Rafael Nadal Tastes Victory. 2008 Wimbledon Champion

You could probably still call me a sports fan – but if you did I would reply that I am no longer the crazed idol worshiper of all that is athletic. For instance a few years ago I gave up watching professional football. A single incident forced me out of bounds on that. I had the misfortune of meeting a multi-Super Bowl defensive player at Walmart one day.

He had several huge Super Bowl rings adorned on hands with fingers misshapen, pointing in all directions. He essentially had been severely crippled entertaining me and millions of other wild sports fans – my heart sunk as he extended his meaty paw to shake my hand. There was no joy in Mudville on that day – it ended my audience participation.

I also gave up watching boxing even before that after quite honestly seeing too many shells of human beings who were the results of boxing participation – Mohammed Ali was the last straw for me.

A few months back even some of my staunchest supporters here on the Blog took me to task for my interest in and spectator participation in bull fighting – all meat eaters I should add. Some even question whether such a thing is a sport.

In my defense I have never been a deranged sports fan. You wouldn’t have seen me on a field helping to tear down a goal post or even in my wildest sports fan days would you have found me crazed for my victorious team or depressed by the agony of my teams defeat. But I would be lying to deny that I can still get into a game of soccer, golf, basketball, baseball, car racing, the Olympics, beach volleyball and tennis among others.

This past weekend was the end of a fortnight of Wimbledon tennis. Often the matches prior to the finals are the best; the finals not being the most exciting; occasionally even a let down. There has been some talk of late that tennis has lost its audience, that it has become lack luster with no beautiful superheroes. At least that is what John McEnroe says.

But, yesterday was a match for the times. If you watched the drama as it played out over many hours including rain delays you were treated to some sports history. The first two sets played early here in the Pacific Time Zone. I rolled out of bed at 6 AM for ‘Even Before Breakfast at Wimbledon’.

I was alone in the den while the rest of the house slept, occasionally disturbed by my clapping or foot stomping. By the third set I was joined by my house mates Anita and my brother-in-law. We watched into the afternoon.

Just seconds after Federer’s final chance ended from a forehand into the net and Nadal got back up from having flopped on his back from the utter joy of victory we watched Nadal leap into the stands to find mom – dad interceded and got the first hug but his destination was apparent, and heart warming. After, he went over to the Royal Box and met the Spanish Prince and Princess. As he made his way back to center court he was handed a Spanish flag. The crowd was standing applauding both warriors; it was truly an exciting moment.

For a couple years now I have been rooting for Rafael Nadal. Being a recent resident of Mexico I seem to favor all things Latino, the rise to number one in women’s golf by Mexico’s Lorena Ochoa, our local Xalapa basketball team, the Halcones (Falcons) bringing home a championship. The pleasure and pain of watching Mexico’s win, but then loss for winning by one less goal than needed, from qualifying for the summer Olympics; OK maybe I am still a bit of a sports fan.

You didn’t have to be a crazed sports fan to be thrilled by the Championship Tennis match yesterday though. Rafael Nadal a 22-year-old Spaniard who in Fitzgerald-esque terms is admired by most men and charming to all women at 22 years old played the World’s number one player Roger Federer. The latter tenacious tennis warrior who resembles a Cabbage Patch doll as he scrunches his nose up into his face and stares down his opponents is arguably one of the best tennis players of all time – he certainly is when he tells it.

So this morning perhaps you missed the show yesterday and only have the AP report, “WIMBLEDON, England —With darkness enveloping Centre Court and the clock showing 9:15 p.m., Rafael Nadal watched as Roger Federer’s errant forehand settled into the net, ending what might have been the greatest men’s final on the greatest stage in tennis.” It was truly a tennis match of historic proportions.

Yesterday I came by my excitement honestly and certainly can’t be accused of being a crazed sports fan (any longer). I mean have you seen those people that get wild eyed playing fantasy football or baseball? Middle aged and older guys; fathers and husbands who appear to be otherwise normal spending hours managing pretend teams.

This is true. Grown men involved in pretend leagues where they actually pay money to “draft” professional athletes, and then have their pretend teams play whole pretend seasons. I mean come on lets get our lives in perspective here! I won’t even get into Tiger Wood’s take on hockey.

Did you happen to watch those volleyball babes Misty and Kerri win and qualify for the Olympics once again yesterday? I gotta go – need to Google Hushovd’s winning the second stage of the Tour de France cycling race between Auray and Saint-Brieuc yesterday. Stay Tuned!

