One Blue Flower

Living "gringo" style in MX ain't cheap!

THIS — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:06:00 GMT

I've mentioned this a time or two, but maybe today is a good time for a review, primarily on the old myth of living cheapo in MX. Sometimes people who are considering moving here see the weather station or this blog and write to ask questions and the one thing I tell them without fail is the yes, Mexico can be very inexpensive it you live native, but if you live gringo, it's gonna cost a lot more.

We develop patterns of life, foods we like, creature comforts we insist on and just generally where we see ourselves living, having spent most of a lifetime acquiring and polishing these little millstones around our necks, we're loath to let them go without a fight. So, we read about "live in Mexico for $1,200 a month" and it sounds great - and you can do that, but not in the style you're accustomed to, not in today's Mexico.

The "gringo ghetto" as we refer to the N shore has disproportionate pricing due to the large congregation of mostly old (sometimes even older), gray haired, white chicken legged, pot bellied lifetime leftovers known as retirees. It's really amazing when you look at us through the eyes of the local folk, seeing us creaking around in our dotage should discourage anyone from wanting to illegally cross the border - if we're any representation? We're at times rude, we mangle their language at best and have no idea why they cling to 19th century ideas and habits. I digress, back to "living gringo".

Renting a place here is easy, many, if not most, are 2 bdrm furnished and can vary from very cheap in MX neighborhoods to as much as you want to pay. Generally they include a gardener and sometimes maid, often TV and even Internet, so when you look at the rent you have to back out those peripheral costs which are very similar to NOB costs. Utilities are never included because the CFE electrico can eat your lunch in a heartbeat, or can be so silly cheap it's not worth mentioning. Propane gas runs our dryers, stoves and even some refrigerators, it's relatively reasonable as we don't have heating systems. Oh, pool maintenance is also included in your rent, that along with the gardener, maid in some cases are provided as protection for the property by the owners, they can also serve to keep track of goings on at the property which might be negative.

Your new casa won't look like anything you're used to, it won't be a nice little cottage with a white picket fence and a big yard, it will be more like a "row house" connected to the guys on either side and behind. It will be concrete, brick and steel, so it holds heat when it's hot, stays chilled when it's cold, it's basically a real big pizza oven. It will be on a narrow, but deep lot usually with off street parking. It may have a courtyard in the back, but not necessarily. Mexicans are used to being close to each other, have you ever noticed when you see them at a WalMart etc. they're in a "cluster" - often family, but they travel in a bunch, noise from a neighbor or the highway right outside doesn't bother them, they hardly notice - if their noise bothers you? - that's your problem, not theirs, get used to it. With the exceptions of gated enclaves, there don't seem to be any zoning laws, that's what your perimeter walls are for, to wall in your little paradise and wall out the rest of the world, no matter what or who it is.

Now, those things being said, of course they are the antithesis of what I want and who I think I am - so, naturally my rent just went up proportionally, I'm still living gringo, old habits die hard, what can I say? But generally it's still a nice place for what I might spend on an apt NOB - and why? - well, that's another part of the story, their tax structure here is totally different. This estate was recently valued between $350-395K, about what my house in TX was, my Texas taxes were $6K per year, this house? - $150 per year, yes, you read it right, $150. So, in TX to rent that house would cost you $500 a month just for tax, this house, $13, so that's a huge break.

Food can be inexpensive again if you stick with Mexican products, but if you have a taste for pork & beans, or Bush's Baked Beans or Hormel Chili? - hold on, a medium size can of Bush's is $7, hard cheese is very expensive, so you learn to alter your taste buds and if you have these things, it's a real treat, just like the old days huh? Medicine can be either high or low and plain old 325mg aspirin is non-existent. I buy them 500 in a bottle for a few dollars in TX, here Aspirina is a 500mg horse tablet that will turn your stomach inside out, apparently they're not coated or buffered or something because they are really hard on you. And Tylenol PM? - don't even go there, I take one at night so buy a couple 200 tablet bottles NOB for the year, here I ran out the first year, bought a MX product which had 12 tablets for $6, in TX I get 200 PM for maybe $10? - but, an Advair inhaler in TX is $200 (without insurance) here it's $50 OTC.

There is no free lunch, the real gotcha is when you start buying electronics, tools etc. then you pay and pay dearly. I was looking at a computer router the other day in Guad, it was $67. I looked online at Amazon and I could buy it for $30 delivered in TX. A bit of figuring exposed the cost of things here. One of the primary sources of revenue for the MX government is the 16% IVA tax on everything but food. So, you take the router which is list price $50, you import it into MX and they add 15%, then when you buy it, they add 15% again and guess what, you now have $67.28 - I rest my case.

That means a shopping trip to TX is well worth the annual cost, at worst if I buy something and get stuck at the border with the 16% import tax, I still save 16% and of course there is no reason to pay MFG retail NOB. In the past the border customs agents didn't really check much, that's changed some, but still it's pretty loose. When you drive in you're allowed to bring in $75 in merchandise, when you fly it's $300? - why? - who knows, this is Mexico, they don't need no stinkin' reason.

So living gringo costs a little more, also you have to add in base costs like an annual visa which is about $125 and if you have a lawyer do it for you, double that. Anything wooden or paper is more, they don't have the industry here to support those products. If you keep your NOB plates they really don't care if they are current or not, drivers license yes, plates no, so you can save some there, I know a lady with 10 year old TX plates, never renewed. Insurance is maybe half what it is NOB, gas around $2.40 a gallon, you don't even notice because Pemex is your only option and so you just hand them a $500 peso note and when they're finished, give them a tip and drive on until the cycle repeats itself.

All in all, Mexico is a land of opposites, contradictions wherever you go, it can be many different things to different people, some love it, some leave it - me? I like it, the weather is fine, most days I don't mind some of the nuisance things and as noted, I've reupped for another year.

You'd think I would learn?

THIS — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 13:46:00 GMT

I sometimes criticize Mexicans for being rather "adolescent" in their behavior and not thinking things through - right? Well, must be something in the water because I've been here nearly 3 years and I still don't "think things through" based on past experience - so, the "duh" is all over me on this one.

As I said, yesterday was a gem, last night and today it's a wet gem, we've had over 2" of rain since late yesterday afternoon, but it's straight down and the hamsters at the CFE are keeping us in power (if not much TV due to the rain). So I opened the cute little box, took out the new netbook toy, plugged it in to charge and later hit the "ON" button and SHAAAZAM - it's all in Spanish? - yes, the first "welcome" screen said "BIENVENIDOS" in big letters and I knew in an instant I had goofed? It was like my experience with Mexican ATM's the first time? - now why didn't I think of that before?

I know the operating system well enough, and enough Spanish, to go to the section that lets you change "preferences" and you can modify the region of the world you live in/near to something like 100 different places starting with Afghanistan and containing places I'd bet aren't even on a map - but absolutely NO US, America etc. Yes, there was Canada, so I checked it, went to three more areas and picked things that might make it comprehensible, but turns out all they are changing are keyboard configurations, the syntax of dates etc., the maacheeen only speaks Spanish.

So, between closing windows/doors and putting out soaker towels (really hardly needed) and opening windows/doors I thought it over (finally, now he thinks?) and realized I had an upgrade to Vista I never used on one of my other PC's, so grabbed it and sure enough it allowed me to load a new copy of Vista (which I hate) but at least it now speaks English. The wireless part isn't working yet, but what else have I to do on a rainy day but tinker.

Maybe I should write "I WILL remember everything in MX is printed in Spanish, and PS DUMMY, YOU LIVE IN MEXICO" 100 times? (I did get a great laugh out of it, even if it was at my own expense and due to my own stupidity)

Some days are diamonds and some days are stones, this one is a gem!

THIS — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 20:38:00 GMT

You know how the ebb and flow of life can turn into more flow than ebb? - well, so it is in "retirement" - to be sure, some days are diamonds, some are stones (why did I imagine this would be different than the first 65 years?).

I know these mini-adventures are coming in two's, but hey, I just report them like they happen to me, they say "life is 80% what happens to you and 20% what you do about it" - or, maybe it's the other way round, actually I think it is? - but I digress.

In the normal course of human events things have conspired to make this a really great day. I've been having problems with Sweet, one of my rascal outside cats who wants to come inside every chance he gets including coming across the vine covered black hole between me and the Casa Nostra. He'd jump up on the deck and Max's cat door is open onto the upper deck at night (and to be honest, Max and he are buddies so I think Max encourages it) and then I'd have an outside cat inside. After several temporary experiments I opted to have some screen panels made and then I made brackets and (over) engineered the whole thing and put it in place Monday - I was more than pleased with myself, it looked great, I was sure of it's success and slept well that night knowing Sweet was on the far side of the gato screen.

Tuesday morning arrived and this was in expectation of Chuy, the fixit guy, coming to replace some old pool valves as reported in the previous thread. But, before he arrived I started to get false alarms from the security sensor up on the deck. Now, normally it means some ants have decided to take up residence, but this time I saw no ants, took the sensor unit inside and disassembled, no ants? After much thought I decided the new gato screens, which are framed in dark aluminum, were being heating up with the, finally visible, sun (it's been really rainy lately) and setting off the alarm.

By that time Chuy had arrived and "we" began the surgery down in the bottom of a 4' deep pit, wet, dank, rather dark, spider infested (even though sprayed) and generally a very tight uncomfortable place to work - for Chuy that is, of course I was the "el Jefe" (boss). So, after it was obvious the old leaking valves would have to be replaced he started cutting and extracting the "diseased" parts. He does great work and got everything but one connection completed yesterday and came this morning to do the 5 minute final connect.

Today so far, I have no rain, I have no leaks in the pool house and so I turned my full attention to getting all my computers to network together, something that has eluded me for a month now - and shaazam, I did that also, all 4 computers working as they should. Well, my gosh, it wasn't even 11am and I had more success than I could hope to imagine.

Besides feeling good about signing the casa lease for another year, there were all these blessings, so I headed to WalMart for a bit of shopping. Now, you have to understand that in a Mexican WalMart, when you come in the front doors, you will be faced with an island of something electronic and usually LOUD! - it's their thing? Today as I entered the unmistakable island was there and today it had laptop computers - hohum. As stated, I already have more than my legal limit. But, I did notice the especial was a small "netbook" for $3,400p which is a pretty good deal because in MX, what you see advertised ALWAYS includes tax, unlike the States where you think you have a good deal until you get to the register and add in everyone's cut from Uncle Sam to State, Local and etc hangers on et al.

I shopped, got a few things including coffee and I needed coffee filters. Now, you would imagine logically that "filters" would be next to the coffee, I mean really, what the heck could you use a coffee filter for anyway, a parachute for a hedgehog? - but, silly me, I forgot, this IS MX and the filters are clear back on the far side of the store from the coffee, they are next to the coffee makers in the equally illogical appliance section. (Sorry) So, I drag my little tow basket back across the store to get filters and pass by the computer island again - hmmm? - that is a good price, but then I need another computer like I need another (you fill in the blank).

I head for the register, checkout and head home - but, that $3,400p is stuck in the back of my head, all of which is leading to two things, stupidity in retirement and living in MX with a varying dollar to peso.

I unloaded the car, but left the sunroof open and the windows down, the kiss of death because it means subconsciously I'm still going somewhere later today. I came up and looked at the exchange rate, this is something you become keenly aware of when living "off shore" because it can vary significantly, fortunately for the last year or two it has been in our favor, so normally we assume it's 10 pesos for every dollar, makes the math easy so when you go into to get toothpaste and it says $23 pesos you mentally read it as $2.30 - ok, not bad. But, a year ago when it went to 15:1 for a short time, that same $23 pesos actually only cost you $1.54 USD. Now, that's a deal s,o today we're at 13:1 and I had put some dollars in the bank at a slightly lower exchange rate just last month, so, in any case the $3,400p laptop actually was only about $265 USD (including tax).

Well, you can see where my mind was going, I dredged up all the justifications and reasons "why," looked online to see American prices etc. and finally simply said (ladies, I know you will relate to this) "IT'S TOO GOOD A DEAL TO PASS UP EVEN IF I DON'T NEED IT" - right?

Now, I figure it's in keeping with my super day, my "diamond" that I'm already having and it must be divine providence - well, there wasn't a note on the table saying "DON'T BUY THE PC"? - so I hopped in the jeep and just for grins I took the back way to Wallys.

