Present Day

Present Day
When the weather permits, and it always permits, I go into town during the week to check on book sales, straighten them up, and take note of who needs what for delivery the next day or so. While I’m downtown I spend some time people watching. I find it instructive to just sit and watch people passing by. I live life by observing. You can tell which Americans are residents by the way they walk. Heads down, not looking left, right, or up so you know they’re going somewhere, they’re not sight-seeing. (You used to be able to tell by the cameras strapped around people’s necks whether they were tourist or not, but with the plethora of cell phones with cameras around that’s no longer the case).

You can take note of the number of Mexican tourists, by the same means, and they are usually surrounded by the whole famdamly. Mexicans won’t go anywhere by themselves! My Mexican friends can’t believe that I travel routinely around the whole country by myself. And that used to include cantinas, back when I was trying to drink Mexico dry. (I didn’t succeed, but I got them working overtime in Tequila, Jalisco).

I’ve aquired a taste for Mexican coffee, Americano (fuerte, por favor), is best, and usually end my trip downtown with a cup before heading home on the city bus (urbano) which means more people watching, and some eavesdroping too.

The urbano is usually full of kids going to school for the afternoon session, and for some reason they like to stand. Fequently they’ll ignore empty seats, blocking the aisle for the adults who are trying to get by.

Frustrated one day I morphed into an NFL lineman, and plowed through them knocking them out of the way. some even cascaded out of the bus door. Another day I observed a smart a– teenaged kid getting on the bus leaving a Great Dane outside. The poor dog had to run through traffic to keep up with the bus, and the idiot kid laughed, and laughed until I slapped the snot out of him… I’ve got to control my temper, I guess.