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Year 2009 – Dido Comes Into My Life

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Political Commentary

This year I have kept the political commentary in a separate location.  Similarly, thoughts and observations are in a separate file.  This file will attempt to stay restricted to my current history.

JANUARY

Bandido The Dog - Bandido

Bandido  I inherited this puppy and wrote so much about him that I separated his life from mine.  Click on the picture to get to the dog's file.

My Leg

Mari agreed to keep the dog for the day while I went across the border for blood tests.  She promised to be there early when I arrived.  I needed a menu of tests as I have consistently complained of tiredness.  I took my monthly INR test in 57 as I like the consistency and I had no standing order from Susie available for the American lab.

But, as I have learned -- never trust a woman to keep a schedule.  Mari was not home. She was at the Mexican government office with her sister to get a birth certificate.  No, I could not take the puppy to her and no, she would not leave her sister.  But in the almost completed new house, the puppy had been kept in a back bedroom while it was with them.  Leave puppy there and she would attend to him when she got home.  Right.

Sure enough, right where she said it was, was a large section of 3-ply wood.  And there was water in the room and a section of unfinished concrete where puppy could do his jobs.  I left puppy eating and put the 3-ply in the doorway and left.  Puppy climbed the 3-ply (as I have come to find out, puppy is a good climber) and was happily trotting along next to me.  I got a bigger piece of 3-ply and walked around it then placed it firmly against the doorway.  No. Puppy forced his nose between the wood and door frame and again was happily trotting along next to me.

I got a 4x8 section of 3-ply , put it in the doorway and propped the original up against it.  No way out for the puppy.  Nor any way out for me.  But the windows were not framed and I climbed out the window.  The ground was further down than I expected and I landed on my left foot.  I expected this but I instantly discovered that my foot could not take my body weight without damage to my ankle.  I went down to my knee but my knee had the same problem: it would break if I kept my weight on it.  So I collapsed onto my left side as I hit the ground.  My thigh and shoulder took the weight.  I was OK and the puppy could not follow.  A few yips and I was gone.

By the time I got to the blood lab I could barely walk and was using my walking stick to hold my weight.  By the time I got to WalMart I could barely stand up at all.  I begrudged the woman who obviously could move much faster than myself for taking the last motorized shopping cart. It hurt.  I should have gone straight to bed but you know me.  Maybe most men.  By the time I got to Mari's and picked up the dog I was in so much pain that I did not even try to stand up.  The dog was happy to leave.  I was surprised.   I noticed Beto again was kicking the dog in the mouth for biting.  More training, less Beto.

By morning, even with the hotpad, I could not stand up.  As you know, most painkiller medicine contains aspirin or Ibuprofen -- precluded by my Warfarin.  Tylenol my be good for women's cramps but I have never met a man for whom it was any use at all.  That includes me.  I tried a few Tylenol.  I threw them up.  I could not walk up and down my steps.  The dog went hungry that day.  Sunday, I crawled down the steps and fed the dog and then crawled back up.  My thigh hurt so much and would take no weight at all.  My shoulder hurt but I did not worry about that.

What I did worry about was internal bleeding.  That is how the Warfarin kills rats.  It could do the same for me.  But there were no black and blue marks.  Just pain.  Monday I went to the doctor who quickly examined me and assured me that it was just a badly bruised muscle and I would walk again in a week.  In a week, I could walk but it hurt and the steps were a real problem.  Now my knee let its vote count: it could not take weight even if my thigh could take weight.  No complaints from my ankle.

FEBRUARY

So now it is the first week of February.  As of Sunday most of the pain is gone.  My weak knee still votes occasionally but for the most part, I am back to normal.  Puppy is his usual self.

I shall have Ernesto wash and wax the RV this week when I go to San Luis with the puppy.  He needs his vaccinations to cross the border.  Interesting.  In California for the dog to travel outside, he needs to be cross-tied so that he cannot jump or fall out.  In California and Arizona, if he is inside, he has to have good ventilation.  I have found no laws regarding crossing the border for him to be in or out.  I think some guards could get bitten by less amiable dogs.

Hank Aaron Turns 75 or The Day I Stopped Watching Baseball

I cannot even tell you which year.  Somewhere around 1965.  There were rumors that the Milwaukee Braves were moving to Atlanta.  The rumors were so pervasive that Hank Aaron, number 44, the fielding, home hitting star of the team went on TV and denied the move.  Additionally, he stated that if he were wrong and the team moved, he himself would stay in Milwaukee.  Milwaukee is an ethnic city.  Strong cultural values.  German, Polish, Italian, family types.  Russians.  Integrity and family count for a lot in Milwaukee.  The Braves announced the very next day after Hank Aaron's TV speech that they were moving to Atlanta and that nothing was going to stop them. Hank stopped making speeches for a while as he also moved to Atlanta.  I stopped watching baseball. 

I know: they were all gone too. Andy Pafco, Lew Burdettte, Warren Spahn, Johnny Logan, Del Crandel, Red Shoendienst.  I could name them all.  But they did not go on TV and lie to their loyal fans.  They just left with the team.

30 years later when my employer provided an afternoon off work,  a free bus ride,  a free sweatshirt, and a free ticket to the San Francisco Giants game, I continued at my desk working. Not even a second thought.  Not holding a grudge.  There was just no interest left in watching a dead game.

I hear a lot of old names attached to new cities.  I hear a lot of new names attached to old cities -- and new cities. There is still a World Series.  When, as a kid in the summer, there was a bus from the Wauwatosa Athletic Center to a Braves game, I went every chance.  The bleachers right over left-center field.  Milwaukee County Stadium.  The Knothole Club.  35 cents.  Hot dogs and soda were extra.  Sunburn.  All of it.  And it all died that day -- it died the day that Henry Aaron could no longer be my hero.

