Phasing Out: C(K)eys, Cats, Color and Clouds

One and all,

Lo siento! Estoy un poco tarde con mi blog. Ayer, dormimos un poco tarde y no tengo mucho tiempo por el blog! (I am sorry! I am a little late with my blog. Yesterday, we slept a little late and I did not have much time for the blog)

Enough for excuses. Let's get to the last 3 days. There was a bit of drama in them. It began on Sunday night when we were scheduled for dinner and a cabaret show. As we approached the restaurant, discovered I had forgotten the tickets. So I sent Polley on to a meal and I grabbed a cab and rushed back up the hill for the tickets. My español got me to have the cab wait and then it was back to the restaurante, having made good time, but 120 peso poorer!

We had a nice meal, excellent tortilla soup at Mama Rose's and then it was on the Kim Kuzma show. She is very talented and the 6 musicians she has backing her up were fabulous. As I mentioned earlier, we had seen her last year. This year was in a new venue and for some reason the show was not as strong. Part of the problem for me, was to quote the Duke or King or whatever of Vienna, in the show Amadeus, "too many notes!" She, at times, seemed to add so much ornamentation to the song that I, in places, lost the melody. However, we were with good friends and had plenty to drink, so it was not a complete loss. The drama came at the end of the show. I did not have our house key! Not just the key to our front door, but the key to the gate that lets us in to the compound. Horrors! I also, in my infinite wisdom, did not have a phone. Going to a show, I didn't want the off chance that is would go off. So, with no way to contact our landlord and no way to get in, we caught a cab up the hill and prayed.

We got to the gate and I called for someone to come down and at least let us in. After two or three plaintive calls (nearly weeping) to our neighbors, there appeared a faintly lighted apparition of a small child moving toward me holding out a set of keys on a lanyard: my keys! I had apparently dropped them in my haste to unlock the door and grab the tickets. This little angel, the patron saint of lost keys, had found them and awaited my eventual return. We were saved. We got in and I immediately found some reward money for the small child and thanked her effusively! Again, I do love happy endings.

After all of that, the rest of our past days were divinely calm. We did have some significant cat events. The first of which involved a beautiful feral cat that Polley has been wooing for the last month. The cat, "the black-eared kitty," is clearly interested in being domesticated. She now comes into our place and approaches us, but just can't quite go the next step. A couple of days ago, as I awoke from our siesta, I found her on the end of the bed!

I took the photo as Polley was still sleeping and I wanted definite proof that progress had been made! I also managed to capture of tentative alliance between Lucie (our landlord's mother's cat) and the newest addition to our menagerie: a little kitten who is owed by someone upstairs, but seems to live and create mischief at our place.

Cute, but he is a devil as well as a bottomless pit!

Color continues to abound here and with my wife's eye for it, we are continually stopping to appreciate some stunning bit of nature. These were some sort of fruit that dropped at the trunk of a tree on our way up the hill

Some wonderful reds, greens and even a bit of yellow against the gray concrete. Then as we approached out place, this bush and flowers caught our eye

Amazing and wonderfully cheap entertainment for those who take the time to look.

And, of course, there are the sunsets. There have been some good ones lately, particuarly when there are some clouds off which to bounce the color.

It seemed a bit like the moment of the "Big Bang." Later than evening it softened a bit

That is the striking thing about the sunsets here. You need to stay with them until they completely disappear, as often the best is at the very end

There were very few clouds here, but the light along the horizon became very intense. As Polley and I left Roberto's last night and walked the Malécon, heading for dinner, I caught this moment right on the bridge where the Rio Cuale meets the sea