Heading South....

     "The time has come", said the spider, "to fly."     So it's off to the south again to check on my charges and re-establish the presence of a pleasantly deranged Gringo in his enjoyable self-made asylum where he can hurt no one.   At least he will be able to feed his animals and count hummingbirds.  Of course, the Comision Federal de Electricidad will appreciate my paying the bill....which will be a little higher this time.    I am anticipating something around 800 pesos which will be around 64 dollars for two months' service.   it would have been 56 dollars back in September, but the firm of Bernacke,  Obama, Geitner, Frank, and Dodd - Economics Experts Extraordinaire have managed to devalue the American dollar by 12.5% against the Mexican peso in that length of time.

      Still-in-all, 32 dollars a month amounts to about one dollar per day to have cold milk,  Fox News,  indoor plumbing with water under pressure, a bit of home-made ice, and other such necessary luxuries.     While last year's gross income for the CFE  was a bit in excess of 20 billion dollars (bumped up a bit with the take-over of the Mexico City albatross Luz y Fuerza de Mexico), I am certain that they are anxiously awaiting my critical capital infusion.

      In reviewing my ranting and raving about Japan, methinks that my observations were pretty much 'right on'.    As an American, I am glad and dismayed simultaneously.    Glad, because there is still a group of people under one flag who can calmly "do the next thing" even when everything has been destroyed.     In Nashville, Tennessee where the hicks and hillbillies live it seems that they do well without FEMA intervention or visits from Obama or even a mention that said city had been completely inundated by the worst floods in its history a few months ago.
    But in much of the rest of America, politicians seem to hope for a disaster....earthquake, flood, fire, or whatever...so that they can unleash the next disaster, a disaster which consists of a cascade of money, empty, lost, and or un-accounted-for double-wide trailers, officials with briefcases & laptops, and forms to fill out.   The politicians' disaster is complemented by slothful, stupid slugs trundling out to begin the "Queen for a Day" show and to complain about how badly FEMA has treated them.    WHAT DID WE DO BEFORE THERE WAS FEMA?

      Japan is a bit different....of perhaps substantially different.    They prosper from their lack of "diversity".    They are wonderfully communitarian.   First they take care of their own problems, then they move on to their neighbours.  This self-reliance spills over into a pride of self-sufficiency.

      Conversely, they really do not like to have too many heads sticking up above the rest of the group.   When somebody says "We are all on this ship together".....judging by the size of the country and the number of people on the limited number of square miles that they have....everybody had better use the oar that they were given to either row or beat tuna over the head and haul them aboard.
      The mostly ceremonial Emperor spoke to his people.    The rail line on the western side of Honshu Island was restored within 7 days.     The press reports have been alarmist....authoritative....and frequently either wrong in part or wrong in parcel.    It was all totally predictable.    At this writing we are hearing finally some what less alarmist, yellow "journalists" mumbling about the possibility of "re-starting" the entire nuclear operation at Fukushira     and I cite this link....                                                                                                           http://www.voanews.com/english/news/asia/Pressure-Stabilizes-in-Japan-Reactor-2-Survivors-Found-118322559.html     

        Please, everyone ...you all....view all press reports about anything with suspicion.    And....I really do not think that any of my readers or my family need to run out and buy iodide tablets.....unless you like the taste of iodide.

IN ANOTHER VEIN:
      We continue to take advantage of damaged trees and shrubs to begin a new discipline and "look" for the upper and middle parts of the property.   More will be done in the future to make geometric topiary presentations, and to provide better views of the mountains.   We might even be considering a "portal" (a free standing open structure designed exclusively for providing shade).    This  will be helpful for our summertime visitors and might even have a bit of additional daytime cooling effect for the Quinta itself. 

       Finally, several questions and observations have come forward.   They are all appreciated.    Hopefully, my responses and answers were helpful.   The gist of my answers was ..... "There are many places where a person can travel in Mexico without intense concern.    It is like the U.S.A. in that sense.   There are places where even I would not go....specific locales and certain general areas....once again, like the U.S.A.      You will not see me practicing for a 25 K - Marathon at night in downtown Detroit or New Orleans or Baltimore......You will also not find me drinking beer at any saloon within 500 yards of the far outer-perimeter loop thoroughfare on the edge of Acapulco.     Be reasonable."
     If you send me specific destinations in Mexico, I will research them for you....going beyond my previous knowledge of the place....and attempt to gain a "real-time" status report......and either publish my impressions here, or send you a personal, private note.    In  no case will your name/address/ or personal data be divulged.


