations we saw while walking around. </p> +<div class="cluster"> + + <a href="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-11-01_121201_halloween.jpg" title="view larger image "> + <img class=" " sizes="(max-width: 1439px) 100vw, (min-width: 1440px) 1440px" srcset="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-01_121201_halloween_picwide-sm.jpg 720w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-01_121201_halloween_picwide-med.jpg 1170w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-01_121201_halloween_picwide.jpg 2880w" src="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-01_121201_halloween_picwide-med.jpg" alt="graveyard, dia de muertes, San Miguel de Allende photographed by luxagraf" data-jslghtbx="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-11-01_121201_halloween.jpg" data-jslghtbx-group="group" ></a> + + + + + <a href="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-11-01_120716_halloween.jpg" title="view larger image "> + <img class=" " sizes="(max-width: 1439px) 100vw, (min-width: 1440px) 1440px" srcset="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-01_120716_halloween_picwide-sm.jpg 720w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-01_120716_halloween_picwide-med.jpg 1170w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-01_120716_halloween_picwide.jpg 2880w" src="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-01_120716_halloween_picwide-med.jpg" alt="halloween, san miguel de allende photographed by luxagraf" data-jslghtbx="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-11-01_120716_halloween.jpg" data-jslghtbx-group="group" ></a> + + + + + <a href="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-11-01_181758-1_halloween.jpg" title="view larger image "> + <img class=" " sizes="(max-width: 1439px) 100vw, (min-width: 1440px) 1440px" srcset="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-01_181758-1_halloween_picwide-sm.jpg 720w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-01_181758-1_halloween_picwide-med.jpg 1170w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-01_181758-1_halloween_picwide.jpg 2880w" src="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-01_181758-1_halloween_picwide-med.jpg" alt="dia de muertes, san miguel de allende photographed by luxagraf" data-jslghtbx="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-11-01_181758-1_halloween.jpg" data-jslghtbx-group="group" ></a> + + +<span class="row-2"> + + + <a href="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/IMG_20181101_175814520.jpg" title="view larger image "> + <img class="pic66 " src="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/IMG_20181101_175814520_pic66.jpg" alt="None photographed by luxagraf" data-jslghtbx="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/IMG_20181101_175814520.jpg" data-jslghtbx-group="group" ></a> + + +</span> +</div> + +<p>I think that’s how Dia de Muertes is supposed to be anyway. It isn’t the huge party I thought it was. I always thought of it as a Mexican Halloween, but it’s not. It’s a celebration of <em>your</em> dead. Like everything in this country it’s about your family, your history, your people. There are public aspects to it, certainly fireworks and parties, but it’s primarily a more personal holiday. There’s an essay I really like, <cite><a href="https://claritamannion.wordpress.com/2016/10/25/dia-de-muertos/">Let Me Die like a Mexican</a></cite>, which calls Dia de Muertes a “bittersweet reflection on love, loss and life well lived.” That’s very much what it felt like to me.</p> +<p>It’s also the day the dead come back to visit the loved ones they’ve left behind. That’s not metaphorical and it’s not taken lightly. Everything that’s done is done to make their journey back from the underworld more pleasant — the food, the offerings, the alcohol, it’s all for the returning family members. Any student of the world’s bardo literature knows that coming out of the underworld is no easy task. You’re going to want a drink afterward. </p> +<p>Walking around during the day I spent a fair bit of time contemplating how Dia de Muertes managed to survive the Catholic church. It’s the most overtly pagan celebration I’ve ever seen. Sometimes the older pagan ways are too strong to be denied I guess — what comes from below outlasts what is imposed from above. Surprisingly, the recent movie, Coco, does a pretty decent job of capturing what the celebrations here are actually like.</p> +<p>I, on the other hand, cannot do a decent job of explaining what Dia de Muertes was like because I decided I wasn’t invited. My dead are nowhere near here and I’ve got nothing for them even if they came. I’d never really thought about it until that night, but I’m a crap descendant in that regard. I’ve never done anything to honor the dead in my family, certainly nothing of the sort that happens on Dia De Muertes here. I don’t even think about them much if I’m honest. I didn’t even make to their funerals in most cases, what business do I have being out on day of the dead?</p> +<p>So I went back to our apartment. I sat in the little covered outdoor area between the two rooms, listening to the fireworks, watching the flickering colors in the window. I drank a Modelo. Maybe two. It could have been three. I mumbled something about it being Friday, and it was actually Friday by then, and I ain’t got no job. I ain’t got shit to do.</p> + </div> + <div class="entry-footer"> + <aside id="wildlife"> + <h3>Fauna and Flora</h3> + + <ul> + + <li class="grouper">Birds<ul> + + <li>American Coot </li> + + <li>Bewick's Wren </li> + + <li>Blue-gray Gnatcatcher </li> + + <li>Broad-billed Hummingbird </li> + + <li>Cassin's Kingbird </li> + + <li>Cattle Egret </li> + + <li>Crested Caracara </li> + + <li>House Sparrow </li> + + <li>House Wren </li> + + <li>Inca Dove </li> + + <li>Northern Shoveler </li> + + <li>Ring-necked Duck </li> + + <li>Ruddy Duck </li> + + <li>Vermilion Flycatcher </li> + + <li>Violet-crowned Hummingbird </li> + + <li>White-faced Ibis </li> + + <li>White-tailed Kite </li> + + <li>White-winged Dove </li> + </ul> + </ul> + </aside> + + + </div> + </article> + + + <div class="nav-wrapper"> + <nav id="page-navigation" > + <ul> + <li id="prev"><span class="bl">Previous:</span> + <a href="/jrnl/2018/10/como-se-goza-en-el-barrio" rel="prev" title=" Como Se Goza En El Barrio">Como Se Goza En El Barrio</a> + </li> + <li id="next"><span class="bl">Next:</span> + <a href="/jrnl/2018/11/lets-go-ride" rel="next" title=" Let's Go For a Ride">Let's Go For a Ride</a> + </li> + </ul> + </nav> + </div> + + + + + + +<p class="comments--header">2 Comments</p> + + + + + + + <div class="comments--wrapper"> + + <div id="comment-3648" class="comment"> + <noscript class="datahashloader" data-hash="default"> + <img class="gravatar" src="https://images.luxagraf.net/gravcache/default.jpg" alt="gravatar icon for DREW ELDRIDGE" /> + </noscript> + <div class="comment--head"> + <span class="who"><b>DREW ELDRIDGE</b></span> + <span class="when">December 06, 2018 at 2:11 p.m.</span> + </div> + + <div class="comment--body"> + + <p>YOOO- I was so glad to click on my favorites tab and see your new post- Elliott’s face pre jump is 100% busted! And your girls are beautiful and growing like weeds- </p> +<p>As far as taking pictures I am 110% guilty- I never even thought about it until I went to India. I def felt shameful over there especially in Nepal at the temples. It was so heavy and personal, yet I snapped away. There were some I took when I waited for the subject to be unaware- but does that make it better or worse? </p> +<p>One subject in particular was on a skate board begging for money- I had read where the pimps over there would maim homeless children to make them more pitiful in order to have better chances of getting money. I figured this was how the kid without legs ended up on the skateboard wheeling around town pulling on skirts begging for money- (In reality I have no clue what happened to his legs- he may have been born without legs, wealthy, and trolling tourists for extra cash- doubtful, but possible) Either way, it was pitiful and I took the picture anyway. But not until he turned his head. Im not sure if I waited for his sake or mine.