Getting sick and getting well in Mexico

So, last Wednesday I started feeling a cold coming on. No biggie. I have always handled that pretty well on my own. By Friday night I knew that I was dealing with the flu. Thank goodness Ivone knew of a doctor just a few blocks away who spoke English and was well respected in the community so first thing Saturday morning we walked to his office which was just three blocks from our place and we were seen within 5 minutes. His examination was unhurried and, I felt confident in his manner. He agreed that I was dealing with the flu and wrote a prescription and the cost for the visit was 400 pesos or about $30 at today's exchange rate. No forms to fill out, no need to show that I was "worthy" with an insurance card, just cash, a handshake and a very courteous "Thank you".  (I remember when I was a kid, it was more like that in the U.S.)

We walked to the pharmacy which is just around the corner from our place and the 3 prescriptions was a total of 650 pesos or $50. Time in the pharmacy less than 5 minutes. Total time from home to Dr. to Rx and back, less than an hour.

I took the first dose of meds and had some breakfast and then went right to bed and withing less than 30 minutes I was already feeling relief and today, Sunday, I am feeling much better.

Diatribe ... (my two cents worth)

It may be that I am just too simple minded or maybe I am delusional but I see very clearly what others have made so very complicated.

Issue - Sept 11th attack on the world trade center -  There is plenty of blame to go around from all directions but yet the one simple truth is that the blame lies with the airlines themselves. Ever since I was a teenager we have put up with airline hijackings and yet the airlines have never, ever secured the cockpit. I ask you WHY?  Here's a newsflash - On July 23, 1968, El Al (Israel) Flight 426 was hijacked. After that incident they secured the cockpits of all their airlines and to this day have not had one additional hijacking (That's 44 years folks). Blame the intelligence community, blame our immigration policy, blame the Islam extremists if you like, but I blame the airline companies.

Zihuatanejo - if this doesn't say it all then nothing will.

Celebrating two years here in Zihuatanejo ...

November 2010, sitting at my computer in the cold, damp climate of Oregon I finally decided to give Mexico a try. I purchased a plane ticket on line, packed my bag and set off on my next great adventure.It has been two years now and I have to tell you I am very happy, healthy and fortunate.
I have found love, and a home here in Zihuatanejo. I have many friends and acquaintances. I can walk to the beach in less than 5 minutes. What else could a man ask for besides $1.50 beer at any local bar. Did I mention that I am happy? Well, in fact I am. I love this town.  I love the people. I love the woman who loves me and I love this life.

A good laugh ...

So, we were visiting Acapulco, where VW beetle taxi's are plentiful. Here is a photo out the window of our taxi and you can see three others in front of us. They are everywhere!!!

The good laugh for me came when the song "Speedy Gonzales" came on the radio, the Spanish version, of course. So there we are in a "Tijuana Taxi singing Speedy Gonzales in both English and Spanish. What a hoot !!!

Photography - then and now

During the lightning storm last night I made over 200 exposures with my Nikon D-90 digital camera.  As I was sorting through the images and deleting the ones that I couldn't use I got to thinking about how it was when I first started.
  My first camera was a Kodak Brownie box camera. It could produce 12 images on one roll of film.

As I recall a roll of black and white film was about seventy-nine cents and processing was about $1.29.  My mother would get very frustrated with me when I would, in her words, "burn through a roll of film in less than a week".  To put that in perspective; bread was fifteen cents a loaf and gas was twenty-five cents a gallon.

When I finished my 4 years in the U.S. Air Force I had graduated to a 35mm camera and of course film and processing costs had increased.  I was moving from hobby to professional status and shooting more film as I was learning my craft and the costs were taking a toll on my financial stability.  I remember seeing a quote in a photo magazine at that time "Photography is a cruel mistress who makes you write bad checks".

In 1980 I had finally made it to professional status and was under contract to buy a studio where I had worked for a number of years.  By the mid-eighties costs were going through the roof on everything from gas to film. And people didn't seem to understand how expensive it was just to do one portrait session. Film, processing and printing, overhead and support materials, enlargements and so much more.  People would as me why I charged $7 for a 5x7 when they could have one made at the drug store for seventy-nine cents.

That's about the same time that color copy machines were becoming very popular.  People could make a copy for about thirty cents (although very poor quality) of a professional photo and say "that's good enough for me". Also, stores like K-mart and Penney's were opening studios and charging rock bottom prices.

Today, there is the cost of the camera and a memory card - one time purchase and you can shoot to your heart's content without any additional cost unless you want to make prints or enlargements. Wow, what a difference.

I was curious about portrait pricing today and found that a portrait session can be $50 to $100 and a 5x7 costs about $20. And of course a loaf of bread costs $3 and gas is almost $4 a gallon.

Stormy weather ....

For the last few nights we have had plenty of lightning activity all around us. Here are just a few of the photos I was able to capture.