Thanks for your time and patience.   Another fresh entry tomorrow!
(The Lord willing and the Devil not objecting.)
El Gringo Viejo      

     

     

Jury Duty Done...Heading North, then South

     It seems like my exposure to jury duty is solved by the defendants and litigants all taking pleas and settling out of court.    Tomorrow (Wednesday, the 16th of March) will find us riding the southerly winds to Central Texas to meet up briefly with Christian, and then come back on Thursday with Priscilla and our granddaughters.....so that the girls can visit with their great-grandparents.

     Christian agreed to put us up, but we are only going to charge him 250 dollars for that service.     We are going to ask him for another 100 dollars or so for our trip to Whataburger.....and if he complains at all....we have our attorney on speed dial.    After all, we didn't ask to be born.

All who are reading this now are officially members of the Orbit of Readers of the Old Gringo....OROG...a secret society dedicated fervently to nothing in particular.

    

Japan

       These are special times.   The hysteria involving the cement dust seen blowing out from the explosion of hydrogen gas in the outer shell areas of the reactors has given great joy to the anti-American intellectuals who oppose any energy source required by the Great American Economic Engine.

     These are the people who oppose any type of exploration for oil and gas, who oppose the use of coal no matter how cleanly it can be burned, and who even oppose "wind farms" because the birds will be struck, hit, and disturbed, or solar power because it is unsightly and uses strange materials for the storage batteries.

      These same people, however, want us all to buy electric autos, because we know that the stork brings the electricity overnight and feeds it to our little cars that make us feel good about ourselves because we are better than "other people".....the "little, stupid people".....the people who are not "progressive" and who do not care about important things.

      The press people and talking heads are giddy about this new opportunity to assault America and to attempt to drive this great Nation into some kind of 5th World, pre-historic living condition.    After all, everyone knows that all the problems in the world are caused by America.....America is a horrible place....that's why everyone wants to come here....leaving behind the wonderful places where everyone can drink out of an open sewer.     And Cuba....where everyone has free medical care.....that would be closed down in America because the standards do not measure up to a veterinarian clinic standard in almost all cases (party officials have different facilities....or free transportation to Mexico or Canada or Europe for treatment).

      But to my point.    The Japanese people are a clean people.    My father used to joke thusly...."Do you know what a mentally-retarded Japanese person is called?"   The listener would say "No."   To which my father would respond ".....A genius."

       They are a communitarian people, they are clean, they are summarily intelligent, they are dedicated to the idea that they are one with their ancestors, they play baseball, they are industrious and generally honest.

        In a year's time, the Japanese will be nearing completion with the public works and restoration projects and they will be cutting ribbons all over their tiny productive empire.    We, on the other hand,  shall be debating specifics about how to rebuild the World Trade Center because of issues brought up by intentionally hateful anti-American Americans who desire the obliteration of America and the American example of community.     Those Americans will be helped along, of course, by anti-American immigrants who come to this country with the intent of installing the worst characteristics of their old country in order to hasten the ultimate decline of the American Experiment. 

      The word "immigrant", I know, is used incorrectly here, because many of these new "immigrants" are actually colonists and saboteurs.....who arrive here with no intention of becoming that peculiar and particular thing that is an American.   They are "Obama's Aunt".

      The Old Gringo is certain that the Emperor of Japan will speak, the people will listen, the politicians in Japan will become less useless for a while, and they will restore their great nation....relatively quickly.     They play baseball.    It will take a bit, but it will happen.

Batter up!

El Gringo Viejo    

Ramblings, significant and otherwise (proofed & amended)

      There have been a couple of moments when the Old Gringo thought that you all might be thinking that he was thinking about not thinking about the disorders we face daily on this continent due to the traffic in illegal drugs.   Not so.  It is just that the topic becomes burdensome and it is left to me and few others to try to explain that Americans in America are probably more exposed to drug violence in America than Mexicans or Americans are exposed to it in Mexico.

       The first point is that it is all bad.   There is no positive face that can be put upon an issue which involves criminals with no souls.

        The second point is that there are continuing positive things that occur, about which nobody hears.    Remember that, at best, we are looking at eighteen months to three years more of this messy business.   But, please consider these brief points:

               (a)     About three days ago several main thoroughfares in the Monterrey metroplex were blocked again by miscreants commandeering busses and tractor-trailer rigs and parking them perpendicular to the running lanes.   This would usually be followed by a gun battle by cartel integrates who wanted to make sure that Military and police units could not gain access to the zone of disorder.     This time, however, the bus drivers and truck drivers informed the police and Military that the perpetrators were juveniles, aged 12 to 15 or so....who acted as if they had guns concealed on them....or knives....as they boarded and began the offense of taking control of the vehicle.

