Seriously. Syria?

     During the earliest part of the invasion of Iraq there were many reports of convoys of large tractor-trailer rigs heading into Syria with various types WMDs and WMD ingredients.   The story went that Hafez Assad welcomed the munitions into his country so as to establish a friendly understanding between him and Saddam Hussein.   It was supposed to be a demonstration of amicability and a statement of solidarity between two adversaries in the Arab world.   The Sandy Bergers and Zbigniew Bryzinskys of  the world scoffed at this news, pointing out that Assad and Hussein were mortal enemies and no such agreement to co-ordinate against the Gringos could be possible.  Of course, they conveniently forgot that during the first Gulf War, Saddam sent much of his puny air forces over to Iran to hide. Iran was the "good neighbour" with which he had fought for eight years with both parties suffering well over 1,000,000 casualties.   And yes, Hussein used WMDs against the Persians in that war.  

     News agencies, vigourously anti-Bush...(we remember Koppel posting the casualty lists nightly to the accompaniment of dirges and other ominous and morose music)....within the first six hours of combat were asking military spokesmen if Bush was rethinking  his folly after finding himself bogged down in a "quagmire".

     Just as immediately they began questioning almost anyone with a chance of knowing anything about the lack of uncovering the stashes of WMDs.   The Bushies, instead of leaking out information about the Bekaa Valley (or other possible hidey-holes in Syria) simply went mum on the issue.   We had the glorious Valerie Plame and hubby Joe Wilson story....with Wilson being sent to Niger to learn if Sadam Hussein had attempted to buy yellow-cake uranium from that source.

     Valerie landed the gig for her hubby because she worked in an administrative support position in Langley's CIA Headquarters.  Joe went to Niger and had tea with the poobahs.  They told Joe that there had been interest, but that sales had not been consummated.   Although Joe reported this to the  head of that particular division of the CIA, his conclusion was that Hussein was not trying to buy yellow-cake uranium.  His reasoning was, "The fact that Hussein was trying to buy yellow-cake was proof that  he was not trying to buy yellow-cake."

      And, of course, the greater issue is that Valerie was outed by Cheney's chief of staff, Scooter Libby and Bush's deputy chief of staff Karl Rove....and exposed her to danger because she was an important Secret Agent Man.   Of course, neither Scooter nor Karl outed her.   She also had a Langley parking permit displayed prominently on her automobiles and she had had a lengthy sit-down with Vanity Fair magazine about what an important Secret Agent Man she was...and the she was a knock-out blonde, just like (Sir Edmund)Hillary.  The special prosecutor knew from the beginning that Richard Armitage (a Republican type of the Democrat Sandy Berger) was the actual "cad" who had "outed" a woman who had "outed" herself repeatedly, but that prosecutor dallied for over a year and a half in the effort to stain Libby and Rove.   Ethically devoid.


    And now the continuing soap opera written, produced, directed, and starring the American Progressive Movement....with leading cameos played by minder Valerie Jerrod, Michelle Robinson Obama, and a cast of millions of slack-jawed, focus-group trite-phrase speakers.  Tiger Woods plays Barak Obama, while Colon Powell plays Al Sharpton, and Al Sharpton plays Chief Justice John Roberts.   The name of the movie?   Arab Spring....WATCH as Barak Obama destroys two military victories won at great cost to the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan.   Watch as Barak Obama skilfully sacrifices break point in the Match of Death by Jihad to the Muslim Brotherhood.
     But wait, Al Qaeda is coming up strong as opposing clics of bloodthirsty, deranged Muslim Rev. Jim Jones types of demons from Hell attempt to kill every Christian, Jew, Agnostic, Buddhist, Hindu, atheist, and living thing as they then go about killing every Muslim with the slightest degree of difference with the circular firing squad's definition of Islam.
     Listen to Barak Obama....sounding very much like the Rev. Mr. Jim Jones in Guyana...reminding everyone that America has been arrogant and all of this Kool-Aid will be good....just drink it.....kill the children and the women so that they can be happy....and there will be a better day after the Arab Spring.

