leo ascendant

Tancho correctly pointed out yesterday that one reason I bought my house in Barra de Navidad was to attract friends and family to visit me in Mexico.

He was, of course, correct.  Only a handful of my friends bothered to visit me when I lived in Villa Obregón -- and almost none during the summer.  Far too many are still intimidated by the fables they read in the news.

Yesterday, that changed.  My long-time friend Leo came for a visit in August -- one of our most summery months.

I have known Leo for over 40 years.  When we were in separate colleges, we worked at U.S. Bank in Portland on a check statement team. 

You may remember checks.  People once used them to make payments.  The bank would then mail the processed checks back to the customer along with a paper statement.  It seems like another era.

Our job was to ensure all of the checks attached to each statement belonged to that customer, and that the number of deposit slips and checks matched the number on the statement.  If everything was correct, we would mail the statement. 

I am a bit hazy on what we did if there was an error.  I suspect we left it for another team who had far more expertise in the ways of investigating anomalies.

We became good friends.  Good enough that I was the best man at his wedding in 1973.  He used my legal services for his home construction company.  And I was involved with Leo and Theresa, his lovely wife, in a gourmet group.

They moved to Scottsdale in the 1980s.  But we stayed in contact.  When Theresa died last year, I was determined to have Leo come for a visit.  And yesterday he arrived at the height of our summer heat and humidity.

When I warned Leo just how uncomfortable this part of Mexico can be in the summer, he reminded me he lives in Arizona.  The day before he left Scottsdale, the temperature was 117.  He survives, just as I do, in a swimming pool.

This is going to be a week of relaxation for both of us.  He brought along three novels to read while enjoying the pool pleasures on the aqua hammocks he shipped south.  I will try to finish of this week of The Economist to give me enough time to return to my Truman biography.

It is going to be the continuation of a beautiful friendship.