Tag Archives: cobblestones

Mexican Cobblestones (For Michael)

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                                  Mexican Cobblestones (For Michael)

Michael Lai has said he would like to see the cobblestones in Mexico.  Every town and sometimes every street is different.  After a huge mud, stone and water slide in 2007, we lost most of our cobblestones and they were replaced with the compound cobblestone/concrete roads pictured below. The streets in the nearby little towns are much more irregular than this and the stones are usually just placed in sand.  At any rate, here are three pictures of the two roads that pass my house, which is on a corner. IMG_3523 (1) IMG_3521 IMG_3518Not as pretty, pristine or regular as the stone pavers in Croatia that you photographed, Michael!

If you are interested in the devastation caused by the huge land, mud and water slides in the Raquet Club where I live, go here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/shmiller/sets/72157601993828026/  The house with the car going through the window and all the boulders and wood piled up in front of it  is two houses away from me and the street with all the huge boulders is the main street I drive up to get to my house.  It is also one block away from my house.  The second and third pictures of mine above are the street that leads up to it. You can see it just one block away! The present streets are some contrast to the terrible damage inflicted by the slide.

If anyone else is interested in the photos of the beautiful stone Croatian streets that Michael posted, you can find them here: https://retireediary.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/dscf0496.jpg

Take the Cobbled Way: cees-which-way-challenge-2015-week-27

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Take the Cobbled Way

At the corner of my street, I always turn left, then always stay far right to avoid scraping my muffler as there is a big depression to channel the water coming down the arroyo.  Click to enlarge this picture and you can see a small trickle.  A few days ago it was like fording a stream!
IMG_1444 IMG_1439Wherever you are going as you enter my fraccionamiento, the way is always up!  And the way out is always down.

To see more possible ways to go, go HERE

Mexico Adventure, No Fatalities

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Mexico Night Adventure, No Fatalities

Leaving that swinging small
coffee house art opening of a friend
with the party still roaring
behind me,
I shift to uneven cobblestones
to avoid the nightly
taco stand set up on the sidewalk,
knowing I must be careful,
but pitching forward anyway,
face-down in the dark street.

Seconds later,
still in thrall to the fall,
thwacked shoulder,
scraped palms.
As I lie in the street,
a crowd gathers
like otters to survey
this new intruder to their world.
I can’t stand up.
Lie groaning in the dark.

They offer twenty hands to help me up,
but I need to lie a spectacle  in the street.
Should they call an ambulance?
Can I not rise?
They ward off cars, enfolding me
in their curious and protective circle.
No way with any amount of help
can I push myself up from the street
on this pounding knee.
I become their Saturday night
entertainment.

At last, unable to bear the shock
of pressure on any part of either leg,
I scoot myself over on my bottom to the curb,
hoist myself up to sit on it,
and from there
my right leg can get contact with the street to push.
Two hands help me up and go around me
as I hobble the half block to my car.
Yes, I can drive.
But everything hurts.
“Muy Amable, Senor, y muchas gracias.”

At  home, a straight-legged hobble down the stairs.
Neosporin on the skinned and swollen knee,
Rum and Coke, Advil, Reumofan
in that order.
Arnica and Peyote gel rubbed in sore parts.
The safety and warmth of bed.
and eight hours respite
until that long climb up the stairs
to the last day of my own art exhibition.

It is hard getting old in any country,
but in Mexico,
cobblestones furnish
their own private Hell
that all gringos fall to,
sooner or later.

(The prompt was to tell about the last time someone was proud of you, but It’s hard to be proud in the dark on cobblestones in Mexico.)