Were still in Las Vegas and it is still HOT! Yesterday it was 112 F – even Jonna down there at the bottom of Mexico would not take to 112 F – but ah yes the encouragement here is, “It is a dry heat.” So is a convection oven but that doesn’t mean I want to be in one.

On my “home” page I see the weather conditions in Puerto Escondido (always nice); Xico (never said to be above 90 F; Los Angeles (where our son resides); and Capitan (Our property in New Mexico). I never get Las Vegas because there is no need – July in the desert is hot period.

Not sure how long we will be here – there are so many diversions – this last week I took to checking out the used car market here in Las Vegas. What a contrast to everywhere else we frequent. I have difficulty understanding many of the sellers over the telephone – 5 weeks ago I left a country where I didn’t speak the language – nothing has changed being 1000 miles north
;-0

A long time ago I learned from my father about buying cars. First rule is to never buy anything he would buy. This man had cars that you probably never heard of like a Wartburg. He had two or three of what – maybe 200 made? He got several speeding tickets in his two Muntz Jets; he even inspired more speed limit postings in our neighborhood in the fifties in those exotic babies. He bought a Hillman Minx – closely related to a non-existent cat – last time I even heard the word was via Austin Powers, “(while vocalizing his inner monologue) says of Vanessa Kensington “…and I bet she shags like a minx”.

Today’s cars have better names and are more sophisticated which is why I suppose they measure the engine size in liters here in the United States even though they continue to resist converting to the decimal system. I think their reasoning was now that cars cost as much as many houses I have purchased, they need to up the sophistication factor - dump muscle motor cubic inches for the more civilized cubic centimeters or liters?

All the new advanced technology out there, but we actually went and kicked the tires of a Volkswagen bug – really. This was a Mexican licensed actually original Herbie Bug built jn Puebla just a hundred miles or so from our home in Mexico – what was I thinking? Oh and then I remembered my father had a Karman Ghia or three and returned to my senses.

I have begged the question on the Forum – what car should I own in Mexico – silly me thinking there might be just one ideal machine. There are so many car models now I can’t focus on anything (there even is a Focus for that matter). When it was suggested that I “…ask my automotive sales professional for details” – I really got overwhelmed. Buying a car in today’s market is harder than deciphering whether that Louis Vuitton bag I want on Ebay is authentic.

But my father’s spirit remains in all this car buying confusion. Did I mention we are currently driving the car he owned when he departed earth, a Dodge Spirit? Really the Spirit is here in Las Vegas, a darn fine car for American Highways. In Mexico it wouldn’t last a week – it is sooo low to the ground. The topes would destroy its body and spirit post haste. What can I say it is an American low rider car body with a Japanese engine stuffed in sideways, which was about the time I really gave up working on cars – the motor is heading in a different direction than the car? I give up. Happy Fourth of July and Stay Tuned!

Being here in Las Vegas at this particular time has been a real eye opener. It is sad to see an area that was booming going through extremely stressful financial times.

There are some lessons to be learned here – some areas of Mexico might want to listen up.

A rule of thumb is when you continue to raise the values of housing to a point where the fabric of communities change the future can be problematic. What do I mean?

Because we are here on the scene and Las Vegas has been a model of all that can go wrong in relatively fast time I use it as an example. In the last ten years real estate boomed in Las Vegas. We watched lower to middle class housing appreciate in an alarming way. Building new houses was an incredible growth industry. People were offering thousands of dollars more than the asking price of homes – there was a buying frenzy for several years. Buy a house in 2000 and by 2005, in just five years, the house more than doubles often tripled. More than 20% increase in value per year while inflation was more like 2-3%.

In the years 2005-2006 real estate peaked. Today here in Las Vegas and many cities across America there are many houses that now have a book value of less than half of that peak.

While this was going on the interest rates were dropping. A lot of homeowners refinanced their homes to not only get a reduced interest rate but to extract some of their ‘found’ equity to buy new cars and make home improvements or take a trip to Europe. People were being ‘put in’ to houses they had no business buying by way of ‘creative’ lenders.

Those owning homes that cost say $110,000.00 found now it was worth three times that, and there was no end in sight – or was there? That end is here now and not only has the increase ended but the values are dropping faster than a golden parachute that won’t open from 10,000 feet.

