05052016Thu
Last updateFri, 29 Apr 2016 3pm

Lucky to be here

When I’m asked what I like least about living at Lake Chapala, I always answer, “Losing friends.” More and more of those who move to Mexico consider their time at Lake Chapala as an extended vacation. They don’t all plan to spend the rest of their lives. Even some of the folks who have sworn that they will live here until they die end up moving “back home” after a time. I’ve heard that seven years is the Mexico-span for many; that old seven-year itch evidently affects more than marriages. 

Making Christmas merry

Here we are in 2015. How on earth did that happen? Evidently either time does go faster as we age, or my internal clock needs a new battery. 

Day of the Innocents: Mexico's April Fool's Day

This is an important public announcement! Area expats who are unaware that there is another prank-filled holiday observance between Christmas and New Year’s Eve are in danger of making costly decisions. 

Holiday memories

Almost everyone I know is passionate about which of the perennial Christmas stories is the “best.” Some vote for the old time favorites: Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” O’Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi” or the enchanting poem,” The Night Before Christmas.” Others are fiercely loyal to the holiday movie stories: “White Christmas,” “Miracle on 34th Street,” “The Christmas Story” and “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.”

Lakeside holiday spirit

For those from the north, lakeside’s lack of snow and cold may not, at first glance look much like Christmas. True, there’s not a single decoration display with 300,000 lights, but a quick glance at the towering poinsettias lining area streets is enough to pump up a good deal of holiday spirit.

Early holiday deadlines

Just when, like most lakesiders, I thought my December calendar couldn’t possibly get any more complicated, an email from the powers that be at the Guadalajara Reporter office delineating the early deadlines for the month’s final two issues threw me right into a full-blown tizzy. No doubt the news of these early deadlines will have a similar effect on the planners and reporters of local organizational, church and cultural events.