It is all madness.
What part of Hell did Obama come from?

El Gringo Viejo

Scandal Phoneys

     The current basket of loons composing the Control Group of the Obama administration....up to and including George Soros's groups of Zombies and Draculas along with the Joyce Foundation and the Annenberg Foundation and those two entities' hundreds of private and public progressive sapper battalion allies.....have gained the new title of Scandal Phoneys.

    As Progressives and Marxists,  they are bound by no morality.  Their common characteristic is to act all-knowing and well-intentioned while they prepare for their next publicly funded vacation or junket.   Their main tactic in the persuasion of the body politic is to frame an enemy and blame all ills on millionaires who pay no taxes and Tea Party people who want to take away the voting rights of transgendered refrigerators.


     The Phoneys are the one who generate scandal after scandal....then shriek,
“With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night decided to go kill some Americans? What difference at this point does it make?” Clinton asked the Republican Senator. “It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again.”

     This particular reprint from the Independent Journal by Kyle Becker,of the hideous pretentious hag's point makes it clear in the following words, "Public accountability does matter, Mrs. Clinton. The days of Washington politicians pretending to hold themselves accountable during staged hearings that lead to nothing have to stop. It seems that the Republican Party finally got that message..."

      Frankly, however, we doubt that the Republican Party in the United States has any notion about going to the mat concerning this or any other of the various assaults against common law, common sense, common decency, or the Constitution of this Republic.   Ex-Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown, guest hosting for O'Reilly on last night's program, extolled the virtue of group hugs between socialist Democrats and  "reasonable" Republicans.  Ex-senator Brown prefers the kind of Republican  who enters into every fray confessing his/her sins and by agreeing to compromise with Marxists and people who are dedicated to the destruction of the Republic, so as to demonstrate contrition for the sin of being a Republican, even if in name only.

 

     For those of us who watched one liberal Republican (Christi) stab another liberal Republican (Romney) in the front and back and any other available place....(Walk on the Beach with Barry, Crummy self-serving GOP Convention Speech, tepid campaign support generally)....it is difficult for us to understand why we then receive the blame for the outcome of the elections involving RINOs.   With McCain, it was his staff who came out with the long knives against Palin.

 

     And all of this goes to the point that the leadership of the GOP in the House and Senate are reluctant to move against obvious un-Constitutional procedures  being practiced by the President and his administration.   These people in the leadership are embarrassed by Representative Tray Gowdy dressing down the IRS hag for saying that she was taking the Vth, had done nothing wrong, and who then further made a statement outlining her innocence. One cannot take the Vth at the beginning of a period of testimony, then testify, and then refuse to answers questions concerning details of ones testimony.

    Lois Lerner is a real piece of arrogant puffery, as indicated by her blowing off the House Inquiry with her unfounded and ill-advised tactics.  Consider this tidbit from other of her bullying methods against private and religious schools when she is quoted  in a magazine article thusly:

 

      "Lois Lerner, the IRS’s director of tax-exempt organizations who is overseeing the investigation, says many schools are rethinking how and what they report to the government. Receiving a thick questionnaire from the IRS, she says, is a “behaviour changer.”

 



     One must ask, "Who is there among us to protect the Republic from the Rage of the Rabid Commissar?"    Why have these people not been led off in handcuffs?  How can Hillary be allowed to fly around the world, doing nothing, except providing her.....ample presence....and then lecture the members of an official panel of inquiry with an outburst so illogical and inscrutable that it caused the Mississippi River to run backwards for three days.

     We know the Phoneys....and their scandals.  We have a wonderful world for Democrats....and sons of Barak....and police behaving stupidly....and his mother being denied insurance....and the Marine Corpse.   We have a wonderful new campaign by the Campaigner in Chief...aimed once again at the low information, low intelligence, public assistance dependent dolt who provide Obama's teleprompter with those necessary dull catch terms and phrases....."special interests"...."phoney scandals"...."do what's best for the middle class"....."provide jobs for the American people"....etc. etc. etc.