</p> +<p>Either way, I appreciate the article and checking myself one more time.</p> +<p>Sorry about the job- that sucks. But just like Modelos one and two- This too shall pass.</p> + + </div> + </div> + + <div id="comment-3650" class="comment"> + <noscript class="datahashloader" data-hash="d64f4854965b2b1c3ecafee4b2a66fac"> + <img class="gravatar" src="https://images.luxagraf.net/gravcache/d64f4854965b2b1c3ecafee4b2a66fac.jpg" alt="gravatar icon for Scott" /> + </noscript> + <div class="comment--head"> + <span class="who"><b><a href="https://luxagraf.net/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Scott</a></b></span> + <span class="when">December 06, 2018 at 3:22 p.m.</span> + </div> + + <div class="comment--body"> + + <p>Drew-</p> +<p>I don’t think it’s always wrong to take pictures. I think usually it’s pretty obvious actually. I did not take pictures of the Sadus at the burning ghats in Nepal, but only because I didn’t feel right paying them to do so and they clearly wanted money. Now that I think about it though I did give these kids money to take their picture, which maybe is just as weird as they people taking pictures in San Miguel. Hmm.</p> +<p>Anyway, I think street photography is very different than street photography during ritual/ceremony. </p> +<p>I also think it’s entirely possible that the people in question in San Miguel didn’t care that cameras were being shoved in their face as much as I cared that cameras were being shoved in their face, which might be every bit as colonialist of me to assume as it is of the photographers to do that. If that makes any sense.</p> +<p>(and I’ve got a big backlog of stories to tell, hoping to get more up soon).</p> + + </div> + </div> + + </div> + + +<div class="comment--form--wrapper comment-form-border"> + +<div class="comment--form--header"> + <p class="hed">Thoughts?</p> + <p class="subhed">Please leave a reply:</p> +</div> +<form action="/comments/post/" method="post" class="comment--form"> + +<input type="hidden" name="rder" value="" /> + + + <input type="hidden" name="content_type" value="jrnl.entry" id="id_content_type"> + + + + <input type="hidden" name="object_pk" value="278" id="id_object_pk"> + + + + <input type="hidden" name="timestamp" value="1596833316" id="id_timestamp"> + + + + <input type="hidden" name="security_hash" value="8299ee117e3e20c55f7d98894bf9b28067a323d2" id="id_security_hash"> + + + + <fieldset > + <label for="id_name">Name:</label> + <input type="text" name="name" maxlength="50" required id="id_name"> + </fieldset> + + + + <fieldset > + <label for="id_email">Email address:</label> + <input type="email" name="email" required id="id_email"> + </fieldset> + + + + <fieldset > + <label for="id_url">URL:</label> + <input type="url" name="url" id="id_url"> + </fieldset> + + + + <fieldset > + <label for="id_comment">Comment:</label> + <div class="textarea-rounded"><textarea name="comment" cols="40" rows="10" maxlength="3000" required id="id_comment"> +</textarea></div> + </fieldset> + + + + <fieldset style="display:none;"> + <label for="id_honeypot">If you enter anything in this field your comment will be treated as spam:</label> + <input type="text" name="honeypot" id="id_honeypot"> + </fieldset> + + + <div class="submit"> + <input type="submit" name="post" class="submit-post btn" value="Post" /> + <input type="submit" name="preview" class="submit-preview btn" value="Preview" /> + </div> +</form> +<p style="font-size: 95%;"><strong>All comments are moderated</strong>, so you won’t see it right away. And please remember Kurt Vonnegut's rule: “god damn it, you’ve got to be kind.” You can use Markdown or HTML to format your comments. The allowed tags are <code><b>, <i>, <em>, <strong>, <a></code>. To create a new paragraph hit return twice. </p> + + +</div> + +</main> + + + + <footer class="bl"> + <ul class="footer-nav"> + <li><a href="/blogroll" title="Sites that inspire us">Blogroll</a></li> + <li><a href="/contact/" title="contact luxagraf">Contact</a></li> + <li>Follow Along: + <ul> + <li><a href="/jrnl/feed.xml" title="RSS feed">RSS</a></li> + <li><a href="/newsletter/" title="Luxagraf Email Updates">Email</a></li> + <li><a href="https://www.instagram.com/luxagraf" rel="me" title="luxagraf on Instagram">Instagram</a></li> + </ul> + </ul> + <div class="support">Support luxagraf: + <div class="donate-btn"> + <form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_top"> + <input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_s-xclick"> + <input type="hidden" name="hosted_button_id" value="HYJFZQSBGJ8QQ"> + <input type="submit" name="submit" title="Donate to luxagraf via PayPal"> + </form> + </div> + <div class="donate-btn"> + <a class="liberapay-btn" href="https://liberapay.com/luxagraf/donate"><span>Donate</span></a> + </div> + </div> + <p id="license"> + © 2003-2020 + <span class="h-card"><a class="p-name u-url" href="https://luxagraf.net/">Scott Gilbertson</a><data class="p-nickname" value="luxagraf"></data><data class="p-locality" value="Athens"></data><data class="p-region" value="Georgia"></data><data class="p-country-name" value="United States"></data></span>. + </p> + </footer> + </div> + +<script> +document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function(event) { + var leaflet = document.createElement('script'); + leaflet.src = "/media/js/leaflet-master/leaflet-mod.js"; + document.body.appendChild(leaflet); + var lightbox = document.createElement('script'); + lightbox.src = "/media/js/lightbox.js"; + document.body.appendChild(lightbox); + leaflet.onload = function(){ + var detail = document.createElement('script'); + detail.src = "/media/js/detail.min.js"; + document.body.appendChild(detail); + + detail.onload = function(){ + createMap(); + var open = false; + } + + } + + lightbox.onload = function() { + var opts= { + //nextOnClick: false, + captions: true, + onload: function(){ + var im = document.getElementById("jslghtbx-contentwrapper"); + var link = im.appendChild(document.createElement('a')) + link.href = im.firstChild.src; + link.innerHTML= "open "; + link.target = "_blank"; + link.setAttribute('class', 'p-link'); + im.appendChild(link); + } + }; + var lightbox = new Lightbox(); + lightbox.load(opts); + } + + + + //delay loading of gravatar images using noscript data-hash attribute + dataattr = document.getElementsByClassName("datahashloader"); + for(var i=0; i<dataattr.length; i++) { + var c = dataattr[i].parentNode; + var img = document.createElement("img"); + img.src = 'https://images.luxagraf.net/gravcache/' + dataattr[i].getAttribute('data-hash') + '.jpg'; + img.className += "gravatar"; + img.alt = "gravatar icon"; + c.insertBefore(img, c.childNodes[3]); + } + + + + +}); +</script> + +<script> +<!-- +// Register our service-worker +//if (navigator.serviceWorker) { +// window.addEventListener('load', function() { +// if (navigator.serviceWorker.controller) { +// navigator.serviceWorker.controller.postMessage({'command': 'trimCaches'}); +// } else { +// navigator.serviceWorker.register('/serviceworker.js', { +// scope: '/' +// }); +// } +// }); +//} +//--> + +<!-- Piwik --> +var _paq = _paq || []; +_paq.push(["disableCookies"]); +_paq.push(['trackPageView']); +_paq.push(['enableLinkTracking']); +(function() { + var u="https://stats.luxagraf.net/"; + _paq.push(['setTrackerUrl', u+'piwik.php']); + _paq.push(['setSiteId', 1]); + var d=document, g=d.createElement('script'), s=d.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; + g.type='text/javascript'; g.async=true; g.defer=true; g.src=u+'piwik.js'; s.parentNode.insertBefore(g,s); + })(); +<!-- End Piwik Code --> +</script> +<noscript><p><img src="//stats.luxagraf.net/piwik.php?idsite=1" style="border:0;" alt="" /></p></noscript> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/bak/oldluxpages/jrnlold/2018/11/friday.txt b/bak/oldluxpages/jrnlold/2018/11/friday.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3e28b59 --- /dev/null +++ b/bak/oldluxpages/jrnlold/2018/11/friday.txt @@ -0,0 +1,69 @@ +Friday +====== + + by Scott Gilbertson + </jrnl/2018/11/friday> + Saturday, 03 November 2018 + +It was a week of Fridays. Some weeks are like that, you're forever on the edge of a weekend, but never quite there.