MARCH

The Highway -- Really Bad News

The new highway to Puerto Peñasco is open.  It ends a couple of kilometers north of town abutting the highway from El Golfo to San Luis.  I understand that this is a good highway.  I hope so because now it is a disaster for travel to San Luis.  South of El Doctor, major stretches are under reconstruction.  The reconstruction apparently will go from El Doctor right into El Golfo.  When this is completed, the dirt detours will be gone and maybe also the dangerous S-curve on the cliff side.

The dirt detours are tolerable except when you get behind one of 18-wheelers.  Then the dust is so high you cannot see and since the truck driver is Mexican, he does not slow down on detours.  Mostly I do not either but then I am not creating a wall of dirt.

But north of El Doctor is a different problem.  The highway between San Luis and El Golfo was designed for cars and farm implements.  It was not intended for commercial trucking traffic or the truckloads of dirt being hauled in both directions.  I understand the commercial traffic: a couple hundred miles have just been excised from the trip from the EEUU to Puerto Peñasco and the new highway is open road to them.  I do not understand the truckloads of dirt.  I see these big semi-sized trucks carrying dirt.  Sometimes north and sometimes south.  From where I sit, dirt is dirt.  Transporting it in both directions makes no sense to me.  But then I am not a Mexican -- yet.

There are some potholes on the old highway.  A few are refilled with asphalt.  Not many.  Some are refilled with sand.  Again, not many.  The potholes may be deep enough to ruin your wheel alignment.  But the real problem is that these heavy trucks have removed entire sections of asphalt.  There are bands across the road where there is no asphalt, only underlying gravel or sand.  Not just a couple of these.  Many of these and they vary from about 3 meters wide to about 30 meters.  At the current rate, there shall be no asphalt at all between Riito and El Doctor in a few more months.  And there will be broken axles and blown tires.  And no one seems to care.  All of the attention is on the new highway south of El Doctor and, if we are lucky, these repairs will be completed in another year.  It may become safer to shop in Tucson than Yuma.  Tourists leaving El Golfo are now using that route.

The El Golfo Economy

Bad and getting worse.  

There are not so many drug pongas arriving in El Golfo now.  Most are ending their northward trek in Puerto Peñasco -- now that the drugs can be driven along the new highway across the border.  Fishermen are learning new trades as there are fewer fish.  Corvina are running this week so when the wind is down, the fishermen are out.  But for the last year we have had too much wind.  I was given a corvina last night.  This will feed me for a week.  Longer if I liked fish head soup -- which I do not.

My neighbor just opened a new restaurant: "El Cameron Feliz".  It is a good restaurant and it is getting a lot of business from the RV park.  And a couple of local police have started eating there instead of at Magui's.  Magui moves out of her building next month and expanding her home to be the restaurant.  In another month, neither will have much business as the tourist season ends at Easter --Semana Sancta.

This will be a problem.  I mean Semana Sancta will be a problem.  Holy Week is always the high point of tourism in El Golfo.  The businesses are already gearing up for it.  Between the bad highway and the notices to not visit Mexico put out by the American government and the newspapers, I doubt there will be many tourists.  Either problem but not both problems together will keep all but the most die-hard tourists away.  Semana Sancta for El Golfo is like Christmas for American merchants: it can be an all or nothing for them.  People from Phoenix or Tucson can come through Puerto Peñasco but anyone from California or Yuma will find disaster in front of them.

The Papal Conundrum

This pope has diarrhea of the mouth and seems to really be out of touch. With all of his words, the only communication seems to rival my buddy at the El Golfo Times.  I shall concede that it took me 60 years to see the light and realize that the entire Jesus story is a hoax but then so is the Muslim story, etc.  But religion has its place for people who need something more than common sense to have moral values.  I have no grudge with them except when they insist upon invading the world with their prejudices.  This pope seems to be really good at this.  He reinstates a bishop who denies the holocaust --  within a month of the bishop reiterating his stance in a public forum and again after he is reinstated.

But going to Africa and telling people to not use condoms is sick.  Yes, I know the Catholic teaching that killing sperm without it being given a chance to impregnate a woman is a sin.  This sin includes condoms, masturbation, early withdrawal , any device keeping the sperm from an ovum, any chemical preventing the ovum from accepting the sperm, and any chemical modulating the metabolism of the woman to restrict the ova or prevent them from attaching to her if and when it is fertilized.  I guess male "wet" dreams do not count as killing sperm.  We all know what they call women who follow the church teachings on what time of the month they should permit sex.

But enough.  The problem is that this pope has gone to Africa and denounced condoms.  Condoms are the single device available to reduce AIDS/HIV.  This puts him in the unique position of denying that the world has changed in 2000 years -- and then it was a better world.  It has changed in 40 years.  While I was a college student, you could be sent to jail for buying a condom (Wisconsin state law).  Now you can be sent to jail for not using a condom (if you knowingly have an STD).

Africa is a place where the mores of the western world have been accepted very slowly.  The Christian man-of-one-wife is new to them.  Sex with only one person is not the norm and so the spread of STD's has been a serious problem.  How do you slow down the spread of STD's?  Use a condom.  How do you condemn a continent to painful death? Do not use a condom.  And remember where these STD's came from: they came from men not having freedom of sex with women and using substitutes (sheep and monkeys).  Does this pope really believe that he can roll the clock back 2000 years.  I think he would discover that the only difference between then and now is mass communication and improved condoms.  I doubt seriously that sex habits changed for the worse since Jesus.

