What I Will Miss About Spain

Europe seems to be more practical about many things.

There are so many little things - and large ones - that distinguish Europe from America.  You don't realize how much of a cash-grab the USA has become over the years, in the name of "free-dum."  Time was, you could buy a house and raise a family on the salary of a milkman, mailman, or policeman (as the Up With People! idolize).  Today, only the policeman is making out financially, thanks to a strong union.  But who knows?  Maybe that will be privatized next.

I mentioned the ice before - it comes in small bags of enormous cubes - so large that a typical glass holds only one.  Perfect for a sipping drink like bourbon or scotch.  In the US, commercial ice machines (and I do own one) make tiny cubes - perfect for shaking a martini, but also perfect for making a "fountain drink" 70% ice and 30% drink.  I'll miss the ice.

Plastic bottles have a cap that is retained by a ring, so when you open a bottled water or soft drink, the cap stays attached.  No loose caps littering the ground and recycling is easier.  Speaking of which, recycling is much easier, as is garbage disposal.  Huge recycling bins, each the size of a small car, are placed on nearly every block.  One for glass, one for plastic, and another for general trash.   It is never hard to find a garbage can in Spain, and as a result, the streets are cleaner.  Well, that and an army of street cleaners - both the machine kind and human kind, wash the roads and sidewalks daily instead of annually.  And the guys on the highway picking up trash?  They are paid employees, not convicted criminals doing "community service."

There are, of course, some downsides.  The fascination with diesel engines, for example. More efficient, I guess (slightly, compared to hybrids), but also more polluting.  And diesel is not more expensive than gasoline (or not much more) so I guess that drives the narrative.   Yes, fuel is expensive.  We paid anywhere from $1.25 to $1.80 a liter for diesel (about $5 to $7 a gallon) which is a lot more than we pay in the States.  Smaller cars are the norm, and yea, it takes some getting used to, to see a BMW 5-series "M" model with a diesel engine.

But I am not sure that "cheap gas" is worth all the other hassles we have in America.  The delta in the cost of fuel is far outweighed by the expense of student loans or health care.  We cheer for a our cheap gas, and then blow the advantage by purchasing fuel-hog vehicles.  I never measured the gas mileage on the Fiat (Ram Workmaster) van we rented, but it never seemed like a lot of money to fill it up.  And since everything else was much cheaper than in America, it was a wash.

As a result of expensive fuel, people buy more fuel-efficient vehicles, which can be quite roomy, like our Kia Hamster is.  Plus, the level of public transportation blows America out of the water.  Even when the trainmen go on strike (because they actually have unions here) there is luxury bus service from competing companies to take you almost anywhere in the country,

Bike lanes are the norm everywhere and people seem to respect bicyclists, even on narrow country lanes.  And pedestrian crosswalks are as  wide as a car lane and controlled by leisurely traffic lights.  In uncontrolled crosswalks, the default is the pedestrian has the right of way over any car.  Walking in any city is a treat, not an obstacle course.  And people walk everywhere, sometimes just to walk or paseo.  Europeans think nothing of walking a kilometer or two, whereas Americans would reach for the car keys.

Like I said, bike lanes - everywhere.  Of course, the e-bike (and the e-scooter) rules the road - or the bike lane, anyway.  Meanwhile, in the US, we are told that wide sidewalks and bike lanes are impractical and should be sacrificed for yet another lane of traffic - to protect the auto industry, which today, comprises mostly foreign makes or foreign-owned US brands.  There are other ways to live!

Of course, this is not to say it is a Shangri-La.  Locals complain about the price of housing.  A one-bedroom condo might cost you $150,000 in the big city!  Not a lot of money, but then again, salaries are not very high. Many young people work two jobs to make ends meet.  And the right wing complains about illegal immigrants.   We are more alike than different.

I could go on - there are so many other little things, too, which seem, well, just practical.  You see a parking space across the street?  No need to do a U-turn, just park the "wrong" way.  You won't be ticketed or towed (a handy feature when trying to wrestle a van down the side streets in the "old" town).  In fact, the presence of police seems a lot more subdued, although in one city we visited, the police vans had fold down riot cages that slid over the windows.  I guess they do expect trouble from time to time.

Anyway, we are on the Carnival Valor halfway across the Atlantic.  What a change from the Holland America Oosterdam.  No lectures to attend, or art classes to take, but two giant water slides and a huge (and well-attended) casino.  Carnival touts itself as home of the "Fun Ships!" and the fun, I guess, comprises alcoholism and compulsive gambling.  It is darker and louder than a Holland America ship, but at least we did get an upgrade to a balcony stateroom.

The entire ship is decorated in patriotic tchotchke.  The Washington Dining Room, the Lincoln Lounge, the Eagle Bar (America Eagles dominate the ship - literally hundreds of them!).  It is an interesting welcome home to America. And no, the "Hall of Presidents" bar and lounge doesn't have a bass relief of Trump - yet.

