Continuing on the Mother Nature Theme, yesterday there was an earthquake in Los Angeles. Our son, who just turned 18 the other day, lives there.

Fortunately by the time we heard about it our son was contacting us letting his mom (us) know he was fine.

At the time of the quake we were driving on the 95 freeway. While our return to New Mexico has been delayed because my new laptop died and needed attending to, I borrowed a fine seldom used Toshiba laptop from my sister-in-law.

In an early report of life here in the big city I mentioned that I bought a new LG 22” monitor explaining that our laptop doubles as a television at both our casa’s in Mexico as well as in our Capitan garage residence.

I attached the 22 inch monitor to the laptop. Three days after the HP laptop broke the LG monitor decided to scrunch its picture and turn all communication into Korean. So we drove 20 miles across Las Vegas to return the 38 day old monitor.

In the Fry’s manager infinite wisdom, in spite of their 30 day maximum return policy, they exchanged the monitor – it just wasn’t going to be pretty had they not made that choice right off.

On the drive out there while cruising on the 95 I was fiddling with the cruise control which I had just repaired by way of replacing a vacuum hose. I was playing with the buttons on the steering wheel and suddenly the car veered right a bit into the next lane.

Anita who is no shrinking violet about my driving shrieked, “Calypso!” She was unhappy about my not giving full attention to the road while cruising at 65 mile per hour – reasonable concern I suppose.

But, I am a good driver. When this occurred I thought to myself I need to check the power steering fluid as the car more or less jerked causing the neighboring lane infringement. Later I pieced together that this bobble was exactly at the earthquake moment.

I was relieved in a sense and explained to Anita that my error was earthquake driven, essentially making me innocent. I’m not sure she was buying it – but that’s my story and I am sticking to it.

This morning in the local news they reported that some office buildings here in Las Vegas moved from that Los Angeles centered earthquake. There were people this far east whose nerves were jangled from the tremor.

Last night in conversation with Pearl our next-door neighbor in New Mexico she gave us a more detailed report of the flooding that has taken place there over last weekend. A reported nine inches of rain between Friday and Sunday – yikes.

“An estimated 350 to 500 houses, campers, mobile homes and structures were damaged in the flooding that hit the Ruidoso area early Sunday, authorities said”

Pearl reported that the Rio Ruidoso raised more than 11 feet! Houses washed away – there was far more devastation than one might have gathered from national news media; the local scene included a lot of devastation. Fortunately the report on our own property was very good – level land far enough away from the rivers to not have any problems.

Tropical storms, hurricanes, fires, flooding and earthquakes – yes Mother Nature is getting our attention. I encourage you all to look into ways to make her happy. Where ever possible don’t add to the pollution problem. Make the woman happy – we will all be better off for it. Stay Tuned!

Along the Route to Our Casa – Marty Racine, Ruidoso News Photo -

Over the past 5 years we have been on hurricane watch this time of year. No we don’t live in a threatened area but many of our Mexican friends do. There is Jonna and Mimi and Theresa in Merida – Wayne in Isla of Mujers and others who hold their collective breaths each time these storms head Mexico way. My friend Ed Portis has a sailboat down there in a vulnerable part of Texas and Charles and BJ live in New Orleans.

We also keep an eye out on the effects of these tropical storms on the ‘not so great at their best’ road ways that lead down to Xico. When we have headed back to Mexico during April or May these past years the roads have been repaired for the most part – but the drive down in September can be treacherous from the season’s storms.

Now a new wrinkle for we on the fringe of all this weather nervousness – all the way up in the Mountains of South Central New Mexico hurricane/tropical storm Dolly has wrecked havoc.

Since last Friday they have received as much as nine inches of rainfall. The banks of Rio Ruidoso River that runs near our casa in Capitan have been over run. The church camp where evacuees are being housed is just 8 miles from our adobe abode.

