In the news this morning: OJ’s going down, court house step sales, higher unemployment, bailouts and political fallout and plenty of cop outs. The world seems to be in such a mess right now.
It is difficult for me to understand how things that seem to have taken quite a while to get to this point can have such a sudden downfall; almost universal and all falling down at the same time. I guess that is why they call it a crash.
A friend reports that he doesn’t want to look at the stock market – it is too depressing and such a rollercoaster ride right now. Most are hoping that at the end of the rollercoaster ride we will all be returned to a state of rest; hair blown and pulses beating wildly, but back to whence we started – not likely to go down that way this time.
Being back in Mexico helps as we currently aren’t getting channels and channels of radio and television reports of impending doom; I know they are out there in waves all around us. In Mexico we are blinded by the glare of the shiny blade just about our necks – blinded by a certain peace and tranquility.
Our previously living food is said to be better tasting when it hasn’t been traumatized before death. Avoiding a lot of this interim bad news is perhaps the same – a good thing. Do I really need to know from minute to minute about how bad things are? I think not. Turn off your radios and televisions. Hug your kids, hold your wife and enjoy the day.
Are you too in Mexico? U.S. dollars, should you have any, will go farther right now with the peso sagging against the ravaged dollar – there’s a bit of good news.
Our neighbors are already poor – they are geared up for disaster as they live the life style daily. They can still smile, hug their kids and go about their lives in a ‘business as usual’ fashion. The news they get about what is going on outside the Hood means little more than that of an evening television novella. I’m OK, you’re OK or we just don’t know any better. I have to go feed the Hood chicken’s that come to the safe haven of our yard - so they may remain calm…Think Peace and good thoughts and Stay Tuned!
Probably some female types will leave here immediately (is that sexist?) because today is about construction. After yesterday’s failed attempt due to no water, the water is running, a crew of eight is here and the cement mixer is chugging along.
I love construction. As suggested yesterday, this is the one time you see some real scrambling. The hombres run around like futbol stars while hauling 80 pound buckets of cement on their shoulders. Here is the drill.
Two guys toss the materials into the chugging mixer. In short order they flip the barrel of the mixed 180 degrees plus and dump the mixed load out on the street way. A bruiser of a dude shovels the very wet cement into five gallon buckets.
Sometimes there are three running up that ladder (ENLARGE HERE)
Then about four or five fellows swing the buckets on to their shoulders and run up a newly made narrow stairway and dump their loads. There is usually a guy or two on the roof distributing the material. In this case I can’t see that process. This goes on for some time.
I will try and get some photos of the party later on.
Yesterday we got Bonnie and Charles Internet connection going via a Hughes satellite dish system. We enjoyed some libations and the wonderful setting of their rental location. It was chipi chipi and yet lovely. After getting things up and running I got to swing in one of their hammocks.
After, we went into Xico and had a fine dinner. Then we raced back to Esther and Jim’s casa (right next-door to our Casita) and watched the Veep debate with them and a few of their friends. A fun time was had by all – a VERY busy day by Mexico standards. Stay Tuned!
It is still dark at just after 6 AM here in the Hood. Living closer to the equator than when we were in Colorado or even south central New Mexico the sunrise and sunsets change less – we don’t get that 5 AM sunrise or that 9 PM sunset. There is excitement in the air just beyond our little camper shell in which we sleep. Voices of young men chattering as some voices of an older tenor give direction. There is chit chatter, laughing and whistling out there.
If you watch a Mexican building project your eyes won’t tire from tracing the hustle and bustle; except on one day of the project – roof pouring day. In fact, it is such an event that the mujeres prepare a feast that will be enjoyed by all at the completion of the pour.
I reluctantly pried myself out of bed. Outside it’s about 55 F (12.7 C) – cool by local standards. The BIG white Ford truck needed to be moved to safety. Lengths of rebar, 10 meter lengths of wood and thin diameter tree trunks, and buckets and buckets of cement are going to be wielded about, just inches from where it is parked.
I warm the behemoth truck, then move it around the corner in front of Vicente’s casa where it is in view of the Camacho cocina.
Heading back aided by a street light I see little women bundled up with shawls scurry about to catch a bus or get their maza ground up the street for their daily four or five kilos of tortillas. The Hood is starting to come alive, catching up with the energy of the crew who are now running about in fast forward.