But maybe that is the one thing that distinguishes Europe from America.  They've lived through wars and fascist dictatorships and don't want a repeat performance.  Perhaps.  Then again, the rise of far-right parties across the continent seems to indicate that the younger generation hasn't learned from history.

Oh, well.

Up With People! And The New/Old Fascism

Fascism isn't new, nor it the urge to go back to "the good old days."

Back in the 1920s, people were having altogether too much fun.  My own grandmother was a "flapper" who bobbed her hair and wore tight dresses and went to "blind pig" speakeasies in New York, much to the chagrin of her strict Lutheran parents.  In other parts of the world, liberalism also took hold.  New ideas were being flaunted, people were toying with ideas like Communism.  In Germany, gay rights groups were formed.

Then it all came crashing down in 1929.

And like clockwork, people decided that our economic problems were not caused by economic causes, but by social ones.  Too much liberal thinking!  Scandalous behavior!  If only we went back to the good old days, things would be better!

How that would fix the economy is anyone's guess.  And the crash of 1929 wasn't caused by liberalism, but by capitalism run wild.  A few people made a lot of money in that crash - a lot lost a little and some lost everything.  This was, of course, by design.  And I suspect the attempt to blame our woes on social issues was also by design.

And if you go back through history, you see this pattern.  Crops fail?  Burn a witch.  Failing that, well, persecute a minority group with a pogrom.  Blame the "others" for your self-inflicted problems.  It has always been a popular sport.

We were treated to a diatribe by an Uber driver in Portugal about how "immigrants" were ruining the economy. You see, as I have harped upon time and time again, this immigration thing is not unique to the USA.  The population of the earth has expanded by a factor of three since I was a kid, and the battle for scare resources is getting increasingly ugly.

Sure, you might think of some war or conflict in terms of religious or political conflict or tribal warfare, but the bottom line is, people are fighting for land and the resources that come with it.  And those caught in the middle are looking at Western countries and their high standard of living and thinking, "It's worth risking my life to go there - I have literally nothing left to lose!"

Like gas expanding to fill a container (Boyle's law) populations migrate from crowded areas to less crowded areas - from areas where resources are scarce to places where they are plentiful.  It is almost an inexorable force that cannot be stopped with walls or deportations, only perhaps managed at best.

So here we are again in 2025 facing economic insecurity and a worldwide struggle for limited resources, and the far-right is blaming it all on transgender people and immigrants.  The real reasons, of course - exponential population growth and squandering of scarce resources - are dismissed out of hand.  In fact, the far-right promotes even greater population growth, claiming it is a civic duty to have children.  And they also claim that resources on a finite planet are, in fact, infinite.  It is a hell of a sell-job.

But it has been years in the making.  When I was a kid, there were protests and riots such as at the 1968 Democratic convention.  Those on the right claimed this was a sign of moral degradation, and if only people would get their act together - and march in lock-step, the world would be a better place.

People protested "Down with the Police!" or "Up with Pot!" so this phaseology become common.  The CEO of Avis, the car rental company, even published a book, called "Up The Organization!" which is a good read if you get the time.

So the phraseology was co-opted by the far right to create "Up With People!' - a singing troupe of a hundred clean-faced young people singing in harmony.  And the songs?  Well, the best I can say is they are along the lines of the "I Love You, You Love Me!" song sung by Barney the Purple Dinosaur.  Insipid. Vacuous.  Superficial. Boring.

The organization itself was an outgrowth of the "Moral Re-Armament" movement that dated back to the 1930's.  Same shit different day - in the depths of the depression, the founder of "MRA" opined that the solution to our economic problems was to install a theocratic dictatorship.  And say, that fella Hitler has the right idea!  Too bad about the Jews, thoug!.  No, he really said things like that.  MRA needed a re-branding and Up With People! fit the bill.

So, Up With People! was formed in part to ditch that tainted legacy and present a clean-cut view of how America should be. Why can't kids today be more like the Up With People! singers instead of dirty stinking hippies?  It was an easy sell to Mom and Dad America, but not necessarily to their kids.

And as you might imagine, it was sponsored by major corporations who wanted to see more social order and preserve the status-quo.  Coca-Cola was one of the big early sponsors and they sort of co-opted the idea with their "I'd like to teach the world to sing!" promotion, which sort of sold the same message as Up With People! albeit with a bottle of coke in hand.

It kept going for a few decades, although it sort of petered out by the 1980s.  They are credited (by some) as creating the first Superbowl halftime show that didn't involve marching bands. It is still around today even, in a limited form.  But what got me started on this - other than nostalgia - was the idea that political or economic problems could be solved by enforcing moral standards onto other people.

