To avoid the crowds we went to investigate Sam's at opening time, 7:30am, when it's a lot cooler and quieter, and the building casts a nice shadow over the front parking spaces so we could take the dogs with us. I did get a new electric pencil sharpener, something I've wanted for months. Sacapuntas electricos, is what you look for if you want to buy one: from sacar, to bring out, and punto or point. The Capt was thrilled with his giant bag of pancake mix. But syrup came in a bottle that would probably have served the whole neighborhood for a month, so we passed on that.
Our local exchange library, where I volunteer every Friday, has lost another staff member after she sold her house and packed up to move to Yuma. The upside was that she gave me four houseplants, which I'm going to try to keep alive and flourishing. The day she announced she was leaving, another woman came in and volunteered, a sign our enterprise is blessed by a higher power, wouldn't you say? We'll try to keep it open at least through July, then close until October when the snowbirds start returning.
I've been striking gold at the library in terms of book finds. Just finished the newest Elmore Leonard, found a Cormack McCarthy and a Tony Hillerman I hadn't read, and discovered an early edition of a little-known memoir by a gringa journalist from Boston who married a Mexican, lived in Monterrey and later in Cuernavaca. Elizabeth Borton de Treviño's "My Heart Lies South" is one of a series of three memoirs, well worth the read for its details about Mexican culture and values in the 1940s and 50s. Some of the standards and rules are recognizable and still apply, others are only a memory, but many times I found myself beginning to understand concepts that had previously baffled me. Her daunting experience with the 40's-era post office when she was trying to receive a gift package mailed to her from the States made me glad some things have changed.