The really bad thing is that these teachings encourage the concept that people who go against the law (God's or man's) deserve what they get.  Condemning a person to AIDs because they did not follow your God's law is so perverted that I find it unbelievable that they have not impeached this pope.

APRIL

Going To Mexico -- The New Border Patrol

Last year or so I saw the Border Patrol checking card going south into Mexico.  That was one time and I presume they had a singular purpose.  As of Thursday (April 2) they seem to have installed themselves permanently.  At San Luis, the usual two-three lanes going south with the orange plastic barricades forcing some separation are gone.  Now there is one lane with the orange barricades forcing all traffic through into a row of Border Patrol agents peering into each car.  I did not see a dog but I figure from the news clips that there was one.

I hope that the northbound San Luis Border Patrol apes do not talk to the southbound people or I shall become a harassment target in both directions.  In any case the rush hour traffic jam south if they keep the one-lane funnel will become a nightmare on the American side.

They talk about weighing cars going into Mexico.  This is an interesting concept.  My gas tank hold 20 gallons. 4 quarts to a gallon.  2 pints to a quart.  one pound for each pint.   160 pounds of gasoline.  In other words, if I just to to the USA and fill up the gas tank, I weight 160 pounds more going south.  But I buy things too.  Enough to raise the front so that people flash their headlights at me all the way home.  Add another 80 pounds for the milk.  Another 100 for groceries, etc.  I weight 340 pounds more going south than I did  going north.  This is like having two more people in the car.

Why do these things matter?  If they are weighing cars going south, then they must have a giant database of car weights.  They can list tare (curb weight empty)  weights but then they have to figure if the additional weight is "reasonable".  Between the dog and I, you can ad another 300 pounds.  Another 50 for the junk with which I normally travel.  This puts me at about 700 pounds above tare.  This should shout alarms to anyone if the database base weight is tare.

If they measure weight difference going south compared to coming north, the 700 pounds is only 340.  This should still be enough to get someone's interest.

With gas and grocery price differences, I do not think I am the exception.  I go out Algodones and come back in San Luis.  This might set off alarms.  I do not know and they are not telling. I am no threat to anyone but I do not fit into anyone's set of "standard" metrics so I can expect more and more inspections on the American side.  I think so can many other semi-resident tourists.

Health

The dermatologist sprayed off some minor things this week and excised one larger one.  No surprises.  The cardiologist told me to expect another stress test/angiogram this summer.  These things really scare me.  Last time I convinced the cardiologist -- a different one -- to not use anesthesia as I had to drive home afterwards.  I enjoyed watching the camera traveling around inside me -- exactly what scares enough people that they move and therefore the reason for the anesthesia.  The frightening part is the hole in my artery in my leg for the camera/cable.  When they are finished they insert a slow-dissolving plug.  The intent is for this plug is to hold in the blood until the artery heals over the cable hole.  The problem is that if my blood pressure surges, it can pop the plug.  If this happens I spend the remaining 2 minutes of my life making peace with my maker since there is not enough  time to do anything else.  Blood pressure surges? Walking, standing up, going up or down stairs.  The stairs are absolutely forbidden.  There are 4 steps up in my motor home.  If I live through entry, I can stay in the RV for a week.  The first step is the most dangerous.  Then there is the dog.  Oh. And lifting: a gallon of milk exceeds the lifting limit.

And who will check on me and why should they?  If I can make it to my bed, it is all down hill from there.  And of course, the insurance will not pay for a 24-hour stay in the hospital to make sure the plug stays in place for that long.  Banks and insurance companies, you have heard me go off on them before.  They make excessive profits, under-pay their people, and cry that at 25% on credit card bills, that they are bankrupt and need my tax money too?  For this they threaten my life for refusal to pay for enough care time to make sure the plug sets properly and does not just pop out on its own volition.  I hate insurance companies.  I guess if you have a wife, she can pray with you for those 2 minutes and call for the coroner afterward.

Earthquakes?

For several weeks now the area around and south of the Salton Sea has had minor earthquakes.  3 on the scale being the highest recorded.  But it is the number and the ongoing and the south that is of my concern.  The earthquake map shows the latest and largest quakes near Guadeloupe Victoria -- known as 43 around here.  This is 43 km from Mexicali as the crow flies (more or less).  You can place us at about 100km on the same line.  That is less than 40 miles from here.  A few months ago I felt one of these minor quakes.  A more serious quake would not surprise me.

MAY

Well, Easter week came and went.  My birthday came and went. My puppy is now a dog and I understand the concept of "Man's Best Friend". The weather is moving from warm days and cools nights to hot. 

My little AC units work their hearts out.  I love it.  I have two 5,500 BTU air conditioners mounted in my front window.  Each draws 4 amps.  I have them set a 4 degrees of each other so that they only both run when one cannot keep the RV cool.  What is there to love?  Elkhart is dead. 

It never occurred to the RV manufacturers to make RVs efficient.  There is little insulation in the walls or ceiling.  I have the luxury of a double roof thanks to a hail storm a few years back.  But the RV comes with two roof AC units and a current monitor to make sure they do not run at the same time -- or they will blow a 30-amp fuse.  This means that they uses as much electricity as 8 of my little wall units.  And what to I get for these two roof units?  Almost as much cooling as my two wall units.  The wall units will keep my feet cold they work so well.  The roof units circulate air better but then a couple room fans do even better.  The roof units will maintain a higher noise level and keep the RV vibrating and although their cooling units will not run simultaneously, their fans will.  This produces a nice harmonic that drives me nuts.  Elkhart?  If they had any interest in conserving energy, they might still be in business.  Oh, it is the price of gasoline?  The absurd excess usage of electricity by the RV units has caused various states to pass laws for RV parks to add electric surcharges to their park membership contracts.  And then there are the generators. You know the ones by Onan and that other company.

