We made two trips up to Errorzona to pick up and later drop off my son who spent two weeks with us. We had lots of beach walks (his boxer Einstein is such a joy to watch playing in the surf), and long talks. It was the most time we've spent together since he left home 25 years ago, and I enjoyed every minute. There's a chance he might come back, rent an apartment and stay here for a few months, since he's a webmaster and can do his work from anywhere.
I took a number of photos with my camera and iPhone, but this is the only one that turned out. The boys, knackered out from a three-mile beach walk.
I signed on with a fundraising committee for a proposed new animal shelter here in San Carlos and suddenly found myself elected chairman. Yikes! Oh, well, I've been promising myself to take on some things I've never done before, and this certainly qualifies.
There have been weekly jams with guitar-playing snowbirds who arrived in the past few weeks, and I put in a request to join yet another group. A British luthier who lives in Guaymas made some improvements to the action on my guitar, and I'm still considering taking lessons from him. While we were in Tucson the Capt bought me a used-but-still-nifty Roland keyboard amp with vocal input. He also volunteered us to do some songs for a concert benefiting one of the local orphanages, next February. Yikes, again!
This morning I was working on "Santa Lucia," an old Italian song from Naples, picking up the correct pronunciation from a YouTube performance by Enrico Caruso. I'll never sound like Enrico, but at least now I understand that a single "c" is pronounced like "ch" while "double c" sounds like a hard "c." This is not for performing, just to satisfy my own urge to sing that particular song. Three summers ago the Capt and I offered a ride to a group of vacationing Italian teachers who had just arrived on the ferry in Guaymas and needed to get to their hotel in San Carlos. I've never met such warm and friendly people! Somehow we got all six of us and their luggage into my little Escort and on the road home we sang "Santa Lucia." If I ever get the song down well enough to record it, I'm going to send my version to Franca, one of the teachers and ask her to share it with the others.
Tonight I'll start rehearsing with the chorus at San Fernando church for the Guadelupana, a celebration of Día de La Virgen de Guadalupe on December 14. This year we're going to sing at a home for elderly ladies as well as at the church. Lolita, the choir director, is one of my favorite people and I always enjoy singing with her group, and trying out my halting Spanish with them.
The Capt and I finished Parte Dos of a series of Spanish courses with Dolores, a very dedicated and amiable teacher, and will go on to Parte Tres in January. We had quite a few lightbulb moments and I actually found myself, now and then, not having to translate before I spoke. Poco á poco...