Waiting for a phone call - a baby on the way soon?

LA MANZANILLA, Jalisco, Mexico - We are sleeping with the telephone close by the bed tonight, as the daughter of our amiga Irma is within days (maybe hours, maybe minutes) of delivering a baby girl.

And because the young lady and Irma don't have a car, if they suddenly have to get to the hospital tonight, they will be calling us for a quick hour's drive to Manzanillo, where the baby is to be delivered.

I've been waiting for the chance since December to go screaming down Highway 200 at 90 mph in the Trooper. My Ipod already has Born To Be Wild loaded to play on the trip.

Get your motor runnin'
Way out on the highway,
Lookin for adventure,
And whatever comes it will...

If the baby should decide to be born during the daylight hours, there are some other folks who have said they will take to the roads to get mom to the hospital.


Three amigas

Irma and her daughter and husband only have a few family members around here. They came to La Manzanilla from Ensenada (on the Baja peninsula) several months ago and have been scratching out a living in town. But the soon-to-be-born baby and mother have been declared healthy by doctors and we are fast becoming adopted grandparents.

Watch for some baby pix in the next few days.


Sylvia with a young cowboy and his steed

The past two days we have been in Arroyo Seco for most daylight hours, watching the progress on all our projects and visiting with folks. Sylvia discovered the young caballero in the photo above with his horse. The horse is in a small pasture right behind our lot and his owner is very proud of the animal and let Sylvia get close enough to pet the horse.

Tomorrow, Sylvia and I will be saddling up on a couple of horses ourselves near Arroyo Seco for a ride around a rancho.

It will be the first time in more than 40 years since I climbed on the back of a horse, though I have been practicing an old Gene Autry song for some months on the ukulele that would seem to fit tomorrow's activities.

I'm back in the saddle again,
Out where a friend is a friend,
Where the longhorn cattle feed,
On the lowly jimson weed,
I'm back in the saddle again.

We'll see what key I'm singing in after bouncing on a hard saddle for a couple of hours.

La-la-la-la-la-la-la...

Or maybe...

Ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow.....


Sylvia in the middle of palapa construction