Now, the usual way would be to head to the Carretera (highway) and go a mile and half west to Wally, but I elected, feeling so good, to go through San Antonio Tlayacapan to the west of me and enjoy the local ambiance which BTW is getting nice and green, the mountains are lush and it's looking great. So, I bump up 3 blocks on dirt covered cobblestones, hang a left on the curving alley, for the most part, which takes me bumping and bouncing along into San Antonio.

I must set the scene, this is a "main" E/W street in the village that takes you right into the square. It's lined on both sides, for blocks, with wall to wall houses, the street is essentially 2 cars wide and of course one lane is already taken up with parked cars, so as you drive you looks blocks ahead to see if anyone is coming and as you near each other it becomes a "Mexican standoff" - well, it does! You play a rather placid game of chicken where you look to see who is going to get to a place between parked cars, or an intersection first and pull off so the two of you can pass - all very exciting.

Today I'm bumping along the cobbleboulders enjoying life and a ways ahead, on my side, are parked cars and on the left, a "parked" horse - ah yes, you often see horses here, most have riders, not all, and of course you often see cows, always riderless. So, a bus is coming toward us and there's no way he can get through, so he honks and a fellow comes out of a small business and mounts the horse and coaxes him to the other side between some parked cars so the bus can pass. I'm sitting back watching this whole thing with an increasingly big smile on my face, totally enjoying this whole scene. So, the bus passes and I start to move ahead, but the guy moves back over into the clear lane next to the curb and a kid comes out of the store and swings up behind the rider and they calmly ride on past me - now, be honest, when is the last time you enjoyed the pageantry and daily flowing waltz between cars, horses, buses etc.? - it's a trip, really.

As I passed them I had a big smile on my face, I waved, they waved back and life went on. I continued on past my turn and into La Floresta, totally enjoying the day, Mexico and even the cobblestones - really?

Of course I bought the little PC, it's sitting on the pool table, I haven't even opened it, I'm afraid the magic will escape - but there is no escaping the magic of this day in Mexico, it's a keeper for sure and too good not to enjoy to the max.

4 Years?

THIS — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 22:03:00 GMT

Ok, this whole thread is going to be a bit esoteric and abstract, so if you're not into that, you can probably tune out and use your time to better advantage and organize your sock drawer.

Regarding the title, it's not actually been 4 years yet, in fact, only 3 in October, but today, cinco de Julio I signed my lease for another year which will take me through 4 years - yes, the guy who packed his trailer, Jeep and cat and headed to MX for 6 months to see if he could make it? - well, guess it's working.

But, on a more ethereal level, do you ever have times, generally, when you're alone and it's quiet, that you suddenly feel yourself "out of body" looking at yourself as an abstract person? No, well, then you ain't lived or taken serious account of who you are, where you are and what's going on around you.

The first time I can remember this happening was in Chicago, probably in late '77 or early '78 when I first moved there and started my sales career. I had ridden the NW train line from Barrington into the city which terminates at Monroe St station. This in itself is a rush for a kid from NE, all these trains (not just one at 2pm each day?) and all these tracks coming in underground to the massive train station.

The precursor to this,one of my first trips into the Chicago downtown, was, I went to the Barrington station, got my ticket and went out onto the platform to see groups of people standing approximately 40' apart? - ok, having no idea what this meant I quietly joined one of them. Then the train arrived, it stopped as programmed in exactly the right place for these groups of people to simply step onto the car they wanted to ride? - wow, now that in itself was a trip. Then, the cars were two levels with an opening between in the ceiling. People drapped their coats over the railings and settled for the hour ride to the "Loop".

Two things I also noticed was that people slipped their tickets into a clip on the back of the seat ahead of them for easy access for the conductor to access - I followed in step.

Earlier I had noticed it seemed to be the custom to buy a paper at the station, so I had mine in hand, actually folded underarm as was customary, and I watched as people settled in and began to read the morning news. Now, here began a challenge, they seemed to fold it in quarters top to bottom so as not to infringe on the neighbors space - I followed the model. They read the stories and then swapped the paper front to back to read on and then continued the process. Obviously this was a wonderful learned exercise that basked in decades of commuter history (of which I was a total neophyte).

So, I folded my paper, started reading and then swapped it front to back and read on - then repeating this time honored ritual I continued - with one small problem, there was something amiss in my technique, I realized I was reading the same story again? - and again - no panic, I acted like I knew what I was doing and by the time we reached Monroe St station I had read the same story at least 6 times and even with that, I don't remember what it said?

Oh well, on with the story.

I disembarked, flowing with the multitudes of business clad people up and out of the station and across the draw bridge across the Chicago river which is a story in itself, there are several draw bridges on the river flanking the west side of the Loop, if a tiny sailboat with a tall mast wants to come through, the draw bridges open and thousands of people and traffic come to a halt as this small puddle jumper goes under - now man, that's power!

I crossed that day and rather than go to my companies office in the Nortrust building next to the (then) Sears Tower I walked on over to State St and there I suddenly stood, a kid from Nebraska with a 3 piece pin stripe suit, an overcoat, briefcase and I was facing the Chicago Board of Trade, an icon in the world of business and I wondered "how the heck did I get here?" - and that's what I mean by standing on the outside looking into yourself - now, that's an epiphany!!!!!!

It's happened several times since then, and to be honest I guess it happens more often as I grow (gracefully?) older and look at myself from a distance.

And, so it was today as I walked the cobblestone streets of Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexiso as a resident, completely at home, a person knowledgeable of the village, it's history and where to get this or that. How could this happen to me? - I darn sure didn't plan this, EVER?

And later I was sitting on the couch downstairs looking out over the pool to the lake and the mountains on the S shore and again I wondered, and almost marveled, at the fact I was sitting there living this life - sometimes it seems I'm looking at someone else's life, someone else I don't even know?

Ok, so it's my world, but it's fun and it often amazes even me.

PS: Oh, add to that as I type this I'm listening to XM radio 40's music which is playing Ballin' the Jack with Georgia Gibbs 1946? - Man, I ain't that old - but I do like the music, maybe I had a previous life?

I had no idea I have so much power?

THIS — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 13:31:00 GMT

A bit of followup to the ongoing previous "open memo to the CFE" thread. Life goes on and you never know what the CFE will do next. For instance this morning, Sunday, I was gently awakened at 6am by nice music from my clock radio rather than being blown out of bed by a horizontal rain storm.

As is the custom, Max accompanies me into the bathroom and I always look toward the casita to make sure all the night lights are on, this morning they didn't seem to be. As I turned on the vanity light is also seemed a bit dim, but then mornings are often "a bit dim" - as I brushed my teeth I didn't think too much of it, the music was playing, the computer regulator wasn't beeping to signal impending doom, but then I checked the voltage meter in the bar just to be sure and hello CFE, today we're only getting 101V rather than the normal 125V, we're just at the edge of "brownout" where the PC regulator goes nutso and the pressure pump motors hum, that is until they burn out, and the frig does the same.

Now recently the CFE had rewired this end of paradise and put all 3 meters on the same transformer apparently because when one went out, they all went. Of course the rich guys up on Gobblers Knob always have electricity, but us poor folks down here suffer on. I looked out the window to see if the pump house circuit was on, a small light tells me the story and today it was reporting "no joy". So, I went out and pulled the plug on the humming pressure pump motor and headed to the casita and likewise that circuit was down, so I pulled the plug on the pressure pump as well, just in case.

Back at the casa grande the coffee maker had finished, taking a bit longer than usual. I came back up here reveling in my apparent new found "power", apparently my memo must really have shaken up the CFE because now I have power and the rest of the neighborhood doesn't - that never happened before? As my neighbor said "I had no idea you had so much power" - bad pun, but I'll take it.

The truth be told, the CFE probably was taking a pot shot at me and missed, these are the same guys who tied the casita electric line to a tree last year when the big storm took out the pole. This being Sunday, and the day for Mexico to play in the World Cup, it may take a while for them to get around to fixing things, but as long as I have my NASCAR race this afternoon I'm happy as a clam (ever wonder why people say that?).

Now, I fully realize that now by saying this out loud, my power will no doubt crash, but life in Tortillaville goes on.

Wow, just as I was going to post this, I heard the regulator click and heard the fan speed up, I looked out the window and the pump house light is on and all this before 8:30am on a Sunday morning - maybe I really did get their attention ya think? - nah, not likely at least until pigs fly.

An open memo to the CFE (electrical would be supplier) regarding recent problems

THIS — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 19:51:00 GMT

No folks, it's not always happy in paradise, some days, well, some days it's just plain painful.

June 25, 2010

To: Open memo to CFE
From: www.chapalaweather.net

Subject: A solution to our joint problem

Gentlemen,
"We" have a problem and I propose a solution that will save you money (expense) and lower my blood pressure at least 80 points, I feel certain others will join me in seeing the utter simplicity of this, in fact, it's so simple a 5th grader would have the answer if asked, but first a bit of history.

HISTORY: I moved to Riberas and rented a lovely casa nearly 3 years ago and began acclimating to retired life in Mexico. Of immediate concern was the cost of your services which are over 3 times as much per KWH as NOB rates. I began a campaign to minimize my usage in an attempt to get below the DAC rates. All my outside security lights are 5W CFL, I use very little light inside, some are CFL and some are LED, all expensive, but minimal in power consumption. Rather than run the pool 6 hours a day as recommended by the pool maintenance people I cut it to slightly over 3 hours per day and the pump was replaced with a more efficient unit at significant expense to the owner.

I provide a local weather station for residents of the lake and worldwide to anyone interested in Lake Chalapa weather which requires a full time computer link to the Internet. My original computer used 100 watts, I replaced it with one using 40 watts and very recently with a new model using only 26 watts. I purchased several regulators on the advice of long time residents. They have saved my electric equipment many times I'm sure, but not always. One regulator was destroyed and an attached stereo required nearly $1,000 pesos to repair, routers and telephones have a very short life expectancy. I have learned to monitor the power line continuously to guard against brownouts which drop the voltage to 98 volts and overheat refrigerator and water pump motors. And, all these things occur on perfectly normal weather days, when it storms the real problems begin.

I know your people are busy, often I've been nearly run over, or off the road by careening CFE vehicles, so I know you're trying, but gentlemen, you're falling far short of the goal of providing reliable and "clean" electrical service to a growing community, and there is simply no justification for your rate structure based on your service and performance.

PROBLEM(s): Early on the morning of June 23rd one of our usual rainy season storms blew in. It's quite easy to tell, lightening to the east an hour or more in advance of the actual storm, then rumbling thunder which precedes the high winds, followed by driving rain which inevitably causes the power to go out in my section of Riberas. The immediate dark followed a couple of seconds later by a distant explosion tells the story that power will be off for at least 8 hours, often longer. I shut down my beeping UPS regulator and returned to bed.

Again in the early hours of June 24th a similar storm repeated the power outage punctuated by the distant explosion, this time the power did not return until after mid day. The accompanying spikes and/or surges caused significant problems with the weather station and related equipment/software. Currently we average over 4,000 hits per day on the weather site and have ranged as high as 9,500 in a single day, so people do notice - and I notice because after waiting 8+ hours for power to be restored I spent as many hours rebuilding data bases and unscrambling software.

Your earlier attempts at tree trimming apparently did not solve the problem and in fact left a sizable mess on my property which will require me to pay for cleanup and disposal of limbs hacked off and pushed up on the back of my property rather than being hauled to a disposal area, in general lower Riberas looks like a disaster area due to the "trimming".

* Gentlemen, to be brief; I have a significant problem paying confiscatory rates and receiving a poor product on a good day, and no product on many days.

* And you have a problem; the "explosions" I hear are expensive to you in replacing damaged and destroyed gear at your sub station, the costs being passed on to me.

The problem appears to be relatively localized, for instance the other night I could see a yard light not 2 blocks away (which is normal when I lose power) and I have never seen the lights of upper Chula Vista so much as flicker in the 3 years of my residence, my question is; who do they know?

Being relatively localized, this is really a simple problem, you have a distribution transformer at your sub station, wires connect to my meters (which spin like tops at times) - somewhere in between there is a problem and it's hard for me to imagine you can't find it, but that disbelief not withstanding, I have a simple solution that will solve both our problems - at least until you can find and fix the actual problem.

As a point of reference, I have an EE degree, so I have some idea of what can and can't be done and it's not rocket science, I worked as an engineer for NASA at one time and this is relatively simple by comparison.

