I need to stop reading

The newspaper!
All it does is get my blood pressure up and my hopes of living out them golden years in some semblance of peace,.... down.
One of the stories today in Northern California (were I can't wait to leave and return to Patzcuaro) is that the cost of arresting a public drunk is now going to be passed on to the local government from the state because the state is broke.

Hello.......
Does the average citizen understand exactly how much money is grabbed by the state?
Sales tax, fuel tax, road tax, permit this, permit that, property tax, school bond tax, fire department funding tax, water use tax, water resources tax, and the list goes on and on and on.
So now they have no money to pay for the lock up of the public drunk.
The roads are dismal, the government employees move like slugs stuck in molasses. 5 pickup trucks arrive at a CalTrans (California State Transportation Agency) work location with 5 workers.
Sad state of affairs when the roads in Mexico are far better than in California.
Where is all that money going?
That will take a few belts of booze and several sessions to explain..................

Smoke gets in your eyes.......

We are still up here, getting ready to leave in a few days so I get the chance to sit around, sip my strong coffee and read the local periodicals.

An interesting article today about another form of freedom grabbing tactics disguised as the green squad.
Seems that you can no longer heat your house by burning wood in several parts of the state.

About 20 years ago there was a push to eliminate wood burning stoves. If you wanted a fireplace or a wood stove you had to purchase a pellet stove and feed it with special compressed wood pellets. Which were a lot more expensive than the old logs and stuff laying around your property.

Well now that could be against the law. The EPA has now joined the cause.

The smoke police can come and give you a big fine.
Your neighbor can complain if smoke bothers him.
Smoke police drive around and look for smoke emanating from chimneys.
And the expensive pellet stoves are not going to be approved anymore.

The problem is now that the cost of electricity and natural gas is very expensive combined with that a lot of people are at home because they have lost their jobs, are now being told that they can't throw a log on the fireplace to keep warm.

"It's the particulate matter we are told." So fine that it can invade your lungs and your bloodstream.

Pardon me, but I think there are a lot of more dangerous stuff that can kill you nowadays, like
Peanut Butter, Spinach, Tomatoes and something else you read about every day.

Thankfully, we heat our house in Patzcuaro with wood, a renewable resource, we don't have natural gas and if we used electricity we would have to sell a gold ingot every month to pay the CFE bill.
Not a big problem unless you don't happen to have any gold ingots.

So burn baby burn while you still can, or build a real tall wall around your home, one tall enough that the neighbor or the smoke police will not be able to detect your smoke. Naaa they probably already see your house via satellite........

And I like the smell and the crackle of the wood burning in my fireplace..........especially when you can sit down , grab a good book and enjoy a little time in the radiance of the heat.

It's the water.........or the corn.

Why does food taste better in Mexico?

We purchase our tortillas from a place in a little Colonia between the house and town. There is usually a line or at least two or three people standing in line with their plastic buckets or simply a large towel.
Sometimes the lines is all the way out into the street.

You get 1 kilo of fresh warm tortillas for about 7 pesos. They use to be half that price when we first found the place years ago.

Inflation..

The big question is how, why does the product taste so much better than the ones made in the US?
I'm not necessarily talking about the ones you buy in large supermarkets that are packaged in plastic sip lock bags, where you usually get about 15 tortillas for 2 dollars.

Even the ones that you get in a stack in a local Mexican market, just don't have the flavor that they do in Michoacan.

For that fact the chicken, the bright yellow chicken that sits out in the room temperature in the market all day with flies landing on them, the ones that bring shock to visitors from the North, not wanting to believe that it is a better product with more robust flavor.

Is it just me or is it a fact that the unadulterated not fooled with food just have a better taste?

OK, I will agree that I sometimes bothers me to see the stuff just sit out in the ambient temperature. Not as much as it did when I first saw it years ago.
But on the other hand I have never gotten sick on any of it.

I have with food purchased in a nice shiny yellow plastic tray tightly bound with clear plastic, poised on a bed of ice in the refrigerated cooler in a big supermarket in the North though. And got sick on that!

