The More Things Change.....(and some newer pictures in the slideshow)

     Our flooding situation here in the McAllen - Mission area remains pretty much the same.   Those of us who understand the hydrology keep a wary eye posted on our weather radar on the old home computer.   Any significant rains....say from 5 to 10 inches over a three to five day period and over a extension of 30 to 50 per cent of the area from the face of the Sierra Madre Oriental to a point near Acun~a, Coahuila/ Del Rio, Texas down to as far as Montemorelos, Nuevo Leon can conceivably wreak disaster on the Lower Rio Grande Valley.    All Mexican reservoirs are filled to beyond 100 per cent of capacity....and the international reservoirs are at or near capacity and the floodways throughout the Lower Rio Grande Valley are running at or near capacity.   So....while people on both sides of the Rio Grande / Ri0 Bravo have become a bit complacent and/or accepting of the danger....the proximity of catastrophe remains.    We have another ten days, perhaps a bit longer because of recent moderate but significant rainfall in the watershed, to remain especially vigilant.

      Our place, the Quinta Tesoro de la Sierra Madre, still remains dry, although I am informed that the Rio Corona, adjacent to our property, has remained at high levels.   At least it is contained within its maximum flow stage, and remains about 160 yards away from the house.    The Rio Corona does not drain into the Rio Grande.   It does join the Rio Soto la Marina at the juncture of Lake Vicente Guerrero, east of Ciudad Victoria.....all of this is 200 miles south of the Frontier.   The Rio soto la Marina runs due east upon leaving the lake and empties into the Gulf of Mexico near La Pesca, Tamaulipas. (great surf and estuary fishing)

     For those who have inquired, my father-in-law is better....but better is certainly a relative term.   He is extremely limited in his scope of activity, but at least he is not suffering or in any severe pain.    It takes three family members, two health workers, and one doctor to address his issues.  My mother-in-law and my wife are the ones who are paying most of the price of caring for this fine old gentleman.   My brother-in-law, his wife, and my sister-in-law have spared nothing in the way of effort....(which is considerable, in that they live a great distance from the Valley)...or resources.    We are fortunate that things are only as bad as they are.

     Other things that do not seem to change is Chilpancingo, Guerrero, the capital of the State of Guerrero.   This is an important State to us Gringos because Acapulco is situated there.    It is also a place that has long been associated with violence....violence between the various Indian ethnicities, violence in politics, violence caused by bandits (sometimes against other bandits).   This has been a characteristic of the area since before the Spanish Conquest.    The white man came in and changed things...(?)

      One particularly telling statistic is that since the Mexican Revolution of 1910 - 1917  no Governor of the State of Guerrero ever completed his term.   I think this rule has been violated recently....but only once or twice.   The Governors were either run out of office by angry Indians, lynched by angry everybodies, or skipped town ahead of the crowd, or sneaked out to the United States, Cuba, Spain, or France with a generous portion of the State Treasury.

     Various States of the Mexican United States have had frequent and/or extended terms of "gobierno militar provisional temporal".    Guerrero is certainly one.    Another State, San Luis Potosi, had a "proviosional military temporary government"  run by a nice gentleman named Gen. Santos on three separate occasions.   The joke in San Luis Potosi was that they had a permanent temporary military government.

     To be sure, the violence and absurdity we are witnessing in Mexico at this time pales before the violence  that was being witnessed just before the Revolution of 1910 to a point shortly before the outbreak of World War II.   This is especially true if one considers the issue on a per capita basis.   In those years ten or fifteen thousand people of all classes, races, ethnicities, and pursuations were slaughtered, PER YEAR....when the population was less than 20,000,000.     Americans living and working in Mexico at that time numbered between 20,000 and 40,000 in any given year....but well over 2,000 were murdered ...many especially by leftist Carranza supporters and general banditry during and just after the Revolucion.

      But I diverge.....In Guerrero State, apparently there is the rize of a "White Hand".   Six bodies of known thugs and cartelistas were found outside of Chilpancingo with a notice that read " No more rape, no more murder, no more kidnapping, no more violence,  (signed) The Cartel of the Sierra".    Supposedly the each of the bodies had a tag...."corruption", "rape", murder", "extorsion", "kidnapping", "violence".    Perhaps a cryptic "six horsemen of the apocolypse".   The international press declared that it was the rize of a new drug cartel but such a thing is very, very improbable.... many Mexicans are of the opinion that it is a bunch of people who have been watching old Cisco Kid and Zorro shows.    Who knows?

