On The Road To Patzcuaro, Mexico......

No more Kodak Moment

2012-01-19T14:39:00.005-06:00

Awhile ago I wrote about the demise of Kodachrome. Actually it was in December of 2010, when Kodak announce they would no longer make or process any of their film.

Today they announced that they are filing for bankruptcy. I now wonder how long it will be before some other company buys them out or if they will just shut their doors.

Companies fail all the time, but you wouldn't expect a company like Kodak that has been around for over a hundred years to call it quits. Kodak folding it's tent is just another one of the many companies that have gone away because of technology. General Motors, Chrysler, Circuit City, Lehman Brothers, Blockbuster and now Kodak.
Kodak was recognized all over the world as the benchmark for most things to do with photography.

I was one of Kodak's customers for many years. Buying film, chemicals, paper and cameras and even big jumbo 30X40 inch wall prints and printed calendars.

As with many fading giants, this did not happen overnight. It took years of poor management decisions and the belief that they were too big to fail. It was a slow process, as technology passed them over, they could have been in the forefront but for some reason failed to do so.

In fact Kodak had digital technology which they invented in the 1970's, but sat on the technology thinking that it would impact it's film business......guess what it did.

In the meantime companies like Fuji where undermining their customer base with new films, cheaper prices and newer user technologies. By the year 2000 the digital camera were affordable and commonplace and film was on it's way out.

Now they are trying to pump up their bottom line with cheap printers and cheap ink, some ancillary products along with selling a lot of their proprietary patents just to keep their head above water.
Kodak shed it's workforce from 70,000 to less than 20,000 worldwide. The film business was a thing of the past and they just didn't respond fast enough to warrant the heave overhead.
I can remember when there were only a few camera companies to choose from.
It was either Kodak or Argus, unless you had lots of money and bought German or Japanese cameras, Kodak was it.
Their market share was given away to companies like Sony, Nikon and Canon took away most of the market share and in the last few years Chinese products which are marketed under various other labels like Panasonic, Casio, Pentax, Fuji and Olympus all took a bite of what could have been Kodak's market.
So now if you look at the history of technology, you can see that there is going to be a downward demand for stand alone cameras. While digital cameras now dominate consumer photography, they're also low margin products which will be replace in a few years. I myself notice that I grab by Panasonic pocket camera fewer and fewer times simply because the camera on my Iphone does a pretty decent job of snapping pictures.
In the next few years you will see more people using the smart phones, tables and other devises that have built in cameras simply because of convenience and practicability.

It's sad to see something that was so part of Americana fade away, just another lesson in having to keep up with the times and re-invent ones self.........

Adios Kodak, thanks for the memories.

Gas shortage, where?

2012-01-16T12:41:00.000-06:00

One thing that there is no shortage of in Mexico is gas stations. Unlike NOB, here there are new stations opening up all the time. Outside of Patzcuaro, on the road to Morelia, there have been working on a new station for the last 2 years at least. What it seems is that they work on it, run out of money, work a little more, run out of money, then finish it. Then wait to open it.

I never said they were put up fast, did I?
Anyway, the new station on the Hiway is huge, it opened up in November, about the same time they started working working on a new small station close to our house.

We use to go to the station on the way to Opopeo which was closer than going all the way into town to fill up. Now we have a station between the autopista and Codallos to fill up at.

In our travels around Mexico we see lots of new stations under construction. Talking with friends, the station business is a pretty decent business. So if you have 3/4 of a million bucks you can open one up down here.

They say the payback on the investment is between 4 and 5 years, or sooner depending on the tweaking of the dials which seem to be prevalent from location to location.

While on the road a few times, it has not been unusual to have some of these stations put in quite a few more liters of gas than the car seems to hold.

With the electronic age, there are lots of ways to manipulate things......not saying that any locations do that, but I do notice that some stations seem to be more stingy that others.

We will still go to Opopeo when ever we can, simply because both stations in that small town are owned by the residents. Each resident gets a check at the end of the year to their portion of the profits from the two stations in the city limit. We have always had great service at both of those locations, unlike some other places in the area.

Another day, another excuse....

2012-01-11T12:13:00.004-06:00

We have been in contact with the Honda dealer almost weekly since the crash. Today we got the news.
No fixey.
Even with the cheaper labor rates that Mexico has, they have figured out that it will not be cost effective to fix the Honda. Would have been nice if we could have been told that about 6 weeks ago.

So now, the first question in my mind were;

How long is it going to be to settle this now?
How much are they going to compensate us for the value of the car?
What shady deals are going to be appearing?
Are we going to have to hire an attorney to fight with the insurance company?

Any way we look at it, we are going to be without the car for another 2 to 3 months. Now I don't know if I am being overly pessimistic here, but based on stories of friends about the happenings with their insurance companies, I hesitate in celebrating.

So, still on with the pool, now the goal is to get a new car without having to sell the farm. The good thing is that I have no expectations one way or the other so we will see what is at the end of the so far, dark tunnel.

( That is not our Honda)

A new day, a new adventure.

2012-01-07T12:03:00.007-06:00

Got up, got dressed and saw that our caretaker had already got the pickup truck washed and ready for an early departure. It was nice breezing trough Morelia before the traffic started clogging up the streets. Since it was a Saturday and in the season, shoppers would be running around so I needed to get to GDL in order to first find the Honda dealer and get there before they closed which was 2 o'clock.

Got to the autopista in record time arrived at the motel to now load up the pickup with all the stuff (crap) from the SUV. Our pickup is the model that has seats in back but is not the full blown version you see with full cabs, so space is still at a premium, especially for 3 people and a couple of dogs.

My wife had already rearranged some of the items, into a few boxes, I brought back some large garbage bags and a few suitcases to be filled with the miscellaneous stuff. Now the pickup truck looked like something had exploded in the back, with boxes, bags and stuff askew in the back. The only thing we had in the back of the pickup bed was our luggage which we would place inside the cab when it was parked while on the road. Otherwise it was an invitation to be lifted.

My wife called the dealer and was told the directions and that they would be closing at two.
Not a problem....it was 1 o'clock as we pulled out of the motel lot.

"Ok, where did you say they were, dear?"
"He said they are by Lopez Mateos......"
"Ah....ok, which side, past it , before it. The only places I know are on Lazaro Cardenas , where all the car dealers are" I said,
"Then go there"
1:30 came and we found every other car dealer except Honda.
I had her call again and now we got that they were across the street from the big shopping center.
"Ok, which shopping center, there are two large malls, shopping centers on Lazaro Cardenas, and we drove by both?"
Knowing that it would be my fault for arriving after they closed, I stopped the first cab I found and asked the driver to let me follow him to the dealer.

Pulling up 5 minutes before two we dashed to the service desk. "Hello, we are here about our Honda that was brought in last night with rear end damage.
After giving him our name, he proceeded to click the keyboard, get up go to the other room, come back, click some more and said, " I am sorry but we don't have any Hondas that match your description or name"

First thing into my mind was, *@#, *@#($&%%) , great, never got a signed receipt, never got any kind of definite info exactly where it was going, bye bye car, let's just go and forget the whole thing.

Then my wife called the insurance adjuster.

Which dealer did you have it towed to?
Yep, we were at the right one......she told the service writer, that it has to be there, it was brought in around 8 o'clock last night.
"Hang on, let me get someone else here"

He promptly disappears , vamoose, outta-here, gone......
5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, Got offered water or coffee 4 times before he came back and said they found it.
Ok, great, what a load off my mind, so we get all the info, phone numbers, cell phone, email addresses into the system. You can call us Thursday or Friday for information of how we are going to proceed.

"In the meantime would you like to look at the new Hondas in our showroom?"
No thanks, back in the truck, back on the road, lets try this exit of GDL again.........

As we approached the caseta where all the action happened 24 hour before, I glanced in my rear view mirror to be sure that there were not any tractor-trailer rigs barreling down the road.
"Made it" this time, as we crossed and drove by the plot of highway that I had become intimately exposed to a day before. Each pit hole, each bathroom in the complex, the parking lanes, having way too much information of the location we barreled on towards the ocean.....

Uneventfully we arrived in Puerto Vallarta a day late and a Honda short, welcoming a quiet week before our friends would fly down to meet us and spend a few weeks in the uneventful Mexican coast.

Knowing that if they tell us to call on Thursday, it would be nothing different than calling on Friday or the Monday of the following week, we waited. We called, and got the information we were expecting.

"No news yet, they are still pricing out parts and the availability of them, it will be another week or so."

Saying to myself, this is going to be a long process, longer than I may have the ability to tolerate, but this is Mexico, we are all safe, and in the big picture a smashed up car is the least of my worries at this time.

The stupid incident was not going to creep into my mind for the next several weeks especially during our holidays and visits from friends.

Hopefully one last chapter to follow, maybe we will have some news......

Still on the scene after 6 hours.....

2011-12-30T13:41:00.000-06:00

So now we are all tired, cranky and since the sun went down a few hours ago, cold. The Honda was gone, traveling who knows to where, supposedly to the Honda dealership. We didn't get a receipt for the car, but hey, how could anyone lose a bashed in Honda?

We had everyone help in loading the van with our stuff. The Insurance agent and even both Federalies as well as the new tow truck driver.

The Van was loaded, the dogs were inside, La suegra, bags, boxes, gifts, run over computers and cameras, jackets, dog food, stuff from every nook and cranny of the car that we were able to get to.
We knew that we would be separated from the car for awhile if not forever and we always were told of the horror stories of cars being , violated, vandalized and stuff stolen even when under guard.

We had a few hours to formulate a plan "B", since having a rent a car was out of the question. The insurance would not pay for it and getting a reasonably sized car is not as easy as ringing up the local Hertz agency.
I decided that I would sacrifice myself and head back home to Patzcuaro.

The plan would be to pick up the truck, return to Guadalajara and reload and continue our trip. After all, we walked away from the accident, why would we ruin the plans and besides we had reservations for an beach view home on the warm coast for the holidays.

Friends were also flying down to meet us, spend a week and return home, we would continue to stay and enjoy the warmer locale.

So the plan was to drop of my wife and her mom at a motel, I would then grab a cab to the Bus Terminal and hop the bus to Morelia, there take a cab home, grab a few hours of sleep and return the next morning to continue.
However......

We had to go by the Honda dealer in Guadalajara first. Even thought the car was shuttled there we were the owners and had to let then know all the contact info and figure out the despoliation of the car.

I grabbed a cab to go to the bus station, traffic in GDL on a Friday evening at 7:30 is not the best time to try and get anywhere in a hurry, especially with bumper to bumper traffic. I knew that the buses were frequent to Morelia but the last bus was around 10. I was hoping to catch an earlier one as not to spend all night travelling.

The traffic was not moving for some reason. At this rate I wouldn't get there till 9 or so, miss the last bus to Morelia and get totally screwed up.

Luckily, the cab pulled up to the station at 8:23, I ran to the desk, was able to get one of the last two seats on the 8:30 bus that pulled out exactly at 8:30.

The only delay was me, pulling out all my crap that I had stuffed into my vest. During the exodus of the car accident scene, I grabbed, keys, cell phone, cell phone charger cords, pocket knives, pens, keys to the house,flashlight, the remote gate opener which I would need if I expected to get into our property in the middle of the night, unless I wanted to walk quite a distance from our gate to the house, all of which was stuffed in the multiple pockets of the bulging and heavy vest.

The security guy was getting a little irritated by the amount of stuff I had, but finally hopped on the bus and sat down.

The next 3 hours was the best part of the day, nice comfortable bus, fairly quiet the only annoying thing was the video screen which seemed very bright in an otherwise dark coach, flashing scene to scene.

I probably didn't get more than about an hour's rest, but still happy to be in one piece and breathing, sans neck or bone damage.

The bus pulled in on time, I grabbed the cab and in the back of an speeding careening cab, I knew that my life would come to an end that day in-spite of the earlier accident.

I was having pictures in my mind of the cab in flames as he hit a wet spot on one of the many curves on the highway between Morelia and Patzcuaro. I had survived the day but would be in a twisted mass of a taxi.....

I don't mind driving fast, but going 110 to 120 km an hour in an old cab at 1 AM on crappy highway was not my idea of safe travel.

After a few more minutes we arrived, I was home, in one piece and alive....the world is good.

Our caretaker and his wife came and asked why I was there?

I told him to have the truck ready for a 7 am departure, now I would try and get a few hours sleep......

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T11:26:00.001-06:00

Merry Christmas!
Feliz Navidad!

Stuff in the car.... then even more stuff.

2011-12-18T09:06:00.001-06:00

Hello My name is Tancho and I am a packer.......

One of my weaknesses is that I pack the car to extremes. This probably comes from years of crossing the border, waiting for the green light to glow like a warming smile, welcoming me to bring down useless bobbles and trinkets only valuable to me.....

I learned to pack the car from necessity. When we were building the house I use to bring down stuff from hinges to electrical circuit breakers, lamp sockets to radio links used to control our multiple attempts of water to pump controls over the years.

I learned to utilize every little nook an cranny of the car. From the small areas between the fold down seats to the spaces underneath the seats and next to the car jack storage places was occupied with parts or items.

One of my times that I was unfortunate to get the red light years ago, the agent gave up as I kept taking stuff out of the car.....they allowed us to continue with the aid of some spare change for a refresco.

This packing syndrome turned against me sort of with being rear ended.

I was pretty proud of utilizing all those tiny spaces in the car. Since we were leaving for multiple weeks with family and friends to entertain. My favorite libations, refrescos and items like bitters and special ice cube trays would make my life more enjoyable.

Since we were meeting friends from NOB, there were small trinkets and gifts that were packed for filling their stockings that would end up being hung with care at their prospective haunts.

Our car is not a large SUV but Honda classifies it as a mid SUV.

About 20 seconds after the flying shards of glass rested down around the roadway, clothes and places unimaginable, my thoughts came to my carefully packed items.
Crap.....

First of all their was no way except a cutting torch or the jaws of life to open the rear hatch of the car. It almost looked like the rear was one cast piece of metal and I know that it was going to be almost impossible to retrieve a lot of the stuff.

In fact as I mentioned before , in my positive denial of the situation, I had thought that a simple crowbar prying would release the crumpled rear of the car against the tire allowing us to proceed someone impaired but manageable to get back on the road quickly.

I was wrong.

We also had the realization that somehow, a fully packed SUV with two dogs, three adults with suitcases, coolers, provisions would be easy to transport to our next destination.

I also knew that we would have to spend the night in Guadalajara one way or another.

I also knew that all that stuff would not fit into one of the normal small subcompact tiny teeny weeny cabs.
We probably had enough stuff to fill three of those vehicles.

One of insurance guys sprung to attention and said he had a friend who had a van that would take us to the hotel for the night.

In the meantime we were still in limbo, not knowing if we were going to have our car and the tractor trailer impounded since our insurance didn't want to assume the command and take control.

We couldn't believe that this story was unfolding the way it was. We had done everything right. Had valid insurance, had a licensed driver operating the vehicle, and we even paid for the toll.

How could it be possible that our car would be impounded along with the perpetrator of the accident. Why would we have to be inconvenienced even more by not even having our car repaired and items replaced?
Why would we have to stay in Guadalajara, go to the Public Minister to have to prove the cost of the car, provide the original bill of sale, provide all the original bill of sales for the damaged items.

Why should we have to be available to multiple appointments to have to justify all of those things?
"Because that is how the procedure works in Mexico" Was the input from everyone, from the insurance guy to the police....

Impossible......that just doesn't sound right......so I called our insurance agent.

They said, they were helpless. We had to go by what the agent or the adjuster told us.
At this point he was trying to weasel out of the responsibility which we assumed was part of the insurance process.
( Now I know why most of our Mexican friends don't have insurance and laugh at us for spending our money buying insurance.)
I asked if a rental car was part of the policies benefits.

"Only if you purchased that option was the answer"......Gee thanks, I guess that answer is NO.

So at this point we had hovered around the car for 3 or 4 hours. We found out that we were only about half way trough our nightmare.

It was about then that I notice liquid dripping out of the rear of the car. On the positive side I knew it was not the radiator leaking.
In my packing I had packed a few bottle of our favorite tequila. Couple of one liter bottles of a new refresco that I had been turned on to by a friend in Mazatlan, some bottles of Tonic water, and a few bottles of regular water. They were all in a place that prevented me from retrieving any of them. I am sure that the auto body guys will probably have a great lunch time when they pry off the rear hatch....

It was time for the tow truck to be called. The insurance guy called. They showed up about 15 minutes later. One for the truck that hit us and one for us.
The only problem is that truck for our car was a regular tow wrecker. The Honda needs to be towed on a flat bed trailer type truck.

I doubled checked the owners manual and verified that fact.

I told the driver of the truck that. He kept working on adjusting his truck to hook up our car.
I told him again that the car had to be towed on a flat bed truck....because the drive train would be damaged.

He kept readying the carriage to hook up.

Could it be my Spanish was not good? I told my wife to tell him that he could not tow the vehicle that way. Same response....

He kept readying it, lowering the boom, adjusting the hooks to match the location of the tires.

What? How hard is it to understand that they need the flat bed truck?

Finally I told one of the policemen that I wanted him to stop the guy from hooking up and he went over to him and told him, just as he was sliding his body under the front with a chain and big hook.

Great , that's all we need, they get the car to be fixed, only to find out that after it's repaired we will have drive train or transmission issues because some lackey doesn't get it, that some cars cannot be towed that way.
He stopped after the policeman talked to him.

So now we having to wait for the flat bed truck to come. In the mean time we are starting to remove any and all the stuff from the car that we can get out. Our bags, tool box, boxes of dog food, clothes, gifts that we were bringing for our friends.
Keys, miscellaneous items like flashlights, gate openers, books, sunglasses.......you get the picture.

It was about that time that the insurance man came over and said that we could tow the car to the Honda dealership, since the owner of the truck somehow came up with either an insurance policy or bond of some sort. Neither vehicle will have to be impounded.

That was good news, because Mexican impound lots have the reputation of being used car parts depots.
We told the new tow truck operator to take it to the Honda dealer. The insurance adjuster told us that we needed to go to the dealership and make arrangements to have them check out the vehicle tomorrow.

More to follow.....

2011-12-10T07:54:00.000-06:00

So, we all got out of the car and within a few seconds several people ran up to us to ask us if we were ok.
Dazed and disoriented we all looked at each other to see if we had any cuts or bruises, whiplash or such. A few minor cuts and scratches from the flying glass. For some reason the glass that exploded into gazillions of small pieces was super sharp and splintery.
I have had my windows broken before and have never before scene that glass have so many tiny slivers. Perhaps because it was very dark tinted side windows and special tempered rear hatch , I can't say.

Anyway I started assessing the damage figuring that we had minimal damage, after all we were on our way to the coast for some warm weather and vacation, so to speak.
I am one of those guys that usually can fix anything with duct tape, some plastic and a few hits of the hammer, with that we could just hobble to our destination.T before I noticed that the whole rear end of the car was pushed into the left back tire causing it to be somewhat immobile.
Not an easy fix, this car isn't going anywhere.

The first person to arrive was the toll taker who asked if we were ok and handed me my change from the 500 peso note and the toll receipt. I had completely forgotten that I was due change in the excitement. In retrospect I should have asked for a refund since we never exceeded more than 25 meters from the toll booth........dream on.....

After about another minute there appeared several medics and a Qualitas Insurance agent or at least he was wearing their logo on his long sleeved shirt. He immediately said that the Auto Pisa insurance would cover the damage and wanted some basic information.

Then a few minutes later someone came over and handed me my computer case. I had taken a cursory look at the contents of the car but hadn't notice that my computer case was missing.

Having the case returned was pretty positive especially when you know that they could have kept it pending primary examination returning it later less a few items. I usually have all my important stuff in it, camera, chargers, Kindle etc, and some peso stash in one of the zipped compartments.
Upon opening up the case my heart stopped a beat.

What I saw first was my Panasonic HD camera flattened out a tad, with the screen showing a zillion cracks in it and the battery door completely missing. On the case were also the telltale signs that it had hit the dirt and was covered in road and asphalt dust.
Looking at the case further there were holes in the ballistic nylon which appear to be made from dragging on a rough surface. My Vaio laptop turned on, which was reassuring, next I checked my Kindle, that seemed to work, so at least the damage was minimal.

My wife was talking to the Insurance guy I was summoned to the Caseta and shown that under the rear tires of the trailer which was still stopped peeking out about 35 feet from the booth, laying under those rear tires were several plastic bags with distinctive green and red color bands of the Christmas season bags that Liverpool uses. Those happened to be a few of the bags that we had just purchased and placed inside the back area of the car.
They said they would move the truck when the police arrived and also handed me miscellaneous items that were in various little cubicles around the front console.
Stuff like, keys, business cards, pens and the garage door opener remote, change,note pads, old autopista receipts and basically anything that was in the front of the car.

All that stuff flew out all the way from the front of the car, through the window (which disintegrated) and landed outside the car some of which was still underneath the wheels of the trailer.

After about 5 or 10 minutes the Federal Police showed up and introduced themselves and asked if we were OK, asked what had happened and asked for my drivers license and car registration and papers.
I handed over the items and his partner went to talk to the driver of the truck.

A few minutes later he returned and asked us for our insurance papers. It was at that time that he said the driver was not insured and that he would pay us in cash for the damage to the car.

Ok, but how do we know if and what the damage is at this point?
He said give him an amount and think of how much you want for the car and the damaged contents.

He also mentioned that the driver had no license.

Great, no license , no insurance. We had already called the phone number on our car insurance packet and had talked to the customer service people. They said that the adjuster will be there in 40 minutes.

The time was 11:20

We were still parked in the lane of traffic and after the police took a few photos of the damage, they asked us to move over to the right side of the road so the Caseta lane could be reopened.