What a wonderful world it would be.  But now, at least, even Maureen Dowd is seeing through (Sir Edmund) Hillary....but does that mean there's a Biden in our future?   What a meaningless, mediocre menagerie.

More later.   Good to be back.
El Gringo Viejo

WHO'S ON THE JOB?

 

Comedy legends, Bud Abbot (R) and Lou Costello

  

 

COSTELLO: I want to talk about the unemployment rate in America.

ABBOTT: Good Subject. Terrible Times. It's 7.8%.

COSTELLO: That many people are out of work?

ABBOTT: No, that's 14.7%.

COSTELLO: You just said 7.8%.

ABBOTT: 7.8% unemployed.

COSTELLO: Right; 7.8% out of work.

ABBOTT: No, that's 14.7%.

COSTELLO: Okay, so it's 14.7% unemployed.

ABBOTT: No, that's 7.8%.

COSTELLO: Wait a minute. Is it 7.8% or 14.7%?

ABBOTT: 7.8% are unemployed. 14.7% are out of work.

COSTELLO: If you are out of work, you are unemployed.

ABBOTT: No, Congress said you can't count the "Out of Work" as unemployed. You have to look for work to be unemployed.

COSTELLO: But they are out of work!!!

ABBOTT: No, you miss his point.

COSTELLO: What point?

ABBOTT: Someone who doesn't look for work can't be counted with those who look for work. It wouldn't be fair.

COSTELLO: To whom?

ABBOTT: The unemployed.

COSTELLO: But all of them are out of work.

ABBOTT: No, the unemployed are actively looking for work. Those who are out of work gave up looking, and if you give up, you are no longer in the ranks of the unemployed.

COSTELLO: So if you're off the unemployment rolls, that would count as less unemployment?

ABBOTT: Unemployment would go down. Absolutely!

COSTELLO: The unemployment just goes down because you don't look for work?

ABBOTT: Absolutely it goes down. That's how it gets to 7.8%. Otherwise it would be 14.7%.

COSTELLO: Wait, I got a question for you. That means there are two ways to bring down the unemployment number?

ABBOTT: Two ways is correct.

COSTELLO: Unemployment can go down if someone gets a job?

ABBOTT: Correct.

COSTELLO: And unemployment can also go down if you stop looking for a job?

ABBOTT: Bingo.

COSTELLO: So there are two ways to bring unemployment  down, and the easier of the two is to have people stop looking for work.

ABBOTT: Now you're thinking like an economist.

COSTELLO: I don't even know what the hell I just said!

ABBOTT: Now you're thinking like Congress.

Sent to El Gringo Viejo's attention from the Ranch on Big Sandy Creek....somewhere in Extreme Central Texas.

 

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     We have just returned from our little place on the side of Sierra Madre Oriental's massive slopes.   The drive is a bit exhausting and we were blessed with a minimal bridge line.  This was the last trip for our old 1992 Dodge Dynasty.   The last two weeks was an adventure.... first filled with the antics of slothful and negligent mechanics (first week)....and then with the services of a team of three mechanics who went  above and beyond (second week).

     The second team came out from Victoria (40 kilometres one way), on three occasions, doing difficult computer / electronic diagnosis, assembling and disassembling most of the top of the 3.3 V6 and tracking the "ghost" until finally finding the guilty part.   They then tracked down a used replacement that was in perfect working order.   The entire effort, including the replacement part, cost 1,600 pesos....which included 1,100 pesos for the replacement part.

     Most of my plans were interrupted by the lack of a vehicle and by the need to be close to the telephone to be able to take and give orders concerning the repair and schedule for the old Dynasty.   That, and just being to consarned lazy to walk a little distance to where a new, and much closer, chatroom has been established....about a mile from the Quinta.   Next time we shall avail ourselves of the facility and stay in better contact.