SOLUTION: As stated, this being the rainy season, storms happen, they don't suddenly appear like magic, they telegraph their arrival hours ahead of time.

So, simply have a designated person available to watch for a storm and as it arrives "SHUT THE POWER OFF" - yes, I said shut it off, take proactive action and before the storm can short out and blowup something, simply shut it off (hint, that's what I do when you brown out my service). After an hour the storm will have passed, turn the power back on, the cost savings to CFE of NOT blowing out transformers etc. I'm sure will be significant.

What do I get out of it? Well, first I don't mind getting up and shutting down the weather station and going back to sleep until 6am when I'll know power will be back on and I can download the battery backup data and continue with a productive day rather than totally wasting 8 hours of my time and putting my refrigerated foods at risk, not to mention the computer equipment. I can shower, open my front gate and live a normal life in this otherwise beautiful place.

I realize it sounds dumb simple, almost too easy, why didn't anyone ever think of it before? - the loss of a hour's power in the predawn hours and no blown CFE equipment? - you be the judge. Until you can actually solve the real problem this IS a solution that will benefit all CFE customers affected and the CFE.

Steve Brown
www.chapalaweather.net

Arachnophobia? - no, I just hate spiders!

THIS — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 13:35:00 GMT

It's 4:15am and there's a spider on my roof, to be more exact, on the weather station anemometer creating work for me. How do I know? - I'll tell you in a minute, but first some background on current events, or "eventos" as they say down here.

They say "living well is the best revenge", I've always subscribed to that sentiment and practice it every chance I get. Life has been good and continues as such, so I share it - selectively. The cats, beginning with Max, live a good life, they have a safe place with harassment by dogs or other cats, we run a tight ship and it's for a select group even though they're just a bunch of Mexican wild cats who were born at the right time and place. They get fed well 3 times a day with treats thrown in on a regular basis. Max gets combed daily and Nacho gets it once in a while.

They have a good medical plan, when they get sick a trip to Dr. Pepe fixes them right up and when they come of "age" they get a trip to Dr. Pepe for a bit of "pruning" so we don't have any more 7 kitten Winters! They have toys both inside and outside and when the yard cats knock one of the jingle balls into the pool, guess who retrieves it?

So, life B good at Casa Abuelo, we live well - but, that is reserved for the select few, and IS NOT extended to spiders, of which we have numerous varieties and copious numbers. Mexico must have invented spiders, I'm used to spiders, they're ubiquitous, we had daddy long legs in NE when I was a kid, in TX we had tarantulas, all harmless. We used to have one or two little ones in the pantry in TX, Chris left them alone as long as they didn't get too big or build extensive webs, but here? - we got 'em in spades!

They see the cats and me living well and assume it's an open invitation, I provide lights at night to attract bobos and bugs of all nature and size for them to feast on. We have some lizards, but you can only eat so many before you get cotton mouth so the spiders are busy busy busy.

The iron scroll work on the front door is a favorite, it's under the front entry light and perfect to spin webs on. From time to time my gardener's wife cleans them off as do I, but within a day or two, or actually a night or two they're back in force. Now, this being the eve of the rainy season, which produces even more bugs, sends a coded genetic message to all spiders "MAKE BABIES", Dr. Pepe doesn't have a cure for that problem. So, this last week or two has been the annual mass annihilation of unwanted spiders (and they're ALL unwanted) better known as Spring cleaning. I get out the 1,400 PSI powerwasher and blast them and their nests into next year. Yesterday alone I spent 5 hours doing the terraza and deck furniture. They love the boveda brick ceilings where they can attach the egg sacks with webs that are stronger and stickier than anything I've ever seen.

In addition they also like the underside of the eves (2 stories up) and of course some get inside the carriage lights and live large (they must be blind, but they're fat). They create nice little web refuse collectors on the sides of the house that catch everything from bugs to dust to leaves making house cleaning a total inside/outside eventos. Last Saturday I spent over 2 hours up on a 2 story ladder blasting the west side of the house and came down with spider webs etc. in my hair, soaking wet from blowback from the powerwasher etc. - and the next day they were already in a "rebuilding" mode.

So, why do I tell you all this? Well, at 4:15am this morning, one enterprising spider climbed to the highest point on the house, primarily to get even with me for evicting all his relatives I think - and got onto the moving cups of the anemometer of the weather station and managed to lasso it to the nearest object and stopped it from turning! - yes, I mean he stopped it dead in it's tracks and locked it down.

When I got up at 6 and checked into the weather control room the wind speed showed 0.0mph. Now, that's not totally uncommon, it was very still this morning and I didn't think much of it and went on about my day of scrubbing floors etc. and finally about 4pm I noticed it was still 0.0mph - red flags went up, something was amiss on the weather mast and specifically the anemometer which is the highest point (of course).

I got out the ladder, hiked up on the roof, noting as I went the cups were not turning, and climbed up on the cement pedestal the mast is strapped onto and unscrewed the spinning cup assembly while clutching the mast with the other hand for dear life. And yes, sure enough the web lasso was obvious, the little beggar had caused me all the grief he could and wasn't even there for me to squash. Anyway, that's the story for the day. The owners are arriving for Taiwan for their annual visit and I hope they come over soon before the spiders take over again!

The gato has landed

THIS — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 14:44:00 GMT

A closing chapter to the "Granny the terrorist" adventure for those who may be curious.

After spending a day in Toronto they caught a flight to Sudbury on a small computer flight that serves the wilderness outposts. Margaret was concerned because she tried to give Toe a mild tranquilizer but she thinks she spit it out (it takes an acquired talent to stuff pills down cats throats). However Toe was perfectly happy in her carrier for the flight and when they arrived for the final segment by pack mule - well, maybe I was stretching the truth a bit? How about they got in the car and she let Toe out of the carrier, she went to the back seat, looked around and came back up front and got back in her carrier - now, THAT is a travelin' gato!

When they got home to Elliott Lake of course there was a whole house to explore, and if you've never brought a cat into a new house it's a trip, you have to open all the doors, cabinets, lower cupboards etc. so they can explore every nook and cranny. That apparently took most of the night because she finally came to bed at 6am, ending the beginning of this story which will no doubt see further adventures of Granny and her exploding gato.

Also confirming what I had told my friend before she left in a worried tizzy "the things you worry about never happen". (of course other things do?)

My my grandma, is this the old terrorist "exploding cat" trick?

THIS — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 13:53:00 GMT

Some adventures are best observed from a distance, as is most of this one. (the first is a bit of history, so skip down toward the end for the "meat" of the story). We read about the stupid stuff our TSA Agents do in searching people at airports, it turns out Mexico isn't any different, they just do it in Spanish.

You'll remember the 3 Christmas kittens and how they were taken (after being mothered to near death by my neighbor) to the shelter for adoption and it was tough, but I got the call and did the job. So, it turned out in the months since both the boys were adopted into good homes, but for some reason Toe, the girl was not and she really is a beautiful cat. My neighbor was going in to the shelter regularly to volunteer to pet and familiarize the kittens with people, and of course to see Toe, or Jessica, as they named her.

April came and the annual "pack up and head North" time came and as usual she packed most of her things and puts them in her car which I then cover for the Summer. This year things had a new kink as we were to find out.

The owners are coming home for 7 weeks around June 8th and asked if the casita was open as they were bringing friends, of course I said no problem. I had already covered everything with plastic and shut down the water heater, frig etc. The owners of this house also have a new house just completed last year and the young builder and his new wife live there as caretakers. The plan was for them to come over here to the casita while the owners are here, again, no problem, although they have a dog, but I figured the cats can handle it, he's small.

In the mean time I had cleared out most of the kitchen things that were hers, but she was determined to come down anyway and I've learned not to argue with an Irish Grandmother!

After living here 3 years she's become somewhat "entrenched". Of course I had dutifully been going to the shelter checking on Toe and somewhere along the line Margaret (she doesn't like me to use her name, but whatever?) decides as long as she's here, she's going to take Toe back to Canada. Well, that changed things, but hey, if that's what you want to do, and I knew how attached and responsible she felt about Toe, so, come on down we'll make it happen.

I made the arrangements with the shelter for international travel, to confirm she had been spayed etc. Margaret brought carrier(s) yes, multiple, and arrived last week. Of course we had to go the next morning to the shelter and I was telling her "she probably won't even remember you, it's been 3 months" - but of course she did remember and immediately came to her and that sealed the deal - she was Canada bound. We brought her home and almost immediately we began to notice she acted exactly like her mother when I was around, totally different than to Margaret. I'm trying to write a story about Midnight and her, but it's hard because I really miss Midnight, she was such a sweet little cat and a great mother.

Things were moving along and somewhere in the middle of last week I get an email from Taiwan (the owner) saying Joel (the builder) wasn't going to stay in the casita afterall? - his wife is having a baby July 1st and her mother wants her closer in the village so they rented a house - OK?

Again, that changed several things, the owners were going to reduce my overall rent while Joel was there, but I said no, buy me a Dell PC and bring it down and we'll be even, so the PC is sitting in Washington State waiting to come down which is no problem, but now I owe them. That also made Margaret's trip mostly without purpose even though it had now taken on the primary purpose of retrieving Toe. Me? - well, I wasn't all that disappointed, having a new baby in the compound and gosh knows how many relatives and fiestas etc. really isn't my thing - and the Mexican's do know how to celebrate.

Over the past few days Margaret had totally over planned the whole thing worrying about toe and trying to cover every eventuality from food, to getting sick etc. and I've kept telling her "you're over-thinking this whole thing, it will be fine". Toe has turned out to be an amazing cat, totally easy to handle, she doesn't fight having a travel harness put on, or being put in a carrier etc, she has been exceptional and again, so much like her mother Margaret slipped every once-in-a-while and called her Midnight.

Now comes the real "rest of the story". Margaret flies Mexicana from Guad to Mexico City and they don't allow pets in the cabin, so she brought a small hard carrier for that part of the trip, dragged it all the way down here from the great frozen N. On the MX City to Toronto/Sudbury it's Air Canada and they allow pets in the cabin and so a soft carrier that slides under the seat is acceptable, so she brought one of those.

Now, you have to realize Margaret travels "heavy", normally a hard shell carry on, a purse the size of a shopping bag and two large suitcases that are the size of small steamer trunks. She packs them full (49.9999lbs) both ways, bringing stuff down and hauling Mexican treasures N. This time she only brought one huge one and so the set of blue rimmed Mexican blown glass goblets and two large glass salad bowls and the soft carrier plus essentials were packed and slid by the weigh in counter - once again. She borrows my digital scale and it must be accurate because she's never been over limit.

Tues morning at 6:15 we're ready for the great journey, the cat is in it's harness and in the hard carrier, bags are packed and he head for the aeropuerto. Toe only meowed a couple of times softly, she's totally trusting. Margaret was still fidgeting about forgetting something, which she ultimately did, she left the book she was reading on the console of the Jeep at the airport.

We had decided to give Toe a tranquilizer before "checking her in" because the first part of the flight was in the hold of the plane. So, I got the duty and managed to get the pill down her before we left the car - are you crazy? - of course I thought this through, can you see pulling a cat (totally stressed already) out of it's container, in an airport full of thousands of people? - then stuffing a pill down her throat etc. and telling her "it's ok baby, just swallow it, trust me it's a good thing" and the cat suddenly deciding to bolt in any direction to get anywhere under something?

We got checked in, got all the tickets etc and it's sometimes a bit of a task as Margaret is retired Air Canada so flies standby and special fare on Mexicana etc. and today with the extra baggage - anyway, it worked out great.

I came home, later in the morning started closing down the casita again and put fuel stabilizer in her car etc. and at one point I was in the house and the phone rang and it was Margaret in a bit of a hushed tone which made me a bit nervous. She was in Mexico City and said "have I got a story to tell you". Now, that's not unusual, last year getting through MX City after loosing her passport was a major event, so why should this be different?

When she got to MX City she retrieved the cat and the poor thing was completely wasted by the tranq I gave her, their eyes are goofy and the poor things are totally uncoordinated etc. and it's really sad. So, she took her out of the hard carrier and held her for a time making sure she was ok and the cat is like "shuuur - I'mmm oahay - whahever" - so she wasn't a handling problem at all and was transferred to the soft carrier for the next leg of the flight.

When she went to go back through security the "adventure" really kicked in. They said the cat would have to go through the Xray machine and of course Margaret said "no she isn't (inferred end of subject)".