Saving and Loan crash?   Can't be lax regulation!  Must be the Gays!  Throw in a religious angle - that we have somehow displeased God - and you have a perfect storm.  Just have to find a witch to burn, or some other handy scapegoat.

For Hitler it was the Jews.  For the new right-wing, it is immigrants who eat dogs and cats, Furries who put litter boxes in classrooms.  Trans people using the "wrong" bathroom (which is to say, any bathroom, apparently).  It won't be long before they go after other minorities and in fact, they already are.  Spanish-speaking people are being assaulted for speaking Spanish.  Blacks are being "put in their place" by claiming any accomplishment by a black person is due to "D.E.I."   This is how it starts, and as economic conditions worsen, well, they will find more and more scapegoats to go after.  Perhaps you.  Probably me.

The struggle for resources isn't just limited to migration.  Just as in 1938, we have Putin invading Ukraine to expand his empire, with plans to vacuum up other former Soviet bloc countries thereafter.  Trump talks of annexing Canada, Panama, and Greenland.  Everyone, it seems, is in the land-grab business.  We need more land for our population to grow!  Lebensraum!  Hey, there's plenty of room on Mars, right?

Of course, you only want to expand the population of the right kind of people.  You know, Up With People! kind of people.

Up! Up with people!
You meet ‘em wherever you go,
Up! Up with People!
They’re the best kind of folks we know.
If more people were for people,
All people ev’rywhere,
There’d be a lot less people to worry about,
And a lot more people who care!

There is something very creepy about that lyric, particularly the second-to-last line.

Rubber Baby Buggie Bumpers

Why retire in a crowded city?

The van comes with big urethane bumpers front and rear, which are plain black plastic.  The right front had a small dent it in from a previous renter, and after "the incident" with the flat tire, the dent was much bigger.  After a few weeks, we decided to fix it.  You can pull dents out of these urethane bumpers by applying some gentle heat from a hair dryer and then pushing in from the back.

I unscrewed part of the inner fender liner so I could reach in.  I could push the bumper out, but it bounced back.  Having no hair dryer to soften the urethane, I was stumped.  Mr. See suggested hot water and boiled a pan on the stove.  We gently poured the hot water on the bumper and it cascaded down the bumper, even underneath.  I gently pushed in from the back and it popped out!  I pushed again and even the small dent from the previous renter was gone.  I kept massaging it until the tiniest wrinkles were gone.

But would it stick?  Or would it bounce back to the old dent?  Mark ran in and got one of these huge Spanish ice cubes from the fridge and I rubbed it all over the formerly dented area to "set" the repair.  When I took my hand away, no dent!  Not even a scratch!

I've done this in the past, even with painted bumpers, although usually they show cracks in the paint when you are done.  Still, it looks better than a dent.  Why people drive around with dented urethane bumpers is beyond me.

But I digress.

We are working our way up the coast to Barcelona.  We have stopped in some small towns and stayed at Mom & Pop campgrounds right on the beach.  It is heaven.  And every campground has a bar and restaurant - it is no big deal over here to serve liquor and food.

We did stop in Benidorm, which is an ex-pat enclave, mostly for Brits.  The big deal there was the two-seat tandem handicapped scooter (coming soon to a Walmart near you!) which was made popular by a television series about that town.   If you like crowds - in the stores, the restaurants, and on the beach, this is the place for you.  Yea, it had its charms, but TOO CROWDED!  And some Brits really make Americans look reasonable by comparison.

Cities are nice and all, but I've had my fill of "tourist attractions" - museums, cathedrals, and "sights" to see.  Just the quiet sound of the surf in the background and the warm (-ish) Mediterranean sea.

Toiletries

 

I noticed on our Holland America cruise across the Atlantic that they used weird square toilets, as opposed to the oblong bowls used in America.  I assumed this was some sort of nautical thing to save space or something.  But apparently the square toilet has taken over Europe, at least in newer installations.  Like the overwrought sink, it looks cool but is less functional.

Of course, toilet shapes and types vary the world round (pardon the pun).  The traditional Japanese toilet is a hole in the floor you squat over, with water running into it.   When visiting Japan, you look for the door with "Western" on it, or learn to squat.

Of course, times change in Japan, and Toto (not the band or the dog) makes an excellent toilet that will not only wash, but blow-dry your parts, while you sit on a heated seat.  Instructions are printed in pink for girls and light blue for boys.  And yes, Toto has made inroads into the traditional American Standard and Crane market in America.

One oddity I saw in an upscale restaurant in Nazare (Portugal) was a "self-washing" toilet seat.  This was a refreshing change (no pun intended) after visiting places with no toilet seats or others with no toilet paper or both.  The instructions for the self-washing seat chided users not to attempt to raise the seat, as it was firmly attached to the bowl with a swivel mount.  When you flushed the toilet, the seat spun around and a jet of water gently poured over the seat, until it made a full circle.