More to-morrow.
El Gringo Viejo

The Guantlet Is Thrown - A Veteran Mails His Letters

July 26, 2013

James R Hathorn

1566 Greenwood Lane

Forestburg, TX 76239

 

 

The Honourable John Cornyn

Senate Finance Committee

517 Hart Senate Office Bldg.

Washington, DC 20510

 

Dear Senator Cornyn,

As a veteran of the Air Force, with two tours in Vietnam, and having worked for 29 years until retirement from a major company, I have invested much in this country and do not want to see it “fundamentally changed” from the greatest experiment is liberty ever conceived.

 This letter is in regard to the funding under consideration for the “Affordable Care Act” also called “Obamacare”.

 

This constituent is extremely concerned about the destruction this law will cause for our country.  There has never been a law created, passed, and now possibly implemented that was forced on the people in such a devious manner.

We now have one shot at stopping this law.  After that it will be virtually impossible to stop it from forever making us a truly socialist state.  If we do not act now there will be no recourse.

Please use all your resources to help defund or otherwise refuse to fund Obamacare.  We urge you to use every ounce of extra effort to influence your peers in the Senate to support you in this effort.  We believe this is the most important issue to face this Country since the original signing of the Bill of Rights.

 

We expect you to spend as much or more energy on this problem than any one you have faced since 2002 when you were elected as our State’s representative in the United States Senate.

You need only need 41 votes to stop the funding in the Senate by filibuster… probably the only last resort we will have if the House is able to do their part and send a budget de-funding Obamacare to the Senate.  If the Senate does its part, the budget will go to the President where he will be faced with either passage or veto.  In the case of a veto there would most probably be a government shutdown whereby the President will have to take full responsibility.

We know your Texas peer, Ted Cruz and the other freshmen Senators, Rubio, Paul, Lee, and several others will not rest until every vote is counted in favour of de-funding this terrible law.  These young representatives are the future of the Legislative branch of our government.  We Americans want to see them get the professional respect and consideration they deserve.  We hope you and the senior members will join them.”

Thank you for your attention to this most serious matter.

Sincerely,

 

James Hathorn

I cannot commit treason, said Franklin to the Parliament. I cannot commit treason against the King, because I am not his subject. I am an American,

 WE PIN THIS NOBLE BANNER ON THE DOOR OF THE OFFICE OF ONE ERIC HOLDER, ATTORNEY GENERAL, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

    We cannot commit treason against the United States of America, because we have not conspired to overthrow the government or structure of that Nation.  What has happened to the United States of America is something that she has done to herself.   Our primary allegiance is owed to another place, because while we accept the fact that we lost the War Between the States, due to the willingness of the Union side to throw recently arrived Irish immigrants onto Confederate bayonets,  we have never withdrawn from the constant belief that all governmental control is best kept weak, and best kept within reach of a well-armed citizenry.

 

    To be within reach of ones government,  that government which has the greatest control of the ventures and adventures of its populace, it is best that that government be local, and certainly nothing beyond or larger than  a large old European Duchy or one of those pitiable European nations locked into the small corral of socialist bondage.

 

     The Americans have moved steadily, since the War Between the States, and more especially since 1933, on a path that has contradicted the intentions and functions of government as set forth in the Constitution of that great and noble Nation.  That entity was founded from within the clouds of expended gunpowder and upon the sacred grounds blessed by the blood of its sons.  It was blessed by many favours by Providence.

 

     The cause of the War against the Crown was, quite simply, haughtiness and arrogance, on the part of the Crown and Parliament.   They knew inside their brains and souls  that they were strong and that the colonists were wrong.   In an Empire where they could show the highest regard for a "king'' of an unknown island in the Pacific where breadfruits could be harvested, the British betters could show only slight regard for the Welsh and the Scots, no regard for the Irish, and even less for the Americans.

 

     We point out these failings as they now repeat themselves.    The American Constitution has been folded and stretched to the point that the words have begun to change meaning.  The people who run the affairs of the populace have no problem engaging in the most ridiculous contortions.  To wit:

    

      Article I -  Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of a

                           Religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging
                           the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right
                           of the   people peaceably to assemble, and to
                           petition the Government for a redress of grievances.....