Now, you have to get the vision, Margaret is a silver haired grandmother, immaculately dressed in slacks, a blouse and dress jacket (basically totally overdressed in today's air travel world) and a small cat in a soft carrier and they're looking at her as a security risk? - and she can't take the cat through security.

So begins the explanation of why and where she's going etc. and by this time people are starting to backup behind her at the security checkpoint. The agent said he'd have to check with supervision etc. and she offered to step aside so the other folks could pass - - - "oh no senora, no problema, I'll be right back" - and he disappears for a typical "Mexican minute" which can last for as long as it takes.

Eventually he returns and she can take the zonked cat out of the carrier and carry her through the arch of inquisition, but then they have to search the cat, yes, I said "SEARCH THE CAT" and he gives the cat a complete pat down like it's packing some kind of explosive device? - the cat was stoned, but not explosive or even close to dangerous in her condition. Fortunately there was nothing resembling a fuse sticking out of her harness. And, as I said, Margaret is dressed to kill (hmm, maybe that was the problem?) and they're worried about a 6lb cat and a gray haired grandmother? Well, after a good laugh (telling me the story, not at the security checkpoint) she hung up.

This morning I got an email saying she traveled on to Toronto just fine where they spent the night with Margaret's daughter who has two dogs and a cat. Of course Toe hissed at the dogs having never before seen such a strange animal, that confused the dogs and the other cat is totally puzzled by the whole thing. So, today they'll continue on to Sudbury and then another 150 miles into the wilderness by pack mule to Toe's new home - and Margaret assures me that IS her permanent home, dragging a cat through international travel is far too hectic and stressful on the animal not to mention what it does to the grandmother.

Oh, one more thing, of course when they got to Canada they had to find the guy to approve Toe's entry into Canada and all her paperwork etc. and, the hard carrier never showed up in Canada, they probably freaked when it arrived empty and are still searching the plane trying to find the former occupant. International travel is not for the faint of heart, so the next time you see a grandmother with her cat, smile and say something kind.

Technology is a hoot - when it works!

THIS — Sun, 23 May 2010 20:44:00 GMT

So, today's little adventure deals with technology, the monster which we've all become addicted to, and enslaved by. I'll try to keep it low key, so don't worry.

Wow, I wrote a whole page and when I read it back, it put me to sleep, here is the rewrite, hope it's better?

Dish TV put up a new satellite and basically our service here in MX, which wasn't actually "legal", is over, we can't receive the new satellite. So, I opted to go with the ShawDirect satellite service which is the Canuck equivalent - with variations of course, so let's jump to that point.

There was a Canuck sat system in the casita, so I opted to move it to the main house as my neighbor is in the great frozen North for the summer, swatting black flies and running bears out of her garden.

I hiked up on the roof, unbolted the dish, which is only about 3' X 2', and brought it over to the casa grande, clamped it on the railing outside the TV area and it worked. And BTW, the Canucks don't mind if you bring a receiver down here as long as you have a Canadian address? - yes I know, the way I live now I have more alias address's to make everything work than I've had real address's in my whole life - but this IS "the Great Adventure" isn't it?

Now, we arrive at the tricky part, the techie stuff because a dish antenna is infinitely adjustable so it can be mounted on any surface, flat, vertical, sloped etc and still be adjusted to "see" that tiny spot in the sky where the satellite is "parked". Normally you use a "Sat Trakker" meter to align the dish, but I've never had sat TV, so I don't have one. If you think about it, alignment must be exact, just moving it a tiny bit left or right, up or down etc. here on the ground means a difference of hundreds, if not thousands of miles in orbit, it's not like hanging a piece of wire out the back of your FM radio, it's more like the old rabbit ears days when you moved them and fiddled until it was just right. It just occurred to me we've come full circle back to fiddling with the rabbit ears to get the TV to work, but in this case, the "rabbit" is now on the roof.

Once I had it working on a temp basis I knew about where the dish should point, next it was time to study the programming available. TV is included in my rent so I emailed the owner in Taiwan and said "cancel Dish" and please back that amount out of my rent due, so I had some funds to play with and apply to the Canuck TV.

If you think the satellites and orbits and stuff is confusing, you should see the programming options for Canuck TV, aye Chihuahua. You instantly get a brain cramp just gazing at the different packages, there's Essentials, Digital Favorites, HD, Gold, Silver, Platinum, Ultimate packages, then sub groups, Real Life, Sports channels by the dozen (assuming curling is a sport?) and on and on and on. So, I began by mapping what I had on Dish starting with NASCAR as the top priority followed by "other stuff" and began comparing - and comparing - and I finally went to sleep (or lapsed into a coma) comparing.

The programming is very sophisticated and purposely complex to attempt to get the maximum $$$ out of you of course. But, one thing became immediately obvious, no matter what "packages" you choose, they WILL contain variants of; hockey, goose hunting, hockey, N woodsmanship?, hockey, movies featuring any of the 56 Baldwin brothers?, hockey, curling, French channels (the only subject I flunked in HS) and did I mention hockey? Then, you have your choice of the same network, but in different places, like ABC Rochester, ABC Detroit, ABC Spokane or just plain old ABC E? - oh, Lawrence Welk is still playing up there, ana one ana two!

The bottom line being that instead of getting NYC news/weather, I can now tell you what the high in Saskatoon was today, or the local news from Halifax (which is a guy sitting behind a desk, he says "and the news is" - and then a 15 minute silence because there is NO news, but they sold the commercial time so they have to broadcast something?) and the other night a flash flood alert appeared on screen for Lewana, or some such place? - I didn't know whether to worry or not?

If you've suffered through to this point, might as well read the rest!

The next step was to get the dish up on the roof in a final fixed position. I had carefully marked all the adjustment parts with a felt tipped marker so in case I needed to attempt a variation in alignment I could get back to where I started.

First, the casita sits directly N/S and the antenna base was aligned N/S - ah, but the casa grande is skewed a bit on the lot, so I had to make a template to compensate. Fortunately in MX they build mounting "pads" on the roofs assuming you will need them. I had been using this 12" X 2" X 18" high mount to strap the weather station mast and instruments onto, so this worked out well, I carefully measured, compensated for the skew on the lot and hooked everything up, temporarily set the dish in place, and went down the ladder to see if it was working - it was, so back up the ladder and I drilled 4 holes in the cement, bolted the dish down and went down to check out performance - there was NONE - NADA, no satellite acquisition? - must not have been "looking" in the right place, but I had been so careful? By this time I'm sure I had made a dozen trips up/down carrying tools, checking etc.

So, back up the ladder, move the dish, down the ladder, check signal strength, up the ladder, actually you're getting the short version because I lost track how many times I was up/down the ladder, my legs were counting, but I wasn't. Finally I had to drill 3 more holes in the concrete pad and got it moved and working, and actually pretty good with a signal strength of 24 on the TV. The sat receiver has a setup option which tells you how it's receiving. Now, if I had had a meter to take up on the roof - oh, never mind, and Max isn't real helpful with techie stuff, so it was done the old fashioned way, move the dish, down/check TV/up, "repeat as many time as necessary" - or until your legs go wobbly on you.

As a final adjustment before giving up for the day I noticed the weather instruments on the pole next to the dish were slightly off angle so I moved them, came down and retired for the day. Later in the evening I turned on NASCAR and scanned the channels I had set up and some weren't receiving, the signal strength was down to 11 from 24? What now?

The next morning early, before it got too hot, and after giving it some thought, I remembered I had moved, rotated, the metal mast next to the dish about 30 degrees because the anemometer wasn't facing due N, surely that couldn't make a difference, but nothing else had changed.

I got out the ladder again, turned on the TV and still 11 signal strength, so up the ladder and move something, climb down the ladder and check the TV, up the ladder and move something, down and check the TV. I was making a bit of progress and had it up to 17, but at that point nothing seemed to improve it further.

At this point I had been up/down the ladder easily 8 times and it was hardly past dawn and I decided to take a break and reconsider the wisdom of my approach to dish alignment. After a bit of heavy thinking, and another cup of coffee, I suddenly realized I was "thinking with my feet" and not my head. Here I have all this technology around me, and all over the compound, and I'm running up/down a ladder like a fool? - wow, that's really dumb - what an epiphany!

I headed for the bodega and got another ladder, went out to the front gate, take down one of the security cameras and brought it to the house, stuck it on a tripod looking at the TV, took the small wireless monitor back up on the roof and now I could "adjust" and "see" the instant results - now we're talking technology, making progress, and my feet/legs thanked me.

That was when it got interesting because moving the instruments around didn't have any effect beyond signal level 17. Then I started moving the dish, and that's like a toy you can bend into infinite shapes, but now I could move and check results, move and check results. When I started skewing the antenna it finally became apparent what had, and was happening. The dish needed to be angled slightly to the left and by loosening the 2 skew bolts that was possible. Then it came to me, late yesterday I was stepping up on the concrete mount to get to the weather instruments and must have bumped the dish slightly causing the misalignment.

After studying the dish for a time I decided that rather than try to figure out which bolts I should loosen to get that slight angle adjustment, a shim would be easier and sure enough, I tightened down the bolts while watching my little handheld monitor and it locked in at around 31 signal strength - like the oil commercial says "think with your head, not your dipstick".

So, it appears with a lot of work and time (I've got lots) spent, I now have a whole new world of Canuck TV to explore - and yes, the French channels are permanently blocked as are all 10-15 hockey channels, I do have the food channel programmed and I'm looking forward to learning how to cook moose, well you never know, one might wander by the compound down here and end up on the barby?

Don't know how I got there, but I want to go back

THIS — Mon, 17 May 2010 14:29:00 GMT

Adventures run in spurts as I've noted before and I guess there are two recent ones worthy of note because one was fun, and one definitely was NOT.

So, it seemed a good time to make a trip to Tonala and Guad. I really really needed a new fuente (fountain) for the upper deck (well, "need" may be a bit subjective) the old one was getting overgrown with moss etc. and the birds were giving me looks that were embarrassing. Then there is always a need for another priceless Pre-Columbian artifact or two (translated: there is a bare spot on the stair wall that needed filling) and a trip to one of the Home Depots for some supplies to continue my telephone rewiring project. I headed out one morning last week and made the trek in good time and the traffic in Tonala, even though market day, seemed less than usual.

As I made my way though the maze of market stands on the streets there was an obvious absence of the throngs that often pack the makeshift stands. In fact, some of the vendors looked down right bored. The snowbirds have gone home for the season now, but that would hardly be noticed, generally the crowds are more people from Guad etc.

I first checked a pewter shop for some salad bowls I would like to have as presents, but they were out of the ones I liked. Next I meandered along the main street looking for the "fuente man" who is always there and sure enough he had just what I needed, a small tabletop size for the exorbitant sum of $160 pesos, about $13 which includes a pump worth $6 alone, then on to the Columbian artifact dealer where I secured two more pieces for about $1 each? - I have no idea how they can even afford to bring these things to market at those prices.

Then on to Oscar's, my favorite restaurant for some spicy mole - love that stuff. Again, I was basically alone and I talked with him and he said business was quiet, so I tipped big and headed back to the car.

The next target was the Home Depot on the far side of Guad and you either take the S Periferico loop or Cardenas which is the main E/W street. I hate Cardenas, there's usually traffic problems, now there is construction of some major overpasses etc., but I decided I'd do it anyway - and I wasn't disappointed, I hated it. I made the Mexico Ave turn which should have taken me to Clothier S and the Home Depot, but somewhere along the way I got in a wrong lane or something? At times like these I just go with the flow, if usually ends up being a new adventure and sure enough this was to be one of those days.

I was following a car and we sort of went down into a tunnel and suddenly he was stopping at a parking entrance to get his ticket. At this point I truly had no idea where we were but I figured if it was worth paying to park at - it must be worth seeing, right?

I parked and took a good close visual reading on the place so I could find my way back. I headed up the nearest stairway and found myself in a store, some kind of La Fashion de something or other? From there I headed out into a mall, it turns out I was in a huge 3 story shopping mall I'd never seen before. So, carefully sprinkling a trail of bread crumbs I began to explore and it's more my style of mall, the stores aren't so frufru like a couple of other malls. I stopped in a Radio Shack and bought a couple of things and then continued on. I saw a Chili's (note that for futures) and a Sears and some interesting stores. Turns out it's "La Gran Mall de Fashion" according to the mall directory. But, one thing made me chuckle, what's the one thing you expect to see on a mall directory sign? - right, a little arrow etc. saying "you are here" - not in MX, or at least this mall, you're on your own.