While the tractor rig was moving I was summoned over to where the various bags and items were and was asked to pick up "my Stuff" off the road.

I figured that all would be resolved, after all, we had insurance, I had a drivers licenses after all, how bad could it get.....The important thing was that we were OK, the doggies were a little shaken up from flying around the car, but aside from one side air bag , broken glass, the car being about 2 ft shorter, we were OK.

The I learned the "Process" in Mexico is different. How different it is, especially when the other guy has no insurance. What happens is that our insurance company doesn't want to do much for us, unless we rally and help negotiate to get the guy to pay for the damage.
Huh? I thought that all I need was my insurance, get the car fixed or get a replacement car, they pay for a rental car, we are all happy campers.
Nope......
What happened next was that for the next 6 hours, we were on the side of the road, having the Federallies on our side, asking us if we wanted to have the truck impounded and having it held until we got paid. The insurance guy meanwhile was figuring out how to get the guy to come up with money so they wouldn't have to pay, after a few hours, what they came up with was an unacceptable solution.
There was standoff. The only way it was going to be settle was by the Local Minister of something. It would take court dates, appointments, we would have to find all the paperwork for everything that we were claiming that was damaged, to prove of our loss. In the meantime the were going to impound our car and the tractor but not the trailer.
Well if they release the trailer, we loose our bargaining chips, in my mind....the Federallies agreed.
It was about 3 o'clock when the owner of the trailer showed up and wanted the load.
The Federallies were not going to see that happen. but it was also time that they were at the end of their shift.......

More to follow........................next chapter soon.

So much for a stress free getaway.

2011-11-27T13:30:00.003-06:00

We usually try to head out to "The Beach" when it get's a little chilly here, try to beat the hoards of tourists flocking down from the North, before all the crowds come, so on and so forth.

I usually pack the SUV with all the little things, in all the nooks and cranny's with stuff for the trip.
I never consider the possibility of having to leave the SUV because of repairs or stuff, so when it came to the occasion to have it towed to a car dealership, that would prove that my "packing" was a little overboard.

Ok, why do we need the car towed, you might ask?

Well, about 20 km from Guadalajara at the first Caseta, I stopped and just finished handing my pesos to the attendant only to hear a loud truck air horn followed, immediately by a loud crash with flying glass and contents of the dash board storage spaces all over the car.

(for those of you not familiar with the word Caseta, it is the cashiers toll both at the beginning of a toll road or AutoPista)

Our car was catapulted about 40 ft past the Caseta, luckily the attendant had just activated the arm to let the car through otherwise I probably would have to be paying for the crossing arm repair.

We got rear ended, by a tractor trailer truck whose brakes had supposedly failed.

We were all OK, the dogs were scared as they were tossed about inside intertwined with all the loose crap in the back..Packages of stuff we had purchased while at the mall in Guadalajara.

The plan was to meet some family and friends who would fly down for their extended Thanksgiving Holiday, they would fly back mid week, we would stay for a few more weeks.

Plans change.
Crap!

This story is going to be in chapters, since there are several episodes way too long to go into in one writing.

The chapters will be:

What happens when you get rear ended while stopped
How the law of physics cause stuff to fly out of the car and get run over by the truck that hit you.
What happens when the Mexican driver has no insurance
What happens when the Mexican driver has no license
How good is Mexican Insurance when the other guy has none.
How insurance is different from US when the car is totalled.
How useless the Auto Pista insurance is
How to hop the bus, go back home and grab the pickup truck to cram the contents of an SUV, people and dogs.
What would tourists do if their car got damaged while down in Mexico
General discussion of the pain in the ass situation
How courteous and accommodating the Mexican Federalies were.

Right now I am sitting on the beach thinking about how lucky we were and how lucky we are.
More to come.....

A Sunday Ritual, or Cram the Family in the car and let's go....

2011-11-21T08:18:00.006-06:00

Yesterday was a beautiful day, nice high billowing bright white clouds, temperature was in the mid 70's and we have a visitor, so perfect time to take a road trip.

We usually like to take a road trips on Sunday.

So does 90% of Mexico.

We decided to run West to Uruapan, I needed a few items that would or should be found at HD.

When we got there their parking lot was full.
I mean full.

There is a unpaved lot between the Soriana store and Home Depot were I parked, starting a new row.
When I exited the store there were at least 25 cars that had followed my lead and parked in the adjacent unbuilt parking area which at some point in time will be some more stores.

They had a great assortment of Christmas trees and their decorations department was pretty impressive. Maybe next year I will go all out and decorate the outside of house with lights and stuff. This year only the Santa Fe Style luminarias will be lighting the path....

As I walked past the greeter who was handing out their latest sale propaganda I notice that the store was packed.
I would have to estimate that there were at least 300 to 400 people milling around in the store. That would be a conservative estimate on my part since I didn't take pint sized bodies in motion as a full count.

These millers about were comprised of, couple of kids that were running back and forth as the parents strolled leisurely down the various isles. One out of 5 or 6 family strollers units had a grandmother or grandfather in tow.

The store has only been open for 4 or 5 months already it is a destination amusement park.
My observation comes from the fact that although the place was jam packed, 90% or more of the attendees where their to look, to enjoy the sights, to see how many times they could open the door of the new LG double door stainless steel fronted frost free refrigerator before they would attract the attention of the clerk.

I surmise this simply because although there were 4 cash register positions available, 2 of them had no shoppers in the transition of becoming buyers.

In fact the several time that I had been there during the week, I usually was number 3 or 4 in line at the registers. Yesterday I sailed through, well actually sailing is a poor word for that.

I kind of oozed through, only being slowed down by having to answer questions such as if I wanted to donate to some cause or another or whether I wanted to use my Home Depot card or if I didn't, did I want to sign up for one?

That being the interruption I was in and outta there in a flash.....now only one more hurdle before being set free from the incarceration of the Big Box Store......The Security Checkout.
I will never for the life of me understand the logic of having staff wallow through you bag 9 feet from where the damn stuff was just put in your bag.

If it is my bag and my stuff than they should have no right to look,touch or feel my STUFF.

That was the only hesitation of the shopping experience and even that was not that bad since both nicely uniformed checkout Nazis were not busy and did their mandatory baggie raid with a rapid rubber stamp on my "papers".....

So, now you know why the lot is filled, it is will lookers not shoppers and don't be intimidated by going there on a Sunday other than an occasional wandering child bumping into you or the sauntering grandma not getting out of the way of a buyer who has a mission and directive to accomplish the task without making a family excursion.

The only thing that would make this Home Depot more Mexican is if they installed a kiddy ride or blow up bounce trampoline center and a comida corrida counter in the corner.......

Getting ready for the cold.

2011-11-13T13:14:00.000-06:00

I have mentioned that we have planted ourselves here because of the climate. I love the ocean and beach, but I don't love the 85-98 degrees with humidity making you have to stay inside with the AC running.
You have all heard the saying " you can always put on more clothes, but you can only take off so much"

We picked this area plopped down in the Sierra Madres because of it's climate.

So we can put on a sweater or go to long sleeve shirts when we exit the house, which makes us comfy again.

Inside the house is another story.

We don't have any AC here, not that we need it, but we also don't have any heaters.

We have 3 fireplaces and the fireplaces need food.

A renewable resource to all the greenies.

We got the food supply for them today.

December, January and February are the coldest months here. Those are also the months that thoughts of warm beaches and swaying palm trees appear to dance in our heads.....

We are only about 3 to 4 hours away from the nice warm coast of Mexico.

Playa Azul is a sleepy little coast side village or Zihuatanejo is another place although not as sleepy. We are thinking about zipping westward for a getaway sometime soon.

Then there is Ixtapa if you really don't want any sleep at all and all that action makes you have to have daily trips to the ATM machine.

Anyway, we had our firewood delivery today. So now we can toss a few sticks into the fireplaces to keep from wearing multiple layers of clothing inside for the next few months.

It kind of reminds me of the old saying, water , water everywhere but not a drop to drink. We have acres of trees, but it is sugarpine, which clogs up the chimney like you wouldn't believe......

A national disgrace

2011-11-11T12:01:00.000-06:00

As I sit here in relatively comfortable surroundings this Veterans Day, I am saddened by what I keep reading and seeing in how our government screws over the Veteran.

Without getting into a lot of negative things here, you can do various searches and see that being a Veteran is not the most easy thing to accept, especially of the lack of respect and support for the returning Veterans. The lack of ongoing support, such as mental health and related symptoms and conditions which were caused because of active duty is a disgrace.

We ask these people to sacrifice their families, their well being, their livelihood and finally their lives.

The ultimate sacrifice that they didn't ask for.

The sad thing is that many veterans that return, the ones that have wounded either physically or mentally have very limited resources to fall back on.

Here we sit enjoying the benefits of their sacrifices while they come back sometimes becoming homeless, because of circumstances beyond their control and find very few avenues for real help.

I heard about an organization about two years ago that helps the returning Veteran, especially the ones that have lost an arm or a leg or even more. The organization is called Wounded Warrior Project.

I have heard about the good things this organization does and how important some of their programs are.

I urge you to go to their web site and make a donation which will provide some assistance to a person who you don't know, other than they made a sacrifice that we all benefit from.

It doesn't' matter if you are for or against the wars that our government seem to push us into, all that matters is that these people understand that there are people around to support them when then need it.

Next time you see a person in uniform, take a minute to thank them for their service. I guarantee you, you greeting will be received graciously and your thanking them will also make you feel proud to have them representing our lives and country.

If you are able to make a donation please do so. If not, just thank the next Veteran you see!

Thanks for your attention.

One of my favorite times of day

2011-11-07T07:29:00.000-06:00

I have two times of day that I enjoy more than any other times.

The first is early in the morning when all is quiet, except for the rooster now and then, the sunlight trying to peek in between our tall pine trees as the sun comes up from the east.

The other time is the late afternoon, when the sun is illuminating the south side of house.

The south side is the side where our entrance is.
It is all so the side where the road winds it's way up from the highway, allowing cars and trucks to bounce and creak as they traverse the cobblestones which we had embedded into the dirt 15 years ago.

It seems that maybe in a year or two we will need to have someone reset the stones, each year it is become less and less "smooth" as we had when they first got inserted one by one into the fertile soil we have.

The other reason I love the afternoon sun is that we can sit under the tile overhang, enjoy the setting sun and bask in the remaining warmth the rays have to offer. But the real reason is the view I get as the rays break through the tall pine needles casting an welcoming hand inviting someone to drive up to our home.

The photo doesn't do justice to the scene.

Well, since I was in town anyway.....

2011-11-03T09:09:00.007-06:00

I decided to walk around the plaza tianguis one more time.
After all it is a great place to find some nicknack's to send up to friends for Christmas presents and have a few stashed away in the closet for when someone comes down for a visit.

There were still quite a few people around yesterday, parking was difficult so instead of driving around looks for a free space I decided to spend 10 pesos an hour for a "bought" space.

I arrived early as some of the vendors were just starting to unwrap their items, so I decided to grab some breakfast at one of the local eateries around the plaza.
Most of them were quite busy which necessitated walking around to find one that would fetch a meal before lunch. I found table outside that appeared to be ready to vacate and perched myself close to it, ready to pounce on it as soon as any movement of the patrons appeared.

Within a few minutes I was comfortably seated ready to order something to eat.

I waited, I played with my electronics distraction device for a few minutes. I watched our local tourist trolley fill up with a few bodies to tour the traffic and downtown streets.

I observed numerous tourists look dismayed that more tables were not available.

I tried to listen in to no avail as a family of local Indians talked amongst themselves, not picking up one single word that I could understand.

After about 15 minutes the waiter appeared and I was lucky enough to get his attention and place my order.

I have noticed that during the busy times of the year, both during the Day of the Dead and Semana Santa, when hordes of people dissent on the town, none of the restaurateurs seem to expand their service staff buy any noticeable margin. All that happens is the services gets really slow to the point of where I see people get up and leave.

You would think that if they were able to turn the tables faster it would more than make up for the additional staffing costs.

But that is not the way of logic here.

My Cafe Americano ( Regular Cup of Coffee) , Fresh Orange Juice and Uchepos arrived. Once the order was placed I was surprised that it arrived fairly fast.

For those of you who do not know what Uchepos are, the are small tamales of corn, which are about 5 inches long, the insides are sweetened corn, topped with fresh crema and Cotija cheese. This is one of my favorite "small" breakfast items that I order when I find them on menus at places.

I enjoy sitting in the plaza watching people ambling around, some faster than others, some with purpose others without destination. I usually get to do that 2 or 3 times a week.

Luckily it is not an expensive proposition. Going to a sidewalk cafe NOB would require quite a stash of reserve funding. Here my small breakfast set me back a whole 65 pesos including the tip. This is equal to about 4 dollars.

This was a tad expensive, only because I had 3 items. Usually I have my fruit plate and coffee at another place which runs me a more affordable 45 pesos with tip or about $3.25.

I imagine the vendors will keep their tables and stalls through this weekend, only to maximize the selling time. In the past few years tourism has been down due to the medias overplaying the "crime" in Mexico. I spoke to a few of the vendors and they all were fairly happy of their business volume this year. Hopefully they will make some more income through the end of the week.....

Another year, another Katrina

2011-10-31T07:21:00.010-06:00

I can remember vividly last year the people and the rain overflowing the sidewalks during the DOD celebrations and market.

I usually don't go into town on Sundays but yesterday being an exceptionally nice day, mid 80's and hearing that there were lots of merchants at the plaza I decided to break my rules and go.

Traffic was backed up as I expected, I inched my way down towards the plaza figuring that I would find a parking space within a few blocks, but luck would have it I car pulled out just as I was mid block at the plaza.

Must have been in the cards to venture down to check things out I figured.

Walking around the plaza and looking at the vendors I noticed that this year there were many more vendors than last year and about 25 % more than two years ago.

If you remember two years ago it was just about that time that the papers were full of stories of violence and killings and the economy was not stellar.

This year there were a lot of people, vendors squeezed where they have never had tables before and the one street that is blocked off for the artists and jewelry was packed with so many vendors that it was difficult to walk past them without almost stepping on their display blankets which were covered with their wares.

I spoke to a few of the vendors and they all were pretty happy with the amount of people and sales that they were experiencing.

There were plenty of new vendors which I have not seen in past years and plenty of old time ones that have occupied the same location for many seasons.

One thing which was different again this year, only being the second year is that they allowed was that a lot of food vendors were set up on one of the streets, taking up half the car lane with their carts and benches which I noticed were doing a brisk business.

Restaurants on the periphery were all busy, bringing back much needed money and business to the local economy.

All in all I would say this was the largest and most populated DOD I have seen in my 15 years of coming to the massive celebration.

I did purchase a few items from several vendors who were displaying their items for the first time at this venue.

My only criticism would be that they should have some off site parking available with shuttle service to allow more efficient flow of traffic and allow people to enjoy the event without the bottlenecks and hassles of parking.

If you haven't experienced the celebration, you should make plans to check it out someday.

I think I will by pass running into town until the crowds go home. Got plenty of stuff to do around the house.

One Potato, Two Potato....

2011-10-26T17:23:00.003-05:00

Well it was time to cut the tops of the plants down. That was done yesterday.

Now they will stay in the ground, for about another 2 to 3 weeks and unless it rains everyday for the next 10 days, we will have a potato crop worthy of filling a few pickup trucks.

Last season we had cabbage in this section the season before calabasitas or zucchini squash. The land on top of our property had potatoes last and we can't plant them up there for at least two or three seasons in the same place.

Crop rotation it's called.

Hopefully since this piece of land is closer to our house we won't get hijacked like last potato season.

Someone in the middle of the night went and raided about 25 % of the crop. That equalled a full pickup truck load or more.

Our worker went up the next morning and discovered the robbery. We got a hold of the local law and they figured out who done it.

They confiscated all the potatoes, found the culprit and retrieved the pesos, we got a few pesos back and we never heard what ever happened.

Guess the law had quite a few kilos of potatoes to enjoy for a few months or more.

Strange nobody ever stole our zucchinis or cabbage....just potatoes.
Must be good taters.

Looks like zucchini will be taking that location in a few weeks, we can be certain that no one will want to steal zucchinis.

Not much different down here as it is in the states....no body wants to steal zucchinis up there either, in fact you can't give those things away.

Sugar and Transportation, Life in Mexico.

2011-10-24T16:17:00.008-05:00

I had to go to town today to drop of some papers for the importation of a pickup truck. Based on the number of questions I see around, I will write up the summary of the process and experience when it is finished.

Today the papers were dropped of and the will be ready to continue the process in a few weeks....so I was told.

On the way back, I stopped by to snap a few pictures of the sugar candies and counters that are subsidized by the Mexico Dental Association.

I was also reading today that NOB there are a few dentists that are offering to buy back the trick or treat candies from the kiddies for a few bucks a pound.......interesting, I wonder what the motivation is, could it be better healthy patients in later life?

Not sure, but the candy tables took up one whole block on the large plaza. The vendors and busy shooing bees and fly's away and painting the candies at the same time.

While returning back to the house, I snapped a picture of Patzcuaro's latest transportation system.

The kid was perched on his knees on the back bumper of the pickup truck as I followed him for at least 2 km, up the hill and finally got to his stop where he kind of jumped off while running and tried to catch his balance and momentum.....

Can you see the police haul off the driver of that truck NOB, I sure can......he would be locked up
for child endangerment.

Gotta love Mexico.

It's that time of year again

2011-10-19T23:07:00.000-05:00

Dropping of my wife this afternoon for her hair appointment, I noticed the workers setting up again for the big event of the year.

The big tents and awnings where sitting on the ground, ready to be hoisted by Mexican-man power.

No power equipment or mechanical assisted winches or pulleys allowed. Once the have the canvas stretched onto the metal frame they call the crew over and about 10 of these guys simply lift it while another bunch stick the side poles up and into the frames..
That's how it's done........period.

Our little Patzcuaro is the town where hoards of people dissent, unabashed to bring needed pesos into little Patzcuaro.

Bringing tourist dollars and filling up all the local hotels and B&B's.

Perfect time to stock up on stuff and hide out for a week or so. Stay away from the crowds, I say.

I noticed a few days ago the sugar vendors had set up shop under the arches on several of the buildings on the Big Plaza.

Can't have too much sugar for all the kiddies and adults you know.

Nothing like chomping down on a sugar skull and crossbones for a motivational sugar high. eat the sugar today, get the diabetes going sooner.
Wash it down with Coca Cola, Mexico is one of the few places that still uses real sugar, none of that corn syrup stuff.

Maybe I will snap a photo or two of the sugar junkies before the town fills up.
Maybe not......

Come on Down................

2011-10-13T08:07:00.008-05:00

For Sale House $130K USD..........

As I scanned the news this morning this hit my eye. Get ready for a deluge of gringos wanting the good life that you in Ajijic have.......I can't wait to see them take over the lake.

What will be next, dinner cruises, water skiing championships sponsored by Viagra, wheelchair races, with the 1st prize being a "help I have fallen and I can't get up pendant" ???

Somehow, I don't think they will come, after all it's not that easy to leave the family, the constant bureaucratic paperwork, the nickel and dime taxation...or is it?

Here it is, from US World New and whatever..

Top Expat Community Pick #1: Ajijic, Mexico. Ajijic and the area around Lake Chapala, Mexico, hosts the most organized, developed expat community in the world. The Lake Chapala Society reports about 4,000 American and Canadian residents in Chapala proper. The Mexican government, meantime, estimates that nearly 20,000 expats reside full-time in the state of Jalisco, the region where Lake Chapala sits.

In other words, the path has been cut. Moving here, you could slide into a way of life not dramatically different from the life you left behind in the States. You wouldn't have to worry about learning the local language if you didn't want to. You wouldn't have to work to make a place for yourself among the local community, because this isn't a "local" community. This is an entire community of nonlocals. You could wander into the restaurant down the street anytime and find English-speaking companionship, someone to complain to about the bureaucracy at the Department of Immigration or the challenges of studying to take a driving test in Spanish. Retiring to Ajijic, you could make a very comfortable life for yourself in a place that's exotic, beautiful, safe, and very affordable.

Friends who have taken this path live comfortably on less than $50 per day (U.S. dollars), including housing, food, transportation, entertainment, and in-country travel. They eat well, play tennis, socialize, and travel comfortably. As they put it themselves, they want for nothing.

Don't misunderstand. Ajijic isn't a retirement village. This isn't Sun City South, at least not formally. This is a legitimate Mexican town that, over the past three decades, has attracted such a volume of foreign retirees that it's become less Mexican and more foreign resident-friendly.

Maybe there is something for me being isolated on top of a 8500ft mountain overlooking the Lake Patzcuaro devoid of street signs and anything in English....

Slight of Hand

2011-10-06T11:48:00.000-05:00

We drive around a lot. For this driving I get to experience a lot of different classes of services.

From the window squeegee guys, to the great Pemex service attendants that go out of their way to help you, wash the windshield, check the oil, put air in the tires.

For some of you, you have never experienced that kind of service at a gas station. Trust me, that was common up unto about 25 years ago in the states. In Oregon it still was awhile ago, but I am sure that law has been changed.

But in Mexico the attendants do just that. Some times the stations are also filled with other unwelcome attendants.
It is hard to admit that Tancho got taken, especially since I look out for such things. But a few days ago in Tepic, I got taken or almost. But this time I learned my lesson the hard time and it will be the last time......I promise.

The attendants let vendors hound you selling all kinds of stuff. Nuts, candies, gum, pirated DVD's and CD's, caramel, sandwiches, tortas, tamales and the list goes on and on.

At this gas station I have been a mark before. But last time I wasn't sure.

"THE WINDSHIELD WIPER SCAM"

I always buy a new set of wipers before the rainy season, so my wipers were 6 to 9 months old, tops.