+
+The first Friday that week was a Tuesday. I got fired from the programming job I've had for a couple years now. I wasn't particularly surprised, companies are made of people, when the people change, the companies change. These things happen. But hey, if [you ain't got no job...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4tbZ7xnEjk) it's Friday. I walked down to the tienda and grabbed a Modelo. As you do. Maybe it was two. It could have been three. But no more. Their fridge is much colder than ours and they're only thirty feet from the front door. Never buy more than you need.
+
+<div class="cluster">
+<img src="images/2018/IMG_20181002_074946260.jpg" id="image-1770" class="cluster picwide caption" />
+<span class="row-2">
+<img src="images/2018/20181010_181546.jpg" id="image-1768" class="cluster pic66 caption" />
+<img src="images/2018/IMG_20181112_162020720.jpg" id="image-1769" class="cluster pic66 caption" />
+</span>
+</div>
+
+The next Friday was Wednesday, Halloween.
+
+It's not much of a holiday down here and honestly, aside from some candy corn I brought down for Elliott, who has been obsessed with the stuff ever since he discovered it last year at Ron's house, we were pretty much going to skip Halloween this year.
+
+That said, the girls' dance teacher wanted to take all the kids down the Parrochia/Jardin area after class on Halloween, where, apparently, the expats hand out candy. I thought, well isn't that creepy of them. But then I'm always slagging the expats and I've been trying to do that less so I didn't say anything. It turned out to be way creepier than even I had imagined, but the kids got to walk around town in their costumes and really didn't care about anything else. They had a ball.
+
+<img src="images/2018/2018-10-31_175853_halloween.jpg" id="image-1762" class="picwide" />
+
+After the girls' dance class was over all the kids changed into their Halloween costumes and Michelle, their teacher, the six or so other kids, their families, and the five of us all walked the half mile or so down to the Jardin. There, in exchange for candy, a bunch of older expats took pictures of the all the kids. Not weird at all. Uh...
+
+I might not have thought anything of it if the expats had been taking pictures of *all* the kids in the Jardin, but they weren't. They were taking pictures of the Mexican kids. That our kids were taken for Mexican was an accident of assumptions -- since we were walking with a group of Mexican families, we must be Mexicans.
+
+It got me thinking about *why* we all take all the pictures we take. The kids -- regardless of nationality -- didn't seem to care, by the end they had buckets full of candy and for children, candy transcends all.
+
+<img src="images/2018/IMG_20181031_180431569.jpg" id="image-1771" class="picwide caption" />
+
+The next Friday was Thursday, Dia de Muertes. Despite the name, around here celebrating Dia de Muertes takes two days.
+
+Day of the dead is a colorful holiday, lots of marigolds, elaborate family shrines, candles and, at night, fireworks. We went out wandering the town in the morning, watching people set up all the painstakingly handmade decorations. I hardly took any pictures though. The expats with their cameras in the Jardin the night before was still in my mind and then, unfortunately, we kept running across more people with cameras behaving badly. Normally I hardly notice expats or tourists, but for some reason they were all over the place for day of the dead, and behaving obnoxiously.
+
+We watched people shoving cameras in the locals' faces while they tried to make shrines for their dead, the parents they missed, the children they'd lost. And let's be clear, it wasn't "people" it was, in all three cases I witnessed, white males of a certain age. And it wasn't just any locals. They sure as hell weren't shoving cameras in the face of the guy covered in tattoos with a prominent 13 on the back of his head, no they were doing it to the grandmothers and grandfathers, the people who, again, were least likely to protest.
+
+And I point that out not because the guy has gang tattoos, but because his tattoos make him photographically interesting, more so than a grandmother to my mind. But then he's intimidating and the grandmother isn't. Or so you'd think. But the only public act of violence I've seen in Mexico was grandmother beating a guy with her purse when he got in her way at a parade, so it's not like old Mexican women are helpless.
+
+Still, you have to wonder what makes people think it's okay walk around shoving your camera in a grandma's face, while she's in the midst of a celebration designed to honor the dead. It's rude any day of the week. And, after the experience in the Jardin the night before, I couldn't help thinking -- to what end? Why are we even taking all these pictures? To remember? Are our memories that bad? To show others? To impress our friends with... what exactly? How little you understand the culture that's been kind enough to allow you to visit it? I don't understand how anyone comes to think it's okay to behave this way.
+
+I do know where the idea for the image comes from though -- National Geographic. But National Geographic photographers don't get those images by rudely shoving a camera in someone's face. Shoving cameras in someone's face is something shitty photographers do -- the people who take pictures no one will ever care about precisely because they have no empathy, no feeling, no soul, lack even the self-awareness to recognize that there is a soul. These are crappy selfies in which the self just happens to be outside the frame.
+
+The people making art out of the beauty they see around them, the people whose images could actually end up in National Geographic don't take pictures like that because there's no beauty to be had that way. They don't take pictures without permission, they don't take pictures without first getting to know a person, even if only for a few moments.
+
+On Dia de Muertes I watched shit photographer after shit photographer behaving like asses and I didn't want to be like them, which is why there's so few images in this post. I'm too shy to go out and meet people and ask to take their photographs, so I took the other sensible path -- I put my camera away. The only pictures I have of Dia de Muertes are of me, my family, and few of the public decorations we saw while walking around.
+
+<div class="cluster">
+<img src="images/2018/2018-11-01_121201_halloween.jpg" id="image-1765" class="cluster picwide" />
+<img src="images/2018/2018-11-01_120716_halloween.jpg" id="image-1764" class="cluster picwide" />
+<img src="images/2018/2018-11-01_181758-1_halloween.jpg" id="image-1766" class="cluster picwide" />
+<span class="row-2">
+<img src="images/2018/IMG_20181101_175814520.jpg" id="image-1772" class="cluster pic66" />
+</span>
+</div>
+
+I think that's how Dia de Muertes is supposed to be anyway. It isn't the huge party I thought it was. I always thought of it as a Mexican Halloween, but it's not. It's a celebration of *your* dead. Like everything in this country it's about your family, your history, your people. There are public aspects to it, certainly fireworks and parties, but it's primarily a more personal holiday. There's an essay I really like, <cite>[Let Me Die like a Mexican](https://claritamannion.wordpress.com/2016/10/25/dia-de-muertos/)</cite>, which calls Dia de Muertes a "bittersweet reflection on love, loss and life well lived." That's very much what it felt like to me.
