Hell’s Half Acre

(to a tango)

the rolling boulder crashing down the mountain
thaaaats kinetic energy
KINETIC
the boulder sitting high upon the mountain
thaaaats potential energy
POTENTIAL

energy in motion is kinetic
energy that’s waiting is potential
but whether its kinetic or potential
both of them are energy
ole!

you stretch a rubber band and then release it
thaaaats kinetic energy
KINETIC
you stretch a rubber band and then you hold it
thaaaats potential energy
POTENTIAL

energy in motion is kinetic
energy that’s waiting is potential
but whether its kinetic or potential
both of them are energy
ole!

the heat that comes when gasoline is burning
thaaats kinetic energy
KINETIC
the energy that gasoline has stored up
thaaats potential energy
POTENTIAL

energy in motion is kinetic
energy that’s waiting is potential
but whether its kinetic or potential
both of them are energy
ole!

Kinetic-Potential

gravity
gravity
all matter has a force
that pulls things towards its core

gravity
gravity
is what we call that force

if the earth is a ball
why don’t we fall off while it spins around
if the earth is a ball
why don’t all going flying off the ground

well the earth has a force
that pulls and draws all matter toward its core
and the pull of that force is why we don’t fall off

Gravity

I downloaded about 76 of the songs a couple days ago and we’ve been listening to them.  They are SO MUCH fun to listen to and we all now know that the sun turns hydrogen into helium.  Who knew?  And while I’m on the subject, the boys are really enjoying Teaching Textbooks.  Per Jesse, “I’m loathe to admit it, but I do find it quite intriguing.”  This from a boy who really hated any formal mathematical study.  I know you can’t do with just two, so here is another favorite.

A shooting star is not a star, is not a star at all
A shooting star’s a meteor that’s heading for a fall

A shooting is not a star why does it shine so bright
The friction as it falls through air produces heat and light

A shooting star or meteor whichever name you like
The minute it comes down to earth it’s called a meteorite

Shooting Star

So, yeah, I guess our poor children have to deal with a weird mom who plays songs about friction instead of the Top 40.  The songs themselves have sparked some interesting discussions and a lot are really just good music.

Nothing much to report here - Dolly was a non-event even though we really prepared for her but honestly it was EXCELLENT practice.  Over 24 hours later and we’re still deluged with water though and the rain can stop at any time.  I think we’re getting the convection that was sitting on the northeast side of Dolly yesterday which has broken off from her now that she is in the GOM.  So, lucky us!

Well, I typed too soon - we’re now experiencing what was the north side of Dolly and are getting wicked wind, driving rain, thunder and lightening.  I unpacked and put the palapa to rights this morning and now it is all soaking wet.  Well, at least I kept the books in their plastic tubs.  So, a day late, but we’re getting Dolly’s dirty side now.

TS Dolly is heading through the channel and onwards to the GOM.  We’re stocked on Rum (first thing I checked!), water for showering, drinking and are now putting everything away that is outside.  Since more than 1/2 our house is outside it is a project.

More later.  Just a tropical storm, so no huge biggie, but it is a bit of a hassle.

9pm - according to our governor, Alerta Rojo will begin at 10:30pm, impact should be along the coast between Xel-Ha and Cozumel.  Cozumel airport is still open and will remain open.  Ports are closed.

10:45 - still pretty much a non-event.  Rain intermittant but no gusts like earlier this afternoon.  Checked out Cozumel’s lights just a bit ago.  Rain isn’t bad and so far this is not even as bad as simple storms we get here.

Yesterday was a rather numeric day…

30 - the number of minutes I jogged.  Jamie and I generally exercise WALK but yesterday I turned our hour walk into 20 minutes of walk and 30 minutes of jogging.

84 - kilos today.

4:30 - the time Pike got up for the “day”

5:00 - the time Jesse got up for the “day”.  He was astonished, “you’re going for your WALK now?  WHAT TIME is it???”

3 - the number of people down with the stomach virus

1/2 - the amount of my coursework left to do before I become gainfully employed.

3 - number of Sundays we haven’t gone for our family excursion.

