Nov. 2 - More Dia de las Muertos and communication with Erwin

Yesterday my focus was on my alter and thinking about Erwin. This afternoon Ricardo and I sat for a while by our alter and reminisced and talked about Erwin. I felt his presence and the cat was very involved with us but no direct communication. Knowing Erwin as well as we do, I suspect that his communication will be in a very interesting way.
I thought I did receive a message the Sunday I returned from the burial in Maryland. I was reading a book (Born to Run about the Taramuhara Indians in the Copper Canyon of Mexico). Now this book has NOTHING to do with anything that Erwin would have cared about but within a few minutes of reading it the discussion was about the human race and whether it was born to run - the author then mentioned that humans are the only running biped that are tailless. Those who know Erwin and our family might remember way back when Richard Vogel was about 3 or 4 years old that he would come every morning to Erwin, pulling down his pants and asking if he had grown a tail yet. Erwin always told him that he would soon and to come back the next day and he (Erwin) would take a look again. I do not remember how long this went on - do you Richard??
The next page in the book was talking about how people's faces were at one time larger than they are today and that Benjamin Franklin's face was chunkier than yours. You all now know that Erwin dressed as Ben Franklin many times over the years. I remember him dressed in Washington DC at the bicentennial (1976). These two items, when I was reading that day in the airplane, felt like communications to me from my dad that he was there with me. You may all take this for what you will but I shall also take it for what it meant to me.

Celebrating the Day of the Dead here in Mexico is a wonderful experience and mixture of fun and memories. I have included pictures from yesterday - many alters, events at the Jardin (center of town), beautiful art on the ground made of seeds, sand, etc.; Katrina parade where folks dress as skeletons. This is just a small amount of many pictures that I am happy to share with anyone who wants to see them.