More Can't Miss Holiday Gifts

Once you and what'shername get these cool wraps you'll never leave the house. For some real fun you may want to both climb into one.


What took them so long to come up with this one!


Just in case you have some holiday clean up chores to do, get these and get busy.


Not sure this is a bona fide gift but you may want to spruce up the double wide before all the cousins arrive. I'm sure the old sofa will appreciate it. Especially with everyone sitting around trying to outdo the farting Santa.

Stay tuned....

More To be Thankful For

One more reason to be thankful this holiday season. Thank someone that you haven't been stuck with a catastrophic injury. Everyone is always ripping on the lawyers for personal injury suits well I say the more they get the better. Because whatever they get you probably won't be enough. Just take a look at this poor family

JACKSON, Mo. -- A collision with a semi-trailer truck seven years ago left 52-year-old Deborah Shank permanently brain-damaged and in a wheelchair. Her husband, Jim, and three sons found a small source of solace: a $700,000 accident settlement from the trucking company involved. After legal fees and other expenses, the remaining $417,000 was put in a special trust. It was to be used for Mrs. Shank's care.

Instead, all of it is now slated to go to Mrs. Shank's former employer, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Working people are officially at the bottom of the corporate food chain formerly known as the United States of America. If you think for a minute that there is some sort of safety net for the people of this country think again. Every document you sign there will probably be a clause buried somewhere deep where even if you read it you wouldn't understand it anyway that will take away anything that might have value to whomever such documents were signed for.

It doesn't seem like science fiction that some day soon when you no longer have value to the machine that you'll be taken to a vast and immense pit and be thrown in along with the rest of the useless. That might be a better option than the hell the Shank's are going through.

Wounded Soldier: Military Wants Part Of Bonus Back

Our government has reached a new low in the treatment of the young brave men and women is has sent into its fabricated war. For the likes of me I can't understand why the soldiers don't just pick up their weapons and demand to come home. Surely this kind of news has to reach the front lines. And how can anyone continue to support this mockery of an administration after such vile contempt for the ones they have put in harm's way all for a lie. This unbelievable tale is just one of many in a long line of injustices being put upon today's serviceman:

"Fox was seriously injured when a roadside bomb blew up his vehicle. He was knocked unconscious. His back was injured and lost all vision in his right eye.

A few months later Fox was sent home. His injuries prohibited him from fulfilling three months of his commitment. A few days ago, he received a letter from the military demanding nearly $3,000 of his signing bonus back."

So if you are still on the Bush bandwagon please comment on just why you are. There are no justifications left. What can you come up with?

And on a side note is anyone suprised that Scott McClellan was lying all the time about the Plame leak. Everyone from the top down was involved. HELLO!

It's Time for Mike's Holiday Gift Guide

I hope to occasionally post some of the most ridiculous items I can find this season. Today's item came from the Bed Bath & Beyond mailer I received today. Thanks BB&B
There is so much to say about this insane grooming tool. I'll start with the name "Mangroomer". Why not "Apeman's best friend" or fat lady can't reach her ankles groomer.
If your favorite gal gets you one of these baby's it time to rethink the relationship.

In Oakland, one cowboy will be crowned Mr. Gay Vaquero

In today's San Jose Mercury was the above titled article with the following quote:"The club's owner, Alex Loera, said of the Bay Area's only gay Mexican cowboy pageant and its contestants: "It helps them be who they want to be." I have to ask, and I'm not homophobic by any means, but just how many gay Mexican cowboy pageants should there be in the town of Oakland or for any one town for that matter? I mean we do have the Miss America and the Miss USA pageant. Why not a couple of gay Mexican cowboy pageants in every town. Maybe one per town just isn't enough.
I was just wondering.....

Hugging Part II

Coulter said she and her husband told their daughter to go ahead and serve her detentions because the only other option was a day of suspension for each skipped detention.

