Last night we were invited to a social event where the friend of a friend was going to tell us about a new coffee product. Um, I really don’t choose to go to this kind of thing on purpose. But Linda insisted that I need to get to know people in the community and develop my social skills, so against my better judgment, we went.
The sales man was totally enthusiastic, no, he was way too enthusiastic about his product. But the product was not the best part, the clever ‘pyramid sales structure’ was this amazing thing that was going to magically take us all to easy money heaven. De ja vu! Leon’s inner voice //I’ve been here before, very bad feelings are welling up from my past, creeping up into my consciousness like evil worn out underwear.//
I could see it coming, the big psychologically cloaked ‘condemnation’ that a thinking person gets when they dare to say NO to a salesman on drugs, “you’re so stupid for not allowing me to stimulate your excitement for my product beyond your reasoning ability; and make an irrational decision to give money and time to something you know nothing about!!” “Ack! Gag, Sputter!” This is the personality that ticks me off, it is the reason I don’t buy cars from a car lot or answer the door when the JW’s show up. I am an analytical thinker, I don’t get excited about things because some salesman’s body language, insistent voice, & ridiculous facial expressions are screaming “free gold, come, dive in!” In fact, I can already sense the cloaked insults that come as I say “NO thank you, I don’t make spur of the moment career decisions.” Working in the Emergency Room for 5 years trained me to firmly resist the ridiculous ranting of Chicken Little’s, and Lemmings and the euphoric invitations to share in their orgies of wild release from the scourge of self-control. Although, I remember laughing a lot while watching the chimps go berserk once at the Sacramento Zoo, but I do need to mention that on that occasion I also stayed outside of the cage.
Wouldn’t you know it, he singled me out of the crowd and baited me with questions that would make saying NO, spotlight me as STOO-PID. I am imagining this guys sales training session, the executive sales lead man, let’s call him ‘Slick’, says “Butch, choose the person in the crowd that looks like they’re really thinking, you know, someone who is not being fooled with the appeal to emotion.” “Then say these trick questions, like, ‘so buddy, have you stopped beating your wife yet?’” “You will effectively convince all the lemmings in the room that the most analytical person present is hiding the fact that they are going to endorse your stuff!” Im pretty sure that these tactics were used to get whole nations to support bad ideas like, Communinsm, Disco, Facism, 8-track stereo, 'More Spending solves Debt- Politics', and Global Warming.
One nice thing about being this side of 50, I forget experiences like last night with joyful ease.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
This thing I have about Sleep
I am a little finicky about getting a good, peaceful nights rest. Maybe one reason this is so important to me is because of the constant ringing of Tinnitus I suffer with, it sets me on edge with the nonstop noise all day. Eight hours of uninterrupted sleep helps me to get my wits toned for another day. Quiet evenings are one of the reasons I like it where we live now. Our last house was up on the North edge of town up against a mountain, except for the occasional plethora of stray dogs bursting into the canine version of "The Hallelujah Chorus", we mostly enjoyed quiet evenings.
The last two nights here have been a bit more of a challenge though. Across the basket ball courts in the park on the next block facing us there is a car wash that the owners seem to be keen on renting out for Disco and Karaoke festivals. I imagine that they must be renting the sound system from the national soccer stadium in Tijuana. The mind numbing volumes that they play the music at would transform the gentlest of neighbors into enraged homicidal maniacs. The music is bad enough but they have been giving children the microphones to entertain themselves at the expense of thousands of people laying in bed at 3AM, staring into the violated darkness, trying not to think of doing something illegal.
The last two nights here have been a bit more of a challenge though. Across the basket ball courts in the park on the next block facing us there is a car wash that the owners seem to be keen on renting out for Disco and Karaoke festivals. I imagine that they must be renting the sound system from the national soccer stadium in Tijuana. The mind numbing volumes that they play the music at would transform the gentlest of neighbors into enraged homicidal maniacs. The music is bad enough but they have been giving children the microphones to entertain themselves at the expense of thousands of people laying in bed at 3AM, staring into the violated darkness, trying not to think of doing something illegal.