Many, many people, especially those that bought near the top, are now seeing that they owe thousands of dollars more than their houses are worth – ugh! I see some areas of Mexico going down this road – a road destined to disaster. What to do?

I have always operated on the basis of buying a house for no more than replacement value. In other words if there is a lot of ‘blue sky’ in a property you could be faced with gray and even black skies in the future. Nothing goes away faster than blue sky ‘value’.

Building materials don’t often go down in price, raw land or lot prices may but still you can get an idea by asking what would it cost to build a house on this land relative to what it will cost to buy it already built – you need to factor in depreciation as well – appliances, heating and cooling systems, water heaters, roofs and more don’t last forever so be realistic about replacement value.

Do not get caught up in real estate areas where the agents and brokers are raving about the increases encouraging you to get in now before it is too late – because soon enough not only will it be too late but you may be holding real estate worth half what you owe on it. My opinion is few in the mortgage lending and real estate sales game have a conscious about what they can be doing to the future of an area. Turn a lot of middle class housing into upper middle class and higher cost real estate and eventually you will have a housing bubble burst.

Be smarter than getting caught up in the flurry and promise of unending growth. Let the buyer beware. Las Vegas is a bloodbath right now – foreclosures are massive and lost equity is huge! People are walking away from homes they refinanced or homes they bought 3 or 4 years ago in droves.

There will be recovery – but I don’t think the bottom has been hit yet. Variable loans are still pretty stable as interest rates haven’t gone way up – but rates are increasing and have the potential of added fuel to this fire exists.

Canadians and Americans have the potential to really disrupt the economy of Mexico; going in and paying exorbitant and yet amazingly reasonable relative prices as compared to where they left. We all need to look beyond, into the future and take a look at the model of cities like Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Read their news reports and see what in discriminant greed can do to a ‘thriving’ economy. It is sad to see here.

There are so many dominoes that have even yet to fall. As housing values fall 30-50%, loans are defaulting by record numbers, banks are closing, sub-prime loan officers are going to jail, governmental budgets fail to be funded from reduced value property taxation, loss of businesses, increased unemployment and even mass exodus and so on. All this while fuel prices have doubled in a year and the tourist business is suffering.
There will be recovery. People still need housing and more people are coming on the scene, but things will be different for a long time to come as this mess plays out – and remember when the United States and Canada sneeze Mexico catches a cold. Stay Tuned!

By now everyone knows George Carlin died the other day. I knew George vaguely. We sat in the green room of Doug Weston’s Troubadour on a number of occasions. He was a bright individual. We agreed on more than we disagreed. I have never been a proponent of using a lot of bad language – I tend to like to save those ‘special’ words for those rare occasions where when uttered they seem to be more forceful from economy.

I also would argue his lack of spirituality – but then I have seen him on more than one occasion look to God out of frustration – all the while disclaiming a faith. I can certainly share his dissatisfaction with most man made religion – but that is never a good subject for the likes of such an open forum.

George had three heat attacks before succumbing to the final event this last week. I have to wonder if his attack dog format of performance as well as the many hours of preparation wherein he was most likely in an explode mode over the things he railed against helped aggravate his heart problems. It has been suggested that one is better off not belaboring issues of discontent – could this have expedited his demise.

He caused me to laugh more than get angry on the many subjects he cleverly exploited. My personal favorites were his take on American history regarding white slave owners who came to the Americas for religious and otherwise freedom while stealing the land of the brown and red man and importing the black man as a slave – later on killing the yellow man as well – but you have to hear it the way he tells it.

We also agreed on the subject of education and politicians in the United States. I particularly liked his take on not voting and how those who spew out the sentiment that one doesn’t have a right to complain about the state of the government and country unless they vote. George says they have it backwards – and I agree Check it out.

Here is a lot of YouTube segments of George – they are all worth watching I think.

I‘m sure you, like me, won’t agree with all he has to say – he is an equal opportunity ‘trasher’. But few would deny his genius. His unique style missing leaves a hole in the fabric of entertainment and social criticism.

He made you think and laugh at the same time – there are very few that can do that for me. There are still less that can make Anita laugh…and now he is gone.

