Good morning, gentlemen!

Today's GoNaked newsletter is going to be a little lighter than usual. You'll still get the basics, but if you're wondering where all the extra bells, whistles, and handsome distractions went, they've temporarily been replaced by the sound of a washing machine in San Miguel de Allende.

Our Day of the Dead retreat has been keeping me hopping! I'm having a wonderful time, but there's an awful lot happening behind the scenes that guests never see. Between coordinating transportation, adjusting schedules, answering questions, and making sure twelve men are fed, entertained, and generally moving in the same direction, it's a wonder I haven't started drinking before breakfast.

Today should be a particularly good day. Bob is taking the guys to the hot springs, where they'll spend a few hours soaking in warm mineral water. Meanwhile, I'll be at my house catching up on laundry, both my own and whatever the guys need washed.

Bob gets the hot springs. I get the spin cycle. Somewhere along the line, I clearly lost control of the itinerary.

But I have to tell you, I really do enjoy showing off San Miguel de Allende. There's something wonderful about seeing a place you love through somebody else's eyes. Things I've walked past a hundred times suddenly become fascinating again because someone else stops, points, and says, "Oh, look at that!"

I'm seriously considering doing a few more San Miguel retreats next year, although they won't necessarily revolve around Day of the Dead. As much as I love this celebration, I'd also enjoy bringing people here when the town isn't quite so packed with visitors. San Miguel has plenty of personality without needing several thousand extra people crammed into its narrow streets.

And speaking of things that make me happy, the United States is finally turning its clocks back today! That means I'm now only one hour behind my beloved Cleveland instead of two. For somebody who regularly bounces between Ohio and Mexico, that little adjustment makes life considerably easier. I didn't have to get on an airplane, and somehow Cleveland moved an hour closer. I'll take it!

There's also something especially meaningful about today.

November 1 marks the 16th anniversary of my mother's passing.

I've always been convinced that she had absolutely no intention of dying in October. October is Halloween, after all, and I suspect she thought that was entirely too spooky a month to make her grand exit.

Instead, she waited until November, the same month my father had passed away nine years earlier. And she chose All Saints' Day, no less.

Then, in what I still consider one of her finest bits of comedic timing, she died at precisely 4:20 in the afternoon.

Yes, 4:20. I have laughed about that for sixteen years. Leave it to Mom to make sure I'd never forget the time!

I've been celebrating Día de Muertos for more than thirty years, long before I ever imagined owning a home in Mexico. So there's something particularly touching about my mother having passed away on November 1, one of the central days of this beautiful celebration of remembrance.

I love that the Mexican tradition makes room for laughter alongside grief. We remember the people we've lost, tell their stories, prepare their favorite foods, and sometimes laugh ourselves silly remembering the ridiculous things they did. I think that's a pretty wonderful way to keep someone close.

And it reminds me that life is full of extraordinary emotions. Sometimes sadness and happiness arrive together, and somehow, as the years pass, the memories that once brought tears can just as easily bring a smile.

So today, while Bob and the boys are soaking their troubles away and I'm doing my best impersonation of a Mexican laundromat, I'll also be thinking about Mom, Dad, and all the people whose lives have touched mine.

However you're spending this first day of November, I hope you'll take a moment to remember somebody you love. And while you're at it, take a little time to celebrate yourself, too. We're all still here, making memories, collecting stories, and occasionally getting the laundry done.

That's worth celebrating.

Big naked hugs,

Nick