Greetings from Mexico City

It would seem that Ohio likes to send me off to Mexico in November with a windy farewell! 

Last year, just a couple nights before my departure, Hurricane Sandy came through.  I remember lying in bed listening to the wind howling and thinking, "I don't have time to deal with any wind damage right now."  In retrospect, knowing the amount of death and destruction that Sandy left  behind, my worries about my vacation plans being disrupted seem rather petty and selfish.  When I woke up in the morning everything was fine other than some twigs and branches scattered around the lawn.  Just down the road, however, there were large trees that had been completely uprooted.  Nearby areas were without electricity, and there were buildings damaged by fallen trees.  I was lucky.  

Thursday night, the eve of my departure, another major weather system came through.  Although it was nothing compared to Sandy, there were wind advisories for gusts of up to 50 miles per hour.  Once again I lay in bed listening to the wind and hoping that I would not find a huge fallen tree limb blocking the driveway.  And once again I awoke to find nothing more than a few branches in the yard.  There were no problems in my immediate vicinity, but there were some reports of damage in other parts of Ohio.  When I went out for breakfast, it was still very breezy, but the wind had died down by the time I left for the airport.

My flights went very smoothly.  The day before I had printed off my boarding passes, and I noticed on the passes that I was approved for TSA pre-check.  This was a new experience.  I went through a separate security line,  I didn't have to take off my shoes, belt or jacket.  I didn't have to remove my laptop or my little plastic bag of liquids from my carry-on.  And I didn't have to stand in that body scanning device.  I have no idea why I suddenly qualify for this special consideration.  I did not apply for TSA pre-check.  I guess it must have to do with my frequent flyer status.

My flight from Houston arrived in Mexico City 15 minutes early,  As we approached for landing I could see from the plane that the traffic on the major streets was bumper to bumper.  "Ah, yes," I thought.  "It's the Friday of a holiday weekend.  It will take forever to get anywhere."  The line at immigration was not too bad,  I picked up my checked suitcase and went to customs.  At the airports in Mexico, when you go through customs, you press a little button, and if you get a green light you pass right through.  If you get a red light, you have to pass your belongings through an X-ray machine, and have your luggage inspected.  I got a green light!  My friend Alejandro was there at the international arrivals to meet me and to take me to the apartment that I had rented. (More about the apartment in another post.) In spite of what I had seen from the plane, the traffic on the roads that we traveled was light, and in less than 20 minutes we had arrived.  The only slight snafu of the entire day was that we had to wait around a half hour for the lady to arrive to give me the keys to the apartment.  By 11:00 P.M. I was settled in the apartment.  Since it was 1:00 A.M.  Cleveland time, I was ready for bed.  "The blog post," I thought, "will have to wait until morning,"

(image from the Web)