“State officials estimated more than 60 homes have been damaged. Nine bridges were confirmed under water and roads in the area were closed, including part of U.S. 70, the main highway in the area. A street at River Ranch RV Park turned into a muddy river, and the race track at Ruidoso Downs flooded, canceling Sunday’s entire race card.”

Luckily we seem to not be where these Mother Nature balkings occur – but so many of them are a concern. We will contact George and Pearl, our next-door neighbors to hear how our casa is surviving. I will send email to my buddy Jake the Leather Man to be sure he didn’t get whisked away – he lives out near the river on land without even electric service.

I wonder if Mother Nature isn’t fighting back for some of the treatment she has received from us humans? Or are we humanoids, so many and so desirous of living on natures edge or closer, simply pressing the envelop?

Last year we returned to Xico where the main bridge to our casas had collapsed in part from stormy weather. Shortly we will return to the Ruidoso area hoping all our interest has remained above the water line. In the mean time we weather the 100 degree plus heat having seen a smattering of rain in the last two months here in the desert. Too much water there and nary a drop around here. Life is a continuing adventure. Stay Tuned!

We are still here in Las Vegas – it has been staying at 100 F or higher. The hotels on the Las Vegas Strip are amazing; the movie theater sound systems are astounding; the thrift stores are a veritable shoppers delight; the exotic food markets are a taste treat; visiting with family is wonderful – but we are anxious to get out of here.

Life seems to be a series of wrinkles that need ironing out. The video card in my laptop decided to go out. In as much as this is part of the motherboard I must send the unit to HP. It is under warranty so they will FedEx a box to send it in. This is an inappropriate time for the problem; of course one might suggest what time isn’t?

The process of contacting HP is painful at best. They take the position that the caller knows absolutely nothing about their computer regardless of what you might explain in terms of your troubleshooting, your experience etc. I can understand this, but it is frustrating to go over many thing already done several times – for hours on end – and to be talking to and transferred to a number of citizens of India whose command of English as a second language can be problematic to impossible.

I am taking it all in stride – best thing for longevity I think; remain calm at all times. I managed to borrow a rather nice Toshiba laptop from my sister-in-law to tide me over – but in as much as she seldom to never uses it and I require quite a bit of form fitting to be comfortable, the set up was lengthy.

It really is like a huge Disneyland to be here in Las Vegas from our little part of Mexico. Although yesterday morning on the Today Show we were treated to a news bite of the running of the bulls in Xico, Mexico no less! What a surprise. The y had some footage take on Hildalgo street. A fellow was being escorted down the road by way of a big black toro – ouch!

Tonight we are going to a free jazz concert at the man made Lakes area. It is a beautiful setting. Perhaps you caught the Bocelli Concert that was run on PBS with my long time friend David Foster and of course Andre Bocelli. The staging is spectacular – and where the free concert is happening. Maybe I will crank my camera up to ASA1600 and get some photos. Stay Tuned!

If you are in Mexico City tomorrow you have an opportunity to see Barack Obama’s half sister Maya Soetoro-Ng. She is there for a fund raiser for Obama.

Maya Soetoro-Ng was born to Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian businessman, and Ann Dunham, a cultural anthropologist, who is also Barack Obama’s mother. Like her half-brother Barack Obama, Soetoro-Ng also attended the private Punahou School and received her Ph.D. in Education from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa in 2006.

Soetoro-Ng is a high-school teacher at La Pietra: Hawaii School for Girls in Honolulu, Hawaii. She also instructs night classes at the University of Hawaii.

In May 2007, it was announced that she would assist Obama in his campaign for president. She took two months off from her jobs to campaign for him.

Soetoro-Ng married Konrad Ng of Burlington, Ontario, a Chinese Canadian assistant professor at the University of Hawaii’s Academy of Creative Media, at the end of 2003 in Hawaii.

They have one daughter, Suhaila.. Wikipedia reports that Soetoro-Ng is a Buddhist. More on her here.

We are still in Las Vegas and will miss that opportunity. Stay Tuned!

The Prodigal Son Returns

…and this and that.

