Articles 2022

Preparing for a Doctor Visit Generally, going to the doctor is not most people’s favorite thing to do, but it is part of staying healthy. And since it is a good idea, it is wise to make the best of this activity. The following is a brief summary of what you should do/think about before […]

A long with the summer solstice, there comes another season in Ajijic. The fly season. You can tell it has arrived because everywhere you look people are doing the Australian salute—swishing flies away from their faces. So far, I haven’t seen anybody with wine corks dangling from his hat brim, but it’s still early in

The Lake Chapala Jewish Congregation will be ushering in the first in-person High Holidays services since COVID in a remarkable fashion. Rabbi Rayzel Raphael, an ordained rabbi, artist, author, and singer/songwriter of Jewish songs, prayer, and liturgy, will shake things up a bit as she guides the congregation in welcoming in the year 5783. Rabbi

Kim LeMieux Email: kimslakesideliving@gmail.com The Lake Chapala Society host Open Circle every Sunday at 10:30am, a popular community gathering in Ajijic, to enjoy a diverse range of presentations. Entrance by the side gate on Ramón Corona, gate opens at 9:30am. We recommend bringing a hat and bottled water, and please remove containers upon departure. Use of

Garden Gentrification I came to Mexico this last time, 10 years ago, from a small fishing village I moved to in California in 1982. During my time in California I saw that village change into a gentrified city, a centerpiece of commerce and sustainability. With these changes came astronomical increases in real estate prices, rental

PART TWO Place: Kimball Elementary School, Washington, D.C. Time: September, 1950 to June, 1957 I was a chunky and nervous kid with fallen arches, bad eyesight, a severe stutter, frequent earaches, excruciating toothaches, and a substantial overbite. I cried a lot, complained, constantly sweated, and talked in class when I shouldn’t. And at recess, I

For over a century we have been talking about women’s rights and the equality of man around the world.  Equal pay for equal work, equal status for all races, and the right to practice faith as one sees it, feels it. In marriage a woman is not owned, she has the same status as her

Airy Orgy Do not allow my daughter to read this chapter or she’ll never visit me in Thailand.  I visited a friend in Chiangmai, and as we prepared dinner a few bugs flew around the kitchen, very big bugs that seemed drunk and barely able to fly. When we began to eat, an official swarm

Local Dog Rescue Organizations Come Together The SOS Chapala Dog Rescue was closed in July by Chapala’s government after the land they had been using reverted to state ownership. While SOS had found places for the majority of their dogs in advance of the closure, many remained.  When SOS reached out via social media for

“Through broken walls and gray The winds blow bleak and shrill: They are all gone away.” —Edwin Arlington Robinson “The House on the Hill” The setting sun peeped over the rim of the red rock canyon walls far overhead. I was aware that the winter night would soon descend over my stretch of the southwestern