I also don't buy the cheapest ones, usally will get Bosch or other middle to high end ones at AutoZone.
My attention was diverted for about 5 seconds by the gas attendant and that was all it took.

Booth Wiper arms were moved away from the windshiled and the guy was pointing to some trailing rubber hanging about 6 inches from each blade.

KRAP ( actually it was something a lot more profound) were the words out of my mouth!

What the scam is, that while they move the windshield arm away from the window they will slice about 6 inches of the trailing edge of the blade, leaving it hang to point out to you that you need to purchase their new blades.
"You need new blades"
"Especially since it is raining down the road towards Guadalajara"
Gee, thanks for the weather report.

Knowing that I had just used those blades earlier on in the morning and they were in perfect order pissed me off even more.

So now he wanted to sell me two wipers for only 240 pesos......what a deal.

After getting home and after stopping by at our Morelia Auto Zone to purchase a set of wiper blades I checked out the rubber with a magnafying glass. And sure enough you can see the uneven edge where it had been sliced.

Gotta hand it to him, he was fast.

So now, I think I will have to jump out of the car to avoid them handling the wipers or better yet, switch gas stations. I have only had this problem at this perticular one.

There are tons of scams that gas attendants can do. One popular one for unobservant travlers is to hand the money over to them, for lets say 750 pesos.

One of the bills would be a 500 peso note, the guy grabs the money and then looks at you, saying he needs more money. He then shows you that the 500 peso note you handed him was actully a 50 peso note.

So you fork over another 500 to him and he thankfully returns that 50 peso note. not in question.

Never hand them all the money in a lump sum. Period.

Hand over note over note while counting to them. That will eliminate that scam.

What I normally do is always have 200 peso bills because that's what most of the ATM's spit out, and count them to them one by one.......

Man's best friend.....

2011-10-01T23:11:00.003-05:00

You were probably thinking it was one of my dogs.....
Ok, how about man's second best friend.

Today we drove over to Uruapan for me to check out the brand new Home Depot store.

What's the big deal, you already have a Home Depot in Morelia.

No, that really isn't the same.

That store was actually built as a HomeMart store, and size and inventory wise doesn't' hold a candle to the new store in Uruapan.

Previously my only other experience to Home Depot stores was in Mazatlan where we would stop and buy up stuff needed, or sometimes even not needed.

But today it was different. First of all because the had all their Christmas stuff out already and you could park within 30 meters of the front door.
Somthing which is impossible at the Morelia store unless you get there around Midnight when the store is closed.

Small store, small parking lot, shared with WalMart and a whole bunch of other stores. And going to Morelia from Patzcuaro is longer than us going to Uruapan.

Anyway the new Uruapan store was stocked to the gill with inventory. The bins were full of pretty much all their inventory items. That is something I seldom see in Morelia.

If I want 3, 3/4 inch hose bibs in Morelia, they usually will only have one and usually the same is true for other items that I am looking for.

Not enough concrete wall anchors of a particular size or 3 of a shelf bracket that I need 8 of.
Here the bins were all full.

And I didn't need anything today.

Story of my life.

The Road Goes On Forever

2011-09-29T19:17:00.010-05:00

"The Road Goes On Forever" are the lyrics to a favorite song that The Highwaymen did. For those of you who haven't heard of the group, they did 3 albums. The group consisted of Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson.

Ahhh, now you know the group.

We are off the road and back to almost normal from some travels. It's nice to be home, but it was interesting to be on the road for a bit. It seems that the road gets longer each time we get on it for some reason.

Anyway in a nutshell, I am super glad that the temperature right now is 68 degrees at 7 in the evening. It got all the way up to about 78 yesterday and there was some rain today. During the drive we saw temp in the 110 range and on the coast 80's with humidity that was way too hot for comfort.

Funny how the humidity sure makes a difference.

What we did notice is that the army is out in force more than before, but we didn't get delay by any roadside checkpoints.

We got the green light at the first checkpoint and it was pretty smooth sailing the rest of the way. We did notice that the prices have increased on a few of the autopistas, but still are a great deal considering the quality of the roads and speed available.

We brought down a new satellite receiver which we will be working on in the next week or so. The receiver will use our old C band dish and has about 200 channels on one satellite, digital and has US programming.

We quit using the C Band dish about 9 or 10 years ago and now there are a few trees in the way which have grown up in line to the satellite we need to steer it to, so first we cut down a few 40 ft trees and then we can work on aiming the dish.

If anyone has on old C Band dish and want digital service let me know and I can put you in touch with the information on the service.

Americans need doom and gloom

2011-09-14T08:43:00.001-05:00

As we are getting ready to head back south ( thank God ) I am looking at the stress levels of me and of the people around me. My stress while in Mexico is next to nothing. The biggest worry is if I am going to get down to the mercado early enough to get some nice lettuce from the Indian ladies sitting on the concrete hawking their bounty.

We are going to one last wedding today and getting the hell out of Dodge.

This weekend is the 10th anniversary of 911 and looking back at a few things that I have noticed, I just wanted to vent, so here goes.

First of all was the panic overreaction of the govmint. We now are saddled with in Department of Homeland Security which is questionable in it's effectiveness. We are also saddled with body cavity searches which frisk grandma , making her take off her diapers, Make granpa remove his colostomy bag and for real fun touch 6 year little Suzie, which would otherwise have any normal person immediately arrested for child molestation all in the name of "feel good" security.

The other observation which just happened a few weeks ago is the media frenzy.

What I am talking about is what President Obama himself proclaimed as a "historic hurricane". At the same time we can lump together the "earthquake" in Virginia that had reporters scouring for buildings and national monuments in the eastern states for the slightest crack so they could plaster it on the leading story.
Of course, they started weaving a doomsday scenarios as various networks talked about temblors, falling buildings and tsunamis with minute by minute comparisons to the earthquakes in Japan and Indonesia.

Meanwhile the "storm of the century" with FEMA being called out, had not much more impact than what people in Florida classified as "mild" storm which Floridians see every year.

Yes, I know you can't be too careful nowadays, but what happened to this lady on a routine flight on 9/11 is way, unbelievable. Check out the story on my other blog This and That.

What happened to taking care of ones one self? Why can't you yourself have some water, flashlights, food and reading material? Ok, if whole communities get wiped out it's nice to have FEMA come help, but what really helped before was communities banding together and helping themselves. In my eyes it seems that everyone now expects the govmint to help everybody.
From paying for the cellphones to providing food and shelter for months and years. Then when they want to take away the trailers or temporary housing the people get pissed off.
Something is wrong....where did the mass of people get so reliant on the govmint that they cannot take care of themselves anymore.
Why do we need constant bombardment of terrorism stories that are nothing on the news, do we need to paint such a bleak picture that everyone wants to surrender to the govmint?
I guess so........
That's my rant for today.......hopefully!

The Art of Watching Radio.

2011-09-04T06:07:00.000-05:00

I was listening to the radio today.

Years ago we use to watch the radio.

By that I mean, our family would sit in the living room and watch the old console radio at night.

My mother would be knitting, father would be reading the newspaper and my brother and I would be looking at the radio. We only got a TV set in the mid 50's but still watch a lot of radio.

We saw the Lone Ranger, Matt Dillon on the Gunsmoke program, Harry Von Zell on the Burns and Allen radio show and Jack Benny all on the radio.

Imaginations was much better in those days, by listening to radio you could transport yourself on to the main street of Dodge City or Hollywood with daffy Gracie Allen, Arthur Godfrey and Art Linkletter.

The words painted pictures and the pictures lifted you out of the living room and transported you wherever you wanted to be.

That no longer happens anymore.

Now you see on the screen via the Internet or television people and places you could only imagine before.

With that, you no longer have to imagine anything much.

You no longer need to imagine yourself achieving a goal as you did decades ago.

I wonder how that impacts the whole growing up thing?
Years ago you could imagine you could grow up and be anything you wanted to be.
It seems we didn't have self esteem problems then, just poor imagination skills.

Tuning the radio dial I notice that about 40% of the radios stations are spuing Spanish commercials.....Growing up that was unheard of except late at night when we would hear Tijuana staions or XERB with Wolfman Jack.

Now, you don't have to wait for evening.

News at 11

2011-08-28T15:32:00.005-05:00

Turn on the TV this weekend and all you see is some reporter standing in the street, no rain, but windy and some water in the street.

They even preempted my must see program Sunday Morning On CBS to have pictures for 1.5 hours of wet streets.

Come on, its a hurricane but the rest of the east coast , is use to them. It was funny to see the hoopla on the earthquake that hit New York.....the sky is falling...the sky is falling...people were even thinking it was a terrorist attach.

What have the people been fed in the media all these years? Panic in the Streets. Just like one of my favorites subjects... Violins in The Streets of Mexico..... ( that's reference to the late Gilda Radner)

When people see me one of the questions comes up is the violence in Mexico.

I think I will put together a journal of the violence and killings in Northern California and whip it out each time I am asked that question.

A few days ago I had stopped by a business that I use to visit regularly years ago and upon discussing the Mexico situation one of the people there said that to the average American the only news they hear about Mexico is all bad.

You would think that the news media would present divergent views. But we all know that would only bring rational thinking and the absence of knee jerk reactions.

At least my generation ferreted out the information from various sources and we were not spoon fed this so called information.

Another Marijuana related killing.................

From The Press Democrat

Fort Bragg, Mendocino County which is north of San Francisco had a killing yesterday, They are presently looking for the shooters and deputies also had found the body of a victim, according to a source close to the investigation.

Allman Sunday wouldn’t comment on further details, including the name of the victim.

City officials Saturday said the man killed was Jere Melo, a City Council member and former mayor of the town.

Melo works for Campbell Timber Management company and was out walking property with another man Saturday when the gunfire erupted.

The other man got away and called for help, launching the search and investigation.

Not the Janitzio Ferry Company

2011-08-13T10:31:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned we took a weekend, ok extended weekend trip to the islands.
I am use to seeing overloaded boats in Patzcuaro. Those boats are mostly overloaded on the Day of the Dead celebrations when the passenger boats that are designed for about 50 people have about 150 or more people stuffed to the gills, crammed to dangerous proportions ferrying between Patzcuaro and Janitzio.

Since there are no boat police, coast guard or OSHA this is one of those accidents waiting to happen situations. But stuff like that is never a big priority in Mexico. It's the simple non invasive attitude that makes simple life possible.

I am sure that it has been that way since the Jantizio became a pilgrimage magnet years ago.

On our trip to San Juan we had to get on their ferry system. Washington state has a ferry system that would make the Patzcuaro boat owners salivate. The ferries have to transport vehicles, residents and visitors 7 days a week.

This was the first time I have ever been on a ferry that cars and trucks drive in other than a years ago, I travesed the Coosa River in backwoods Alabama. That ferry was man powered and it could fit 2 cars on a good day!

On planning our trip I knew that we had to use ferries and that I always heard of people being stranded because they "Missed the last Ferry".

Not knowing all the ins and outs of ferry travel, that was an tense unknown for us.

We arrived at the the terminal just as the ferry was finishing loading. And it leaves on time, something that would make a German Train operator proud. So if you don't show up when the load time is done....you're done!
So we sat around waiting for the next ferry. It got me to thinking of how many and what the capacity of the ferry was. After we were on it, there are several levels of seating a restaurant and bar, nice restrooms and decks that you could walk around on. In my mind I figured that the ferry would hold 50 or 60 cars, and who knows how many hundreds of people.
It turned out that my guess was way off. After all the cars had been loaded and we were on our way, I asked one of the workers what the capacity was and he said it was 165 cars.

Man, that is one big boat. Just think if Lake Patzcuaro would have a car ferry, to take tourists to the islands.
A new tourist attraction......NOT.

It was a great ferry ride, comfortable, pretty quick considering and very efficient. The trip cost about 70 dollars for a car and two people but considering that was for both ways, it was almost as reasonable as a ride in Disneyland.

The ferries there run about 6 or 7 times a day, I was surprised to see large and long tractor trailers loaded with all kinds of stuff roll onto the boat.

The trip on-loads and offloads in a matter of minutes and operates like a well oiled machine. We are already planning on when we can come up there and spend some more time... We really enjoyed the trip and can't wait to check out some of the other islands. Perhaps next year.

Washington, It's the water......

2011-08-06T15:57:00.006-05:00

Occasionally we need a rude awakening. We need to see what family values are, we need to reaffirm that life down south is indeed all it is cracked up to be.
How do we do it?
Easy, a trip NOB seals the reaffirmation of the existence of a wacky crazy world out there that the normal is having time to enjoy your mid day meal while you are driving on the freeway, trying to dodge the cars that are also either eating their lunch, or in the morning dodging cars with people putting on makeup on their way to their 8 to 5 job.
Wow......
We needless to say are in the states, summoned for a handful of reasons, couple of weddings a retirement party, birthday celebration and tending to a little old company business.

First of all, it is a real hassle flying anywhere these days. Separating you luggage into half a dozen bins on the way to the security xray machine.

Not at the Guadalajara Airport but in Seattle.

Computer in one, belt and shoes in another, wallet, pen, glasses, change and keys in another, God help you if you have anything else remotely resembling electronics which I did, a GPS and digital camera for which I was chastised for not putting in a separate bin....
Give me a *$%@+#** break......

Anyway, my wife enjoyed her last years birthday celebration when we enjoy a few nights in Catalina, so we trekked over to the San Juan Islands for a few days this year for her birthday.

Beautiful absolutely gorgeous country, lands with wild foxes crossing the roads, pristine waters with billowing clouds, a nice change from the downpours we had in Patzcuaro on our last days there.

The Pacific North West has to be one of the most beautiful places in the US.......when it's not raining.

I think that is a window from July 15 to September 1.

Although we had great weather while we were there our last day there we had a overcast drizzly day.
It was indeed funny to see people in Seattle sitting and laying outside anywhere they could in the sun. Seems the sun don't shine there very much judging from the pasty white completions of the people walking around.

We had dinner the other night, came out of the restaurant at almost 10 o'clock and it was still dusk light outside.... almost like when we were in Alaska, real long days......

Anyway, Northern California is our spot for the next few weeks, catching up on stuff, getting ready for some weddings, parties and meetings. A chance to reaffirm of why Mexico is more satisfactory for my hypertension......

More to follow!

No, No, No, you can't eat that!

2011-07-29T16:20:00.004-05:00

Years ago a friend brought me to Patzcuaro, my first immersion into inland Mexican life other than Mexico City or Guadalajara.

You can call it being exposed to the sticks inside the center of Mexico.

The smallest town I had until that time visited was Cuernavaca

Patzcuaro was indeed small.

He had purchased a house here and was proud to show off his new domain.

He was no cook and I did all the cooking for him. That was not a problem, but after a few days I wanted to go out to eat.

That is when it started.

"No, Oh, No, those guys cook dead chickens."

Well I hope so, I would hate to see them flaying about on the rotisserie while they are still alive , was my response.

No, you don't understand.

These vendors purchase chickens that died already from some reason and then cook them, then sell them to unsuspecting residents.

Really?

So we wound up driving down to the center of town. I then asked him where we were going?

Oh there is a Carnitas stand between the two plazas. They are the only ones in town that cook good safe pigs.

What do you mean.

It's the same as the chicken vendors, most vendors by dead pigs because they are cheaper and simply cook the pigs.

Really?

As we were coming down through the streets, I asked him , well what about that place?

"Oh, No, that stand , his pork has worms in it" , was the answer.

Well he's a local and he's a Mexican, so how could I possibly argue with that knowledge base.

We wound up buying a kilo of carnitas and took it home and it tasted good and all was well for the night.

A few days later, we were in the mercado and I mentioned to him , hey let's have a shrimp cocktail.

"There is no fresh seafood in Patzcuaro, you have to wait until we get to Morelia"

Oh, Ok.....what do I know, after all, he's a local and a Mexican to boot.

We then drove over to Quiroga to buy some stuff for his house. While walking around looking at the same stuff just from different vendors, I said, hey how about getting a few tacos here.

"No, NO, that guy sells bad and dirty meat, often days old.

Well, Ok, he must know, after all he's a local and Mexican with lots of local knowledge and experience.....

Couple of days later we were in Morelia, driving around and his truck started to make some funny noises. I asked him where he gets his cars fixed. He said he know of this mechanic in a small town outside of Patzcuaro and he could take it there...

Why don't you take it by the dealership here and get it checked.

"Because here they take your parts and replace them with used parts" was his answer.

Ok, I understand, after all he knows, because he is a Mexican and a local and I am only a visiting Gringo....

But I learned real fast......

I learned that he only lives 15% of his life never experiencing anything much.

I no longer hang around with him, that was one of the reasons............

Your are lucky living in Mexico....trust me

2011-07-20T09:07:00.001-05:00

I read the local newspapers in California just to see how screwed up the state can get. Effective July 1, of this year, all homeowners in California with attached garages are required to have carbon monoxide alarms installed in their houses – or face a $200 fine.

What if you don't want one?

What if you can't hear?

What if you don't own a car, have any gas burning appliances, a furnace ?

YOU STILL MUST HAVE ONE!

It's not that they are expensive, they are less than 50 dollars and I think that they are a good idea, like having a fire extinguisher around the house when you have possibilities that something may catch fire.
The main problem is that there are tons of homes with fire detectors and by last survey close to 50 % of them have been disconnected or no longer working because of the choice of the homeowner.

BUT, having a law that makes you have one, is in my Libertarian view, couple of miles way too far into the govmint sticking their nose into your life.

But that's just my opinion.....

And you wonder why I love Mexico?

I enjoy hearing when friends discuss excited news when they are building a new house NOB.
I then ask them how much it cost for their permits.
I then tell them that for what they paid for their permits and fees, one can build a home in Mexico.

Just another observation.

Oh No, Say it isn't so......

2011-07-13T18:17:00.001-05:00

I got the news as I was reading my laptop opened to a few of my places that I visit religiously.

It was not good news.

I felt like I was losing a part of my daily routine, a routine that I have grown into over the years.

I wake up each morning, wander into the kitchen, cajole the coffee machine into doing it start up routine, then walk back to the bathroom, make a quick offering to the sewer gods, by that time the machine has gone through it’s rinse and operational check cycles and fetches me a cup of dark coffee to which I add exactly one teaspoon of Rancho Canyon cultivated honey.

I then carefully stumble into my small office which is crammed with stuff, push a few things around the desk in order to make room for the hot steaming vessel.

I rest the coffee cup on the table, click the computer back to life and click on the opening Yahoo page.

I like Yahoo because it can point me to hundreds of not thousands of directions.

And I being an old person set in my ways only visit maybe 20 on a good day.

5 on a bad day.

The news headline I was reading was that Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World was closing up. Going out of business, shutting the doors after decades of operation.

That news didn’t matter, for I have never read the rag, nor knew anyone who did, so in the big scheme of things it was no big deal.

But what followed was.

It was “Thank you and Good Bye” But actually it was in Spanish. It was Gracias y Adios.

For those of you who remember the Danny Thomas show, you will now understand exactly what I did with my first sip of coffee.

What?

Impossible!

No, I am reading something wrong, were my first reactions.

How could this be happening?

There must be some typo or the last line will say, April Fools day, but today is July.

It must be so.

Please say it isn’t so.

One of our resident Patzcuaro retirees has called it quits, to his blog escapades.

He was one of the reasons I was motivated in writing these thoughts to screen.

I had done a search on Patzcuaro many years ago and was directed to some guy who was sitting around the plaza enjoy a cafecito pontificating on life in Patzcuaro.

I thought that was kind of neat.

Maybe I can do that to.

Maybe not.

I for one will miss Senor Zapatas writings, sadly things must change, I don’t like change sometimes especially since I have grown to enjoy and anticipate his writings. He was our Hemingway, our writer, our chronicler, he was our resident scribe, talking about life down here.

Judging from enormous volume of best wishes comments on his site, he will be missed.

He is giving up writing about Mexico; he says he will continue writing.

I hope so.

Thanks for all the great political and historical chapters you have published. Gazillions of keystrokes, lots of cyberspace ink.

Sr.Zapata has enlightened many, tweaked a few who deserved it.

For that, I thank you!

A lakeside dive......

2011-07-07T10:41:00.000-05:00

We need to get out of the house every few days, So we fill the gas tank up, pack a little ice chest with some drinks, point the car and go.

Sometimes we do this on the weekends, sometimes not.

Weekends are the days when Mexicans also get to the road, cram the family and mother-in-law, maybe a few neighbors and see how many people can fit into a 4 door Nissan pick up truck.

You can usually spot the families going somewhere especially if you get behind one of those overloaded vehicles. You've seen them before, the bed of the truck is usually about 8 inches off the ground, maybe something to do with having 7 people inside and 8 in the bed of the pickup.

Mother-in-law usually sits in the back with the kids, it so appears.

If you have noticed before, we don't enjoy hordes of crowds, especially on the weekends.
Something about screaming kids running around you, sneezing on your space, you get the picture.....

So why not venture out during the weekday.
Brilliant idea.

10-15 years ago it use to take several hours to get to our fresh water pristine lake called Zirahuen.
Now it's only about 25 or so minutes. The Autopista has an off ramp and the potholed dirt road is now now lined with concrete stones.
Easy...relatively fast, a nice jaunt.

There are some nice restaurants perched around the lake. Some are fancy show off places, that are only open on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.......we told you about one of those awhile ago. Nice view but no concept of service, so we won't give them our pesos....sorry.

But there are some common folk places around the municipal pier. (Pier is a very nice description of the structure jetting out into the water)

We go to those. They are nothing fancy, cheap, decent attention to service, ok food and have cold beer.
My kind of joint.
We wound up there.

Patzcuaro is know for it's deep fried fish. We tried some years ago and were not impressed.
They are called Charales.