4 - number of contacts I’ve left with the dentist so we can get appointments going.  I really need to call instead of texting and emailing.

Mexico is full of little tricks and traps and unless you have a smile about your face and a willingness to laugh you can get very frustrated.  Someone recently wrote that one way the culture shows how downtrodden it is is in the form of asking for things.  I caught onto that early on in Mexico and have always asked, “you DON’T have water, do you?”  I suppose it can be looked at as further evidence of how the culture expects to be kicked in the ass, but honestly, I think it is because if you ask the question in that way you are frequently surprised with a “why YES!  we DO have water” and it is such a lovely surprise that you are all warm and happy.  Now if you’d received a “no”, well, you were already expecting that they DIDN’T have water so no big deal.  But when you’re already expecting “No” and you get “Yes” it is a very nice surprise.  And being happily surprised is very rare when you’re doing tramites in Mexico. 

The last time Jamie went shopping he had a little incident in buying water.  We can either have our water delivered for $25/garrafon (19 litre/5 gallon) bottle, but we never know when the water truck will come; buy it for the same price from the guard shack; buy it direct from the plant at $22; buy it at any Super for $24 or buy it from Bodega Aurrera for $20.  Bodega Aurrera is a bit on the north side of town but it is also the cheapest for dry goods, so we try to hit it once a week and stock up.  Last trip Jamie waited a good hour for them to refund him money he’d paid for water but they didn’t have in stock.  Yesterday, not only did I know better to determine if water was available to purchase BEFORE purchasing, when I turned in my garrafones for credit (the first little tramite is to take your empty garrafones to the paqueteria, where you must also turn in any packages you bring into the store).  Depending on the store, they will either have an elaborate tramite to turn them in (Bodega Aurrera takes the garrafones, enters them into the register, creates a gift card and receipts; Soriana simply writes down on a little piece of paper the number of garrafones and the item number) or something simple.  Yesterday, the guy only gave me credit for one garrafone, caught his mistake and put the second on the gift card, BUT all this after he took 10 mintues to determine they actually had water to sell!

So Ellen and I head off to do our shopping.  We’re in and out pretty quickly.  Trampa numero uno is paying for the water.  First the poor checker had absolutely NO idea what to do with the gift card.  She calls a supervisor over and is shown how to use the gift card but they disagree on the price of the water.  If you don’t bring your garrafon it is one price, bringing a garrafon results in a $60 charge then a $40 gift card.  Still with me?  :)  So a couple more checkers come over and the all agree that the charge should be $60 and not $120.  Unfortunately, the checker, the checker’s co-workers and the supervisor cannot figure out the item number for the water.  After many consultations they decide to ask me to simply pay for my purchases and they reverse the gift card (trampita numero dos) and go put heads together.  Jamie texts me that he needs pasta sauce and both Ellen and I have to pee, so this is a good time to take a break.

We refresh ourselves and I am still waiting for the glory number so I can buy 2 garrafones but the checker who has asked me to wait simply closes up her register and leaves.  Ok, no problem, I still need to buy pasta sauce.  Back in line we come up with the same problem when I tell the poor cashier I want to buy 2 garrafones of Electropura.  This time a MALE supervisor comes over and they try each and every number in the book but are unsuccessful.  I’m betting you’re thinking I should just forget the water already, eh?  Ah, ye of little faith…  Finally, the cashier asks me if I can just pay for the pasta sauce and they’ll get back to me.  Sometime before I’m old and grey, I assume.  Well, oldER and greyER.  “No,” I tell her “I’ve been through this once already, waited for someone to come up with a code and I’ll just wait here (and hold up your line) until the code gets here.”  Smiling the whole time like I’m just TICKLED to death to do so.  Everyone is happy, smiling and probably hating the gringa inside.  Finally, the supervisor comes over with the code, the gift card is applied (trampita numero tres as the poor cashier now needs a serious group huddle to figure this little tramite out) a few swipes of the supervisor’s card later and I am allowed to finally PURCHASE 2 garrafones of water.