 ......becomes something that means that manger scenes on a common are prohibited.   Any displays of a religious nature become verboten because the many might offend the few.  Somehow, the will and the ability of the few to offend the many became, over the years, more important.
     This is in spite of the fact that, in America, things moved along with simple abrasiveness between and among the many and varied views of the Cosmos and the deities emanating from those precincts with surprisingly little difficulty, relative to other heterogeneous cultures.   It seems to have had much less bloodletting than what the English had enjoyed only a few score years before the establishment of the United States of America.
     One is humoured, for instance, that so much killing, beheading, yelling, and screaming could accompany, even to this day, people of an Anglican Church and a Roman Church  having an argument over the importance of one bishop or another, between two Denominations that share but a hair's breadth in difference.   At least they were no so long ago.

     But our differences have become more grave here on this Continent.  It has become an issue of whether we shall be relegated to the role of laboratory mice, to be ruled by social engineers playing the role of the mad professors, or if we are to live as freemen and sovereigns  as sons of the Creator.

     We prefer to live, and we must live, apparently, grouped together among ourselves, abiding by a social compact between each of us with others of us.
     However,   we now find that within the precinct of Washington, District of Columbia there is a disposition to impose at every turn,  rules, prohibitions, licensings, permitting requirements, compliance demands, taxation for projects which we oppose as a people, and taxation and deployment of our citizens to wars that are not declared.
      Over the past 20 years citizens of Texas have been deployed and have helped win three different undeclared wars, and all three wars have been won, make no mistake.   Much, if not most of the victory was secured by Texians and people drawn from the States of the old Confederacy.   While we do not disregard in the least the contributions of the millions of others, we do point out, as Texians,  that we have a particular resentment as we watch this present Administration and its governance throw away these victories, however complicated, and allow the gains made both for the United States of America and the countries where we invested so much. t0 be squandered.
     The compulsion of the Democrat Party and its leaders, especially those found in the United States Congress and in this present administration to allow the gains made during these wars to dissolve like sand castles built too close to the high tide reflects the innate, intuitive, and instinctive anti-American mentality of the present administration.

     We could await new elections, but there is little recourse.   One party is bound and determined to follow the road to perdition that is mapped out by the socialist elitists.  Perpetual deficits, perpetual stagnation, perpetual demagoguery, and perfect control over each least and greater aspect of every person's life is the aim of these intellectuals.  They know nothing and understand less.  Their supposition that they, and they alone, know the proper deployment of the time of each person's allotment on this Planet bespeaks that perfect arrogance of the perfectly ignorant.  They are certain that they are the first ones to have discovered the magic method of governance.
     And, there is another party that seems ever disposed to lose gracefully and search for another sword to render to the enemy to formalise each defeat.

    And there are the Libertarians, even those who are natural and common law types who have gained some place in the Washington, D.C. environment. They seem to offer something  that is very similar to our traditional values, but it is  tinged with a kind of respect for upper-class anarchy that would replace In God We Trust on our currency with "I'm Okay, You're Okay".

     There are those who see these machinations in Washington, D,C. as a form of conspiracy; that both political parties are actually the same under the control of ten or one thousand very powerful people who know where all the controls are and how to operate them.   There are others such as this writer, who point to the historical truths.   Among  those truths is that there have been many  who thought they are in control, and almost all  arrived at unfortunate endings.

     Here, in Texas, we do not care any longer what transpires in Washington, D.C. in increasing numbers.   We cannot commit treason, because we are Texian.   We are reassured in our conviction because we witnessed the Attorney General of the United States of America essentially declare War upon our Country.   When we were finally liberated by  a condescentious Supreme Court in their determination that the time had long passed for any real value for the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to be applied to Texas, the Attorney General was quick to notify the American public that he is poised to file suit against the Republic of Texas due to Texas's continued and demonstrable pattern of racial and/or ethnic discrimination in terms of accessing the right to vote.

