What's summer without a nice summer cold to cap things off?

VALOIS, New York, USA - After a three-day weekend that included a great beach party Friday, attending the Cardboard Boat Races (and party) Saturday, and then Jenn and Carl's wedding (and reception) Sunday afternoon and evening, I was about as hydrated as I could be, and felt great. Three parties in three days and ready for more lake fun.

Woo-hoo!

And feeling great lasted right until Wednesday morning when I woke up at 6 a.m. with a sore throat, a cough - and a head cold - one of those cement-head-type colds in which everything you see and hear seems to be going on behind a heavy gauze curtain. After talking with Hector amiga Karen Schamel, I learned that the cold was making the rounds of all of Schuyler County.

And here I thought I was patient zero.

But on this second day of the cold, I feel a little better, perhaps a combination of yesterday afternoon's boating, ample hydration, and warm sun to bake the cold out. I wish today were as warm. Maybe it will be soon.


Jenn and Carl's vows on Sunday


Entry in the cardboard boat race



Yesterday, Admiral Fox had to barrel off for appointments, leaving me (and my cement-solid head, no comments please) alone at the house for the day. After doing some dock improvements, I decided the best thing for my cold was a trip across the lake (by pontoon boat, of course) to the Showboat Restaurant and Bar, about five miles away on the east side of Seneca Lake.

The place has good docking facilities, excellent cold beer,  passable hamburgers and fries, and occasionally waitresses who could be aspiring to work at a Hooters restaurant. It seemed the perfect place for a destination cruise - and to sit around for the afternoon.

Alas, when I arrived shortly after noon, ready for a beer and a burger, a 16-year-old fellow - wielding a power drill in the bar - told me that the restaurant might be opening this coming weekend. "I think they'll be open then," he said.

I think I will call ahead before taking a voyage there again.


The Showboat's outside bar - closed until further notice

It was nice to return to our dock, however, and see how my handiwork from earlier in the day looked from the water.

I added white bumper strips to the pilings so visiting boats - and the Spirit of Louise, of course - could moor without having to reach into dark boat lockers to find fenders, and then tie them on to protect the vessel. I got the idea for the strips from Eric and Tina Hazlitt's dock, though I should have spent a little more time asking around how to actually install the pieces.

(Ever dropped an electric drill into the water? How about a box of screws? A screwdriver?)

Still, Wednesday morning, even with a head that felt like it was full of slow-drying cement, I was able to install the strips and now we are ready to inaugurate the Valois Point Yacht Club.

Or at least as soon as I get the bar built on the end of the dock.

On Facebook, I put up a photo of the dock and sunshade, indicating that all I needed now was a bar - and barflies - to complete the picture. I immediately had volunteers for the barfly positions.

This should be fun...


Valois Point Yacht Club dock

From Mexico, there was some good news (even if expensive) in the last week: Our palapa's new roof is almost finished at The Pink Flamingo in Arroyo Seco.

The original roof - covered with interlocking ceramic tiles - was so heavy it was cracking the support beams and making strange creaking noises. Conventional wisdom said it would not last another rainy season. The monsoon rains can add tons of weight to the roof during downpours.

Our amigo and neighbor Chon took on the project (along with a crew of Arroyo Seco workers), stripping off the tiles and replacing them with an attractive laminate material that looks very similar, but weighs about 10 percent of the original roof.

Admiral Fox and I will sleep better knowing the palapa will still be standing when we go home to Mexico in December, even if we are many pesos poorer.

We'll drown our sorrows (about how many pesos we had to lay out) down on the dock at the VPYC - when I get the bar built ...


Chon hard at work replacing the roof

The Pink Flamingo Doors have arrived with, um, a Pink Flamingo

ARROYO SECO, Jalisco, Mexico - We were getting ready to head out to the beach today for a fiesta with our French surfer-dude amigo Julien when our welder-dude amigo, Victor, showed up with our new doors for the front of the property.

Victor is a welder, but beneath the goggles and torches, he is an artist.

And so a few weeks ago we commissioned him to build us some big steel doors for the front of the Pink Flamingo. Of course, the doors we ordered were to have a pink flamingo as part of the design.

They do.

They really do.


Victor with his artwork doors

The irony - and there is plenty to go around - is that after we had turned Victor loose on the project, we decided not to build a concrete wall out front this season, where the doors were to hang.

So now we have the doors, and next year will build a wall on which to hang them.

It might take me that long to get used to looking at the Pink Flamingo painted on them.