The supervisor takes me over to the locked water container, selects 2 garrafones and loads them in my carrito (basket).  Unfortunately one is leaking and she calls a male checker over (they are heavy) to replace it with (what turned out to be) a garrafon which simply leaks less.  At this point I’m cutting losses and walk out with our groceries, the 2 garrafones and count it a win.

Outside we notice trampita numero tres.  The super has errected postes which completely and totally disallow the removal of the carrito to the parking lot and as such, I end up paying a $5 tip to the muchacho to pick up my garrafones, so skillfully fought for, and bring them to the car.  Completely obliterating any savings in purchasing said garrafones at Bodega Aurrera.  But their dry good prices still rock the wallet.

OMG I”m ALIVE AGAIN!  I must have either picked up something at the 4th of July bash or some weird viruses attacked me because I have been 1/2 dead since Jesse’s birthday.  I had the headache of death, very Typhoid-like, incredible weakness (couldn’t even hold my head up), constant fever/chills/fever/chills/sweat buckets/chills (you get the picture) and nausea.  I am pretty sure the nausea was simply related to the headache from hell.

I lost 2 days of study and 2 days of exercise and i can swear that my thighs are already flabbier.  But I’m SO ENJOYING being alive again!

But now I’m off to bed because pretty soon we’re going to be going to bed at dawn.  Last night I had to force myself (and Ellen) to be at 1:30am as I just didn’t feel tired enough.  Sigh.  The boys regularly stay up until dawn playing Runescape and downloading TV shows (during the non-FAP hours of 2am to 5am).

In “educational news” today the boys and i researched the Gregorian, Julian, Julian-reform, Chinese (which, in actuality is NOT a Chinese calendar) and Coptic calendars.  We found out the reason the days of the week are named as they are (in both Germanic and Romance languages) and tomorrow we’re delving into ancient Isreal.

More later, I have to earn my cup of coffee tomorrow by actually sleeping tonight.  Oh, the animal shelter is rumoured to have a poodle and Ellen and I are going to check it out tomorrow.  She has been begging for another puppy wash and tomorrow she’ll finally get her wish.

Ellen has fallen in love with the Oz series ever since I found “The Marvelous Land of Oz” at a thriftstore and read it to her. I have since found the Gutenberg project and I can’t tell you how wonderful it is, in our life which precludes libraries, to read classic literature without filling the trailer with books. I just might have to get one of those Ebook thingies. Anyway, we fininshed “Ozma of Oz” and I eavesdropped on a conversation between Sissy and Ellen.

Ellen “…and the cowardly lion and his friend the hungry tiger was never satisfied - he wanted to eat Dorothy - sissy!  He wanted to eat fat juicy babies but he didn’t because he knew it was wrong. Then he asked one of the servants to get him 10 or 5 pounds of ice cream and some meat maybe and finally at the end he was satisfied.

Sissy: “What, did he get all the food at the picnic?”

Ellen “No the feast.  Except for 2 pieces of bacon.  And there’s this Nome King and he thought eggs were poisonous and when Bellina laid an egg and the stuffed -”

Sissy “What happened to her first egg?”

Ellen “maybe it hatched, i don’t know.  And then the scarecrow threw the eggs at the King also they were poisonous to them.  And then the royal family of Ev, they were turned into ornaments and Bellinea -

Mom, what is Bellina’s real name?”

Me: “Bill”

Ellen “Yeah, Bill.  And then Bellina saw the Nome King and one of his servant were talking and Belllinas was under his chair and she heard them talking about what the ornaments were -

Mom, how many soldiers of privates were there?”

Me “26″

Ellen “all 26 got turned into orngmanets and so did Queen Ev and Ozma and she got turned into a pretty green grasshopper and then Bellina almost ate her and then she decided that wasn’t very tasty.

And then in the end they got all the princesses and prices back to their land where the napkins and lunchboxes and dinner pails grew on trees

and then in the end they went to Munchkinland and the other land.

and then the hungry tiger lost his appetite and he was finally satisfied.

Oh no, in the end Dorothy - she went back home by magic belt because one of her granpas was sad she was gone.”

