Clip Joint

Got inspired to post this by a haircut entry from a blog I follow by a pleasant and well-spoken fellow who has made a home with his partner outside San Miguel de Allende.

For the past few years, I've put off haircuts for as long as I can stand it, then start watching for coupons for one of the local franchise hair places - maybe for eight or nine dollars.  With tip I am out the door for about ten to twelve bucks.  One of the highlights of my trip to San Miguel de Allende in February was a stop at a barber shop/hair salon for a two buck (maybe $2.75 with tip) haircut.  The place was carefully selected on the basis of walking by it randomly.

I couldn't fathom what the observer in the doorway was thinking.

The girl working looked very uncertain about my arrival, but we quickly negotiated the kind of haircut I would get (clippers on the side, scissors on top, short in the front), and I was out of there in about ten minutes.  From the attention I received from other patrons, it seemed evident that not many gringos dropped in.  The haircut was fine - I'm not very fussy and as I approach age 60 the attractiveness of my haircut is the among least of my worries.

The girl in the chair behind me captures the moment on her cell phone cam.

It's not just that I am cheap, and delight in getting things more affordably (although I am and do) - it is the whole experience of dealing with people, the style of the business, the signage and infrastructure...  Lots of things are just more fun to experience in Mexico.

OK, is it Mari or Mary?

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Watched a brilliant, ballsy environmental film a couple of nights ago. It was in the Netflix queue for a long time (streaming), and I hesitated to watch it because it didn't really sound all that great.  It was much better than expected. Pulls no punches and there was some heavy hitting, but combined with a gentle touch where needed.  The Age of Stupid is an independent film released in 2009 - I think it was much more effective than An Inconvenient Truth.  The animations were especially fun and satisfying.




There is a 'Making of' hour-long feature on YouTube that illustrates the difficulty of making an independent film like this, and further emphasizes the urgency of the issues that inspired it.

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So the boys at CERN think they may have observed a Higgs boson particle in the course of their multi-billion dollar particle accelerator antics. An NPR program invited listeners to submit a haiku to commemorate the event. Here's mine:

Wasted resource, science
Ignore real world problems
Physicist has fun

At least they haven't produced a planet-devouring black hole - so far....

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To RV, or not RV...

As I continue to ponder ways to extricate myself from this house and the recently noxious ashtray-like state of  Colorado, I have again been considering the possibility of living full time for a few months to a year in an RV of some kind.  This seems a better alternative to complete voluntary homelessness, which I envision as a series of short-term rentals off Craigslist or perhaps in cheap guesthouses SOB (south of the border).  If you are reading this and are a relative or old friend I have overlooked with an enormous house and dusty unused space (and driveway or curb space if I ever decide to get that RV) and would like for me to come and hang out at your place for a while you may contact me.  I'd contact you, but can't think of anybody this sounds like...

One the better high-end small U.S. RVs

After so many failed attempts to find a location and circumstances that inspire enough confidence and optimism to actually buy another house, I don't know any more what the best alternatives are.  I'm tired of the chores and expenses of home ownership in general, and especially in ill-fitting suburbia.  Do-it-yourself maintenance is getting really old, and hiring someone who will prove to be competent and affordable for any task is a big challenge.  At times it's like being an unpaid custodian and gardener - and the house seems of less value because living here is not in support of some meaningful activity.  Renting anywhere sucks these days and makes no financial sense - with zero percent interest persistent in the land, one can no longer take equity from a house sale and pay rent out of the interest on the deposited cash.  Vacancy rates are near zero, and rents are high and increasing, because of all the displaced foreclosure people and others who simply can't afford ownership - even with record-low rate lending.  Perhaps one day I will again enjoy owning and caring for a place in a more compatible location, but it seems that perhaps a respite might be in order, while other possibilities are explored.

A more modest but still expensive smaller RV

A cursory look at the RV possibilities has not been encouraging.  First of all, while in the rest of the civilized western world (you know, where they all have always enjoyed universal comprehensive  single payer health care with no hint of partisan controversy - but that's a subject for another post) there are many small, tasteful, well designed and engineered, higher mileage RV's.  In the U.S. market, on the other hand, they are (by my standards) mostly hideous, bloated, unimpressively designed and engineered gas guzzlers.  When I go to look at them at a dealer, or view ads online, I have to wonder who they are designed for and and marketed to.  Is the American market really limited to low-class idiots who think it's appropriate to fill a mass market RV with nightmarish combinations of beveled etched glass, garrishly patterned crushed velvet upholstery, plush carpet, flocked  wallpaper, ornate wood moldings, 'granite' countertops, and baroque light fixtures or even chandeliers?  The common faux luxury and trailer-trash version of imagined elegance are an embarrassment, and an insult to the sensibilities of anyone who values functionality and good design.  Really, who needs to imagine they are luxuriating in the Palace of Versailles while they are tethered to the KOA campround for the night?  There is an old oxidized fiberglass RV in my neighborhood recently branded 'Chateau'.  Really?  Wikipedia told me a chateau was "a manor house, or residence of the lord of the manor, or a country house of nobility or gentry".  Is this what the vehicle owner fancies himself to be engaged in while he sits within on his little camper closet potty in some forlorn RV park?  