It remains hot in Las Vegas. We have been here for six weeks; getting anxious to move on to cooler climes.

This week we bought a Thule car carrier to help transport all the stuff we have been acquiring here. Being here has provided an opportunity to re-bond with family we don’t see too often including a visit with our son who will be 18 years old before we leave here – yikes!

I am an old father on average – but this in no way changes the fact that kids will change your life and the way things develop in their parents lives.

Getting old in no way impedes development. In my case development (arrested as it may be) is focused on the effort to discover those processes which can be made to produce right relationships between individuals as well as the environment around me.

I have had an easier time with the environment than with relationships (see the previous entry for more information on that). Last night this Blog got a comment from one of my sister’s son’s; a prodigal nephew in a manner of speaking. A surprise communication, out of the blue – some good words from a man I have followed since his departure from the womb, but who I had lost contact with for more than six years – interesting.

If Mexico has taught me anything, it has been about family. The Mexican family is not a perfect picture by any means. As part of my development I have been interested in understanding the principles of behavior in order to understand the principles of right behavior.

I think we grow up, mature, and decline; being endowed with memory and the capacity to form habits, our conduct is cumulative. We drag our past along with us and it pushes us on. We do not make a new approach to each new experience. We approach new experiences with expectations and habits developed by previous experience, and under the impact of novelty like living in Mexico these expectations and habits become modified.

The parental instinct of one man is to send his son off into the world as an independent human being; in another man the instinct manifests itself as a determination to have a child(ren) who will depend upon him and cater to him all his days. I fall in the former. Desires are complex, and their greatest complexity lies in the fact they change – so life remains a study even in the seventh decade. .

Esther has a report on the water situation back in Ursulo Galvan. Steve our wayward lawyer with plans to move to Mexico is now in Mexico looking for possible landing points – but he flew without a net (a connection to the Internet). I am disappointed.

My 60’s buddy Gordo has been in touch as well as my having a conversation with my long time friend John Paul this morning. How much effort any of us are able to conjure up to keep the mostly unknown amongst us (out there…) appraised of our activities and where bouts is anybody’s guess. I have been away from Blogging for five days – a long time for me. I will try and do better so please Stay Tuned!

A lot of folks play it safe; and I won’t disagree that it is easier to be kind and gentle, and avoid confrontation. But, someone has to say the things many don’t want to hear now and then. An example would be our stand on compost toilets or compact fluorescent lights or vegetarianism. A lot of folks will disagree; and that is OK and as it should be.

I am sure along the way I have offended many. There are those who get offended easily when their opinion is differed with – others are more tolerant of diverse opinions – I maintain interactions with some of the latter but never the easily offended – oh well.

So this is a preamble to the fact that I am going to bring up an issue that will send some packing – or if you are wanting to just read happy Blogs – just avoid this one and come back later (Joe this means you ).

Regular readers know I am part of the management of a Forum relating to Mexico as well as a productive word vendor here at this Blog – usually writing generally on living in Mexico as a gringo. I answer a lot of email and try to politely assist people in their quest for knowledge about that subject. I share my experiences and have been willing to bring people things from the States or back from Mexico – to help out. This has back fired on several occasions.

I don’t claim to be an expert. Some accuse me of speaking before I know enough facts. I try to take the approach that while my opinions may change or grow as time goes on, that there is benefit to living through another’s eyes even as they go through a learning curve and pitfalls. For the ones that have already been there and done that it can be annoying to read an interim report; it might even be deemed misinformation. But I stand on the fact that this is a diary rather than a How To book.

Some commenter’s of this Blog and members of Viva Veracruz Forum stop by to get information and help from others and me. I am happy to write that there is a core group of unselfish people that go out of their way to help people with questions or needs. A few that comes to mind are Ignacio, Jonna, Joaquin, Frank, Hollito, Michael, ‘Eddie’, Kathy, GueroPaz, Steve, Jim Seaman, and some active participants that came asking and now help others like Nancy, Joe, BJ, Lizzy, Scott, Kip, and others.

