bursting into christmas

My Mexican neighbors certainly know how to celebrate Christmas.

I thought everything was going to be quite calm on Christmas Eve.  You know, silent night, holy night, and all that jazz.

And it was.  Up until midnight.  Then the fireworks and fire crackers began.  After about an hour and a half of that, the music started.  Loud enough to lift me horizontally out of my bed like some Looney Tunes character.

The fire crackers vied with the music for attention -- until the fire crackers ran out.  That is when someone decided the music should be drunk loud.  And when the firearms should be unleashed.  Hand guns.  Rifles.  Automatic rifles.  I suspect more lead was shot into the air in my neighborhood in the wee hours of the morning than was fired off in the suburbs of Damascus.

It was obvious everyone was having a good time.  According to the evidence I found on my stoop this morning, someone was having a good -- and high -- time.

I am going to assume that most of you are naive about a certain strata of society.  Let me tell you what you are looking at.  That is a hypodermic needle with its wrapper, and the cover of some rolling papers.

My first impression was that a thrifty diabetic needed an insulin injection in front of my house while rolling his own cigarettes.  It's possible.

But it probably didn't.  I suspect we are looking at the detritus of a quick meth hit topped off by a few Mary Jane puffs.  After all, it was Christmas Day.  (Maybe my Massachusetts Puritan ancestors knew what they were doing when they banned the celebration of Christmas.)

Yesterday was a pivot point in my week.  I moved from being a single occupant of my house to being a host to my cousin, Dan, and his wife, Patty.  They arrived safely in the afternoon after a long road trip from Florida.

This morning I will take them to breakfast with my artist pal Ed, and we will then go snorkeling with my friends Lou and Wynn, and their house guest Irene.

Probably at dinner tonight, Dan, Patty, and I will sit down and start charting the start of our travels in Mexico for the next few weeks.  They have already got the drop on me by driving through northern Mexico.

If all goes well with the internet, you will all be invited to accompany us.  So, pull out your maps and start imagining where you would like to go in southern Mexico.  We may be of a similar mind.