    

     I shall be signing off again for a bit.   Any new news will be reported quickly.    As usual, thank you for your kind attention and time.

The Old Gringo

Locally heavy rainfall may exacerbate flood conditions near floodways and other poor drainage areas in the Lower RGV

Locally heavy rainfall may exacerbate flood conditions near floodways and other poor drainage areas in the Lower RGV: "Future Evolution: Northern Mexico
Current forecast data suggest a several day period of very heavy rainfall moving into the central and northern Sierra Madre Oriental, including across areas which received several feet of rainfall from the remnants of Hurricane Alex and Tropical Depression #2. These areas include portions of the Mexican States of Nuevo Leon and Coahuila, perhaps extending northwest into Chihuahua. Another 10 to 20 inches of rain is possible into early next week in these areas; such rainfall would eventually flow into the system of reservoirs and dams in Mexico and along the Rio Grande, ultimately reaching the Lower Rio Grande. Such a situation, if it develops, would result in continued high water and some degree of flooding along and near the River and associated Floodways through the end of July and into the first weeks of August.
Much more information will be available from this website as conditions evolve over the next several weeks. Remember to stay safe if living or working along or near the Rio Grande and Floodway system."

     This is today's official analysis from the Brownsville Weather Service, referring to what is ahead and relating to what my last couple of entries have been about.   It is truly an amazing development and now South Texas and northeastern Mexico may have a chance to dodge more bullets in the dark.
The old Gringo

Deeper and Wider and More

     This has been a real time of it.   The area of northeastern Mexico comprised of the States of Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, and Coahuila which received the brunt of Hurricane Alex (reference previous blog entry) have since received another dose.   This came in the form of  "almost Hurricane Bonnie", a tropical depression that came ashore on the central Gulf coast of Tamaulipas.    This system actually crossed directly over our little Quinta on the banks of the Rio Corona.   We had 16.5 inches of rain in two days.   The mountains to the west had much, much more.    There were reasonable reports of up to 45 inches over a three day period.     This is to be added to what we had received before.

     Our little sedate mountain stream....the Rio Corona....rose up to within about 20 feet of our adobe house, our second threat inside of the month.   The neighbour's old mequite tree that shades our southeast corner was blown down....there was much damage to the Montezuma Cypress trees which line the Rio Corona...but not fatal.    This meant that the winds were much stronger that those which were supposed to have accompanied the 35 mph estimates.   Everyone scoffed at such official velocities.

      Much of the energy of this second system continued to the northwest and dumped prodigous amounts of rain over the same area previously affected by Hurricane Alex.   The Rio Grande's drainage basin collected copious amounts of runoff.   The Rio San Juan, the Alamo, the Salado, the Sabinal, along with upriver inflows being captured by Amistad Reservoir near Del Rio, Texas all joined in the game.   Falcon Reservoir, built in 1953, rose to its highest retention in history....the Mexican rivers overflowed their dams, their banks, and everything possible.    At this moment the floodway system in the Lower Rio Grande Valley is almost at capacity and the Rio Grande is just barely beginning a fall from cresting.    More rain is on the way, however.

      The highways between the Laredos (Texas and Tamauliipas) and the Monterrey metroplex were inundated....there was much damage.   Laredo is the busiest land port between two countries in the world.   The back up was all but incomprehensible.   Tractor-trailer rigs were backed up two-abreast for forty miles on the Mexican side and 35 miles on the American.   Train convoys were in a similar position.  Everyone was tied up from 4 to 6 days.

       I shall report a bit more on this.   We in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas are in precarity at this time, although the water is no longer rising.   The possible arrival of new systems can change this at any time.    In the previous blog I wrote that the governor of Nuevo Leon had estimated damages to be as high as a billion dollars....this is almost a macabre joke at this point.   All the damage, throughout the affected three State area....is surely more in the neighbourhood of 50 billion dollars, if not more....and much of this damage is upon construction and installation of a generally good to excellent quality.   It is a pity.....but perhaps greater things will be built with and upon the ruins.    For sure this area is going to see a severe labour shortage for the coming three years.