You will see these people’s names and other active participants in the act of sharing knowledge, experience and opinions. There are those I could name that have been to these places and left mad or that are generally in disagreement with my and or others opinions; enough so to motivate them to go away. That saddens me because right or wrong we all are made better by discussing and defending what we believe in. My mind has been changed a lot by people who were willing to defend their opinions. People who cared enough about me to take the time to make known their opinions.

All that written what bothers me within the framework of sharing information is the people who come and ask questions, essentially take away without a willingness to reciprocate and offer their wisdom, opinion or service to others. People who must not take into account that if everyone were to act as they do that there might not be answers to questions or help for their needs.

What’s up with that? What are they thinking that allows them to ‘sneak’ around Forums and Blogs asking questions from behind a curtain when they can help help others – but they are not willing to take the time or make the effort to help others – Grrrrr.

You probably know people like this. If we confront them we will certainly offend them. So I just make the beef known here generally encouraging all of you to be active participants. If you read a Blog or Forum a lot or you stop by once or twice and get information – be willing to help others. Join the Forum, or make a comment. Come out from the shadows and make this all work by being a contributor as well as a user.

If you have ever written, “I need Help!” Consider reciprocating even if it may happen differently; pay it forward! It seems to me that if we all had more of a willingness to share, care and participate that at the end of the day the world would be better for it. What do you think? Stay Tuned!

A Negative Brinkley

Is Mexico a better place to live by way of the fact that getting immersed in the news of the day is a harder to do task? In Kevin Trudeau’s very controversial book, “Natural Cures “They” don’t want you to know about,” he recommends not watching the news. “The news fills your mind with negative pictures.”

Today I would certainly have to agree with Trudeau, and maybe I do every day, except there is a certain voyeuristic quality to keeping tabs on all the world’s dirt. You probably read the news today (Oh Boy!) so I won’t rewrite it here – but it is darn depressing for sure right down to the fact that Christy Brinkley had to pay 2.1 million dollars to settle up with her X husband Peter Cook who had sex with his teenage assistant and had a $3000.00 a month Internet pornography tab OMG!

Oh we still manage to get news from NOB virtually every day when in Mexico – but we are more removed from it. Here it is even in the television commercials – honestly, they have a bus that is painted rather like a 60’s psychedelic hippy bus entitled “The Foreclosure Bus.” Realtors take clients to bank-owned foreclosed properties and builder-discounted new homes in the Las Vegas area. A sign of the times OMG (again). Maybe this is why it is so hot here – it really is a city of sin.

Between the ongoing bad news on every front coupled with the never-ending red tape to be in compliance to whatever in this country – Mexico is an escape artists dreamland. I’m guessing, and betting, that the less stress and lack of nearness to all the bad news is a good thing. Hope to get back home sooner then later. Stay Tuned!

I am not a fan of carpet beneath my feet. I certainly don’t want to lie or languish atop the stuff. I have allergies as well as an aversion to hidden dirt and microscopic crawling things.

Back in 1981, a time long, long ago, the film Arthur was released. Have you seen it?

In one scene Arthur, played by Dudley Moore, brings a seedy hooker to an elegant restaurant where they happen upon Arthur’s very proper Aunt and Uncle. Arthur introduces the working girl as a princess.

His Aunt and Uncle show great surprise that this gum cracking, glistening tight panted floozy could be a princess and ask from where is she a princess. Without missing a beat Arthur explains she is the princess of a very small country – “It’s so small; they recently had the whole country carpeted.”

Today they might have had the entire country fitted with wood flooring or at minimum tile – but not carpet. It is pretty much out of favor – certainly with the Calypso’s.

I am not a fan of carpeting at all. The thought of what might be lurking at the base of the stuff disgusts the mind. I don’t think you can ever get carpet truly clean. We have a Dysan vacuum. I admit a fine device – but I don’t believe it can get all that hides within.