In the dark I yell to the fellows -
“Hombre’s necesita luz!”
The young ones reply, “No!”
The viejo jefe says, “Si!”
Back in the camper I start the coffee to energize the bunny in me. Even Anita crawls out of bed and ambles to the table where we sit and listen to the activity 60 feet away in the street.
A truck delivers a large 5 bag cement mixer – it is gasoline engine driven. It’s started up; convinced it is going to go it is shut back down. Now lots of pounding of nails, last minute scabs of wood put here and there to keep the precious mud from falling through cracks.
While all this motion has an acerbic charm to it this building project has been going on and then not, and then on again since we have owned our property – since 2005, really. The husband(s) work in Las Vegas, Nevada sending money home occasionally; so the project drags on and on as the money dribbles in. In four years I think the two men involved with the two families there have returned twice for perhaps two or three weeks each time.
But now at daylight there is a lull in the action? We investigate – there is no water. It is hard to make cement from sand, gravel and Portland cement powder without water – hmmm.
OK so we interrupt the excitement to write about the water situation. For some time the Hood has been in a bit of a water crisis. For years water was being drained from the river that runs through it. During these years of continued population growth the river(s) have become more and more polluted.
A few years ago they started a project to pipe in cleaner water from some distance. The problem aside for the distance and subsequent expense is earlier in the year when they ‘flipped the switch’ or turned the valves the water pressure became very low on the new system. I thought don’t they have any engineers on this project that could have projected construction of a system with adequate pressure – more hmmm’s.
In any case the water pressure is so low that they have started an allotment system shutting off some streets to get pressure to others and then altering this. The results are we now get dribbling water every other day. The water comes at no more than 5-7 pounds pressure when it comes at all. We had reasonable water pressure at about 30 pounds (a bit low by US standards) when the dirty water was rushing through the pipes – but people were getting sick, young children very sick. Last May Anita and I had a serious bout with stomach poisoning from the bad water. We started capturing water in a small tank and chlorinating it after about 4 weeks of bad stomachs.
So now the cast of characters are here with little to no water to start the party. I won’t even get into the ‘doing the laundry’ problems. Stay Tuned for the rest of the story.
I don’t claim to understand taxes – in fact I have never really met anyone that does – including a high powered CPA/lawyer I hired for about three years who got me into the worse tax messes I have experienced in my life. In fact since that time back in the middle 70’s I have done my taxes myself for both us personally as well as businesses I have owned and operated.
Add to that confusion taxes (impuesto) in Mexico and it starts to really get cloudy. We had to pay quite a few years of back property taxes for the previous owner of our Casita property in order to get the sale to go through. Many folks in the Hood here don’t pay their property taxes as it quite simply severely dents their budget even though from a U.S. property tax perspective the fees are paltry. I think thus far we have paid less than $20.00 US per year for both our properties here in Veracruz – yes – a miracle by U.S. standards.
In conversation with some of our neighbors and friends since we have been back we hear that the tax man has cometh to the Hood. The Tiendas (small family stores), of which there are many, have been visited by the tax man. It seems that the long arm of the law has extended further into the country sides of Mexico.
Could this be in part because one of the powerful Chedraui family is now the Mayor of Xalapa? My thinking is the Chedraui’s operate a large chain of supermarkets – time to close down the little local tienda competition; or at least make them pay their taxes in order to “even the playing field” – pah-lease!
Whatever the case or cause the locals who are experiencing more inflationary costs than the folks NOB (north of the border) now have this added burden – threats of compliance or face being closed down loom heavy over the Hood.
Some made of stern stuff say, “OK come and close me down – I don’t need this added aggravation.” Will the Hacienda (Mexico’s IRS arm) actually come and close these little shops down?
Some have already closed their doors or at least that is how it appears; in some cases one can knock on a door and be allowed entrance to a ‘backroom’ package store, Will all the little tiendas go underground? They certainly provide a service to the little community. Bus prices have gone up as has most things except wages (does this sound familiar?). These people can’t just jump in their car (few own one) and run down to the supermarket.
It was reported to us that the milk suppliers took to the streets of Xalapa and poured all their milk on to the streets to protest the increased cost of feed for their milk cows. It seems that the Mexican’s are quicker to demonstrate their discontent than their U.S. counterparts – but then when the meat is closer to the bone there is less margin for abuses and the hungry become quicker to anger.