In Patzcuaro they are usually 4 to 5 inches long, over cooked, dry, greasy and semi tasteless.
Kind of like eating a dried up old french fry that stayed in the bottom of the bag and dried out.
You need to drink a lot of beer to rehydrate those babies.

Not so at our dive joint on the lake.
Where else can you sit lakeside, have a cold beer, stuff your face with a plate of little Charales, that have taste some moisture and flavor for less than 4 bucks?

And we were there at 1:30 or so and had the place to ourselves for the first half hour.
It just doesn't get any better than that.

Well it does, I also had the Mojarra for my main dish and my wife had the Flor De Calabazas which were both decent and tasty. More to follow......

New Car? Pay your Tax man......

2011-07-02T09:57:00.001-05:00

Buying a vehicle in Mexico has some advantages and disadvantages. We have have done both.

We have a pickup truck we purchased years ago when we started building the house, we purchased it new in Morelia . I brought down a 95 Tracker, ( little jeep style) which I use for running around the ranch and on errands into town. It's great because I can fit into tiny parking spots where the pickup wouldn't even have a hope. Patzcuaro sometimes exhibits a lack of spaces around the plaza so the Tracker is ideal.

My wife didn't care for driving the pickup or Tracker so about two years ago, we got her a shiny new Honda CRV (When the peso was 14.5 to one) , so my info is from our experience, at least for Michoacan. Not sure how other states work, but here in Michocan this is what we pay in fees. Another reason we got the new Honda is that with the exchange rate, it was a good time to deal with the purchase.

The big tax is called a Tenencia. It is a yearly tax that you pay on cars.

Trucks are considered work tools so the rate is almost nil.

Currently you see a lot of 4 door pickup trucks around because of this tax advantage.
Even though they have the inside room of a large SUV, they pay pickup rates...that would make me consider getting one of those next time we need a pickup. Saving taxes is something always to consider.

Tenencia on a brand new pickup truck will cost you 600 pesos a year, a new Toyota Rav4 will exhume about 7000 pesos, for the privilege of have a nice car.......ergo......Tenencia.

Quite a difference!

For both the pickup and car, the annual registration runs about 300 pesos as long as you get it renewed before becoming late and paying late charges.

In my experience you cannot import a vehicle into Mexico unless it is 10 years old . Or let me clarify that, importing a vehicle less than 10 years old will cost you way too much, and there are several hurdles you will have to maneuver around, to do so. You also may have to "grease" the system in order to have it happen. This was learned from talking to several "car importers" on the border when we tried to import a vehicle before. Once you do import a car, you will still be required to pay a tenencia regardless.

So, importing cars is kind of a pain unless you are a citizen also, especially if the car is older than 10 year of age.

Unless you want to drive around in a US plated car.

If you decide to purchase a brand new car, one thing that is different between the US and Mexico is that the dealers do not haggle or discount their inventory.

I know at least a dozen people that have purchased new vehicles and the only discount was a set of floor mats. I am not sure if this is just here in Michoacan or the rest of the country, so be prepared.

Stick em up!

2011-06-30T09:50:00.007-05:00

Taxes, what a fun thing to write about. I received an email yesterday that my Amazon associate account has been canceled.
End.
Finis.
Terminado.
Kaput.

I have to take my hat off to Amazon, even though they are canceling thousands of associates that are registered in California.
Simply because they do not want to charge tax for shipments into California. They do not want to be the tax collector for the State of California....
Can you blame them?

Oh I am sure that there are several people that will say of course!, it's just part of them doing business.

Ok, what about the associates?

Associates are ones that have a link on their site that carries an interested party to Amazon to order a book or a Kindle or anything that Amazon has. You then get a big fat commission check amounting to 3 to 10 % depending on the item. Ok, maybe not so fat....

So now lots of people in California will not get a little income that they probably could have used.
Well, Amazon can afford to collect tax.
Yeah.
There are associates in Mexico, Honduras, All of Central America and lots of places....those are not effected, as long as you don't have your account in California.

You would be amazed on the small percentage that Amazon has to work on, now they would have to hire people to administrate and do the taxes etc.

I know from personal experience that it took my business at least 1 day a month, to fill out and process all the forms and stuff for the State of California's tax system.
Oh, but the state paid for that ?

No, the businesses have to absorb the overhead of doing that...one day salary, lights, insurance all the stuff and then the employee could not do productive stuff.
What a great system.

And the State of California is still broke, bankrupt , although not admitting that.

I know that it is not going to effect everyone but, it will effect enough people. If Amazon did collect they would simply pass on the costs to the consumer. Less people could afford purchases, and it would be then counter productive, less sales, less jobs, less everything.

So, I guess I will transfer my account to Mexico, we already have a few bank accounts, credit cards on our Mexican accounts, so my big fat commission check can still arrive...with it I will be able to get a cup of coffee, now and then.....more often, ....then.

But that's my opinion........

Next, A fellow blogger, Calypso had an interest in that a pickup truck license fee and tax is lower than a car....

We will come to that subject in our next chapter......

"The Taxman Cometh"

More ways to save money...A new shopping complex

2011-06-24T15:54:00.001-05:00

We usually wander to the "Big" city every week or so.

I think I can even recall that once we made it as far as two weeks before making the all day excursion to civilization and traffic congested streets.

There are benefits of going to the big city.

Window squeegee engineers at every major intersection. In all my years in Patzcuaro I have never had the experience of one of these folks accosting my window or my privacy behind my windshield.

In Morelia there are several main intersections that you will either be held hostage to either a squeegee guy or a Telcel airtime card professional. If not, then you will be entertained by a guy painted in silver spray paint, blowing flames out of his mouth....I guess it's better than blowing smoke.......

Another benefit of going to the big durazno is the variety of shops, stores and places to wander, look, listen and spend your pesos.

When we first landed in Morelia, there was only a Price Club which is now Costco, Fabricas De Francia, Sears and a few other national superstores. The "big" mall was not big, it was the proud owner of a Sears, Fabricas de Francia and of course a Sanborns.

Now the mall has a Liverpool store that by itself would have held the whole mall before in its footprint. The new mall is still kind of a work in progress and now boasts a McDonalds, Apple store, Globo Bakery and even a handful of expensive Italian boutique women's and men's clothing stores.

Now there is some even more upscale competition.
I have been seeing some construction going on for awhile up on the top of the hill above the hoyty-toyty district. Above the country club, above the large fancy houses percehed up on the side of the hill.
So, we checked out the "new" side of town.

Wow..........There almost overnight appeared a new 3 level shopping mall. A very large Liverpool store, at least 50% larger than the one down in the low lands. A larger Sears along with spaces for hundreds of stores and shops including a Starbucks and of course a Sanborns.......

Down the road from the center they are starting to build a new Walmart. There are wide open spaces abound to cram hundreds more parking lots and stores on the plateau over looking Morelia.

The design of the mall is rather modern, lots of canvas type sails covering the walkways and promenades along the way.
Great views of Morelia.

Only about 10% of the stores are presently open. It will be interesting to see who survives and who perishes.
One disappointing thing is the outdoor parking lots. In order to park you will have extracted from you 5 to 10 pesos an hour. Presently the one armed machines are allowing you to come and go without depositing any money. That will change.

The lot also is not covered anywhere, unlike the mall in the low lands below, which have covered spaces which allow you to return to a reasonably cool vehicles. This one will be a warm and cozy oven experience when you return to your car.

The only hassle I see is that getting there on the one lane road is going to be a hassle, especially when the place is going at full occupancy.

We'll see how the traffic department will handle that in the coming years. If it's anything like how they handle traffic in the low lands......good luck.
The place is called, Altozano, and it is close to Tres Marias which is another devolpment.
Lots of devolopment.
Lots of money for speculation.
Seems the economy is a little better here than NOB.
Now if we could only get the tourists. back.

And the savings just keep on coming....

2011-06-17T15:52:00.003-05:00

Since we participated in the paint sale at Comex, we grabbed a new color for one of the kitchen walls.

My wife wanted to match the color of our stove backsplash, trying to match the color of the tiles.
Painting the one kitchen wall was going to be a easy job, (they are all easy jobs since I only critique and supervise somewhat) the one wall took only one day and he finished it up, with the aide of a halogen work light, since I didn't want to save a small section to drag out another day.

I hate it when there are workers in and around the house. We use to have a housekeeper that hovered around in the background, but my wife seemed to micromanage her, so we gave up that luxury.

Actually my wife gave up the luxury, I thought it was kind of nice to have the floor dusted insistently.....

Anyway, we enjoy the quiet and solitude of being at home alone, I don't mind having the workers around the ranch for the animals and day to day operation, but solace at home is after all the whole point of trying to tolerate them "Golden Years".

And besides I read much better without interruption.

How we save money in Patzcuaro

2011-06-15T07:21:00.000-05:00

Our wall in our living room was a nice golden color, the original color since when we built the house years ago.

Comex the Walmart of paint suppliers in Mexico, and it was having a sale last month. A friend happened to mention this while LaSenora was listening.

Wrong thing to do.

"Go down to the store and get paint for the walls" was her request.

Well, it's really didn't have the request tone in her voice, more like a directive.

I am the one who always seems to think that the status quo is fine. Well it is fine for me, Just not fine for La Senora.

Later, I always seem to agree with her that her action was indeed a good decision. It just seems that my acceptability quotient of life is a few points below hers.

Maybe that's why she married such a stellar guy, you think?

Anyway, down to the paint store we go. I have long ago figured out that it is simply much easier to agree with her in her selection of a color.

If I happen to like a different color, it is still better to choose the one she likes......it's called compromise.

After all there are more important things that I must make decisions on, like what size pipe to purchase or should I get the more powerful Impact Drill or simply get the bigger one with the larger chuck size......

She, wouldn't dare even step into that department, so agreeing with a shade of color seems pretty minimal.........

Anyway we purchase the paint, new rollers, a few small brushes and pay the clerk.

Since there are no free lunches in Mexico the sale of the century is simply that if you buy 4 liters of paint they will throw in one for free.
I said, "Oh, a 20% discount? to the clerk, and was immediately corrected, No....it's you buy 4 and get one free.

So, one gallon for the new colored wall in the living room, another one for the new wall color in the Kitchen, and a 5 gallon bucket for the outside of the house.

The outside is also getting a new color called Hacienda Rojo....not that it needed new paint, simply a new color.
Don't forget "Change is Good" I am told, and indeed from my thousands of pesos, I did receive very little Change......but now we will have spiffy new colors in two rooms and on the exterior of the house.
Our hand's eyes lit up as we returned home and he unloaded the paint. He likes painting........better than digging and stuff, or tending to the animals..
Gives him a chance to show his brush panache, I suppose.

And in the end, having a new color will cause my eyes to focus on the wall, something which is good since my eyes need all the exercise they can get.
Compromise is a good thing........

What light through window breaks........

2011-06-11T07:16:00.011-05:00

I am guilty of sitting at the local Gringo hangout several days a week.

Not because I socialize, but because I am able to enjoy a decent fresh fruit plate with a dollop of cottage cheese adorned with little or as much I want of local honey, topped with several squeezes of lime for about $2.75 cents USD.

And I don't have to go to the market and find the correct ingredients.

Plus I don't have to section and prepare the fruit, cut and present on the plate, then later wash the dishes.

Some would relish at the idea of being able to do that.....

Don't get me wrong, I do that, but even then, I do need a break. And besides it gives me an opportunity to watch the people of Patzcuaro.

The other day I happen to notice someone standing at one of the balconies, a woman who was using the natural light in order to apply some layers of makeup. I have to assume it was layers, simply because I was her audience for about 15 minutes.

Enough time for me to enjoy, some papaya, mango, melon, banana with cottage cheese.

I am not a fast eater,... just for the record.

I savor, then watch, then sip the dark strong coffee, toss in a few more glances, pause and start the whole routine over again.

Watching people on the plaza could be a full time vocation, for some it is.

I am a part time watcher, though.

Anyway, she happened to pop in and out of the balcony about a dozen or more times enjoying the light that must have made her complexion all tuned up for her days performance.

But where could she be going to get all gussied up like that?
The mercado? The theater?
Perhaps meeting someone for lunch or a interlude at a roadside hotelito, the ones where you can purchase a romping space by the hour?

I pondered that for almost a full minute.

Then summoned my waiter and paid my check.

With tip , coffee and fruit included I laid down 45 pesos.

Watching the senorita on the balcony .....priceless.

Really in the middle of nowhere, then some.

2011-06-05T09:14:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned a few days ago, we made a day trip to Paracho for a guitar excursion. While on one of the back roads and I mean back road, we passed a old hacienda which has been transformed into a modern restaurant with spacious grounds, parking lot and a large playground area where you can park the kids while the adults sip on their favorite beverages and sling the one-upsmanship stories like locals seem to enjoy doing.

The interesting thing is that the amount of cars that were parked at this place and the vast expanse shows that this place can be a hopping joint filling a minimum of 400 to 500 seats.

Unlike Patzcuaro, Ziracuaretiro which is a much smaller town, sports 3 decent places.

This is one of them. Since this was a Saturday and around 4 in the afternoon the lunch crowd was diminishing as we took our seats in one of the dining rooms.
On weekends it seems that they have buffet service, during the week they have a pretty diverse menu with items such as steaks, fish and chops of pork and lamb. I noticed that their menu also included one of my favorites, frog legs which not every restaurant includes on their menu.
Perhaps on a later midday trip that will be one item I will try.

Another distinguishing fact was that they had valet parking. That indeed is an interesting concept, especially in Mexico where trust is an issue to whom you hand over your car keys and contents of your vehicle. On the other hand, based on the clientele and ranching attitudes in these parts, swift justice from the cars owners may keep those ideas at bay.

We ordered a few Don Julio Margaritas and enjoyed a few minutes relaxing after driving for several hours on secondary roads for our days journey. Then it was time to look at the buffet line.
One must come hungry to enjoy the wide variety of items that are offered at several manned stations. Being so late in the afternoon, I was going to try and limit my loading of the plate, even so, there were just too many things that I gave up on that notion.

Returning on a weekend will definitely be more advisable, my perception that it would take at least 2 return trips to be able to adequately test their full selection.

With a dozen or so salads, a fresh fruit station and seeing the dessert station, I totally missed the station where they prepare and grill seafood, meats and chicken to your order. I did notice especially decent looking brochettes of shrimp, as they were passing carried by a waiter, but it was too late, my fill limit was close to it's maximum and there was still the dessert station to conquer.
After a few minutes of pause, we did save room for dessert which had several visually appealing dishes, the flan and pastel con tres leches was especially good which required good will power not to return for a second portion. The sliced fruit was also excellent,much better than the fruit I am able to buy at our local markets for some reason.

All in all this is a nice place that I have not seen anything to compare to so far in the region. The price for two sets of DJ Margaritas and 2 lunches with coffee including tip set us back about 500 pesos, which for the experience and quality was well worth the expense.

The place is well suited for parties both intimate and large, a perfect place to spend several hours with drinks and friends. I did notice many tables simply buying two or three bottles of their favorite booze which they would consume at will.

The place is located on the back road between Ziracuaretiro and Uruapan. It is actually easier to get to if your take the autopista to Uruapan and double back towards Ziracuaretiro on the back
road.

R.I.P. Sheriff Matt Dillion

2011-06-03T23:45:00.005-05:00

I don't know about you but I grew up watching Gunsmoke on Sunday nights on our Black and White 17 inch Admiral TV set.

The show lasted 20 years, most people kinda wished that Miss Kitty and Sheriff Dillion would be a couple....maybe there were.

James Arness was a tall 6ft 6" guy who even played the monster in the movie The Thing..his brother who died last year, was Peter Graves of Mission Impossible fame, later he played the airline pilot on the comedy Airplane.

The 50's and 60's had lots of Westerns on TV but Gunsmoke outlasted all of them.

Write a blog, go to jail, pay hefty fine !.....

2011-05-31T09:04:00.004-05:00

I saw this article the other day and wanted to share it with you.

Now I am going to have to censor my writings so that I am sure than I offend a sitting king somewhere.......

Check out: This and That

As sad thought

2011-05-30T11:24:00.006-05:00

Today is memorial day in the states and as usual the priority of the day will be to go to the shopping malls, out to the beaches, any place but where people would go when I was growing up 50 years ago.
We went to the cemetery and placed a few small flags on several grave markers. The place was the Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno, California.

I remember a service for a relative there in the early 50's. Now you cannot be buried there because they have run out of plots.

Sad.

The then graveside service was at one end of the field at that time already, there were lots of new graves which were from casualties of the Korean War.

For some reason it has become less important now to stop what we do and have respect for those who have given their lives for the freedoms and rights of people in the US.

Now it's more important to grab the stuff that's on sale at the local shopping mall.

I kind of enjoyed not having stuff open on Sundays.....it was a time we all stayed at home with the family or after church went out together.

That doesn't seem to happen much now.

Just like lots of things, priorities have changed.

Today, we will at least take some time to remember our family members who have died.

Recently by uncle, who served in Korea died and I was saddened that I was not able to see him recently because of the distances and circumstances.

But I will remember him as well as many others who have passed away before him. Some in the line of duty and some who served their country so honorably.

May they be remembered for a long time.

No chemicals needed, no darkroom either.

2011-05-26T18:30:00.005-05:00

The clouds were in unique form the other day and I happen to have my super duper dandy camera with me. The one that takes so many different types of shots, aided by computer images, face recognition, anti jitter, you name the feature, it has it.

I am amazed at the quality of the photos nowadays, no more loading the film in either total darkness or sticking your arms into a changing bag while fumbling with a film loader to roll the film onto the reel for development.

Now it's there for you to manipulate, instantly.

No dodging , on exposure strips on the enlarger easel, no timers, solution with chemicals....whats the fun in all that?

A lot.

If you consider what it took to present a photo to your friends and what it takes now, you have to sit down and really appreciate what this technology has done.

I won't even describe how it was to carry a Auricon 16mm sound camera on your shoulder along with the battery pack, sun gun pack, audio control box to get TV news film on the 11 o'clock news.... now it's in the palm of your hand. About a difference of 75 pounds of stuff.

In addition to all the photos and having the camera memory card hold thousands of images, my camera is also and HD video camera.

There are now more photos shot daily because of the ease of the technology than one can ever imagine what was even considered on the old box brownie or old Instamatics......

What a marvelous gift we have been blessed with!

Now go and take a snap shot of someone.

Where is Ziracuarétiro you ask?

2011-05-23T07:14:00.001-05:00

We usually only go out to eat twice a week or so. But lately I have noticed that we try to do it more often.
Maybe because I am selfish, tired, don't want to clean up after myself, even though it is La Senoras job to do that, (I do all the cooking, she does all the clean up) or perhaps I am getting bored with cooking right now.

It goes in spurts, some time I love doing it, some times I loath it.

I have also noticed that it is almost always cheaper for us to eat out, than for me to buy the ingredients to make a meal.
I also have another problem. It is difficult for me to prepare anything just for two people. So we wind up with leftovers, that if not eaten or converted into another meal, get lost in the ice box until it is too old to eat and gets tossed.

Kind of a waste and expensive.

So that is why it seems we have been going out more often......or that is my story and I am sticking to it.
So last week we decided to ( sort of we ) go and look at some guitars.
But we needed Breakfast, so we stopped at a cute place in Ziracuarétiro called El Gorjeo de Las Aves En Las Mañanas de Abril.

Nothing simple like Joe's Cafe, not on your life, when in Ziracuarétiro you go all out. The place is located by the side of a beautiful little creek flowing with small waterfalls and perfect soothing sounds. In my opinion this place by far is one of the most beautiful spots to spend some quality time having a nice meal, conversation and enjoying the surroundings. The same family owns another restaurant a few blocks away, so since this place only does breakfasts the waitstaff walks over to the other place for midday meals and service.

Each time we have been here, we are graciously greeted by one of the owners, who also seems to enjoys joining her patrons in having a cup of coffee at their table. Lots of hugs and kisses are displayed as customers come and go.

If you come to Ziracuarétiro, look for the church dome and go west a few blocks and you should have no problem in finding it. It is located next to a balneario, includes a spacious parking lot and gorgeous landscaping.

The facilities will hold a couple of hundred people in several outside areas. The restaurant area where we have been seated several times is smaller, only holding maybe 50 people.one side is the kitchen the other side has a nice fountain that is on the side of the small hill.

When seated you are presented with a menu and soothing music provided by multiple songbirds both in cages and flying about the area.

I have shied away from doing restaurant reviews because last time I did that in Patzcuaro, one of the owners got pretty mad, to the point of me having concern for my personal safety, so since this place is removed about 20 miles, so hopefully I will not see any "hit men" knocking on my door....
The second we sat down we were greeted with a nice cafe Americano along with their fresh basket of sweet breads. All the items are made on site and quite good. Good to the point that La Senora asked for a bag in which to take the remaining bread home to enjoy with her afternoon coffee.
After all they do charge 35 pesos for the assortment, so she felt that she could ask for it to enjoy later.....
I ordered the same thing I did my last visit, but at my advanced age I failed to recall that until the familiar plate was placed in-front of my nose. Huevos Pavorreal, a simple yet satisfying dish.

Pretty much anything arriving hot and looking good will satisfy my breakfast craving.

Huevos Pavorreal are two poached eggs presented on top of some refried beans, on top of corn tortillas, topped with either green and red salsa, as your choose. Slices of yellow and red bell peppers or perched on the top of the eggs to make them look like rooster combs.

My wife ordered the Chilaquieles con Pollo, which looked tasty and after wrestling for a little bite, confirmed the simplicity of an old standard will always be good especially when using fresh products, like hand made tortillas made less than 30 ft way from your dining area.

Both are dishes were washed down with fresh juices, I had the orange, my wife had the Napolito infused health drink.
Compared to Patzcuaro joints this place is a little more expensive but considering the well manicured landscaping and relaxing in the jungle like atmosphere , and the whole experience , it is worth it. I can just imagine the labor entailed to keeping this place from overgrowing with vegetation. This is the kind of place that I would love to live at, but would be totally stressed out at the constant upkeep.