We are living in a partial carpeted house right now. It was built in 1993 and has had carpet replacements over that time, but still I would have it all yanked and replaced with a solid surface – wood or tile.

Do they sell carpet in Mexico? I can’t recall having seen any carpet in our part of Mexico – thankfully. There are casitas with dirt floors – the dirt usually has been ‘groomed’ to a surface that can be broomed off and kept clean; I even like that surface better than carpet – at least you can see the dirt and know what you are dealing with.

Whatever may be lurking in the carpet pile is not my cup of tea. Mexico’s lack of wall-to-wall fibers suits me. If you’re moving to Mexico leave the carpet behind save maybe a Persian or Chinese throw rug. Stay Tuned!

Rafael Nadal Tastes Victory. 2008 Wimbledon Champion

You could probably still call me a sports fan – but if you did I would reply that I am no longer the crazed idol worshiper of all that is athletic. For instance a few years ago I gave up watching professional football. A single incident forced me out of bounds on that. I had the misfortune of meeting a multi-Super Bowl defensive player at Walmart one day.

He had several huge Super Bowl rings adorned on hands with fingers misshapen, pointing in all directions. He essentially had been severely crippled entertaining me and millions of other wild sports fans – my heart sunk as he extended his meaty paw to shake my hand. There was no joy in Mudville on that day – it ended my audience participation.

I also gave up watching boxing even before that after quite honestly seeing too many shells of human beings who were the results of boxing participation – Mohammed Ali was the last straw for me.

A few months back even some of my staunchest supporters here on the Blog took me to task for my interest in and spectator participation in bull fighting – all meat eaters I should add. Some even question whether such a thing is a sport.

In my defense I have never been a deranged sports fan. You wouldn’t have seen me on a field helping to tear down a goal post or even in my wildest sports fan days would you have found me crazed for my victorious team or depressed by the agony of my teams defeat. But I would be lying to deny that I can still get into a game of soccer, golf, basketball, baseball, car racing, the Olympics, beach volleyball and tennis among others.

This past weekend was the end of a fortnight of Wimbledon tennis. Often the matches prior to the finals are the best; the finals not being the most exciting; occasionally even a let down. There has been some talk of late that tennis has lost its audience, that it has become lack luster with no beautiful superheroes. At least that is what John McEnroe says.

But, yesterday was a match for the times. If you watched the drama as it played out over many hours including rain delays you were treated to some sports history. The first two sets played early here in the Pacific Time Zone. I rolled out of bed at 6 AM for ‘Even Before Breakfast at Wimbledon’.

I was alone in the den while the rest of the house slept, occasionally disturbed by my clapping or foot stomping. By the third set I was joined by my house mates Anita and my brother-in-law. We watched into the afternoon.

Just seconds after Federer’s final chance ended from a forehand into the net and Nadal got back up from having flopped on his back from the utter joy of victory we watched Nadal leap into the stands to find mom – dad interceded and got the first hug but his destination was apparent, and heart warming. After, he went over to the Royal Box and met the Spanish Prince and Princess. As he made his way back to center court he was handed a Spanish flag. The crowd was standing applauding both warriors; it was truly an exciting moment.

For a couple years now I have been rooting for Rafael Nadal. Being a recent resident of Mexico I seem to favor all things Latino, the rise to number one in women’s golf by Mexico’s Lorena Ochoa, our local Xalapa basketball team, the Halcones (Falcons) bringing home a championship. The pleasure and pain of watching Mexico’s win, but then loss for winning by one less goal than needed, from qualifying for the summer Olympics; OK maybe I am still a bit of a sports fan.

You didn’t have to be a crazed sports fan to be thrilled by the Championship Tennis match yesterday though. Rafael Nadal a 22-year-old Spaniard who in Fitzgerald-esque terms is admired by most men and charming to all women at 22 years old played the World’s number one player Roger Federer. The latter tenacious tennis warrior who resembles a Cabbage Patch doll as he scrunches his nose up into his face and stares down his opponents is arguably one of the best tennis players of all time – he certainly is when he tells it.