These Onan ("The Quiet Company") generators make so much noise that many parks, public and private, have banned their usage.  Oh, for the last several years Onan and the other company have finally taken to heart the noise issue and the current models come with sound insulation.  Too little sound insulation.  Too late.  I have a 5.5kw Onan, new one, side wall insulation.  Better than the old one.  Mostly the engine clogs up with dried gasoline for lack of use because I have this 1kw Honda that runs everything except heating and the microwave -- and it is so quiet that you have to be next to it to know that it is running.  And the Honda has an inverter to guarantee 60 cycles and 120vac.  The Onan cannot maintain 60 cycles to saves its life and the voltage varies all over the map.  This does awful things to electronics and you are always aware it is running because of the constant changing of power as it attempts to maintain a constant RPM since without this 60 cycles is a joke.  But Elkhart could have required more of Onan.  I mean Honda is not magic.  Little elves do not make them.  Oh. Size makes a difference?  Sit a 1kw Honda next to a 1kw Coleman say that again.

No. The RV industry is dead.  It did not have to be dead.  But it died because it made poor quality products that ran so inefficiently that they became the figurehead of profligate waste. My RV makes a nice home -- but it will never ride the highways again -- even if gasoline went back down to 75 cents per gallon.  Oh, the price of gasoline was the straw that broke the industry's back.  Bad management and faith in a lunatic president (GWB) bankrupted the entire economic backbone of the country.  Banks, Industry. GM.  Chrysler.  Ford may survive.  Maybe.  But only those able to reduce costs to a third world level will survive.  I hope to be one of them.  Right now I am borderline.

Prices.

My Ranger had a flat tire this last week.  Something on the El Golfo highway detours tore a hole in the old one.  $122 at Discount Tire.  Sam's Club does not stock the size.  You would think the would but the Ranger has a strange tire size.  When my RV was new, a tire for it cost about this much.  Now a mounted tire for the RV costs more than $500. Not going to happen.  I wonder if Costco stocks the Ranger size?  I had better check before it happens again.

Prices.  It seems that prices for things that you need are increasing rapidly.  Prices for things that you want are going down just as fast.  Excuse me: I had to sneeze.  I had better turn off one of my AC units.  I made the right decision on these units.  I went into Costco one day and saw a trail of these going out the door.  $90 each.  I bought one.  The next week they were gone.  The following week, they were back at $100.  I bought two.  One as a spare.  It is still under my bed waiting for one of the originals to die.  I saw equivalent units at Costco this week: $130.

But things never stay the same.  Marisol got divorced.  Complete.  She got the kid.  He got the house.  He does not like me and so I probably will have to move.  When she told me that she would divorce him, I expected that he would get the house but she assured me that that would not happen.  Now my tension level has increased.  I have not heard from him.  I hear his new wife is very thin.  I suspect that she will not like me either.

I have a few choices but the easiest is to move back into the RV park.  Cost is about the same as here but I lose the (false?) independence that I have here.  The park cost is about $180 per month with my current contract.  Here the cost is about $200 for electricity and water -- but there was $5,000 that I put in for the fence and hookups and septic tank.  Divide the number of months into that and today you get another $200 per month.  Lost if I move out.  If I am lucky, he will not be here much more than Marisol. I may attempt to buy the house from him.  Then I would fix it up a bit and rent it out.  I think I could make a profit at that.  Outside fixing is primarily painting and completing the electric work.  Inside, I would split the new bathroom into a bath and a kitchen and add a water heater.  I think about $2,000 would do it all.  If I could buy it for $15,000 with a favorable contract, I would do it.  Rent for $200 per week with a $50 cleaning fee would be about right.  Provide sales information including cheap Mexican liability insurance and it becomes a great holiday home.  Motel rooms are going at $60 per night.  Pretty brochures passed around town and discounts for CRA guests would do for marketing.  A nice picture page on this web site would not hurt.

If I move to the park, I have to chain the dog.  That would make us both unhappy.  Nothing ever stays the same.  She had choices.  I do not know it all but she had the choice to keep the house.  She told me that.


JUNE

I have heard from them. Sort of.  Marisol tells me that Beto will continue to permit me to live on the lot.  I have tried to contact him but he is not available.

Macho

I really get tired of this Mexican Macho shit.  And it is worse than shit.  It pervades the entire male Mexican personality.

Wife Beating is Endemic

I met a woman this month who had had all of her front teeth knocked out by her husband.  She had been in a coma in the hospital for months.  After running up a serious phone bill at a friend's house, she returned to her abusive husband.  He will hit her again.

Dog Baiting

The first question I always get asked by any Mexican about my dog: "Does he bite?"  Why? All of the Mexican men down to little boys teach all puppies and dogs to bite them.  And they do not understand when I tell them to stop teaching my dog to bite.  This week a Mexican young man with whom I am acquainted walked up and without saying anything to or about the dog started slapping him on the sides of his face. Back and forth until the dog bites them.  Then they hit the dog for doing so.  All Mexican males. Every time.  On the third time telling this man to stop, he did so but did not understand why I did not want my dog biting people.

