A Glimpse Into the Inner Sanctum

A question came in from a long time family friend....fixture more like it.   This woman is a PH.d. and has a daughter (an MD) who is the same age as our daughter.   The two girls grew up together and are still close....in the way that urban life allows closeness.

           The family friend is an educator extraordinaire and has always been a positive bleep on our radar.   She is also a strange form of liberal....Democratish.   Why she doesn't beat me over the head....and my wife over the head....I do not know.  She is up to lecturing me at times, and for some strange reason I will just take the mental torture and abuse.    She might be the bucket of cold water that is needed when I really am wound up into a knot.    She is an OROG, and must just shake her head and shudder at what must seem to her to  be my barely functional psychotic episodes.

            In any regard, from her comes a set of good questions.  What about the drought of the 1950s?   In Texas?  In the Valley?   What are the significant hurricane events for South Texas?   What about the heat records?     She says a great deal more than I, and does it in many fewer words, and the Old Gringo thinks that her questions would be of more than a little interest to other OROGs.   So, a segment of a private email is included here....with a few amendments for the sake of clarity:

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     (In response to your questions...)    It was a strange time....from 1949 through 1954. Remember that I was born in 1947, but I am one of those rare birds who has vivid memories from infancy. What a useless clot in the brain, no? The freeze of 1949 was a doozy and I remember being "swaddled up" in our back room....the "fireplace room" ....and throwing a fit because the big people would not let me go out and help chop and bring in wood with my brother Milton. He was actually like one of the big people to me, since he was eleven years older.

About thirty percent of the citrus was destroyed by this freeze that came in during the late days of January and receded on the 5th of February. From that point, things were okay, weatherwise, although water for irrigating was always a concern and it was expensive. My parents operated a very much "hands-on" grove care business which took about 30 hours a day, 9 days a week. Irrigation was a word heard in every sentence. If not irrigation, the word would be "water" .

Things steadily became drier. Then exactly two years, almost to the day and hour, the Freeze of 1951 hit. Although there had been a bit of recovery for the citrus since the 1949 damage, this time would be the real doozy. This time the Winter had been warmish, so the trees were setting blossoms and had a lot of very new growth....entering into South Texas Spring. The freeze of 1951 essentially destroyed about 70 percent of all citrus and 90 percent of ornamentals in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Recovery via cotton and vegetables would depend upon water, irrigation, and good luck. There was little of any of those commodities available at that time.

In the meantime, although there was no water in the Rio Grande to speak of, construction began on Falcon International Reservoir. It was finished and openned for business in 1953, being dedicated by the simultaneous presences of Adolfo Ruiz Cortinez and Dwight David Eisenhower on a very hot, windy October day about a year after Eisenhower's election as President, and entering the third year of Ruiz-Cortinez's election.

Seven months later, what would now be considered a category I hurricane formed up late in the Gulf....(but early for the season....being born in June)....and moved slowly onshore, just barely south of the mouth of the Rio Grande. The storm moved very slowly up the entire length of the Rio Grande up to Del Rio,   finally coming to rest over the Pecos River watershed. Rainfall totals went as high as 25 inches at various points. Perhaps as many as 70 people were swept away in flash floods in Piedras Negras, Coahuila and Pecos, Texas, along with a few other places. But, it did, in a matter of days, fill what was then the largest lake in Texas...Falcon Reservoir. People could not believe it.

We were surprized to note the vast numbers of people who had driven up to see the Lake after the hurricane. None of us had ever seen such an extension of water, save for the ocean....like at Padre Island. We were visiting where my Godfather, Harold Hendricks was finishing up on his project building the new Zapata High School and ISD re-location. Zapata had been translocated, like Guerrero, in anticipation of the Lake filling some day. Uncle Harold had also built all of the private housing for the "Dam Workers" at what is called Falcon Village, on the grounds of the Government Offices about a half-mile from Falcon Dam. I think it was 20 houses with 2, 3, and 4 bedroom configurations. They are nice houses and still in use to this day.

From that time on through to those particular problems the latter 1990s and the early part of this Century, there were never any significant water shortage issues. A few floods affected the Valley, like Hurrican Beulah's run-off in 1967, but those waters came into the Rio Grande at the Rio Alamo and the Rio San Juan, which enter the Rio Grande on the Mexican side and below Falcon Dam. Other floods were the result of heavy localized rains in most cases.

Long answer to the question....but when communication is infrequent, details are precious. I really appreciate having that chance to see you all in Austin. It was good to see Xxxxx and Xxxxxxxx....things change but stay the same at the same time sometimes....said Yogi.

XXX

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     It should be noted that during the 1890s, the Old Gringo's great-grandfather and his daughter (the Old Gringo's grandmother) lived and ranched in Tuxpan, Vera Cruz, midway between Tampico and Vera Cruz City.  They had a nice ranch up in the mountains.   They suffered three successive freezes in those years which essentially sapped my great grandfather's willingness to continue his project.

        We could have done with a bit of Global Climate Rizbafutubchip back then.    Rizbafutubchip is the new word I made up to try to keep ahead of the Global weather catastrophe de jour.   In my lifetime it has swung back and forth between Ozone holes, Ice Age a'comin, nuclear winter, iceberg melting, asteroid punishment by extraterrestrials because we don't share the wealth, etc.    So I just made up a word that makes about as much sense.   It's all George Bush's fault anyway.   And women and minorities and children and the poor will be the ones who suffer most when the world ends anyway.

Back to work to-morrow, you all!   Armageddon beckons!    I hope Father Obamaham and Father Bernakeham and Father Geitnerham send me my check.   Not your check....my check first.   I'm me.  Don't give no flip about no stinkin' grandchildren or America or any of that slop....only me!   And I mean ME!      Me first.

El Gringo Viejo

(only joking, folks.   Spare the commentary line on this one)

           

     

Update and Obituary for Tropical Storm Don

     The first point does not have anything to do with anything, per se.  It is just necessary that we all whine and complain to FOX News.   They should desist with their dumboe insistence on announcing a "FOX News Alert" with all the fanfare and graphic....and then announcing "Charles Lindbergh says that he is planning a trans-Atlantic solo flight!"     So many of their alerts are "old cow" that sometimes I wonder if Rip Van Winkle was left in the FOX News Alert control room.    FAUX NEWS Alert! "Gen. Grant allows Confederates to retain side-arms, and horses fit for travel and plowing, in terms of surrender agreement at Appomattox!    More after these announcements."