My grandmother who grew up in Russia then fled to China during the revolution always had stuff out on the counter for hours......
My wife keeps stuff out all the time also.......

There is something to be said for children eating dirt, playing outside picking up stuff and putting stuff in their mouths while they are growing up. The get some immunity to all kinds of stuff.
There is an epidemic of children in the US that has skyrocketed in the last 25 years of allergies to stuff. That transpired about the same time as "Concerned Mommies" started hovering around mandating little Heather or Jason to be careful and sterile and not touch anything.

I have been prone to less bugs and stuff since eating all kinds of food from street vendors, sidewalk restaurants and food from little old Indian ladies as they walk by the plaza.

I think it is healthier food than that stuff with lines and lines of additives that are listed on food products made by large factories.

And there's nothing wrong with leaving your eggs out either.
In the US the product can be as old as 2 months old. I can usually see the difference immediately when one egg gets broken and the white part flows out into the whole pan.

Just don't leave them out in the sun.
You do get them fresh don't you?

So much for processed food.

The only story the media is covering is the President this, President That. Why is Obama holding a press conference with a non US TV station first? More questions, too many questions, gee, the media has nothing to do but bitch about something.

Sometime they cover stuff that is old news, sometime they cover stuff that is too late. For example Peanut Butter.

Yep, big recall on Peanut Butter, Really Big Recall.

The salmonella outbreak has sickened almost 500 people around the country and is linked to seven deaths.
More than 125 products containing peanut butter or peanut paste from the Georgia plant have been recalled. The plant has been in trouble with the health department for years. Now the question is how and why the bug got in the food product.

I can only imagine.

The question comes up why would so many people buy peanut butter when fresh made peanut butter is so easy to make and is so much better for you.

First of all it doesn't contain salmonella.
If that's not enough fresh is a lot less expensive and you only need to grind what you will eat. If you have left over peanuts you can eat em.
Sounds simple.
Sound like the media needs to find another mission.
And another reason to grind your own.
Mexico has a lot of home made food.
Lots of hand made tortillas.
Salsa and Guacamole is made from scratch.
The Mexicans must have some inside information on factory made food.
Could it be because some of the employees at the factories, send inside information down on the communications pipeline?

Now I can have dark roast Patzcuaro style.

Well I found a solution to my coffee dilemma in Mexico. I purchased a table top coffee roaster, so now I can turn up the heat and get the green beans to a nice dark roast.
The table top roaster is used and only cost $ 40 bucks.
One more thing that I have now!
Now I need to find a source in Mexico for green beans.
I remember growing up in the city, walking into the grocery story, Shop Rite on Haight street, a store that had a butcher shop where they cut the meat for you, and gave you butcher paper so that I could use for school projects.

Now all you can get from a butcher is a Styrofoam platter, doesn't work as well as butcher paper for school projects nowadays.
The floors were traffic worn wooden floors, the milk containers were in bottles and some were in wax containers with a flat top and a round flap that fit in a round hole, they were in the refrigerator that had thick wooden doors with small glass windows.
One of the isles I remember had maple syrup that was in a metal can designed to look like a log cabin, it was right across the isle from the coffee. They had bins of roasted whole coffee beans and next to it they had a large bin of green coffee beans.
I guess people in the 50's roasted their own beans?
And used maple syrup in cans that looked like log cabins.
Now I need to find a source of green beans.
I think we will have to take a drive down to Uruapan. I was told that they grow coffee down there.
Now I have a mission!

My Prediction

I wonder who said that the more things change the more things stay the same?

So now the US has a new president.

He ran on basically one theme, which was "Change"

Well just getting a new president is "Change" so I guess he fulfilled his promise.

But let me predict or rather let Zoltar predict a few things.

Things will stay the same, the masses will get trampled on, over taxed, unfairly treated.

Working stiffs will support those who do not wish to contribute.
The "system" will continue to waste money like no tomorrow.
In Mexico I believe it is called El Ano De Hidalgo , the action is where the outgoing government spends like no tomorrow, burdening the new regime with all the errors and mistakes....