There are a lot of people in this world now. A very few control the vast majority of the wealth. When hungry and cold people read about multi-million dollar golden parachutes being paid out to the CEO’s of all these failed huge business institutions, I hope those CEO’s have saved enough spare change to hire body guards because they surely will need them.
I had to laugh when I heard a quote from President Bush that if we (as in the Government) get involved in preventing these CEO payoffs and golden parachutes that this might prevent them from wanting to become involved with the bailout – I thought who is he talking to? Wouldn’t the taxpayers be happy with less companies applying for bailout money? What am I missing here? As mentioned at the beginning I don’t understand a lot about taxes or economics as is the case with most of my neighbors here in the Hood, but this just seems like a bizarre rationale.
What I do understand is there are more of us than them, and if they push these people to the wall – they will push back. I suppose that is why a lot of collected tax dollars have been being spent on civil uprising weaponry and methodologies. You might think about that if you support gun control.
It is a bright sunny morning here in the Hood. It is quieter than before – less dogs perhaps, new leash and control laws; people can’t afford the electricity to blast their music systems? I am not sure but maybe it is the calm before the storm? In the mean time we will enjoy the weather and work on keeping our heads above water. Stay Tuned!
Tropical? Shot from my office window this morning (ENLARGE HERE)
We have made a lot of treks down to our tropical paradise here in Xico. To date all of our trips down have been in our VERY LARGE Ford F350 truck. It is a full four door vehicle with a full length truck bed stuck behind – we are talking big and long. I have written about some of our encounters with small, narrow lane, quaint Mexican roadways – oh my gosh!
The good news to many is we can haul a lot of things – border control and Mexican Army allowances required – and thus far they have been generally cooperative.
But space allotment aside this does not come without problems. Relying on the kindness of expats towards one another to get needed stuff down here is part and parcel to the process of being here. On one occasion Bonnie and Charles hauled down our mail that our neighbor Manny was kind enough to send from Colorado to Louisiana. We had never met Bonnie and Charles up to that point – the kindness of strangers.
We have brought down some large items for others. We brought a mig-welder and a huge drill motor thing for our friends Harvey and Mati (well for Harvey . That gesture caused a Xico local Englishman to ask us to also bring him a welder on our next trip as well as some Volkswagen parts. We barely knew Andrew the Englishman but we did like him very much. At the same time fronting him more than $1000.00 and allotting a large amount of our large space was over the top in our minds.
I did offer to get the car parts as a compromise. But the list of parts did not come until just a couple days before our departure from the U.S. This when we agreed and asked for the list several months prior. In the end we didn’t get the parts and Andrew no longer speaks to us ;-(
Another trip we brought down a 22” computer monitor that was eventually to be driven down to a vacation spot 500 miles southwest of Xico. Our truck clutch decided to wear out. A combination of circumstances prevented us from completing that delivery (a long involved set of circumstances). A house of cards had been developed including our relying on another party scheduled to visit to bring us a clutch plate – they didn’t come and the monitor remained with us for nearly a year – undelivered. This put a strain on a good friendship.
People see that BIG truck of ours and just can’t imagine how we can’t bring this or that for them. I would probably think the same thing and yet we never seem to have enough room to haul our own STUFF. I mean all the trips we have made down here and we are still stuffing that white monster to its gills.
The good news is this time we brought nearly as much stuff for others than for ourselves. The difference being it was mostly things for the poorer Mexican Nationals in our neighborhood.
In our little town of Capitan, New Mexico there is a lovely little neighborhood thrift store that operates essentially to help fund a marvelous local library. We shop there a lot. The local people of a town of a mere 1700 people (about the size of our Ursulo Galvan Hood) all know by now we come and go to old Mexico. In casual conversation during many visits to the thrift shop to both give and purchase we described our lives here in Mexico to the lady that runs the thrift shop. We told stories about the wonderful people we live amongst here. The lady after hearing our reports about the good and impoverished people here at one point told us to pick out any clothing or whatever to take to the people in Mexico – a very kind gesture and sign of hands across borders. We did pick out some things that we thought would be appropriate and well received here.
While in Capitan our good friend and neighbor George connected us with Pasty Campbell who was in need of some Vista operating system computer assistance. What started out as an effort to help a friend with their support of a local person became a new friendship with Patsy and her husband Paul. Patsy operates an embroidery and t-shirt business. Here again we eventually told our stories about our lives here in the Hood and in Mexico generally. Patsy and Paul offered up a large load of brand new shirts and lightweight jackets. Later on they also gave us a BUNCH of silverware for the locals here.