                         Once in control, they parked the vehicles in a manner that would cause the greatest consternation among the driving public,  and then ran off giggling like girls.   Nobody picked them up...no waiting Escalade full of thugs with automatic weaponry...nothing.   Police stool-pigeons informed befuddled officers that there was a new game called "bloqueo", being played primarily by three or four secondary schools in an area where Monterrey, San Nicolas de los Garza, and Guadalupe city boundaries come together.      Some of the city busses and almost all of the long-distance inter-city busses have security cameras with memory, so the cops have a good idea of which specific individuals are involved and where they can be picked up.    Some of the idiots were good enough to demonstrate their stupidity by posting their own live action pictures on "social networking sites" so that by now 80%  of Mexico knows who they are.....and nobody is smiling.

               (b)     Then, yesterday a gaggle of thugs decided to fire on a Military patrol in the southern part of Monterrey proper.   The soldiers returned fire, chased the vehicle a short distance where it crashed into some curbing and a business's concrete wall.   Three of the thugs, all wounded and bleeding ran into traffic and escaped, more or less.  The soldiers reached the fourth thug who was also wounded, but too severely to be able to run.   Inside the SUV the soldiers found the guns and ammunition that had fed their bravado, plus quite a bit of beer and a kilo or so of marijuana.

                         What was of interest is that the driver was 14 years old.  The other three were ferreted out at a hospital emergency receiving room.   None had made it to the age of 17...two were from Central America.

               (c)       Once again, acting on a tip, the Army searched out a "campamento" in the deep brush and low mesquite forest of central Tamaulipas State.    They encountered, as was advised by the tipster, a corral not of horses but late model SUV's and pick-ups....being poorly guarded by eight thugs.     All were known thugs of the ZETA group, very much wanted by every level of authority in the area....including five or six of them being wanted in Texas.....for trafficking, murder, extortion, etc.     There was also one man who was essentially hog-tied to a mesquite tree.

                           Within two minutes there were no more active " detain and arrest" warrants in force against  the eight.     They were dead.    The hog-tied man was released to his family.   The Army took possession of varous armaments and fourteen vehicles. 

                           Two key things here;    anonymous tips that are accurate and......if a person chooses to fight the Mexican Army or the Naval Infantry...chances are strong he will lose.

               (d)     There were four other incidents with significant casualties for the Cartel people in Tamaulipas State and Nuevo Leon State.





(L -  R)  The Old Gringo, Brother Milton, and Brother Norman

 

NOW, ON ANOTHER TOPIC;      I was rooting around in some old material, working on the genealogy of the family when a photograph turned up from 20 December 1963....showing the Old Gringo with his brothers.    This picture was taken in front of the front porch at the old farmstead in what is now north McAllen.   The rightmost individual is the middle brother Norman (1942), the center is the oldest brother Milton(1936), and the heroic looking individual on the left is the Old Gringo (1947).    We were dolled up for brother Norman's wedding rehearsal and after-event supper.
    The wedding took place two days later....30 days after the assassination of President Kennedy....It was quite an event for McAllen.   It was, to that date, the biggest non-Roman Catholic wedding in the history of McAllen.   Norman played the role of groom, and has been married to the same woman for almost 50 years now.   Milton was given the chief supporting actor's role, as the elder brother, and served as Best Man, while El Gringo Viejo was the Acolyte in attendance of the Priest Officiate, the Reverend Father Henry Clay Tompkins Puckett.   That priest read a good mass but he was a pinko.   He is the problem of Saint Peter now.
        Our housekeeper attended with a seat of honor on the groom's side (Gospel).  She had been with the family for 30 years and had gone all out to dress-to-impress.    She was escorted to her second pew, aisle seat, directly behind my parents, by the Old Gringo, vested en acalyto.    She was to observe later that in all her years it had never occurred to her that we were Roman Catholic.    I did not have the heart to tell her about the simililarities and differences between the Anglican and Roman branches of Christiandom, but she spared me that by observing that Latin "sounds a lot different in America than in Mexico."

