Catching up

I have been the negligent blogger of the season. The last time I blogged I had technical difficulties and just avoided the whole subject.

Its' now Dec. 22nd. Where has the year gone?

We are finally painting the exterior and part of the interior of the Whitegate. It was long overdue but you know how procrastination grabs good intentions. One of Susan's fellow firefighters, Matt, is doing the work. They like to keep it in the family at the firehouse.

Susan and I went on our semi annual trip to Florida early this month. I have to check on my cousin David in Pacso County and Susan and I like to add on some R & R at the Hyatt Vacation Club property in the Naples area. It's the one time of the year when we don't have to share bathrooms or closets, thus eliminating all sorts of potential conflicts and compromises.

Maybe because I'm getting older, but I noticed many more elderly people this trip, particularly in Pasco. So many of them have merged into the sunshine of shrinking lives and horizons. As they age their worlds get minimized and small joys become major events. This caused more introspecion than is my forte. I, of course, will never be in their catagory. I won't allow it.

Prior to our Florida trip I had my annual vacation with my best friend and almost brother Jimmy. This year we went to La Paz Mexico. My cousin Jeff has a boat docked at a marina there and even though he wasn't in Mexico at the time we were able to vicariously live his life. There was a lot of boating, snorkling and fishing. We were even able to snorkle with the seals, a thrilling experience. To find them we had to snorkle thru a cave and watch them playing and toying with us, diving in and around our fins. I felt like their entertainment rather than the other way around. The weather was perfect, the area clean and well kept, the beaches beautiful, the people prosperous, the economy booming. It gave us a new perspective on immigation. No one from that area of Southern Baja wants to come to the US because everyone with a high school education can get a good job and stay where they really want to be. If the economy improved in the poorest sections of Mexico the immigration problem would be drastically reduced. Economic development is the key. Perhaps if we invested more in that arena and less in enforcement the results would be more beneficial to all.

Happy holidays to all.