This has been some strange time

     This has been some strange time.   My father-in-law is a bit improved, but still very far from his previous active self.   My mother-in-law is pleasantly exhausted....spending 14 to 22 hours per day at the hospital at her husband's side.    My wife goes about her business, working 10 hours a day, and then spending another 10 hours a day attending to her mother's loose ends, helping her father in the hospital.    I have been very helpful to the overall effort, contributing 1/10 of 1 per cent to the overall effort.   At least my wife has four hours left over every day to wait on me hand and foot.....which is only right or the Good Lord would not have put 25 hours in every day.

     We went through a bit of a "near miss" from Hurricane Alex...still receiving from 18 inches of rain (eastern, coastal sections) to around 12 inches overall here in the middle of the Magic Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas.    Up against the Sierra Madre Oriental, from near Cd. Victoria to well north of the Monterrey metroplex....say up to Eagle Pass and Del Rio....rains of 25 to 50 inches have been recorded since the arrival of Hurreicane Alex on the coast of Tamaulipas back on the 3rd of July.    The Monterrey metroplex is a mess.   It is a shame because it is a place that rises up out of its own disorder, always improving.   The Gobernador of Nuevo Leon says that there might be a billion dollars of damage just in the metroplex (a contiguous arrangement of 4,000,000 people in 7 different cities and/or counties).     Some reasonable and conservative type people have stated that it might be more like 5 billion dollars worth of damage.   Incredibly, only 15 people are known to be dead.   For those familiar with the matter, this rain and storm event has proven to be much, much worse than Hurricane Gilbert in 1988, or Beulah in September of 1967.    Those are benchmark disasters, now eclipsed by Alex.

     It is well to point out that the Monterrey metroplex is essentially an assembly of fairly good to quite excellent construction and public facility.   It has long been the largest metropolitan area in Latin America where one could drink the water from the tap without concern...(since about 1896)...for instance.

     Our treasured Quinta Tesoro de la Sierra Madre, nestled by the cypress-lined Rio Corona....watched warily as the water approached her walls.   The final line of advance came to almost the same point as had the run-off from Hurricane Beulah in September of 1967.   While I was not there at the time, our friend and neighbour who is the owner of the Hacienda de la Vega next door was there and kept us informed of the inch-by-inch progress of the floods.   Neither their place nor ours was damaged after the arrival of the runoff of what was finally 63 inches of rain over four days at the 4,000 foot level of the Sierra, four miles to our east.   This rainfall was fairly common throughout the face of the various cordilleras of the Sierra Madre Oriental during the Hurricane Alex period. 

     Oddly, we had only a few hours of electrical service interruption , and apparently there were no leaks from any part of the roof.   Small but significant victories.

More later.

The Old Gringo  

When the Elephant Falls on the Banquet Table

     During the past few days we have had one situation after another, and I have abandoned my several readers.   Some have inquired about this absence.     To start, the daughter came down with her daughters and husband for a pleasant stay.   Almost immediately upon departure back to Central Texas, my father-in-law began a decline in health.   he is ninety years of age, a veteran of the African Campaign....Rommel, Patton, and so forth.   He is a virtuous and industrious man who has left the wood-pile much higher than how he found it.

     In any regard, he became very weak and a bit feverish.   During an interview with a nurse who is contracted to my in-laws' GP, his symptoms became more marked.   Finally, it became obvious that he could not be treated at home, and an ambulance was summoned.    We literally could not un-stiffen him sufficiently to fit him into any of our autos, SUV's, or any conveyance.    In short order he was transported to emergency in our hometown.

     Then began the vigils, of course, with my mother-in-law providing most of the vigilance, followed by my wife, and then, least of all, your humble servant.    The service at the hospital has been mediocre to excellent.

My father-in-law, however, because of attorneys, has been poked, stabbed, radiated, irradiated, and otherwise subjected to discomforts to the extent that it makes one wonder if it would not be best just to let him rest with a bit of some kind of synthetic opium.   He is ninety years old.   He helped save the world from a madman.   Let him rest.

     In the meantime, the cartel thugs murdered the candidate of the centrist Partido Revolucionario Institutional (PRI) for the position of Governmor of the State of Tamaulipas.   He was one of the closest chums of our frequently cited neighbour who owns the Hacienda de la Vega pictured in our webpage article.   Although our neighbour is a member of the conservative Partido de Accion Nacional (PAN), he and his friend Dr. Rodolfo Torres Cantu' remained good friends up until the day before yesterday when the Doctor was gunned down as he was leaving Cd. Victoria on his way to a last campaign swing in the northern cities of Reynosa, Rio Bravo, Valle Hermoso, and Matamoros.   The election law requires that all campaigning stop three days before the "comisios", which take place beginning at 08:00 on Sunday, the 4th of July.

