Back in the freeze

After days of wearing short sleeve shirts, shorts and reapplying sunscreen I am back to the reality of minus bazillion temperatures.
Stepping off the plane in Mex was a surreal experience - wait a sec, wasn't I just wearing a parka?
Coming back was even stranger - what do you mean I need mitts?

Sigh. But the sharpness of the weather does make one get down to work (I mean, you don't want to go outside in this, so you might as well work at something.) I've been working on a lot of illustration this past while, writing has taken a back seat for a bit. But it is percolating. Certainly being in a different country has spurred some short story ideas. It makes a lot of sense what Hemingway, and others did, when travelling the world and writing about it. It does shake you out of your surroundings and opens up different vistas.
My vista was on the beach at sundown with a plate of guacamole and a cold Dos Equis in my hand.

Sigh. I look outside and think I might need a hot cocoa.

Mex Bound

Thanks for indulging my pictorial puzzle play - I am off to Mexico for a week. The writer in me recalls all the great books I have read set in this country, The Power and The Glory, Under the Volcano, Like Water for Chocolate - not to mention all the films, okay, the Westerns, I have seen. But the human in me realizes the poverty and social strife that exists there.

I go expecting relaxation, but also know that whenever I visit another country, even for a short while, I am changed.

Adios.

Last clue...

Mmm...wasting away

Closer...