And now you know the story of “Ozma from Oz”.  We’re now working on “Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz”.  I’m surprised how much she rememberd.  Each day I’d ask her what had happened in the previous chapters (I always do this with the kids when I read books to them) so that probably kept her memory fresh.

Fourteen years ago I became a mother and my life changed so profoundly, I hardly recognize the woman I was before. I hadn’t planned on motherhood at 34; when I was 9 I remember very clearly telling my grandmother that I would NEVER marry or have children. She wisely told me I’d change my mind and that I did.

Jamie and I had been living in our teensy little house (though mansion-like in comparison to our current home, the trailer) for about 2 whole weeks when this journey began. I was only about 38 weeks along and had expected a long haul, especially when my mom told me I was a 10-month baby, but during the Tour de France, when Abdoujaparov was attacking like no-one’s business, I went into labor while doing the dishes. At first I though I’d peed my pants; that happens sometimes when you’re carrying a watermellon above your bladder, so I headed to the bathroom to check things out. Jamie continued, oblivious, focused on the TV, to watch Le Tour.

I had very much considered a homebirth with this baby, but when we were figuring these particulars out we had no place to live and had so much chaos in our lives that it was enough just to focus on simply growing the baby. I did, however, go on to have the following 3 at home. Once I figured out that contractions followed the water breaking I let Jamie in on the secret and he did the perfect Dick van Dyke impression. I was CERTAIN the baby was coming out NOW as, after an hour, the contractions moved to 2 minutes apart (and stayed that way until transition). Unfortunately, I had many hours to go. Labor was only 14 hours or so - for a first time mom, that’s not bad (and they got progressively faster; Pike was 6 hours, Sissy was 3 and Ellen was 3 or 2?) and we had a sweet little baby boy at the end of it. He was a SKINNY little thing with almost no fat on him and we had to strip him and keep him against our skin so they wouldn’t take him to the warming table.

He was also a sleepy little thing and I had to lie to the nurses and tell them, “oh, he took 2 ounces” (or 4 oz or whatever - I mean how can a brand new mom even imagine how much a baby nurses the day after giving birth???) so they wouldn’t give him formula. We filled up a huge box of photos that first year, that continue to live in our storage area and he has blazed the trail for his siblings.

I don’t think he minds being the guinea pig; he probably did when he was younger, but he has taken on the role without a peep. He is So Very Much Like Me that I think I can see inside his head and honestly, it is so refreshing because Jamie confuses the HELL out of me and it is nice, for once, to know what is going on with at least ONE member of the family. He will still let me pull him onto my lap and call him my baby boy at 14. He becomes more tolerant as the years pass, as the maturation factor grows, but will always, I suspect be very much like his mother in that regard.

He has taught me so much, along with the other 3, that I will be in debt for a lifetime for the lessons they have given me. He was the first to change me and I will always be in his debt for that. We were stupidly simple with him, as a baby, and I hope he forgives us. He is a beautiful young man and I am so incredibly proud of my mini-me. He rises to almost any challenge and I think the best is yet to come. He brings me joy, he brings me hope, he lights up my life. (sniff sniff) He teaches me SO MUCH and I am so much better for having learned the lessons he shows me. He challenges me to grow and be a better person. And I couldn’t ask for anything more.

Happy birthday my boy. May each year get better and better.

(I meant to do this on Pike’s birthday also, but I was so terribly sick that I’ll do Pike’s tomorrow)

The stomach virus has slowly been winding its way through the family and I thought Sissy and Ellen would have been the last to get it. I was pretty sure I was the first. Apparently, I am the last. I hate these stomach things - I never know if they are parasitical or bacterial or viral. Drives me nutz. I have a whopper of a headache to go with it and that makes me think of Dengue to boot. Sheesh. So I haven’t had much to write about other than kid 1 sick, kid 2 sick, Jamie sick, me sick, ad nausuem. During their down time, the boys were almost magically cured by the wonder that is Runescape because Runescape has updated graphics! But a magic cure would mean they couldn’t play 24×7 so they remained sick but VERY HAPPY about Runescape’s new look. Blah blah 3D blah blah graphics blah blah caracters blah blah sandwich lady blah blah. I really should take more of an interest, but there is only so much Runescape I can take. And unfortunately, it isn’t much.

