Happy New Year

Before too much time passes, I'd like to comment on the fireworks presentations in Mérida on New Year's Eve.  We stayed home, mostly because of my lingering leg injury. With a slow hobble and Pablo's assistance we made it up to the rooftop around midnight.  There were so many fireworks exploding the whole scene was reminiscent of NYE in Hawaii or a night out in Iraq. The streets and air were so full of smoke, visibility was about ten feet. The explosive loud noise occasionally disturbed my ear drums. 

We could see big colorful globes emanating from churches and other organized exhibits from our vantage point.  The  neighbors all around us had bottle rockets and m80s or cherry bombs and smokemakers.  We have escaped most NYEs in the city...one year we drove off to Palenque and ended up in Guatemala. . Another NYE we went with one of my absolute and best friends to Akumal - snorkeled before breakfast, and enjoyed seafood dinners on the beach.  Last year we treated outselves to a terrific Argentine steak house in Mérida.  This year we grilled T-bones and sauteed mushrooms with onions at home.  Pablo enjoyed some Sidra (typical holiday cider) and with all my current meds and antibiotics I allowed myself Coca Cola. There was no avoiding the smoke, and that is what most reminded me of Hawaii on New Year's Eve.  After the milennium,  folks in Oahu finally put the cabash on the free for all purchase of fireworks in the state.
Until 2000 we could legally buy as many rolls of 5,000 or 10,000 and maybe even 50,000 firecrackers.  Loud and long displays of jetsam flying around our 100 year old coffee shack.  NYE was mostly a nervewracker for me, so I drank my way through it, and at the end of the night I was the one lighting all the fountains in the driveway with the kids.

This photo is from 1996-97 with the guys working out the details.

1997-98

1997-1998.

The explosion, this one shot on the milennium.

Da smoke.

Da morning after.

The Goodbye Sigh

I got up and flipped my calendar cube over to 7 February yesterday and WHAMMO! Flashback to the past….to probably the saddest moment I have ever experienced. Four years ago yesterday Jim Dorton took his last breath, and sighed his way over to the other side. Grief is a weird concept. My mind still wrestles with the mixed emotions I remember from that time. On the one hand I was happy that he would no longer suffer, because by the time the Lord took him he was tired of the suffering. At the same time I was horrified that the twenty plus years we spent together were over. He was gone.

The fact is I am still completely mixed up emotionally and I don’t think I operate at 100% of my past potential. I was very sad for a long time, but I am resilient and managed to bounce back to a certain extent. I am learning to work within my new limitations and I take a new approach to the concept of happiness. The only way I could see forward was to move from Hawaii, where Jim and I met and spent most of our lives together. I felt I needed to go back to my roots. Ok, not all the way back to Lagrange Street in Toledo, Ohio, no, that would be too far back. I went back to some roots I established in early adulthood traveling through Mexico and then living/working in Akumal, on the Caribbean coast. Although I no longer teach scuba diving and couldn’t afford the Mexican Riviera, I was drawn back to the Yucatán in a desperate attempt to crawl out of my grief stupor. And in retrospect, I feel happy and content living in the heart of Mérida.


For me, Mexico is a constant reminder that I am alive. The sights, the sounds, and the smells activate my appetite for living. I feel like my feet are on the ground when I am here, although I know I live in a bit of a dream world. It is and old, sturdy and settled world. I am intrigued by the Mayan history that is present all around. And although Jim wouldn’t have chosen Merida as a place to live, what drew us together when we met was our mutual love for Mexico. I remember much laughter and rum shared at the Pioneer Inn, Lahaina, Maui, over conversations about our separate adventure tales south of the border. I think he would have liked it here.

Aloha Oe

A plumeria blossom floating with a single droplet of rain in honor of my friend Bill.


Last week while cooling off in the pool, a wind whipped up and a few plumeria flowers drifted down to the water. Watching the flower floating in the calm clear water mesmerized me back to all the great times I’d had living in Hawaii. Hawaiian music sweetened the air and I realized how much I miss my friends there. I appreciate the quality friendships I earned during my twenty years in the islands. It was a pleasant reminiscence but one without regrets, because I am happy here in the Yucatán. I still think that my best survival and recuperation option was to relocate, and for me this feels right.

Luckily in today’s world we can stay in touch via Skype and Facebook and Twitter, etc. Today, not only can I talk to my friends, we can watch each other AGE on our webcams!

When I first moved here I was staying in touch with several friends, but we all got busy with our ever-changing lives and the communications waned. Time passes and we realize we have lost contact with those who we hold dear.

Two days after my Hawaiian moment in the pool, I received word that two of my friends in Kona died last week. Today is Wild Bill Burke’s burial. I am sorry I can’t be there to say a final farewell, so I offer the above photo to send my aloha and my condolences. Bill was a great person, and he will be missed. He was a crusty foul mouthed sailor with a New England accent. He was as wild as he looked and he liked to suck up the scotch. These were part of his most endearing traits, because he always kept us laughing. As a friend he was always there for you when you needed him. I doubt he ever did another person wrong, although due to his generous helpful nature, people took him for granted sometimes; he even took that in stride. He could fix anything, and was invaluable to the success of the Fairwind operation for years. He was an excellent sailor and boatman. Bill went to lunch with friends one day last week, enjoyed his cocktails, spun some tales, and when he went to sleep that night he never woke up. He lived his life to the fullest until the very last day. Since he passed in peaceful sleep, I feel confident he is in eternal peace right now. Or raising hell in some other time or space.

Here we are, left to right, Bill Burke, me, and Dave Winter enjoying an authentic kava party at the coffee shack in 1991.

The most important rule at a kava party is that everyone don a 'lava lava' (men's pareu)...here Dave, Todd and Bill are learning to securely tie on their first skirts!

Our other friend who passed away was not someone I knew very well, but she was part of our Fairwind family. She had been around in the early days of the family business and knew just about everyone who passed through Fairwind doors. Penny was frail when I last saw her a few years ago, and her health had been failing. I do hope she is in a happy place. She is already notably missed by her loyal kitty and close friends. In her honor, I would like to offer this floating flower to send my sympathies to all her friends and family.