I like to explore places like this so I can take my neighbor when she returns from Canada. If I do it on my own I then look like I know what I'm doing when she's along for the ride (even if I really don't).

I retraced my trail of bread crumbs and paid my parking and headed out, still basically unsure of where I was, but I've learned in Guad you just go with the flow until you see something you recognize, then navigate from there. So it was that day, I soon hit a traffic circle and I really hate those things. Fortunately I hit a stop light just as I entered the roundabout giving me time to quickly gather my wits and read the sign indicating exit options, assuming you don't want to just go round and round forever which could happen in Guad.

One of the exit options was Colima/Expo which rang a bell (having been there a few weeks ago). So I took that exit and pretty soon I recognized the main street I was on heading the right direction even. I eventually got to the Periferico and home. It was fun and a whole new place I want to go back to. I never did make it to Home Depot, so guess I'll have to make another trip.

Oh, the fuente? - I hit a big bump and it broke, so had to epoxy it back together the next day. Hey, I paid $160p for that thing and I wasn't about to throw it away!

The second "adventure" was not fun, it was last week and started at 11:45pm Sunday nite when I was awakened by the power regulator beeping to tell me the power was off and I needed to shut down the computer area. This was a bit disconcerting because we sort of grudgingly expect this during the rainy season, but as of the moment it's been 88 days since it rained. Also, all three of my circuits went down eliminating stringing extension cords - that's something new. Finally about 11am Monday it came back on. Now with no power, I'm at a standstill except I finally managed to pick up a Swiffer duster and got to work with things long overdue.

Monday night there was an electrical storm on the S shore and I was taking pictures and at almost exactly 11:45pm - BEEP, the power went off again, and again next morning, more dusting until 11am, we were now 2 for 2 and a bit curious. Wednesday was no problema, lots of power all day, all night - we almost declared a fiesta. Then Thursday, as I noted in the first part of this thread, I was in Guad and noticed after I got home that power had been off from a bit before noon until about 2:30pm - so, now were were 3 out of 4 days. Friday all was going well until almost exactly 11:45am and again, no electricos, but this time a variation, instead of coming back on at 2:30 it was 6pm and I was hopping mad because you can only dust so long before you need to take care of other things.

To go to the store I had to get out the ladder, unhook the electric gate opener, drive out, close back up and hope when I got back the electric would be back on - wrongo bucky, no electric. So I parked outside and after it finally came on I moved the car back inside. Additionally when power is off a battery backup on the weather station captures readings, then I have to download that information and merge it into the database files to make all the graphs and readings look right and as noted, this was 4 out of 5 days.

By this time other people living N of me in Mirasol had experienced the same problems and were as mad as I was at the CFE - Can't Furnish Electricity! The CFE is a classic case of a monopoly run amuck and of course there is little to be done. I pay exorbitant rates due to the pool etc., I have to buy expensive regulators to protect all the equipment from spikes and brownouts and they still treat us like red headed step children? - oh, the next morning when I tried to use my MX phone it didn't work, turned out the power had zapped the modem in one of the PC's which is connected to the phone line - thank you CFE !

Well, there you are, two stories about living on the frontier, I'm typing this quickly to get it posted before 11:45 when the power will probably go off again and I'll be forced to "go Mexican"? - don't know what that is? - well, with no juice, no radio and it's very very uncharacteristically quiet, so in typical Mexican fashion I open all 4 doors on the Jeep and turn up the stereo until the windows rattle and the cats dive for the bushes, but at least I only do that in the daytime, they do it all night?

"Las rocas estan cayendo, las rocas estan cayendo"

THIS — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 16:00:21 GMT

Tis the migration season for the wild Canadian snowbirds, so time for one more adventure. This one was to explore the area NE of Colima, better known as "las rocas estan cayendo, las rocas estan cayendo".

Actually it was to search for the mythical (it turns out) paradise known as San Antonio - no, not Texas, not the one two blocks west of the casa, nor any of the twenty or thirty spread all over Mexico - this was a specific one near Colima, which by the way was an early capitol of Mexico. It's unclear as to why the capitol was moved, possibly due to it's proximity to the volcano, so they moved to the other side of Mexico and built Mexico City, yes, right next to another volcano and on ground that is settling, go figure?

Enough "history", back to the adventure. Colima is a nice city and a place my trusty navigator (?), neighbor, friend, artist, cook and especially etc. has considered living, but there is one small problem - it's HOT HOT HOT! So, this guy at the beach said San Antonio was up in the mountains and much cooler and houses were cheap, so for a year now the siren call for the promised land has called from a distance and we decided to make one last pilgrimage before she migrates back to Canada for the mosquito/bear season.

Unlike the early explorers we have a GPS, so with Earth Google satellite images and coordinates of the possible site we launched out of compound early tax day (with the unearned income I've been promised by the IRS?) heading for Colima/San Antonio? The first hour is a waste of time because you have to go W through Joco, then N over the pass to go S on the quota. Then there are about 60 miles of lovely dry lakes punctuated by the occasional roadside mini-shrine built in memory of someone that apparently didn't make it across the dry lake (probably died of thirst).

Then you head into an area of cane fields and then rather rugged mountains. The new quota, toll road, shoots you through the area and out the other side to Colima which is only about 30 miles from the coast. Everything here is green and quite nice with a distinctly different look than where we live. But, the GPS wanted me to turn at Tonila where I was at Christmas? - turns out I forgot to complete the programming, so the GPS went from being a leader to a passive bystander.

We turned short of Colima and motored through the cobblestone streets of Comala, a neighbor city and then into the hills. The area is lush and the road was good, so the trip was looking great. My navigator has a habit, as we're careening along, she'll suddenly shout "stop, stop the car" and you never know why, it might be to prevent driving off a cliff, it might be to save the life of an errant canine, or more likely to explore a shop, or vendor selling something (gourds for instance) or some other point of interest. I've learned not to panic and cram on the brakes and have developed a multi-faceted response, I simultaneously gently remove my foot from the "full speed ahead" pedal, placing it gently on the "whoa up" pedal while rolling my eyes in preparation for whatever it is we should explore.

So it was as we approached the turn into the village of Suchitlan whose streets are "reverse" cobblestone paved. By that I mean (apparently) hundreds of years ago when the streets were paved with the ubiquitous cobblestones they carefully examined each of the millions used and when they found the flattest side they placed it on the bottom, the logic being the ground underneath was flat, so this was the best match. Of course they hadn't really thought this one through and the law of unintended consequence kicked in because the top side we drive/walk on, and now protruding, is NOT flat, it's sharp, knobbed, totally unmatched to any other cobble in close proximity, so you are banging along, vibrating every nut, bolt and tooth in your head.

We bumped around town a bit and soon found a little single lane path winding through walled properties and overhanging trees until we eventually got to what appeared to be the end and an old rusty bent-in gate which is where we elected to return the way we came. Once back in town it was "stop stop" and this time it was to get a lime squeezer from a guy whose merchandise was all lined up out front on the sidewalk.

I was working the GPS looking for the plaza, every town has to have one with a church you know, but the lime squeezer salesman directed us back down the hill and sure enough they have a square, a church etc. So, take some pics, look around and beat your way back to the highway and the quest.

All the time we're driving we're getting closer to the active volcano and it had puffed a time or two, but we were never in a place we could stop to take a pic. We stopped by a stream and took some pics and were close enough to see some old lava flows, but no burps. We continued on getting closer to where we thought "San Antonio" was and the road became very much like one in the mountains of Colorado, winding switchbacks, up and down and totally overgrown with trees etc. We also began to meet large truck totally overloaded with harvested sugar cane stalks which were falling off on the road, I suggested we might want to stop and pick up one or two to "chew" on as we drove. I figured if we found one without too much road rash we could brush off the asphalt - the navigator declined, so we motored on, now also in search of the mythical cane fields because at that point there wasn't enough flat ground to grow a turnip patch, much less a cane field?

It was somewhere around there, as we skirted the backside of the volcano, I suggested I didn't think I'd be interested in living in that remote an area, or that close to an active volcano. The navigator said not that many years ago it erupted spewing hot rocks the side of your head which landed all the way down in Comala, 15 miles away? - and by this time we were at the base of the volcano looking up? As we drove we began noticing large volcanic rocks laying all over the place, silent testament to one of the pitfalls of living in the area known as "las rocas estan cayendo - the rocks are falling"! - and I might add they were also very hot so it should be "las piedras calientes estan cayendo".

We finally emerged on a small high plateau and sure enough, there were the cane fields. We continued a bit further, but were well beyond the place San Antonio should have been, and the proximity to a live, hot rock/lava spewing volcano had taken the shine off living anywhere near and the houses we saw were definitely "cheap," but cooler? - not much as by this time it was noon and around 82 and climbing.

We had passed a village named San Jose del Carmen and decided to turn in to find the plaza and church - what else? The town was basically a one street town (but at least the street had two concrete paths that were smooth to drive on. There we were, two gringos bumping along in our SUV, definitely out of place and as we passed two guys sitting out front of a house we decided it was probably Mo & Joe and all they had to do in the whole town was to bet on how many gringos would come past in a day. At the end of town was a nice square and church and of most note, a big yellow sign with red, yellow and green lights - which was of course (when translated) the volcano warning system accompanied by a large air raid siren in the square. This definitely put a sharp point on NOT living there.

As we took pics around the square which was a colonnade lining 3 sides of the square, nicely painted and tile roof covered walkways, I realized I was looking through one of the windows at blue sky beyond. I chuckled and pointed it out to the navigator who was taking a pic of a mostly buried, by dirt and maybe some lava rocks, police truck (yes) who also laughed. Apparently at some point in the past they built this facade with a nice uniform front wall with doors and framed window openings assuming stores would build behind each doorway - well, mostly it didn't happen. One side had a couple of stores and another had a single structure which appeared to be a house and one had a small roof out back covering a cow or horse stall. It started out as a good idea, oh well, it would make a nice Hollywood set.

Now, I had checked the gas tank before we headed into the hills, but hadn't taken into account how far we'd go, or how bad the mileage is when your climbing mountain roads with the AC on and sure enough the "low gas" chime and light suddenly added a new challenge to the adventure. But, we were mostly heading back into Comala by then and it was downhill.

In Comala we stopped at the town square which is very nice and bustling with activity, not like del Carmen. We parked and decided to eat at a restaurant right on the square. Of course as soon as two gringos sat down we were immediately fresh meat for every salesman on the square, hammocks, CD's, bread, bags etc. We ordered something to drink and fended off salesmen with the usual "no gracias, no hoy" (no thanks, not today) and waited for the waiter to bring menus while I told the navigator not to encourage the salesmen (to little avail). Shortly the waiter arrived with two sizable plates of food, tacos, small taquitos, guacamole etc. and we both looked surprised to say the least. A passing bread salesman said when you order drinks the food is automatic and free? - wow, what a concept (unless the Pepsi's were $10 each?).

The navigator couldn't resist admiring the hammocks for which the guy wanted $45, I laughed and said when they get down to $30 come back. We need a hammock like another cat? But, she persisted and eventually got a nice one for $35 which is stored in her car for the summer because we don't have a place to put it here and there isn't room in her suitcases for it to take home to Canada - but it was a heck of a deal.

I also noticed a map on the square showing this is also a coffee growing area and there is a circle route you can drive to see the coffee growing industry - now that the quest for the mythical San Antonio has now been quenched and is definitely off the table the next trip will explore that. Who knows, maybe being right next to the volcano they grow "roasted" coffee?

After walking the square and taking pics the navigator bought a nice bottle of Rompope for me. It's a vanilla bean based drink, sort of like melted vanilla ice cream, very good.

We filled up with gas and headed to Colima, a large city and made a loop around the square, but didn't spend any time as it was getting into the afternoon and I wanted to do a bit of "off roading" on the way home.

We turned off the quota at Tonila and took the old libre (free road) which winds up and down and trough some very scenic country and the navigator, who was on the cliff side, reported it was straight down a long ways in many places, and not once did I hear "stop stop the car" - so, guess it was nothing interesting down there? At the end of that road we stopped by a little industrial village which sits in sort of a large hole in the ground. It's a paper plant so not a very pleasant smell to the area.

Finally I managed to make a wrong turn on a round-about and missed the quota, so we did a parallel on the libre and ended up just seeing the edge of Guzman before finally catching the quota for home.