He had this to say about death:

“The most unfair thing about life is the way it ends. I mean, life is tough. It takes up a lot of your time. What do you get at the end of it? A Death! What’s that, a bonus? I think the life cycle is all backwards. You should die first, get it out of the way. Then you live in an old age home. You get kicked out when you’re too young, you get a gold watch, you go to work. You work forty years until you’re young enough to enjoy your retirement. You do drugs, alcohol, you party, you get ready for high school. You go to grade school, you become a kid, you play, you have no responsibilities, you become a little baby, you go back into the womb, you spend your last nine months floating…”

George you will be (are) missed. Stay Tuned!

Not long ago Anita and I were on a bus going from Xalapa to our Casita in Xico. The bus was standing room only. It was a warm day. This in town transit bus had all the character of the bus ride in “Romancing the Stone” sans the chickens.

Seated in the seat in front of me was a young woman. She was dozing on and off as the bus roared through the narrow roads to our colonia.

I noticed this hombre standing in the isle just to the side of the young woman’s seat. Each time she started to doze off I saw him cozy up to her and lean in with his hips thrust forward and a lascivious glint in his eye.

She would wake up and scoot closer in towards the window in an effort to avoid whatever this character was up to. It was quite the little scene to while away the 45 minute trip home.

Made me wonder what’s up with a guy like this? The other day I started reading a well written Blog by a single white female living in Mexico City on the recommendation of Nancy’s Blog.

I came across this August 2006 entry titled, “Me and Mr. Happy Pants.” As mentioned Erkia’s writing style is excellent and this entry is no exception. It caused me to recall the aforementioned bus ride scene.

You have to feel for what women are subjected to by us males – it sort of makes me ashamed to be part of the group frankly. Before this I recently read Jonna’s reflection’s on George Carlin’s passing – it is a hoot and in context with Erkia’s story. At least these two intelligent women can put a funny spin on the whole matter. I’m not sure I feel any better for it - but ….

I have added Erika’s Blog Link over to the left by the way.

It’s a HOT (currently 107 F) lazy Saturday here in sin city – apparently not the only locale with sin on the agenda. It will be worth your time to go read these two entries. Come on really go read them – I may test you later. Stay Tuned!

The last few Blog entries have been the ramblings of a grumpy old man. My amigo Joe from Idaho who regularly writes comments here, often suggests I lift my spirits and attitude up a couple of clicks.

I often defend accusations of grumpiness as quite simply the result and honest account of living a long life. My awareness includes how bleak things often can be - realistically. But that isn’t the complete story. Every now and then something happens that gives me hope. Hope is indeed a molecule – without it life has little meaning really.

Every person must discover for himself what the Good Life is and it can be found only if one will consult himself and his own nature alone.

Over to the left of here you will find a link to a fellow who goes by the name of Hollito. He lives in Germany; is married to a Latino lady. Hollito reads this Blog as I do his. His most recent entry is about hail damage to his car – I think – my German is weak at best.

Hollito actually speaks pretty good English as does his wife who called me this week regarding a package she was mailing to us here in Las Vegas.

A while back Hollito contacted me explaining that he had read in my Blog about the Camacho family – our friends Lydia, Vicente and their two children. He read my characterization of how fine of people they are and yet very poor lacking in an equal footing in life for the education of their children – something every parent wishes and hopes for their children. I wrote about how they have hope and aspirations for their children just like parents around the world do – they just want a chance for their kids to learn and better themselves; to have an opportunity to have a better life than theirs.

Out of the blue Hollito, a complete stranger, said he wanted to provide Lydia’s family with a computer. I explained if they had a computer I would provide them with an internet connection; and how great it would be for them to be able to access the Internet and utilize programs like a word processor and spreadsheet as well as the wealth of information that would open before them.

Lydia has expressed to us how she would like to provide her children with a computer, but quite simply they do not have the means. In conversations with Vicente he explained that if he ‘understood’ the computer he perhaps could get a desk job at the company he works for rather than do the back breaking work loading palettes of soda on delivery trucks 13 out of every 14 days. Their son Stephen comes to our house occasionally to get information for his school work. He sometimes takes the bus into Coatepec where he can use a computer at an Internet cafe - but this is a $2.00 trip - an hours wage for dad. So needless to say the prospect of providing them with a computer was exciting.

