Back to Basics...

So, I get down here and discover that my electricity has been turned off, my car doesn't start, and I have nothing for supper, the worst of ALL possibilities! My neighbor drove me the 20 some miles to Parrita where I went dashing into the ICE office at five minutes to 5:00, thoroughly expecting them to say, "Sorry, we're closing," but they were opened until 6 and promised to have the electricity back on tomorrow after I paid an outrageous sum of money for electricity that was used during June when I was in Malaysia; I figure it was from the broken hot water heater that ran for goodness knows how long before I realized I was burning up my laundry room! The heater is bust, and I'm not replacing it until after Christmas, if then. Who needs hot showers in a climate and an environment like this? Ask my prima!

This is what I love about being down here - no guilt! I don't feel I have to organize or clean up or DO! Instead, I run early, go to bed early and take photos with my zoom lens that really WORKS! I could never get close enough to these little birds, but with a 13X zoomer that sister Lisa urged me to get, look what I can photograph! Now, if only my hummingbirds would stay still enough for me to photograph them! And it seems the waves are much crisper and clearer in the photos than they were on my little camera from Kathmandu, which was MUCH more expensive than this little Fuji that Lisa and I bought in NY at this WONDERFUL place run by hassidic jews who are the most helpful, well informed folks ever; it has a name like H and B or something not terribly telling, and the place was mobbed on a summer Sunday in July - the best.

Here are some flowers from the communal garden back by the pool, and the white ones are a form of ginger; they smell rich and sweet like a gardenia or jasmine, but then there is a little whiff of ginger as well; I can catch the scent every time I go inside or outside because I have the flowers on a little table at the front door.

San Jose is going to perform Carmen at the National Theater, a gorgeous old building, and I'm going to risk driving up to the big, bad city to see/hear it. What a TREAT in July to go hear Carmen in a spanish-speaking country!