     It is a form of derangement.  Texas has Black people who are Republicans representing districts that are majority White in the Texas Congress.  Texas has Latins who are Republicans who have represented and continue to represent ethnically mixed districts in the United States Congress.   Texas has 75 per cent of its territory and about that same number of its citizenry under Republican control byCounty and incorporated entities.  In those areas, perhaps one or two per cent of the public corruption takes place within the Republic of Texas.   The Democrats have about 25 per cent of the territory, counties, and incorporated entities and about the same percentage of the Republic's population.  And, they have about 98 per cent of the public corruption that is committed in the Republic.
     There is absolutely no restraint placed against any citizen of this entity in terms of accessing and casting a ballot in any election.   The complaint arises strictly from areas where ultra-leftist operatives, trying to instigate unrest, especially of an ethnic or racial nature, try to point out preposterous scenarios that could possibly keep a 143 year old "Hispanic" from being able to vote.   It is outlandish, impossible, ridiculous, insulting, and a form of pernicious mendacity that we, as Texians, reject categorically and totally.

     The mere fact that a member of the Executive Department of the Government of the United States of America, to wit: Eric Holder, would level such a charge and threaten this entity with legal action essentially serves as a foundation for dissolution of Union.  It absolutely justifies our resolve and our correct conclusions.
     With the Mexicans we have our problems, but we also have our solutions.   We also have our good times, fond memories, sound friendships, and much more positive than negative freight in our bags.   We can conduct our own arguments and agreements with them much better than can the Central Government in Washington, D.C. no matter who is residing in the White House.
   We particularly resent that we are lectured on ethnic and racial matters, when the  Attorney General, has been held in Contempt of Congress for various administrative and moral failures not the least of which have been failure to comply with subpoenas and lying under oath....a felony.
     And concerning the Mexicans, Eric Holder, as Attorney General, has never adequately or even minimally, explained how guns that he authorised to be placed in the hands of bloodthirsty cartel gunmen managed to be involved in the killings of hundreds of innocent collateral civilians caught between cartel confrontation, or in confrontation between cartel elements and the Mexican military.
     Eric Holder and his Government Union thugs under his supervision fed hundreds of what they thought would be untraceable weapons, many of them easily automaticised, into the hands of the drug cartels.  The intent was clearly to establish the notion that  these firearms were being sold by gun dealers in Arizona.   The problem is that the firearms were being bought or taken by the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms agents under the premise that they were going to be used in a renewal of a variation of the Bush administration's "Wide Receiver" program that fed weapons to the cartels with tracking chips.
     Bush's administration had some success, co-ordinating with the very reliable Mexican Army and Naval Infantry until suddenly the Army had to advise the American Justice Department that the cartel people  had figured out that the firearms they had gained were "chipped".   Agents involved were withdrawn and the program discontinued overnight.
    The Obama initiative, handled by the proven liar and prevaricator Eric Holder, was designed simply to show that American firearms sellers and buyers were untrustworthy and the ATF was therefore, by executive order, going to shut down all private firearms and ammunition sales.

     The fact is that the Obama people and Obama himself were unaware that the Mexicans have a fairly good forensic ability.  It is a form of bigotry that the Obama people and Obama had this opinion.   But suffice to say when large numbers of dead and wounded children, women, men, and semi-honest cops, and honest cops, and heroic soldiers and heroic naval infantrymen are being tabulated as the days went by, the Mexican authorities were puzzled by the fact that the weapons traced back to the ATF.
    And, they had no co-ordination agreement.   The Army and Naval Infantry had all but a perfect record in such co-0rdination and was confused about having been left out of the loop.   The Obama administration has never responded to the issue, choosing instead to say that it was (a) classified as a matter of national security, and then later (b) guns that had been supplied by private parties after illegal sales by gun shops and dealers, probably....which was a lie, or (c) on national Spanish language television during the 2012 presidential campaign, by saying that he had inherited the program from the Bush Administration and shut it down early in his administration. 
 