After this breakfast we continued to our destination of Paracho.......more to follow along with my take on another Ziracuarétiro restaurant called Los Arcos, which we used for our main meal that day.

Can you hum along, while I play?

2011-05-15T18:12:00.000-05:00

Last night the wife said she wanted to buy a guitar for her niece. So we have a few choices here, either go to Walmart and pick up made in China or some other place in the world OR, go to the guitar capital of the world, right here in Michaocan.

She opted for the more expensive alternative.

So what we figured we would do is have breakfast at a place El Gorjeo de Las Aves En Las Mañanas de Abril, which is located sort of on the way to Uruapan and later Paracho.

The town is Ziracuarétiro, about 8 or 9 miles west of Patzcuaro.

After breakfast we would then proceed to Paracho which would then facilitate us getting a few geetars.....

On the way to Uruapan on the back road we passed a restaurant called Hacineda Los Arcos. I have been on that back road only once before about 10 years ago and really didn't remember it at all. What sparked my recollection of it was have Don Cuevas write about it on his blog awhile ago, and any place that he enjoys, has always never been disappointing to me.

You can see by the picture the patron saint of Paracho is the Acoustic Guitar.
I have only been through Patacho once before. On the autopista between Guadalajara and Morelia about 10 years ago, we figured that we would go through Urupan to get to Patzcuaro.....sort of a short cut.

Not in your life.

Even with the autopista completed between Uruapan and Patzcuaro, the trip is a half day jaunt.
The time before we were not looking for any guitars, so we never stopped.

Walking the streets, every other shop was selling , making, or supplying parts for guitars.
So now the work for my wife was to negotiate a guitar or two, while I waited outside.

Not that I know anything about guitars, I figure that if I wait outside, she may spend less money.
But I am usually wrong, as I was this time.

I have had several friends ask how close we were to Paracho, and now I can tell them it is about a two hour drive, going through several small villages, one of which the local Indian ladies had totally different style of dresses, a lot more color full and decorated with glass and metal sequins.

Interesting how different villages have different styles of dress......
But that's for another post.

With two guitars in hand with a few thousand pesos removed we made our trek back home. One the way home we stopped by at Hacienda Los Arcos for the afternoon meal.

The place is impressive to say the least, interesting that in the middle of nowhere, you find a place that has at least 25 cars parked in the parking lot, and a nice spread..

Later, I will discuss our meal and surroundings......more to follow ......

Call someone or just do it yourself?

2011-05-08T08:33:00.000-05:00

The other day, my wife asked why there was water around the washing machine.
Well, probably because there is something leaking was my answer.
Wrong Answer.

There are a couple of appliance repair places in town, usually you can tell them by the amount of half disassembled machines and parts strewn in the doorway and sidewalk.

So, do I load the machine in the pickup and take it down town and wait a week or so while they get the parts?

Do we call the Sears repair people who will come out to the house and then return in a week or so?

We use the machine at least twice a week and visions of stacks of laundry come into the picture.

Or do I tackle the problem head on and diagnose and repair the damn thing? Besides, by the time I load the thing up, go to town, find an appliance guy who looks like they do decent work, talk to him, settle on a price of sorts, come home, I could have the thing almost fixed.......?

Not wanting the machine to have the best of me, I opted to fix it myself. Yes, I know I can just pay someone to do it, but what would the fun in that be?

I enjoy doing things with my hands especially when I am able to figure out how to repair them. Why pay someone when I can do it myself. I understand that not everyone wants to do things like that, and there are somethings that I will definitely hire out, even though I could do them. For example, painting is one of the things I hate to do.

So, removing the washer skirt, taking apart the unit, I remembered that I had bought a new mixer valve several years ago that I had failed to replace.....after all, you can just reverse the hoses and wash with cold water all the time. So, replacing the solenoid valve was also on the list.

An hour or so later, the machine was back to normal operation. Now all I had to do is close it all up, replace all the screws, test it, move it back inside and enjoy my results.
I first thought that the leak was from the main basket bearing which is a big job, but luckily it was just the water inlet hose and assembly that was at fault.

There are lots of small projects that I have on my list, perhaps it would be easier to just call someone, but then again, I would have to supervise or at least find someone who could do the job without having to worry about having it done right......which is a big problem.

So, no I have one less project to do, fixed the washer, replaced the old valve , what's next?

Having stuff fixed in Mexico is always a lot cheaper than NOB, the only hesitation is how long it may take? Will they be able to get the correct parts? Or will it be patched together only to fail a short time after? Those are always the questions one must consider before tackling the do it yourself job......

Man it's cold outside

2011-05-04T08:30:00.001-05:00

Maybe because their is thunder, lightning and tons of hail.

The outside thermometer last night during the rain said 52 degrees, same time the night before was around 65.

It doesn't help that the hail didn't seem to melt too fast either.

The gutters were overflowing, we had our own cascading waterfall right from the gutters. They are overflowing because the 1 1/2 inch pipe cannot handle the amount of water from the roof.

Waking this morning, taking the dogs out I notice that there was still some left over hail from last nights downpour.
It's only about a inch thick, but last night the rain lasted for about two hours.

The best things about the storm last night, is that our new skylights didn't leak! Not a drop.
With the amount that it pour it would be the test.

The patio filled up with tons of water and hail, if you want to see a video you can go here.
It's about two minutes long, lots of noise too!

It presently only 57, so hopefully it will warm up a tad....just a little to around 70 today.
One can hope.

Things you can do with Nopalitos....

2011-05-03T06:41:00.002-05:00

I love nopalitos, in a marinated salad, as a warm side dish with rice possibly, there are tons of reciepes for using Nopalitos.

But this is not our recipe site, if you want reipes you can go to: Rancho Canyon Cookbook, here we talk about stuff mostly unrelated to much of anything.....As Jerry Seinfeld promoted his TV show, he said it was only about Stuff.

Our Nopalito stuff sits in one corner of our kitchen, we purchased this before the house was even finished, We saw it in a store in Tlaquepaque and we just had to have it.

It is our breakfast or lunch table, sometimes dinner too, the informal table.

We have a formal dining room table with massive chairs, that will sit about a dozen people.
We don't use it unless we have guests over for dinner.

But our Cactus table is used almost every day.

I have never seen another one in all my visits to stores so it may be an only child.
The only reason I am mentioning it , is because when anyone comes over to the house they always comment on it.

The only thing is that you can touch and sit on this chair. I wouldn't recommend sitting on the real Nopales. Could be a sticking situation....

A kitchen tour..........

2011-04-30T11:34:00.000-05:00

After about a dozen years of running lights, first halogen, then becoming somewhat green and switching to florescent, we decided to let the sun do some more of the work, for several reasons. So this last week we had two skylights installed. Now we have pretty decent light during the sunshine days. And hopefully a smaller utility bill.

A couple of people asked to see the layout of the kitchen, I don't think we have devoted much time to a tour, so here is some pictures and miscellaneous information.

In the front of the kitchen, coming in from the courtyard we have an overhang, so light is somewhat stunted, the back door faces North, so although the view is great of the lawn and canyon behind us, it does little for light.

The older I get the more I need light to do the trimming, cutting, julienneing and dicing.

A couple of people asked about a kitchen tour.

Well here goes.

This is my workshop. Because my last kitchen in the states was the size of a large postage stamp, I was lucky to use an outside kitchen most of the year. I promised that if I ever had the chance to build a home I would design the kitchen to accommodate my whims and decadence factors. The layout is about 24 ft by 16 feet. The door you see is on the canyon side of the property.

This is the view from the stove side , above the breakfront is the sole important item in the kitchen. It is a neon coyote. When it is illuminated it signifies that the bar is open for operation. Your popular libations are contained under the bar sink and behind one door of the break front. It has been know that the coyote has kept operational on many days starting a little before lunch to past midnight.

This usually only happens when we have visitors and they are still in halfway decent shape to wake up before lunch. It also usually only happens on weekend and holidays.

Lately we have only had the coyote on once a month or so, seems that he is getting tired of advertising such foolishness.

Here is a better portrait of him. I only plugged him in to snap the picture. Especially since it is still a weekday and the workers are still working on the roof.

And for all of you stoveaphobes, here is the picture of the stove.

You notice that directly under the griddle is a rack which sort of acts like a salamander. It is acceptable, but not as good as a standalone unit that would be mounted on the wall. If there was one thing that I would change would be the efficiency of the burners, or rather the reflected heat take a little too long as compared with a normal salamander. Other than than, it’s a great stove, and it would be hard to whip up some of my dishes without it.

And one last item,

As you know, no kitchen would be authentic without the guardian of cooks and kitchens in Mexico……… Friar Pasqual is known as the patron saints of cooks, a saint in the bowels of the kitchen, the pots, the pans, the spices and smells that make up the flavors and meals of Mexico. He stands on the counter as a reminder to keep the balance between one’s effort to feed invited guests with the bounty of what is offered to us from nature without trying to change something that is grown with man’s hands and honor of the land.

Smoke gets in my eyes......

2011-04-28T07:20:00.000-05:00

One negative thing about living in the forest, is the risk of fire.
The property adjoining ours was clear cut by talamontes last year and we had to clean up all the brush on our fence line after them because of the risk of fire.
Yesterday about 4 in the afternoon I saw some smoke from the south. It was also a little windy so in about 15 minutes we could see that we needed to do something about it.
Our ranch-hand jumped the fence with his machete and started to keep the fire on the other side of the dividing roadway that bisects that parcel.
Brave man,
I stood at the fence line and could hardly breathe. After about an hour it looked like it was sort of out, but still a lot of smoke was still wafting through the air.
I was ready to call the bomberos but he said he though he would have it licked.
A machete and a branch with leaves on it was all he used.
Last night the house was filled somewhat with the residual smoke, making it a little difficult to fall asleep real fast.
This morning, all is clear, just waiting for the sun to pop out from behind the trees for another great day.

Lights, Camera, Action

2011-04-27T11:48:00.004-05:00

As I rounded the corner I sensed that there was something wrong. Usually at 9 AM the plaza streets are somewhat filled with cars, car wash guys with their plastic buckets which will wash your car, all the normal stuff you see.

Not today.

On 3 sides of the big plaza there were no parked cars.

Across the streets there were no parked cars.

I was lucky to find a space for the Tracker, since it is small and tiny I usually take that to go shop. As I was walking to the market, several large van trucks pulled up and parked.
On my return a hour later, there were lights, generators, catering trucks, wardrobe vans, and a handfull of police blowing their wistles at anyone who even looked like they were going to park on the sides of the plaza.

Showtime!

They had already assemble several camera dollies, lots of reflectors and cables, lights and other associated stuff.

The reflectors were set up to illuminate Don Vasco, the Statue, The Man, The Center of the Plaza Grande.
I asked the policeman what they were shooting and he said a movie or TV......

No Kidding.

I could have figured that out.

So, I got out of there before the traffic really got bad and more crouds gather on the side streets to gazed at Mexicowood......

It was kind of interesting to see no cars parked around the plaza in the middle of the day. never have seen that in all the years around here.
There is always a first....

Let there be light!

2011-04-25T15:34:00.003-05:00

One thing that we didn't think would be a big deal when we designed the house 15+ years ago was the amount of light in the kitchen.

The kitchen is fairly large, includes a big restaurant type stove, with deep fryer, gas grill, oven, the whole shebang.

From time to time I give some cooking classes here, so I wanted it big.

But what happened is that it was dark.
Dark kitchen costs a lot to light up.

So, we decided to add two skylights to the kitchen, but based on how much light the one brings in so far, we may opt for two more on the North side, perhaps next year...we'll see how two work out. Maybe two will be sufficient.

So today the workers showed up to penetrate the roof.

Hopefully they will finish before a downpour occurs, the clouds are getting a tad dark.

We'll show you the finished result next week.

Христос воскрес! Воистину воскрес!

2011-04-24T08:23:00.013-05:00

Tá Críost éirithe! Go deimhin, tá sé éirithe!
Tha Crìosd air èiridh! Gu dearbh, tha e air èiridh!
Chrystus zmartwychwstał! Prawdziwie zmartwychwstał!
¡Cristo ha resucitado! ¡En verdad ha resucitado!
Christ est ressuscité! Il est vraiment ressuscité!
Cristo è risorto! È veramente risorto!

I think I have most of my friends covered there........

This year the Russian Easter falls on the same day as Catholic Easter and the Passover, some years there are several weeks difference because of the Julian Calender.

Today looks like it is going to be a grand and beautiful Sunday. I had my usual ritual this morning, sadly thinking that the closest Russian Church is in Mexico City. That's one of the things that I miss on special days like this, it brings back many memories of growing up in the city, attending 3 to 4 hour church services with my family....
Hopefully the Lord will accept my feeble reverence outside amongst the trees for a few minutes.

I keep saying that one of these years I will put together a Russian Easter Dinner Table and invite a few friends over to sample what I grew up on, but substitutions will have to be made.

I use to help my grandmother prepare the Paska and Kulitch every year, maybe that's what plumped me up in my formative years.

One of the rewards was to clean the mixing bowl after she made the Paska. Paska is a Russian dessert that is made in a form like a pyramid and is made from bakers cheese, lots of eggs, butter, all those low calories real healthy items.

She always would make Kulitch also. That is a most sweet bread something like the Italian Panitone, but sweeter and much more dense and heaver. This was baked in metal coffee cans that were about 6 to 8 inch in diameter and 12 to 14 inches high. If you are ancient you will remember that coffee came in giant cans in the 40's and 50's.

For many it will be just another day, so make the most of it also!

Wishing all a very Happy Easter, Passover and Spring Break......

Now go enjoy your family and the day.....we woke up, what a blessing!

Oh, and for my other friends.......have a nice Sunday!

Our microclimate

2011-04-23T08:43:00.000-05:00

I have been getting some flack about the rainy season.

We are located on a mountainside several kilometers outside Patzcuaro, overlooking the lake and surrounding mountains.
I shot this video on Thursday, simply because there might be some people out there than need to see how our weekly down pour looks, maybe to cool you off.
Sort of the yule log, that you see on your tv for 24 hours burning each Christmas......

The rain started about 3 weeks ago, and has arrived once each week. Next month it will be almost a daily situation.
Funny thing was that immediately after the rain, I drove down to Patzcuaro and about 2 km down the road, the road was as dry as could be.
Either I live under a dark cloud or there is something to the clouds coming in and stopping on the mountain.
If you would like to see a minute or two of the rain, a little hail and thunder click here.
Otherwise here is the cloud that arrived about 15 minutes before the rain.

Why oh why, or what's the point?

2011-04-22T08:34:00.003-05:00

There is nothing more than I hate is that of wasting time.
Maybe because I have less sand in the hourglass than I had a year ago. Maybe because there are so many things that I want to do and as the cliche says " so little time".

So when my desktop computer started acting lame, I knew that I would waste a lot of time trying to resolve the issue.

And I was right.

For some reason I got an virus, or malware or trojan horse, a pain in the ass no matter what you want to call it.

What the malady was is if you put in a line on a google or yahoo search , your result would come in, but when you clicked on it, it would take you to a totally different site.

Calling a computer guru friend of mine in Northern California, he instantly knew it was the Goggle Redirect....Great.....So what's the cure I asked?

Well................

The cure would be to start the computer in safe mode then run one of the anti virus programs.
In my minuscule conceptual logic, I failed to understand how if my virus program didn't catch the dastardly virus the first time it would do it again.

It failed miserably.

I ran, one first, then another, and because the culprit did it's work rather well, I couldn't down load it on the computer, I had to put it on my laptop first, then transfer it to the desktop, so on and so on.

It was not my day, to have functionality, at least on the computer.

After multiple scans it found nothing.

I even restored to back a week or two, which made it work.......Great...... for about 1 hour and it was back.
Now my restore was corrupted.

More time, tried another malware virus program, then it got worse.
Now the computer only worked in safe mode.

Only one thing left to do is copy my photos, documents and any other stuff and reinstall the operating system.
Next hassle.

In trying to copy my photos, my file had about 5 gigs of photos.
My flash drive was only a 4 gig unit.

No problem, I buzz down to Soriana and pick up some DVD, and burn them with the photos and docs.

Well it sounds good, but there is a difference between a R+ and a R- DVD. My computer didn't like the R+ I found after I bought a half dozen of them.
Luckily a friend brought over one R- DVD and that worked for most of the pictures and the flash worked for the remainder.

With the data that I needed off the hard drive, it was time to reinstall the OS. But first one last check.
Photos.....off.
Documents .....off
Drivers for the printer and VPN......off.

So the power goes off and we put in the OS disk, reboot the computer and start reinstalling the OS.
All goes well after about 30 minutes.
Up comes up the Internet.......searches go like they are suppose to.
I download Firefox, install my Xmarks program and test one of my bookmarks.
It goes to the site and asks for the password.
........................................................

I forgot to transfer all the passwords from Firefox. Some I cannot remember, some where from friends who have the original permission, oh Crap.

So now I will have to piece together the password collection which amount only to about a dozen or so, but it will be more work.

So, I hope the person is reeling in their chair, enjoying their virus plant, because I fail to see what benefit it poses for them other than to piss people off.
Too bad there are no easy ways to figure out exactly who is responsible for such a waste of time and resources.

The real disappointing thing is that the spyware was suppose to catch this kind of stuff and it failed miserably.

On the bright side, installing the OS, at least gave me a fresh start and the computer boots up faster now because a lot of the garbage stuff over the years is gone from the registry files and the old computer is running like new......at least for the time being. Now I just have to figure out where the damn thing came from, which I doubt I ever will.

Probably one of those dastardly blogs that some retired person is writing about Mexican flowers or beans....... You take your pick.

Or perhaps it was one of those sites where I can order pills to restore all my hair all over my body.
No one will ever know.

Computer troubleshooting and repair all totaled, 12 hours.
Experience received, not wanted.....priceless.

What a difference a week makes...........

2011-04-17T11:54:00.004-05:00

We usually will try and go out for dinner at a local restaurant one night a week. I suppose you can call it "date night".
I don't have to cook dinner and my wife doesn't have to clean up. Kind of a win-win situation.

We have several favorite restaurants in Patzcuaro, we usually show up around 7:30 or 8 o'clock and most of the time we are one of maybe another couple. Sometimes there may be a 2nd couple but most of the time it's nice and quite and peaceful.

Not so this week.

Yesterday the big plaza was full of vendors bringing their stuff to foist on unsuspecting visitors from afar.
I noticed license plates from D.F., Queretaro, Vera Cruz and a few from Tamaulipas and Sonora.

That would explain why at 8:30 our hideaway restaurant was full. It only has seating for about 20 people and at 9:45 a gaggle of 10 sauntered in wanting a table.
These were all visitors from D.F.

I could tell. Frocks from Palacio De Hierro, Liverpool and Salinas and Roche were sported.

Nice clogs imported from Italy were the loafers of the day, Gucci bags were toted.
It was nice to see that money was being funneled into tiny little Patzcuaro.

The staff at the restaurant was already running slow and this party of 10 would be probably be the last service of the night.
Pure profit for this tiny mom and pop eatery.

Walking back to the car which was now the sole vehicle parked on the street, things were still busy with teenagers dressed nice walking the narrow streets. They were headed towards our big plaza, hopefully to spend some money and party.

The plaza vendors were still open, lights were ablaze under the canvas cover provided by the municipality, some vendors took to the streets setting up their booths where cars would normally park.....maybe it was free there or perhaps it was a second thought to join the festivities for this week. Those were not so lucky to have lights so, they brought their own smoky generators to keep the noise level up and disturbing.

During November there are a lot of interlopers into town, those usually come from many counties, filling hotels and restaurants with foreign babble, but during Semana Santa it is all nationals.
Ok. I did see a few new Gringo faces around town, but just a few.

There seems to be more people this year than last....maybe the bad PR is wearing thin and folks just want to go back to what seemed to be normal.

Or perhaps the economy is picking up a tad.
Hard to say.

All I know is that this week I will limit my trips to ones that are absolutely necessary simply because of the lack of parking and the flurry of out of towners.

Not that I don't welcome visitors............I am not a crowd person.

I will snap a photo or two if I get the chance. Hopefully it will not rain this week, our rainy season is learking out there somewhere, we had another heavy rain last Thursday, so it's time to test out the new roof, which has already passes it's first test.

Both busy and quiet week, Semana Santa, depending on which side of the calle you wish to stand on.....

Renewal Time

2011-04-14T23:18:00.000-05:00

Every end of March, beginning of April, we have to take our registration slip out of the cars, pickup truck and schlep them down along with a pocket full of pesos to the local DMV.

You then wait in line pay your license fees, if you happen to have a new vehicle, you also get the honor of paying a super tax which amounts to a tidy sum, because you have enough money to have purchase a "new" car.

In the states we can renew our licenses via the Internet, never ever having to be morally abused by the government worker who feels like they are doing you a honor of talking to you.

In Patzcuaro, the interchange is always fairly prompt, unless someone in front of you in line has to ask a question of a supervisor.

Then all hell breaks loose.

The supervisor has to show all involved that they are the Supervisor
It's a class thing,

Working class vs the supervisory class. All is usually well until the Supervisor is called to task from the Manager. That is often fun to hear and see.

We have not been hassled in a few years, but the person in line in front of us, simply lost a paper of some sort. In years before they simply looked at the previous year paperwork but not today.

Today it was a big deal. I kind of felt sorry for this person, he looked about 75 or so, a working farmer, who had a pickup truck he was trying to have the name changed to add his son. He expalined that in years past this was sufficent paperwork......

Not this time.

Some things are myriad in bureaucratic paperwork designed to facilitate the inefficiency to provide as many meaningless jobs as possible.