If they are not teaching him to bite, they are teaching him to jump on them.  Beto arrived the other morning (at 4 a.m.) and the dog started jumping on him.  He encouraged it.  I told the dog to stop and asked Beto to tell the dog to stop.  He would not and assured me that it was just fine to have the dog jumping on him.  Right. Beto is over 6 feet tall.  The dog comes to his chest.  Dido (the dog) is 21 inches when standing normally.  He weighs 50 pounds -- and is skinny.  He is quite capable of knocking down all children and many adults with this jumping.  And as an Alpha dog, it is his nature to do this.  Only with consistent training have I been able to keep his feet on the ground.  As I told my kids when they were small, it takes 10 times of proper behavior to make up for 1 time improper.  For each Mexican that encourages my dog to jump on him, it takes me 10 or more times of telling Dido not to.  Do you know what a little kid thinks of a dog that knocks them to the ground and stands on them waiting for them to play?  And it is not the kid I worry about.  I worry about the mother, father, and my dog.

Little girls are not immune to stupid behavior with the dog.  They also try to get the dog to jump -- but not on them.  They try to get the dog to jump out of the pickup.  He can do this but it hurts him: with his weight, his legs collapse.  And hey flutter their hands cutely at their sides as they turn from the dog.  Right, my dog will jump them every time for either action.  The hand fluttering will encourage him to jump.  Turning your back on him is like a sheep running away: it is his job to stop them - and he will proudly do so.

Mexican Drivers

The Mexican drivers are worse than the Elkhart/South Bend drivers:  they do not want you to pass them. On the open highway they will accelerate to absurd speeds to keep you behind them.  If they are behind you, they will tailgate and then will pass cutting you off so short that you hit the brakes -- brakes chattering from the ABS.  This may be necessary as they have no concept of measuring oncoming traffic.  If the oncoming traffic comes too close, they will drive into your side.

Backing up is dangerous.  Really dangerous!  Why?  Because a Mexican driver going forward will not wait for you.  If he thinks it is possible to go behind you and live, he will.  He does not care if you hit him backing up as you will have to pay for his damages and if you are a gringo he knows that you can pay a lot.  Probably pay much more than his pickup is worth.  And a Mexican on a motorcycle?  You have not seen stupid until you have seen a Mexican on an ATV.

I am really surprised that more children are not killed.  Really.  There are no sidewalks.  There are no zoning setback requirements.  This means that houses and fences are built right to the street.  Especially dangerous at corners since when driving you must stop and look around the fence to see any oncoming traffic -- and the Mexicans are not as cautious as I am.  And the kids always play in the streets: there is no place else for the small child to play.  The bigger kids can go to the park but mostly they play in the street.

But it really gets worse.  The other day I approached the Second Hand lot on the main road.  It was a Sunday so there was a continuous line of cars returning north to go back home from the weekend.  Not a close string but enough that crossing the street between them was a problem.  The pickup behind me was far enough back and a family was trying to cross the road.  Two adults and several children.  I stopped far enough to the left so that it would be difficult to pass me.  The family could be seen on the right until they walked in front of me.  Stopping like this is fairly common practice since pedestrians have the right of way in Mexico.  Instead of stopping, the pickup behind me, a typical Mexican male, sped up and went around me: he saw the opportunity to be in front of someone.  Macho.  And the little boy who ran ahead of the family was running right in front of him.  The pickup driver slammed on his brakes and stopped 6 feet beyond the boy.  The parents of the boy had yelled at him to stop and he did -- or he would have been dead.  And the driver was not a tourist going home: he was a local and turned into town at the next stop sign.  I doubt that he even cared that he almost murdered someone.

The examples could go on forever.  It is always a "I am better than you" -- and it is not a game with the Mexicans -- it is a way of life.  Macho kills.

Father's Day

One day while talking with my Uncle Ernie about my abusive father, he asked me: "Why do you think it was only your father?"  Quite a shock.  Ernie to me was the ultimate father. 6 kids and they all loved him.  Me.  I could get hit for whatever I said and for sure if I said nothing.  And the one thing that was always stated and implied:  "You are so stupid that you will never be able to take care of yourself and it will be a burden either on me or the state."  I was 40 years old before I realized that I was not stupid.  But the father's voice in your head never goes away.  You just have to learn to suppress it.

I raised two daughters with a very hostile ex-wife.  This was a problem on several grounds.  The first was that I knew from the start that with my background, raising loving, happy, daughters would take more than I could do.  With a mother who was more interested in combat than being a mother, my children had it really hard.  I went to counseling.  I tried to get my kids to counseling.  I had discussions with my pastor, uncles, friends, and teachers.  I read books.  I did everything that I could do to get past my childhood and be the best possible father to my daughters.  I attended all school events, conferences, anything. No work overtime ever. My daughters heard every day how smart I thought they were.  They were both not only honor students but role model students.  The school counselor for Bree in several schools told me that she was the moral leader of her grade.  The principal of her final high school concurred.

As a father I failed.  My older daughter has not spoken to me for years and our last encounter ended with her yelling at me to forever leave her life and not consider her my daughter any more.  My younger daughter feels the same way and I hear about it on every occasion but she has not evicted me yet.

I had a friend once who told me to stop looking for family as every effort I made just hurt me deeper.  I think he was correct.  I sill talk with one daughter and my mother and rarely one of my sisters.  The one cousin that I keep in contact with enjoys our calls although the conversation is mostly one-sided.

No. Father's Day will come and go.  I will not celebrate my father and anything that comes to me as a father will disingenuous.

