Cleaning House

More like just cleaning up my life. I used to love playing the harmonica but have only played a few times since moving to Mexico. Musicians come and go, groups come and go ... and friends come and go. Just tired of looking for the right people to play with.

So rather than letting my collection sit around gathering dust I put them up for sale on Facebook. Someone that plays at Palapa Joe's in La Manzanilla wants them and will meet me today by Roosters with the money. 1500 pesos will be spent on paint for the house and I can say goodbye to an occasional urge to play. 

Foto that went on Facebook

Another Gringos don't get it story

A little over a year ago when my friend Shoe died he wanted everything he had in Mexico to go to his long time Mexican girlfriend Silvia.   One problem is he made no will leaving the disposal of his belongings up to whomever was "in charge".   The person in charge happened to be his ex-wife who flew down from the US with the primary duty of determining what to do with his body.    He wanted to be cremated and was but the bill between the hospital and the funeral parlor came to 25,000 pesos (or $2200 dollars).

Both ex-wife and friends just decided to sell his truck and woodworking tools for whatever they could get to pay the bill.  I guess because wife only had a week to 10 days and had to get back north. People were lining up to buy the truck below value and a couple thousand dollars worth of tools were barely considered except by people wanting a 'deal'.

About this time a friend and Silvia's family came to me about what was happening.  I said that I'll pay the bill and Silvia can pay me back however she and the family can manage.   Turns out that the family came together, paid me in full within weeks and brought a truck down from the Chapala area for everything.

The "gringos don't get it" part was that the truck and equipment meant a lot to Silvia and family for both sentimental and financial reasons.  The gringo attitude of just sell it all and get it over with irritated Silvia's family and they had a very disagreeable conversation over it.  Gringos with lots of money or only a week in Mexico just could care less about the big picture.   I don't blame the wife so much because she was not familiar with Mexico or the language.  I do begrudge other "friends" that were involved for not seeing the importance of doing well by Silvia and her family.

Lot's of reasons to come to Mexico and be separated from the real Mexico .... and this is just another.

Dealing with angry insecure people

I was looking around the Internet about dealing with insecure people and I think with hopes that this would not be so much of a woman thing .... but I'm afraid it's gonna be.  The reason is the viciousness displayed in public and with a person that you actually know.  In this case we are talking about Internet message boards where sometimes anonymous people think they can get away with anything.   Here no one is anonymous so it becomes very personal.

There are two crazy guys that act up, pick on people or just act like jackasses ... but only a very insecure person (in this case a woman) would choose to defend these two misfits and then would get joy out of making their critics look the evil ones - publicly.  Very simply she wanted to win in the eyes of others.   That is a very big order with the number of opinions and minds in this Internet world.

For awhile now she has been (or tries to be) the information source of the community searching the Internet for new info that no one else has found, announces community activities as tho she was appointed, always talks about progress on their fancy house and mentions that they drove the "Lexus" everywhere they go.

Since I know this woman I know her friends ... and most are the most dysfunctional people in the community.  The difficulty came when her dysfunctional friends acted up (continuously) on the message board and she, unable to see what was happening, chose to defend them in a very ungraceful manner.

She actually admitted she has lost message board friends because of who she sided with but I think it's more her general attitude about trying to be the Queen of some-thing-or-other.   The difference between friends and acquaintances

Three tips:

Don't bring your money to Mexico and think you are something special

Men tend to attack under the table ... or should I say more discreetly unless they want a physical confrontation.  Women (some) just don't seem to get that.

Pay attention to what is being said ... and don't jump in the middle of a conversation that you don't come close to understanding.   Defending your dysfunctional friends will only end up badly later on.

Gonna go make some ice cubes now ...