"We don't agree with it, but I certainly don't want her to get in more trouble," Coulter said.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21661718/

After thinking more on this, this point really began to haunt me. The parents in the new America just caved in and told their child to "do the time". The slow creep of fascism is making its way into the furthest reaches of our society. Did we ever live in a time where a parent would stand up and say I'm sorry but hugging is not wrong. And my child will not be punished for something that promotes joy, kindness and fellowship. Nevermind that some sexually repressed middle school board is trying to outlaw anything even remotely sexual. Pity the poor children when they reach adulthood and maybe can't even hug their own children because it was taught in middle school that hugging is wrong and should be looked down upon.
What kind of repression will it take to get America to finally stand up?

Hugging Illegal?

Displays of affection should not occur on the school campus at any time. It is in poor taste, reflects poor judgment, and brings discredit to the school and to the persons involved.
So a young lady in a middle school in America is punished for hugging. How fucked up has America become? I guess they think this might lead to students stealing their parents weapons and begin blasting away at the fellow students. We live in the strangest place in the world.

Machu Picchu

My young Scottish friend Jarrod and I arose early today and began the train journey to Machu Picchu. Its time to forget about wells for a while. A series of switchbacks carries the train from Cusco up to 12,000 feet and the pass out of the valley. Then its a constant decent along the river until you finally arrive in the jungle at Aqaus Caliente. Our host recommended a hike to view the ruins from above. Well we just ended a three hour hike that was basically straight up. Some sections had primative wooden ladders almost vertical for hundreds of feet up. I post a picture but this internet connection is too slow. It was certainly worth the trip though as you reach the summit you look out across the mountains and see the most amazing and extensive ruins imaginable. Its hard to grasp why or how some ancient culture chose such a place and then built an amzing set of structures. I´m really looking forward to the close up view.
Tomorrow we tour the ruins with a guide and head back to Cusco in the afternoon. I hope my legs work after this workout. Aqaus Caliente is famous for its hot spring so its off to a soak to mend these calves.
I have much to tell about the last few days in Cusco but it will have to wait.

Alles Klar!

Mike

Road to Recovery II

Well this is the second attempt to update. My last post vanished into the ether when I hit send. I fell ill with some sort of flu and had to miss a day of work yesterday. Today was back to the well. As usual ir was full of water and sinking lower into the muck. The electric pump can no longer create enough lift to draw water so it was bucket after bucket by rope hauling. It is raining this evening so it may be worse off tomorrow. But we will plough ahead as we have reached the point of no return. Adrian believes that it has sunk enough to pour the last concrete this week. The opening of the orphanage has been delayed by about two weeks as it stands now.
Today Adrian invited us to join his family to watch his children perform in the local festival folklorico and then have Sunday dinner with them. They are very involve in the musica folkorico and the whole family takes part to preserve the ancient culture. Unlike the Spanish who came in 1532 and destroyed the amazing Inca archectecture to prove that the one true church should rule over all of the land. The people still carry the sadness that goes with losing one´s past.
I´m very dissapointed that I won´t be able to join them as I already booked a trip to Machu Pichu. Hopefully I´ll get close to thier culture there.
If you want to get a bird´s eye view of the worksite put these coordinates into google earth S 13.35.449 W 71.46.535. This should put about 20 meters from the well. Let me know what you think if it works.
Here are a few shots from today.

Quiet Sunday Morning

It is early Sunday morning and Cusco is very quiet today. I spent yesterday sleeping off the partying and dancing from Friday night and walked around town a bit. Did some people watching and wandered the local markets. Safeways can never be as fun.
The hole in the ground that I hope will be a well soon was filled with water again on Friday when we arrived for work. Back to the buckets for a few hours and we finished the day setting the rebar to reinforce the concrete we will pour on Monday. I´m certain in America a contractor would just tear it all down and start over but here we just press on hoping things will figure themselves out. They are actually hoping that the weight of the new concrete will settle the whole well a little more. Hoping the sinking ship will right itself. I guess if in the end it holds water that all is good.
Charlene, I brought a GPS so I´ll post some Lat-Lon coordinates on Monday so you can google earth it. But for now the town I am working in is Oropesa.
Tuesday night we are all going to the Cuy capital of Peru to eat Cuy al horno. Anybody care to guess what that it?

hasta la vista
Mike

Our Littlest Helper

Mila is always working. Just like her dad.