I should mention that I was skeptical. Why would this man Hollito, a complete stranger, want to do such a kindness for people he merely read about on the Internet? While agreeable to the suggestion I simply didn’t see this happening. But, he persisted writing me emails about the prospect. We traded ideas regarding the kind of computer that would be appropriate. He came up with a system that included 2 gb thumb drives for each child so they could have and maintain their own files. As candidate laptops came up to him he thought a full sized mouse would be better than the little red mouse ‘button’ that would come on an IBM laptop – I agreed. I also agreed that I would supply a Spanish keyboard and help them get started.

So we kicked some ideas around but all the energy was really supplied by Hollito. After several emails I began to take this stranger seriously. Occasionally I would read a comment he would make on my and other Mexico themed Blogs; he seemed real and was very likable by way of his writings.

As mentioned earlier in the week Hollito’s wife who is currently in The U.S. called here at the house in Las Vegas to confirm that we would be here to receive a Fed EX package. Yesterday afternoon the package was delivered here. A fine IBM laptop with everything we had discussed including a nice notebook case.

I fired it up. It connected to the wifi here – everything lit up – very cool! Now I am humbled by the kindness of this stranger and excited for our friends whose lives will be changed forever by this act of kindness by a stranger from a land far away caring enough about others to make a dream reality.

There are still some good people in this world. In the future when I am frustrated by man’s inhumanity to man, I will be able to call upon this kindness to lift my spirits. Truly there still are good people who care about others on the planet even living thousands of miles away.

There are times when all we Bloggers wonder whether the effort to write our stories to the screen in front of our faces; to send our diary entries to strangers via the world wide web; times when we think why am I bothering with this. Then there are the times when lives touch lives and people connect – those times remind us why we do it.

It takes a good heart to reach hands across borders and beyond shores; to give for no other reason then a care for others in the world. Now I have a friend in Germany that became that via this simple Blog. That friendship will open a door for a very poor and most deserving family – a Good Life thing. Stay Tuned!

Yet another painful, inane technicality.

Continuing the insurance saga from the previous entry, we finally got car insurance settled. So we embarked on the next step, to go on line and pay for our annual registration and license plate tags for our Dodge car from the State of Colorado.

We have four U.S. addresses in three states, each serving a purpose or two relating to banking, vehicles, item storage and any other reason to need a mailing address in the United States. Keep in mind we are mostly here in the States to take care of paying income tax, registering vehicles, renewing passport etc. details con red tape.

We own a house in New Mexico and are part owners of a house in Nevada. But we live in Mexico when we aren’t here to visit our son or deal with ALL this red tape.

It seems at every turn the Calypso’s are an anomaly. It is as if we are the only people living out of the Country. Every process we encounter has a problem attached to it or should I write ‘challenge’.

We wanted to get our Dodge car’s tags renewed one more time in Colorado. In attempting to renew our tags online we were advised that our insurance was in question (the insurance we re-established a couple of days ago). In other words their records showed we didn’t have insurance.

Anita called explaining that we live out of the Country but we do have vehicles here and we would like to continue to license them. They refused in no uncertain terms to accept the fact we have insurance – we were required to come in to the office in Pueblo, CO.

We explained this would be impossible prior to the expiration of the tags and respectfully request an accommodation as we are in another State – an ‘accommodation’ – what’s that! I am sure the computer wouldn’t allow this (as if they have a mind of their own – don’t you love it when something is out of a humans control because the computer won’t allow it?).

Apparently we are pretty much out of luck on this one. The car we drove here to Las Vegas will soon have expired tags, but it will have insurance. Our plan, if you can call it that, is to take our chances with the tags until we return to New Mexico where we will get new driver’s licenses and registrations – in the mean time we become part of the criminal element as of next Tuesday.

Conclusion: companies and governments make best effort to punish and charge extra when you don’t fit the mold of an average citizen living in one house, in one city and one state. We already carry full year insurance for driving in Mexico – anything over about two weeks of temporary Mexican insurance becomes just as well to purchase annual insurance. Apparently that is the same advice to be taken in the States although the insurance tab is substantially higher.

If you have been reading along you know a lot of our time here in the States has been devoted to tax filing, banking and vehicles. Today I am thinking perhaps it is simply less expensive and certainly less of a hassle to fly or take a bus to the United States – not keep a vehicle(s) in the U.S.

It has been over 104F almost every day of the nearly three weeks we have been in Las Vegas. We have setup banking relations with both Bank of America (Banco Santander in Mexico) and Citi Bank (Banco Banamex in Mexico). You will have to stay tuned to learn how the car registration saga wrings out. If you are confused about all this red tape – don’t feel like the Lone Ranger. Stay Tuned!