The new regime will spend all it's time on putting out fires.

At least the new president can walk and chew gum at the same time, while making cohesive thoughts and full sentences. We will see how the new "man" will do with speeches that are not on the teleprompter.

You may detect cynicism.
You are right. IT was caused by years of seeing spiraling actions by the"man" making things better for the folks that don't know better.

The US has " changed" and not for better in my eyes...

I think it started with a "we know better than you!", approach starting with not being allow to ride in the back of a pickup truck, then helmets for motorcycle riders, then helmets for bikes, and warning labels on everything including the warning labels.

That's one of the things I love about Mexico, at least for now....There is still personal freedom to do something even if it is stupid. If you walk down the street and fall into an open ditch, you should watch were you're going.
But in the US, it will take, renting a steel plate, dozens of warning lights, traffic cones, and signs......I think you get the picture.

Back to the pickup truck.

There just something rewarding about being able to ride in the back of a pickup truck, or maybe it 's the freedom that you can......you think? So we will get more laws to limit our own freedoms, but in the big picture, not much will change. The "man at the top" is powerless since it's all the long life grunts and corporate manipulators under him make the policies.

Too bad the founding fathers of the United States could not be reconstituted..............
But that's just my opinion.

Wake up and smell the coffee..

I never drank coffee until I was about 40 years old, never drank booze until I was about 25, tasted nasty. Both, well the coffee tasted OK with about 4 teaspoons of sugar. Then I started into Tea. At 40 we would get up on Sunday, get the Sunday paper and for some reason I started to drink the coffee.
Now I enjoy it.
Nice dark and strong.
"What do you mean you don't have any bold coffee?" Was my question as I walked into the Starbucks store. Seems that they stop brewing it after 3 in the afternoon.

Whatsdamada, can't take the buzz?

I thought the coffee was for the jolt it provides to carry one another mile?

So they offered me the brew of the day with couple of shots of espresso......not a bad substitute.

Coffee in Mexico is dismal.

Unless you have your own machine that grinds the beans, clicks and clacks, then squirts out a ribbon of coffee, you can't get a decent cup anywhere.

Not even at the two lone Starbucks in Morelia!

Believe me I have looked, chased, seeked, found and was disappointed in the swill that they deem acceptable java.

Is it just me?

I don't think so. When we travel on the road which we do a couple of times a year , back and forth up to Tucson and farther, it has come to pass that I ferry my little plug in the wall coffee maker that allows me to overfill the grind basket in order to see some black juice exit the spigot dark enough so that I would not be able to see through it.

That was brought on by a trip about two years ago, when halfway through the trip I succumbed to giving up on beige liquid in my cup being served by most so called coffee joints.

Last time we stopped by the Starbucks on the Periferico in Morelia, my wife treated me to running in and fetching the java. Returning in a few minutes, I tasted the warm water then handed her the paper cup of liquid. I said "Taste It"

She too couldn't believe that it was their "dark" blend. I was ready to call it a day, but she is much more demanding than old mellow me, (must be the age difference) returning with a new cup and a separate cup containing several shot of espresso I was finally able to at least synthesize a passable cup of Jo.

Well, maybe it's an acquired taste? Or me making up for all those lost years of no coffee.
Well, back to the paper , my coffee's getting cold.......

Global Warming?

We are here in the North Bay for a few more weeks before returning down to Patzcuaro. It is interesting to see the weather reports from all over the place. The morning yesterday dropped down to 25 degrees. But yet the daytime temperature the afternoon before was 80.

Yes it's winter, Northern California is realizing that 6 inches of rain so far is not going to help the half filled reservoirs for thirsty lawns and dirty cars.
Interesting to see the difference in car washing techniques. In Mexico it is pretty standard to fill up an old 5 gallon bucket and go to it.
Up here you see the water hose either running down to the sidewalk or if the person is really "green" they have a shut off and only use maybe 30 or 40 gallons per wash.
Maybe it has been years of living a modest life that allows Mexicans to live through out good and bad times.
It will be interesting to see what happens up here when the water drys up, will Starbucks still sell as many lattes?
Will new lawns be planted?
Will cars still get washed with running hoses?
I hope not.
But hopefully the rains will come, but that doesn't change the issues.
One of the things I enjoy about residing in Patzcuaro is how little "stuff" we buy on impulse. Shopping is done for the basics, unless you happen to visit WalMart, but even then you have to look at it and really think about if you really need it or not?
Want not, waste not! Is probably one of the best sayings that really make sense.

