Gardening is becoming my favorite pastime strangely enough. I’m not going to turn my front yard into a vegetable garden no matter how much El Chavo! tries to convince me. That doesn’t go with the cookie cutter subdivision suburbia wonderland in which we live in. I’ve lived on the other side of the tracks with the rose bushes, chain-link fence and chickens in the back yard. Anyhow, I’ve starting incorporating a lot of xeriscaping. I’ve planted many plants that don’t need much water. I’m also using drip irrigation to water the plants, shrubs and trees. Even the lawn in the back is bermuda which is very drought tolerant (I’m hoping the hybrid bermuda takes over the common soon). I guess the only plants that I can be criticized on are the four Japanese Maples that I planted in the back yard. They need plenty of water but oh how beautiful they are. Maybe I’ll post some pics one of these days.
Archive for the 'Vivir para contarla' Category
It’s been a while since I’ve written on here. It’s not that I don’t have anything to say. I have tons of things to say but I think I’m lacking the motivation to write it down on paper or type on the computer.
Married life is great. I recommend it to everyone. Really, I do.
Having Netflix is really worth it. The local Hollywood Video or Blockbuster don’t carry nearly enough titles, especially documentaries. In the past few months I’ve watched the Martin Scorcese documentary on Bob Dylan No Direction Home. Awesome I must say. How could people boo Dylan for going electric? It’s madness. Fucken folk music hippies. It reminds me a lot of when Zack de la Rocha left Rage Against the Machine. I remember reading some of the forums where people wanted rappers like Eminem to fill Zack’s place in the band. They didn’t recognize that Zack was the driving force behind the band. You can just substitute some other rapper and continue being the same. Artists change. As a fan you can’t expect an artist to stay stagnant, they have to evolve. Zack tired of RATM and Dylan the same in the political-change vanguard. It’s a but funny really.
Another good doc that I (er I mean we) saw was Who Killed the Electric Car. Excellent. It’s outrageous that GM had a solution to a huge problem that affects all of us now and yet they decided to eliminate to solution in order to continue to fill coffers of the oil companies (and their own of course). Why reinvent the wheel with hydrogen cars? The technology for electric cars has existed for 100 years! Who knew some of the first cars were run on electricity.
You cannot expect everyone to switch over to hybrids overnight but there are many things we can do to save gas. The only problem is that nobody does them. Driving 55 miles per hour on the highway will save you tons of money but unfortunately you will get flipped off many a times.
I’ll continue this later…
The cycle was complete. The city of Bakersfield, which was their home away from home for many years, would be the land where she would seize to exist on this planet. Death is painful. All of the sorrow that fills everyone is horrible. The feelings of anguish for the death of their mother is sadly mixed with those haunting experiences that cloud their memories of their upbringing. The beatings. The fear. I felt horribly for my mother, the eldest. She was the second mother to all of the family. She fed the continuous cycle of babies. She tended to the family chores. She defended her mother when alcohol got the best of their father.
It was obvious that the end was near. The onset of Alzheimer saddened us all. The delicate bones. The inevitable fall that fractured her hipbone that resulted with a screw holding her hip in place. It was one thing after another it seemed. A massive stroke to her left cerebral hemisphere told us immediately of the finality of the situation. The end was near. Would it be a few days? Weeks? Months? My grandmother couldn’t talk to us. Her eyes were open. It seemed as though she could hear us and at times it seemed that words would come out of her mouth. But they didn’t. Did we really need to start thinking of funeral necessities? The hypocrisy of those that supposedly were distraught over her situation when years before they would scold her. The cowardly sons, my uncles, who never defended their mother from their father’s extreme machista tendencies. The pain of seeing your own mother cry hysterically over the loss of her mother, my grandmother breaks my heart.
Over the years I can only recall having a handful of true conversations with my grandmother. She would tell me of the misadventures of the younger uncles and how I should not make their mistakes. I always wished to have a grandmother I could really talk to. I never made that connection. That’s on me. I could’ve made a connection with her, but I didn’t.
