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Anonimo

Jan 27, 2009, 1:35 AM

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It's been very quiet here lately

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I wonder why there's been such a lack of new postings here over the weekend?
By "here", I mean in all Mexconnected forums.
All generalities are suspect, including this one.

Saludos,
Anonimo

Judy in Ags

Jan 27, 2009, 10:52 AM

Post #2 of 20 (3935 views)

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Re: [Anonimo] It's been very quiet here lately

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Maybe all the posters have discovered Facebook. I resisted becoming a part of that (I knew almost nothing about it) until I recently got my third request and then I caved in and "joined".

Wow! It's been like old home week. An organization we used to belong to has many members who are on Facebook. Once we had contact with one, the door was opened to many old friends.

That's not exactly on the subject of Mexico, but these avenues of communication surely make our living in Mexico richer than it would have been otherwise.

RickS

Jan 27, 2009, 10:56 AM

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Re: [Judy in Ags] It's been very quiet here lately

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How many of us 15 year ago (or 5!) would have predicted that in 2009 we would be 'using' and depending on something called the Internet as fully as it has become in our lives....

mazatlanlee

Jan 27, 2009, 12:15 PM

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Re: [RickS] It's been very quiet here lately

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Isn't that the truth! I just got off the phone with my last question answered before switching from COBRA to Medicare Advantage insurance.... and absolutely could NOT have researched this issue without the Internet! No way... no how... nunca! In truth, much as I love Mazatlan and my life in Mexico, I would not be here.... so far away from family... if it weren't for the internet. This is the best time to be alive.... and learning something new every day! Viva la Internet!!!

Lee
Lee's Photos: Beyond the Guardrails

BajaGringo

Feb 2, 2009, 9:46 PM

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Re: [RickS] It's been very quiet here lately

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15 years ago was 1994. Some of us probably can remember being active on the precursor to the forums today - the old BBS dialup forums which date back to the late 70's. I remember my first login to such a system did not even have a monitor. All the feedback was via a teletype like printer that was hooked up to the system modem (300bps).

Those truly were the days and we all felt like pioneers...

Our House Building Project in Mexico...
Lomas de San Martin
Loving Life on the Baja Peninsula

RickS

Feb 3, 2009, 7:17 AM

Post #6 of 20 (3785 views)

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Re: [BajaGringo] It's been very quiet here lately

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300bps was a god-send. We had 75 Baud, Baud being another of those early computer acronyms, up from 45 Baud working on those 'teletype' machines. Now we complain bitterly when we have to use dial-up. Progress!!!

Carron

Feb 3, 2009, 9:18 AM

Post #7 of 20 (3755 views)

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Re: [Anonimo] It's been very quiet here lately

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I have been posting both questions and answers as well as observations on Mex Connect since 1997. I have done the pre-move planning, the move, the FM3, the teaching of English, the hassles and problems with immigration, vehicles, and real estate transactions, the travel and the moves within Mexico, banking and medical care, learning to get by in limited Spanish. After living SoB for almost 11 years, I really don't have much to offer that I haven't already said before somewhere in these archives. Most of what I went through years ago is, I am sure, now severely outdated.

I do not live in an area of much interest to either other retirees or tourists. My daily life revolves around family, who tend to come and go regularly across the border, according to the most recent fight with a significant other! Or managing the ranch. My days stay full and busy but details of how to mid-wife a sheep in difficult labor or worm a skittish mare are not what most people are looking for on these forums. Does anyone else really want to know how I handled neighbor relations when a couple of Hubby's Rottweilers killed and mutilated someone else's baby goats? Or when my own goats broke through our fence and decimated another neighbor's new oat crop?

And since I spend lots of time alone, my cooking is uninspired. I do make a mean picadillo which I stretch the following day by adding a can of tomatoes to create a pretty fair Bolognese sauce for spaghetti. Nothing I would post on Esperanza's forum for sure!

But I do try to come up with the occasional comment and I will continue to do so. Meanwhile I read every post and enjoy the company of old friends and new.