      We are now waiting to see what is going to happen.   The Doctor was very much in the lead...6 to 3 to 1....and his election as a PRI candidate in a very PRI State was all but assured.    Perhaps the election will be held and the State Congress will name a governor from an internal selection by the State and National Executive Committees of the PRI.   For right now, it is in the air.

     Our neighbour is bereft, as is his family.   He is one of the main celebrants of the "actos funebres"....rather much like being a pall-bearer in the US.   He is also a Godfather of one of the Doctor's children.
     For those who read  Spanish, this is my neighbour's  eloquently worded advisory about the next matter,

      "Efectivamente antes del fin de semana acudio con Ciro para fletear una madera, simbro y coloco un nuevo cargador que se habia vencido..no hubo mas problema. Estamos en espera de la tormenta o Huracan para este jueves, por lo que era necesario reparar..se que Paco fue su asistente le avise del deposito que le haras y en la mediada de lo posible acudire a visitarle...hoy todo el dia me tomo los servicios funebres de mi Amigo, pero si el tiempo me da marcho para alla...tu no te preocupes..Saludos!"

      While this disaster is taking place, we also have a hurricane bearing down on the entire area where we all are.   We were conducting a bit of repairs on the Quinta which were just finished.  My neighbour supervised the matter from a close distance so as not to offend my mayordomo, Alvaro.   They get along quite well, thank goodness.   It is worth noting that my neighbour had time to give to me even as he was mired into this assassination matter and the attendant funereal duties.    The preceding Spanish-language paragraph speaks to these issues. 

       My brother-in-law, his wife, and my sister-in-law have now all arrived on the scene here in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas, and that will go a long way into helping my father-in-law, and spelling my wife and mother-in-law.    Both my brother's wife and my wife have considerable medical experience and this has be very helpful, as well.

Another Trip Back Up to Texas

     Yesterday had me driving through the rain again, going through the checkpoints, making good time until arriving at the McAllen bridge.   Therein followed an hour and a quarter snail's paced crawl to the inspection station.   Each time this happens I am more disposed to enroll in the "quick-pass" program.....which allows a person to go through for an annual fee and after passing a fairly rigorous investigation.    The fee is about 250 dollars, I believe, and my life's history is boring enough to kill a dead rock, but I guess my "thriftiness" keeps me from taking the step.

     During the past few weeks there has been quite a bit of activity at the Quinta Tesoro de la Sierra Madre.   We have had a few clients.....a new phenomena is the client who come with his family and wants to use the grounds as a base for visiting the Rio Corona....for having a parking place on the grounds.....access to our barbeque.....and access to our guestroom for his family.....for the better part of a day.   I require a reservation, a guest-list not to exceed nine persons (no exceptions) and a prepayment of 500 pesos.   Prohibited is any excessive drinking, any loud music  (anything that I can hear inside the house), any aggressive posturing, arguing, or disturbance.   The client has to provide everything he intends to use for the day.   I provide the place, privacy, parking, and a comfortable base for a small group of friends or family group.     He also has to return the place to its original condition in terms of litter and order.
     Our house/property manager (called 'mayordomo' in Spanish) had a couple of entries for this blog submission...and he is unaware.    First, he had a lightning bug fly into his ear about three weeks ago and nothing worked to induce the insect to leave, nothing worked to extract him.   Finally, Alvaro had to go to the doctor in Estacion Santa Engracia, where during a one day - two visit process the doctor finally extracted the hapless beast.    Since it happened on our property during a time when Alvaro is normally expected to be there doing his "projects", I am expected to pay the freight.   The bill came up to about 38 dollars at the current rate of exchange, so I felt a bit lucky.
     Then, he also invited the owner of the Hacienda de la Vega and me to a lunch featuring real pit smoked "borrego" (ram) along with a lot of other nice things.   We had to drive to a place just outside of Xicotencatl, about 70 miles to the south, where Alvaro has an "official" residence and is a known person to many friends and relatives.   It  turned out that we were the honorees, and about 40 people attended including various dignitaries, Ejido officers, and political office holders, etc.    We were honored for being Alvaro's "away-from-home" employers and for generally being important and wonderful people...(explanation mine).   The affair lasted for about three hours and was actually quite pleasant. 
     It was a really hot day.   The muffler fell off of the old Dynasty in the middle of Victoria when I was arriving to meet Rafael (the owner of the Hacienda de la Vega), and when I circled around to retrieve it, the people all around said not to worry with it;   the city would pick it up shortly, and besides it was too hot to touch.     They were right, because when I went back it was gone.    It was probably a 12 year old muffler.