      Now, after that perambulation, the Storm, Don, came up to Boca Chica like a tired, drunk sailor.   The voyage over the Yucatan, the upper reaches of the Bay of Campeche, and the southwestern Gulf of Mexico ended, partially over land and partially over water.    Please be aware that the "official" readings of the storm's track did not match the facts.   It tracked about 50 miles to the south of what was being cited by the Hurricane Center.   The circulation center was ill-defined, but it was readily detectable by anyone following the storm on a home computer, linked to Weather Underground's sources.   Oddly, the circulation center's strongest moments were its last, when it almost formed a complete rain shield of 360 degrees.    Areas just to the east of Boca Chica had up to 13 inches of rain...all over water....McAllen had a trace
      Of particular note was the forecasting of the path after landing.   It had no path.   It literally evaporated and died on the beach at Boca Chica, the mouth of the Rio Grande during the twi-light and early nighttime hours of 29 July 2011.   The weather service followed a dry, spin-off vortex across South Texas, saying that it was the "post land-fall depression".
       Normally the Weather Service and the private services do an adequate to excellent job in their dealings with tropical weather.   This time was wierd.  The Old Gringo does not understand why there was such a breakdown and an unwillingness to just say, "We are having a hard time fixing a center of circulation due to the lack of organization on the part of Don".     The probability is that the area to be affected, deep South Texas and northeastern Mexico is really of no importance or significance.

       Finally, if the word "compromise" is used again, the Old Gringo will puke some more.   Compromise in the issue of the debt limit....in terms of the issues like the national government's budget deficits....is what has gotten us into this quagmire.    The word 'compromise' infers that each party has a valid position, from which a new and stronger weld can made of two fine metals.
      Compromise to a marxist and or most Democrats and to too many Republicans means...."Let the Party continue, more champagne and caviar , Jeeves....let the little people have Lone Star Cards....make sure the gate is locked at the subdivision entrance....are Rosie and Whoopee here yet?"

     Anything that is recommended that will really cure the problems is immediately met with, "What will we do about the firemen and policemen and teachers and people who need help to not starve and Social Security Checks and veterans' benefits?"    Geitner pulled that one off the other day like a six year old threatening his mother with burning the barn down...after the six-year old was caught with his hand in the cookie jar.   He even glowered slyly at the reporter...almost like, "Bet you hadn't thought of that answer, had you? Bet you don't really believe that we'd pull that off and blame it on the Republicans, do you?"     What a disgusting, marxist thug.

       Geitner and Bernacke are a pair of slugs who were purposely put into their positions to continue the destruction of America.    Imagine a head of the the Federal Reserve actually saying, "I really don't understand why" when asked about the unresponsiveness of the TARP and StimuPork programs.    Imagine the Secretary of the Treasury actually suggesting a THIRD StimuPork program to build upon the successes of the first two labour union funding projects.

      Special announcement:    The Old Gringo has found a good supply of well made Sylvania light bulbs for various applications.   They are long life, incandescents and they are made in the United States.    There are some made in Mexico and Canada.  None that I have found recently have been made in Red China.   These are being carried by the normally Red Chinese friendly HEB company.

Thanks for helping me leave Grumpyland this morning.
El Gringo Viejo

Under the Gun

     My poor wife will back me up I'm sure, but she is probably tired of it all.   About three days ago, the Old Gringo decided that there was a good probability that a bit of a hurricane would be forming in the northwestern Caribbean.  It happened, of course.

     Now it is ambling through the southwestern Gulf of Mexico.   It is a small, somewhat non-descript tropical storm named Don....the kind of a storm you might meet in a run down bar with warm beer and dirty rest-rooms.   But on a night like this, you have to dance with the only storm in the room.

       We have determined that three different fixings of the co-ordinates were not correct.    We have also noted that the stated course and projected paths did not follow any guidance factors with which I am familiar.   It is probable that the Old Gringo has been left out of the loop since Global Warming was created by George Bush and Cristobal Colon.    They no longer send me the new guidance factors for tropical disturbances. 

       The Old Gringo's guidance factors range from the "tongue of surface low pressure"....(an old system)....to the "middle-level steering  winds" notion (relatively new...50 years old)....with a little bit of the idea of the "blocking high pressure system"....(which is probably related to #2).    There are five or six other things but to explain them would be even more boring for me than for the normal OROG, who really does have better things to do than to read about Old Indian Chants from the Tennessee Cherokees which either attract or repel hurricanes depending what is needed at the moment.

      The deal is that the storm has had movement more to the west than has been anticipated by the NWS and even by private weather analysis services.   That means it will make landfall further to the south on the extreme South Texas coast......or somewhere within 40 miles south of the Rio Grande's mouth to the Gulf to 30 miles to the north.   The landfall can be...at this writing...anytime between 20:00 hours Friday to 06:00 hours on Saturday.    It is hard to determine the forward speed, in that the hurricane hunter plane has estimated it to-day to be ranging from 9 miles per hour to as high as 17 miles per hour as of an hour ago. 

     In any regard, to make a long, long story mercifully short, we might be away from the computer for a bit.   The first thing to do is to secure the persons and effects of my mother and father-in-law.    That will be a wonderland, because my mother-in-law will only believe what she hears or sees on the television news.   The television is usually wrong, of course, and is always about 2 to 5 hours behind in terms of the developments that can be readily gleaned from the computer.   So...it will be fun for a little while.

Thanks for your time and interest.   We shall advise if things are exceptionally boring or exciting....either way.

El Gringo Viejo

      

       

If the Old Gringo Won't Do It, Who Will?

This is not one of my reverse-logic melt-downs.   Nor is it one of my sardonic, sarcastic stabs at humour.   It is something that must be done on all screeds major and minor, in order to make certain this news is made commonly available. 

Wade Sanders

This man recently had his Silver Star removed from his person and record.   The silver star for gallantry and conduct above and beyond,etc. was taken due to the fact that it was awarded due to fallacious information, purposefully and willfully contructed by the person pictured above.     It is also true that information gathered for the awarding of the Silver Star was corroborated by other individuals who also were found to be giving deliberately false and misleading information concerning the events in question.

      The individual pictured above and his collaborators were found to be guilty of false swearing and perjurious testimony.   In short, the events described never occurred and were wholly invented.    The events were supposed to have taken place in the Republic of South Viet Nam during the American defence of that country.     The Silver Star was stripped from this individual sometime before other un-related proceedings were taking place.  

       The un-related proceedings were the investigation, findings, indictment, conviction, and sentencing to prison for approximately four years of the individual pictured above.   He was sent to prison for collecting, having in possession, marketting, and otherwise participating in the commercialization of the worst form of child pornography that can be imagined by a reasonable person.  Video material involving females from the ages of eight to thirteen who are being brutally subjected to forced situations is about as far as this writer cares to go.   The Federal Court documents are much more explicit and it is worse than it sounds here.