  And all the innocent dead and wounded Mexicans?   Since Obama and the Democrats and Eric Holder care so very much about civil rights and for "Hispanics", it is odd that there has  not been one word of acknowledgement or lamentation.   Another form of lying.
   All of those involved at the field level have been either allowed to retire under full pensions or have been promoted to higher paying positions in Washington, D.C. to serve out their days.  It is, to be sure, a peculiar punishment, or perhaps it is a reward for not divulging or testifying accurately about the particulars of this horrid episode.

    Amazingly, these are the least of his offenses against the old and noble Constitution of the American Union. Before,  he had  specialised in things like the dirty business of arranging the obtaining of Presidential Pardons, as in the Marc Rich case with Hillary and William Jefferson Clinton, during the latter's last hours in office in 2001.

     As an orginal apologetic for the increasingly obvious need for Texas to withdraw and join the sisterhood of Independent Nations, I submit these observations as a call to passive and active measures to the end of a deserved independence from the continued abuse by rule by bureaucrat and decree.

In this I believe.
David Christian Newton

aka El Gringo Viejo. 
 

Heading Back South X Southwest

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

   We have bought most of the goodies required to keep the Quinta Tesoro de la Sierra Madre running for a bit longer.  Bebe the Labrador will be glad to see me...at least for a few minutes.  The other dog, Sonsa, will still probably be just as un-trusting and suspicious.   The cats will not even wake up, from their landing spots on the rocking chairs on the corridor, but about an hour later the tri-coloured cat...a calico....will come and tell me that Alvaro has not fed her once in the two weeks that El Gringo Viejo abandoned her to the mean master.   That is the signal for me to serve her some milk.  Just a couple or three thimbles-full is enough for Calandria to feel as though she has things back on track.

    We named her Calandria (in English - Oriole), because of her combination of principally orange, black, and white.  She is not a very friendly cat, nor is she particularly unfriendly.  She has taken to following me down to the Rio Corona on my daily morning walks, however.

 

    This trip will involve a little repair and restoration work.   It will also allow me to pull a little of my own weight by taking a traction wheel of a lawn-mower that finally wore out....not the gear....but the tread and face of the tire after 20 years of service.  Strange.   Our neighbour could not bring himself to  get rid of the mower so I was asked to find the drive wheel in Gringolandia.  We did, and it cost about 50 dollars.   Because of the continuous favours our neighbour provides us, we shan't charge him a farthing, but we are almost certain that this will only provoke more generosities on their part.

 

    Such is the nature of pleasant friendships which are far too few in these days.

 

 

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

 

 

    There was an interesting thing that happened while we were doing a bit of shopping for repair supplies for our roof area near the chimney in the back of the Quinta.  Everything we bought at Home Depot was either made in USA or Hecho en Mexico....there was no money sent to the Red Chinese.  Some caulking, a bit of silicon sealing spray for the concrete part of our roof that needs a bit of re-plastering and sealing, a couple of light bulbs, and some fertiliser sticks for our garden.    The above-mentioned traction wheel was also made in USA.

     Because of the surprise at Home Depot, we checked several things and found that they were made somewhere, frequently in the United States, but none were made in Red China.   Why the big turn-around?   It would be good to find out.   Perhaps the inconvenience of copyright theft, cost of shipping, and the out-of-control price changes and labour obstinacy that has been raising its ugly head for the past 30 years.  Or perhaps it is the poor quality and variable quality that never seems to improve longer than for a few weeks before falling back to below third world quality again.

 

   Perhaps it was all just a lucky quirk.

 

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

 

 

     We shall strive during this episode to send or bring pictures of our area.  We will try to take the very mundane pictures, more of a portrait of our near neighbours and general environment, so that you all might feel more at home with our peculiar, yet pleasant, reality.

 

     If the opportunity presents itself, perhaps a few shots of our nearby capital city will be in order.   We will put in a couple of studies of street scene of the Ejido of Francisco I. Madero and the Estacion de Santa Engracia.

 

One more transmission should be able to flow from my magic fingertips before departure.   Please stand by.

El Gringo Viejo

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