Wednesday, November 10, 2021

A Visitor And A Rush To The Border

living.boondockingmexico@yahoo.com

First things first.  We had a visitor stop by.  I received a message from Wandering Mike who was heading towards the border.  He spent the night in a nearby town and last Sunday we met in the plaza in Santiago.  A real treat.  The last time we saw Mike was on his turf in Alpine, Tx two and half years ago.  






We had breakfast and then went for a walk around the plaza and talked about life in general, politics both here and in the U.S., and off he went for the border.  He'll be back and we can spend more time together hopefully seeing the sights.

Exactly seven years ago this next week I replaced our standard water heater with an on-demand water heater.  I worked great until this year and it started having hiccups.  I paid $70 USD for it in 2014.  This last week it petered out and we took it in for repair.  The control board was dead and it couldn't be revived.  It served us well and saved us a ton on LP gas usage.  It was a pain to have to turn it on in the morning for an hour and then remember to turn it off.  The latter was always an issue and it used up the gas, plus it was way too big.  We take quick on/off showers anyway so smaller was better.  

This time around we purchased a Krueger which the repair guy recommended.  This one is double the size (the other was pretty small and not meant for a whole house although it did the job) and it cost $150 USD.  What a huge difference, the hot water really is on-demand.  

Today was the opening of the U.S. border and it's been on the news since last night.  Some bridges have very little traffic and others kilometers-long lines.  Those are larger cities like Reynosa where relatives haven't seen each other since March of last year.  We may go on Wednesday to check it out and see if we can get through and maybe find a booster shot.  There are some things we want to buy that I just can't find here.  One thing is the bathroom rug sets.  They sell them but we are looking for the ones with the contour that goes around the toilet base.  Not here, not even online.  

The RV still sits in the driveway waiting to go somewhere.  I checked the batteries and cleaned the posts and cables.  The tires are good so we hope that December will be the month.  We have a housesit this next weekend in SMA, which gives us a chance to see the advancement of the repairs and paint on our new place.  The housesit has two dogs, Sky and Bonnie.  We can't wait to take them out on their walks and have them wake us up in the mornings. 

We were loosely planning a family get-together in Kansas City but we backed out.  Still no booster shots and all of the airline flight cancellations, we decided we didn't want to waste time sitting in the airport connections.  My brother from Hawaii sent me an email on Saturday saying the same thing.  

Things will all come together and we'll be doing more and more things as time goes on.

Our illustrious wizard appeared at the United Nations as a speaker on security, corruption, and poverty.  Wow, all of the things he has not been able to accomplish at home he told the world leaders how it should be done.   He recommended that the richest 1000 human beings on the planet along with the richest 1000 corporations each donate 4% of their incomes to the project.  He then went on to say that with that money we could feed 750 million of the world's poorest people.   However, to do that we shouldn't put the money in the hands of NGO's or government officials.  Instead, he recommended that the money directly to each of the individuals via a bank card.  Imagine that, an ATM in the middle of the Sahara Desert so that people could get their money.

The Russian delegate laughed him off and said no thanks to the invitation to participate.  He claims to have gotten the support of some 47 of the 199 countries.  Wow, that's a whopping 25%.  On his trip home via a commercial flight, he was booed off the airplane upon landing by his fellow Mexicans.

The word is going around that INM, Mexican immigration, will be checking on all of us and we should all be prepared with our proof of residency and/or tourist cards.  I've been saying that for years to all the people who slough in and out without giving any mind to the rules.  Maybe now people will pay attention.


1 comment:

  1. It's always fun to get together with Mike! I'm happy to see that you and Juan are well and traveling. Have fun in SMA!

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