It was a fun day trip, about 300 miles and opens the door to more trips to the area for specific things we didn't see, and the navigator? - she's packing her bags to depart for the great North tomorrow, then it will just be Max and the guys and me for another season.

Insanity at tax time

THIS — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 18:22:00 GMT

Sometimes things must be said, and I guess this is one of them and it's really not about MX, so if you want to tune out I understand. Adventures here in Tortillaville are spasmodic at best and lately I've been searching for something to write about - like the seasonal exodus of the wild Canadian Snowbirds etc. - hopefully something funny with a good ending. I've generally stayed away from politics etc. as it's not what this blog is about - however, today there arrived at my doorstep something totally "political" that you'd have to consider an "adventure" (into madness) and so I'm going to dip my toe in the shallow end of the "reality pool" and share it with you - and by the way, the ending ain't gonna be happy!

They say you can depend on two things, death and taxes; you aren't going to make it out of this world alive and taxes, yes taxes, you can depend on them going up - or can you? - which brings me to today's adventure.

This being tax season (the annual gotcha from the goons in DC) I wasn't worried, you see in my dotage, life is simple and of course living in MX removes it one more giant step from being anything more than basic - you know, eat, sleep, feed the cats and get a hair cut at least 3 times a year. So, I wasn't worried like in all the working years past when tax time came and I had to work up the courage to dump out all the receipts, collect all the mortgage 1099's, W2's etc. and then jam them into TurboTax and pray for a miracle only to see the final "YOU OWE" number which instantly made your lips go numb and your finger tips tingle like being hit on the crazy bone by a 5lb hammer.

Last year my state in life had declined to being able to use the free, online tax program which is even efiled free - boy, retirement is great. Now, my income is simple, SSI which isn't taxed (yet) and a small annuity for a few more years from Chris's years at the State of TX which is taxable. When I pushed the final button last year it was "YOU OWE $69" - after recovering from hysterical fits of laughter I quickly approved a debit from my checking account (before they changed their mind) and so I felt absolutely no pain. I built that amount into this years "payables" as the income is the same and nothing has changed (other than the other day my left thumb started twitching?).

This being the 8th of April (I started early this year) I dumped out all the pertinent paper on my desk plop, flop and flip, 3 pieces of paper, not 3 bushels, and I began the task of meeting my obligation as a tax paying American citizen.

After the usual questions I arrived at one that asked "did you get the $250 we sent you last year?" - well, I darn sure would have remembered that, and in fact, I remember NOT getting it because it was NOT given to those of us living "off shore". So I said "NO" and continued on and at the end of the program it went back and checked everything and said I owed $41 - wow, a reduction in taxes, great (at least for a moment), but really guys I've budgeted all $69, why not just take it and call us even - ok? - I'm sure you can find a place to spend it - huh?

Here is where the real adventure begins and as per usual my lips went numb and my finger tips got all tingly and whatever as I read the next screen which basically said "because your government loves you and because we (for whatever nebulous reason) didn't sent you $250 we're going to give you a credit now and so you NOT ONLY DON'T OWE $41, BUT WE'RE GOING TO GIVE YOU BACK $209! - obviously of OPM (other people's money because I dang sure didn't send them any)

Well, you can imagine that not only did my lips go numb, I tingled all the way to my barefoot tippy toes at the thought that I was going to get an actual refund, not a cheezy $20 or something, but $2,633.40 pesos! - and this was primarily in spite of the fact I DIDN'T PAY A SINGLE RED AMERICAN PENNY IN TAXES TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IN THE YEAR 2009.

Once the euphoria (which lasted about 3 breaths) wore off I looked at the screen in disbelief and then went ballistic, in the States they go "postal" here we just go "loco".

Let's review the facts:

1. I paid NO tax in the US in 2009
2. I received money which IS taxable, they didn't withhold, I didn't pay, any tax, I simply converted it to pesos and bought tortillas and frijoles
3. Other than 2 weeks NOB I didn't pay any kind of tax in the US in 2009 even on chewing gum?
4. I did NOTreceive the $250 given to most citizens primarily because I have a Mexican address (but that's OK, I figure I got the better part of the deal)

Now, who doesn't want $209? - but, let's be realistic and realize that this is insanity, my country, at one time, the greatest nation in the world cannot be giving money to people like this - but then again, guess what? - they are, they have been and that's why America is well down the slippery slope to disaster and bankruptcy - a present to our children and their children; they're 'gonna love us for this one!

I repeat again with great disblief and incredulity; here I am sitting in MX paying no US taxes and they're giving me a "refund"??????? Where were they all the years I needed it?

This has got to stop, it's insanity, it can't continue. Will I send it back? - nope, with the prospect of a VAT tax etc. I'm hanging on to it just in case and in case I ever go back - but maybe now, more than ever, I'm a man without a country (to return to).

So much for my rant; I paid no tax in 2009 - but I'm getting back $209 for whatever insane reason, so I guess my overall net, or "adjusted gross income" is $33 for the year after the ranch property tax?

(You would think my thumb would stop twitching, but no, the bad news is that the other one is now also developing a distinct fidget?

Saint Patty's Day 45 years ago - only yesterday

THIS — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:32:00 GMT

I can always tell when it's been too long between entries here in blogsville, I start getting inquiries from avid readers (thanks Mom) asking "are you ok? - did the Zetas get you, have you fallen prey to some infernal strain of the Aztec two step, etc?"

So, taking a moment this special day I'll offer up the following (before heading for the front gate to swab on a coat or two of Jacaranda purple and gloss black - hey, it's MX, I don't make the rules, I just try to follow) and no, we don't have Zetas here and the food is just fine, no problema, it's just a busy time of the year.

Adventures are normally things to come, but they can also be in your rear view mirror, so let's crank up the WayBack Machine and slide back to Saint Patrick's Day 1965 when another "great adventure" began. Actually it was a seminal moment marking the day my lovely daughter was born. But of course there was all the leadup to that day, as this was the first grand baby it was a biggie deal. You see, my Mom is the oldest of her generation in the Arnold clan, I am the oldest of mine, my daughter the oldest of hers, her son the oldest of his and now his new daughter (that would make me a great grand father - gee thanks, I needed that?) and so it goes for 5 generations, from 95 years to about 10 months but I'm jumping ahead.

We lived in California having moved there in 1963, first to a little efficiency apt with a Murphy bed that folded out of the wall for $60 a month and that was an adventure all it's own as it was in Studio City just down the street from 4 Star Studios. After a time we moved to the apartment house next door that had a bedroom and eventually when the new arrival was on it's way we moved to Canoga Park at the west end of the San Fernando Valley closer to my work and ultimately to a 2 bedroom.

We had sold my '55 Chev convertible to get enough money to move to CA from CO and drove her '53 Mercury, inherited from her parents. It was big and ugly, but was bullet proof and is probably still running to this day. So, being closer to work (which was up on Santa Suzana mountain) was a plus. However, this also took us further away from the hospital in Burbank.

There are many "amusing?" stories about the quirks of a soon-to-be mother; like the time I suddenly had this huge craving for potato chips and happened to mention it one day at supper and she said "oh, probably because the Dr. put me on a salt free diet last month and I've not been putting salt in anything". Of course my body was going nutso needing salt and figured out that craving potato chips was the easy way to survive.

We had developed another habit, being poor we didn't do much except go for a ride now and then and watch TV on our black & white set. We got into the habit of watching Roller Derby and it was on from 8-10PM (as I recall) and so it was on the evening of the 16th. We were watching it and then went to bed, soon after she hollered "OUCH" - which did get my attention. I asked if she was ok and she said it was one of the long awaited contraction pains. I said ok and rolled back over to go to sleep - I mean, there's not much for a guy to do at that point is there?

A few minutes later another "OUCH" and now I began to take notice it hadn't been that long. I said "another?" - and she said "yes, they started earlier this evening while we were watching Roller Derby, but I didn't want to disturb our evening". Now I was really wide awake and after the next one I collected her up and we headed out across the San Fernando Valley toward Burbank in our old brown bomber, thin tires and all.

By this time it was probably 11pm and the admitting nurse was calmly taking my anxious information and when we got to the point where she asked "and how far apart are the contractions?" - I said "1 minute" - she suddenly dropped the paper work and hustled us off to the next phase of the process. It wasn't too long before they took her on to delivery and I went to crash in the waiting lounge with a few other nervously pacing guys. At some point Saint Patrick's day 1965 arrived and not long after our daughter.

By the time she was born I had fallen asleep and the nurse woke me up to tell me I was now permanently responsible for a new daughter. In those days we didn't know what you were going to get so you had to wait and wonder, do I get a daughter who I have to protect from the world, or a son who I have to protect the world from?

After the usual introduction I headed home and to work after a few hours of sleep to hand out cigars, a proud father.

Later that year we moved to Louisiana on the Saturn V space project where a year later her brother was born in Slidell, I'm not sure anyone has had the courage to tell him that yet?

Sadly at an early age our family split up and they returned to California while I remained in OH/CO etc. In the middle part of my daughters life we didn't agree on some things, but 5 years ago we rejoined and for the first time I met my wonderful grandkids with whom I need to spend more time, they grow so quickly.

I've spent many Saint Patrick's days in many places, but none were ever as exciting (or rewarding) as the one in 1965, 45 years ago, only yesterday, the beginning of one of my life's great adventures.

Boy, did I take some pictures!

THIS — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 23:05:00 GMT

The nice thing about technology (it's a hoot - when it works) and specifically photo technology is that after the initial cost of the camera, the lens's, the filters, the tripod, the bag, polarizers, remote shutter release - seems I forgot something, but anyway - it's almost free as compared to the old film days when you had to pay for the film, pay for the processing and so you only took really really important pics (like babies first burp etc).

As previously mentioned, we've gone down the photo path this year and invested seriously (oh yes, add the flash and closeup ring flash to the pre-free column) and the fun has begun. Of course the first few dozen shots were just to see what the heck this button does - - - boy that's bright, guess you should aim the camera the other way when you push that one! Then, once the basics are on board the serious, well as serious as I ever get, work began.

After taking pics of flowers, cats etc. we went to Tlaquepaque shopping last week and I shot 250 pics, threw out about 50 immediately, then narrowed it down to 134 that tell the story and used my photo album software to put them out on the blog site - but, I wasn't very pleased, they seemed kind of hohum, small and fuzzy - FUZZY, after what the new cam cost?

After some study and head scratching I realized I needed to post the pics in a higher resolution which did improve things. But still not really showing off the attributes of the new camera (obviously couldn't be me?) So, I decided to try Flickr (online photo albums) which probably many of you have used or viewed at one time or another. The free account seemed simple enough, just sign up and have fun - yeah, "simple" and fun?

Well, it's owned by Yahoo and so immediately you have to have a Yahoo email? - now, I have literally something like 80 current email addresses for various reasons with the 360west.com account and I have, in the past, had several Yahoo email accounts, but of course they're shut down after a period of non-use, but the system holds onto the name for ever and ever it appears because when I tried each of them it said "sorry, not available, someone already has that one" - and I'm yelling at the computer "IT'S ME DUMMY, THE NAME IS MINE" - to no avail.

So, after a half hour of frustration I finally came up with a name it accepted. Then they want to know all about you? - hey, if I wanted you to know, I'd have told you up front! Ok, some info was given. Then you need a "screen name" and again, all my usual names were taken (because I've already used them - duh?) they suggest some like bouncingbabyboy, or ripplerapplerumple498 etc, I finally managed to put in some hyphens and get one I can remember to work - I mean really, could there actually be 497 bouncingbabyboys?

Then we get to the upload part where you patiently wait while 134 pics are uploaded. The next trauma came when I looked at them and realized they were totally scrambled from the order they were in, not in alpha sequence nor date of upload or capture etc. and I could not find the button to cause that to happen - so, I did the next most obvious thing, I went downstairs and fixed some lunch and cogitated on it for a time.

Of course I eventually figured out how to bend it to my way of thinking, or more likely, learned what it had in mind and we came to an agreement to more or less do it my way (as Frank sang).

All that being whined about, I uploaded a second album of random pics taken around the back yard, so they're both in the Photo Projects 2010 column to the left and labeled "Tlaquepaque 2010 and Backyard in Feb" (real original huh?). When you open the albums there is a little square button at the bottom right of the screen which will blow the slide show up to full screen so you get the full effect - I hope.

Enjoy, lots more to come this year, the tools are falling into place and like I said "it's almost FREE" now that I've mortgaged my SSI for the next year?

