Thursday, December 11, 2008

Ajo, Arizona

We arrived at La Siesta Motel yesterday, at four in the afternoon. Before we took our place in the park, we drove down to the IGA and bought the makings for dinner. Now we're settled in until tomorrow, when we will drive on to San Carlos. It was a pleasure to have Trent and Monica, whom we remember from last year and the year before, come up to greet us. If for some reason we could not go on to Mexico, I sometimes think we could happily spend the winter in Ajo. Maybe not, though. It's pleasant, but I'm afraid we would run out of things to do.

Robin braved the hot tub last night after dinner, but I just couldn't bring myself to walk two minutes in the cold in my bathing suit, just to jump into hot water, soak for a few minutes, then walk two minutes – wet – in the cold to get home. I am such a wimp. I steeled myself to do it this morning, after the sun was up and the temperature was a little more comfortable. Apparently, the heat in the hot tub is on a timer, because the water was warm, not hot. I settled in with my book, keeping it as dry as possible under the circumstances. After about fifteen minutes, I noticed that the water was considerably warmer than it had been. Come this afternoon, I'll bet the swimming pool will be just lovely.

Today, we have plenty to do. Robin has already taken a bicycle ride to the insurance agency, to buy our Mexican auto insurance – and I want to walk around downtown, video camera in hand, to make a little travelogue. So far, I've managed to make breakfast and clean up, try unsuccessfully to get the wi-fi to work, and have a cup of tea with Marjorie. I'll have to go over to the clubhouse to post this, I guess.

Oh, I did find time in my schedule to read the Copper Daily News, the local paper. It features a Sheriff's Log, which made me think it would be rather scary to live in a town this small. There were two little filler articles in the paper that interested me, both with a seasonal theme. One traced the words of The Twelve Days of Christmas to England in 1780 and the tune to France. The article concluded: "It has no religious significance but is thought by some to have been a game to help children improve their memories." The other snippet regarded the word "Yule". I'll quote it in full, as it's very short:

"The cry 'Yollen' was heard following the winter solstice. The happy cry was heard upon the discovery that they days were getting longer. The Yule log was brought into the home for heat and warmth and became a traditional part of English, French, German, and Slavic Christmas celebrations. It remained so until the 19th century."

Surely the log would have been more useful before the solstice than after, what with the long nights. It's a funny little snippet - just enough information to be intriguing, not enough to be enlightening, as it were.

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