Title Insurance, Chicago Title, Wing and a Prayer

In my life I have bought and sold more houses than I am happy about.  A good real estate agent can handle many of the pot holes in this maneuver.  Everything centers around the selected title company.  The seller generally selects the title company.  Because the title company is so critical, I learned to add to any house purchase agreement a one line caveat: "Right of refusal of the title company".  Why?  Because some title companies simply do not do their job.  What is their job?

The title company job is to provide an insurance policy guaranteeing that the home you are buying is clear of any debts, liens, or whatever when you make your contract with your mortgage company.  The title company examines the history of the property to make sure that you and your bank are the sole owners of the property.  That is, there are no outstanding liens on the property.  Your bank requires this guarantee for obvious reasons.

To make sure that the current transaction is properly performed and recorded, you pay the title company a fee in addition to the insurance policy.  The purchase/sale of the property will include at document enumerating costs, fees, loans, and money involved to close the transaction.

This document is prepared by the title company at the direction of the seller -- usually his agent.  It is dated since the payoff of previous notes must be precise, the ownership of impound funds designated, new loans enumerated.  All money transferred in either direction are listed on this document.

Most people just accept their agent's word that the document is correct.  This is a mistake.

On each and every house sale I have made, there has been at least one error on this document.  An error that either my agent or the title company should have at least questioned.  Here is the problem.

The title company accepts a fee for their work usually corresponding to a percentage of the contract.  They create this document and expect everyone else to correct it.  I have had three very negative experiences.  One was with my Boca house where the seller pick an title insurance attorney rather than a name company.  The seller must provide the title insurance policy itself -- and pay for it. But the title company charges may be distributed in whatever manner the  title compete wants.  These show up on the document.  The one time I forgot to add my caveat, the Florida Title Attorneys put all of their charges on my column and said it was their option.  This added over $2,000 to my costs.  Most of their charges were bogus. They charged for time and space in their offices for a closing which happened elsewhere claiming that they had reserved the people and space regardless of whether they had been used.

This is the nature of the level of deceit of the Title Companies.  One experience with Chicago Title resulted in my having to go to the Federal Banking Commission and another federal agency to get money agreed upon as mine, returned to me as Chicago Title had informed the previous lien holder to refund the impound fund to the previous owner.  I got no assistance from Chicago Title in correcting this error.  They claimed that the document stood and it was my job to enforce the correction of their procedural error.  The document listed the impound fund correctly as mine.  The normal situation for the buyer.  The bank - under orders -- replaced the impound amount to my name.  I presume that the original owner needed to prepay them but that at least was not my problem.  During the two years it took to correct this, the original bank and Chicago Title were both unable to locate their files on the transaction.

The third problem was with Minnesota Title.  They simply did not do their job.  I was selling a home with a primary VA mortgage to be assumed and a secondary mortgage which was to be paid off.  At the same time, I was buying a new home with a new mortgage.  It was the title company's job to obtain the payoff balances of the existing mortgages so that I would bring to the closing a check for the exact amount.

I arrived at the closing and it was about to not happen because Minnesota did not bother to obtain these balances.  I had brought a check for the amounts that I knew.  I also brought $14,000 in cash to cover the unknown amounts.  The amounts were unknown to me but were supposedly known by the title company.  Minnesota Title basically admitted they did not do their job but put the ball in my court to correct it.  I did so.

At the table with everyone sitting there, including the Minnesota Office Manager, I placed phone calls to the 4 loan companies involved and obtain balances from them.  Since Minnesota Title would not accept these numbers coming from me, I had people at the loan companies record the information while they waited for a call from Minnesota Title (at the table) to obtain the figures -- which would also be sent by messenger as confirmation.

Now Minnesota updated the document and determined the exact amount that I needed.  They refused to accept cash.  I was very angry at this point.  I had done their job.  It was after hours.  People at banks had divulged over the phone payoff amounts that could have cost them their jobs.  Minnesota  would not accept cash.  With all of this they were about to refuse to continue the closing.  The office next door was a bank --in the same building .  I refused to walk the 100 feet to the bank to obtain a cashier's check.  For the amount of money they were being paid and for which they did not earn, they could walk the 100 feet.  And the bank was about to close.  The real estate agents refused to touch the cash.  The cash was on the table.  A different title company would have the contract the next day as I was going to be out of town.  Someone from Minnesota Title finally took the cash, got the cashier's check, and we finished the closing.

To be fair, I purchased a townhouse where there were errors in the recorded title and the title company took the effort to correct them before closing.  The one time that I was really happy to have chosen the title company that I had - but I forget its name.

In other words, he bottle neck in buying and selling a house is the title company.  Each office is separately managed so a gross condemnation of the Minnesota or Chicago Title companies may be inappropriate.  But I tell you that I shall never use either of them again.

On the other hand, the reason I write this is that I just heard on the news about a homeowner receiving a foreclosure notice from a bank for a loan that was never paid off by a previous owner. Identifying unpaid loans is the job ot the title company.  This is what you are paying them for.  When the owners obtaining the foreclosure notice went to their title company, their title company told them to get a lawyer.  The title company, title insurance document, stated that they have been paid to legally defend the rights of the new owner.  This title company is Chicago Title.  A friend of mine in Florida had the same problem some years ago.  He also had used Chicago Title.  He also had to get his own lawyer.  Enough.

Iran, the Wall, the Tank, and my Kids

Many years ago, you can look up the dates, events occurred that I considered important.  The Berlin wall came down.  I made both of my young daughters watch that on TV.  Then there was the man standing down the tanks in Tiananmen Square in China.  Again, I had my children sitting in front of the TV.  These were serious events.  They heralded the beginning of the end of secret tyranny.  Not the end of tyranny.  That will always be with us.  But the secret part was in collapse.  I heard that the primary reason that more people were not jailed and murdered in China was the quantity of FAXes being sent in and out.

