The work on our next book has come to a screeching halt. No, it's not because of writer's block or some horrid disaster. We are holed up inside our Guanajuato apartment, in bed with the covers pulled up over our heads, because it is rainy season in central Mexico. We are writing a travelogue-memoir of the city of Guanajuato and its surrounding areas. We thought this was a great idea since one does not exist and because, in Guanajuato, it is so hard to find anything in this city-built-in-a-ravine that even maps are all but useless. So, we are using landmarks that any tourist can easily find and walking through the entire city in that fashion. I will keep you informed. Meanwhile, one cannot be out doing the walking research when it is dreadfully cold (well, dreadfully cold for Guanajuato!) and raining. Rainy season begins about the end of May and lasts until about the middle, sometimes the end, of September. It truly is weather paradise here until the rainy season starts. During December, for example, we finally relent and start wearing long pants and maybe, on some days, a long-sleeved shirt. Coats are rarely needed (at least by the expats), and we leave our windows open for all but a few days in January. However, when rainy season hits, all bets are off. You can have the hot rains. You can have the cold rains. You can just have the rains and the temperature doesn't know what to do. Right now, we have the cold and pain-causing rains. You would swear it was a dreadful and dreary rainy day in October in Kansas City (the place from whence we came). It is terrible outside and the sun forgot to rise here today. We feel sick. We feel like we've been severely beaten for something for which we are completely innocent. My poor wife is still under the covers and it is 4:12 p.m. Somehow, I am sitting at the keyboard but feeling like death is imminent. The poor locals here bundle up like we would in Kansas City when we heard that an apocalyptic blizzard was on its way... one that would surely kill everyone and everything in its path. They put on heavy winter coats, long wool scarves, earmuffs, and I would suspect long underwear. But here's the deal. "Guanajuato Weather: a Current condition as of 4:44 p.m. is 68 degrees Fahrenheit and cloudy." Here in almost weather paradise, we've become pansies. It is just 68 degrees and cloudy, but here we are calling for the end of the world. But, that's what happens when you acclimate to having a near perfect weather paradise and some weak and emaciated clouds lower the temps to the unbearable. Does this mean we're spoiled? |