BajaGringo

Feb 3, 2009, 10:53 AM

Post #8 of 20 (3736 views)

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Re: [Carron] It's been very quiet here lately

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It is what it is my friend, each of us building our own little world down here, in our way, in our time and at a place where we feel like home. Sounds like you found yours...

Our House Building Project in Mexico...
Lomas de San Martin
Loving Life on the Baja Peninsula

wendy devlin

Feb 4, 2009, 7:44 AM

Post #9 of 20 (3668 views)

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Re: [Carron] It's been very quiet here lately

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>Does anyone else really want to know how I handled neighbor relations when a couple of Hubby's Rottweilers killed and mutilated someone else's baby goats? Or when my own goats broke through our fence and decimated another neighbor's new oat crop?

I, for one. Would like to hear your stories of rural life, Carron.

How did you handle neighbour relations in your goat mishaps?

******************************************************************************************
While in Mexico and here en la vida de ranchito canadianese, share a similiar lifestyle to Carron's family.

Our retired lives revolve around extended family/ friends, fiestas. And not a small amount of Mexican food and music. Maintaining communication over the years via email/phone, and visits with friends in Mexico.

Ignore, the weather and the greater amount of spoken English/French over Spanish. And you might feel that you're visiting another family.

In some far-far northern Mexican state:)

smokesilver

Feb 4, 2009, 8:08 AM

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Re: [wendy devlin] It's been very quiet here lately

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Carron I have been enjoying your postings for years and hope that they continue. Mexico is a very large country and most of it is rural so please continue those royal rural postings.

thriftqueen

Feb 4, 2009, 11:17 AM

Post #11 of 20 (3625 views)

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Re: [Carron] It's been very quiet here lately

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You might be surprised that some of us are interested in exactly the kind of life you are living. Not all of us come from big cities. That's what I like about MC forums the many different life styles that are presented, like wise all the blogs. However reading the blogs I realize what a different way of life we all lead. So never feel that you don't contribute to an enjoyable story line.

sergiogomez

Feb 4, 2009, 1:20 PM

Post #12 of 20 (3607 views)

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Re: [Carron] It's been very quiet here lately

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Your life is interesting because it is yours. I love reading just the kind of things that you mention above. Often I spend hours scouring the Internet for blogs and forums where people tell their stories about their lives, warts and all. It's the kind of thing that's hard to get in movies and books and things--people being people. We're not perfect, and we all want to relate to someone else. In a way it makes me feel more human. And I, for one, would love to know your recipe for picadillo. Just the thought of picadillo, tomato sauce, and spaghetti is making me hungry!

esperanza

Feb 4, 2009, 1:59 PM

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Re: [sergiogomez] It's been very quiet here lately

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Olivia, do a search for picadillo on the Kitchen forum--I think the recipe post might actually be under chiles en nogada. It's the best one I've tried, although I've never tried Carron's. Hers might be better.

http://www.mexicocooks.typepad.com

wendy devlin

Feb 4, 2009, 2:12 PM

Post #14 of 20 (3585 views)

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Re: [sergiogomez] It's been very quiet here lately

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Olivia(sergiogomez) makes the excellent point that every person's life is interesting because they are a unique individual.

¡Como México! No hay dos.

Although I visit and enjoy various Mexican blogs, am still 'at heart' a forum-type person.
By that mean, an open public forum, in this day and age.
Is still open to all.

Blogs are cool, informative etc. However most of them, tend to naturally, close themselves off socially from the 'open' aspect of the web. By the aspect of owner moderation. And what seems to be, the inclusive aspect of commenters, paying attention-style homage? to the blogger.

The open forum model, have always welcomed and found quite fascinating.

From the aspect of: providing a real-time opportunity for rubbing shoulders internationally speaking, with so many people, that might not cross my path.

Given the human propensity for seeking company of our 'own' kind for which I am in real life, am just as prone to. As the next guy/gal.