Of course the title immediately elicits thought of insurance for driving in Mexico – but this time we are talking about getting insurance in the U.S. for the time you are there when you primarily live in Mexico.

Thanks to computers and insurance lobbyists most states now have up to the minute information on the status of any car registered in their state and probably any other.

When I first started driving MANY years ago drivers were insured NOT cars – after all the car doesn’t make any mistakes or drive without a human. But in the infinite wisdom and greed of insurance companies at some point (further back then most remember) they changed the policy to insuring cars NOT drivers.

The logic behind this was of course GREED! Statistically they realized there are more cars than drivers in as much as many own several cars – so hey we will make more insuring cars rather than drivers – keeping in mind they certainly want to know EVERYTHING about the owner (driver) of the insured car(s).

OK so by now we are all pretty accustomed to thinking of insurance as it relates to our vehicle(s) rather than that of us drivers being insured. Now there are people that drive uninsured cars. This not only cuts into the insurance companies revenues, but the States as well in as much as the offending cars often are not currently registered with legal tags etc. And the insurance companies have lobbied state governments to enforce the requirement of the cars being insured, licensed, registered, smog tested etc.

The insurance companies have gained support from the populace by suggesting uninsured motorists’ costs all of “us” as someone has to pay for these accidents – but now they also have an assessment in their policies for being covered for uninsured motorist’s accidents – so we pay for this anyway.

They also have been working on requiring insurance to have no lapse in coverage even if you park the car 6 or more months out of the year or take it to Mexico where you insure it there. Man what a greedy bunch they are.

Let me write right off that I have no problem with, and I willing to pay for, my car(s) to be insured when I am in the country and driving them on U.S. highways. But to insist that we have our car(s) that are parked or covered with Mexican insurance while in Mexico insured in the U.S. is nothing less than robbery – I mean we are paying for insurance for a non-used vehicle. Is it just me or would you agree that this is essentially stealing from people?

We should be able to call or email our insurance carrier to reinstate an insurance policy when we plan on being driving our vehicle(s) in the United States – plain and simple. But, this is mostly problematic or not appealing to more greedy motives.

In California if you have a car on blocks in a garage to say rebuild sometime in the future and that future becomes years you will either continue to keep the plates and registration current or pay heavy fines, more than the cost of the ongoing registration and license fees for allowing the plates to expire. Basically these are fees and red tape that exist because you own something that potentially could be driven on a public road. This smacks of a form of usury in my way of thinking.

In a similar vein, here in Las Vegas housing values have been reduced almost across the board by 30% and more since last year – but try and get the state to roll-back your property taxes; that is not going to happen – another case of paying for something that does not exist in the context of how it was established (tax based on value). A car that will be not be driven on the roadways needing to be insured or a property tax based on more than your house is worth – by a lot.

It seems to me that these money collectors have little regard for much beyond gathering as much money as possible – does the word criminal fit here?

So the tags on our license plates expire at the end of this month (essentially in a week). We have been making phone calls and attempting to get everything in order to be able to LEGALLY drive on U.S. roadways with an insurance motor vehicle – but they are NOT making it easy on us.

There is a new twist by the way. In Colorado we can sign a waiver to not claim damage to our vehicle (and bodies I suppose) when either sustains damage via an uninsured motorists accident. Truthfully I didn’t know our insurance company would cover us under that scenario before. It seems like the risk is fairly minimal considering how heavy handed they seem to be about one having insurance.

We suggested to the carrier for our vehicles (Geico) that we happily pay for insurance before driving in the United States; but no after much ado we finally settled on paying for six months and then canceling anytime prior where upon they refund the balance. I can guess that this will not be a clean deal and there will be fees/penalties for early cancellation – but in any case some monies will be refunded.

I suspect this isn’t going to last because the States will balk about issuing tags for a year when there is a possibility (for sure in our case) that the legally tagged vehicle is uninsured (albeit parked or not driven within the United States.

Honestly I think they could all get it together whereby we could purchase insurance to cover our time in the United States but they want to collect money for nothing every chance they get. I should add so we are clear on this hazy mess that we only carry liability insurance so we needn’t argue the point of whether we would expect recompense if our parked vehicle(s) were damaged in some way (those acts of God and delinquent children).