       This person needs to be known to all who cherish the Republic.

       Why?

       This is the kind of person who can walk into a nationally televised, national political party convention of nomination, and make an introduction of the soon to be nominated candidate of that party.    He made the introduction by referring to the Swift Boat for Truth group as Nazi-like members of a smear machine who were besmirching the good reputation of the soon to be nominee of said political party for the Presidency of the United States of America.   Even as he spoke from the podium, he knew that he would have a new delivery for his "collection" upon returning home.

        We have no information concerning whether or not that nominee was one of the corroborative agents to the testimony leading to the awarding of a Silver Star which later had to be stripped from the receiver due to falsification under oath.   We pray not.    We pray not because that same nominee supposedly threw his own Silver Star over the fence surrounding the grounds of the White House in 1972 or thereabouts.


addendum:
(This was found on another reliable blog that follows military and veterans' issues.)

John Kerry Ally Loses Silver Star

When John Kerry was being “swiftboated” (which is another way of putting, when the truth was being told about him) in 2004, Wade Sanders rose up to defend him. Will John Kerry, who by the way served in Vietnam, return the favor?

“Had the subsequently determined facts and evidence surrounding both the incident for which the award was made and the processing of the award itself been known to the Secretary of the Navy in 1992, those facts would have prevented the award of the Silver Star,” [Mabus spokeswoman Pamela] Kunze said.    ("Mabus" is the surname of the Secretary of the Navy at the time of this statement)

Sanders was Kerry’s superior officer in Vietnam. Sanders is currently in jail, on child pornography charges. Not sure how that relates to 1992, but the back story must be interesting.

Still nothing, but at least there is something

With reference to some questions that might be remaining about the three or four busses that went missing and their subsequent rescue by the Armed Forces, the following can be said.

     My best recovery of information is that the incident did occur.   The people who were rescued were advised that it would be best that they not "go public" for a time.    The people also asked the authorities involved to do equally, so as not to engender some kind of  "humiliation revenge" on the part of any of the parties responsible for the provocation of the incident.

      One of my respondents believes it to be true that the provocateurs were, in fact, deserters from the Zeta group.   This was based on a few comments by some of the passengers who were interviewed in Tampico.   Perhaps the deserters had found Jesus or had some other awakening.

Therefore, until there is new or contradictory information, the Old Gringo will also let the matter rest, respecting the wishes of those involved more directly.

Just a Bit of Focus

     The recent spate of advertisements by somebody who is very proud of the Red Chinese because they have better and faster passenger trains than the Japanese and French.....brought me a bit more headscratching recently.

Looks like home, but it's not!   Everyone here is humming
"Oh! How I love to carry dung to the dung heap for
Chairman Mao", while they browse in a ChApple.

Red Chinese shoppers have been dealt a neat deal.    They can look around in an Apple Store (and many other American  and European retail outlets) and buy the same defective junk they ship over here that doesn't work.   The advantage with this stay-at-home tour of American and foreign capitalist-pig consumerism is that all the money stays at home.   The stores are not what they seem.   THE ENTIRE STORE IS A KNOCK-OFF!!!

      Various American, European, Japanese, Korean, and other types of human-beings began to notice that not only did the faulty junk on the shelves have Mao's fingerprints, but that the "something's funny here" feeling kept being reinforced by the filthy restrooms with no plumbing, shabby construction, computers that were only shells, set out for display purposes only....(shades of Russian consumer initiatives from the 1950s).

     Turns out....sure 'nuff....THE WHOLE STORE IS A KNOCK-OFF, just like the stories of the Roaring Dragon and Red Chinese superiority in all matters of humanity.     Turns out that Sir Edmund Hillary Rodham Clinton (named after Sir Edmund Hillary after he scaled Mount Everest, three years after the birth of Sir Edmund Hillary Rodham, according to her), and her much vaunted announcement of agreements concerning copyrights and intellectual property and patent rules between the Americans and the Red Chinese, pertained to everyone but the Red Chinese.

      It also turns out that there are several thousand of these knock off businesses in Red China at this writing....many different businesses, many different types of products.  The Red Chinese Government has announced immediate measures to deal with the problem.  

      One of my biggest gripes about George Bush....besides removing the Confederate Flag from the State Archives building in 1999 as he went into the Republican GOP Presidential primaries....was his use of the term "ally" when referring to a group of people who see us exclusively as a living organ-donor bank.

       Another set of  observations  fly in the face of the idea that Red China is something other than a huge Cuba.     One is that the per capita income for Red China is less than 1,000 American dollars per person.   The per capita income for Mexico, for instance, is nearly 5,100 American dollars.   For the United States, in spite of O'bama, nearly 30,000 American dollars per person.

           Taking two countries stumbling out of the shadows of socialism, slowly, while we dive headlong into it....Mexico and Canada, and the reader sees a total of "aboot" 140,000,000 people.    Their combined gross national product is about evenly split, and comes to about 6,500,000,000,000.

            This means that 140,000,000 people produce about the same amount as 1,300,000,000 (nine times more people).     Top that off with the fact, that when we consider what most Obamatron types concern themselves with...."social justice"....almost one/fifth of the wealth production for Red China came from Hong Kong....almost one/fifth.....of the wealth production  comes from one/ one thousandth of the population.   So,   0.001%  of the population produces 20% of the value of the economy.   Like the old Soviet Union, the Red Chinese are presently spending over 20% of that GNP of Red China on military outlays.

           And as an ally....the Old Gringo must assume that if Red China is an ally, then it is Belize or perhaps Gabon that is continuously hacking into the Pentagon computers and sending industrial spies and other types of spies to all corners of the United States.    The Red Chinese see the round eyes' children as organ donors for the children of the Communist Party's leadership.

