Mi Casa - Su Casa (My house, Your house)
What the U.S.A. gives … The U.S.A. takes away.
Sorry Amigo.
What is that old expression? “You have to take the bitter with the sweet.” Yeah, that is it. What a scary life this must be. Not long ago, at a Mexican drop-off bus stop, I observed this guy, standing there, alone, suitcase in his hand, looking around forlorn and somewhat confused.
Alone in a country, an alien, here uninvited, illegal, not speaking the language and no job. Sends a shiver down my spine. Recent statistics and media news say our Hispanic population has fallen on hard times, much like the rest of us. The golden pot at the end of the rainbow has shut down and the yellow brick road has dried up.
Our South Of The Border friends are now finding out how it is to live in this country and what it is like to be unemployed. Housing having shut down, more and more of them are finding employment here in this country, hard to find. We could very well be headed backwards instead of forward (on this so-called recovery) it appears to be getting worse rather than getting better.
Might be like the “old days” when they all stood on the corner, a guy drives up, loads five or six in the pickup, and takes them to work. It is my profound hope that this is not a precursor to even worse things to happen in the future as the situation continues to erode.
What politicians never seem to understand is that when people get hungry, they also get desperate, and this always leads to bad news. Regardless if it is in this country or abroad, people on the brink, respond terribly when put in this position.
Unemployment in the U.S. is rising faster among Hispanic’s than the rest of the U.S. Population. As the economy slows, it creates this thing called the ripple effect throughout the nation; you who are here uninvited, are now on the downside of it all. Please make note of our Emergency Exits in Texas and Arizona.
America now has another hungry mouth to feed, and because of neglect, incompetence, sloth or greed, the cabinet is bare. It could be time for all of you to load up and go home, but in all honesty, your prospects there are not all that rosy either. I don’t have all the answers … sorry.
Poor Mexico … So far from God and so close to the United States.
The weakening job market, state and federal crackdowns on illegal immigrants have reduced the amount of money being sent home to Mexico, putting an added strain on things. Millions of families depend on so-called remittance payments to the home base, and if the current trend continues, the effects will be felt on BOTH sides of the border.
If they have not been already.
Hispanic’s are at the bottom of the food chain in this country to begin with. The latest static’s available on assimilation into the culture; rate them at the rock bottom. This could be why most have a tendency to find it hard to blend in.
- Canadians 53%
- Philippines 49%
- Cuba 43%
- Korea 41%
- Vietnam 41%
- Various country of origin 28%
- China 21%
- El Salvador 18%
- India 16%
- Mexico 13%
All figures are 2006 (higher numbers represent more complete assimilation).
This could be why yesterday during a brief outing for supplies for the weekend; we didn’t hear all that many people speaking English. We are certainly turning into an interesting mix of folks these days aren’t we? No place like home … And unfortunately, a lot of folks getting’ stuck between the two anymore, must be tough.
000
Lite Sleepers
So what do we speak of this morning? What is on the agenda for the day. I go nowhere, I see no one, and I certainly have no plans to speak of, so what it is it that we shall talk about?
Not much.
My world, which is now somewhat limited, isn’t all that interesting I am afraid to say. I just eat, sleep, get up and sit on the porch, I find myself sleeping a great deal now, and I am not all that enthusiastic about anything. I just have one thing on my mind, and that is “to pack up and leave” with no particular destination in mind. Just to get out of here.
Long ago, I was sitting at a stoplight on my Harley, long hair and beard, Carson City Nevada, and this cop eyes me suspiciously and says, “Where are you goin?” and I said, “Anywhere but here man, anywhere but here.” That is what kind of day I am having today … One of those.
“In my solitude, you can almost feel my pain.”
Nailed to the floor and shut down. No more Harley’s in my days, that chapter of the book, has been closed. Adventure has been traded for”comfortable and secure.” Now it is comfort and age, CD player and a soft seat. As the little woman is fond of saying … “If I cannot take my crock pot with me and plug it in somewhere, I am not going.”
I miss not being able to take off in my old truck and put down some serious miles, I miss that a great deal. The oil companies have changed my perspective on life totally, I no longer can live the way I was accustomed to, I suppose a lot of American’s are just that way too. I do not believe I am alone in this at all, but it is something I surely miss, and I can relate to it as it happens.
It is not all bad, there are the quiet times, the front porch and a good book to read, I cherish those. Usually find myself regulated to a lawn chair, and soon even that will be a luxury I can ill afford, as the mercury on the thermometer goes up and the humidity increases. It will become miserable, and the long hot summer will take its toll on even the simple pleasures of life.
That is summertime in Oklahoma, and I know it is just around the corner.
Yesterday was nice, I kept thinking, “We ought to bottle this sucker up and keep it.” That kind of nice. A laid back kind of day, I found myself reading an article and it said, “that if you sleep less than six hours per night, or if you sleep MORE than nine hours per day” you are most likely going to be overweight. Possibly obese in your later years.
Just doesn’t seem fair to me, “you are dammed if you do and dammed if you don’t.”
No middle ground in the article or the survey. Might be the reason I hate survey’s, I dunno. They had a health survey on MSN or something not long ago, it wasn’t govt. survey or anything, private.
Being it was somewhat a slow day for me, and all my homework was done, the paper route complete, I took the thing. It was on longevity and I honestly answered each and every question. Having finished, I clicked the next button and it said …. “Find your cell phone, and a nice quiet place to sit.”
What’s that about?
Another thing that bothers me, is they always start out with “a just released GOVERNMENT STUDY” has found that …. Blah, blah, yadda-yadda. It is a known fact, that I am not a big supporter of Govt. anything around here, so naturally, I am going to be a bit skeptical.
This study also linked lite sleepers to smoking, less physical activity, and more alcohol use. The study was performed on 87,000 people that they happened to find awake at the time.
Apparently if you sleep too little or too much, you are possibly going to be a chain smoking, lazy half drunk, fat person. Hmmmm, two out of three aint bad, how did you do?
000
Summer Love
cast aside like an old used rag
I stood vainly by
my heart in my hand
waiting and hoping
for but just one more chance.
Wishing we could start anew
wishing we could somehow
put it all together again
wishing you and I
were but friends in the bitter end.
And now I know
what happened to us so long ago
what it was that hurt you so
why you put your love up on the shelf
just slightly out of my reach
Ah, faded summer love,
all I ever asked for was
simple pleasures your soft caress upon my face.
The pleasure of your company
on a hot muggy summer day
your voice on the telephone
perhaps a quiet dinner
a bottle of wine
one hour with you totally alone
a night out on the town sometime.
To take in a movie
to sit on a bench in the park for awhile
some quiet conversation,
to see your smile.
Spending a minute or two thinking of you this day
tucked away in the quiet solitude of my special place,
yearning for the touch of your hand
smoothing the wrinkles upon my face.
Alas I am sad my dear,
summer love,
shake the fiber of my being,
rushing into my life but once again,
as I gaze upon the sun slowly sinking,
I find myself thinking of you,
Summer Love
cast aside like an old used rag
I stood vainly by
my heart in my hand
waiting and hoping
for but just one more chance.
wandering through the long days that never seem to end.
***