The Iran issue is in the news. It is absurd to think that in such a contested election that either party walked away with 63% of the vote.  But the world is listening.  Either the dictator will be a dictator in public or he will succumb to election results.  It is way past a fictitious recount.  If there is a recount, it had better be visible to the world because a fictitious recount will just brand the dictator with more corruption.

In any case, we saw it start in Berlin.  We saw it continue in Beijing.  We want it to continue in Iran.  But we can only hope.  (At least the cowboy is not the president of our country any more.)  But we have a serious problem in the United States. I think John Naisbitt said it well in his 1982 book, "Megatrends".  The future belongs to the communicators.  He claimed that people would split into classes: those able to communicate and those who cannot.

Since the Sputnik went up in 1957, communication facilities have exploded.  TV showed the destruction of the wall and the man standing down the tanks.  We are currently overwhelmed with Internet and cell phone text and pictures.  Digital cameras the size of an ice cube.  It is not possible anywhere in the world for anything to happen without some person able to take a picture of it and probably get sound as well.  This is what is happening in Iran.

But.  And it is a big but.  More and more of our students are unable to communicate either verbally or on paper.  If we do not stop this dropout rate there is no hope for our country.  The United States is bankrupt.  The only way to survive is with a serious program of training people to work competitively in the world.  You can no longer retire in luxury from screwing mirrors on the sides of cars.  If you are able to retire it is because you learned how to do the things that other people have learned to do.  You cannot blame your not learning on your teachers.  You can blame it on your parents but after you point the fingers you must take the responsibility to get up and learn some skills.  Learning to talk would be a good start.

JULY

Things go down hill fast.  When Beto showed up with his new "wife" last month a 4 in the morning on a Sunday and told me that the house and lot were his, I believed him.  I have heard rumors that he refused to sign the final papers.  Marisol has texted me saying to not worry, he will honor my living here.  Since I have keys to the gate but not the house, permitting him that morning was not a problem although he broke the window screen hoping that the window was not locked.  He could have just removed the spring latch but he is not that smart.

Marisol's friends moved out all of her belongings.  Furniture, everything.  No call from either of them.  Mari's sister Andrea has been most helpful but does not talk to her sister that much.  They all say ot to worry. It has been a month and not an official word about my situation from anyone.

But I ran into another stupid yesterday.  This one cost me.  When Mari bought the house, it had a giant Air Conditioner unit on the far wall.  Typical Mexican: biggest possible unit.  For Mexicans, bigger is better is a life axiom.  In accordance with that principle, the circuit box installed for that unit contained a 75 Amp double-sided circuit breaker.  When we installed the AC circuit to the RV, we removed the several cables from the electric company service box and used only the cable to the AC unit.  This was because some of the cables just ended underground and some were reversed polarity.  The house was wired reversed -- randomly!  So we ran a cable from the AC box into the house with its polarity reversed leaving the house with the proper polarity -- mostly.

The first time Beto was in the house and added his bathroom, he discovered some polarity was reversed.  Rather than fixing it, he installed this maze of cables on the outside of the house back to the AC box -- now ignoring any in-the-wall circuitry.  Stupid.  Ugly.  But is solved the problem.

But this last week, a friend of Mari's (as I found out) took the AC unit out and covered the hole with a wooden panel.  this would have been OK (although I think illegal in the USA), but she also removed the 75-amp double circuit beaker.  And she also left all of the house wiring and the cable to the plug for the AC unit disconnected.  The house had no power.  This is not a problem for the house since there is nothing inside to use power. The problem is that my freezer is outside the house and is wired to Beto's maze.  Andrea's husband did that for me when I bought the freezer.  Mari volunteered the location rather than have it sitting alongside the RV.

Last week.  Today I noticed when I removed a gallon of milk that it was cool and not frozen. After checking my outlet, etc. I went back to the box and for the first time noticed that the AC unit was missing.  I opened the box and discovered the circuit breakers had been replaced with a rock.  I reconnected the house wiring to the connector bracket -- sans circuit breakers.

There is no need for a circuit breaker here.  There is a double 30-amp breaker at the service box. for the entire lot.  When we installed the RV circuit, we added an additional 30-amp breaker for the RV -- on the house side of the service box breakers. Double protection.

I lost about $200 worth of food when it became warm in the freezer.  The entire removal of the AC unit was stupid.  Had anyone told me, I could have helped but nobody is talking to me - except to tell me not to worry.

  1. They could have just removed the unit and replaced it with the wood panel. After all, it had its own plug alongside the circuit-breaker box.
  2. They could have told me and I would have helped with the circuitry.
  3. The could have left the circuit breaker box along, untouched.
  4. They could have reconnected the house wiring instead of letting it hang loose when they removed the breakers.

The 75-amp breakers, if you are electric-circuit challenged, are useless.  The house will burn down before they will trip.  If there is a problem, the 30-amp breakers at the service box will break.  75-amps is good enough for many small American homes.  The entire home.  One a given power line, the breaker with the lowest rating will break first.  So your house box will have many 15, 20, and 30 amp breakers for the various locations in the house.  Above these will be the 75-amp double breaker to make sure that there is not a total house overload.  Putting the 75-amp breaker downhill from the 30-amp breaker invalidates the 75-amp breaker.  Therefore someone has a 75-amp double breaker that may make them feel good but serves no purpose except taking it cost me $200 worth of food.