+
+It's also the day the dead come back to visit the loved ones they've left behind. That's not metaphorical and it's not taken lightly. Everything that's done is done to make their journey back from the underworld more pleasant -- the food, the offerings, the alcohol, it's all for the returning family members. Any student of the world's bardo literature knows that coming out of the underworld is no easy task. You're going to want a drink afterward.
+
+Walking around during the day I spent a fair bit of time contemplating how Dia de Muertes managed to survive the Catholic church. It's the most overtly pagan celebration I've ever seen. Sometimes the older pagan ways are too strong to be denied I guess -- what comes from below outlasts what is imposed from above. Surprisingly, the recent movie, Coco, does a pretty decent job of capturing what the celebrations here are actually like.
+
+I, on the other hand, cannot do a decent job of explaining what Dia de Muertes was like because I decided I wasn't invited. My dead are nowhere near here and I've got nothing for them even if they came. I'd never really thought about it until that night, but I'm a crap descendant in that regard. I've never done anything to honor the dead in my family, certainly nothing of the sort that happens on Dia De Muertes here. I don't even think about them much if I'm honest. I didn't even make to their funerals in most cases, what business do I have being out on day of the dead?
+
+So I went back to our apartment. I sat in the little covered outdoor area between the two rooms, listening to the fireworks, watching the flickering colors in the window. I drank a Modelo. Maybe two. It could have been three. I mumbled something about it being Friday, and it was actually Friday by then, and I ain't got no job. I ain't got shit to do. diff --git a/bak/oldluxpages/jrnlold/2018/11/lets-go-ride.html b/bak/oldluxpages/jrnlold/2018/11/lets-go-ride.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..264b4c2 --- /dev/null +++ b/bak/oldluxpages/jrnlold/2018/11/lets-go-ride.html @@ -0,0 +1,418 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html +class="detail single" dir="ltr" lang="en-US"> + +<head> + <title>Let’s Go For A Ride - by Scott Gilbertson</title> + <meta charset="utf-8"> + <meta http-equiv="x-ua-compatible" content="ie=edge"> + <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> + <meta name="description" + content="Exploring the country side around San Miguel de Allende."> + <meta name="author" content="Scott Gilbertson"> + <link rel="alternate" + type="application/rss+xml" + title="Luxagraf RSS feed" + href="https://luxagraf.net/rss/"> + <link rel="stylesheet" + href="/media/screenv9.css" + media="screen"> + <link rel="stylesheet" href="/media/print.css" media="print" title="print" /> + <link rel="shortcut icon" href="/favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon"> + <link rel="manifest" href="/manifest.json" /> + <link rel="dns-prefetch" href="https://stats.luxagraf.net"> + + <link rel="canonical" href="https://luxagraf.net/jrnl/2018/11/lets-go-ride" /> + <meta name="ICBM" content="20.895315897392834, -100.77957970717635" /> + <meta name="geo.position" content="20.895315897392834; -100.77957970717635" /> + <meta name="geo.placename" content="Around San Miguel de Allende, Mexico"> + <meta name="geo.region" content="-"> + <meta property="og:type" content="article" /> + <meta property="og:title" content="Let's Go For a Ride" /> + <meta property="og:url" content="https://luxagraf.net/jrnl/2018/11/lets-go-ride" /> + <meta property="og:description" content="Exploring the country side around San Miguel de Allende." /> + <meta property="article:published_time" content="2018-11-17T18:28:51" /> + <meta property="article:author" content="Scott Gilbertson" /> + <meta property="og:site_name" content="Luxagraf" /> + <meta property="og:image" content="/media/images/original/2018/2018-11-18_130447_quad-ride-sma.jpg" /> + <meta property="og:locale" content="en_US" /> + <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image"/> + <meta name="twitter:description" content="Exploring the country side around San Miguel de Allende."/> + <meta name="twitter:title" content="Let's Go For a Ride"/> + <meta name="twitter:site" content="@luxagraf"/> + <meta name="twitter:domain" content="luxagraf"/> + <meta name="twitter:image:src" content="/media/images/original/2018/2018-11-18_130447_quad-ride-sma.jpg"/> + <meta name="twitter:creator" content="@luxagraf"/> +<script type="application/ld+json"> +{ + "@context": "https://schema.org", + "@type": "Article", + "mainEntityOfPage": { + "@type": "WebPage", + "@id": "https://luxagraf.net/jrnl/2018/11/lets-go-ride" + }, + "headline": "Let's Go For a Ride", + "datePublished": "2018-11-17T18:28:51+04:00", + "dateModified": "2018-11-17T18:28:51+04:00", + "author": { + "@type": "Person", + "name": "Scott Gilbertson" + }, + "publisher": { + "@type": "Organization", + "name": "Luxagraf", + "logo": { + "@type": "ImageObject", + "url": "https://luxagraf.net/media/img/logo-white.jpg" + } + }, + "description": "Exploring the country side around San Miguel de Allende." +} +</script> + +</head> +<body > + <div class="wrapper" id="wrapper"> + <div class="header-wrapper"> + <header class="site-banner"> + <div id="logo"> + <a href="/" title="Home">Luxagraf</a> + <span class="sitesubtitle">Walk Slowly</span> + </div> + <nav> + <ul> + <li><a href="/jrnl/" title="Stories of life on the road.">Jrnl</a> & <a href="/field-notes/" title="Short stories, snapshots of daily life on the road.">Field Notes</a></li> + <li><a href="/guide/" title="Advice, Tools, Tips and Tricks for Full Time Van or RV Life.">Guides</a></li> + <li><a href="/newsletter/" title="The 'friends of a long year' newsletter">newsletter</a></li> + <li><a href="/about" title="About Scott">About</a></li> + </ul> + </nav> + </header> + </div> + <ol class="bl" id="breadcrumbs" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/BreadcrumbList"> + <li itemprop="itemListElement" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ListItem"><a itemprop="item" href="/"><span itemprop="name">Home</span></a> → + <meta itemprop="position" content="1" /> + </li> + <li itemprop="itemListElement" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ListItem"> + + <a href="/jrnl/" itemprop="item"><span itemprop="name">jrnl</span></a> + <meta itemprop="position" content="2" /> + <meta itemprop="position" content="2" /> + </li> + </ol> + + + <main> + <article class="h-entry hentry entry-content content" itemscope itemType="http://schema.org/BlogPosting"> + <header id="header" class="post-header "> + <h1 class="p-name entry-title post-title" itemprop="headline">Let’s Go For a Ride</h1> + + <div class="post-linewrapper"> + <div class="p-location h-adr adr post-location" itemprop="contentLocation" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Place"> + <h3 class="h-adr" itemprop="address" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/PostalAddress"><span class="p-region" itemprop="addressRegion">Around San Miguel de Allende</span>, <a class="p-country-name country-name" href="/jrnl/mexico/" title="travel writing from Mexico"><span itemprop="addressCountry">Mexico</span></a></h3> + – <a href="" onclick="showMap(20.895315897392834, -100.77957970717635, { type:'point', lat:'20.895315897392834', lon:'-100.77957970717635'}); return false;" title="see a map">Map</a> + </div> + <time class="dt-published published dt-updated post-date" datetime="2018-11-17T18:28:51" itemprop="datePublished">November <span>17, 2018</span></time> + <span class="hide" itemprop="author" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Person">by <a class="p-author h-card" href="/about"><span itemprop="name">Scott Gilbertson</span></a></span> + </div> + </header> + <div id="article" class="e-content entry-content post--body post--body--single" itemprop="articleBody"> + <p>The goggles barely fit over my glasses, they’re pressed tight against the bridge of my nose — in a few hours I’ll have a headache. But unlike last time I found myself <a href="https://live.luxagraf.net/jrnl/2006/03/ticket-ride">hurling down dusty tracks</a> through the bush, this time I can see. This time I have two extra wheels and loads more stability. It’s also an automatic so I rip into to tight turns with far more recklessness than I ever did on a Honda Dream. </p> +<p>I won’t lie, it feels good to be astride an engine again.