The Rains Often Arrive on Time

The sky here, at least for the last several days, has maintained a gun metal gray. The rains are without a doubt, heavy in the early evening, and it tends to fire off sporadically through out the night. It's cloudy like my lungs; hazy and dense, but not sickly. The lightening though...the lightening strikes in the streets here. You can watch it touch down. I guess we are so high up, the rules are little different.

Yesterday, I hit the crossroads again: to go or not to go, to the park in The Condesa. I have resigned to flipping a quarter that I keep on my night stand: heads I go, tails I stay; so far it has been heads every time. So just as the sky began to rip open, I lead the dogs out and in to my car. We hunkered down in the safety of my 4Runner. I am finding it very liberating, and very comforting to have my trusty truck with me. It is this nice piece of home--though I have not cleaned the interior since California, and it is embarassing to give people rides--it stinks! In any event, we began our circuitous route to Condesa. The rain started really coming down, so hard that I had to turn up the music. Mini-waterfalls cascaded down my windshield, and the first bolt lightening hit somewhere about a mile off; the thunder aroused both dogs from their car induced coma. As we turn the corner onto Insurgentes, all the cars are shifting over to the left. Flooding. Flooding, during any decent rain is a given. The city's aquaducts are not equipped to handle that hard of a rain in such a short time. Given this fact, it is quite common to see the brave subcompact, who thought they could ford the river, stalled in a tiny ocean. Personally, I kick the 4Runner into 4x4, and cautiously charge through; the clearance between my car and the water is greater than most of the other cars. The 4Runner is proving to be a useful Urban Utility Vehicle. To the right is a picture of La Angel; it is an iconic monument in the city. If Mexico wins in anything, the people flock here. It is the center of a big roundabout, and I hastily snapped this pic while driving; think of the crystal clear raindrops as a metaphor.

I plow through, and make my way through the perpetual traffic. There is no escaping the traffic, there are just different streets you can pick, to sit in it. I arrive, and with minor delay, I find parking. The dogs and I, the only pets and pet owner out and about, charge into the park. I let the dogs off, and they get wet and dirty. I find a covered bench to sit under and I watch it all: the dogs romping in shallow pools; the teenie-boppers huddled under an adjacent bench, giggling as they do; a couple of young machismo punks starring as usual. We stay for an hour, and then I round them up and we head back to the car.

The drive back is equally flooded and long. Thus far I am still enjoying the novelty of driving in another country, so the traffic doesn't get to me. However, if at some point I get jaded, I could see real road rage happening.

I came home and cooked an amazing dinner using soy protein, which looked like tasty little bits of fajita meat. I sauteed them with onions, garlic, and bell pepper, and then added a tandori curry sauce. I made some rice with a can of mixed veggies mixed in. It was a damn good dinner and was a great way to end the day. Flow is a diligent watcher of all events concerning food; I wouldn't call it begging, she just keeps a close proximity.

The rest of the evening was just internet, typing, guitar playing, singing, and sleeping. It was a perfectly mellow scenario.