Washington Mutual and Bank Of America -- The Banks You Cannot Trust

Bank of America (BofA) ignored a check sent to them to pay  my monthly MasterCard balance.  The same billpay name and address I always use -- to the address I was originally given.  When the check was not credited, I went to the BofA web page and had them extract with their billpay, an equal amount from my checking account.  When the check arrived, I should have a large overpayment/credit.  The check never arrived.  At the same time that I authorized the BofA extraction, I notified my Washington Mutual (WaMu) account that BofA claimed to not have received the check.

WaMu acknowledged that the check was not cashed.  A week later, I requested WaMu to refund the amount of the "lost" check to my account.  They called BofA and BofA (Crystal) lied to them.  BofA denied the transfer from my WaMu account and claimed that they had cashed the original check.  Wait for the statement to arrive and see that this was so.  The BofA online statement says that they credited with the online transfer. No mention of a check. And by the way, a credit card statement does not say from where they got the payment.  If I had waited there would have been no improvement in the situation.

Multiple attempts to use the BofA web page mail have now ben refused access.  BofA has stolen my money and does not want to hear about it except from my lawyer.  They will at least have my $840 dollars until I can get a lawyer or a government agency to investigate.  This may take months.

I have informed WaMu that they have been lied to and given them the appropriate information but what is their motivation to jump BofA's case?  None.  They informed me that the matter was closed and that I was just out the second $842.01.  Sorry.  People wonder why I hate banks?  Banks are liars and thieves.  They will only be as honest os someone forces them.

But yesterday I bit the bullet: I called BofA customer service.  I got the same response that WaMu did: the check was cashed to make the payment but no credit was given for the BofA billpay although the withdrawal had been made and they had the money.  I asked for a supervisor.  Customer Service hung up on me.  I was angry enough to call back and ask for a supervisor.  This woman was patient enough to listen to the entire story and pass me on to someone else, Steven.  Explaining to Steven and his verification of BofA's actions took about an hour.  Together we called WaMu Customer Service.  With the WaMu validation process and music delays, this took another hour but we got to a WaMu customer service person who insisted the matter was closed except that Steven informed her that as a BofA Customer Service person, WaMu had take the wrong action and that Crystal's information to WaMu was in error.  The Wamu agent verified that the check had not been cashed and put a stop payment on it resulting, hopefully, in another week, the charge to be added back to my WaMu balance.  I hope.

This process from start to finish took about 3 hours.  I was sitting at a Burger King in San Luis, Sonora but near enough to the border that my tMobile sell phone worked as a local call.  I must thank Steven (BofA) for staying on the line so long because without his presence the matter would not have been resolved.  When I entered, people on their way to work were ordering breakfast.  Before I left, children waiting for the super-lunches were running around the tables.  My dog had climbed out and then back into the the truck three times.  The temperature was 105 by the time I got back to the dog.

You can expect occasional errors.  That happens. Two things went very seriously wrong here.  Not just random errors:  Customer Service failures and belligerent attitudes.  The first is that BofA ignored the payment check and lied about subsequently cashing it. The second was far worse.  Washington mutual could have pursued the matter diligently rather than being stopped by simple errors.  WaMu originally verified the check was not cashed.  Had they continued to verify the status they would have known that the information from BofA was in error.  My final request to them was to send me a copy of the cashed check. If it had been cashed, I had evidence to go back to BofA.  If it had not been cashed, I had evidence to WaMu that they had taken incorrect actions. But WaMu would not even send me a copy of the check in dispute -- and they admitted that it was a paper check and not an EFT transfer.

WaMu just presumed that their customer was in error causing a $842.01 permanent loss to me -- even though I provided them with a simple way to verify where the error had occurred.  Banks are not only dishonest but lazy, corrupt, and whatever else you want to say bad about them.  Never trust ANY bank.

In most cases, I make the payments such as this with slightly different amounts. For example, rounding up to the nearest dollar.  But the BofA online only permits the exact amount or less.  One penny less would have cost me the late fee that I was trying to avoid.

United Health Care Insurance and More Lies

A couple of months ago, I turned 65.  This means Medicare and my entire health insurance profile changes.  Finally I can get rid of the SIemens rip off scheme.  They act sort of like a Medicare supplement but not quite as good and charge more.  The concept is, now that you are 65 you can free Siemens of paying for you.  But now I need to find a supplement since Medicare only pays 80% after a deductible and only at reduced pay schedules that some doctors do not accept and nothing out of country.  So you buy an after-Medicare supplement.  I checked around and found AARP has good rates on good polices written by United Health Care.  United is a typical health care rip-off expert.  No surprises here -- all health care companies are rip-off artists.  This is exactly why we need a national health care program bypassing these companies.  Everybody want one.  The government will not give us one because these same companies financed their election campaign.

In any case, United   Their form stripped the apartment number from my submission because they claim to not mail to post office boxes.  Then they mailed things to the stripped address. Since my mail service requires this number -- as they should, the mail service takes extra steps to get the mail to the correct box.  If I do not correct this, they will charge me extra for it.  I corrected this error t United as rapidly as possible but not before they caused more problems.

Because some of these places will not change addresses by email and their online forms do not permit address changes, I emailed them with the proper information and my FAX number.  The FAX number to makes sure we got this problem resolved as quickly as possible.  My mistake.

United Health Care claims to have a privacy policy.  Immediately upon accepting my policy, the United sold my address to Walgreen's.  They may have sold it elsewhere but Walgreen's replied to the incorrect address before I even obtained a policy copy from United.  Fast. United should not have given my address, correct or incorrect to anyone, let alone a national pharmacy.