Pat brought home a fantastic book from Merida that covers many aspects of adapting to a long-term life there. I read about half of it today.

We're currently trying to figure out how to arrange spending next winter there. It's been five years since we were on the verge of heading down there from California, when we instead Shangaied ourselves here on the Eastern edge of the Rockies.

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Last week I ran across an article online that described the expected increase in the number of US citizens who will likely seek a life in Mexico of other Latin American destinations as they realize that (now more than ever) they have no hope of a comfortable retirement North of the Border (NOB). It may be a little stressful adapting to the different culture and being away from friends and family, but for some folks this will beat gathering carts at the MaoMart parking lot when they are 85 years old.



On a sort-of-related note, if you have a peek at the Failed Banks link at the top right side of my blog page, you will see that we already have our first two of 2009.

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Friday was a pretty good day, up to around 4:29pm. I only handled a few calls during the day, but they were complex and lengthy ones. I was logged back in for about twenty minutes before the nominal end of my day, which is supposed to occur at 4:30pm. I was looking forward to home and a walk with the dog, maybe a little nap, then dropping by a party a local artists' coop was having to celebrate moving into new space. Maybe followed by a nice Mexican dinner...

But - I didn't log out quick enough as departure time approached. When the call came in, I took it, hoping for a quick resolution.

Not quite.

Three and a half hours later, I was still on the call, trying to sort out the problem(s), and finally had to throw in the towel, leaving the customer with several tasks to be completed before calling us back Monday morning for further assistance. I was so tired and rattled by the demands of the call and my distress over being stuck there, that I didn't really get good documentation together for the call, so I ended up going in Saturday for a half-hour just to create some useful notes to help out the next engineer who might get the call Monday.

A few more evenings like this and I will be ready for a quick disengagement.

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Well, today I joined my brethren (and sistren?) in India and elsewhere as a call center person taking customer inquiries about the stuff we support. Overall our customers are pretty much a cut above ordinary consumers, as they are mostly professionals, and as luck would have it are about as professional with us on the phone as we are expected to be with them.

I expected to have a few more days of easing into the solo operation post-training, but my cell..er..cubicle-mate was taken ill at the end of last week, and has been out all this week, so I sat in here and there, and today when the manager found me sitting alone at my workstation she suggested I try going it alone, so I did.

It went OK for the most part. Pleasant customers and fairly benign technical issues. Tomorrow will be the first full day on the phones, trying to adhere to the routine schedule.

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Our friend DeAnn in California has been sending us fruitcake for some years now, when we are unable to attend their Christmas party where it is a standard feature. This is the good fruitcake from Texas, with lots of pecans and other good stuff.

The box showed up today - and gave us a big smile. So much trouble she goes to for this little gesture...


Already half gone...

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With the winter days so short, I can really only enjoy a long walk with the Mdog on the weekends now that I am working wage-slave hours. On days like today, though, when it is only about fifteen degrees out, I try to keep the walks shorter to avoid damage to her little feet.



She spends a great deal of time sleeping these days. It saddens me to see her slowing down as she rapidly ages, but she is still a happy dog, and I am grateful for the time I get to spend with her.

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Mom and her truck.


Becky and her truck.

This afternoon, I went through a box of old slides I held on to when I disposed of a bunch of things over four years ago as we prepared to sell the house and, uh, move to Mexico. At the time, I had many boxes full of maybe several thousand slides, both mine and many from my Dad. Dad used to make quite a ritual of setting up the slide projector and screen, and showing his photos to the family.

I gave some of the more historic slides to my niece, and saved those slides that I though might have some meaning for me or the rest of the family. I didn't spend a lot of time examining them at the time, or sorting them in any particular order.


Mom relaxes with a mentholated cigarette and her Joy of Cooking. I deduce this is around Christmas, for on the table there is a plate of the family heirloom cookie, the almond crescents - looking exactly like the ones I baked just a couple of weeks ago.

This afternoon, as I viewed them with a small magnifier, it was a pretty odd and oddly moving adventure. I was taken back to almost everywhere I ever lived; Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, New Hampshire, Upstate New York, and some places I visited briefly outside the country.

I saw my mom holding me, and looking happy about it - in more than a few scenes. Something I wish I had a memory of, but am happy with the photographic evidence that she seemed pleased with her little boy.



Even my dad, who I mostly recall being disappointed with me showed a few signs of happy parenthood.



I was able to scan a few of these photos with my basic old flatbed scanner to reproduce here, and will find some context for posting a few more soon. Later I plan to acquire a specialized slide digitizing scanner, so I can burn all the family stuff to CD so everyone who wants to can have a copy of everything.


Dad is duded up for the in-laws (this is at the home of Mom's parents), I guess. Even cradles a pipe in his hand.


Dinner at Grandma's house. Dad no doubt took this photo. Mom is on the left edge, peering over her older brother Billie's head. Grandma, who left us only three weeks ago, presides from the far end. I believe only two people in this photo are still with us.

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Looks like I am starting out the year as a total geek - I just spent two hours doing packet-captures on my PC, trying to troubleshoot an audio streaming problem from National Public Radio (NPR), an then blogging about it...

I use a modified HOSTS file, that blocks connection to various advertising and malicious web sites. A very good thing normally, and something more folks should probably look into.

However, NPR now runs ads prior to each audio content clip (kinda ironic), and if I block those, I don't get no Daniel Schorr (horrors!) commentary.

So I downloaded a nice free packet capture program, and monitored what was happening when the audio clip failed to play. I was able to see the connections needed (one of them is in the blue lines in the screen shot above, in case you are curious) that were being blocked by the HOSTS file entries, and comment those out (see below) to make things work properly.

#127.0.0.1 view.atdmt.com #[eTrust.Tracking.Cookie]127.0.0.1 Atlas DMT]
#127.0.0.1 www.atdmt.com #[AveA Action Tag][Ewido.TrackingCookie.Atdmt]
#127.0.0.1 rmd.atdmt.com #[a898.x.akamai.net]
#127.0.0.1 spe.atdmt.com

As I said, the year is starting out on a geeky note. I blame the new job training.

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Meanwhile, right about this hour, Pat is arriving at Chichen Itza in central Yucatan, to explore one of the most amazing archaeological sites on the planet (and one of the officially designated Wonders of the World).


Uh, I guess I'll put my shoes on and walk the dog around the block.

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