empty magazines

Life is generous.  It gives us second chances to re-live both our illusions and delusions.

One paraded in front of me yesterday afternoon at the Manzanillo Airport.

I love magazines.  When I was planning my move to Mexico several years ago, I read and listened to a lot of advice.  Some of it good.  Some of it not so good.

One of the worst pieces of advice I received was that the Mexican mail system could not be trusted.  That may have been good advice in a different century, but it certainly is not true now.

However, I listened to it.  I was convinced if I relied on the Mexican postal service, I would never again see a politician's face grinning up at me from the front cover of The Economist.

For every problem there is a solution.  Or so we childish Americans believe.  I knew where I could find magazines in Mexico.

Manzanillo International Airport is a half hour from my house.  Airports have news stands.  News stands have magazines.  The magazines may be a week out of date, but that would be better than doing without.

For various reasons, I never put my theory to the test.  Between Mailboxes, etc., the local postal service, and my Kindle, I have more reading material than I can effectively digest.

But it is just as well that I did not rely on my airport connection for magazines.  As you can see in the photograph at the top of this post, I would have had to materially modify my reading habits.  Unless I developed a completely new urge to be fully briefed on the secret lives of Mexican celebrities -- most of them soap opera queens.

And what was I doing at the airport?

I am heading north for two weeks.  The first few days I will be in Salem for some makeup birthday and retirement dinners.

Then I will bus over to Bend to visit my mother and brother.  My Mom and I will then drive to Powers (our old home town) in southern Oregon to induct her cousin into the town's hall of fame.  I am speaking.

We then turn around and drive back to Bend on Monday.  On Tuesday I fly to Reno to get a new diver's license and to register to vote.

A quick road trip to Lake Tahoe and Los Angeles will round out the agenda.  And I will be back at that magazine rack in Manzanillo on Saturday.  Only to turn around and drive up to San Miguel de Allende on Monday for two weeks.

So, even if I could have found a magazine to read at the airport, there would be little time to read it.

That schedule is almost as busy as the president's these days.  And I don't even get to raise millions of campaign dollars for all of my efforts.

On the other hand, I suspect I sleep better.