         Finally, we watch the recovering of Japan, as the Old Gringo said they would do.....with their trains running and things coming back into focus.    The Red Chinese made a series of bragging announcements about how they have the great trains....not the French, not the Japanese, and not the Americans.   So far they have managed to have over 150 major wrecks, breakdowns, and system collapses on their vaunted Peking to Shanghai 900 mile - 5 hour train.   There have been 1,000 people killed so far in these incidents.    The last one made it out a bit into the international press....which they first reported to be a malfunction brought on by lightning.....and as having no casualties.   The casualties now total almost 100 dead.....and the cause is unknown with many people being "detained" for an investigation.    A recent scandal revealed that almost 1,000,000,000.00 American dollars worth of Yuan were embezzled, stolen, or "evaporated" during the construction of this hood ornament, low-rider burlesque of a "shovel ready" marxist project.    At least O'bama's favourite Ruhr Valley capitalist group, General Electric, has been managing to sell electric equipment to Peking. http://www.christianpost.com/news/china-train-crash-social-media-users-outraged-over-alleged-cover-up-52793/

           All the while, the Japanese continue to play baseball, visit their temples and ancestors,  run their trains without fanfair.....only at 180 miles per hour....not 250 miles per hour.   Of course, the Old Gringo would say that 180 mph is a lot faster when it is moving than 250 mph when it is not moving.    Right, Yogi?

http://youtu.be/t5E5GGEdfS0

(This is a clip from the sleeper compartment of a departing Hokkaido Express train, heading north)

And by the way....Japan, with 1/10th the population of Red China, produces  slightly more when measured the same way as Red China.   Japan, when confronted by the Russians in the early 1900's, outnumbered in the same way, and roughly equal in terms of GNP, destroyed the Russian Navy, pushed the Russians completely out of Manchuria, took back the Sakhalin archipelago, and generally humiliated the House of Romanoff.   Such is the nature of paper Bears.....and paper Tigers. 

Thanks again for the time and interest you all invest with this blog.

El Gringo Viejo

     

And furthermore...

     This man also walked with Presidents, moved along his own path at his own pace, and had profound positive influence on America and Americans.    He had a profound influence on the white folks as well as the black folks.  I do not know if this could be put to into the various study programs found to-day in America's classrooms....it may be too easy to understand for the high minds who concern themselves with important things like teaching that "separation of Church and State" is a concept found in the United States Consitution.

   Here is this man's life code:

Be clean both inside and out.

Neither look up to the rich nor down on the poor.

Lose, if need be, without squealing.

Win without bragging.

Always be considerate of women, children, and older people.

Be too brave to lie.

Be too generous to cheat.

Take your share of the world and let others take theirs.

     It amazes the Old Gringo that these peoples' names, Booker Washington and George Washington Carver, never come up in the popular culture.   The Old Gringo has carried a 50 cent piece, a commemorative celebrating Booker T. Washington, in his wallet or travel bag, for almost forty years, to remind himself about how people who are born with a millstone around the neck can still fly to the moon or sing a great tune, especially....at least at one time....in America.

Remember?   I remember.

You all have to allow me to wallow around in this misery for a bit.   The OROG who sent me that message from the PIG (see first paragraph of previous blog) set me to thinking in a channel that has me stuck for a bit.   That "OROG" is actually a very nice couple, very accomplished, who are among those that the present President hates, because they are "more fortunate" and do not "pay their fair share".   The fact is that they take naught and give much....are honest, generous, and kind to a fault.  They do not step on people, nor do they put on airs of their importance or "more fortunate" status....one would think that they were at home in the most modest of surroundings.   I think of them every time the president comes forth to speak about how evil and selfish Americans with resources  are when there are people out there "suffering".   The OROG couple cited here is fairly typical of the people who have moved America in the right direction for many generations.    The president is the kind of person who wishes to destroy those who "have", so that he can be popular with those he styles as "have nots" .    These folks who are my OROGs are the kind of people who want everyone to be wealthy and have done much to forward that objective by their industry.

More Later.  Thanks for your time as always.

El Gringo Viejo
 

Photograph of George Washington Carver taken by Frances Benjamin Johnston in 1906.
Born	January 1864 (1864-01)[1] Diamond, Missouri, U.S.
Died	January 5, 1943 (aged 79) Tuskegee, Alabama, U.S.

Wisdom...an OROG's Lecture

"Your inflated feelings of entitlement don't authorize you to rewrite history, exaggerate the accomplishments and/or suffering of your ancestors, or to demand payment for things that happened to somebody else."

    An OROG sent me this hopelessly offensive message, just because I was whining for reparations.    I had made a petition with my trial lawyer from New York to seek recovery for the pain, suffering, misery, post-traumatic nightmares, psychological disorientation, night-sweats, loss of interest in baseball and stamp collecting, and many other things that I have endured over the years.

     On the 3rd of May of 1863 my grandfather's brother was engaging a Confederate position on the outskirts of Salem Church, near Lexington, Virginia.   During a planned, co-ordinated advance which was to be covered and reinforced by the 5th Maine Infantry Regiment, he was seriously....mortally wounded.   He died in a private doctor's office in Lexington some days later, being tended by a physician and  civilians of the enemy's population.

       It was established that the 5th Maine, which had artillery support within its composition, abandoned, nay,  fled the field upon an advance by a Confederate company...much inferior in number and with no artillery support....and left their comrades in the 96th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment to face a Confederate onslaught that reduced the Keystoners' ranks by almost a third by the end of the bloody day.    The further effect of their cowardice....as in the fall of a house of cards....was the complete folding of Hooker's entire center and the forced retreat, finally to the precincts surrounding a place called Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.   There the DamnYankees would have to make a last ditch effort to keep the Confederate Armies from encircling and isolating Washington, D.C.  from northern industry and population centers.
        The the incidents of Gettysburg being resolved, another of my grandfather's brothers (actually a 1st cousin who had been taken in during his early childhood by my grandfather's father)....was killed a month or so later,  while skirmishing with Confederates covering the retreat of Lee's forces back into Virginia.

President Lincoln, who
conspired to kill my
poor Great Uncle.
He stood by and did nothing

       So, the Plaintiff does file suit for damages in the form of reparations for pain and suffering, etc. etc. that was endured by his grandfather, whom he never knew since he died long before the Plaintiff's last reincarnation.  The Plaintiff's  father must have suffered indirectly from this loss which occurred 48 years before his birth, due to implied and subliminally  perceived statements and actions by his father.   Those same psychological inputs were certainly imprinted upon both the Plaintiff and his brothers, thereby causing irreparable harm, damage, suffering, loss of hair, and psoriasis.

Secretary Stanton
War Secretary of the
United States of America
One of the murderers
of my Great Uncle Charles.
His hands are hidden to
hide the Blood of Guilt

     This suit names Abraham Lincoln,    Secretary Stanton, and all General Officers of the Armies of the United States of America during the time of the Rebellion of the Confederacy.   It enjoins all heirs and assigns of the abovenamed perpetrators, living and dead.   It includes all estates of said heirs and assigns.     It further demands reparation from the living and dead heirs and assigns of all members of the 5th Regiment of the Maine Volunteers serving at or near New Salem Church, Lexington County, Virginia during the first 10 days of May, 1863. 
     The suit further names any person of the Negro Race who had been transported from Africa into the New World from the years 1540 through 1851 under bondage or by free will, their heirs and assigns, because their presence on this North American Continent did have an oblique but important bearing upon the Death of my kind Uncle, and he died due to that oblique but important bearing.