</p> +<p>There’s no cool mask for this trip though. Mike asked for a bandana and got one. I stuck with the little white painter’s mask the guide gave me. It reminds me of sanding down the bus. The dust isn’t that bad out here anyway. Half the time we’re in mud and at one point we very nearly submerge our quads in the lake. I would never have dreamed of putting an engine through what the guide seemed happy to lead us through, but who am I to argue?</p> +<div class="picwide"> + <a itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" href="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-11-18_122656_quad-ride-sma.jpg " title="view larger image"> + <img class="u-photo" itemprop="contentUrl" sizes="(max-width: 1439px) 100vw, (min-width: 1440px) 1440px" srcset="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_122656_quad-ride-sma_picwide-sm.jpg 720w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_122656_quad-ride-sma_picwide-med.jpg 1170w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_122656_quad-ride-sma_picwide.jpg 2880w" src="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_122656_quad-ride-sma_picwide-med.jpg" alt="riding quads in the country side, san miguel de allende, mx photographed by luxagraf" data-jslghtbx="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-11-18_122656_quad-ride-sma.jpg" data-jslghtbx-group="group" > + </a> +</div> + +<div class="picwide"> + <a itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" href="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-11-18_113504_quad-ride-sma.jpg " title="view larger image"> + <img class="u-photo" itemprop="contentUrl" sizes="(max-width: 1439px) 100vw, (min-width: 1440px) 1440px" srcset="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_113504_quad-ride-sma_picwide-sm.jpg 720w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_113504_quad-ride-sma_picwide-med.jpg 1170w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_113504_quad-ride-sma_picwide.jpg 2880w" src="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_113504_quad-ride-sma_picwide-med.jpg" alt="country side around san miguel de allende, mx photographed by luxagraf" data-jslghtbx="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-11-18_113504_quad-ride-sma.jpg" data-jslghtbx-group="group" > + </a> +</div> + +<p>Without the bus I’ve lost the understanding of surrounding terrain that was part of life in the bus. In the bus we’d have been coming from somewhere and we’d have to figure out the best way from point A to point B, which might not have been the main road. In any case I’d have looked at all of the roads into San Miguel before making a decision. I’d have a map, I’d have looked at elevations in my own online mapping tool. I’d have figured out the outlying roads, how they connected San Miguel to points around it. Corrinne would have planned where we were going, what we’d do. We’d know the best way into the city, what to avoid, and where to go once we got there. Most of that research wouldn’t have been very formal, we’d have just kind of absorbed it a little bit at the time as we looked and talked. </p> +<p>Instead we were handed a bus ticket in Mexico City, and then we sat back and chatted until we magically appeared in the middle of town a few hours later. There’s very little context when someone else is driving, and almost no planning. Since then we’ve only been places we can reach either on foot or on the local bus, which hasn’t added to my understanding of the overall picture very much.</p> +<div class="picwide"> + <a itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" href="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-11-18_130447_quad-ride-sma.jpg " title="view larger image"> + <img class="u-photo" itemprop="contentUrl" sizes="(max-width: 1439px) 100vw, (min-width: 1440px) 1440px" srcset="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_130447_quad-ride-sma_picwide-sm.jpg 720w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_130447_quad-ride-sma_picwide-med.jpg 1170w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_130447_quad-ride-sma_picwide.jpg 2880w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_130447_quad-ride-sma_featured_jrnl.jpg 520w" src="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_130447_quad-ride-sma_picwide-med.jpg" src="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_130447_quad-ride-sma_picwide.jpg" alt="san miguel from malequin area photographed by luxagraf" data-jslghtbx="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-11-18_130447_quad-ride-sma.jpg" data-jslghtbx-group="group" > + </a> +</div> + +<p>We have been to the botanical gardens at the top of the hill a couple times. It offers a pretty good view to the north and east. The kids and I once rode the number 10 bus to its end point in the neighborhood of Malanquin, where we found a playground atop a hill with really good views to the south, but otherwise my sense of the lay of the land is very vague. I know roughly where various neighborhoods are, but no sense of how they connect, and hardly any sense of what the surrounding country side looks like.</p> +<p>That’s one of the reasons, when my friend Mike suggested we rent ATVs and go riding, I immediately said yes. The other reason was, even if it’s not a motorcycle, at least I’d be riding an engine again and I never pass up the chance to do that.</p> +<p>Right off the bat we drove through a neighborhood I’d only heard of from seeing for rent ads on Craigslist. I quickly realized why I hadn’t been there —it’s the suburbs, and rich suburbs at that, not my part of town, but I’m glad I know where it is now. We quickly rode on through and down to the lake shore past this crazy Gaudi-esque house that came up so fast and was so close I couldn’t get a good picture, but it’s on the list of things to get back to, eventually.</p> +<div class="picwide"> + <a itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" href="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-11-18_112958_quad-ride-sma.jpg " title="view larger image"> + <img class="u-photo" itemprop="contentUrl" sizes="(max-width: 1439px) 100vw, (min-width: 1440px) 1440px" srcset="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_112958_quad-ride-sma_picwide-sm.jpg 720w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_112958_quad-ride-sma_picwide-med.jpg 1170w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_112958_quad-ride-sma_picwide.jpg 2880w" src="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_112958_quad-ride-sma_picwide-med.jpg" alt="country side around san miguel de allende, mx photographed by luxagraf" data-jslghtbx="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-11-18_112958_quad-ride-sma.jpg" data-jslghtbx-group="group" > + </a> +</div> + +<p>We continued on down to the lake, stopping at a little church that I believe, if my Spanish isn’t failing me, is the original structure that started San Miguel de Allende. And it was built atop the ruins of a pyramid that was, until the day the Spanish arrived, not in ruins.