Today we’re going to the tourist area of Playa. We have never been there, which is the reverse of almost everyone who comes here. They spend almost all their time there. So I’m guessing it should be pretty or something. Anyway, there is a local bar having a pig roast for $10 a person, unless you bring a dish. Then it is free. Guess what we’re bringing! If you know me, you know I am not about to pay if it isn’t necessary. We’re bringing brownies, chocolate chip cookies and Spanish rice. I thought it was an evening thing but I guess it is actually an afternoon thing which means we need to get our collective asses in gear.

Have a great 4th!

For some that would be a nightmare, but for me it is the result of watching my intake and increasing my exercise level. I was 90 kilos about 7 or 8 weeks ago and I have been working hard to get rid of these 5 kilos. My dad is down some 20 pounds so yea him! I’m still in the obese BMI category (per the website I’ve been using, sparkpeople) but I’m not really focusing on that, simply on continuing to get more and more fit.

I downloaded OpenOffice 2.4.1 last night and LOVE the program.  If you’re using MS’s Office, this is a wonderful alternative.  MS Word has been looping, hitting 100% CPU utilization on my computer and while this is a known bug, I’m loathe to update old software.  If you’re a Hughes customer, be aware that it is a 127mb download; I used Free Download Manager and scheduled it for the FAP-free hour of 2am (CST).  I also upgraded to Firefox 3 and am not yet sure if I’m glad about that or not.  You’ll need to uninstall FDM (if you had it with your previous version of FF) and re-download and re-install (but it will then work flawlessly with FF3.)  My Thinkpad forum won’t work at all with FF3 and I have to use the IE tab add-on (which is sweet) but FF keeps blowing up on me for no discernable reason.  Jonna, if you’re reading this, I think the IEtab add-on might fix the old MI forum problem but I haven’t been there since I upgraded FF so I can’t say for certain.  FF3 has been working fine for quite a few hours, but blew up last night and again this morning.  I’ve fixed my computer fan problem by never turning the beast off.  :)  I also downloaded NHC 2.0 to watch my CPU temp (that is how I found the MS Word 97 problem).  I think I’ve thrown in enough acronyms there for the rest of the year.  Suffice to say I’ve been really freaquing bizzy with hardware and software challenges.  Oh, and if anyone knows where to get Arctic Silver here in Mexico, I’d be forever grateful.

Man, I’m beat today.  The last two days I’ve woken at 6:30 and couldn’t get back to sleep.  (someone please catch Jonna as she faints dead away)  This morning I was able to go back to sleep at 9:30 and sleep for 2 hours but I’m still beat.  Jamie dragged my ass out for a walk after he’d already cycled an hour so I think he will soon be the king of Kicking Ass.

So, did you SEE all those LINKS above?  I’m so impressed with myself! 

I have just compiled a database of all our online and hardcopy (very little) financial information and how to access it. I started at about 8:30am and just finished. Yikes! I had no idea it would be so difficult.

I stored everything on an external drive and used Kee-Pass to encrypt the data. At the same time, I cleanedup Firefox’s password database and changed ALL my online account passwords. Yee gods and little fishes. That was an enormous task. The good thing is that I no longer use the same 3 passwords everywhere and I have a password generator to continue to change them. It was hard giving up those 3 little passwords as I figured I’d never be able to remember different passwords for different sites, but everyone recommends it and I’m glad I did (now that I’m done). I left little notes all over the database (matures this date, check this site for good rates, etc.) and I know this will be a huge weight off his mind if I perish suddenly. Since I take care of all the financial stuff he’d be pretty lost without some kind of guide.

Now I just need to cleanup all the credit cards with zero balances that are lying around.  I keep signing up for these slickdeals but never get the card in time to get the $200 or $100 credits since we get mail so slowly.  Oh, and Jamie has a little investment he wants to make and I need to do that too.