And given the recent turn of international economic events.
The time just might have arrived.
For seeing. Everybody walking in the same shoes.

sergiogomez

Feb 4, 2009, 2:25 PM

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Re: [wendy devlin] It's been very quiet here lately

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I have to agree that forums are probably my favorite place to hang out online. I've gotten tons of laughs, solid advice, useful tips, and all kinds of useful information from forums. Along with the occasional pessimistic post from the neighborhood grouch, of course, and that happens anywhere. It does tend to happen more in blog comments, which is why I hate blog comments. Every so often I find a blog entry or two that hits home because it's so human. It's rare, unfortunately. Forums are great for being interactive, hardly any constraints. I love the way I feel so much more outgoing online...and that's starting to transfer to the rest of my life as well. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to meet forum friends in real life. Kind of like "skip the awkward stranger stage" and start chatting like old friends? You really feel like you get to know people on a forum.

Carron

Feb 4, 2009, 6:52 PM

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Re: [wendy devlin] It's been very quiet here lately

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Well, with the dead babies--we also had babies at the same time and we gave a couple of ours to our neighbor with all sorts of apologies. Then our randy billy ran away from home; it was not until two weeks later the same neighbor dropped by to say that Billy had been at his ranch for the entire time and had serviced all his females. We brought Billy home and now keep him corralled along with our own girls so he is staying busy and happy. It seems to have worked out equitably.

We usually let our goats and sheep run free since we have excellent pasture; they return to my front yard several times a day to rest and chew and they stay close under my bedroom windows at night. We have had little rain this year and our grass is getting pretty brown. I guess the new emerald green oats across the road were just too much of a temptation. We have them all penned up now and our feed bill has soared (another of those expenses we hadn't planned on), but as soon as we get a good spring rain our pasture will be glorious again as it is every year and they should be satisfied to stay at home.

Since Hubby stays in town most of the time now, behind tall fencing, he has the worst Rottweiler offenders with him. I keep 3 younger ones at the ranch but make them stay close by me whenever I go outside. The rest of the time they stay in the house and sleep.

We don't have television, but joke that we have "Country Time TV": one channel for horses, one for sheep, one for goats, another for chickens, and yet another for the stars at night. Now we have a new program to view--a flock of gorgeous wild ducks is wintering in our stock pond and I can watch them while I wash dishes. A regular variety of telenovelas with every bit as much drama. Heroines, ingenues, villains, handsome heroes, the whole cast of characters right in my front yard.

And it takes exactly 30 minutes to feed the chickens--5 minutes to scatter the grain and 25 to watch them eat.

geri

Feb 8, 2009, 2:49 AM

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Re: [Anonimo] It's been very quiet here lately

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Ah Carron:

Thanks for the "day in your life" post. How well I remember visiting you in that off-the-beaten-path village near Tuxtla Gutierrez...must be 10 years now. It was the greatest place, with a tree growing in the middle of your living area right up through the roof! Back then, when we talked on this forum about wandering along goat paths, some people got defensive, felt that we were portraying Mexico as rural/backward. I still explore rural Oaxaca with great gusto but I don't consider it backward. The rural/indigenous folk have a lot of ingenuity/pride/survival skills. They are rich in traditions. What they cherish and value and how they live is certainly different from city dwellers, but I've learned a lot from them. Learned a lot from city folk too. To me, living in Mexico is a lifelong learning experience. When we can learn no more, we're dead, no?

Carron

Feb 8, 2009, 10:53 AM

Post #18 of 20 (3373 views)

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Re: [geri] It's been very quiet here lately

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Isn't Mexico simply the greatest place for making friends and experiencing new adventures!! I like to think of it as a magical place called "Serendipity".

For me it always has been and I hope it continues to offer such abundant delights.

wendy devlin

Feb 8, 2009, 2:06 PM

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Re: [geri] It's been very quiet here lately

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Accidently 'erased' my reply to Geri. Maybe rewrite it later.

(This post was edited by wendy devlin on Feb 8, 2009, 2:08 PM)

BajaGringo

Feb 8, 2009, 7:27 PM

Post #20 of 20 (3294 views)

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Re: [Carron] It's been very quiet here lately

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I share those sentiments as well my friend. I lead a pretty busy life before coming to Mexico but after several years here I realize now that I have only just begun to live...

Feliz Domingo a Todos!

Our House Building Project in Mexico...
Lomas de San Martin
Loving Life on the Baja Peninsula