We Just Cannot Let It Go - November 20th

living.boondockingmexico@yahoo.com

This photo taken during the week is a giant picture frame sculpture.  It is located along the river that runs through Monterrey and if you pass it just right, you can capture this view of our famous Cerro de la Silla (Saddle Back Mountain).  For me, this represents the somberness we are now living with 5300 deaths here in Monterrey and now 102,000 deaths nationally bringing the Covid death rate to 9.8 per 100,000.  

With all due respect, I wrote this in the morning after listening to our illustrious president go on for two hours recounting the great Mexican Revolution.  Here is what it says:

A Brief History of the Mexican Revolution

Obregon and Calles killed Pancho Villa.

Venustiano Carranza killed Emiliano Zapata.

General Herrera (under Obregon and Calles) killed Venustiano Carranza.

Jose de Leon Toral, a Catholic leader of the Cristeros war (Catholics against the government), killed Alvero Obregon.

Then, Calles was exiled to the U.S. by Lazaro Cardenas.

And after 110 years, Mexico continues to live in poverty.

I'm not sure why we are still celebrating an event that has only driven Mexico even further into extreme poverty.  The whole thing was one giant power struggle.  The names listed above were the "heroes" of the revolution.  You know Pancho Villa and Zapata, the others were regional or national presidents in a very short period of time.  They all killed each other.  Zapata in the south and Pancho Villa in the north were actually rivals in the fight over supposed liberty.  

In our continued fight for our fair share of tax pesos in the north, the alliance that has been created between 10 states continues.  I always try to present facts such as those above and these below.  Sorry for the bad photo but I took it from the news this week.   This is the percent of the informal economy that exists in Mexico.  The north with the least amount and the south with the most.  Yet the south receives the majority of the redistribution of taxes.  I have found some very good statistics which I will be posting show the amount of taxes paid, types of taxes collected, and the amounts of redistribution to the states.  This chart though pretty much sums it up.  How will we ever overcome poverty?  I ask you.

With all of this free time and the cool weather that has been coming our way, I decided to fire up the oven to make a cake, some muffins, and this weekend more bread.  Here is a delicious homemade pound cake covered in the best chocolate icing I have ever made.  There are two ingredients in the frosting that aren't exactly secret but they are specific.  One was the brand of butter and the other the chocolate. 

Incredibly good and I doubt it will last very long.  What the heck.  It's winter, we are in lockdown and a few pounds will come off even though I continue to exercise.  Fauci has said that camping is good, not rving in an rv park.  So we may still get a chance at the end of this month to take off for a couple of weeks and do some "camping", hopefully boondocking.  I spent most of this morning getting the rv ready.  After we had the metal work done on the new battery and gas LP trays, I had some issues with the holes that were made to secure the LP trap to the hitch.  The holes were worn out and too big.  Today I used something similar to JB Weld.  Worked great.  

I cleaned the Mr. Heater and fired it up so we are good to go for cold nights.  We still remember waking up on that return trip from Mazatlan high up in the mountains of Durango.  No LP, no heat, and the temperature was -9C.  Worst of all, no way to make coffee.  That will never happen again!