MAZ MISCELLANY

How I Spent My Summer Winter Holidays

From time-to-time people call to ask how we’re doing (perhaps curious as to whether we’ve succumbed to Covid) so here’s a Mazatlán update.

We are fine (and hope you are too).

We’ve been taking precautions but aren’t hermits. We recently went to a bar in Centro, about a five-minute walk from our house. As you can see, the tables are about 8 feet from each other so we feel comfortable with the occasional outing.

When we left the safety of Calgary months ago for the perils of Mexico, well-meaning friends thought we were reckless. Currently our state (Sinaloa) is reporting a 13% occupancy in ICU. One of the gringo-oriented hospitals in Maz had set up a dedicated covid ICU ward but, due to a lack of demand, has turned it back into a regular ward.

Given all the talk of new variants in Canada and possible shortages in ICU, I’m sure everyone thinks we’re foolhardy returning to Calgary (May 15). It may be reckless but it will be nice to see our Canadian friends – assuming it’s permitted.

On other fronts:

Iggy, our resident iguana for a number of years, comes and goes without notice to us; sometimes we don’t see him for weeks on end. More recently he’s occupied his old residence—a cavity clawed into the mortar of our neighbour’s stone wall.

Some describe iguanas as laid back but, being more judgemental, I’ve always characterized them as lacking ambition. Iggy is no exception—as the cool dawn air warms, he sticks his nose out and then meanders to the glazed downspout in our terrace. A crossing of 2.65 meters—104 inches—that’s it. Mind you, he retires to his cave each evening, so that’s a total of 208 inches—hardly worth investing in a fitbit.

Just so you understand, this daily odyssey is not done in one push. He emerges, progresses a foot or so, stops, savours the vistas, reflects for half an hour as if contemplating an alternative pilgrimage, weighs the pros and cons, and then invariably lodges in our downspout. All this is done with the objective of reversing the process as each day draws to a close.

It’s a metaphor for what the rest of the world is doing—staying in a lot—not venturing far afield.

On a related matter, we were faced with two iguanas on our terrace recently—one having a long pointed tail and Iggy, identified by the tip missing. Not wanting to scare the visitor off, we gave them some privacy only to discover, from the juxtaposition of their bodies, Iggy wasn’t social distancing. After due consideration we realized some of our assumptions were misguided.

Personal Pronouns 2SLGBTQQIA+

Gender pronoun issues—while in the news recently, have not played much of a role in our world until now. We’re having trouble transitioning from he to she when referring to Iggy but we’re making headway on that front each time we see HER.

That’s all the news from Maz for this week.

Ken

P.S. the title has “Holidays” but when we are in Maz we aren’t on holidays any more than when we are in Calgary. They’re both our homes.