What a pain.....

Well... why does one keep stuff that is no longer needed?. I know why I do.
I at least have an excuse. Both my parents were immigrants and poor immigrants at that. They lived through the depression and saw the day to day life in the old country. So when my mother died, it was about two dumpster worth of stuff that she had , we threw away.
Now here in Santa Rosa, one of our employees is gone, and we are in the process of cleaning up that department, and tossing out stuff.

The sad thing is that there are perfectly good items that are being tossed out because technology has made them obsolete. Printers that are made so poorly and cheaply that instead of making them cost effective to repair you toss out the whole laser printer.
Why ?
Because you can buy a new one for about $25 dollar more than it cost to buy a replacement cartridge.

Other stuff is cell phones, perfectly good and brand new, their only crime is being passed up by the runaway freight train of popular design.
After all who want a phone nowadays that is Analog or even digital without a cameras.........ME!

I would rather have an old analog phone with nice big buttons then the new one I have now, but noooooooooo.
There is no more analog.
That format only lasted 20 years , but I guess in electronics that's several lifetimes.

About 20 years ago when the 2 way radios were changing in the US, I had a bright idea to sell the older ones in Mexico. I figured it would be a good place to sell some used equipment. Well, I did come down and even sold some, but for the most part they all wanted all the new stuff!
Even at 10cents on the dollar, they still wanted new stuff!
So much for my Mexico landmine radio business........
I still sort of do something like that now,sell some little bit dated but working equipment, but only if the equipment is no more than a few years old!



Anyway we all need to trim our taste for stuff that gets wound up in a landfill somewhere. Cleaning up the stuff here just points out that I need to start doing that personally also. After all I don't want my wife to have to weed through all the stuff.. I am sure she will just fill a dumpster with my stuff after I depart.

Why not just, not fill the house up with stuff?

I started one thing about 10 years ago. I refused to by anything for the kitchen ( and we all know how people like kitchen gadgets) unless they were multitasking. That one thing cleaned out my kitchen junk drawer immediately.

At least it's a start!

The Pepsi Girls

Reading a fellow blogger's info this morning dusted off some memories of one of my first business visits to Mexico.

One of the reasons I grew some attachment to the country and probably a reason for tipping the scales into a divorce was the freedom of expression and general "no problem" philosophy of life .

A Mexican friend of mine and I decided to make up a Rotary meeting in Acapulco. As a member of the Rotary Club you are expected to attend a meeting every week. If you are not in your normal area, you look up locations for the local meetings.

Kind of like mandatory attendance at AA meetings. Nice thing is that when you make up a meeting away from home, you are instantly greeted and made very comfortable in a foreign location. The Rotarians provide gracious hospitality to their visiting members all around the world.

Anyway, we arrived at some hotel in Acapulco where the weekly meeting was to take place. The club was small only having about 30 or so local businessmen and "wheels of the community" as members.
As we enter the room we are greeted by a half dozen bikini clad young women, aged between 17 and 23 greeting us very warmly, and placing a glass of Pepsi into our remaining hand.