Monday, October 17, 2011
October 17, 2011
We are thankful for safe travels and good visits this weekend. We came up to Wrightwood, CA for a planning meeting at camp for the Spanish Family Camp coming up in November. Also the believers at Grace Bible Chapel in Fullerton, CA had asked us to visit and tell them about the work in Ensenada. It was good to see many friends on this trip and have a break in our routine. We stopped by Paul and Becky Kerseys house in Westminster, to pick up the T shirts he bought for camp (quality brand, super cheap!) and had a great time visiting with them. We both feel rested and are ready to get back home. Our book keeper is sending some documents from Nebraska by overnight mail that we have to sign and re-mail so we will be in San Diego an extra day to visit with Gracie. That’s fine! We haven’t been able to visit with her for two months!
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Televisions, Autos- boring! Now their stealing copper wire!
The economy in NW Mexico is pretty bad. How bad? Well, we need to distance ourselves from our regional economic perspective and really do the math (converting $'s to pesos and converting the average US wage to the average Mex. wage) to see how hard my good friends and neighbors here have to work to survive. Lets really put ourselves in the Baja, Mex. workers shoes and see what they're up against.
Comparing the average Mex. worker wage with the US wage gives us roughly a 7.5 to 1 ratio. Lets call this ratio the "Comparative Cost" or CC. What does that mean? It means that if the average person in San Diego, California is making about $11.00 an hour, here in Ensenada the average laborer is making about $1.47 an hour. From talking with a lot of my friends, this is a fairly accurate figure for here. Just a note: Ensenada is much more prosperous than other parts of Mexico, people flock here looking for the highly touted 'good paying jobs' and excessively rumored 'strong economy'. Sure, gas & diesel are cheaper here, for US incomes, but the real question is how hard does the purchase of gas, diesel, milk, eggs, & cheese impact the economy of the Mexican worker. This will really make your eyes bug out! We are groaning with $3.80 to $4.00 a gallon gasoline in the States. Here in this oil producing nation, the gasoline is fluctuating around $2.40 a gallon. If you do the math with a Mexican income, it is as if they are paying (remember, CC)$18.00, US dollars, a gallon. No wonder no one wants to steal cars with V8 engines! The 4 cyl Toyota's and Nissan's are still hot items though. One gallon of milk cost us yesterday 43 pesos, that is equivalent to $3.48 in US dollars at today's wildly fluxuating exchange rates. But you can see why for many Mexican households milk is a luxury at (CC)$26.10 per gallon. A flat of 30 eggs cost us 50 pesos, that figures out to about $1.62 US dollars a dozen, the CC is $12.15 US dollars per dozen. I won't even mention cheese, It has always cost twice as much here for a comparative quality cheese in the US.
Electricity costs: this has been a challenge for me to explain to people in the States. This is going to get a little 'nerdy' at first, but please bear with me, clear understanding of electrical usage and expense is going to be more and more important as time goes by for all of us. It is essential to understand electricity usage before it becomes an out of control money pit, draining our precious few resources. I will endeavor to bring understanding to this for two reasons, first, so that my friends and family stateside can be thankful, even in these days of crisis and increasing cost, for how good they really have it. And secondly so that you can understand what many in other parts of the world are struggling with.
A few internet searches revealed that the average US household uses about 950 Kwh a month of electricity. I checked with two friends in the Pacafic NW and found this to be accurate. I found our own Pacific Power and Light bills from 1995, a family of 5 living in Yakima, Washington, and our average use was 700 Kwh per month. Technical stuff: A kilowatt hour (Kwh) is the standard measure of electrical usage and it is how our bills are calculated. A 100 watt bulb that is left on for 10 hours will consume approximately 1 Kwh of electricity. Our freezer here in Ensenada uses about 1.65 Kwh of electricity a day in summer. In our time here we have always tried to limit our use of electricity. from 2001 to 2005 our average monthly usage here in Ensenada, Mexico was 410 Kwh/month. From 2007 through current our average monthly usage has been about 316 Kwh/month. There are two reasons for the decrease of use, the prices have been going up causing us to conserve and convert to fluorescent lighting and more economical appliances, and in the past we had all three children living with us as well as 2 or 3 guests. We have strictly limited or stopped the use of the toaster oven, microwave, and the electric coffee maker in exchange for the use of the gas stove & oven for cooking.
Help! Someone is swiping my wallet!
