Stuff I've Learned

"It is IMPOSSIBLE to make educational advances against the raging currents of willfully ignorant people apart from Gods intervention."

Noise #@!@?!

I am waiting to get my hair cut.  In addition to my nonstop tinnitus, I am submerged in a painful racket of continual noise.  Linda and the stylist are talking, that is not bothersome to me, but outside the open door there is the crackle of a gasoline engine powering a pressure washer, passing traffic of which about half do not have mufflers.   There is an annoyingly loud talk program tuned in on the salons TV set, some bodies nearby  car alarm has been going off at exact 7 minute intervals and does its infernal whooping for about 5 minutes before it resets itself.  Hair clippers and hair dryers make their whirring contribution as well to the total decibel tally.  Quite often, here in Mexico, with its abundant and UNNOTICED BY MOST, noise pollution crisis, I have caught myself wondering what it would be like to own one of those sets of Bose noise canceling headsets.  The reprieve from chronic, obsessive, debilitating, LOUD, nonstop, senseless, inexcusable, noise would probably bring tears to my eyes.

The cockerel cacophony of endless crowing was silenced by the blessed flash of the butchers knife; there was a brief flapping of wings and followed by still, quiet, peace!  Ironically, it was death that had restored 'happily ever after' to our daily exsistence.  Dauntless in her mission, my wife dispatched a few of the noisier protagonists as effortlessly as I step on spiders.

The 2012 Move

The third week of May, 2012...
The last time we moved, it turned into a one day BLAST. The amount of damage and destruction was lamentable. This time we have taken all this week to pack up the delicate stuff and we have moved it ourselves a little at a time. Today, the truck and our help should (may?) arrive. A last minute mens meeting date change diverted most of the hopeful recruits we had lined up for getting help with the big furniture, a truck and a trailer.

Yesterday was a very interesting moving day:
*A person we are counseling called with a big crisis, he HAD to talk to me NOW. So I loaded the van and told him that I could talk with him while we took and unloaded stuff. I don't think that those boxes were put where we wanted to put them, when I am distracted the wierdest things happen.

*People kept calling to tell us why they could not help, Im not sure how many times I had to pull off the road to answer the cell phone. After telling us this most of them wanted to continue with LONG casual conversation. Im sure that I made the "bad missionary" cultural taboo gringo mistake when I said "hey, um... Im idling on the side of the road with stuff in the van and my wife waiting at the house to help me unload it, maybe, could we please chit chat at a less pressing time?"

*I went to buy gas for a van, as I left the street was unusually heavy with traffic so I just left the gates open. When I got back 4 big dogs were clawing and biting at the chicken wire trying to get into our chicken coop. Sahara (our Belgain Shepherd who was chained up- Yes, someone in Ensenada keeps their dog restrained) was going bananas, Linda was getting the garden hose to squirt them, the owner was in the park, sheepishly whistling for his 4 big unleashed killers to please come back. I felt that the scene before me was somewhat symbolic of an invisible diabolical strategy to foil our attempts to transfer our belongings from one residence to another. Does the enemy of our souls have some special thing against moving?

*In the late afternoon someone called from San Diego all frantic because they were bringing a load of building material to Ens. and they did not make it to the border on time, Mexican customs for big items had closed till Monday. He had been told to get there early enough to avoid this dilema, but he said that a trailer broke down on the way. ANYWAY, they needed a place to dump the contents of a 20 foot trailer until they could come back and complete the run. The Mex. brother asked me about a friend of ours from Laurel Bible Chapel who... we impose upon way too much for this kind of favor. Big sigh! By this time I was almost crossed eyed with frustration.

Now, it is 7:05AM, moving day. We will see what joys await.

House Hunting and Other Joys

First things first, why disturb an insanely busy life with a big housing change?  1.We need to move closer to the church and where the bulk of the believers live.  Convenient for us, but most importantly, convenient for them to stop by when ever they wish.  2.Transportation costs continue to grow, living an extra 10 minutes away from your work zone does increase cost.  If we found something close enough for us to walk to meetings, the grocery store, and other offices that we frequent that would be a big boon to the pocket book and the exercise regimen.  3.At our current house the rent is pretty steep.  When we moved here, the market did not present any other alternatives.  The house is worth it, but it just draws too much from the economy right now.

Our hunting adventure has been interesting.  We have looked at some situations that would make living in a tree look more attractive.  Almost every house has what I call the "childrens toy box" architecture features.  Just look in any childs toybox and you will get the idea; disorder, things haphazardly thrown in without much thought, home features that appear upside down, doorways too small or crooked for an erect homo sapien to walk through, stairways that sneak up on you as you are watching the precarious steps below, suddenly you hit your head on the inadequately cut cement opening above.


Number 1: Four BR, 2 1/2 bath, lots of fenced parking, very secure, patio & yard space.
The first house we looked at had most of the features that we wanted, except that it had a bizarre ownership situation.  We would rent from the 'legal' owner, but the other owner (illegal?) may show up at any time and might not be too pleased with strangers occupying his hideout.  Um, cant really say more about that one, yeah.  The BAD, living with feelings of being a perpetual trespasser.

Number 2: Three BR, 3 bath, 2 kitchens (one burnt), very small secure patio, parking for 2 1/2 cars- if you can get them out or in!
The second house had a completely normal down stairs with 3 bedrooms, the owners attend the down town church and we are good friends so that made it more appealing.  The price was tremendous, but, the upstairs has a totally weird layout with an external stairway only, and it was partially repaired after a fire in it's second (?) kitchen.  It is located on a very busy 2 lane street that should have 4 lanes.  Every time that we have driven by in the past week, people were 'popping' into the stores on either side of the house, and parking their cars right in front blocking the gated drive way.  This is something that really burns my cookies.  These same people would kill us if we even dared to cover up 5 inches of their driveway making their exodus a little difficult, but they come, and block a driveway completely and smile and give the "don't worry, I'll be righty back" sheepish smile.  The traffic noise was intense, even as we were looking at the back bedrooms I wondered how we would survive so much noise.  The GOOD, price  The BAD, still far from the church, NOISE, vehicle access

Number 3: Four BR, 5 bathrooms, studio apt., very secure patio/parking for 3-4 cars, luxurious (not what were looking for), close to church.
Then there is the Hollywood Mansion.  Here is one of those houses that we would not even look at, except for the fact that one of the believers from our church has an arrangement with a friend and has obtained this place and wants to rent it to us, at an insane price.  The owner does not care to make money, he just wants to keep it occupied so that vagrants, squatters and other undesirables don't break in and dismantle the walls to get out copper wire and copper tubing.  Some vacant houses here have had illegal pharmaceutical manufacturing enterprises move in.  When the federal government raids one of these homes, whether it is rented legally or not, the government will take the property from the owner with out hesitation or recourse; often the government will bring co-conspirator charges against the owner of a property used for these purposes.

The GOOD, confidence with owner, good price, quiet neighborhood, very adequate for our massive entertaining activities, walking distance from church, grocery store, mail service, live in same neighborhood of about 1/2 of the believers from the church.

We advised the office that handles the rental of our current house that we will be leaving in the next couple of months.  We are praying that the disengagement from them will be favorable and without problems.

This is an ongoing story, will add as things progress.

Cornered and Desperate to Get Out!

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.

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.