Booker TalliaferroWashington
Strong, Brilliant, Risen from
 Dust. Great and True American
Example for All Times

      The Plaintiff will also demonstrate that no one, not a soul, representing any of the above named miscreants or active or passive co-conspirators, past or present,  have ever expressed any lament, any sympathy, or any concern about his profound loss.   It is for that reason that we pray for supplementary punitive damages to be paid in reparation for the furthering, deepening, and sharpening of  pain and emotional withering.   Plaintiff especially points to the person of Booker Talliaferro Washington who was one of America's most notable figures in social advancement, education, philanthropy, science, industry, and general productivity.   Although he was born a slave, neither he nor his heirs or assigns have ever asked for special treatment or demanded special privilege.   Although dealt a hand with no high card, he ascended to the highest levels and left the Earth a better place, as another might have said....."with malice towards none and charity for all".    His example makes it especially difficult for the Plaintiff to forward his ridiculous case for reparations, therefore we are including him in this petition for redress of grieviance.  Therefore, we pray for the prohibition of the mention of his name or example, or the mention of the name or concept of God or religion during these procedings so as not to injure the Plaintiff's sensitive feelings, and due to the Constitutional Provision requiring separation of drycleaners and Thursday afternoon.   
Filed This Day, before the the Bench of the Perpetual Whining BellyAchers, Office of Special Victims Without Claim, but Who are Therefore Especially Deserving....The Hon. Reverend Al Sharpton, the Hon. Jesse Jackson, the Hon. Rosie O'Potamus, presiding  

Sad, but there will be a better day.

Sometimes people ask, "What does the common man think about this stuff that is going on?"   I do not know everything.   I do know what the vast majority of people with whom I might hang around think.

       Below, the Old Gringo includes from the original Spanish, a translation of observations made by someone who probably is in the upper-middle class, about 35 to 50 years of age, principally Caucasian in racial/ethnic composition, w/preparatory or higher education, and possibly a self-employed salesperson, small businessman, or management level corporate man.     He lives in a major city between Guadalajara and Mexico City.

     He filed these comments on a popular blog concerning the narcowars and the cartels.   He is celebrating the outcome of a skirmish yesterday between the Mexican Army and cockroaches on the north edge of Monterrey yesterday.   The result of the encounter....Mexican Army 4  Cockroaches 0.    Nobody has come forward yet to claim the remains of the cockroaches.

      The Old Gringo has taken the liberty to smooth out some rough edges of a screed rapidly composed and written by a sincere and literate person.    A bit of rough language has been smoothed out, and a couple of replacement terms have been used.   For instance in Mexican Spanish, a pistol called "escuadra" is "squared" ....in other words a semi-automatic that loads from the base of the butt with a magazine.   The writer refers to an "escaudra" that is cowboy style.   In Mexican Spanish...in reasonable vernacular... a "cowboy" pistol is always a revolver which loads from a mid-mounted round cylinder.

      Also, when this writer speaks of the "people who patrol this city"....the patrols are not the regular normal police patrols.    He is referring to the thugs who have marked a certain number of people, pull them over on or off schedules (normally there is a "payment day" although sometimes "additional payments" are demanded ahead of time), and extract a "security tax".  They remind the victim that this payment is just for an insurance policy and that the other thug/pistoleros will not bother them now...."because they fear us so much".    It is blatant banditry and frequently carries threats against the female family members....daughters, nieces, granddaughters, (....and if you don't pay us, we know where your niece is at Primary School Benito Juarez..).

The English translation:

What stupid things you say (The writer is responding to a drunk writing on the same screed who was making a stupid statement about trying to "salvage" the "poor dead boys" instead of killing them).    I am from Michoacan and I comment to you something about the people who patrol my city.   Yesterday, when I arrived to see one of my clients, I was presented with those that charge the fees (shakedown).   I do not know if they were La Familia or the Knights Templar (two famous groups of cockroaches).   The thing is that I recognized two of the suspected thugs/pistoleros.   It took me some effort, because it pertained to a cheapo/beggar well recognised in the city as being one of those who clean windows with their bucket and rags and utensils at the intersections, charging 30 pesos to clean the car.    The thing is, now that he is a thug/pistolero,  he was carrying four cellular telephones en his belt, and he was trying to use one.  I am certain that he does not know how to read.  He had a semi-automatic pistol in his belt, and another (he means "cowboy-style" revolver )  in this fancy white belt with a huge belt-buckle.  And then a cowboy hat dangling at his leg.  Always before when I had seen him it was with a backwards-worn baseball cap.

       The other, his comrade, I know, is an ignoramus, but a person whom I always have tried to accommodate and treat as a good person.     This person was and has always been a garbage collector and most certainly does not know how to read or write.   He is one of those who is paid 10 or 20  pesos to carry off trash and garbage.  But now, he is a thug/pistolero, and has really fine boots, of those kind with high heels, that in my opinion look like something very effeminate because of their high heels.  This one was carrying an AK47 with a double magazine, taped together at their bases.    They were driving a black Lincoln pick-up cuadracab, like those units that the Federal police have (the police units are Fords, similar in appearance but Fords).   There were four thugs/ pistoleros, none of whom were over 22 years of age.    For example the garbage collector has 20 years, the  car cleaner has 17,  and one of the other two who I did not recognise looked to me to be no more than 15 years.    They were all truly jackasses.    One of them, when my client rendered the 500 pesos that they were extorting each month, spoke to my client in such profane saloon language that not even the most basal Indians in this region use,  he responded to my client's question about the bandage around the wrist of the thug/pistolero telling us that he had burned himself with his AK47 during training in Apatzingan.   According to him his training had endured for one month.   He informed us that their training even includes strategy, but that when they had left in a new pick-up, the pick-up did not work very well.    My client...a bit more at home with the thugs...asked them if perhaps the emergency brake might still be on.    They laughed and then readjusted the emergency brake ( To their surprise, they had been driving around with the emergency brake on).    Then my client looked at me and said, "What do you see (think)about these whores?   In a little while they will all show up in a garbage heap / landfill."