Needless to say it was the Pepsi's distributors evening to provide the "program" or in this case the entertainment. This was pretty new to me, but my friend said that, such promotional activities were pretty common in Mexico.
Wow.
Ay Caramba!
Sounds like things that use to happen in the states during the Marilyn Monroe, Jane Mansfield era of the late 50's and early g0's when it was still OK to have women entertain be models for TV's sets, etc,etc... all in the interest of sensuality and sexuality. ( and advertising)

That's all gone in the states, not so in good ol'Mexico!
Morelia's Walmart still has the ElCentenario girls, plying their tequila, offering free shots of booze and skin, I was able to get my souvenir shot glass. My wife wanted one too! Like a gentleman I volunteered to fetch another one for her.
Two or three trips ago to Tacambaro, as we turn into the main street, low and behold in front of the Michelin tire store are the "Michelin Girls" , also in nice bikinis walking up to cars with refreshments for the passengers as well as the drivers !
But you only got one shot!
After all they didn't want you to drive around under the influence.....it was OK to circle the block as I noticed a Ford Lobo truck repeat it's journey.

Could you imaging the uproar if something like that was to occur in downtown Hollywood? Well, maybe not, that's a bad example lets say Cleveland.....

That's one of the things that I love about Mexico, the advertising resources.......hopefully they won't change in the next decade.

Sunny and bright, not always.

Today was a beautiful bright and sunny day in Santa Rosa, California. At least that was somewhat positive.

Memorial services are at least better than funerals.
More positive things are said at memorial services then at funerals.

I really don't care for funeral services, and don't really get real wound up on memorial services either. I've always found them to be too depressing and sometimes I get emotional. Not a good thing....

Our employee of 10 years sadly died a few days ago, he was 29. He had come to work for our company right out of high school. I saw him grow up, live, party, get married,plan for the future and fortunately I didn't see him die. That was in a hospital far away from home.

There were a lot of nice things said about him today , that said it still didn't make me feel real happy.

There was a lot of people there, probably a lot more than there will be for mine.

In the 10+ years that I knew him, he never had anything negative to say about anyone. I kind of wondered about that. Lot's of times the guys in the department would get together after hours for a brewski, things would be said, about lots of stuff, teasing of other employees and people, he never seems to participate in that part of the camaraderie.

If I had my life to live over again, I would have like to live it with his attitude and outlook on life

I admired him for his way with people, he touched a lot of people in all walks of life. He was excellent at teaching other employees the trade, some of are now befitting from his wisdom.
I found out somethings I didn't know about him, like his religious beliefs and that made a lot of things become a tad more clear.

I met his family that also came to Santa Rosa from afar for this sad day.

It is true that memorials are for the families not for for the dead.

In the middle of winter in California, things are a little bleak so to say, only nice thing was that it wasn't raining.

All the leaves are off all the trees, lots of businesses are no longer thriving, more so than I remember seeing things in the last real big slow down of the early 80's.
Quite a few empty stores and lots of for sale and for rent signs, both commercial and residential.

Several once thriving car dealerships easy to see from the freeways, where no longer there.
Empty lots stood where once bushels of cars promenaded all of which were on flooring plans.
If you think car dealers make a ton of money, just think about what it cost them every month for the interest and flooring charges for unsold cars.
I'm glad I never got into that business. Even though a lot of people told me I reminded them of a used car salesman.............

I am thrilled that pine trees don't become bare in any season, otherwise our trees in Patzcuaro would look pretty grim.

But you need leafless trees in order to have new beautiful ones emerge the next season. Probably the same reason you need death so that new beginnings will come to pass.

It's just sad that people that die young get shortchange living, but hearing the readings from the Bible today makes one understand that the departed person is on another journey to discovery.
That's not entirely bad.......if one believes in new journeys.......

The persimmon trees is full of fruit that if I don't pick will plop down to the ground and really make a big mess. My renters at the house don't seem to care for the fruit nor the mess .

Anyone want free persimmons?
They have seeds, which you could plant for a new beginning.

Should have known better......

We still have an operational telecommunications business back in California, which runs quite well without me. Or at least it did for a long time, in spite of me thinking that I was indispensable.

In order to have entities still run you need dedicated and hard working employees and staff.

One of our key employees decided to seek his eternal reward about 50 years ahead of schedule. Against his will unfortunately.

Our key employee who had been with the company for the last 10 years died last Monday in the wee hours of the morning in a hospital in Chula Vista.

Our company has come to a screeching halt.

He was our web master, data expert, problem solver, customer service expert and long time friend.