She’s gone now. She passed away eight days ago here in Porterville. Instead of celebrating her life we had to deal with the prospect of her being taken back to Mexico for burial. Why? She wanted to be near her family. All her children wanted her here. Yet that fear that has plagued her children continued to haunt them and they chose to listen to their father and take her to back to Mexico where she would be buried seven days later in a cemetery along the side of the road a few miles from our town. A cemetery that some of our family members will never see again.
Do I feel disdain for my own abuelo? Admittedly so. Why? For all the pain he made his family suffer through. Even after the death of his wife, their mother, my grandmother they still feared him. After her death he still managed to create more pain and sorrow for all. What might be the inevitable truth is that the one person that kept this family together is no longer with us. What prospects await us now?
Disculpen por lo mal escrito.
But as soon as you plop down a deposit on your own piece of suburbia, strange thoughts start running through your mind. In the suburban world, grass seems very important, and you’re consumed by its mysteries. Why does your neighbor’s lawn glow deep green, like a rolling golf course, while yours withers to a brown mess, overrun by weeds? What makes perfect grass perfect?
I love it how my wify takes care of me when I’m sick. I love playing house.
It’s been a while since I last posted on the site, but with reason. The last few weeks have been some of the greatest experiences of my life.
I got married to the love of my life Sonia. I was so nervous the day of the wedding that not only did I cut myself twice while shaving but I also arrived to the church a few minutes late. Luckily the priest arrived half an hour later. The mass was great. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a mass that has sped along so fast. It was truly a blur. It was so romantic though I must say. While we knelt, we held hands. I couldn’t help but peek over at Sonia who looked so gorgeous.
The reception was something else. I was in such a great mood to see so many of my relatives (much love to all my cousins of the Duenas clan) and long time friends (Rachel & John, Favi & Adam, Katy, Santiago, Nilsa & Israel) in attendance. It was awesome to meet up with Hp, Oso and Mari. It was great that they considered me a good enough friend to attend the wedding. It was definitely good times. There are still memories that I am trying to piece together. I must apologize for that, but sometimes we can’t help ourselves. Much like what my friend Gabriel Garcia Marquez says:
“Life is not what one lived, but what one remembers and how one remembers it in order to recount it.”
The pictures and film that people took have provided different perspectives on the day, so it’s been cool to see what others saw through the lenses of their cameras.
We really appreciated everyone that attended the wedding, especially those that traveled so far to get to Porterville. We are so appreciative of all the wedding gifts that we received. Our guests were so generous. It was crazy how many boxes and bags adorned the living room and kitchen at 2141.
We honeymooned in French Polynesia. Tahiti and her islands are so beautiful. Moorea and Bora Bora are islands that everyone has to visit at least once in their lifetime. Words can’t describe their beauty. Only pictures do the islands justice.
The last few months have been a hell of ride for me. I am officially on what some would call a diet. I don’t really see it as a diet though because I am eating what I like to eat but doing so in moderation. I have made some restrictions for myself though. I no longer drink regular soda (have you seen how much sugar and carbs a can of this stuff has?). Instead when I get the urge I get Coke Zero which by the way has a similar taste to Mexican Coke. Eh, maybe it’s just me. It tastes better than Diet Coke that’s for sure. I have greatly, greatly restricted my sugar intake. Every morning I get up at 5 a.m. and run for about an hour. I’ve started drinking green tea instead of Starbucks. There’s something about green tea that is damn good. It takes a while though to get used to the taste but you learn to love it.
In a matter of months I have dropped about 35 lbs. My weight now is 215 lbs. Some of my pants don’t fit anymore. I’m wearing khakis to work that look more like cholo style dickies…all loose in the butt. Anyhow, my secret (or can it be simply called common sense) is limiting my carb and sugar intake as well as limiting foods that are high in fat and of course exercising a lot.
I’m still far away from my goal of getting back to my high school weight of 175 lbs. but the good thing is that I am on the way.
We’re so close to buying a place it’s kinda scary. Should we take the plunge? Should we wait? Are interest rates going up or staying low? Are home prices going to decrease? So many damn questions yet no one really knows the answer.