Julien, Michelle, Maurice and Max

After we got the doors squared away, the Admiral and I headed via quad to Playa Grande for a largely French family fete on the beach with Julien, his brother Max, father Maurice (and his wife, Michelle), Max's amiga Ana and Pink Flamingo Chief Education Officer Laura Warner.

The food was amazing: oysters, platters of barbecued dorado, fresh salads, tortillas, wine, and of course, a lot of Mexican beer.

But the most amazing part, for me, was trying to listen (and speak) English, French and Spanish, almost simultaneously.

It was amazing because years of high school and college French began to come back the more we talked. And Spanish was the default language when we couldn't communicate.

Thank you Jon Giacco (one of my high school French teachers), for drilling something into my head.

And also a thank you to Pink Flamingo Chief Education Officer Laura Warner (fluent in Spanish, French and English) for filling in the many gaps in conversation.

Mon Dieu! It was complicated.


Party dives into the oysters

School is out for winter, let the rest of the fun begin

ARROYO SECO, Jalisco, Mexico - The Admiral left this afternoon to take son Dylan north to Puerto Vallarta where he will pick up his flight back to the U.S. tomorrow. He's a little more tan, a lot more relaxed, and convinced that his lunatic parents made a really good choice in deciding to settle in this part of Mexico.

We - the lunatics - totally agree.

Today was devoted to the longest stretch of sleeping this captain has taken in years, a total of 12 hours of shuteye from crashing last night until nearly noon this morning. (There were margaritas involved yesterday.) But then I had to finish version 1.2 of a movie for our Canadian amiga Laura Warner who put on such a great set of English classes for the village children last week that they are still talking about Senora Laura.


Laura Warner and the Arroyo Seco Class of 2009

The movie is a chronicle of her class and stay, and in its final form should be a complete Fox-Fitzgerald Rockumentary.

At present, it only has three songs - long on the documentary part, short on the rock music. More music will be included in the final cut.


Barra de Navidad marina and lagoon

With the English classes over, the Admiral and I have shifted back into the go-to-the-beach mode, with side trips to places like Barra de Navidad, a touristy sort of place south of Melaque but very fun to visit.

We stayed at the marina in Barra several seasons aboard our sailboat Sabbatical, enjoying the great amenties of the hotel (pools, hot showers, great food, etc...). We took Hector, N.Y. amigos Mike and Karen Schamel there this past week to give them the tour, along with Cousin Ruth, whose daughters and significant others arrived this week for vacations.

Mike and Karen's daughter, Kathleen, was crew on our sailboat Sabbatical on those sojourns and loved the Grand Bay Hotel and Marina. We think she might love the Pink Flamingo, too.


La Manzanilla Sunset


Julien and Laura on Playa Chica at Arroyo Seco

And the cold/pulmonia./cough stuff?

Better it seems, provided there's plenty of sleep involved. Which is why this blog ends right here...

Buenas noches, amigos.

A dog named 'Lucky' joins our family in Arroyo Seco

ARROYO SECO, Jalisco, Mexico - On the last day of the year, we adopted a La Manzanilla street dog and have moved him to what has become the Arroyo Seco Doggy Spa, at least until he recovers from a short life of abuse and neglect.

Our amigo in La Manzanilla, Julie, who with her husband Rusty runs a huge save-the-animals project called Cisco's Amigos, found the pooch for us, provided us with the medicines he would need and eventually hooked us up with the Mexican family that had adopted 'Lucky' temporarily, at least until some family like us took him in.

Lucky?

That was the name the vet gave him: Lucky to have been adopted.


Lucky while getting a bath

Lucky, our friend Julia told us, is a labrador retriever for the most part. But even a casual glance at the shape of the head tells you that while Lucky might have a pint or two of lab in him, this boy probably has strong ties to the Rottweiler family.

Grrrrrrr.....

Still, as we want Lucky to be a watchdog for the property, that's fine, provided he doesn't eat our amigos Chena and Chon's tiny dogs.

Or any of the neighbors' kids.

Grrrrrrr.....


Lucky getting his bath at the veternarians




In addition to getting a pooch, we came back to the property today and were pleasantly surprised by activity on three fronts: The ramada was being moved over the new trailer, the bathrooms are being plumbed and the tile guy showed up late in the day and will start first thing tomorrow to lay out the tile.

First thing?

I am not getting up early to make sure everything is set for him. I did that already today and he didn't show until 4 p.m.

It was amazing today to watch the guys working entirely by hand, lifting and toting and digging and eventually hauling big guayabito wood posts around and setting them into the ground.

The rumor on the property - which we have now dubbed The Pink Flamingo - is that the ramada project will be finished in a couple of days.

Another Arroyo Seco milagro - if it happens.