A typical govment job.

After sitting waiting while this transaction was taking place, 5, minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, we were fortunate to have another clerk return from a break.

We paid our pesos, got our vision impairing stickers which must be affixed to the rear windshield, obscuring visibility over the years which would garner a ticket NOB.

There are some of these stickers that obviously hold the window together, I have seen as many as 15 or 20 of these postcard sized decals......
On our Tracker, we have to paste these on the front glass, since the rest of the windows are plastic and would not adhere, at least I haven't tried. So on the right side the window is starting to show the sticker history.....one of the marks of the beast of local taxation.

We left with our stickers and the old farmer was still at the counter trying to have his case understood. I could just imagine what a difficult time I would have had.
I don't do well with bureaucratic BS.

Reach out and touch someone

2011-04-10T11:59:00.003-05:00

Sitting here on the patio,this beautiful Sunday , I am reading a book by Rabbi Daniel Lapin called Thought Tools.

I enjoy his writings.

He also has a radio show which I sometimes am able to catch, but not lately.

I guess it's my way of Sunday Soul Searching, Meditiaion, Revalation, or what ever you may call it.

I like to reflect on things on Sunday for some reason, not that I don't do it during the week now and then , it just seems that Sunday is better suited for.

Sitting on the patio, I hear less traffic on the road, the stereo is playing Deuter or perhaps George Winston....mellow music for Sunday.

I enjoy mellow music for some reason, especially on Sundays.

Anyway, one of the chapters the good ole Rabbi is talking about is how we communicate. Which made me stop and think that it wasn't to long ago that Sundays were made for communicating with family and friends.

There were multitude of advertisements on radio and TV to reach out and touch someone. It was cheaper to call long distance on Sundays and Holidays.

I remember family waiting for Sundays to call relatives. It's wasn't that long ago that phone calls were very expensive.
Remember person to person calls?

One of the tricks we use to use to let someone know that we had either arrived at a destination or that everything was OK was to call for ourselves person to person through the operator, You would call your home, one of your family would answer and the operator would allow the caller to hear you either ask for yourself or tell the answering party who you would want to talk to.

When the other family member would say that the person wasn't there, you would hear their voice, they would hear your voice asking for, and saying that you would try later.

Kind of a real cheap way of letting them know things were ok.

Now there is no need to do that because phone calls are relatively cheap, pennies per minute.
Sundays were families days.

One more hour of reading, then finish up some projects, and enjoy the rest of this super Sunday.
And we'll reach out and call some friends NOB for some gossip.

Our first rain, or what do you call it?

2011-04-06T15:56:00.005-05:00

Precisely at 3:4 PM5 the first scatter drops hit the pavement, my wife chortled me by saying you are imagining it.
Not.
Then it started a little heavier,
Now it is raining good enough to move all the lawn furnture out of the rain, the brown dry earth can certainly use it.

There are some who said it wouldn't rain for another 2 months.

But then again some people live in the low lands.

You decide......

Mustard with that?

2011-04-05T06:41:00.000-05:00

We don't wind up in town too much in the evening. I don't know if it is the fear that some driver who has had one or two six packs for the road will careen into us, but most of my near misses have always been after 6PM.

Maybe it's because a lot of the stores are closed and there is really nothing worth while to come down to the plaza for, unless one is waiting for La Senora to finish her appointment.

It was our anniversary last week and one of the gifts that I gave her was a massage at a local health joint.

It is kind of a funny looking place, you walk in there and there are thousands of bottles filled with every conceivable remedy for whatever ails you.

You got diabetes, they have the cure, you can't fall asleep , they have a tea, you look ugly they have a salve you can put on your face, and if you want to relax and have a burly 300 lb ex Navy mechanic rub your muscles, they could probably find one.

Luckily she had a elderly woman rub her silly. I guess.

I wasn't sure what I would do, I knew that the massage would take two hours, so do I go home and return or just hang around and wait.

Since we live about 10 minutes away and if she called me when her session was over, she would have to wait until I returned, I opted to wait around.

Finding a parking space on the corner, I perched myself to observe a typical evening in town.
Between the hours of 6:30 and 8:30 this is what I was able to observe.

Customers do not frequent the atole cart very often. In two hours only one person actually bought one. Not a good night for the owner/operator I would think, but then again I don't know how much it costs to keep the atole hot.

The at 7:45 a taxi pick up truck pulled up to the corner dragging a hot dog cart with operator. The owner wrestled the cart of the trailer hitch and with profound experience shoved it up the sidewalk to his evening corner.

Within about 10 minutes there was a group of hungry clients waiting for him to finish. For the remained of my wait time, which was about 45 minutes he filled no less that 25orders.

Much better than the Atole stand.............

Dólares no son bienvenidos , no aceptan.....

2011-04-02T07:59:00.001-06:00

Well how long did you think it was going to last?
With the NOB gov running printing presses 32 hours a day, how could the value keep up?

Simple Answer......It's can't.

But the all knowing , politicians want to spend more .

Something will happen, and it will not be good, so to say.

Here is an interesting article I was forwarded today.

I don't know about you, but there has been a lot of hassle in selling dollars to convert to pesos lately.
They no longer take dollars in place they use to.
I wonder why.

Check out: Dollars no more

I did notice about a year ago when I walked into the local Santander bank that I had to bring my passport and ID, something I never had to do before. All I wanted was to swap 500 bucks.

Think about what that will mean in your life SOB.

Let me know.......

I am open minded.

The weather is a changin

2011-04-01T08:24:00.000-06:00

Yesterday and the day before the skies above the lake were filled with billowy clouds. We haven't seen dark clouds in awhile, so it appears that Spring is sprung, the land is ready for some rain, which will start in a month or so.

Not having checked my almanac, don't even know if there is one for Mexico, but I started getting warm for these parts.

We went to Morelia yesterday and it was in the low 90's. Returning to Patzcuaro around 4 was indicating 77 degrees on the outside weather gauge.

It will continue being in the mid 80's to low 90's around the area for awhile, and as long as you are not in the direct sun it is pleasant, with little or no humidity in these here parts.

We were thinking of running over to the beach, but I think we have missed our window of good temperature, since a friend came back from Zihuatanejo and said that it was warm to hot during the days and they had to run the AC in the evening for several hours to cool down.
AC, a cool Michelada, ( A Michelada is a drink that is made with your favorite beer, Clamato or Tomato juice, served in a salt rimmed glass with ice in it ) the beach then Semana Santa or Holy Week will arrive, so all the beaches and resorts will fill up with locals from Mexico City and around the country.

Not a good time to be looking for a quiet getaway anywhere in the land.

There are many things to do, for one we need to replace our gutters for the oncoming rainy season. The roof overhaul is almost finished so the big project for the year is almost history. We will be able to spend more time reading and running around, unless we need to get involved in another maintenance project around the property......

Wallace and Gromit

2011-03-28T08:42:00.000-06:00

Ok, how many of you know who these characters are to the right here?

I recently figured out a way to get Netflix hookup into Mexico and this was one of the series that is available to me now.

First of all, don't get all excited to the prospect of getting your
own Netflix hookup unless you know someone in the states that
will let you get a high speed DSL connection dedicated to setting up a Virtual Private Network (VPN).

I am sure that a lot of you have tried to hook up various services to your Internet like Netflix, Hulu , Pandora, at a myriad of other. The screen usually says that the service is not available in this area.

It can be done, but is rather involved.

The reason I had to set up the network is because I am doing a little consulting work for several people and needed a secure connection, where I could connect to their network.

One of the benefits is that my local connection in Patzcuaro provides me with a IP address which is actually stateside.
The only advantage that I can see at this point is being able to get unlimited movies downloaded for 10 bucks a month. I do have to admit that I have watched more movies in the last couple of months that I have in years.

The characters on the page are from an UK cartoon series called Wallace and Gromit. It is really a cute adult style cartoon, sort of like Southpark is, but on a much milder theme.

I only started watching Southpark after years of friends telling me how funny it was, I resisted watching until about a year ago and now I am hooked on the program. It is a politically incorrect show which pokes fun on and at everything.

Funny how it is that being a kid how funny cartoons were, I remember seeing them and cheering when they came on the screen at our local movie house The Haight Theater in the city. Then during school years the Flintstones were out and I like a lot of my friends were glued to the TV on Friday nights.

Then after those years, cartoons for some reason ceased to be funny, I am sure that they were but maybe false sophistication prevented me watching them. After all, watching cartoons would be considered juvenile, wouldn't it?

Then about two or three years ago I notice that they had a unusual appeal again. Watching some of the older ones brought back grand memories, watching the new ones, bring in awe of how adult and sophisticated the humor presently is.

Wallace and Gromit , Southpark and The Simpsons now catch my eye.....

Interesting in a humorous sort of way.....

El Aniversario

2011-03-25T08:35:00.004-06:00

It was a beautiful afternoon and Tancho was surrounded by some if his closest friends. In those days Tancho still have an regular income, so he sprung to treat his buddies to accommodations at ground zero.

Family and friends had come from the west coast, for many it was the first time to be on an island.

What was better is that only 30 suites were on the island and no telephones or television had any place on the property. If you ask Sherman in his wayback machine to dial in lots of years Harry Truman had this place to himself as his getaway, while he was the man in charge.

The island was off the coast of another island called Marathon. It's actually name was Little Torch Key, and what better place to share such a perfect event.

La Señora and Tancho had been there once before so we knew we just had to go back and share the experience.

It was worth it.

Tancho brought a White Coat Tuxedo for the occasion and LaSeñora was frocked in a flowing white gown, it could not have been more perfect.

Then at sunset the event transpired, that of joining our lives together witnesses by close friends and family.

This was not the first time for Tancho nor for La Señora, but this was the best and last time for us.
At least that was the plan.

We have been together for over 22 years and joined by vows for 12.

Today is the start of another year
Señora was 12 years younger than Tancho, so the age difference was quite interesting at our first meeting. Now it doesn't seem like very much.
La Señora has kept Tancho much younger in his attitude and life and hopefully will continue that for a few more seasons to come.

So today we will buzz down to a great restaurant down the road a spell, one that is covered by flowing fauna and lush vegetation we will have a nice afternoon and mark the start of more years to enjoy.

We have returned to our little island one time after our event and hopefully we will be able to one more time in the future.

We love the Florida Keys, especially Key West which is really a great destination filled with super weather, sights, sounds and people.

If there was any other spot that I would enjoy living, it would be Key West. My only hesitation is the traveling hassle factor. We had none in those days, now it's disparaging how unpleasant travel can be... but we must look on the bright side of things.

So, off the keyboard, onto the rest of the day to enjoy La Señora for another day!

Why oh Why?

2011-03-22T01:04:00.005-06:00

I went to our local mega mart store yesterday to buy some chicken for dinner.
Low and behold there were chickens in the refrigerator case that looked weird because they were devoid of any color that I am use to ...
They were white.
They were Gringo Chickens.
Yep, for some reason Soriana imports chicken from the states, that has none of the yellow color that I am use to in my chicken. Here is the recipe if you are interested
I forget the brand now, but it is one of the mega farm processors that dominate the industry NOB.
Why on earth would they do that?
Are some of their customers asking for this product or is it cheaper, inquiring minds what to know.

I will keep buying the local birds, which I usually do, at the mercado early in the morning.

White birds, what's next? Next they will be putting eggs in the refrigerators.........

Purple Haze

2011-03-19T08:27:00.007-06:00

No not the one you are thinking of.....

As you travel around the country you see multiple fires that are set from agriculture burn. Not that burning old corn and other waste is exclusive to this time, but it seems more prevalant.

Mexicans burn everything.

Coconut husks and fronds are probably the worst in the smell department. Corn fields not so bad, but one habit they have is to set fire to the land adjecnt to roads, that sometimes is an intersting predicament since between the smoke and the visibility that gets limited from the bellowing blowing smoke.
Perhaps the roadside fires are a result of some tossed out cigarette butts, but based on how many they are, I sometimes wonder.

The normal pristine view of the lake with Janitzio is sometimes a little difficult to see because of the haze, a few more months, the rains will bring cleansing to the dust that settles on the grass and leaves that have been dusted from speeding vehicles and wind placed from the dry looose soil.
So, not too many landscape pictures unless they are on the beach.... but with nice weather inland there is no reason to do that, now just now.

Drab Earth Tones

2011-03-05T08:55:00.005-06:00

The last time I was put in charge of buying anything for the formal dinner table was a long time ago.

In fact it was a real long time ago, so long that I cannot remember.

What I do remember was that everything was "Earth Tones"
Earth Tones is another word for drab colors especially when you consider the normal color scheme of stuff in Mexico.

Lime Green walls for businesses wanting a free paint job as long as you put Castrol on the wall.

If Lime Green isn't your color then how about bright yellow?

All you need there is Bardahl painted all over your building....

We are having some friends over for dinner this weekend and along with some great flowers, that don't have Earth Tones, I figured we'll get some new place mats , napkins, you know the stuff you put on the table only when company comes.

There are several shops around the plazas that cater to the home accessory junkie. Walking in to one the other day I could not believe the variety of colors that someone would use to put on their table.
Well they did have green and orange, is that close enough to earth tones? Not in Mexico.
I went ahead an got plain old orange, which will match the porcelain orange pumpkin we bought years ago in one of the tiangis somewhere, I think it was Tzintzuntzan if my memory serves me right.
That is what I like , the absence of any restraint of color. Why not? You only go around once.....I hope.

I cannot believe that they didn't have any Earth Tones, olive, brown, tan, dark green and don't forget beige.

My Old Stereo Amplifier

2011-02-26T13:04:00.002-06:00

A what amplifier?

Lots of people do not know what a Stereo Amplifier is, let alone what a component system comprised of a AM-FM tuner, some with a Stereo Multiplex adapter, a preamplifier, an amplifier and then several speakers of which to attach them to is or should I say was.

I have an old Fisher set up which I brought down years ago, which I presently had it connected to our TV so that I can watch movies and stuff and be able to turn up the volume...so to speak.

Now, kids only have MP3 players or an Ipod to bring them the sounds of music.

A few years ago, it was a boom box.

Many years ago it was a stereo component system.

Well, the Fisher Stereo Amplifier lost one of it's channels. Checking around lately in the stores they no longer sell just amplifiers, they are home theater system......
So now what am I to do.

Although I am capable of troubleshooting to the component level the amplifier, I know that one thing in Mexico is cheap.... that of having stuff repaired.

NOB, to repair the amplifier would first take about half a morning to ferret out where and to whom to take it to. Let alone possibly finding a place anymore.

There are no longer Radio TV shops , several in days past, conveniently located in every neighborhood.

If you still have a local TV Radio repair shop, one then you are one lucky person..... Or you better check to see if the sign you see in the front of the establishment is still what is located behind the door.

The problem for the last 10 to 20 years has been that it is cheaper to simply buy a new better replacement than to fix the old one.

But better then are not! Cheaper......yes, better no way.

I don't even think that Fisher is still around to get parts and stuff anymore. Gone are the days of HH Scott, Harmon-Kardon, Dynaco, and the top of the line Marantz. I know, one of early jobs while in high school was working for House of Sound in San Francisco in the early 60's.

Now it is either Sony, Panasonic or LG. If really cheap some name that sounds expensive, something like Techlab, Dynamic or Axiam.

Now I know the reputation for repair shops in Mexico, they can virtually fix anything.
There was a small store front on Fredrico Tena that I kept passing on my way down to the main plaza for years.

I'll bet he can fix my amplifier.

So, I disconnected it and tossed it in the car to take down to him. He was closed.

So in the back of the car it sat for about a week until one day I saw the door open. Finding a parking space close I retrieved the amplifier and walked in and placed it on his tiny but functional counter.

"Oy' that's old, he said....

Yes, but they don't build them like this anymore, is what I said.

I proceeded to tell him my diagnosis and he confirmed the issue. Come back in a week or so.

Well, I waited about a month for my return, since I know that 50% of the time, a time reference is not upheld.

Returning I paid him 200 pesos for the replacement Amplifier module which also included labor.
I am one happy Hi Fi aficionado again.

No where NOB would anyone even attempt to look at let alone repair anything for 20 bucks.
Can't be done.

You got, overhead, insurance, workman's comp, electric and gas bills, association dues, yellow page advertising, chamber of commerce dues, city licenses, state license, all of which add to the overhead and prevent a competent technician from repairing the same amplifier for a reasonable price.

NOB that repair job would have been at least $250 dollars.

First of all they have a minimum labor charge of $90.00

Then the time it takes to research and order the part, getting it, installing it, testing it, to be sure it all worked, because for some reason it everything didn't work absolutely positively perfect, the store would expect to be sued in small claims count, that will add to the labor bill of about another hour, so now we are up to 180 dollars minimum.

Don't forget the hazardous waste disposal fee, the fee of tossing out the defective part which may or may not include some toxic product.

Now you know why so many businesses NOB have closed.

If my amplifier quits working, after 6 months, I have no one to sue. I will simply disconnect it, return it to the shop and pay another 20 bucks or so to have it worked on.

Plain and simple.

I like simple..........no I love simple.

An Internet Switch

2011-02-21T18:33:00.000-06:00

I was reading several articles about the goings on in the world where big changes were done on the political scene via Facebook and some other social media sites.

In Tunisia the change of the government was started by a sold lone fruit vendor who had his local bureaucrat impound his scale so he could no longer sell fruit, in turn could no longer feed his family on the ten dollars a day he made.

Seems he needed a permit for it, but as the story went it was basically a strong arm to extort money.

He had enough.

He went to the city offices and protested and set himself on fire.

Wow.....that's a statement. I have often thought of the glamor of finding a tank and driving up into the local building department enforcement office, but never taking a gasoline shower with a match for the drying cycle.
He is now a dead hero.
Tunisia is/has a new government and several other countries are doing the same thing.

Egypt for one.

This would not have been possible without the Internet and lots of students with links to Facebook.
But there is a threat to all of this.
They did use it in Egypt.
On - Off Switch.
The current Obama Administration has indicated they would yank the switch should anything like that happen, in the interest of National Security.

Just when you think there is a great way to communicate, get the news from the world, send and receive emails and photos, audio and video files......
Someone is holding the power to let you share information, in the information age.

If the net went down, we no longer have the same infrastructure that we did 50 years ago, where we recieve our news. I don't know about you, but I get about 75% of my new fix via this medium.
When I stared in broadcasting back in the 60's, the only news source we had at the radio station was a model 28 teletype machine, fed with a huge box of yellow paper....

There are no more Associated Press, United Press International machines chinking and clinking in a special room with occasional bells that signified an important alert.

When the net goes down.....that's it.
Kaput.
The whole world now releys on the net, accept for some small village served by the Amazon River Transportation Cooperative.......
There has been a lot of controversy about Net Neutrality, wanting to keep Government out of the Internet.
I have not read what Mexico's position is on the regulation of the Internet, so I really can't see much action be necessitated by any local happenings.
The only question is that I am pretty sure that the majority of the connections Mexico does get come from the Texas connections.
I just can see Mexico relying on connectivity from their neighbors from the south...
I just hope that somehow the Internet remains open, free and accessible.

I don't know how you feel about the Wiki-leaks situation from about a month ago, but that kind of freedom and dissemination of information is probably the only way that free societies will be able to remain.

Nix on censorship.

But that's just my opinion.............

Living in a forest

2011-02-16T03:05:00.009-06:00

One of the questions that I get asked is the location of our property.
How's the beach?
Which beach?
We visit the beach, we don't live there. Mexico is not all beaches and deserts, sorry.

Just like the US is not all swampland and fields of flowing wheat.

There are beaches and mountains, after all the Sierra Madre Mountain Chain that transverses Mexico and winds up in Southern California and Arizona actually start in and around the southern portion of Mexico.

If you are looking for diverse land that includes almost all types and varied places to settle there is almost everything like that down here.

There are great beaches, some of which are also beautiful pristine beaches that you can't swim at.

When we were looking for property back in the early 80's we almost settled for some beachfront land in a place called Lazaro Cardenas.

There were beautiful beaches, great lagoons wtih alligators, tons of sea food stands selling shrimp and fish, rivers flowing into the sea that you would drive through, absolutely gorgeous.
But you couldn't swim there.
Not that I would get up each morning and go swim 5 miles in the surf, at the time it was way too warm and humid....but it was very tempting.
This was also before the superhighway was completed to the coast.
When land was very cheap. Now it is almost unaffordable. At least for us and anyone I know.

So, we opted for the mountains where the days are great and the evenings are crisp and cool.

Makes us have to use firewood to heat the house. Unfortuantly we do not use all of our trees since they tend to plug up the chimneys. We do use the sapwood always to start the fires.

In Mexico you can find snow covered peaks where people snow ski and you can find endless miles of dry desert. You can find lush jungles with flora and fauna that would take you years to address. You can find villages that have 10 people living in them and you can find one of the worlds largest populated cities.

And most of the time life is good. There are ups and downs just like NOB.
So don't hesitate to come to the beaches, but consider the beautiful towns and villages, cities in the middle of the country too.

And yes, there is crime down here, just like in other places in the world.

Dog days of Winter

2011-02-14T16:54:00.004-06:00

Or should it be dias de la Perro.....
Last night was warmer than it has been in the last few months. Today it is teetering around the mid 80's. My inside weather report on the internet said it was going to be 90.

Maybe, but not on the mountain. Possible in town in the direct sunlight wearing a nice black felt cotton shirt with long sleeves......

Today it appears that winter is 2/3 gone. That means that it will start having nights dropping down in the 40's and not like the 30's which has been the norm since mid November.

Time to allow the seedlings that have been taking up valuable counter space inside to be pushed a little closer to the harsh reality of outside.
Kind of like tossing out the kids at home when they hit their 19th birthday. After all you don't want them hanging around the house, getting lanky and lazy?

