Well I was sitting on the couch having my breakfast at 8am when I heard the familiar noise that the hot air balloon makes and from the back steps took these photos check out the radiant blue sky!!!!
What a wonderful way and a peaceful way to start a morning but it would soon all change!!!!
I got ready for tennis and left on my scooter… there are about 7 minor roads from the house I take to a bit bigger road which then leads to the main highway going into town.
So here I am happy as a lark driving along the smaller roads and onto the little bigger road when this big black expensive BMW SUV pulls alongside me the passenger window is down and the driver is shouting at me in Spanish at the to of his voice…I have no idea what he was saying but he was vexed!!!!
He was really close to me so I just slowed down to let him go and he did go off but not before he swerved in front of me. I cannot tell you what brought this on I have no idea whatsoever what I did to make him so mad and all this after yesterday telling Marysol my Spanish teacher about how I love the Mexican people and how they can teach us so much about family values and how to be.
So now I come to the top of the road where this man is waiting in line to pull out onto the main road….on the scooter it is easy to pass traffic and I passed him and turned onto the main road. At this juncture let me tell you that do not know me that I cannot remember the last time I lost my temper or got angry and nasty it is not in my nature…now if this had been my Dad or my brother, yes you Malc, they would have reacted quite differently I assure you.
So I am driving on the two lane road into town watching my rear view mirror and I see the guy right behind me and then I could not believe what he did next…he came along side me shouting up a storm and then proceeds to force me off the road….I kid you not if I had not braked and stopped he would have put me in the ditch and away he went…….I just could not believe what had happened on a quiet Tuesday morning in SMA. This guy was not a druggie or a thug but a business man dressed in a suit and a tie………if it is not cows and bulls it is irate drivers after me!!!!
Tennis was great and I do really like my racquet and glad to say I have no aches or pains!!!!
After tennis I arranged to meet my hiking buddy Pierre at the Tuesday Market…this is a huge market where they say if you cannot find it at the Tuesday market it does not exist..Pierre was going to show me the stall where a boot and shoe maker from Léon brings in good hiking boots at great prices…I tried some that I liked but not my size so the owner is going to bring some next week…some shots from the market!!
From the market I went to Rita’s for our afternoon of chatting and then cards with Roger…we all have a great time good eats and good conversation!!!!
Next stop was to go get Paola and take her to the dentist…she lost the retainer I got for her a while ago and she needed a check up so Dr.Laura checked her out and took impressions for a new retainer and I take her back on Monday she only charged me 500 pesos!!!
On the way home we stopped at a local chicken eatery and I bought her a whole chicken dinner meal to take home for her and her family!!!
I got home around 6 and my buddy was waiting for his dinner!!!
This is a good article and I have been twice to the Monarch sanctuary here in Mexico!!!
Threatened animals like elephants, porpoises and lions grab all the headlines, but what’s happening to monarch butterflies is nothing short of a massacre. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service summed it up in just one grim statistic on Monday: Since 1990, about 970 million have vanished.
It happened as farmers and homeowners sprayed herbicides on milkweed plants, which serve as the butterflies’ nursery, food source and home. In an attempt to counter two decades of destruction, the Fish and Wildlife Service launched a partnership with two private conservation groups, the National Wildlife Federation and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, to basically grow milkweed like crazy in the hopes of saving the monarchs.
Monarch butterflies are a keystone species that once fluttered throughout the United States by the billions. They alighted from Mexico to Canada each spring on a trek that required six generations of the insect to complete. Afterward, young monarchs about the quarter of the weight of a dime, that know nothing about the flight pattern through the United States, not to mention Mexico, fly back, resting, birthing and dining on milkweed.
The extinction of certain butterfly species is not unheard of. The blueberry-colored Xerces blue disappeared from San Francisco years ago, and recently Fish and Wildlife announced that two subspecies — the rockland skipper and Zestos in South Florida — haven’t been seen since 2004 and are probably extinct. On top of that, pesticide use has also caused a collapse of other pollinators — wasps, beetles and especially honeybees.
Fish and Wildlife is reviewing a petition filed by the Center for Biological Diversity to list monarch butterflies as an endangered species that requires special protection to survive. The agency is studying whether that’s necessary and also trying to do more to help restore the population.
The agency is granting $2 million to the federation to raise awareness about the need for milkweed, provide seeds to anyone willing to plant it and to plant the seeds in open space — roadsides, parks, forests and patio flower boxes, to name a few places. Another $1.2 million will go to the foundation as seed money to generate a larger fundraising match from private organizations.
Fish and Wildlife will chip in to plant milkweed seeds in refuges and other areas it controls to create 200,000 acres of habitat along the Interstate 35 corridor from Texas to Minnesota, where 50 percent of monarchs migrate. Fish and Wildlife will encourage other federal and state agencies to do the same on public lands and is working with the governments of Mexico and Canada to help restore the iconic butterfly.
The monarch butterfly’s round trip to and from Mexico takes it pass a killing field of agriculture. But farmers aren’t entirely to blame for the insect’s decline, said Dan Ashe, director of Fish and Wildlife. “We’ve all been responsible. We are the consumers of agricultural products. I eat corn. American farmers are not the enemy. Can they be part of the solution? Yes,” Ashe said.
“It’s not about this wonderful, mystical creature,” Ashe said. “It’s about us.”
U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) underscored that point in her remarks during the announcement of the partnership at the National Press Club in Washington. Her mother, a second-grade teacher, was wild about monarch butterflies, Klobuchar said, so much so that she dressed as one each year to call attention to their return flight home. Her mother carried a sign, Klobuchar said, “Mexico or bust.”
“This is something that means a lot to my family,” the senator said. “My mother would want me to do this.” Klobuchar said her role is to help the foundation bring private partners to the effort and help the Fish and Wildlife Service however she can to persuade public entities to get involved. Minnesota, she said, has a monarch festival each year.
Collin O’Mara, president of the National Wildlife Federation, said momentum is building. Charlotte and St. Louis, he said, are two cities that declared themselves as sanctuaries for monarchs.
O’Mara said homeowners can do the same. The federation makes milkweed seeds available to people who want to plant them in gardens. O’Mara said there are milkweed plants at his home, and at his mother’s home, and they often see monarch butterflies climbing on them.
But if the new effort generates widespread interest, the federation might find it hard to keep up with demand. Not enough seeds are available, and not just any seed can survive anywhere. Milkweed seeds grow everywhere in the United States, but they grow better when adapted to local conditions, he said.
“I have a 3-year-old whose eyes pop wide open” when she sees monarchs crawling on leaves in their back yard, O’Mara said. “This is one of those keystone species. These are things that don’t make headlines, but they are indicators that something bigger is happening.”
Yashi Kochi!!!!
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