This trip back we brought the laptop computer that Hollito our Blogging friend from Germany had sent to us in Las Vegas. Hollito some months ago decided he wanted to donate a computer to the Camacho family here in the Hood - hands across borders and oceans. We came bearing gifts . For some inexplicable reason I had packed the power supply separate from the laptop itself. We delivered the laptop with an explanation that soon I will find the power supply.
In a short time I brought the supply. There on the sofa was 13 year old master Estaban with the lifeless laptop computer on his lap. He already knew where the power would plug in and how the wireless card went into the box. I was impressed at his quick study and warmed by his enthusiasm. Right away I could see this kindness from a stranger in Germany was going to impact this Mexican boy’s life.
We are still delivering stuff as we slowly unpack the stuffed truck. I hope to capture some photos of the happy faced recipients. I am sure you can imagine how delighted some of these folks must be. It was amusing seeing a number of people running around in their new clothing on Sunday.
My friend Vicente proudly wore his “I have a Honky Tonk Attitude” t-shirt. Very colorful including a cowboy hat and boots I asked Vicente if he understood what the shirt said – “no”. Of course he knew it was something about cowboys – he liked that Actually I’m not sure what a Honky Tonk attitude is – but it did look good on him.
Being a delivery service has its ups and downs – but these few things we brought for our friends and neighbors made this the best trip so far. We experienced the warm hearts of the givers and the delighted people whose lives are so hard able to have a few things to brighten their lives - a get together of spirits by way of this small delivery. It is a good thing after all – Stay Tuned!
Red band is tropical zone - we are there - (ENLARGE HERE)
Labels help define who, what and where we are. I stopped characterizing our area and more generally Mexico as a Third World Nation after some discussion and reading.
In a response to a comment I characterized our area as subtropical. This got me to thinking.
I have never been clear on subtropical. The sub indicates not quite; more specifically this would be on the outer perimeters of the tropical band width at mid-earth.
Weather wise I personally would characterize our area as subtropical to tropical – we live on the outer edges of jungle in my estimation. I decided to do some research in order to use proper terms – a Bloggers responsibility to some extent I think.
What I found is that we are in fact within a degree or so living in a tropical area – no ‘sub’ about it. I have included links to two world maps that depict subtropical and tropical areas. If you know where Xalapa is then you can readily see that we are in the tropical band width and not the sub-tropical.
From my perspective our temperature range compares more to subtropical, but then apparently there is allowance for altitude; so from here on out I will be referring to our tropical area. If you contend this, like some did to the third world reference, then write and let me know.
Do you read Esther’s Blog? She and her husband Jim live right next-door to us. Esther has reported on some of the changes in the Hood. There are water management issues in that our water source and systems have changed. There is a problem with garbage pickup, or lack thereof. Apparently there may be some new rules about dogs on leashes? We see a lot of dogs being walked on leashes like never before – ‘will have to check into this. There are some revolt demonstrations occurring in our area because of the inflationary price increases - more on all this later.
Once again the road entering our Colonia is collapsing. People have been stealing the actual telephone lines for the copper content of the wire – some report six thefts of the wire rendering the telephone system inoperable. Some of these issues have been reported by Esther in our absence. I will be covering these topics and more here shortly – so as always Stay Tuned!
As always our trips are an adventure. 48 hours or so we left Capitan at 7:30 PM. We were scheduled to leave Wednesday morning. All packed and ready to go we decided to leave Tuesday night. I like to drive at night – we left our keys with George and Pearl, said our good-byes and hit the road.
I drove 309 miles (Anita had predicted I would make 300). Next morning we got up and made it to Brownsville at about 5:30 PM (a total of 880 miles). We decided to go ahead and work on getting across the border. It was raining and more or less miserable out.
We crossed over the International bridge. We were at an Aduna Oficina we normally don’t use. All of our paperwork was worked out within about 45 minutes. Anita used her FM3, I got a FMT for 6 months. We got a green light leaving – were stopped briefly asking what we had in the back without our opening it. “Go ahead.”