That's exactly what plants will do. They get lanky because they have to stretch to see the sun.
The problem is that due to all the trees there are few places around the house that have direct sunlight. I usually move the tray around so that they get exposed to a wide variety of directions. Kind of what having your kids being "street smart" does for making them understand what society will accept and not accept.

The "street smarts" aspect of kids is sadly lacking in a lot of places nowadays NOB, their social skills are melded by sitting in front of a computer or texting at the dinner table.
If you are going to all the trouble of doing that, isn't it a lot easier to just call the person on their cell phone?

That is something I do not understand. When you talk to someone you can hear their voice inflections. You can hear their anger or angst. Not so on texting unless you test bad words.........

So off to make the bed for which the new plants will lie the next months hopefully growing into nice patches of dill, oregano, mint, chives, parsley both Italian and curly.
Our basil was populated last November and has been slowly slowly growing in the nights, we built a plastic greenhouse about a meter square to protect them from the chilly nights.

Between Basil, Parsley and Chives that amounts to 80% of our herb addition. Although there is Parsley abound at the mercados and stores, it is lifeless for the most part, the store bought Basil is dismal to say the least. I have yet to see Chives sold in our local mercado and we use it quite regularly.

Many of the herbs that are taken for granted are slow to be found around these parts. Designer lettuce is non existent except for purchase at the Costco in Morelia. One of the things that we grow year round is our lettuces. Our climate here never allows them to bolt, so we just keep hacking them off at the base.

Well, off to make beds for the kids.....which we will transplant to outside probably by the weekend.

A Veritable Money Generator

2011-02-10T11:30:00.004-06:00

I was sitting in the truck waiting for my wife the other day, I snapped a few pictures of the roof line in town.

I was looking for opportunities.

I figured out a way out of the financial crisis that Mexico is having.

A simple solution, very simple.

Simple minds, simple solutions.
A Tile Tax.

For each time made from the bounty of the earth, simply collect a peso.

Put a ceiling on it. From the top of the ceiling to the bottom of the coffer.

Look at the lost revenue.

Make it an annual tax perhaps.

1000 tiles, 1000 pesos a year tax.

Some homes would get off cheap, especially if you use metal or oil impregnated paper sheets.
The big houses with millions of tiles would pay through the nose.

After all, the big houses can afford more.
Look at all the jobs it would create.

Field Tile Counter
Tile Auditor
Tile Clerk
Ministry of Tile Revenue
Tile Collector
Tile Inspector
Tile Standard and Materials Panel (you have to be sure no toxic chemicals are used)

It would also spawn a new industry which would include, Tile awareness month, Tile Diversity Celebrations, Tile Resources and Sustainability Groups, Tile Color and Thickness Certification and Standards.......I can go on.......

If it worked then the US could copy it and solve their dilemma.

They could be put in charge, me a Tile Czar..... I like it.

Just a thought from a simple mind.......

Knock Knock

2011-02-07T15:24:00.001-06:00

Doors tell a lot.
There have been many artists that have done their whole portfolio based on doors.

Doors tell you if there is something behind them that is worth blocking or guarding.

They tell you of how old they are and how many time they may have been knocked down.

Some doors are massive like these.

Others are tiny, big enough for only a body to walk through, sometime sideways and hunched down a little.

These doors have been around for quite a few years.
They make a statement.
They tell a story.
They offer a mystery.
These doors appear that they were only used for people.
Lots of people, I don't think horses came through these portals, but you never know.

The thickness of the wood, the craftsmanship would cost a pretty penny now. Or rather peso.

The wood is at least 4 to 5 inches thick, and that's at the thinnest part. There are many doors like this around Mexico.
Some held in the families of Haciendas of the past.

This door has been around many generations of owners. One of my favorite things to photograph are doors and doorways.
I figured you might enjoy seeing this massive piece of handcraft.....

The newer version on the left just doesn't have any history to it in comparison..............

A hush falls over the evening.....

2011-02-01T13:32:00.002-06:00

We usually do not go into town after mid or late afternoon.
But sometimes we need to for some thing or another, so we combine it with dinner out, you know a night on the town......

Ok, how about a night on the plaza.

It has been cool and the plaza at 7 at night is deserted. Under the arches there are usually some chairs and people and merchants.
Not at 7.

We had dinner at one of the places on the plaza and wandered around. It is such a contrast of wandering during the day that I just had to snap a picture.

Quiet, tranquil, calm and mellow. A nice time to wander around with the wife. Kind of a different scene than during the day. And even more different than on a busy holiday.

An afternoon snack

2011-01-28T15:07:00.007-06:00

Fridays in Mexico, I was taught were social Fridays.
That's where the boss-man would take off about noon, meet his buddies, start lunch with a few shots then take the rest of the afternoon with his buds, first on libations then lunch, then more drinking, then around 4 or so, if you had a casa chica, a little entertainment before you head home.

Those were the old days in Mexico City when I would meet friends business associates and get instructed in the corrupt, decadent ways of life......Some people would say I was a good student, other would say I was a dismal failure.

Anyway, there are no more social Fridays of old...now everyone still seems to work throughout lunch in the big DF.

Meanwhile, Fridays is the day that I drop off LaSeñora at her hair appointment. She always tells me that it will only take about an hour and a half.

It always takes at least 3 or 4....sometimes longer depending on if she is getting some "Color" put back in, she calls them highlights.....

The place she goes has the guy that does her hair, constantly floating about 8 to 10 inches above the floor. Maybe sashaying would be a more descriptive word..... I like floating.

These afternoons usually gives me time to wander around aimlessly finding new things about Patzcuaro.

One of my last sessions I found a great store that had lots of men's clothes. The store was jam packet to the ceiling with a pretty decent assortment of shirts, pants, jeans and mishmash of clothes. It had a nice dark blue Western style shirt, which I traded a few pesos for......

The store is considerably cheaper than the stores in Morelia, and you can give a nice tip to his son.
His customer satisfaction and packaging employee, who I assume who is autistic, does a grand job of packing and presenting you with your purchase.
He also wishes you a good day and thanks you for your purchase!
It's nice to see that they offer some employment to him, seems so much more dignified than just putting him on the payroll to guard the family couch at home.

These times also give me a chance to stop and taste some of the places that ordinarily we would not visit to go for lunch.
Not that LaSeñora is finicky, it's just that I have a little more adventurous streak. At least that's what I call it......

So today I have stopped at a place and have ordered a uchepos (pronounced wa-che-pos).
It's basically a sweet corn tamale that is serviced with some queso fresco and crema.
This place makes them very well. The masa is not overly grainy, the corn sweetness is not overpowering and heavy, the sweetness is offset with the sharpness of the cheese......nice.
We tried uchepos from other places, street vendors and have always found them to be rather heavy, likes rocks wrapped in a corn husk.... maybe authentic but not a savory experience.
I like savory experiences.
So I already had my refresco, my torta, right after I dropped her off. Then after wandering around for about 3 hours I had my uchepos, now it's almost time to pick her up.....We will see what else the remainder of this Friday brings.......

Saturdays are paydays.... and cheespuffs.

2011-01-22T09:27:00.008-06:00

In California it was Thursdays for some reason, perhaps it was because the employees needed money to buy food for the weekend. If they got paid on Mondays, it would probably be frittered away way before the weekend.

Mondays nobody had any money. You had to go to the bank or if you had a checking account, find a friendly neighborhood merchant who would cash your check. It would help if you actually bought something there or it was common for families to have a account at the stores and would settle up once a month. You signed a little ticket on a pad of paper that was about 3 inches square At the end of the month you were handed a tab along with all the little 3 inches pieces of paper.
No minimum payment, no interest, just pay up.
All the clerks at the grocery store knew you, so did the butcher but the baker, he was from Germany we had to pay cash.

We didn't shop at the bakery as regular as we did at the grocery store or at the butchers, I am sure that if had daily wreath-cakes, something could have been arraigned.

My first job was a security man for Carnival of Toys on Haight street. I was about 10.
Walking around unsuspecting kids would never figure it was me who dropped the dime on them for stuffing a matchbox toy into their jeans.

But then I didn't get a paycheck , I got paid with Lionel bucks.......two or three weeks worth of work, would get me some track sections, couple more weeks maybe a Ravell model. During the summer when I could work more hours, is when I could get a crossing gate or maybe even a barrel loader and matching barrel car.....

My first real job, being defined, as where the check had lots of deductions, we were paid twice a month, and the first check took almost a month to get. There was nothing to be set up on a "computer" everything was by mail, Telex or fax. Wow, Telex, that was sort of a primer to computer email...I am sure it was about 30 baud......lightning fast!

The checks arrived in a large envelope and were handed out by the accountant on Thursdays at around 11.

That gave you time to go to the bank during lunch if you had to.
There were no ATM's no credit cards, no debit cards, Nada.
But on the bright side, you didn't need tons of money to live on.

I liked working at Philco. It was the first place that had about 30 or 40 people working in one place, and it was my first job at corporate America.
Lots of personalities. We had cigar smoking sales managers that only came in a few times a week but were usually golfing and schmoozing big clients.

We had outside salesmen that screwed up the orders and had us fix them and always told us they would make it up to us.......yeah. I am still waiting on that one.

We had our nice looking secretaries and even had own Lonnie Anderson sitting at the front desk, always in a nice tightly knit sweater, greeting customers as they walked in.
It was a nice environment, And I enjoyed being in inside sales. I got to know what an RD17HG was real fast.
That happens to be a upright right hand door, 17 cubic foot, refrigerator in Harvest Gold.
You do remember Harvest Gold don't you?
How about Dark Coppertone or Avocado?
I have a hard time admitting that I had a complete kitchen set up including washer and dryer in Avocado........
I am glad it is not one of the popular colors anymore.

In Mexico Saturdays the workers stop working by mid day. They really stop putting lots of effort into work around mid day Thursday, but still show up and look busy until Saturday afternoon so that you can be grateful that they showed up for work.

I would also rather pay them on Friday, which would then give me a day off on Saturday not having to worry that I risk starving their families for much needed beer and puffy orange dye covered air inflated ground up cheesy worm looking puffs.

Now if they were Cheetos, I could understand that. Cheetos at least have some flavor, and the dye will stain your finger times pronto.

So, we go to the bank usually on Thursdays, we usually can just hit one ATM machine.

When we were building the house, there was only one ATM in town and it was usually empty.

I don't enjoy standing in lines for hours, so I really appreciate ATM machines now. The only issue now is the ATM's spit out 200 and 500 peso notes.

There is a slight hesitation on the acceptance of 500 peso notes.
Times have changed now, employees readily accept both 500 and 200 peso notes.

During our construction employees always asked for 20, 50 and no more than 100 peso notes.
At that time, we didn't have the Super Codallos down the road, no Soriana, no Big Bodega nada..... No place for big money, cash register transactions.

If you went to the mercado in the center of town, you best not have anything but metal money.
If you handed someone 20 pesos they would leave their stand and wander around looking for change.
Now it seemsthat 20 pesos is the normal for a lot of transactions. And you don't get much change like before either.

Well it's time to enjoy the rest of the day , the sun is out, it is in the mid 80's and I am 63% done on my latest Kindle purchase that arrived wirelessly earlier in the week.

Foreclosures and Firewood.

2011-01-19T10:32:00.008-06:00

I was reading a news article today which the headline was that over 1 million homes were foreclosed upon in 2010 and that this year that figure was going to rise at least by 20 %.
So, what I don't understand is that the citizens or rather the taxpayers of the US, forked over gazillions of dollars to save the banks and other entities in order not to have a catastrophic collapse of the banking industry, they fed the banks ...but the banks are still getting all those homes and then still collecting the funds that come for the foreclosure sales....

But the taxpayer and people that lost their homes have nothing to show for it.

Someone once said that if the taxpayer simply took that money that they have "taken" from them in the form of debt to the country and simply bought all the upside down mortgages it would have been less that what was spent on the effort to save the banks.

To me it would have made more sense to have the banks and businesses fail that didn't correctly manage their assets,

The banks and mismanaged institutions got richer, and the poor and taxpayers got poorer.
In Mexico we had to pay for everything in cash. No home mortgages, no loans, no problem.
Meanwhile I was also reading that in Las Vegas where there was 60% slide in the values of the homes, and that there are at least 10,000 vacant homes, they are building new homes.
Seems that no one wants to live in a subdivision where the homes are all abandoned, foreclosed and overgrown........
Now that makes a lot of sense.
Also it seems that there is a new trend for building smaller homes now....I wonder why?
I guess 8000 sq ft home is just a little too big for two people?
So the new construction homes are built that are between 1200 and 1800 sq ft.
How is that possible?
When I was growing up, a family of 4 lived in a flat that was maybe 750 sq ft. We built a two bedroom house here in Mexico and even now, had I had it over, I think I would have built it a little smaller. Amazing what 10 or 15 years will do in the requirements of space. I think I could do fine in a 1000 sq ft home today.

If you really want to read how bad it is, go here

There is also considerable discussions around the world of getting off the dollar standard. I have seen some signs in Mexico where they no longer want the dollar.......

My how times have changed.

This winter has been cold, last night it dropped down to the low 30's. As most of you know we have fireplaces for heat. The other night I was thinking of how much it would cost to install a gas forced central heating system.
When we built the house we planned for it, but because of the mild climate, that year during construction we oped out of installing it.

Why put it in if the fireplaces do a sufficient job of heating?
Well there is the convenience factor........a factor which I am becoming more understanding of the older I get.
Not that it won't hurt me to carry in a dozen or so logs each night to each fireplace, BUT......
With a furnace comes other benefits and drawbacks.
Maybe an extra sweater and some real thick socks will do.......
Perhaps I should invest in a set of Long Johns........but that seems so Victorian.....
Or maybe a nice little condo in Mazatlan or Zihuatanejo instead.

Just kidding......the days in the mid to high 80's in Patzcuaro are just fine. And there is no humidity. I remember some of our stays in Mazatlan, where we never even left the room because of the heat and humidity.

Firewood seems pretty easy to bring in now that I have thought of it. And much cheaper than a condo.

Las Posadas and a world full of child molesters?

2011-01-15T07:54:00.001-06:00

The more important Holiday of the season in Mexico is the Day of the Three Kings. Not to say that Christmas is not important, it is the Day of the Three Kings where the tradition of gifts comes from.

My family use to celebrate it because of the Russian Calendar and it was another excuse at having family and friends over for dinner, you know the rest.....
During the week of the 3 Kings I was reflecting of how the Holidays around Christmas have changed. From when I was about 10, the excitement of seeing the tree, the packages under the tree and the family during the season, then when I was about 20, then 40 and to nowadays.

I was also thinking of what makes the Christmas time special for me, not just meeting with friends and stuff, but for sharing and giving and more importantly that of thinking of exactly why we celebrate Christmas.......it's not just for Hot Buttered Rums and Eggnog......but you already know that.

The change I was thinking about made me feel a little sad simply because the change seems to have stifled the ability to share, just because it is not Politically Correct. So the real question is have these changes were they done for the betterment of society, as I see it, I don't believe so, but I am sure there will be people out there that will take task to that, so go ahead and give me your best shot argument.

During my years in business I was involved in many clubs, one of which that was instrumental in my life was my association with Rotary International.

You may only know of Rotary because they have a sign as you enter your town or perhaps you know a Rotarian or maybe even participated in one of their youth student exchange programs.
Anyway, Rotary has clubs in over 200 counties have there are more than 33,000 clubs in the world. The main reason I joined Rotary because I wanted to be part of the community and this was a great way to give back to the community. This is why there are so many service clubs in the world. In addition to Rotary, there are clubs like Kiwanis, Lyons, Toastmasters, 20-30 clubs, Elks and many others. These clubs are a good way to meet people and to be able to volunteer to do projects which benefit both the community locally and through out the world.

When I got into Rotary in the late 70's one of the annual events my club did was have an annual Christmas Dinner.

The program was this. We would ask some local teachers from several schools to provide the names and phone numbers of families who for one reason or another could use some assistance in providing positive Christmas experience for their kids. Many of these families were from single Mom households who just simply could not afford to do much for their children. Lots of times this event would be the only thing the kids would have for the season.

The members of the club would then contact the parents, explain that we were a community service club and that we would like to invite their kids to a Christmas dinner, hosted by our Rotary Club. The evening consisted of picking them up, usually several kids from a neighborhood, return to the hotel where we had the dinners all set up, have dinner, whereas Santa come and hand out gifts and stuff. We would then chauffeur the kids back home by 8:45 or so.

What could be more in the spirit of Christmas and sharing....

This happened for many years until one year, the club was confronted with a situation that would change the event. Seems the club could no longer get insurance for having the kids in various cars and could no longer cover the liability of the event.

Then someone said that we shouldn't be hanging around kids anyway. We might be accused of some improper conduct with the kids. It was about that time when there seemed to be a lot of publicity about problems and accusations with the Big Brothers, Big Sisters organizations.
The someone else brought up what if somehow somewhere someone would convince their kids to falsely accused someone of improper conduct in order to get some money out of it. All we would need in this small town was to have a some kid say "He did it!" and we would all be ruined.....forever. When I was growing up, we didn't seem to have those kind of issues, at least not like we hear about now. There was always a neighborhood child molester that all the kids new about and stayed away from. Now there seems to be either a lot more of them or we just hear about them. There are lots of kids that have not grown up with "street smarts" and are fodder for sick people who have these kind of issues....but that is another topic .....

Our club certainly didn't want to even think about any thing like that. It didn't matter that the spouses of the members were there too, it was just bad PR, and we couldn't get sucked into any controversy.

That is when the world changed.....

So what could a bunch Rotarian's do now to make the Christmas Season special for these kids?

Mind you that this was still way before the PC police were trying to change Christmas by turning it into "The Holiday Season", so us Rotarian's still had lots of Christmas do-good in our blood.

Why not provide needy kids with shoes? Someone said.

We asked the teachers and they told us that about 25 % or more of the kids didn't have the proper shoes because they were either hand me downs or the families simply couldn't afford decent shoes.

That was are AH Ha, moment.

One of our members was in the shoe business, so he got excited about this program. The idea was to simply provide certificates to needy families which they could go to his store, get fitted for shoes and get them for free.
After all, we could get them "Wholesale" and that way our money would go a longer way, and everyone would be happy.....

Except a few people that said that giving free shoes would be demeaning to some families......

Mind you , none of the families we had given shoes to in the past, judging from the thank you letters, had any issues of being demeaned.

So......that program was stopped.

So now it's demeaning to be generous to people that may need assistance.......gotta love Political Correctness.....

So now I can't celebrate Christmas, unless I have a great Holiday Season.

So now the loud outspoken people and groups seem to have won......except in Mexico we still celebrate Christmas and the Day of the Three Kings.

I still enjoy doing something for kids during the Christmas Season, so what I have gone to doing is my little way of possibly helping out kids around the area. So, instead of giving toys to the kids, I go to Costco and buy up some jackets in various sizes and hand them to one of the Nuns at the school in the small town down the road from our house.

I don't get involved, I don't get blamed, I don't get ridiculed, but I feel good that a few kids will get a jacket that they need. They will get something on the Day of the Three Kings........

The Nuns seem to like it, I hope the kids like it, and I don't have to wrap anything.

I think they are also more appreciative then the kids NOB. I also remember one of the downside of those evening dinners . There would always be a few kids who would look at their toys that they had just received and argue with Santa that they wanted something else......like the thing that the person in front of them received...........

Hard to make everyone happy isn't it?

I hope you had a great Day of the Three Kings.....I know I did.

Regrets....a few...

2011-01-05T13:00:00.002-06:00

As I was sitting around on the 1st of January thinking, which is sometimes dangerous, I remembered one thing over the years that keep haunting me. Ok, maybe not haunting me, but being reminded of, incessantly.....is that haunting?

One of my friends also keeps telling me over and over that it would have been absolutely perfect.... that I missed an opportunity....

Yeah, I know, I miss a lot of opportunities.

Some people say that you shouldn't regret doing certain things that things and happenings always occur or result from what was supposed to be anyway.

Rubbish I say.

I know the reason why I didn't do it at the time, but now I know it would have been the right thing to do..... at least for myself. I think. But let's not second guess. Or maybe not....

The reason I didn't buy it because it was in the early days of having the property in Patzcuaro and we were occupied with the house construction, traveling back and to and I just didn't have too much extra time, all while still managing a business etc.....

I didn't have the foresight in how monumental a land mark it would have made.

Perhaps in the back of my mind, I knew that what we didn't need was a landmark advertising that some weird owner lived behind the land, behind this massive post.

But on the other hand, it would have been fun in having a iconic landmark from the Bay Area perched by our gate.

But now we strive to lead a low profile.....no reason to bring attention to much of anything during these sensitive times. Don't want to advertise that there is some eccentric wacko Gringo nut job living on the property with such a massive display.

But I think the real reason was that it would have required fixing it, to restore it to its original state. For some reason they had turned it into a kiddie slide, cutting out a big panel on the back and sticking a slide inside, quite a maul job. It would have also been a big hassle to transport it. It would have required a flatbed truck and a group of semi crazed friends an afternoon.

My wife liked it because at the time we had three real live ones running around our ankles at home.

This big one in the back yard, would not have impacted the food budget at all....

They were only asking about 900 dollars for it. It was only about 10 or 11 ft tall, it needed to be mounted on a 4 or 5 inch steel post.

They only made about 30 of them, there are only about half a dozen left at this time.....

So, now I think I should have bought it.

That's my regret......at least for today, tomorrow I will think I did the right thing by not buying it.

I also thought of how I would declare it at the border……how do you get papers for something like that?

Can you imagine just telling someone, just go up the highway and when you see it, you've reached our driveway. That indeed would have been nice…. But then again it would have made it too obvious to our gate entrance.

It would have been a subtle way to mark the property.