 In the original Spanish:

Que mamadas dices, yo si soy michoacano y te comento algo de la gente que patruya mi ciudad, el dia de ayer cuando llegue a ver a uno de mis clientes me presento a los que cobran la cuota no se si la fm o los temp, el caso es que reconoci a 2 de los supuestos sicarios, me costo trabajo por que se trata de un gangonso muy conocido en la ciudad por ser un franelero uno de esos que traen una cubeta con una franela javon y algunos utencilios de limpiesa te cobran 30 pesos por darle un franelazo a tu auto, el caso es que ahora era sicario, traia 4 celulares en el cinturon y estaba tratando de usar uno, yo estoy seguro que no sabia ni leer tenia en la cintura una escuadra fajada y traia otra escuadra al estilo baquero en un cinturon blanco fijada con un cincho a una de sus piernas una tejana cuando siempre lo vi con una gorra al revez en su cabeza, el otro conocido era un camarada muy ignorante pero al que yo siempre trate de acomedido y buena persona este definitivamente no sabe ni leer ni escribir era un recolector de basura de los de paga que te cobran de 10 a 20 pesos por llevarse la basura, ahora tambien sicario traia unas botas muy bonitas y algo altas que para mi punto de vista me parecian algo femeninas por su altura, este llevaba un ak-47 con un doble cargador unido por una cinta de aislar tejana cinturon piteado, todo andaban en una lincon negra como la de la policia federal cuadcab, bueno el caso es que los 4 sicarios recolectores de cuota no rebasan los 22 años, por ejemplo el recolector tiene 20, el franelereo tiene 17 y uno de los otros desconocidos para mi, se veia como de 15 años. todos unos verdaderos pendejos. uno de ellos cuando mi cliente le daba su cuota que es de 500 pesos mensuales le pregunto que si se habia lastimado por que traia una venda en la mano, y con un hablar muy cabernicola que ni los indigenas de la zona usan, nos comento con risa que se habia quemado con la ak-47 en un entrenamiento recibido en apatzingan, segun el entrenamiento dura un mes y los convierte en expertos en estrategia, pero cuando se fueren no jalaba muy bien su camioneta a lo que mi cliente por conocerlos les dijo con mas confianza -fijate si no trae el freno de mano- se rieron y se jalaron por que eso ocurria. me miro mi cliente y me dijo -como vez a estas zorras- al rato aparecen muertos por ahi.en un basurero.

      This slice of life rambling analysis by a true person....not a politically correct person...is what the point of view of the vast majority of Mexicans in the organized lower-middle class and higher. Only a narrow fringe of activist, leftist intellectuals in the upper-middle class and upper class see the thugs/pistoleros, cartel people as Victims of Yanqui oppression or inadequate redistribution of wealth. Most know that most have originated from families where no male head is present, by glue sniffing, alcohol addicted, methaphetamine addicted, marihuana dependent, soulless 666 zombies who are living what they think is a telenovela.   Some are derived from spoiled lifestyles provided by well-to-do "normal" families who likewise feel entitled to do as they will and without consequences.  Overall life expectancy for all or any of them is somewhere between 13 to 34 tears,,,,the figure fluctuates a lot....by the day.

      Over the last 20 years, Mexico has spent one trillion of to-day's dollars in various subsidies and payments to "los quien menos tienen"   (those who have less).    The United States has since 1970,  spent over 10,000,000,000,000 in 2011 dollars in various income redistribution programs to los quien menos tienen, minorities, the oppressed, transgendered antelopes who had a typewriter for a mother, the whatever....and in Mexico and the United States and in Canada, in Britain, in Europe,....the nihilistic, destructive blob of zombie thug/pistolero/anarchist addicts are still coming to get us.    And we feed them.

As always, your attention and questions and observations are appreciated.

El Gringo Viejo

A Head Scratcher



This is a standard 1st Class Autobuses del Oriente Bus
Also click here for more pictures of Mexican bus facilities in these times
http://connect.in.com/ado-bus-line-mexico/images-bus-and-coach-photos-ado--1-299843461746.html

     This one is a real head-scratcher.   Three busses are sequestered at gun-point near Las Norias (19 miles south of San Fernando, Tamaulipas) and driven about 70 miles further south....turning off the Matamoros/Reynosa to Victoria highway and onto the recently nicely rebuilt highway to Tampico and points south, along the coast.     The three busses are driven off this main highway down a dirt ranch road (brecha) for some distance, perhaps 1,000 yards, where a fourth bus is already waiting.   The four busses have 8 drivers and about 100 total passengers.   All of the busses are superior quality either 1st class or deluxe long-haul conveyances operated by famously quality businesses.

       This all takes place beginning at 08:30 on Saturday morning, the 17th of July of the current year.   Las Norias is a famous place as a rest-stop, roadside diner, fresh and dried shrimp producing, bean farming, and cattle/goat ranching.    People know it by the folks standing along the highway or operating from tidy, rustic stalls just off the right-of-way selling plastic bags of medium-large to colossal shrimp from the nearby Mexican Laguna Madre.  Perhaps the bus drivers had yielded to the petitions of the passengers to stop briefly for them to buy the very popular dried shrimp as a gift to those back home upon arrival.   Perhaps the assailants used this brief stop to pile into the bus and take control.

     Whether by this method or some other, three busses were taken at this point.    Once arriving at the dirt trail detour just north of  an historical town named Soto la Marina....about 5 miles distant...and very close to an ejido community named  Tampiquito (little Tampico)....the assailants drew the first bus across the trail, flattened its tires and began to talk among themselves at a position equidistant and central to the four kidnapped units.

      It is still a bit before noon.   The dust had settled, but barely, since the arrival at this recess in the dense chaparral....a hilly area with mountains both to the east and higher ones to the west.     Suddenly a bus driver, or both drivers from one unit, and about 10 or 12 male passengers bolt from their bus and run into the thicket....each in a slightly different direction.    They run with desperate abandon, and by the time 90 seconds have passed each is individually consumed by the chaparral.  None of the group can see much of anything, but better yet, none can be seen by the assailants.

      In fifteen minutes there is another development.    The thudding, whirring, jet engine cacophony of four lumbering Naval Infantry helicopters.    They are like B-52s in a way....1950s technology but still useful.   Each is carrying 22 heavily armed, well-trained, battle-tested infantrymen.   While they seem clumsy and slow....within seconds they are landing on tiny clearings, almost directly upon the busses.    Two in the center and two slightly removed.

       The assailants have made a break for it....with only about a minute head start.    Down the dirt trail, a complete company of Army heavy infantry is running in from where the first bus had been parked across the brecha.   They begin peeling off, trying to head off the escape of the assailants.   If they can make it into the dense brush, their chance of escape is good.    The Armed Forces will have an advantage at night with FLIR searchers, but these hills and mountainsides have more bear, mountain lion, and bobcats who will give heat signatures than there are assailants running away.

