Have you ever jumped in the car with a list of three or four things you wanted to get done in a day here at Lakeside?
I try to do it all the time, foolishly.
I went to pick up a poster I had printed the other day and found that the printing artisan religiously closes his shop from 2 to 4 p.m. I didn’t know about this off-time. and was there just before 3 p.m. I got the printing shop confused with the framing shop, which closes from 1 to 3 p.m. My day’s schedule was thrown off and I found myself wandering around the real estate offices, window-shopping for million-dollar haciendas that might have been reduced to US$85,000. It passed the time.
The 2 to 4 p.m. break thing is one of those historical remnants from the Spanish siesta. Based on my considerable archaeological research, the Aztecs stayed open all day. According to their peculiar calendar, the second-hand loincloth shop, for example, was open 38 hours a day, nine days a week.
Now, the printer was expecting me. But there was no note on the door saying, “I close at 2 on the dot, return at 4 on the dot ... or somewhere around the dot.” Mexicans seem to give a solemn significance to these dots. And they seem to be all over the place.
But when you’re trying to follow six or eight dots through a jaunt to the village, there is no calendar capable of keeping straight all the venues and their dots in order to get three or four things done in a day.
Would you remember if Benny’s Dry Cleaning is open on Tuesday, so that you could do your dry cleaning and stop next door at the garden shop for tree fertilizer and also stop at Lalo’s across the street for his seafood because he has mahi mahi on Tuesday? If Benny’s is closed on Tuesday, instead you could pop down the street to the bakery, except that it might be closed at 2 p.m. If it’s closed at that hour, you could pick up that printing at 2 p.m., if you drive along the ciclopista blowing your horn all the way so you don’t run anybody down. If you miss the printer, you could rush back to Lalo’s for the mahi mahi. But then, you’d have to buy your mahi mahi and wait around for two hours with fish stinking up your car to get the printing at 4 p.m. And then the mahi mahi can fertilize your mandarina tree.
I have tried to remember important horas at Lakeside, but I invariably find myself ready to climb into the car for errands around 2 o’clock. That’s where my shopping and getting-things-done circadian rhythms take me. They are not in sync with any business or restaurant or utility office at Lakeside, especially on Saturdays, when opening and closing hours are a Sudoku puzzle.
So, the answer is to call first. Right? Wrong! You’d have to have the numbers for every venue at Lakeside. That era is gone. Remember “Information”? Well, you’re “Information” now.
What might happen is that Trip Advisor could solve this by creating a wonderful app: Click it on and up pops: Michela’s Mariscos: Open today until 2 p.m. Jorge’s Bakery: Closed today, open Sunday. Andrea’s Gourmet Restaurant: Open at 5 p.m., dancing Thursdays. Vicente’s Graneria: New hours noon to 4 p.m. Telmex: Customer waiting time: two hours, dancing Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
These pop-ups could follow you all day. Trip Advisor can even sell ads: Jorge’s meats closes today at 3 p.m. Get there at 2 p.m. for the special on ribs.
And then, there’s blessed, reliable Farmacia Guadalajara: open 24/7, including holidays, election days and earthquakes.