He was going to return to work on the 26th of December after a week in Puerto Vallarta.

He was airlifted out of there to Chula Vista on Christmas Day.

I talked to him on the 29th. He advised me that he was starting Cemotherapy immediately for a 4 week treatment and then it would be routine checks and his condition would be assessed.
He was diagnosed with Leukemia.
Something happened, he isn't coming back.
The company was expecting him back to be in charge of his domain.
Now we have another computer expert trying to decipher years of work, files and passwords.
He did provide a rudimentary flow chart of how the network works, IP addresses to some of the systems and my IP information to and how my phones at the house in Patzcuaro work.
That at least saved us considerable time.
We had other data emergencies before and we learned each time to operate better. Now the data EMT is documenting all that he finds so that the company is not left in a similar position again.

We learned that stuff like that needs to be constantly documented not only for the smooth operation but for hte peace of mind that we have done the right thing and not burden others with stuff that can be preventable.

We also learned of how much me relied on one person, and we learned that we miss him.
Rest in Peace.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year...Again!

С Рождествom Христова и с Новым годом

Well it's finally Christmas. Yep. One of the neat things growing up in a Russian home was that we were able to celebrate two Christmases

Kinda neat in some ways, but having my Birthday a couple of days before American Christmas was a little difficult but I made up with it because my Saints Day was on January 8th.

Russians don't have St Nick, but have Ded Maroz or Father Frost. Same idea different name. The Russians just didn't happen to make a saint out of him!

I was able to get some goodies for Russian Christmas, usually a cloth bag with an orange, some walnuts that were spray painted silver, some chocolate and a few large coins, silver dollars to be exact,

Then for my Saint Day I would have to go to church, attend mass and celebrate Holy Communion. It was a special day, the family got together on everyone Saints day .

The old Russians celebrate Holydays by the use of the old Julian calender. Our Easter follows the Hebrew Passover schedule always running after Passover. It changes every year.

The Russian Christmas celebrates the Los Reyes Magos.

In Mexico the Christmas season last a long time.

It will run until the first part of February.

The reason for the date is because it symbolizes the arrival in Bethlehem of Wise Men bearing gifts for the baby Jesus, this way the children throughout Mexico anxiously await waking up January 6 to find toys and other goodies left by the Reyes Magos (Magi).

In other parts of the world it is customary to leave out shoes where treasures may be deposited by the visiting Wise Men. Treasures ofthen like walnuts and oranges!

The season festivities and celebrations bring a special treat served on this day which is the Rosca de Reyes a crown-shaped sweet bread decorated with candied fruits.

Maybe that where the American Fruit Cake got it's origination, you think?

In the bread tiny figures of babies are hidden in the dough before baking. The excitement is when each person cuts his or her own piece, for whoever gets a piece containing a baby is obliged to throw another party on or before then next February.... , yep you got it another Holiday called Candlemas, which is on February 2, when Mexico's holiday season finally comes to an end, or so until the next Holiday which there are hundreds of, ( at least that is what some of the missing workers say is the reason they didn't show up for work, that day!)

Road Hazards

Did you ever wonder what those little piles of stuff are on the sides of the roads?

You know the ones, sometimes there are a cross festooned with flowers other times they are a little brick house with a dried out flowers or an old broken glass where a candle once warmed the mortar surrounding it.

Some people think that it is a church for tiny people, but no it is a symbol of booga-booga.

Actually it is a guilt display.

You see them at the side of roads where family members erect a pile of bricks or other objects where their once hated family member, now memorialized and adored and loved one met the grim reaper.

California as other southern bordering states are having a real problem with these little piles of stuff.
It seems that with the influx of hundreds of thousands of natives repatriating their so called birthright land. (I thought it was the Indians) , These self proclaimed highway crash test dummies who volunteer to test air bags, while in the process of killing innocent motorists or pedestrians now have a way to remind the non guilty parties of where the slaughter occurred.

The consensus seems to be that these piles of stuff are actually a road hazard.

But the "sensitive people" you know the ones, feel that it is an expression of "art" or "solace".