This past winter the Mexican power commission made some outrageous rate adjustments. If we as a residential customer use more than 250 Kwh per month, we are upgraded to the distinguished 'Luxury Power User' status. What does that mean in billed cost? It means a bold faced GOUGE! It means that we have two curves to cope with, the per bill rate curve and the yearly use quota scale. These two pricing modifiers "piggy back" causing the cost of electricity to increase almost exponentially! "Excuse me folks, I've used up my quota for the day, I have to shut off my PC and continue writing this article tomorrow." Well, that's where we are headed! Practically speaking, last spring our electricity costs went up from a difficult .14 cents US dollars per Kwh, to and impossible .37 cents USD per Kwh. If that rate was charged in the "average" US home your electrical bill would be more than $350.00 per month.
Needless to say we have been scrambling to keep our electricity bill as low as possible. Five years ago we left outdoor fluorescent lights on all night for security. Now our home looks like a haunted house. Then we left our PC on all day (about 180 watts), now we turn it on standby every chance we get (about 11 watts). In the past we left our laser printer on standby, now we only plug it in to print. The laser printer must keep some internal parts hot to enable quick print times, this means that there is frequent 800 watt power pulses as the device is kept ready for any immediate possible use (the energy cost we pay for convenience is astounding!). Our VCR and TV were using 38 watts just sitting there, shut off, 24 hours a day. Now they are left unplugged when not in use. I purchased an economical device for measuring Kwh usage (www.smarthome.com search for "kill a watt"). While using this simple device I learned that our freezer is 20% more economical if the windows in the back room are left open during the summer days and we don't go beyond 90% full load of food and If we defrost it periodically. On the hottest days I put a small fan by the freezer compressor to help cool it, even with added usage of the fan, the freezer is 5% more efficient. Over time we have opted for the front load clothes washer. This has been another BIG energy and water saver!
I am thankful that we have been able to evolve into a more energy efficient mode. Unfortunately, it has come at a cost. The front load clothes washer cost almost 3 times more than what a top loader would. But it uses about 1/3 the amount of water and here in Baja, water is very expensive. I wonder about my Mexican friends, their money situation does not allow for these options. Here you can buy big, older American refrigerators cheap, but they consume 2 to 3 times more energy than a newer more efficient model. Confronted with the option of paying $150 for an older used American model or $800 for a new refrigerator, guess what many Mexican homes end up with? Only to have to shut it off after a couple of shocking power bills and push it into a corner of the patio as a monolithic monument reminding us of the long lost times of cheap electricity.
The surge of industrial growth in China has caused steel and copper prices to go sky high here in Mexico. Thieves here will have all the wiring stripped out of a vacant house very fast. Some have even managed to steal copper wiring right off from the power poles! People have been stealing anything they can resell. Power meters are stolen from homes and sold in Guatemala, Water meters are stolen at night and sold to whoever will pay without asking any questions. In the past, most crime has been linked with alcohol abuse, drug usage or just laziness. But the economic situation has increased the desperation of the average person on the street and now some are committing crime for lack of food and shelter.
We definitely live in a different world, and things keep on changing. We must keep ahead of the raging currents to survive.
Comparing the average Mex. worker wage with the US wage gives us roughly a 7.5 to 1 ratio. Lets call this ratio the "Comparative Cost" or CC. What does that mean? It means that if the average person in San Diego, California is making about $11.00 an hour, here in Ensenada the average laborer is making about $1.47 an hour. From talking with a lot of my friends, this is a fairly accurate figure for here. Just a note: Ensenada is much more prosperous than other parts of Mexico, people flock here looking for the highly touted 'good paying jobs' and excessively rumored 'strong economy'. Sure, gas & diesel are cheaper here, for US incomes, but the real question is how hard does the purchase of gas, diesel, milk, eggs, & cheese impact the economy of the Mexican worker. This will really make your eyes bug out! We are groaning with $3.80 to $4.00 a gallon gasoline in the States. Here in this oil producing nation, the gasoline is fluctuating around $2.40 a gallon. If you do the math with a Mexican income, it is as if they are paying (remember, CC)$18.00, US dollars, a gallon. No wonder no one wants to steal cars with V8 engines! The 4 cyl Toyota's and Nissan's are still hot items though. One gallon of milk cost us yesterday 43 pesos, that is equivalent to $3.48 in US dollars at today's wildly fluxuating exchange rates. But you can see why for many Mexican households milk is a luxury at (CC)$26.10 per gallon. A flat of 30 eggs cost us 50 pesos, that figures out to about $1.62 US dollars a dozen, the CC is $12.15 US dollars per dozen. I won't even mention cheese, It has always cost twice as much here for a comparative quality cheese in the US.