</p> +<div class="picwide"> + <a itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" href="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-11-18_114806_quad-ride-sma.jpg " title="view larger image"> + <img class="u-photo" itemprop="contentUrl" sizes="(max-width: 1439px) 100vw, (min-width: 1440px) 1440px" srcset="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_114806_quad-ride-sma_picwide-sm.jpg 720w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_114806_quad-ride-sma_picwide-med.jpg 1170w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_114806_quad-ride-sma_picwide.jpg 2880w" src="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_114806_quad-ride-sma_picwide-med.jpg" alt="lake, san miguel de allende area, mx photographed by luxagraf" data-jslghtbx="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-11-18_114806_quad-ride-sma.jpg" data-jslghtbx-group="group" > + </a> +</div> + +<div class="picwide"> + <a itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" href="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-11-18_114703_quad-ride-sma.jpg " title="view larger image"> + <img class="u-photo" itemprop="contentUrl" sizes="(max-width: 1439px) 100vw, (min-width: 1440px) 1440px" srcset="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_114703_quad-ride-sma_picwide-sm.jpg 720w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_114703_quad-ride-sma_picwide-med.jpg 1170w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_114703_quad-ride-sma_picwide.jpg 2880w" src="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_114703_quad-ride-sma_picwide-med.jpg" alt="church outside san miguel de allende, mx photographed by luxagraf" data-jslghtbx="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-11-18_114703_quad-ride-sma.jpg" data-jslghtbx-group="group" > + </a> +</div> + +<div class="picwide"> + <a itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" href="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-11-18_114535_quad-ride-sma.jpg " title="view larger image"> + <img class="u-photo" itemprop="contentUrl" sizes="(max-width: 1439px) 100vw, (min-width: 1440px) 1440px" srcset="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_114535_quad-ride-sma_picwide-sm.jpg 720w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_114535_quad-ride-sma_picwide-med.jpg 1170w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_114535_quad-ride-sma_picwide.jpg 2880w" src="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_114535_quad-ride-sma_picwide-med.jpg" alt="stone cross, outside san miguel de allende, mx photographed by luxagraf" data-jslghtbx="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-11-18_114535_quad-ride-sma.jpg" data-jslghtbx-group="group" > + </a> +</div> + +<figure class="picwide"> + <a itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" href="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-11-18_114640_quad-ride-sma.jpg " title="view larger image"> + <img class="u-photo" itemprop="contentUrl" sizes="(max-width: 1439px) 100vw, (min-width: 1440px) 1440px" srcset="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_114640_quad-ride-sma_picwide-sm.jpg 720w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_114640_quad-ride-sma_picwide-med.jpg 1170w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_114640_quad-ride-sma_picwide.jpg 2880w" src="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_114640_quad-ride-sma_picwide-med.jpg" alt="dead vermillian flycatcher photographed by luxagraf" data-jslghtbx="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-11-18_114640_quad-ride-sma.jpg" data-jslghtbx-group="group" data-jslghtbx-caption="Outside the stone wall of the church courtyard someone had laid this dead vermilion flycatcher, almost like an offering."> + </a> +<figcaption>Outside the stone wall of the church courtyard someone had laid this dead vermilion flycatcher, almost like an offering.</figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>Normally I’d have wondered off to think on the history and architecture and stone and water and dead birds, but on this particular trip I wasn’t in the mood. Actually I did sit for a while and think on the dead bird. I’d never see a vermilion flycatcher that close, dead or alive, they’re even more beautiful than they look from a distance, even dead.</p> +<p>I’d like to do another trip, slower, maybe on a horse, and bring an archaeologist or historian back to the church and find out how it fits into the structure and system of the world we’re in here. And since we actually met an archaeologist/historian there’s a good chance that will happen eventually, but on this particular day I just wanted to feel the wind in my face, see the country side rushing past, and maybe try to get all four wheels off the ground a time or two. I wasn’t in the frame of mind to explore the details, I was after the high level overview — the frame, not the picture.</p> +<p>After a while at the church we rode on, at one point, for the sheer fun of it, we road through water deep enough to flood the engines, which somehow did not die. Still puzzling that out in my free time. </p> +<p>We went past little town, clusters of houses really, always with a small tienda where everyone, and every dog, seemed to be gathered to talk and relax on a Sunday afternoon. I would have like to stop in a few, buy a Coke or a beer and talk to the people, but we kept on. We went past enormous restaurants that seemed far larger than was necessary given the nearby population was near nil, but perhaps people come out from San Miguel, who knows. I filed that, along with many other questions away for another day. </p> +<p>At some point we passed an RV, a beat up old thing, probably a late 80s or maybe early 90s model. It was clearly functional though, and hooked up to both sewer and water in the middle of nowhere. I filed it away to think on later and punched it over the railroad tracks.</p> +<p>We stopped for some water and a huge flock of either ravens or crows came circling overhead. I like to think they were crows, since that would make them a murder of crows, but I couldn’t say for sure, I had no binoculars on me.</p> +<div class="picwide"> + <a itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" href="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-11-18_122458_quad-ride-sma.jpg " title="view larger image"> + <img class="u-photo" itemprop="contentUrl" sizes="(max-width: 1439px) 100vw, (min-width: 1440px) 1440px" srcset="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_122458_quad-ride-sma_picwide-sm.jpg 720w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_122458_quad-ride-sma_picwide-med.jpg 1170w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_122458_quad-ride-sma_picwide.jpg 2880w" src="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_122458_quad-ride-sma_picwide-med.jpg" alt="el campo, san miguel de allende, mx photographed by luxagraf" data-jslghtbx="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-11-18_122458_quad-ride-sma.jpg" data-jslghtbx-group="group" > + </a> +</div> + +<div class="picwide"> + <a itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" href="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-11-18_122519_quad-ride-sma.jpg " title="view larger image"> + <img class="u-photo" itemprop="contentUrl" sizes="(max-width: 1439px) 100vw, (min-width: 1440px) 1440px" srcset="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_122519_quad-ride-sma_picwide-sm.jpg 720w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_122519_quad-ride-sma_picwide-med.jpg 1170w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_122519_quad-ride-sma_picwide.jpg 2880w" src="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_122519_quad-ride-sma_picwide-med.jpg" alt="crows, in the countryside around san miguel de allende photographed by luxagraf" data-jslghtbx="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-11-18_122519_quad-ride-sma.jpg" data-jslghtbx-group="group" > + </a> +</div> + +<p>Eventually we circled back around, up past the train station I knew must be around — we’d heard the trains — but hadn’t seen yet, and finally up the hill with the giant cross. When I said that to some people who have been here a few years they looked at me like I was an idiot — which hill, which cross? Right, every hill has a cross. In this Catholic, yet not quite Catholic, world every neighborhood has a church, every hill has a cross. Oh, you know, the one with nice views of San Miguel and the lake.</p> +<figure class="picwide"> + <a itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" href="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-11-22_qF68qFJ.jpg " title="view larger image"> + <img class="u-photo" itemprop="contentUrl" sizes="(max-width: 1439px) 100vw, (min-width: 1440px) 1440px" srcset="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-22_qF68qFJ_picwide-sm.jpg 720w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-22_qF68qFJ_picwide-med.jpg 1170w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-22_qF68qFJ_picwide.jpg 2880w" src="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-22_qF68qFJ_picwide-med.jpg" alt="mike and i quad ride, san miguel photographed by our guide." data-jslghtbx="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-11-22_qF68qFJ.jpg" data-jslghtbx-group="group" > + </a> +<figcaption>image by our guide.