     Within a minute or two all the passengers are being attended to.   Mostly women, children, and older people....they are glad to have water and rations and someone friendly with whom they can re-establish contact with reality.    The Navy personnel are bringing in the ones who ran during their break for freedom.   They have their hands behind their heads and a cautious covering by infantrymen holding their rifles low-but-ready.    In short order the people from their bus identify them as those who said they were going to make a break for it and make more calls for help or make it to the highway.    Once identified they join the ranks of those called "rescued".

      The ground commanders decide to leave the assailants to the snakes and mountains lions and to take their charges and troopers out of this spot.    They further determine to take the people to Tampico, some three hours journey, and get them back on their way.    The passengers from four busses are loaded onto the three busses that still have good tires, and they are escorted to Tampico by the Army.   The Navy takes off, makes several low-elevation passes to see if they can make a chance sighting of an assailant in the sea of mesquite, cactus, yucca, and other prickly things.

       Several things happened here.    The assailants did not count on the fact that all Mexican busses of this category and even most of lower category, now have GPS.   Not only that, they have GPS that works....with interactive or passive response systems.....like OnStar.    Next, for some reason the assailants did not take the passengers' cellular telephones.  (???)   Next, they did not handle, assault, or molest the girls and women.   Then, they did not immediately take all the jewelry and currency being carried or worn by the passengers.

       Each Company took note almost immediately that their vehicles had fallen well behind their schedule and/or had deviated from its required route.   Those companies are TransPais, Autobuses del Oriente (ADO), and Transportes del Norte (operating the class of service bus known as FUTURA, which is between Ist class and deluxe).    Their security agents informed the Federal Highway Police and the two military emergency numbers as early as 09:20 on that Saturday morning.    The locations being reported to the bus companies was shared between them and they quickly realized that they were all literally in the same bowl of soup.

       The passengers, at considerable risk, continued calling their homes, people, boyfriends, etc. , all of whom flooded the appropriate military and police agencies with extremely precise fixings concerning location, size of possible resistance, condition of the passengers, and so forth.   The two drivers and their passengers who escaped also had done what they said they would do....calling incessantly with detailed information.   The drivers' information about location along with the GPS made the finding a matter of inches in terms of accuracy.

       The calls were all so similar and so insistent that each military and police response force were "saddled and riding" before even knowing the precise destination of their march.   They knew it was "over there".   With the guidance of the GPS and continuous cellular telephonic contact, "over there" soon became "right here".

NOW, this is all a good story.   It is probable that it is essentially true.   The Old Gringo has added in a bit of colour, but only because it is reasonable colour based upon many, many years of experience driving those roads, visiting those off-road people in the little communities, seeing military actions, riding the busses, eating at the roadside diners, etc.    The response by the authorities and the deportment of the drivers and their passengers, the numbers of assailants and military, the cellular telephone interventions, and all the mechanics have been reported, semi-officially, in the press and by reliable source.      ONCE.     Una sola ves.

      Now, it is Wednesday.   With such an heroic story, why has it not filled the airways in Mexico, the United States, nay...verily...the entire Planet??

       We remember the story about the primary school teacher in Monterrey who put her 1st graders on the floor and led them in song...cheerfully....while cockroaches with AK-47's blasted away 70 feet from their front door.   She didn't give a flip about the five dead juveniles who were trying to murder some taxi drivers for not paying extortion money, when it was over, only two things concerned her.    Her charges and that she comply since she was the designated training officer for such situations, and she wanted to be sure to get it all on camera for use during the next week's training episode.    That is when it came out to the public.....she did not run it over to the TV stations or to a police magazine.   Her fellow teachers demanded that it be shown to the world.    And it was shown, worldwide, humiliating some teachers....inspiring others.

       There have been no announcements or statements by the State security officers, the military, the bus companies, or even some of the passengers.   The local Texas press, which is always quick to use any incident to hark their ratings and to scare the bejeebies out of people.....not a word, since the first two airings back on Sunday and Monday....the latter being a word for word repeat of the first prepared release in the famously myopic McAllen Monitor.

        So neither detractors nor supporters......no one is commenting.   The busses kept running even through this....I drove through Las Norias on my way to Reynosa/ McAllen that day....at 09:00 that same morning.   I saw a bit of the after effects....huge Army deployments at Las Norias....Federal Police whishing in the opposite direction at great speed, they to the south, I to my north.    Numerous busses were encountered....perhaps 50 heading south during the rest of my journey north.   Everything seemed normal....and was normal....except my fuel pump.

          The Old Gringo has delayed his comments on this story because he wanted to know a little wider, a bit more deeply, somewhat higher and to be able to put a little more detail into the picture...names, personalities, final outcomes.   But I am sending this to your kind attention because I know that you all think that I at least try to keep you informed with a bit of a different point of view, with all the veracity that can be mustered.

         Were speculation to be "reasonably" extended with my colouring, it might be possible to assume that the assailants were Centro Americanos...Guatemalans, Hondurans...who had escaped from Matamoros due to the heavy losses recently suffered by both cartel groups in fighting there earlier this month.   These CentroAmericanos were probably conscripted "fighters" who had no dog in the fight.   They "deserted" because they did not want to become bullet catchers in the next firefight with the opposing cartel or with the military.   They had no money and probably no functional weaponry, save perhaps for pocket knives.   They made it as far as Las Norias by hitching and walking, but knowing that there is a huge highway checkpoint just 7 miles to the south blocking their flight back to Central America, they decided to have their Butch and Sundance moment.   They told each other that they would meet up where their "coyotes" had shaken them down a couple of months before, telling them that they were not going to America until they had done a couple of "favours" for the Zetas first.  (Favours means "Catch Bullets").

       That is why the kidnapping of the busses was done as it was.   That is why there were no women molested, that is why they did not immediately steal any and every thing of value, and that is why none of the passengers were killed.  They just wanted to take their different from Mexican Spanish accents, their different-from-Mexican appearance, their lack of money, and their homesickness  and go back to Tegulcigalpa and Quetzaltenango and drink some beer and see their families.

Thanks for your patience.   When more is known...and more precise information can be forwarded, it will be before your eyes quickly.

El Gringo Viejo

About our Visit Up - State

     As all good OROGs know, we went up to the center part of the Republic of Texas a couple of weeks ago.   The trip is always a long one.   It has been done many, many, many times by the Old Gringo during the better part of what seems to have been several centuries.    The need for the trip, this time, was caused by a couple of Old Coots talking about running trips again for the Winter Visitors.