Electricity costs: this has been a challenge for me to explain to people in the States. This is going to get a little 'nerdy' at first, but please bear with me, clear understanding of electrical usage and expense is going to be more and more important as time goes by for all of us. It is essential to understand electricity usage before it becomes an out of control money pit, draining our precious few resources. I will endeavor to bring understanding to this for two reasons, first, so that my friends and family stateside can be thankful, even in these days of crisis and increasing cost, for how good they really have it. And secondly so that you can understand what many in other parts of the world are struggling with.
A few internet searches revealed that the average US household uses about 950 Kwh a month of electricity. I checked with two friends in the Pacafic NW and found this to be accurate. I found our own Pacific Power and Light bills from 1995, a family of 5 living in Yakima, Washington, and our average use was 700 Kwh per month. Technical stuff: A kilowatt hour (Kwh) is the standard measure of electrical usage and it is how our bills are calculated. A 100 watt bulb that is left on for 10 hours will consume approximately 1 Kwh of electricity. Our freezer here in Ensenada uses about 1.65 Kwh of electricity a day in summer. In our time here we have always tried to limit our use of electricity. from 2001 to 2005 our average monthly usage here in Ensenada, Mexico was 410 Kwh/month. From 2007 through current our average monthly usage has been about 316 Kwh/month. There are two reasons for the decrease of use, the prices have been going up causing us to conserve and convert to fluorescent lighting and more economical appliances, and in the past we had all three children living with us as well as 2 or 3 guests. We have strictly limited or stopped the use of the toaster oven, microwave, and the electric coffee maker in exchange for the use of the gas stove & oven for cooking.
Help! Someone is swiping my wallet!
This past winter the Mexican power commission made some outrageous rate adjustments. If we as a residential customer use more than 250 Kwh per month, we are upgraded to the distinguished 'Luxury Power User' status. What does that mean in billed cost? It means a bold faced GOUGE! It means that we have two curves to cope with, the per bill rate curve and the yearly use quota scale. These two pricing modifiers "piggy back" causing the cost of electricity to increase almost exponentially! "Excuse me folks, I've used up my quota for the day, I have to shut off my PC and continue writing this article tomorrow." Well, that's where we are headed! Practically speaking, last spring our electricity costs went up from a difficult .14 cents US dollars per Kwh, to and impossible .37 cents USD per Kwh. If that rate was charged in the "average" US home your electrical bill would be more than $350.00 per month.
Needless to say we have been scrambling to keep our electricity bill as low as possible. Five years ago we left outdoor fluorescent lights on all night for security. Now our home looks like a haunted house. Then we left our PC on all day (about 180 watts), now we turn it on standby every chance we get (about 11 watts). In the past we left our laser printer on standby, now we only plug it in to print. The laser printer must keep some internal parts hot to enable quick print times, this means that there is frequent 800 watt power pulses as the device is kept ready for any immediate possible use (the energy cost we pay for convenience is astounding!). Our VCR and TV were using 38 watts just sitting there, shut off, 24 hours a day. Now they are left unplugged when not in use. I purchased an economical device for measuring Kwh usage (www.smarthome.com search for "kill a watt"). While using this simple device I learned that our freezer is 20% more economical if the windows in the back room are left open during the summer days and we don't go beyond 90% full load of food and If we defrost it periodically. On the hottest days I put a small fan by the freezer compressor to help cool it, even with added usage of the fan, the freezer is 5% more efficient. Over time we have opted for the front load clothes washer. This has been another BIG energy and water saver!
I am thankful that we have been able to evolve into a more energy efficient mode. Unfortunately, it has come at a cost. The front load clothes washer cost almost 3 times more than what a top loader would. But it uses about 1/3 the amount of water and here in Baja, water is very expensive. I wonder about my Mexican friends, their money situation does not allow for these options. Here you can buy big, older American refrigerators cheap, but they consume 2 to 3 times more energy than a newer more efficient model. Confronted with the option of paying $150 for an older used American model or $800 for a new refrigerator, guess what many Mexican homes end up with? Only to have to shut it off after a couple of shocking power bills and push it into a corner of the patio as a monolithic monument reminding us of the long lost times of cheap electricity.