      As some of you all know, Guadalupe (Lupe) Gonzalez was essentially the Housekeeper and my Governess from my birth until we left McAllen in 1966.    She was a descendant of the Otomi' Indian nation  who still dominate in the area around Puebla, Puebla to the east of Mexico City.    It was they, along with the Tlaxcalans, and a few Huastecs and Totonac warriors, numbering around 80,000 who assisted Hernan Cortez's meagre forces in the defeat, destruction, and subjugation of one of the worst civilizations ever to infest Planet Earth....the Aztecs.   Lupe came from good blood.
      Thank you for hanging in there with me.

More Later,
El Gringo Viejo      

A Man Is Judged by the Company He Keeps....

http://cpusa.org/wisconsin-and-beyond-the-conflict-is-irreconcilable/











     That's all.    'Nuf sed.
El Gringo Viejo

March Musings....and News

      There are bits and pieces of news and observations that you all need to know.....or better yet....that I need to relate for no particular reason.  

(1)      You can feed the fish.   Those multi-coloured fish that you see in the right margin can be fed simply by right-clicking onto the aquarium.    Deposits of black granules will immediately flow to the fish, and the fish themselves seem to appreciate it all.    You can feed them as much as you want and even choose favourites, if you wish.

(2)     Texas State University (more correctly known as Southwest Texas State University before a bunch of dumboes decided to "improve" the name) sent a delegation to the Debate Among Philosophers event in Cincinnati, Ohio.   I am given to understand that Cincinnati, Ohio is way over in northeast Texas somewhere.

      My son led the debate between the hayseeds and rustics of Texas versus the hotsey-totsey blue-bloods of Dartmouth (named for an orthodontological disorder common in the area where the university is located).   In short, Texas State University won, and my son received special commendation due to his  stunning performance.

       Thousands and thousands of crazed females filled the streets around his hotel after the SWTSU vs Dartmouth debate concluded, forcing the police to cordon off the area, and finally calling in the National Guard to restore order after six hours of near chaos.    As many as 20,000 shrieking females of every known race, colour, and creed were chanting "Christian, Christian" and three Muslim women burned their burkhas during a complete emotional collapse.   Several hundred of the young women were admitted to various hospitals in the area suffering from hysterical collapse. 

       (The above paragraph is subject to amendment as new details emerge from the scene)

        Christian is a lone rider in the scheme of things.    He is  found doing what he wants so long as he does no damage to others.   People always want him to "come back" to the places where he has been.    In the South, the term "come back" is not a term of translocation....it is a term which means "Please return and be amongst us and be with us", and that is his young legacy.    He is  always employed, always advancing with his higher education....(heading now into graduate school at SWTSU....I mean Texas State University)....and generally being a Texas-style bon vivant surrounded by 2,558 of his closest friends, the bulk of whom are stunning blond, brunette, and redheaded women.

      His mother and I are always humoured by his life-path and pleased with his enjoyment and mastery of the art of living.   He inherited characteristics of both grandfathers....always pleasant, always dedicated to humour as a theme of life, always seeking spiritual, material, and physical improvement in his lot....and always contributive.    He is the quintessential "You-oriented" person.

      He has a fancy, rakish automobile (not from Government Motors or Chrysler), a nice little dump in the middle of San Marcos, and can walk, drive, bicycle, or jog to work, stores, TSU campus sites, restaurants, saloons, and other points of interest in downtown San Marcos.     Downtown San Marcos is kind of a stretch....but it does have an interesting potpourri of businesses and other services....all of which are well operated and pleasant.   He is even within walking distance of the AMTRAK, and right at the point where the new toll road takes off of IH 35 and goes around Austin so that he and his sister can exchange visits in less time than it takes people in Austin to make a bank deposit at their favourite drive-through.     (Round Rock and San Marcos are about 50 miles apart.)
      He has  geographically positioned himself so that, while the World is in heavy traffic, he faces none.   His sister and brother-in-law are in a very similar position because they drive primarily a very short distance east/west while most of the folks in the greater Austin metro area are involved in the mainly north/south US 183 and IH 35 "situation".

(3)     The next observation is a call for you all to begin raising money now for my defense fund.    The next time some slobs with a Lone Star Card buy 300 dollars worth of food(much of which is either not fit for human consumption or things we, as upper-income people, cannot afford) for a "family" that is on complete public support (AFDC, food stamps, rent subsidy, electricity subsidy, WIC,  extended unemployment compensation, etc.) and that "family" leaves the grocery cart in the running lane or parking area of the HEB parking lot en lieu of just pushing a few feet to the little corral for the carts.....I SHALL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR DAMAGES OR MAYHEM....Therefore I want you all to be prepared to have money enough for my future successful temporary insanity plea.