</figcaption> +</figure> + +<div class="picwide"> + <a itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" href="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-11-18_130458_quad-ride-sma.jpg " title="view larger image"> + <img class="u-photo" itemprop="contentUrl" sizes="(max-width: 1439px) 100vw, (min-width: 1440px) 1440px" srcset="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_130458_quad-ride-sma_picwide-sm.jpg 720w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_130458_quad-ride-sma_picwide-med.jpg 1170w, https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_130458_quad-ride-sma_picwide.jpg 2880w" src="https://images.luxagraf.net/2018/2018-11-18_130458_quad-ride-sma_picwide-med.jpg" alt="The country side around san miguel de allende, MX photographed by luxagraf" data-jslghtbx="https://images.luxagraf.net/original/2018/2018-11-18_130458_quad-ride-sma.jpg" data-jslghtbx-group="group" > + </a> +</div> + +<p>I still don’t know the area like I would if I had the bus, but I know where things are better than I did before. And I did, I think, manage to get all four wheels off the ground at least once. Those quads are no Honda Dreams, but they’ll do for now. Special thanks to my friend Mike for making this trip happen.</p> + </div> + + </article> + + + <div class="nav-wrapper"> + <nav id="page-navigation" class="page-border-top"> + <ul> + <li id="prev"><span class="bl">Previous:</span> + <a href="/jrnl/2018/11/friday" rel="prev" title=" Friday">Friday</a> + </li> + <li id="next"><span class="bl">Next:</span> + <a href="/jrnl/2018/11/food-table-tonight" rel="next" title=" There'll be Food on the Table Tonight">There'll be Food on the Table Tonight</a> + </li> + </ul> + </nav> + </div> + + + + + + +<div class="comment--form--wrapper "> + +<div class="comment--form--header"> + <p class="hed">Thoughts?</p> + <p class="subhed">Please leave a reply:</p> +</div> +<form action="/comments/post/" method="post" class="comment--form"> + +<input type="hidden" name="rder" value="" /> + + + <input type="hidden" name="content_type" value="jrnl.entry" id="id_content_type"> + + + + <input type="hidden" name="object_pk" value="279" id="id_object_pk"> + + + + <input type="hidden" name="timestamp" value="1596833316" id="id_timestamp"> + + + + <input type="hidden" name="security_hash" value="b56536c20e4171e3318c4d995ee0e47b8c81f40a" id="id_security_hash"> + + + + <fieldset > + <label for="id_name">Name:</label> + <input type="text" name="name" maxlength="50" required id="id_name"> + </fieldset> + + + + <fieldset > + <label for="id_email">Email address:</label> + <input type="email" name="email" required id="id_email"> + </fieldset> + + + + <fieldset > + <label for="id_url">URL:</label> + <input type="url" name="url" id="id_url"> + </fieldset> + + + + <fieldset > + <label for="id_comment">Comment:</label> + <div class="textarea-rounded"><textarea name="comment" cols="40" rows="10" maxlength="3000" required id="id_comment"> +</textarea></div> + </fieldset> + + + + <fieldset style="display:none;"> + <label for="id_honeypot">If you enter anything in this field your comment will be treated as spam:</label> + <input type="text" name="honeypot" id="id_honeypot"> + </fieldset> + + + <div class="submit"> + <input type="submit" name="post" class="submit-post btn" value="Post" /> + <input type="submit" name="preview" class="submit-preview btn" value="Preview" /> + </div> +</form> +<p style="font-size: 95%;"><strong>All comments are moderated</strong>, so you won’t see it right away. And please remember Kurt Vonnegut's rule: “god damn it, you’ve got to be kind.” You can use Markdown or HTML to format your comments. The allowed tags are <code><b>, <i>, <em>, <strong>, <a></code>. To create a new paragraph hit return twice. </p> + + +</div> + +</main> + + + + <footer class="bl"> + <ul class="footer-nav"> + <li><a href="/blogroll" title="Sites that inspire us">Blogroll</a></li> + <li><a href="/contact/" title="contact luxagraf">Contact</a></li> + <li>Follow Along: + <ul> + <li><a href="/jrnl/feed.xml" title="RSS feed">RSS</a></li> + <li><a href="/newsletter/" title="Luxagraf Email Updates">Email</a></li> + <li><a href="https://www.instagram.com/luxagraf" rel="me" title="luxagraf on Instagram">Instagram</a></li> + </ul> + </ul> + <div class="support">Support luxagraf: + <div class="donate-btn"> + <form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_top"> + <input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_s-xclick"> + <input type="hidden" name="hosted_button_id" value="HYJFZQSBGJ8QQ"> + <input type="submit" name="submit" title="Donate to luxagraf via PayPal"> + </form> + </div> + <div class="donate-btn"> + <a class="liberapay-btn" href="https://liberapay.com/luxagraf/donate"><span>Donate</span></a> + </div> + </div> + <p id="license"> + © 2003-2020 + <span class="h-card"><a class="p-name u-url" href="https://luxagraf.net/">Scott Gilbertson</a><data class="p-nickname" value="luxagraf"></data><data class="p-locality" value="Athens"></data><data class="p-region" value="Georgia"></data><data class="p-country-name" value="United States"></data></span>. + </p> + </footer> + </div> + +<script> +document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function(event) { + var leaflet = document.createElement('script'); + leaflet.src = "/media/js/leaflet-master/leaflet-mod.js"; + document.body.appendChild(leaflet); + var lightbox = document.createElement('script'); + lightbox.src = "/media/js/lightbox.js"; + document.body.appendChild(lightbox); + leaflet.onload = function(){ + var detail = document.createElement('script'); + detail.src = "/media/js/detail.min.js"; + document.body.appendChild(detail); + + detail.onload = function(){ + createMap(); + var open = false; + } + + } + + lightbox.onload = function() { + var opts= { + //nextOnClick: false, + captions: true, + onload: function(){ + var im = document.getElementById("jslghtbx-contentwrapper"); + var link = im.appendChild(document.createElement('a')) + link.href = im.firstChild.src; + link.innerHTML= "open "; + link.target = "_blank"; + link.setAttribute('class', 'p-link'); + im.appendChild(link); + } + }; + var lightbox = new Lightbox(); + lightbox.load(opts); + } + + + + + + +}); +</script> + +<script> +<!-- +// Register our service-worker +//if (navigator.serviceWorker) { +// window.addEventListener('load', function() { +// if (navigator.serviceWorker.controller) { +// navigator.serviceWorker.controller.postMessage({'command': 'trimCaches'}); +// } else { +// navigator.serviceWorker.register('/serviceworker.js', { +// scope: '/' +// }); +// } +// }); +//} +//--> + +<!-- Piwik --> +var _paq = _paq || []; +_paq.push(["disableCookies"]); +_paq.push(['trackPageView']); +_paq.push(['enableLinkTracking']); +(function() { + var u="https://stats.luxagraf.net/"; + _paq.push(['setTrackerUrl', u+'piwik.php']); + _paq.push(['setSiteId', 1]); + var d=document, g=d.createElement('script'), s=d.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; + g.type='text/javascript'; g.async=true; g.defer=true; g.src=u+'piwik.js'; s.parentNode.insertBefore(g,s); + })(); +<!-- End Piwik Code --> +</script> +<noscript><p><img src="//stats.luxagraf.net/piwik.php?idsite=1" style="border:0;" alt="" /></p></noscript> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/bak/oldluxpages/jrnlold/2018/11/lets-go-ride.txt b/bak/oldluxpages/jrnlold/2018/11/lets-go-ride.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0f40a6b --- /dev/null +++ b/bak/oldluxpages/jrnlold/2018/11/lets-go-ride.txt @@ -0,0 +1,58 @@ +Let's Go For a Ride +=================== + + by Scott Gilbertson + </jrnl/2018/11/lets-go-ride> + Saturday, 17 November 2018 + +The goggles barely fit over my glasses, they're pressed tight against the bridge of my nose -- in a few hours I'll have a headache. But unlike last time I found myself [hurling down dusty tracks](https://live.luxagraf.net/jrnl/2006/03/ticket-ride) through the bush, this time I can see. This time I have two extra wheels and loads more stability. It's also an automatic so I rip into to tight turns with far more recklessness than I ever did on a Honda Dream.
