From The Sea of Cortez #1 1

We’ve been here for five days…

Beautiful weather, although it was a little on the chilly side today with a few clouds, but they were gone by this evening.

My routine is simple… 

• Go to sleep early.

• Wake up early.

• Write all day.

• Repeat.

I tend to move my writing around during the day starting on the enclosed patio before sunrise, then moving outside, then into the bedroom, then onto the roof if it’s not too windy.

When we walk in the evening I carry a digital recorder with me in case a line or paragraph pops into my head, but to be honest, I haven’t used it down here yet. The point is that if you’re working on something you need to carry it with you always until you’re finished.

We’ve been out to dinner once. Fabulous food, 3 people, $24. At that price one might wonder why we cook at the house at all, but I eat out all the time, and for me nothing beats sitting at a kitchen table with family having a home cooked meal.

Yesterday we drove into town to get groceries and pick up a few stacks of tortillas. (We actually bought tortillas from three different tortilla factories to determine who has the best tortillas. You wouldn’t think there’s a difference, but believe me there is).

We also bought some meat. The way they handle meat down here is a lot more straight forward than it is up north. You point to a red slab in the glass cooler, they haul it out, slap it on the counter, then hack off whatever you want.

We also stopped by the pump and solar shop to talk to them about our water tank, which was making a tremendous amount of noise. (They came by today and fixed it).

Marie and I went down to the “Swap Meet” this morning. It’s really not a swap meet unless you consider giving someone cash for something, swapping. We swapped cash for vegetables, fresh shrimp as big as your fist, sea bass, and handmade tamales.

What do we do at night? There’s a television here. It doesn’t work, but we don’t care. What we do is read, and what a pleasure that is. I have about 20 novels I’ve been meaning to read and it looks like I’ll finish every one of them before we leave here.