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Carol Schmidt

Oct 12, 2003, 10:40 PM

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No more Mother of All Topas!

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The new Mayor, Luis Villareal, was installed Friday and already what we called "The Mother of All Topas" has been removed and smoothed out so that the main SMA street on the road to Celaya is now much more navigable. He promised it would be one of his first actions and work started and was finished this weekend! Anyone who has ever visited San Miguel will remember this topa, probably 8 feet across and 4 feet high, a very rough guess. Farewell, I won't miss you!

Carol Schmidt

mexigrl

Oct 14, 2003, 5:53 PM

Post #2 of 9 (548 views)

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Re: [Carol Schmidt] No more Mother of All Topas!

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Good news Carol! Perhaps he will take out a few more before my arrival ;) My poor little Honda has had some nasty experiences with those "speed bumps". It really is impossible to describe them to someone here at home, they just don't believe it when I tell them the size!!

Cuidate,

Mexigrl

elcomputo

Oct 17, 2003, 3:32 PM

Post #3 of 9 (514 views)

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Re: [Carol Schmidt] No more Mother of All Topas!

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I've been calling them topes. Am I wrong?

The worst "tope" I have encountered is not on a street. It's on a sidewalk in front of the markets just down from the bus station and on the other side of the street (where there are three pollo rostados next door to each other, right here in the land of no competition). For no rhyme or reason I can fathom, there is a raised strip of concrete about two inches wide right across the entire sidewalk. If you are not looking down, you will not see it because it blends in with the sidewalk. Catch it with your toe, and you're in for an embarrassing and painful experience, especially if, on your way to the ground, your neck catches one of the ropes attached to the canopy over the mercado de verdaduras' sidewalk extension.

A friend really wrecked herself on that thing. She had forgotten it was there and tripped over it while running for a bus.

It's one of those things which tend to make life sometimes very interesting -- not interesting, but interesting -- in Mexico.

Martin

Carol Schmidt

Oct 17, 2003, 6:00 PM

Post #4 of 9 (507 views)

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Re: [elcomputo] Yes, it's topes, my bad

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You're right, it's topes. My Spanish is still not great.

Carol Schmidt

pathall

Oct 20, 2003, 9:55 AM

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Re: [elcomputo] No more Mother of All Topas!

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There's a association in San Miguel called the "Fallen Women of San Miguel".

mexigrl

Oct 20, 2003, 1:07 PM

Post #6 of 9 (461 views)

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Re: [pathall] No more Mother of All Topas!

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I'm sure they will offer me membership quite soon after I arrive :) My balance can be pretty off so falling in the streets of SMA is destined to become a pastime!

Mexigrl

elcomputo

Dec 18, 2003, 12:25 PM

Post #7 of 9 (370 views)

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Re: [Carol Schmidt] No more Mother of All Topas!

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You know, I could never figure out where this thing was, but now I realize what you were referring to. Was it really a tope? I just thought it was a very bad transition between two sections of road -- kind of like a deal where a railroad is being built from two directions at once and the builders find, when they meet up, the two sections are several feet apart.

Have you noticed that traffic still slows down to a near-stop when it comes to that section?

Carol Schmidt

Dec 18, 2003, 5:58 PM

Post #8 of 9 (353 views)

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Re: [elcomputo] No more Mother of All Topes!

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Yes, I said earlier I meant topes, not topas--my Spanish is muy mal. I always thought of that biggie as a tope, and the new mayor said it was a tope that had to go, so I think it was a tope. Maybe it was put in to cover up the fact two roads didn't quite meet at the same level, as you noticed. Y

eah, traffic still slows as cars approach the glorieta. With the new Tel-Mex on Ancho San Antonio the traffic is even worse. It hits right where I love to go to the new bakery owned by a Canadian young man, El Maple, which has real sourdough! Excellent find! It's just north of the big Corono sign, on the other side of the street, and the El Maple sign has a big brown Canadian maple leaf.

Carol Schmidt

elcomputo

Dec 18, 2003, 8:30 PM

Post #9 of 9 (347 views)

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Re: [Carol Schmidt] No more Mother of All Topes!

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Good bread, eh? Darn, just when I've gone on a no-starch diet!

I have been paying my phone bill at the TelMex telegraph office across the street from Border Crossings. I hope they haven't closed that office down. There was NEVER a line there.

As for the traffic, it also slows down coming FROM the glorietta, so I think some people just don't trust that the big hump in the road is gone.

And speaking of traffic, I have never seen it so bad in the 7 months I've been here. You have to wait until there's total gridlock in the traffic to get across the Ancha. I guess all the snowbirds have arrived. (Some confirmation of this: I spotted on the Ancha, moving along at a good 3 mph, an RV about the size of the casita I'm renting. It was towing an SUV, but I didn't catch the license plates to see what cold-weather area it was from.) Apparently they are bringing the weather with them, judging by the freeze we had this morning.