     We both drifted out of the business as the market changed over the years, and as fossilization began to set in.  But, like a couple of old caisson-horses, once they smell a little gunpowder and hear the rumble of the guns, they begin to want to join the fray.
     With all that considered, we began thinking about something to sell to a difficult market, something that would be easy to run, and something that would not result in a lot of effort on the part of the client.   Our planning went on for a couple or three weeks, and we have decided upon a set of offerings.   All OROGs will receive a posting of these offerings in short order.    The strangest one, the one which flowed from my vast-wasteland-between-the-ears, was the San Antonio Missions.
     There is a Texas Baseball League franchise with the official name of "The San Antonio Missions", based upon the existence of the San Antonio Missions.  Everyone in Texas knows about the San Antonio Missions, both the baseball related one and the ecclesiastical, historical ones.    Everyone has been to the Alamo.... La Mision del Alamo de San Antonio de Valero...and bunches of folks have been to the Mision de San Jose.....which has its own fame and elegance.  But there are others.   Most Texans say..."Some day I'm going to....", but they never quite get around to taking the time out to actually, finally, once and for all, go see the other Misiones and understand their why's and wherefore's.
      We covered them  briefly, along a well-planned and executed paved route through San Antonio's center and south-central sections.    Some of the routing is newly done, very "National Park-ish" , and there is an abundance of parking.   Rest-rooms are found at all the stops and  routing instructions that are frequently accurate are available en route as well as in the form of pamphlets and hand-guides found at Park offices.
      So, as the Old Gringo had originally thought, this would be a good trip for people to come up from the Valley, arrive to the center of San Antonio, and essentially do their own inclinations for the remainder of the day.   Then, on the second day, the tour could go as a group to the remaining Missions.   It takes a long morning, including Mision La Concepcion,  Mision San Jose, Mision San Juan, and the Mision de La Espada.    It could then return to the center of town...a short distance....20 minutes.....for a mid-day meal and free afternoon and evening.  The last day could begin with a visit to the Institute of Texian Cultures.     There are several details and possible inclusions to make or leave out.
       We are giving serious consideration to the Painted Churches of East Central Texas and to a pair or so of one-day tours in the Lower Rio Grande Valley area.  We'll see.

A Message from the Quinta Tesoro de la Sierra Madre

     The benefits of the rain have been profound all over the area, including the Quinta.   Some place have their Royal Poncianas putting on a second  bloom, which is somewhat of a rarity.    Our Royal Poncianas have only busied themselves with putting on as much greenery as possible, which is better than nothing, I suppose.    Green seems to be the main operative colour for the Quinta, although the powder puffs, the duranta, and the shrimp plants have all been busy with their blooming chores.    There are lots of bees, lots of birds, and other natural activity.

     The mountains are also greened out and it is good to look out to the west and not see any of the smokey haze associated with the Spring forest fires.    During the past nights of the full moon we were treated to the setting of Earth's largest satellite on the mountains.   In spite of the absolute dullness of the process.....what else can the Moon do?.....what else can the mountains do?  really doesn't matter so much as just enjoying the magnificence of it all.    I usually am up around four o'clock, so it is possible to see three or four of these moon-sets during each lunar cycle.

      Alvaro was quick to advise me upon my arrival that the Army had been down our road.....several times during my absence.    The first time they had come in the "back way" , approaching the Quinta from the Rio Corona.    This meant that they had had to been doing considerable scouting and using considerable "community input" along with the overhead surviellance photographic reasources.   On this first visit by this particular patrol they stopped to talk at some length with Alvaro.   They were given a tour of the Quinta, but only a couple of officers and a couple of non-commissioned officers  went in.    This left what seems to have  been two platoons of heavy infantry out in the shaded areas.    They visited our neighbours, made friends with the dogs, and generally went about their "community outreach".     Various military elements have been back and forth during the past weeks.

       This has resulted in a considerable outpouring of people heading down to the Rio Corona as they had done before, enjoying the high waters and conviviating with friends and family as they have done traditionally for generations.   It was, in a way, good to hear children squealing and other such family noises again. 

          All the animals are fine.   Alvaro's Labrador has doubled in size, and has become a bit better disciplined.   I have endeavoured to impart what little training I can give.   Everyone can send money to pay what will necessarily be a gargantuan food bill by the time Bibi is fully grown.

There will be more later.    Thanks for your time and attention.

The Old Gringo  

Making preparations

      The hour cometh for the Old Gringo to head back to the Quinta, laden with dog food, cat food, and other goodies.  We should find a much greener place based upon last week's heavy rains.   This well be the time for pruning and training a lot of our major bushes.   It will also be time not to fall for the idea that we can plant this or that, or in any way expand the tasks already at hand.   We need simply to restore the main parts of our gardens and growies that have been so badly damaged by the freezes of last Winter and the profound lack of rain of the Spring and early Summer.

      We shall try to take a few pictures of Bebe the new Labrador, and the rest of the animals just to be fair to them.   They seem to know when they are being photographed.    If things have begun to really "come out"  with the rain and heat...very tropical conditions....then perhaps we shall "freshen up" some of our archives and let you all see the pictures first.
      The biggest problem we see at this point in going down is that we shall be trying to take the one-eyed cat down, after her operation, and her recovering from o'possum attack and the operation.   It is a bit of a trip, and then she will have to fit in to a group of well established cats.    It is all madness.   But, short of putting a bullet in her head, there is no other remedy left.

       Things have also been a little touch and go with the Old Gringo parents-in-law.    This journey down will be of short duration due to the problems on that front.   It is a matter of leaving one end of the candle to burn while attending the other end.   Either way, it seems that the holder of the candle is going to wind up,  at one point or the other, holding the wrong end.   

     

And the Lord Spake, saying.....

"......Enough already with the praying for rain...I've heard you!" spake the Lord. And so it was. Verily didst fall the torrents. Awash, all living things crawling, creeping, or borne afoot. Fleeing the rushing and roaring of a River in a race to the Ocean as if driven mad by the rapidly falling elevations. Feathered beasts found their niches and crannies, nooks and corners to wait out the solid sheets of previously scarce rain.

Our little adobe hut on the Rio Corona, in front of the Sierra del Cautivo section of the Sierra Madre Oriental, picked up 18 inches of rain during the period of Allene, the Tropical Storm's landfall, up to and including Sunday night. Almost five days of intermittent heavy rains should wake up the vegetation and orchards of our beautiful area.

Rains in the nearby mountains were thought to have been perhaps double that amount. It seems a bit extreme, but remember OROGs, last year we had rainfall amounts in the mountains that exceeded 100 inches over a two month period. This year's rainy season is starting off in the same way. I shall keep you all abreast of everything, blow by blow, drop by drop.

Just a note. Thanks for your attention as usual.

El Gringo Viejo