PS: I took another 200 of the kittens playing on their scratching post play thingy - but I won't bore you with those.

When does a hobby, or a labor of love, become a pain in the tail?

THIS — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:18:00 GMT

Many of us have favorite projects that add to our lives in rewards of accomplishment and even altruistic gifts to others, but when do we cross the line of love and fall into obsession and it becomes a pain? Well, there is no delineated line in the sand (or scratched on the tile floors in my case) and it varies from day to day, season to season. Today I'm thinking of two things, the weather station and photography. Both qualify!

The weather station started as do many things with a simple idea and a few questions. In Texas I had some of the basic components of a station cobbled together over the years and I enjoyed tinkering with them. Of course back in '06 I had made the decision to move to Mexico, and over the course of time as I communicated with residents of the Lake, I discovered there was no weather station at the lake. Apparently at one time there was an official station but it had long since disappeared and now the nearest recording weather station was at the airport in Guadalajara, some 30 miles N and on the other side of a range of mountains. Often the temps and conditions vary significantly from the Lake weather which is more protected and moderated by the large body of water.

In December of '06 I decided it would be fun to create a website and bring it down with me to capture local readings and share with others, either in residence, or just wannabee-in-residence folks from Canda and the US primarily - if anyone was actually interested. I thought up, and acquired, the domain chapalaweather.net and purchased an entry level wireless weather station and started into creating the web site. It's gone through countless generations of change and evolves sometimes daily as opportunities arise.

Last year a new station was acquired and smuggled into MX to upgrade the original system. Next a UV recording instrument was added and a webcam to capture a pic of our little world - do we begin to hear the footsteps of "waaay too much fun" yet? Each in turn, beyond it's cost, brings new challenges in programming and maintenance of the website. The rewards are totally non-monetary and often consist of meeting someone for the first time and in conversation finding they like the station, or an email saying "thanks".

A few times I looked at the number of times people check (hits) the web site and was surprised as it was in the hundreds and even spiked over a thousand during the rainy season and in the late Summer as snowbirds look longingly at spending the winter here. I also noticed the Fall spike in some of my photo albums of flowers etc. So we bumped along merrily oblivious to others, just doing our little things here at the compound that define our self created responsibilities.

This is the dry season and our average rainfall from Jan through May is 2.1", both of the past years have been less. This year on the last day of Jan it puckered up and began to rain which was almost a curiosity. Then the next day, the next and people started to get spooked, first because it was raining during the day (it's not supposed to do that) and that it was raining in Feb? - must be global hooha. On about the 4th day of rain it was getting chilly, without solar to warm us during the day the houses cool and get a bit nippy.

Day 5 and it was still raining and the cats had been indoors for days now, the outside cats had taken up residence on the covered terraza out back and at one point 3 adults and 4 kittens were all crammed into an old VCR box keeping warm as they snoozed (I thought about just folding the flaps in, taping it shut and shipping it to a friend in CO). Finally the sun broke through about 11am and life began to return to normal. However I had checked the daily hits on the weather site recently and was surprised to see an average of 3,000 a day with occasional spikes. So, when I checked during the rain it was up to 5,000, then 7,000 and yesterday 9,183? - who would have imagined. I guess getting 6.2" of rain already this year is of interest, last year that didn't happen until June 23rd.

Now it's getting scary because it's actually becoming serious and I got an email yesterday inquiring how a local solar company could advertise. You mean like actually pay me pesos? That was never a plan or thought, first of all it now is becoming a pain, an actual "job" that requires time and responsibility. More than that it could be a problem as actually making money is a problem on both sides of the border regarding taxes etc. And mostly I never started down this path to actually create something that consumes my time or resemble "work"? - how the heck did this happen?

Actually I had other plans for this year, I decided recently to get back to photography, this is such a different place with many things to be captured. I used to do some things 30 years ago, but had long since laid down the film cameras (well, actually stuffed them in an old Army gas mask bag) and taken to digital. I have a small pocket camera that I had bought for Chris and a better one I brought down with me when I moved. But, they lacked the abilities to take special pics, closeups of stuff, nightime shots, 7 cats in a box, you name it. So, I researched and invested in a new DSLR - digital single lens reflex Nikon.

Getting it down here was the first challenge. As it turned out a friend of my neighbor was coming down from Canada to visit and so the new "tool" (because we're getting serious) was shipped to a holding place in Michigan, picked up and smuggled into MX as his camera and all went as planned.

Next began the challenge of figuring out what all the bells and whistles do, remembering or relearning all the facets of shutter speeds, aperture openings etc. - which will take some time. Already this new, refound old, project has become an obsession. I've decided for the investment it needs to be serious, so I'm going to consciously carry the camera a lot more, stop and capture images of my world and hopefully learn composition etc.

The website? - yes, it's sort of become Max the Weather Cat and my signature and will continue, but we're going for the imaging thing this year, so stay tuned and see what happens, the first "installment" is in Photo Projects 2010, enjoy.

It's not a bribe, you're just buying breakfast - for a week?

THIS — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 18:00:00 GMT

It seems adventures come in clusters - so, the latest was an encounter with one of our local traficos this morning who was looking for someone to buy him breakfast - for a week?

Mexico is legend for mordida, the bite, the bribe and in a way it's understandable, the policía are paid so little it's a temptation to "supplement" their meager income with "contributions" from fat cat gringos. Generally Mexico is trying to move away from that practice and that image, but the main cure for that is for the victims to simply say "no" - and of course I didn't a year ago out in the middle of nowhere, but I digress.

So, there is a somewhat concerted effort, at least locally, to not encourage the practice by simply insisting the officer write the ticket, actually it's illegal to bribe a policeman, but it's hard to imagine that anyone has ever ever been arrested for attempting that! Today it was my turn to practice the "technique" of "just say no".

I was taking my neighbor downtown to join up with her painting safari to the coast and it was about 8:30 and the sun was directly behind me shining on the stoplights and making it nearly impossible to see which color was lit, or if any were lit. This is often the case that a bulb is burned out for weeks at a time and it's up to you to guess if it's the green or the red? - which is just a bit of bonus excitement while living here in paradise.

Just as I could see the light, and was basically at the intersection, it changed to yellow. Now, there is no excuse for that here because the green lights flash for a few seconds before they turn yellow, but as noted, I couldn't see the green or even if it was on? Anyway as I see the yellow, I also see one of our local traficos in his pickup watching and I said to Margaret - darn, looks like a bad Monday as I saw him pull out and turn on his lights. I was at the next intersection when he pulled up along side and motioned for me to follow him to the side.

As he was parking I pulled out my drivers license and reached for the envelope in the seat back pouch marked "muy importante" containing my import papers for the car and copies of my FM3 (which makes the import papers legal) and my passport. I greeted him with a smile and buenos días, he stuck out his hand to shake hands (it's an old Mexican trick to make sure you don't have a gun - I think).

I handed over the papers and of course we discussed the situation in different languages. I explained the sol was making it hard to see the lights (which is probably exactly why he was sitting there, waiting for a breakfast ticket). He went back to his truck and got his ticket book and said the ticket was going to be $550 pesos, about $55 and I said "no problema" and I would pay it. He explained it had to be paid in Chapala, I again assured him it was no problem and please give me the ticket.

Now, the gringo community keeps up with how much things should cost and I knew it was more like $10 and you get a 50% discount for paying within 5 days, but I didn't argue, I knew he had set a high price hoping I would "negotiate" - I had no intention of doing that and mentioned we were in a bit of a hurry and could he please write the ticket.

I think by then he realized I wasn't buying breakfast and handed back my license and paperwork and said "no ticket today" and I sort of questioned him and he repeated it. By this time Margaret was saying "oh, give him $200p and I ignored her hoping he didn't hear it and he motioned me to drive on - which I did immediately, laughing as we left the scene of the attempted hold up. I said to Margaret "are you crazy, I wasn't going to give him anything and he knew it".

I dropped her off at the studio, returned back home and our friend and a moto were comparing notes as I went by I smiled and waved - ah, it turns out to be a good Monday in MX, the sky is blue, the temp looks like it could hit 70 and ningún billete (no ticket). Now, all I have to do is figure out what the heck to do about the feline problem I've created?

More cat-tales from Tortillaville

THIS — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 23:02:00 GMT

As noted at the end of last year we had discovered 4 new kittens and tried to make a nice place for them in the dog house only to be turned down flat by Mamasita, the old hag. She apparently moved them next door to Casa Nostra which is vacant and in the long run we decided it was a good thing - especially for us!

Mamasita continued to pretty much live here and eat at both places and we kept her well fed so she could nurse (as was our logic - misguided or not). Day before yesterday as Margaret and I were coming home I reached to open the gate and saw Mamasita and one of the tigers out front, obviously coming from Casa Nostra. She took off and left the little guy on his own, Margaret tried to catch him to no avail. Later he came into the compound under the gate and was holed up in the flower bed, so of course, we put out food for him and Mamasita promptly ate it - she definitely knows how to take care of #1 and the rest are on their own.

We figured he was the lone survivor, life with mom is tough, you live or die, there's not a lot of love or parenting. Now, Midnight has been exactly opposite, though she was inside, she was always with the kittens and taking care of them all the time and would lay with them and purr as they fed. She's had a hard time with her health with one malady after another and so she and I have lost count of the trips to the vet, but finally she's back to healthy and she's really been very good about being loaded in the carrier and trucked off to Pepe the vet.

Now that she's healthy, last week we had her spade so we don't have to do this again. After a day we allowed her to go out for really the first time in 3 months and we didn't know if she would stay or go back out into the wild. We also allow the kittens to play outside now and Midnight stayed close with them and comes in at night. When she's out she plays with them like the kitten she still is, something she never did before, I think she was so sick, then PG and sick, she really didn't feel like it. Now she runs and pounces with them, but is always mindful of where they are and remains protective and concerned. Mamasita on the other hand is very much a "hands off" mother.

Yesterday I saw the little survivor, but then another head poked up and so it looked like two survived and having brought them back into the compound we thought maybe she'd return to the dog house, so I opened it and put in some cardboard, but so far our generous offer continues to be rejected in favor of flower beds and 44 degree nights in the open.

This afternoon I went down to feed the cats at 4pm and Mamasita, and what I thought was another cat were laying on the door mat on the terraza. As I reached for the door handle I realized it wasn't another cat - it was a pile of little ears and tails, yes, all four have survived in spite of the old hag and now she's brought them back to my door step?

So, I took a pic, sent it to Margaret and said "looks like we're back up to 14"! Of course they're wild as the wind, one came and ate dry food, so I'm trying to figure out the "what and why" of Mamasita bringing them not only back to the compound, but literally to my door step? - yes I know, it's pretty dumb obvious, but I keep hoping there's another explanation I'm missing like she just brought them by to say goodbye as they move on? - well, it could happen you know, in a Disney movie maybe.

Good grief, and Margaret is heading for the coast tomorrow for a weeks long "painting safari" and I'm left holding the bag - of cats that is? And Margaret? - yes Margaret is always quick to rub salt into the wounds by reminding me that it's all my fault for feeding OW when I first arrived two years ago.

Rudolpho, my favorite con man

THIS — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 20:52:00 GMT

We'll call him Rudolpho, or maybe just Rudy for short, because I don't know his real name, he looks like a "Rudolpho" and probably by now he's forgotten his real name anyway, Rudy is my favorite con man and I'm probably just one of his favorite suckers - you know the kind, we never learn, we just keep making the same mistakes again and again.

My first encounter with Rudy was at Pharmacia Guadalajara sometime last year, I had pulled into a parking space and looked down to get some change out of the center console, when I turned to open the door there he was, an almost cherubic round faced little Mexican fellow who was just standing there staring back at me with a pathetic destitute look on his face - now, that as an introduction was impressive. My window was open and he started his pitch, that day he was working his "you have a scratch, I fix for you" scam.

Not exactly being a stranger to parking lot scams (there are dozens) I brushed him off with the usual "no gracias, ho hoy" (no thanks, not today) phrase and proceeded to close the window and exit the car, he was just standing there like I'd stolen his last peso with a look on his face like "ok, I'm down, just go ahead, kick me again" - it was so genuine I basically laughed as I again said "no" and headed for the drugstore. When I came out he was still there, looking totally dejected.

