Calendars
For many years I made a ritual of buying an art reproduction calendar every year at a local museum. I’d find an artist I didn’t know well and spend the year communing with their work. It was an enjoyable tradition which I’ve regretfully abandoned in these times of lean earnings and ~$20 art calendars.
So how’s a girl to know what day it is? There’s always the date on the computer screen, but sometimes you need a visual representation of the month, and sometimes you want to be able to write on it.
Our first year in Mexico we lucked onto a half-price sale. The second year, I printed calendar blanks from the computer and stuck them onto some picture we had lying around.
And then I discovered hardware store calendars. They may not be the most attractive items in the world, but their usefulness makes up for it. And, they’re free! We’ve used them for two years now and they’re great. Not only do they indicate both legal and unofficial Mexican holidays, they also show official US holidays, which comes in quite handy at times if you’re still banking or doing any business in the states. They also show the saint associated with every single day of the year and the moon’s phases. The one we got this year even has the day of ingress of each astrological sign.
In cities, other types of business often give away calendars as well. Once when visiting Merida we got a calendar with a beguiling photograph of a large pig from a carnitas takeout joint. But if you live in a rural area, hardware stores are the most reliable source of free calendars.