+
+I won't lie, it feels good to be astride an engine again.
+
+There's no cool mask for this trip though. Mike asked for a bandana and got one. I stuck with the little white painter's mask the guide gave me. It reminds me of sanding down the bus. The dust isn't that bad out here anyway. Half the time we're in mud and at one point we very nearly submerge our quads in the lake. I would never have dreamed of putting an engine through what the guide seemed happy to lead us through, but who am I to argue?
+
+<img src="images/2018/2018-11-18_122656_quad-ride-sma.jpg" id="image-1782" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2018/2018-11-18_113504_quad-ride-sma.jpg" id="image-1775" class="picwide" />
+
+Without the bus I've lost the understanding of surrounding terrain that was part of life in the bus. In the bus we'd have been coming from somewhere and we'd have to figure out the best way from point A to point B, which might not have been the main road. In any case I'd have looked at all of the roads into San Miguel before making a decision. I'd have a map, I'd have looked at elevations in my own online mapping tool. I'd have figured out the outlying roads, how they connected San Miguel to points around it. Corrinne would have planned where we were going, what we'd do. We'd know the best way into the city, what to avoid, and where to go once we got there. Most of that research wouldn't have been very formal, we'd have just kind of absorbed it a little bit at the time as we looked and talked.
+
+Instead we were handed a bus ticket in Mexico City, and then we sat back and chatted until we magically appeared in the middle of town a few hours later. There's very little context when someone else is driving, and almost no planning. Since then we've only been places we can reach either on foot or on the local bus, which hasn't added to my understanding of the overall picture very much.
+
+<img src="images/2018/2018-11-18_130447_quad-ride-sma.jpg" id="image-1783" class="picwide" />
+
+We have been to the botanical gardens at the top of the hill a couple times. It offers a pretty good view to the north and east. The kids and I once rode the number 10 bus to its end point in the neighborhood of Malanquin, where we found a playground atop a hill with really good views to the south, but otherwise my sense of the lay of the land is very vague. I know roughly where various neighborhoods are, but no sense of how they connect, and hardly any sense of what the surrounding country side looks like.
+
+That's one of the reasons, when my friend Mike suggested we rent ATVs and go riding, I immediately said yes. The other reason was, even if it's not a motorcycle, at least I'd be riding an engine again and I never pass up the chance to do that.
+
+Right off the bat we drove through a neighborhood I'd only heard of from seeing for rent ads on Craigslist. I quickly realized why I hadn't been there --it's the suburbs, and rich suburbs at that, not my part of town, but I'm glad I know where it is now. We quickly rode on through and down to the lake shore past this crazy Gaudi-esque house that came up so fast and was so close I couldn't get a good picture, but it's on the list of things to get back to, eventually.
+
+<img src="images/2018/2018-11-18_112958_quad-ride-sma.jpg" id="image-1774" class="picwide" />
+
+We continued on down to the lake, stopping at a little church that I believe, if my Spanish isn't failing me, is the original structure that started San Miguel de Allende. And it was built atop the ruins of a pyramid that was, until the day the Spanish arrived, not in ruins.
+
+<img src="images/2018/2018-11-18_114806_quad-ride-sma.jpg" id="image-1779" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2018/2018-11-18_114703_quad-ride-sma.jpg" id="image-1778" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2018/2018-11-18_114535_quad-ride-sma.jpg" id="image-1776" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2018/2018-11-18_114640_quad-ride-sma.jpg" id="image-1777" class="picwide caption" />
+
+Normally I'd have wondered off to think on the history and architecture and stone and water and dead birds, but on this particular trip I wasn't in the mood. Actually I did sit for a while and think on the dead bird. I'd never see a vermilion flycatcher that close, dead or alive, they're even more beautiful than they look from a distance, even dead.
+
+I'd like to do another trip, slower, maybe on a horse, and bring an archaeologist or historian back to the church and find out how it fits into the structure and system of the world we're in here. And since we actually met an archaeologist/historian there's a good chance that will happen eventually, but on this particular day I just wanted to feel the wind in my face, see the country side rushing past, and maybe try to get all four wheels off the ground a time or two. I wasn't in the frame of mind to explore the details, I was after the high level overview -- the frame, not the picture.
+
+After a while at the church we rode on, at one point, for the sheer fun of it, we road through water deep enough to flood the engines, which somehow did not die. Still puzzling that out in my free time.
+
+We went past little town, clusters of houses really, always with a small tienda where everyone, and every dog, seemed to be gathered to talk and relax on a Sunday afternoon. I would have like to stop in a few, buy a Coke or a beer and talk to the people, but we kept on. We went past enormous restaurants that seemed far larger than was necessary given the nearby population was near nil, but perhaps people come out from San Miguel, who knows. I filed that, along with many other questions away for another day.
+
+At some point we passed an RV, a beat up old thing, probably a late 80s or maybe early 90s model. It was clearly functional though, and hooked up to both sewer and water in the middle of nowhere. I filed it away to think on later and punched it over the railroad tracks.
+
+We stopped for some water and a huge flock of either ravens or crows came circling overhead. I like to think they were crows, since that would make them a murder of crows, but I couldn't say for sure, I had no binoculars on me.
+
+<img src="images/2018/2018-11-18_122458_quad-ride-sma.jpg" id="image-1780" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2018/2018-11-18_122519_quad-ride-sma.jpg" id="image-1781" class="picwide" />
+
+Eventually we circled back around, up past the train station I knew must be around -- we'd heard the trains -- but hadn't seen yet, and finally up the hill with the giant cross. When I said that to some people who have been here a few years they looked at me like I was an idiot -- which hill, which cross? Right, every hill has a cross. In this Catholic, yet not quite Catholic, world every neighborhood has a church, every hill has a cross. Oh, you know, the one with nice views of San Miguel and the lake.
+
+<img src="images/2018/2018-11-22_qF68qFJ.jpg" id="image-1785" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2018/2018-11-18_130458_quad-ride-sma.jpg" id="image-1773" class="picwide" />
+
+I still don't know the area like I would if I had the bus, but I know where things are better than I did before. And I did, I think, manage to get all four wheels off the ground at least once. Those quads are no Honda Dreams, but they'll do for now. Special thanks to my friend Mike for making this trip happen. |