One more hurdle – to pass through the inspection station some 20 miles below the crossing into Matamoras. Again we were asked what was in the back – we explained we had clothes and some items for staying down here for a few months – “Go ahead.” So we got green lights and easy passage being held up for no more than an hour for both events.
Diesel is now 6.63 pesos per liter or about $2.37 a gallon as opposed to $4.19 all the way through New Mexico and one fill up in Texas for $3.84 a gallon. This equates to about a 40 % savings on gas
The bad news was the weather. It was raining from Brownsville until Coasta Esmeralda where we are currently staying. Sometimes the rain was torrential. The drive is no cake walk to begin with, but with the added anomaly of on and off torrential rain – it is really something!
We had an hour delay due to a Coke truck turning on its side. Traffic was backed up a long way. Finally one lane of traffic was opened. We drove until about 5:30. In Costa Esmeralda we ate and then stayed Thursday night at a local hotel. The rain finally calmed down when I was heading out to get my third Corona. We are ensconced in a beachside motel for the night 49 hours from departure. More tomorrow.
We got up early and had breakfast at Andria’s (across the street from the hotel). I watched her machete a couple coconuts – the woman wields a mean machete. Her restaurant is open 24/7. We had dinner there the night before and now there she was at breakfast! I asked her when she sleeps – “now and then.”
Andria’s mother filled our large coffee cups. Later we received a report that the road was not passable ahead heading south as the river had come up over the roadway. We decided to have potatoes and eggs and hang there until we heard more.
After a leisurely breakfast we decided to drive as far as we could get and see what was up. Apparently the road way became clear as we had clear sailing to Xico. We stopped at Sam’s Club to by a few supplies including some tequila, arriving in Ursulo Galvan about 3 PM.
Our neighbors were glad to see us as we were them. They prepared a terrific fiesta that included blackened trout with chili seco – I really missed the chili seco when in the States. The fiesta ended a bit early as we were pretty burned out from the driving and setup, and maybe the big meal and tequilas. It was nice catching up on a few things – gas prices have gone up (not nearly like the U.S. increases, the 3 for 50 peso DVD’s have been closed down by the government and they are wanting 450 pesos for the holiday festivities in December and early January – no one is happy about this.
It is Saturday morning (11:30 AM) as I post this Blog that started in Coasta Esmeralda Thursday night.
There are some changes as reported in the Hood. I will write about tomorrow…so
Writing about events in our area here in the States, I have to mention that this is the last day of the five day “Golden Aspen Motorcycle Rally.” We have been sharing our streets, restaurants and hotels with thousands of beautiful chrome, guttural, two and three wheeled motor monsters and their riders.
Here by the thousands these folks seem to be respectable, enjoying great weather and massive motorcycle camaraderie.
The cast of characters seems to have changed a lot over the years – almost as if motorcycling has grown old along with me. Every year I remark to Anita (so she reminds me) that it seems as if the riders are getting older and older. My theory is only older folks have enough dough anymore to afford the cost of these gleaming motor toys.
Back in the 60’s I well remember dating a blond bombshell whose bedroom was adorned with a huge poster of Brando astride a Triumph motorcycle looking like a young wild one. Even if you aren’t as old as me perhaps you have seen the 1953 classic film “The Wild One.”
Thinking back that Triumph was only 650 cc’s, small by today’s standards. Now the burly machines almost all sport 1000 cc plus throbbing motors. I rolled out my classic 1000 cc 1994 BMW R100GS and cruised up and down Smokey Bear Boulevard. Realizing I didn’t have a legal license plate on the “Bumble Bee” I made the ride short – but it was sweet getting some wind in my face.
Returning home I pulled right in the garage where the classic German ride will remain at rest until we next visit New Mexico.
I am watching riders zoom down Stanton Street returning glances to the Ryder Cup match finals on television in our little one bedroom rental house.
Tonight I am scheduled to go to my friend Paul’s to watch Green Bay and Dallas play football – did I write I am no longer a football fan – well… Stay Tuned!
One of the things I really like about Mexico and New Mexico is the North American Indian history that is all around.
From a small child I always seemed to be rooting for the Indians. I thought Tonto was a more important element than the Lone Ranger. As I got older and learned about such things as ethnic cleansing and prejudice my heart went out to the North American Indians who seemed to have gotten a bad deal when their homeland territories were commandeered by Europeans that landed on North American soil.