Now, it's a well documented fact that animals can see the "sucker" sign on my forehead, but apparently little round faced MX con men can see it also. He proceeded to badger me and started pointing at what appeared to be scratches on the dark green paint of my Jeep. Of course the car was a bit (?) dirty and it was obvious the supposed scratches were behind the wheel well and were just patterns of muddy over spray, or dust which had dried. I continued to say no and he's pointing, so I reached down with my finger and wiped across one of the scratches to show it wasn't real. Of course this simply elicited an offer to wash the car. All the time he's keeping this serious face and I'm literally laughing out loud at his performance (and wondering why I'm even humoring him rather than driving away).

I say performance because this guy is a street performer, like a mime, his greatest asset is his face and "the look" he's perfected by obviously spending hours in front of a mirror practicing that dejected oh, poor me, look. I'd be willing to bet when he was born his Mother took one look at him and said something like "wow, this kid is going to be a money maker, a real con man, look at that face"! - and he's continued to practice and perfect it over the years to con guys like me. However, that day I got away clean.

The next encounter was at the pier where I park to walk up 2 blocks to pay the rent. Again, the same "hang dog" look and again the scratch routine. This time the car was clean and there was a minor surface scratch on the rear door post from a branch. For some inexplicable cosmic reason I was being charitable that day and again his performance is worth a donation. I asked ¿Cuánto cuesta? - (how much?). He said $100 pesos which is $10 and I said no, I'd give him $5 and we eventually decided on $8 - which of course was silly, but I went off to pay the rent and he went to work on the scratch.

When I returned I looked at it and the scratch was less evident primarily because he had used some compound which left horizontal scratches parallel to the original, more or less masking it and adding a bunch more? I said "that's a terrible job" and complained some and finally said ok and handed him $80 pesos, he saw a $100 peso note I had and pointed at it and started telling me he was hungry and I think his nina (little girl) was hungry and finally I gave him the $100p basically to get rid of him and headed home to get out the clear coat polishing creme to repair his damage, but, I was laughing as I left and shaking my head as much at his performance as my stupidity.

I've seen him another time or two at the pier and he remembers me (of course) now and it's "hey, mi amigo" etc. and I tell him "get away from the car, step back" etc., and I get the hang dog face.

Today I went to pay the rent and from the highway you go down Colon street (basically like Broadway, every town has one) which is narrow, I reach out and fold in my left mirror as it gets pretty narrow between the parked cars on the left and the utility poles on the right. As you bump along the 4-5 blocks to the pier you are often stopped by someone ahead stopping to let out or pick up someone, or some fool attempting to parallel park his car in an impossibly small space rather than walk an extra block. Then there are delivery trucks, although usually earlier in the morning, and you just patiently sit and wait for them to unload and move on, of course there was the day in Chapala when they were filling a propane tank on the roof, so traffic was blocked 3 ways for some time until it was full - you just wait.

As I was bumping along Rudy came to mind and I smiled and thought how he needed to improve his hang dog act as this is the new year and he needs new material. I pulled up and parked and no more got out of the car and - "hey mi amigo" from Rudy with open arms. I couldn't help but laugh and greet him with the usual bro handshake and he wants to wash the car, but I said no, I'd only be there a few minutes. Then he starts on a new routine, his little nina is muerto (died) and again with the face he's giving me a graphic description grabbing at his side, then his chest and then the praying hands beside the head to indicate she died. He said they took her to Guadalajara and the medicina cost $350 pesos, like that was a fortune, and he's wearing a football shirt that cost at least $200 pesos. But, what could I do, I got very solemn and said that was terrible and I was sorry.

So, this went on for a few minutes and it's hard to tell if she really died, or if he even has a little girl, or is even married for that matter? - but, the performance was good and after a minute or two I told him I was thinking about him and how he has that "hang dog" or perro (dog) look and I illustrated by hanging my head and looking down, he sort of laughed as I told him it looked good, but he needed to add to his performance. I told him in the United States we have a saying "man, that's cold" and again with my hand on his shoulder I demonstrated that and told him that when he asked to wash someone's car and they said no, he should give them one of his sad looks and say "man, that's cold". Again he smiled and almost for an instant looked a bit sheepish like he'd been caught, but that vanished in another instant.

Several times he'd wished me feliz navidad and feliz año nuevo and then he patted his stomach and said business wasn't good, so I dug in my pocket to get him $20 pesos, but had 50's and 100's in the clip so I pulled out $50p and handed it to him saying "and feliz navidad to you as well". as I'm putting the clip back on the bills he pointed to the $100p note and asked for it, of course I howled and said NO - and he laughed as well like "well man, it don't cost to ask".

If Rudy ever outgrows that face he's in trouble because he'll have to go to work in an honest job, but until then I'd bet he does ok and after all, it's still the season of giving and it's a great performance - but with him, he figures that goes all year round?

It's a "cat-tastrophe"

THIS — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:31:00 GMT

It's a "cat-tastrophe" of the first order, the head (and tail) count of 10 gatos suddenly increased 40% yesterday to 14? - up to that point there was Max, Shorty, Sweet, Sour, Gray, Mamasita, Midnight and Tic, Tac and Toe - suddenly there was also uno, dos, tres, cuatro? Now, other than a petting zoo or a cattery, that's waaaaay too many gatos! But, I'm getting ahead of the story.

It really started 2 years ago when I fed OW, the local neighborhood cat so Max might have a friend - it grew from there as all good intentions often do. I've documented recent activities in capturing and hauling cats to the vet for "pruning" and some of those fiasco's. The last one was the old Mamasita who had generously brought Midnight, Sucio, Sweet & Sour and looked to be PG again, but then she slimmed down and spent most of her time on the terraza with the other moochers, so I rashly assumed I was either mistaken regarding her condition or she had lost them - in either case, good news, NO MAS GATITOS.

But, just to be sure, I had done a fairly thorough search of the estate (so I thought) including across the street where she used to live and found no gatitos (kittens). So, we were bumping along with about 8 too many cats, but Chris passed the "sucker" stamp to me and I was doing the best I could and Margaret is raising the terrible trio in the casita. Margaret returned from Christmas in the frozen North and Sunday evening we were sitting out in our little grass patch soaking up sun as is our custom. Adjacent there is a brick dog house with enclosed area which, of course, we never use. The propane tank is there and the house is filled with old plastic nursery pots, 3 old (and I'm sure priceless) pictures, an Olivetti typewriter, a stack of bricks complete with ant colony, some empty flour sacks, a deflated pool floaty and a roll of screen.

Over the past 2 years some of the pots were often knocked out of place and I assumed it was a 'possum or raccoon in residence and didn't bother further - you know, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. So, when Margaret said she thought she heard something in there I said it was probably the 'possum I had caught in the live trap a few days earlier and released only a few feet away - and thought nothing more of it.

The next morning, Monday to be exact, I heard her calling my name, it's a thing we do, she stands out front and hollers until I open the window by the computer room to see what is causing the racket. I could tell by the serious tone in her voice something was wrong, she wanted me to follow her toward the casita. We turned right at the grassy area and approached the dog house area. She pointed and said "there's a kitten in there". I told her she probably saw a baby 'possum etc. - you know how much they look alike? - of course I didn't want to hear "another KITTEN". We stood for a few minutes and a nose peeked out and it sure wasn't a 'possum - I was gob struck! MORE GATITOS? - the obvious answer was in front of us, so what to do?

Well, being the dumb gringos we are, rather than just walking away and forgetting about it we had to get down there and dig into the dog house. Let me put that another way - "I" had do get down and start dragging out stuff, first uno gatito, then dos and I thought I saw more movement and there was a roll of chicken wire about 3" in diameter and maybe 2' long with a tail sticking out one end? - I picked it up and looked in the other end and there was a dinky little tiger face looking back. I held it for Margaret to see the "face" end and then showed her the whole thing and said "we either have a gatito that's about a foot long, or two more! So, I got the pliers and carefully cut the retaining wire and unrolled it to reveal tres and cuatro - oh boy, ho ho ho all over me, just what we need, a sudden 40% increase in the tail count.

So, we're standing there holding 4 month old kittens as cute as all kittens are wondering what to do next. Well, the obvious thing (I did mention we're dumb gringos didn't I?) was to clean out the dog house - which again meant "me" while Margaret took care of the cats, you think a Jewish Grandmother is something? - wait until you meet an Irish Grandmother? I sprayed the spiders including one that was so big you could hear him walking - you think I'm kidding? - well, a horse goes clip-pa-ti-clip-pa ti-clop, as you hear it's four hoofs hit the ground, the sound I was hearing was clip-pa-ti-clip-pa-ti-clip-pa-ti-clip-pa-ti-clop as all 8 legs hit the ground - so, back to the house for the bug spray, fog the area and begin mucking out the junk, then the dirt and cementos from a disintegrated bag.

Next the stack of bricks revealing a colony of small ants who immediately attacked - more spraying, more dragging out of stuff until finally the lime green plastic pool floaty was extracted and the final dust and dirt were removed. Now, I have to say, this is a darn nice dog house, all brick, cement floor, tile roof and a nice arched entry. By now, we had filled a trash bag, hauled the rare painting to the front gate for disposal and the gatitos had scattered into the plant beds while we were busy - ah, just great.

We rounded up 2 easily, one was lost in some kind of dense ground cover and eventually found when he meowed and the final one was in a narrow dead end passage along side the dog house, in the far back corner behind some sort of unwanted small tree and a thriving bougainvillea. I headed for the bodega to get the limb whackers and as I began to cut I noticed what for an instant, I thought, was some sort of orange sized "fruit" being attacked by a bunch of small wasps. Of course it wasn't a "fruit" - that was me, el dumbo, it was their nest and that sent me scurrying to the house for wasp spray to ruin their day.

After a few minutes I resumed cutting and as I stepped into the narrow area to get gatito número cuatro I stepped on a huge thorn from the bougainvillea stalk which penetrated the sole and into the ball of my right foot eliciting an audible response from me - but, I got the kitten and now all 4 were in the carrier.

We decided to use the VCR box which as served Midnight's kittens well and lined it with a towel, put the 4 little beggars in it, pushed it back into the newly renovated dog house and sat down for a much needed rest.

After a bit, Mamasita came about 30' away and was meowing to indicate her displeasure with our efforts. But we had spent a couple hours making this a super neat new place with no insectos, no junk etc. and we felt she would appreciate our work once she inspected it and saw how happy her babies were in there.

I put away all the tools and cans of spray etc. and went home to take a shower. Within an hour came another request for my presence, Mamasita had already taken one to a new location - the thankless hag had no sense of where-with-all and her meows were not complaining - but calling the kittens to come to her.

I decided on a risky plan and told Margaret to go home and I'd watch. Mamasita called a second one out and I stealthily stalked them from a distance, sneaking along like the hapless Inspector Clouseau watching through tall pampas grass, peeking from behind the car, peering around palm trees, ducking and sneaking along as she led #2 toward the far wall. I circled around, at times standing or crouching motionless for a minute at a time as she watched. At that point something interesting happened, Sweet, one of her last pair came to help, they worked as a team to guide #2 to safety.

Finally I circled around back of the house and approached the area behind the old well and peered through and sure enough there they both were, the two gatitos huddled together. I went around the well and fought my way back into the dense maze of over growth of giant elephant ears laced with thorn studded vines. Old dead remains of the vines are none the less dangerous, at one point I was impaled on 3 different ones trying to dig into me - but I escaped with only a single 3" gash on one arm. Of course by that time I got back in there they had moved.

Later attempts to locate them was futile and again the next day it was unproductive as Mamasita watched from a distance. Margaret's feeding of the other two was progressing, but ultimately we decided it would be better to return the two to Mama and let they grow up wild. It's not a good thing, but that's life.

So, we put the two out and Mama came for them, but about that time the gardener started the blower and I was afraid they'd scatter and be lost, so we put them back in the carrier for a couple of hours until he left. Again we put them out and of course with a single meow from Mama they ran to her like a magnet. We watched her take them around front and she jumped up a tree and of course the little ones were lost, they can't climb a tree yet, but on the roof the tree overhangs I saw the other two. She must have carried them up there, who knows, but as a final bit of intervention I got the ladder, took the two up to the roof and united la familia. From there they can go on the old Casa Nostra roof and down steps and out, or maybe they'll find a home over there.

Of course it was sad, but probably a lesson learned in trying to out guess a mother gato and what she wants for her kids. I told Margaret maybe it will be a good thing and with all this she won't bring them back to the compound like previous offspring - Margaret's comment was "fat chance" - yes, I know, fat chance.