Don´t have time for a full report. Just continued emptying the poza and buiding rebar for the concrete pour on Monday. I have two days off so it time to be a tourist in Cusco for the weekend.

Mike

Pics

Lets see if this works.

Good Day Bad Day

Yesterday we ran out of adobe bricks so today was attack the well. They have already built a 5 meter coffer dam on a really shakey foundation and it has been sinking. We formed a bucket brigade to haul mud and water out of it and as we did it started to lean and sink in the mud more. It was obviously not set on the bedrock. Water continued to seep as we hauled and hauled. Adrian, who is running the job and living on site decided we needed some real refreshments if we were going to keep pace with the water so he broke out the coca leaves and sent his wife to town for some chicha-a homebrew made from maize. If was real good stuff, aged to perfection. Next he got out the Pisco, a local rum drink, me thinks. I´ll tell you for certain the mud gets lighter the more you chew.
When knock off time came we all put our heads together to see how we might engineer this thing back to plumb. Since know one understood the other it was a great excercise in non verbal communication. It will be interesting to see how we attack it tomorrow.
I have not had time to explore Cusco yet as they keep us busy for most of the day. I can say that Peru is an amazing and beautiful place.
I will find some time on saturday to post some pics.
Thanks everyone for checking in.

Mike

Deep in the Mud

So today was our first day of work.The clocks run slow in Peru so of course we started late. We are building a cucina(kitchen)out of adobe. The walls were half way up when we arrived. We were put to the task of leveling with a pick ax and our eyesite. What Adrian did not approve he fixes it in no time. But what can you expect from a first day apprentice trying to learn 10,000 year old methods. Next it was down to the creek or ditch if you prefer to haul the mud that will be the glue that holds this all together. As you spread a course of mud you must pick the pebbles out. This I found very theraputic. The Peruvians thought I was enjoying myself way too much. I will say it was the hardest work I´ve done in quite some time. And I don´tmean the digging for pebbles. If we get some help maybe we will finish in two weeks. That is when they will open this orphanage for 10 children.
I start my first spanish lesson in a few minutes. Two hours a night plus homework. Hopefully I´ll learn as much as I did today out in the field. I will attempt to load some pictures after class

hasta manana,
Miguel

The Navel of the World

I have safely arrived in Cusco after 11 hours of flying and assorted layovers. It is a beautiful day here today and my orientation starts in 10 minutes. I am looking forward to freshening up after that. They did promise me plenty of hard work in the next two weeks. Much more to follow!

Testing the waters

I just thought I test this feature of the blog before I hit the road. I bet you didn't know I like fishing. Mostly when the conditions are just right I'll give it a try. Click on the photo to see a larger image. Anyway come back and check in often and see what I'm up to in Peru.

Singularity

In today's SJMerc, the biz section featured a Q&A with a gentleman who deals in Artificial Intelligence and the concept of singularity. There is a total lack of intelligence in the whole piece. It has to do with computers getting so smart they they eventually take over the world. As an example how things change radically over time he mentions that no one could have predicted nuclear bombs destroying whole cities but it came to be. He fails to mention that man gave the order to be dropped. The bomb is not even the sum of its parts until man gets involved. He mentions how the future will be unpredictable and possibly dangerous to mankind. I guess nobody told him about global warming. Of course its going to be dangerous. Hello!
He goes on to state that if more people invested in this concept he wouldn't have to invest as much of his own money. Somebody please tell this rocket scientist that as soon as I have more money than I can spen in a lifetime maybe I'll start investing in nebulous concepts. In the meantime make sure to hire people who know where to shut the machines off.