The surge of industrial growth in China has caused steel and copper prices to go sky high here in Mexico. Thieves here will have all the wiring stripped out of a vacant house very fast. Some have even managed to steal copper wiring right off from the power poles! People have been stealing anything they can resell. Power meters are stolen from homes and sold in Guatemala, Water meters are stolen at night and sold to whoever will pay without asking any questions. In the past, most crime has been linked with alcohol abuse, drug usage or just laziness. But the economic situation has increased the desperation of the average person on the street and now some are committing crime for lack of food and shelter.
We definitely live in a different world, and things keep on changing. We must keep ahead of the raging currents to survive.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Top Shelf Cristianity
Top Shelf Christianity
Aren’t we putting maturity in Christ and opportunities to grow in leadership beyond the reach of others when we boast of our unique and long gone opportunities? Do we give others the impression that beyond what they know, there exists a surreal Elite Christianity waiting to give them special certifications, if they can just experience the right kind of activity or meet and rub shoulders with the right popular personalities? Don’t get me wrong, I have been blessed by well known radio ministries and have even met some of these people. But I believe that it would be terribly wrong to wear these issues like a decorated general before those that I am discipling and try to WOW them with the idea that I have a special inside angle on Christianity because I met or was taught by ‘so and so’. It is almost as if were saying “just try to top THAT!”
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Colorado
The day before yesterday (May 29, 07) we drove from somewhere out West of Omaha, NE to Denver, CO on interstate 80. We knew that there would be rain with a chance of some thunderstorms. It was a nice day for driving for the first 2/3 of our trip, even hot and muggy until we got close to North Platte in South Western NE. We stopped by a couple of Weather and Information Rest Areas. The staff were asking the motorists about the weather from East and West of there. That seemed curious, I had hoped that they would be the information givers for our travels. At two of the Rest Areas they told us that their equimpment was not working. I was looking at the menacing sky and wondering what to do out on the road if we saw a tornado. I looked at an older couple that were dressed in their black cycle leathers and driving his and her Harley Davidsons, wondering if their leathers would shrink when they got wet. I was thinking of finding an overpass and trying to wedge the Suburban up underneath the overpass as high as possible for shelter. We were listening to the radio and every 10 minutes or so we heard weather alerts, but there were no tornadoes yet, just tornado watches for SW Nebraska and NE Colorado; pretty much the course of our planned travels for the afternoon.
As we entered NE Colorado a new alert was broadcast on the radio sighting two new tornados that had formed in the area South of where we were driving. The rain was coming in bands and the wind was laying down all the prarie grass pretty much horizontal. Grace had chosen this as the time to practice driving, heh! The car was a little hard to keep on the road with the heavy gusts & poor visibility. Linda kept reminding me that maybe I should drive during these life and death situations. I felt a little woozy from all the weaving and correcting at the helm.
Later that evening in our room in Denver we saw on the evening news that they were recieving a hail storm beating during our approach. The hail was as big as grapes in some areas, other areas were blanketed with 4" of the freezing stuff. Even the mountain dwellers of Denver were caught off guard. People were walking and slipping around in shorts and flip-flops trying to get to shelter during the sudden storm.
As we entered NE Colorado a new alert was broadcast on the radio sighting two new tornados that had formed in the area South of where we were driving. The rain was coming in bands and the wind was laying down all the prarie grass pretty much horizontal. Grace had chosen this as the time to practice driving, heh! The car was a little hard to keep on the road with the heavy gusts & poor visibility. Linda kept reminding me that maybe I should drive during these life and death situations. I felt a little woozy from all the weaving and correcting at the helm.
Later that evening in our room in Denver we saw on the evening news that they were recieving a hail storm beating during our approach. The hail was as big as grapes in some areas, other areas were blanketed with 4" of the freezing stuff. Even the mountain dwellers of Denver were caught off guard. People were walking and slipping around in shorts and flip-flops trying to get to shelter during the sudden storm.
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