There are a few U.S. or Canadian vehicles that a notch or two better than the usual rolling drek, but they usually offer much fancier pretentious amenities than I would  need or want, and the prices new are higher than a house in Vallejo, CA.  We have found one small customizer who does the kind of work and produces the kind of van I would like to own - but these vehicles are also quite expensive.

Then again, living here with no apparent prospects for a fulfilling life has an immeasurably high cost...

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Historical Context for the Great Recession

I saw a brief quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson in a film last night, and went to find the source (a book from 1856, called English Traits - in Chapter 10 titled Wealth). I was struck by the timeliness of the broader context - what has changed or been learned in the past 150 years?

"But harder still it has proved to resist and rule the dragon Money, with his paper wings. Chancellors and Boards of Trade, Pitt, Peel, and Robinson, and their Parliaments, and their whole generation, adopted false principles, and went to their graves in the belief that they were enriching the country which they were impoverishing. They congratulated each other on ruinous expedients. It is rare to find a merchant who knows why a crisis occurs in trade, why prices rise or fall, or who knows the mischief of paper money. In the culmination of national prosperity, in the annexation of countries; building of ships, depots, towns; in the influx of tons of gold and silver; amid the chuckle of chancellors and financiers, it was found that bread rose to famine prices, that the yeoman was forced to sell his cow and pig, his tools, and his acre of land; and the dreadful barometer of the poor-rates was touching the point of ruin. The poor-rate was sucking in the solvent classes, and forcing an exodus of farmers and mechanics. What befals from the violence of financial crises, befals daily in the violence of artificial legislation."

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Today, I went to the weekly Saturday puppy rescue adoption event and gave up my most recent foster Loni to a lovely new family who should be able to give her a wonderful life.  They are a great mom and dad with lots of dog experience, three young kids who love dogs, and another dog already in the household.

Loni meets her new family

I only had Loni for two weeks, but she grew to be very dear to me, as much as any of the other dozen or so dogs I have fostered.  It makes me very sad that I can't keep one of these great dogs, but I have not been successful in finding my way forward from the unsatisfactory experience of living in Colorado, and until I have some idea where and how I will be living in the future I can't make sense of a lifetime adoption.  The consolation is that all these dogs really need a foster interval after their rescue from their tough former lives, to give them a chance to move on to a permanent adoption.  While they are here, I get to experience their affection and appreciation for a comfortable, safe, emotionally rewarding existence - maybe the best they have ever had so far.  I try to increase their confidence, nurse them back to health and an appropriate weight (many are emaciated), and assess their behavior so I can help  guide them into their new adoption homes with as much ease as possible.  If they don't know any tricks (or manners) I try to teach them some - at least 'sit' for a treat, and how to go for a walk on a leash.

Loni soon after being left in my care

The rescue director usually sets me up with post-puppy momma dogs in need of rest and rehab.  I want to blame my sorry circumstances of no direction forward for my inability to adopt one of these sweet girls myself, but the truth is I am resistant to accepting the responsibility of a lifetime of care and guardianship under any circumstances at this time.  Even though I had two wonderful dogs back-to-back over twenty years (Mummadog passed a few years ago) when things were going better, recently it seems until I can do a better job looking after myself, I'm not sure I should be taking on permanent pet parenthood again.  I worry about their health, what mischief they might get into, and how best to nurture them in various ways.  I also have a pretty long list of things I would like to be spending more time on and doing a better job with, and have an increasingly low tolerance for distractions of any kind.  When I consider what the adoptive families usually have to offer these dogs that are emerging from an uncertain hard life, I feel like my role is best serving as a foster transition, so on it goes.  A little break between accepting new fosters - there is always that anxiety about whether they will be too much to handle (Are they house-potty-trained?  Are they destructive (in the house and out in the yard/garden)?  Will I be able to leave them alone in the house?  Will they be aggressive, or excessive barkers?  Then there is the inverse - will they be such darling little angels that they will break my heart as I hand them off to a lucky new family that has a stable life to share with them?

I hope someday I am secure enough in my own life to have a lifetime canine companion again - until then I guess I will just try to offer a needed service and foster from time to time.  Maybe I can even do both one day!

I follow a blog from an interesting and kind fellow who lives full-time in his RV in Mexico.  Recently, he has settled down for a while in a spot with a nice summer climate, where he has befriended a little local dog called Peluchita.  Today, his daily post included the following:

"While I am messing around in the garden, little Peluchita comes to bother me to give love. She is a dog whose heart is filled with love. She does not want much from me. Only to give love. She is a quiet dog, and she does not share much of her prior life with me. But I get the idea of it though. Her life comes thru. Her life has not been easy."

Well said, George.  I know exactly what you mean.  This has also been my experience with most of my foster girls - certainly with little Loni...

Loni shares my stuffed dog Binky one morning in bed
Glad at least he is still here...  

 

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Wyoming Diversion

Last month, I was in Southern Wyoming for a couple of days. Besides the usual Wyoming oddities like a grocery store with dozens of mounted heads, skins, and entire preserved wildlife corpses, I was struck by the general state of decay in the small towns. There is evidence that there was once prosperity, and I imagined that some of these places were once inviting and pleasant for the residents and those passing through. Now it is just depressing, and there is an air desperation, or perhaps resignation about the towns. Is this going on across the entire country? It looks like third world status is upon us...