OK, but what about the rubbing it in your face memorial of, to the family of what some drunk driver mowed their almost graduating from high school family member who will never be seen again, which to them makes it a daily reminder of the senseless death......doesn't that matter?

In Mexico you see them almost every 1 kilometer.

In fact we have one in front of our property. This one is in memory of someone who was standing waiting for a bus ride to town, when a bolt of lightning slammed him down to the ground.
His death had nothing to do with drunk driving or anything except the law of nature.
An act of God. ( Que Milagro! ) Just an unfortunate pawn of life or in this case a ground rod in the path to eternity......

Anyway, where does one draw the line of a simple lone cross to mark the grim reaper vs the nuisance of a constructed monument becoming an attractive nuisance and drawing to the distraction of both drivers and pedestrians alike?

Some accidents are caused by rubberneckers slowing down to check some out, others by the members of the family who slam on the breaks to pull off to the side of the road to refresh the flowers in the mason jar or old Corona bottle.

One monumental problem is the drivers that drink and drive in Mexico.
In Mexico , drinking to oblivion is a Olympic event.
No one keeps a tally of the drivers or worse yet the passengers who succumb to "one for the road".

A good reason not to drive around unless absolutely necessary during the Holidays. Unless you happen to run out of your favorite bottle of booze and need to go to the liquor store.

Light a candle in Church, Pop open a bottle of the favorite Tequila at the graveside and leave the memorials off the road...........they are magnets to accidents waiting to happen and besides you should be in Church anyway.

A New Year, New Ideas...........Naaa.

One of the things I find interesting about Mexico is the thought process or lack thereof of the small businessman.

Seeing hundreds of businesses including restaurants come and go, makes me wonder if the small entrepreneur will ever learn from other peoples mistakes?

A New Year will bring new starts, for some new business here in Patzcuaro, as in other places both in small towns and large cities as well.

The sad thing is that these businessmen, (I call them as a generality) are doomed for failure before they even start.

Let me give you an example. Sushi in Patzcuaro.

Well that may be doable but who would frequent a fish restaurant first of all in Patzcuaro, knowing what I know about Mexicans, they hate the idea of beef cooked rare or even medium rare, so the idea of raw fish is even more distant than the Alpha Centauri.

Then if that wasn't enough of a reason why a Sushi dive would not survive, put it in a place that people that WOULD eat sushi (tourists) would never find it.
The entrepreneur located it behind a hard to find pharmacia , next to a barely surviving bodega.

He was there for about 6 months, and probably blew his life savings from working in some LA restaurant.

I did speak to him a month after he opened , and the two times I had been next door, his place was empty and dark, but staffed with him and an assistant.

So how would he keep a supply of absolutely fresh fish for that one person that might happen to stumble on to his open restaurant was extremely puzzling.
Even if he had located smack in the middle of the big plaza, I doubt that he would have survived.

This spark of entrepreneurship has to be commended, but what in the world makes them think that they would succeed with some many things against them? The other problem is that you can't tell them anything. After all what do you know?

Being in business is not a cake walk to begin with, someone must have told him when he was working in LA that "you should open up a Sushi restaurant somewhere"
He did.......

Almost every trip we take into Morelia there is evidence of another business opening, and another one closing.

Mexicans need more education in business management.

Maybe then they could run their business more profitably.

Like having the cashier that sits at the cash box also do the selling?

Or how about a novel idea of actually having the clerk take the money and ring up the sale.
Nope........the owner doesn't trust anyone......

Wandering around I also wonder how any of the shops make any money when they all sell the same crap. You walk down any street in the downtown area in any town, and every store is selling the same stuff, at the same price.

I will have to say it is worse in places like Mazatlan and touristy places

Then there are places like Sanbourns that sell the same stuff, only command 40% higher markups.
I can't believe that there are so many people sitting there eating at their places also.
Talk about bad restaurants...........Does anyone actually like their food?

But for some reason they are packed with people.................. Makes no sense at all.

Lots of things in Mexico make no sense and cents at all......