After all dogs do mark their property, just look for El Gran Perro Salchicha

The head was the trademark of Doggie Diners. There were about 30 of them in the Bay Area in the 60’s. They were very popular Hot Dog stands that served up great Chili Dogs and Hamburgers. There were about 6 or 7 of them in the city. There are all gone now, except for a lone head or two around and sadly none in Mexico……

But it could have been………

Go Ahead Break that Resolution, or better yet don't start one.

2010-12-31T11:40:00.006-06:00

Well tonight it is the last day of the last month of this year.

Good Riddance.

Big deal!

"What are you going to do for New Year's?" is a question that is asked by many this week.

My answer is usually about the same for each person asking.

Probably in bed by 10, sleeping, that's about it. If I feel really wild and crazy, maybe watch the parting people in Times Square go wacky on the TV around 9 or 10 and go to bed......

"Oh how boring"

"What about your New Year's Resolutions?"
What about them, I don't make any......

What is the preoccupation of thinking that a New Year is somehow going to make you do things that you never seem to accomplish other days or months of the year?

"Oh, I am going to lose of few pounds" or " I will read more" or "I will get up early and exercise"

Oh, come on , give me a break.

If people really wanted to do that stuff they would already be doing it. Maybe that is the reason that all these good intentions fizzle out after a day or two anyway.

If you really wanted to shed a few pounds or save some extra money, you would already be doing it.

So stop the crap and quit fooling yourself, or is it that you just want to sound cool to your friends by having something you have good intentions about doing.

How about just promising to yourself that you won't BS yourself and actually just do it.

If you say that you are going to lose a few pounds, starting the 1 st of the year, then you are doomed for failure. If you were serious, you wouldn't need a date to start, you would have already resigned yourself in doing it the moment you made that decision...plain and simple.

Besides we live in a place that there are no interesting things to do or see, no big band celebrations, no dressing up to go our parting, other than showing up at a restaurant, paying 3 times more than the food is worth, listening to some thrown together trio playing off tune dance music, drinking some God awful cheap sparkling wine and generally wanting to go home 6 minutes after midnight......
Now, if we were in a big city, with a classy dance band, other people who enjoy dressing up, having a table with your friends to have a good reason to party......now that's a reason.....

Or maybe if we were on a nice cruise ship, on it's final voyage before being scrapped, sailing on New Years Eve, and getting an invitation to have dinner at the captains table. Joining you that night are a retired detective Lieutenant Mike Rogo, and his former-prostitute wife Linda, Frank Scott, a minister questioning his faith and believing God helps those who help themselves, a retired Jewish hardware store owner Manny Rose and his wife Belle and Haberdasher James Marin.......

A no thank you, I already know how that evening is going to end.....

So anyway, Happy New Year to you and your family, make the first day of the month, be what you want, do what you want, do what you enjoy, make a difference to others , just because you can, and don't be too grumpy.

Cheers!

As the year pulls to an end, so does Kodachrome

2010-12-27T17:20:00.001-06:00

One of my first really good cameras was a Yashica Mat EM camera. I used it when I was taking photographs for the San Francisco Chronicle, one of the two massive newspaper powerhouses in San Francisco. The year was 1965.

Their competition was the San Francisco Examiner, it was part of the Hearst conglomerate.

The Chronicle was located at the corner of Fifth and Mission streets, one block off of famous Market street in downtown San Francisco. The building also housed KRON-TV, TV channel 4, which was the NBC affiliate.
A few years later I did go to work for Channel 4 but this is a story about old film and old cameras to be exact it was the old trusty 2.1/4 by 2 1/4 format for me.

The camera was a twin lens reflex, it was basically a box with two lenses. One lens was the one that would focus the image onto the film plate inside the camera, the other lens would take the same image, although about 1/2inch higher and focus it onto a opaque glass screen, showing the image of what you were about to snap.

The reflex camera that Yashica made was actually a knock off of a German Camera that I couldn't afford. It was a copy of a Rolliflex. At the time I think I paid about $ 75 dollars for Yashica, because the Rolliflex was over $ 700 and at 1960 dollars, that was almost half the price of a Volkswagen bug which sold for about $ 1600 dollars........

This is really a story of passing of a era of technology, which this Friday, December 30 , 2010 will no longer be able to be processed or developed after 75 years of production. Kodachrome was one of the best films ever to be made, pertaining to color or colour for some of you.

My Yashica used a film size called 120,which was 2 1/4 wide. Depending on the camera you had, you would have square film format or if your camera was the larger format, it would be a 2'1/4, 2 3/4 which would be the better size for enlarging into 8 x 10 pictures.

Film sizes were larger since you needed large negatives in order to have large enlargements. Now most of the film used is 35 mm, which doesn't allow for large size pictures without getting graininess. The benefit of 35 mm film was that the cameras are smaller and easier to carry.
I also remember using a camera that used 4x5 inch film, talk about lugging around heavy equipment...

For some of you real old folks, there was also the same size film but on a different spool which was called 620. It was mainly used in Ansco and Kodak cameras up to the mid 60's . They discontinued 620 size film awhile ago, die hards can still take 120 film and roll it onto the 620 style spools .
Kodak made lots of cameras that were a little better quality than your average Brownie....yes the camera, not the little girls selling cookies.
Are Brownies still around? Not the cameras but the little girls selling cookies?

But this is a story of film, not cameras, the color film Kodachrome.
I used Kodachrome in some of my cameras, anytime that you wanted vivid saturated color.

National Geographic Magazine Cover photos were almost always shot with Kodachrome, as well as many other national magazine.

Kodak decided to discontinue the film last year in 2009. Seems that there was no longer a large demand for the product due to many professionals switching over to digital.

But this week it will be the final end to Kodachrome.
Fini, The End, No More, That's It, Terminado, Kaput, Bye Bye , Konetz. This Friday.

So I hope you have sent out that last roll of Kodachrome....., you know the one with Aunt Edna blowing out her 94 candles that you captured on film, that's still in the camera that got replaced about 5 years ago and put away with the film still in it..........You have shipped it off haven't you??

Well you have a day or two.

The absolute last place to still run a Kodachrome line is Duane's Photos in Parsons Kansas.
That's it. No were else in the World. They have been processing about 200 rolls a day and that will stop Friday.
Kodachrome has been coming to them from all places in the world, as far as Africa, Germany, Japan......
Friday they will retire the machine and the era of vivid color.

You can still shoot color photos and get them processed. However the film that you use is called Ektachrome. Instead of vivid Reds and Yellows, Ektachrome is know for it's Greens and Blues.
You can't have it all I guess.

Kodachrome was so famous that there was even a song written about it. Paul Simon of the group Simon and Garfunkel wrote

They give us those nice bright colors
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world’s a sunny day, Oh yeah
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So mama don’t take my Kodachrome away
Kodachrome – by Paul Simon

So another staple of civilization bites the dust, I wonder how long digital cameras will last?
The CD came out what seems like a few years ago is already being phased out.....

Have a Happy New Year.........

To Our Special Friends

2010-12-25T10:51:00.003-06:00

To all our special friends whom we have grown to appreciate and share moments, stories and daily life with, may you have a Merry Christmas celebration today with your loved ones.
Let's keep this day, special with purpose.

Shopping again, last time this year....hopefully!

2010-12-22T20:49:00.001-06:00

Since Patzcuaro doesn't have any mega-marts other than for some basic food items and the town was somewhat empty of hustle and bustle, (thanks to some nefarious activities of grown men wanting to play with guns and matches on some of the hiways), we decided to sneak out of town for the rest of the afternoon.

Taking the back road first trough Quiroga, stopping for lunch at one of the many restaurants on the small restaurant row by El Correo, finally dropping us into Morelia unnoticed, we had a mission.

It's always good to have a mission, a plan, a goal otherwise it seems that you drag around and don't get much done except stopping at a Pemex station sooner or later for a pit stop and being ancy to return to the comforts and security of home.

I needed a few items that only Liverpool would have. ( Braun shaver parts) I also needed to pick up an ink cartridge since my printer ink was on vapors. The printer cartridges they now make are minuscule, once they have you hooked on printing photos and stuff, you are hostage to high printer cartridge prices. One of the first ink jet printers I had, the ink would last over a year, now a few months, at a much higher cost, thanks a lot!
This printer, that uses liquid gold, is now going on 5 years, almost obsolete if you ask anyone. Office Depot is the only store that seems to carry the cartridge, combine that with a parking lot and they have another customer. ( Did you know that if you purchased the ink by a gallon it would cost thousands of dollars?, but that's another story.) A more perfect rip off has never been designed. Now they give the printers away just to get the cartridge business.

La Senora wanted to go and check out a few of the shops in the newly remodeled mall. She figured that if she pulled me along, I might succumb to equipping her with a few white blouses and the like..... I swear, she must have enough white blouses to ware each day of the week by now.

Anyway traffic for a Wednesday afternoon was almost normal, what was not normal is the backup instead of usually being around the zoo, was backing up at the intersection by the Governor's Palace....must be Christmas shoppers?
The President is not in town and neither is any Rock Star, so it must be the last Wednesday before Christmas combined with early after noon restlessness....

I did notice that most of the stores were doing a brisk business, as evidence of strollers with children and overflowing bags and packages.

My observation is that the economy must be doing quite well, at least in Morelia. One can notice lots of BMW's, Mercedes and late model cars in the parking lots. A space or two removed the ratty old pickup truck parked still is seen. Well, perhaps the truck owner is buying some tools at Sears.... That's where I buy my tools, and my pickup is almost ratty.

The new mall in Morelia is about 5 time larger than it use to be. It still sports the cornerstone of Mexican shopping, the Sanborns coffee shop.

I usually park myself somewhere while I wait for my wife. There are several spots, one is at the Lilliannas coffee shop. There is also a brand new McDonalds, the new outlet is one of their "new vision" stores. Those stores include a Cafe.. A McD Cafe is where you get table service, several styles of coffee all served sans paper cup. A nice thick ceramic mug is presented to you at your table along with pan dulce if you so desire, at a very reasonable price too.
McD figured this out to compete with Starbucks. My first exposure of this new concept was around 3 or 4 months ago when the store first opened. I think that this new concept is going to bring some additional business to their stores. Now if they could only keep the clown and screaming kids out of the coffee area, life would be good. McD figured out how to present luxury, decent coffee in a ceramic cup, pan dulce, table service and WiFI.
My perfect afternoon, checking my email, surfing the net on a 3" screen, slurping a good cup of coffee, sitting watching people walk by and enjoying it.

No Soup for YOU! And for you, No presents!

2010-12-17T07:55:00.012-06:00

I keep reading stories in the US media of lawsuits. Seems the ACLU is suing schools and cities because they have Christmas decorations and or references to Christmas.

Seems that it is offending someone or perhaps there is a source of easy money , for an easy extortion shakedown.

Sure seems like a lot of shakedowns nowadays....

So you got to change it to Holiday Season.

Huh? Have a Merry Holiday.......

Nope, sorry, ain't gonna happen for me, it's still Christmas. If you don't like the sound of that maybe we can change the government to eliminate Christmas Day and take the holiday away from millions of govmint workers. Aint gonna happen either.

This would really be funny if it wasn't so sad. The concept of gazillions of children not experiencing Christmas. The day was a celebration of a point in History, religious etc.

Next thing they will want to do is kill Santa..... Oh,. Sorry I forgot, they want to do that too.

Why has the world gotten so wacky?

Why cannot the Christians celebrate Christmas, let the Jews celebrate Hanukkah, but instead everyone wants to push their own agenda on everyone else. Make everything politically correct...Oooh Pleeeze........

Eliminating Christmas would never happen down in Mexico. Mexico needs to invite the ACLU down here and give that a try. Mexicans would never stand for this, pueblo by pueblo, state by state....not going to happen.....

Maybe as more Mexicans occupy the states, some sanity of un-political correctness will prevail.

One can hope?

Off to last minute Christmas Shopping......

Sunny and cold....

2010-12-14T12:31:00.005-06:00

Last night it dropped down to 28 degrees, on my newly acquired inside- outside weather station.
Digital so there's misreading it. And I don't have to find my specs to see.

Lately it has been cold and dry, not having any frost on the windshields of the truck. Cold and Dry....just how I like it.

It was also a two fireplace night since we had a little more wind than normal. During breezes it seems the house cools off a lot faster than normal, even with good weatherstripping on all the windows and doors. Weatherstripping was the first thing we did after getting the house finished.
During the time we first started construction on the house, I stayed at a friends house. Seeing his construction and lack of any insulation, was the motivating factor in probably overdoing the insulation in our house.

I remember sitting in his dining room trying to have dinner one night, freezing my butt off, bundled up , all while there was a massive fire going in his fireplace in the next room.

His fireplace burned up tons of wood but the house was always fridged.

He was always complaining of how cold it was. But never did anything about gaps large enough that you could push a pencil through.

Walking around town I see large gaps in almost all the construction. Either from the wood shrinking or walls twisting out of plumb.
Weatherstripping here is stuffing old newspapers in the cracks that open up, foam is something you get on milk if you whip it.....
15 years ago you couldn't find foam weatherstripping down here at all. I had to bring it down each time we came down so that we could do all the doors and windows. We also imported 2 inch ridged foam boards on the roof of the whole house. They couldn't understand why we wanted to put those panels on top of the wood, when the wood looked perfectly good to put the tile on........

I had a few people inquire about the progress of the cabbage crop. Here is a picture of it from yesterday. The head is forming nicely, but hopefully the cold nights will not impede the growth too much.

December is not the coldest month up here, usually the end of January beginning of February will bring in nights even more chilly. At least the days are prefect, hot when you are in the sun, moderate when you are in the shade, cool crisp evenings perfect for the crackling fire. Now if we only grew nice oak for the fireplaces......

Maybe we can grow some pines that would be perfect for a Christmas Tree lot, next year? Maybe knot!

Christmas Season Ho HO Ho HO... but not for Santa

2010-12-10T11:50:00.003-06:00

Time to kill Santa and the Spirit for good..... OR is it already dead?

If you go to my other blog site This and That you can read about Santacide

It will be ready when?

2010-12-08T16:54:00.000-06:00

There use to be a story that was probably true, it was about a Shoe Repair Shop. Seems this person dropped of a pair of shoes to be repaired, got his tag and left. He lost the tag and found it about 6 months later. He goes to the shoe shop and hands the man the tag, the owner looks at the tag, looks at the man and says they will be ready next week......

Mexican businessmen always seem to complain of how little business there is or how hard it us to run a business, not enough business, on and on and on...

Yes I am sure there are hassles, just like NOB, just different.

Our insurance was up for renewal on the 22nd of November. Simple, we called the insurance man, who happens to be a local Patzcuaro business man.

He was recommended by a friend a few years ago, with some reservations.

When you ask anyone for recommendation for almost anything in Mexico there is always a pause and a disclaimer to the actual quality or validation to the actual service one is asking about.

In other words the recommendation always comes with " use them at your own risk"

So after calling him and telling him that we wanted to have the policy renewed, I was told that 'No problem, I'll have it ready by the end of the week"

I should have asked him which week.

I drove by his office on Thursday and it was closed.
I drove by his office on Friday and it was closed. Ok, no big problem other than I didn't want to drive around without insurance. After al, everyone know how important insurance is? At least to the policy holder...

I then called him on the on Tuesday, someone else in the office answered and informed me he would be there later...., I gave him my cell phone number and waited.

Called him on Wednesday, voice mail answered and I left him a message. Well, I'll give him a few more days and this way be sure that it will be ready and what's the rush anyway.

On Thursday I called and his voice mail box was full and would not take any more messages.
(Not a good sign)
On Friday I called and was able to leave him a message.
On Monday I had my wife call, just in case I was having bad phone karma.

She called, talked to him again told him all the info and he said, " No problem, it will be ready tomorrow. Tomorrow being Tuesday.

No problem, I would give him an extra day. Called on Thursday and had to leave a message again.
I drove by the office on Friday several times and it was closed.

Monday I found another agent in Morelia that returned my call within 30 minutes. Sent me a quote via email later on that night, around 10 PM.

On Friday of that week, I saw that he called but didn't leave a message on the cell phone. But it was too late, since on Friday I also had in my hands a new policy from a new agent.

Sorry Patzuaro, tried to do business locally, but.......

Talked to a Mexican businessman friend about the situation and was told that a lot of Mexicans only live for the day and if they really have foresight, live for the next day, but never for the future.
That is why so many are just happy with today and the attitude that "It's enough" And that " God will Provide"
Well I hope God does provide, I won't help.
I see that kind of attitude in lots of other places that deal with customers on a day to day basis.
We will go to a restaurant (this is usually only at small family run ones), where we get served and other patrons will get ignored.....Or worse yet, everybody gets ignored.
I was at the hardware store downtown about two weeks ago, they waited on everybody except the guys standing next to me until he finally made himself know by saying something I didn't understand..
Should have asked him what he said......
So, things are not as bad down here as you are led to believe. No business, No jobs, No hope.....No nothing.
Just lots of lackadaisical attitude when it comes to insurance agents. Or maybe it was just me, not defining what reasonable time was.
Yep it was my fault....
Just what my wife says all the time anyway.
Just kidding.

No Way Joe, but ok Jose.....

2010-12-02T17:15:00.001-06:00

One of the interesting things of growing up in the 50's and 60's was the ease of access.

You could call a company for information and actually talk to a person, they would then transfer you to the engineer who actually designed the item or product you needed information on to actually help you with it.

You could go to almost any business and ask them to see how they made things, their operation and they would be more than happy to show you.

I remember during my high school days I had an teacher, Brother Edward. He would allow us to do research and write a reports on stuff that had industrial or science behind it and it would count as a grade or project credit.

I had found my niche.

I remember going to the Brumfield Sign Company, on Howard street, in the South of Market in San Francisco.

So one afternoon after school I went down to Brumfield Signs and walked in and told the person at the front office that I was doing a project for school and wanted to find something about their company.

I was asked to wait a minute and after a few minutes this short stocky man smoking a cigar came down and asked what I wanted.

I told him my task and he brought me up to his mezzanine office.

This was the typical company owners office, wooden roll-top desk, a few oak chairs, a large double door black safe and tons of catalogs and books all over the room. There was also a wall with lots of photographs of the signs that they had manufactured and installed.

One of which was very famous in downtown San Francisco. It was the Hamm's Beer sign. If you ask anyone who was in the city in the 50's & 60's they would surely tell you about it.
It was a large beer glass that filled up and then emptied every few seconds, this beacon of a sign could be seen from miles away. I think it was taken down in the early 70's after Hamms beer got merged with a beer conglomerate.
Thinking back and looking at old photographs, many city skylines where peppered with neon signs...not just in Times Square, but every city had their share of vivid huge neon signs..... must have been a great business for it's time?

Showing that I had interest in his business, was the key that opened the door to his generous offer to show me the whole operation!

After some more chitchat he took me up to an upstairs workshop with a massive carpet covered work table which was about 8 by 20 feet at least. This was the table where they put together the signs and made the glass letters and such.

The owner, then told the worker who was making some glass letters to show me how they make signs and to provide anything I needed for my school project.

Can you imagine that experience happening nowadays?

Impossible.... Unless you live in Mexico.

The worker showed me what he was working on and explained the various colors and type of gas that was injected into the tubes to achieve the desired colors. He showed me the different size glass tubes, the end electrodes and other glass accessories.

He showed me how to bend glass tubes, they had various burners attached to stands and various assemblies of glass tubes with valves and connections, rubber hoses and large glass bottles and tanks that contained the various gasses.

He then showed me how he bends the glass tube and made a few letters for the sign they were working on using a paper template which was laid out on his massive bench.

He then took out a glass tube and made me bend it, then showed me how to weld two end electrodes to the glass. Wow.

I had made a neon tube, by myself..........

What color do you want in it?

I said that I didn't know, so he showed me a few already made tubes that had red, orange, blue, green and yellow to them. He told me that it depended on the kind of gas they injected into the tube which color it would emit.

I chose blue.

He then put a drop of mercury into the tube, attached a narrow glass tube from the glass valve that had the gasses and stuck a rubber hose in his mouth and drew out the air at one side of the tube while putting in the gas at the other.

After a few seconds he ran the torch and sealed the little point at which the gas came in to the tube at the same time as he sealed the glass at where his mouth hose was attached.

He then attached a 10 Kilo volt transformer to the end electrodes of the glass tube, flipped on the switch and my newly made tube lit up with a bright blue glow......

He handed me the tube that we just made and told me to come back if I needed anymore information. I thanked him and on the way out, thanked the owner and proudly went home with my newly built neon tube.

You don't see very many neon sign companies around anymore especially in the states.
There are still a few in Mexico. The reason story was triggered from my memory archives was because I walked by a neon shop the other day in Morelia and decided to wander in.

The shop was a small one, a one or two man operation with the workbench opening up to the street sidewalk. That's what grabbed my attention immediately. I introduced myself to the owner and told him about my first experience with neon. He stopped and showed me some of the signs that he was currently working on and some pictures of the ones he had done. We spent at least half an hour discussing the business and how he got into it, which was passed down from his father, etc.

I was thinking of the reasons you don't see many of these types of businesses in the states is probably because of insurance rates....

Could imagine the insurance liability of allowing someone into the business, next to glass, gasses, mercury, voltages and such nowadays?. Not in the US.

I guess I was lucky to have been exposed to so many opportunities to see the workings of locally owned and operated businesses while growing up in the city. Kids nowadays simply cannot fathom that kind of openness to the manufacturing process anymore.

Kind of sad.

So, when you walk by a local artist whether it be the Blacksmith who is making the wrought iron fence or the wood worker making a front door, stop and look and see and enjoy....for all of that hand made stuff is a art form, just like the hands on business of making neon signs was, which is all done by machine in China now for the most part.......

Except for a independent businessman in Morelia Mexico.......