As an early nomadic people I admired their ways of life. Realizing full well there were good and bad Indians just as there are in every race and society. Now days in Mexico we live amongst Mexican Indians and share our lives with the Apaches here in south central New Mexico.
My amigo Jake Wolfhart has a shop full of turquoise, silver, leather, feathers and beads; much of which has been made by Navajo and Apaches living in the Southwest. Next door to Wolfhart’s Trading Company is OSO Art (Oso is bear in Spanish by the way). Before we leave I plan on doing a photo shoot to tell you the story of that terrific shop. Suffice it to say Oso Art continues the Indian art theme.
Since being back here in New Mexico this trip Jake and I did some trading. I wanted to get some of our larger items off inventory – like a large water storage container that was taking up a lot of real estate on our long trailer. Jake got the new tank and I got a beautiful turquoise bracelet - good trade. Jake who has a generous streak as long as a brave’s braids has also given Anita a beautiful turquoise stringed eye glass holder, me a beautiful turquoise and amber necklace and he gave us leather bracelets. I also received a dandy cowboy hat from Jake as a regalo – all this while we are scaling back.
Suffice it to say the style, colors and aesthetic nature of Indian art and artifacts appeal to me. This extends to the Mexican architecture with its earthen qualities and array of colors.
Living in Apache Indian Country we are close to The Inn of the Mountain God’s Casino and Hotel (and golf course). We are treated to harvest celebrations and Powwows. Jake had a stack of flyers promoting the 2008 Rio Grande Pow Wow. We will be spending time with our Mexican Indian neighbors in Ursulo Galvan missing the Pow Wow. But it feels good to know it is happening in our area.
I don’t blame the U.S. today for the abuses to the North American Indians that occurred more than 100 years ago – not a lot anyway. But we feel lucky to live amongst them. I should report to Babs, Steve and ya’ll we are just days away from heading home after staying many weeks longer than anticipated NOB. Stay Tune for the trip.
Sunday September 14th 2008, 3:03 pm
Filed under: Mexico, Opinion
We have been watching Hurricane Ike ravaging Texas for the last two days. We have also been watching news on the head on train wreck in California. My first thoughts on that were our son Julian has travelled on that Metrolink train several times – ugh; and then how in this day and technological age can two trains bang into each other going in opposite directions on the same track? Why aren’t there preventive systems in place to keep fast moving huge objects loaded with human beings from crashing into things?
Man, I have come to believe, is not the measure of all things and God, in spite of us, is wonderfully intrusive, but unfortunately not always. I saw on some news show a hurricane thrill seeker in Galveston standing on the beach; shaved head, barefoot, sunglasses and sporting an American flag, this dude said he and God had it all under control – really? An individual challenging the elements often becomes corporate sport when official intervention is required.
There are poor choices made on where to build cities, and still poorer ways to build them. At the end of the day all Americans will pay for these lapses in logic. Of course the United States doesn’t have a corner on bad planning and safety for its inhabitants – also in the news 88 Killed in Aeroflot Plane Crash in Central Russia - Last month, 65 people were killed when a Boeing plane went down in the Russia’s former Soviet neighbor Kyrgyzstan.
A simple bus ride can be a life altering event in Mexico – those rides are often an E-ticket roller coaster ride. We have all agreed these are dangerous times. Some us handle that fact better than others.
Finally in the news David Foster Wallace hung himself – ugh! Why would a brilliant writer, one of the best of the current lot, off himself? I suppose he is now released from his demons, but what a great loss for the rest of us. He wrote, “The mind is an excellent servant but a terrible master.” Apparently the master got control of things.
If you spend any time observing the human race, you begin to believe that the only way heaven could have any occupants at all is through sloppy bookkeeping. We’re such a miserable lot, seldom capable of taking any real responsibility beyond our inner circle. Our concessions for the betterment of the whole are minimal at best.
I do hope for the best for all of it. I haven’t given up on Hope. If God were small enough for me to understand he wouldn’t be big enough for me to go to.
A lot of this news is outside my comfort zone. If the most important thing is to challenge ourselves then job well done, some days it seems a better idea is to just pull the covers over your head and stay in a warm bed. Stay Tuned
. That gesture caused a Xico local Englishman to ask us to also bring him a welder on our next trip as well as some Volkswagen parts. We barely knew Andrew the Englishman but we did like him very much. At the same time fronting him more than $1000.00 and allotting a large amount of our large space was over the top in our minds.
