Bill and Wendy's ickcillint adventures

On December 20, 2010, my beloved father died.  Seriously ill since June 2010, he succumbed to his complex health issues less than 24 hours after being declared palliative.  He died peacefully following a giant slumber party held at the Marjorie Snowden Willoughby Hospice House.  The slumber party was attended by mom and all Dad’s eight kids, except for one.  The only child of Dad’s not present was my brother Glenn who lives in Ottawa.  However, at about 7 am, as Glenn wished Dad good-bye over a speaker phone, Dad breathed his last breaths.  We are all devastated beyond belief, but relieved that he is now resting. Today, December 21, 2010, Bill and I received our stamped passports with Entry Visas for Sri Lanka. We are scheduled to arrive in country, January 4.  As well, our Subaru Impreza sold this week. So, with Dad now gone, the passports stampted and the car sold, the red light to go to Sri Lanka has stopped blinking and the green light to go is now solid.   Merry Christmas. Prayers

As you know, three Fridays ago, we were dodging bullets in our hotel lobby. Therefore,  Ickcillint meaning absorbed new adjectives and verbs like: fear, disbelief and protective action.  Violencia is alive and well in Mexico, as you can see from this photo from the Saturday morning headlines in the newspaper.  The man killed in front of our hotel was only one of five men killed in various sectors of Mazatlan on Friday.   However, the very next day (Saturday morning at 5 am) there was about a ten piece brass band, including tuba outside our hotel belting out Mexican Musica from the back of a pickup truck (click on video link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0rdry7T0PY ).  Objectively, these two dramatically different scenarios display the best and worst of Mexico, the incongruence of the country. Subjectively, I am wondering if these two stories carry a similarity.  A brass band playing outside a hotel at five in the morning?  I must say, it provoked some violencia in me.  What about pe