So this morning perhaps you missed the show yesterday and only have the AP report, “WIMBLEDON, England —With darkness enveloping Centre Court and the clock showing 9:15 p.m., Rafael Nadal watched as Roger Federer’s errant forehand settled into the net, ending what might have been the greatest men’s final on the greatest stage in tennis.” It was truly a tennis match of historic proportions.

Yesterday I came by my excitement honestly and certainly can’t be accused of being a crazed sports fan (any longer). I mean have you seen those people that get wild eyed playing fantasy football or baseball? Middle aged and older guys; fathers and husbands who appear to be otherwise normal spending hours managing pretend teams.

This is true. Grown men involved in pretend leagues where they actually pay money to “draft” professional athletes, and then have their pretend teams play whole pretend seasons. I mean come on lets get our lives in perspective here! I won’t even get into Tiger Wood’s take on hockey.

Did you happen to watch those volleyball babes Misty and Kerri win and qualify for the Olympics once again yesterday? I gotta go – need to Google Hushovd’s winning the second stage of the Tour de France cycling race between Auray and Saint-Brieuc yesterday. Stay Tuned!

Were still in Las Vegas and it is still HOT! Yesterday it was 112 F – even Jonna down there at the bottom of Mexico would not take to 112 F – but ah yes the encouragement here is, “It is a dry heat.” So is a convection oven but that doesn’t mean I want to be in one.

On my “home” page I see the weather conditions in Puerto Escondido (always nice); Xico (never said to be above 90 F; Los Angeles (where our son resides); and Capitan (Our property in New Mexico). I never get Las Vegas because there is no need – July in the desert is hot period.

Not sure how long we will be here – there are so many diversions – this last week I took to checking out the used car market here in Las Vegas. What a contrast to everywhere else we frequent. I have difficulty understanding many of the sellers over the telephone – 5 weeks ago I left a country where I didn’t speak the language – nothing has changed being 1000 miles north
;-0

A long time ago I learned from my father about buying cars. First rule is to never buy anything he would buy. This man had cars that you probably never heard of like a Wartburg. He had two or three of what – maybe 200 made? He got several speeding tickets in his two Muntz Jets; he even inspired more speed limit postings in our neighborhood in the fifties in those exotic babies. He bought a Hillman Minx – closely related to a non-existent cat – last time I even heard the word was via Austin Powers, “(while vocalizing his inner monologue) says of Vanessa Kensington “…and I bet she shags like a minx”.

Today’s cars have better names and are more sophisticated which is why I suppose they measure the engine size in liters here in the United States even though they continue to resist converting to the decimal system. I think their reasoning was now that cars cost as much as many houses I have purchased, they need to up the sophistication factor – dump muscle motor cubic inches for the more civilized cubic centimeters or liters?

All the new advanced technology out there, but we actually went and kicked the tires of a Volkswagen bug – really. This was a Mexican licensed actually original Herbie Bug built jn Puebla just a hundred miles or so from our home in Mexico – what was I thinking? Oh and then I remembered my father had a Karman Ghia or three and returned to my senses.

I have begged the question on the Forum – what car should I own in Mexico – silly me thinking there might be just one ideal machine. There are so many car models now I can’t focus on anything (there even is a Focus for that matter). When it was suggested that I “…ask my automotive sales professional for details” – I really got overwhelmed. Buying a car in today’s market is harder than deciphering whether that Louis Vuitton bag I want on Ebay is authentic.

But my father’s spirit remains in all this car buying confusion. Did I mention we are currently driving the car he owned when he departed earth, a Dodge Spirit? Really the Spirit is here in Las Vegas, a darn fine car for American Highways. In Mexico it wouldn’t last a week – it is sooo low to the ground. The topes would destroy its body and spirit post haste. What can I say it is an American low rider car body with a Japanese engine stuffed in sideways, which was about the time I really gave up working on cars – the motor is heading in a different direction than the car? I give up. Happy Fourth of July and Stay Tuned!