     A close friend of my  now-departed older brother and I crossed paths on the internet about six weeks ago and she made several nice references to my memories of things that occurred over a half-century ago.   She caught me up on her family and sent some very nice pictures of their homestead in Indiana, all decked in Winter's white.   She liked our web-site and our running account about life in Mexico, and of course, asked about the social and civil conditions.   She had lived in McAllen during the better times, and like almost everyone, had gone to Reynosa with friends and family just as a matter of course.   In those years it was just a normal ritual.
     My answer to her questions about such things is that it was, truly, better then....when Mexico was much poorer.
Later tonight, I shall attempt to style a more comprehensive answer.

Right now I am very grumpy because the service I use for design and formatting of my blog had a bit of news....a free offer of a better template and modification format.   My mistake was that I clicked up a couple of alternatives just to see what improvements could be made....and voila!   There was no going back to my crummy, rustic comfortable page.    It's really not nice to take an old tomcat out of his smelly, crummy place and force him to live in Buckingham Palace.....he really would prefer his old dump.

BACK AGAIN....and returning to a "more comprehensive answer"....The lady in question (my oldest brother's high school chum) was and is one of the top five most important personalities that affected anyone in my family during my youth and childhood.   My mother spoke of her often throughout her life.    So, it is said here that it is true that the Mexico we knew, with all its imperfections, anachronisms, contradictions, etc. was a different, perhaps more pleasant place than the Mexico of to-day.   I have been stunned by the wantonness of the criminal element and the ends to which they will reach in order to control turf & territory.   However, my situation remains more secure than were I to live in any middle-sized or large city in the United States.   The physical plant continues to improve to the point where any modernity found in the United States is almost always found in Mexico at the same time or shortly thereafter.   The highways, water systems, and general public and private situation continues to improve markedly.     BUT.....IT IS TRUE THAT AT ANY GIVEN TIME there might be a chance of a close encounter with a full-scale gangland shootout between cartels.....or the more disciplined military response of the Mexican Army or Naval Infantry against groups of cartel members who are foolish enough to engage the military.  
     That being said, and remembering that I pretty much live full-time in the interior of Mexico.....I have never been at or even close to such engagements at any time during the past 10 years.    BUT, Back in the late 1960's and 1970's I WAS involved peripherally (as an accidental observer) in such engagements when there were active urban and rural communist insurgent groups, (actually mainly upper-middle class "students" [bandits] living the Vida Frida).    Some of my readers will remember the Universidad Politecnico student "massacre" just before the Olympics in Mexico City in 1968....as well as our own disorders during those days in the United States....prompted mainly by nihilists, communists, and Che Guevara-type thugs and criminals.
     Next to lastly, it should be pointed out that the press likes to point out that Mexico has had 27,000 killings during the past four years....mainly related to drug violence.    When compared to the 125,000 killings (drive-by's, gang wars, home invasion, murders by drug addicts, etc.)  in the United States during the same time period....it is still statistically safer in Mexico.    It is all a bummer no matter which side of the Rio Grande one finds himself.
     Finally,    considering the kind of press coverage that exists,  anyone who has lost whatever desire to visit Mexico that he once had, is being reasonable.     Anyone who has cancelled any thought of going to Mexico for any reason needs not apologize to me or anyone else.   One must stand at bat in the manner that makes his swing with the bat the most powerful and accurate for  the batter.   I am not going to judge how you or any other of my readers wish to stand in the batter's box.     

Thanks to everyone for your attention to my mad ramblings.    I have had one complainant during the past three or four months due to my hot headed rightwing nature.....and about 90 messages offering support and agreement.  Still it is not my desire to offend anyone, but rather funnel the life experience of an old man who has seen the failure of almost every government program....almost every secular humanist "reform" that the intellectual class has foisted upon society.    I remain a friend to all, especially the traveller, the prisoner, and the infermed and to the Earth granted to us by a Kind Providence.