I can see by the word counter that I am over my self-imposed word limit – whew I feel better; how about you? I hate red tape and insurance companies. I won’t get into how all effort is made by insurance companies to not pay for accident damage – perhaps Michael Moore would like to do a “Sicko” film on automobile insurance and car registration – I could help…Stay Tuned!

The heat wave continues. It hit 112F yesterday. It was the last day of my brother-in-laws vacation. We decided to take a ride across Las Vegas to visit Fry’s Electronics. We needed a monitor.

Fry’s is huge. The sales force is very aggressive to the point of pestering. When you checkout with your items it has the feeling of being released from jail. Deals can be had but you have to shop carefully. For example we recently purchased a 500 GB standalone hard drive at Sam’s Club for $99.00. The same drive was $139.00 at Fry’s; a full 40% higher.

There is a shopping center next to Fry’s that is top drawer – most of the major fine department type stores are there – really impressive. But the best shop was last.

We had a craving for a fish barbeque at the house. Richard (my brother-in-law) took us to Seafood City Market – oh my gosh!

If there is any disappointment in Xalapa-Coatepec-Xico it is the lack of fresh fish. Curiously the fish fillets we bought at Seafood City all came wild from Mexico .

Years ago I used to fish off of Mazatlan for sail fish and yellowtail. At that time yellowtail was my hands down favorite eating fish. Since that time it has always been hard for me to buy any yellowtail. The Las Vegas fish market not only had yellowtail steaks but whole fish as well.

The store had banana tree leaves which we thought was funny since they are all over our part of Mexico for the grabbing. The Seafood City Market is run by a Philippine family – apparently Philippinos have quite a presence in the Las Vegas area.

We bought sesame oil and some hard to find delectable items as well as tuna and yellowtail steaks. Wow they were excellent tasting. I relived my Mazatlan fishing experiences – it was terrific. There is something to be said for big cities now and again – access to fine exotic foods is certainly one of them.

I also ordered the clutch kit for the BIG white truck. We will have it installed in Mexico by our local master mechanic.

We are checking off things on our punch list in the United States slowly but surely. Now if we just have enough room in our Dodge car to get all our purchases back to New Mexico. Stay Tuned!

We are back from a couple days at Zion National Park in Utah.

Pictures simply do not do justice to the beauty of that area. The views are spectacular. We stayed in a screen room we bought rather than a tent – it was like sleeping out of doors – and with the full moon rising over the red peaks it was exhilarating even as we fell asleep.

Our less than primitive campground (ENLARGE Here)

Many, many years ago I hiked all around Zion including to the north where Brice Canyon National Park can be found. Now all these years later like Yosemite it is very organized with propane fueled shuttles and gift shops as well as $4.00 a can Budweiser beer.

I know there are a lot of people now and organization is a must – but it is also sad to see the wilderness tamed to the level of an amusement park; still a lovely place to visit – I recommend it.

I will include this one photo that has some uniqueness in that is was shot on the move through a mile long tunnel carved out of the stone where they had broken through an opening where the red striated rock and sunlight invade the otherwise very dark tunnel.

45 MPH through the dark tunnel - a window! (ENLARGE Here)

In the gift shop/visitor’s center I saw a girl typing away at her laptop. I asked if they had wifi in the building – no she was tied to her cell phone. I was surprised they had modernized up to but not including wifi – I didn’t bring a computer in any case – just asking

It was a fun short trip where the three siblings and me sat at the park bench playing a dice game drinking tequila and OJ until the Ranger came by and said it was past the noise curfew – wrap it up.

If you haven’t read Edward Abbey’s account of the modification/modernization of the area – read “The Monkey Wrench Gang.” A GREAT book that will leave you laughing and wishing for the good ol’ days.

Back to reality, my brother-in-law is on vacation for the entire week. I followed him across town to the dealership for his car for a warranty repair. $4.21 (the best deal in town for unleaded) – but I was astounded that the shop rate on the wall was $105.00 an hour – yikes! I had my entire transmission bell housing changed in Mexico. This required removing the giant transmission, storing in doors our BIG white truck for three weeks while waiting for the housing – complete repairs was 1000 pesos ($90.00 at the time).

I noticed on their service board it is 69.99 for an oil and filter change (labor only of course.) We pay $2.00 in Mexico. I don’t know is it just me or….

I have to get a grip. We are in Las Vegas – but please Stay Tuned anyway.