Unlike the square toilet, this one had a perfectly round seat (otherwise it wouldn't work).  I am not sure whether a light jet of cold water really "sanitizes" the seat, and whether it really dried it properly.  But they get bonus points for effort.

It is interesting, however, the little things you see when you travel.  Like the Royale with Cheese, I guess.  We were traversing some mountains in Spain and looking for a place to have a picnic lunch.  Suddenly, a Mooriish castle appeared, and we drove up to it.  No one was there and it was no big deal to Spaniards - after all, their country is dotted with such relics, this one from the 14th Century.  In America, such a relic would be the site of a major museum and tourist attraction.  Here, it is "Ho hum, yet another abandoned castle - big deal!"

We are working our way up the Mediterranean coast to Barcelona, as our van trip winds down to its last week.  It has been interesting and challenging - the human factor being the hardest part.  Triads are far harder to deal with than dyads.  With two people, there is no tie-breaking vote.  But with three, well, it can come down to two against one.

We haven't had many major problems - drinking seems to help, up to a point, where it makes it worse.  I guess we all realize that everyone has their time in the hot seat and it isn't a personal thing.  Both Juan and I had to have words with Mark, as he was taking on all the chores and then bemoaning that no one appreciated all the work he did.  Come down from the cross, we need the wood!   He finally agreed to let go and let things play our and let Juan and I do more of the work.

I have had some episodes with Parkinsons, as it can make you paranoid, particularly if everyone, in fact, it out to get you.  But I take my meds and try to realize that the mood swings are just an artifact, not a real thing.  Juan gets a little tipsy if "over-served" and gets even louder than a Cuban can get - and that's loud.  But I get them all in bed and before long, I fall asleep to the see-saw of their snoring.

Google is giving me fits uploading photos, so I don't have much to share there.

Quite frankly, we are enjoying the latter half of the trip much more.  It is warmer (we all caught bad colds freezing our ass off in Portugal) and we are spending more time on the beach at small beach towns than looking a museums and tourist spots in big, crowded cities.

As for blogging, maybe my days are over.  I find less interest in cranking up the computer, perhaps because of the hassle involved.

Next week we board the Carnival Valor and spend 15 days at sea and visiting ports in Spain the Azores.  This time around, we will eschew guided tours and just take a taxi to our favorite beach spots.

Then, on to New Orleans - if they let us back into the country, that is.

Zaragoza

 I'm really not interested in doing a travelogue. Someone asked me if on our trip we were the logging or V whatever to make money or something. I really not into that and for what I understand most people who do it don't make any money and find it just annoying after a while. There's too many damn people on YouTube as it is.

After we picked up the van we stopped at all the to get groceries. Aldi in Spain is pretty simple pretty similar to Aldi in America. In other words, in the middle of the meat department you'll find garden equipment. It's not as bad as LIDL, which is another chain popular in Europe and also in some places in america. Here I literally found a drill press for sale in the middle of the vegetable department. I'm not kidding about this. They sell Power Tools with groceries.

Anyway we had to stock up on everything for the van to fill the refrigerator in the cupboards and so we had a big pile of groceries which is unlikely most people in Europe shop. When lady gave us 30 looks as a result she started piling stuff on the conveyor belt behind me making it difficult for me to put the rest of our groceries on.

If you Google bakery near me and look at your phone it'll appear like a shotgun is Blaster your phone screen. There's a bakery on every block and people get fresh bread every morning. The bread here is delicious but it doesn't last very long which is why people buy it on a daily basis. It's a whole different head compared to shopping in America where you buy a loaf of bread and has a shelf life of other gears. 100 years.

And the wine. You can buy a really decent bottle of table wine for under $2 or at least under 2 euros. With a conversion rate it probably comes out to $2 to some change. If you're willing to spend up to five bucks man you can get the real nice bottle of wine in particular some sparkling wine either Cava from Spain or sparkling wine from France or other regions. The wines of the duro region in Portugal are particularly nice.

Again, I guess we can't have nice things in america. Speaking of alcohol, the paranoid puritanical Baptist Notions about serving alcohol in America or not present here. Every small shop in outlet has a bar attached to it and nobody seems to care whether you have a license or not to serve alcohol. So you go to a campground and they have a bar. In America it's very unusual for a campground to have a bar. You go to the gym and they have a bar. You go anywhere and they have a bar. You don't have to ask if they have alcohol on the menu it's taken for granted. Nobody thinks it's weird to serve wine with dinner.

We stopped in Zaragoza one night at a free parking space for caravans. The van camper has taken Europe by storm, possibly supplanting the Caravan trailer as the mode of camping. Of course, these same Vans are now sold in America by Ford Mercedes and Dodge it used to be the Dodge D100 and the Chevrolet G10 and the Ford Econoline grew up the road. But now European advance are the norm in america. It seems like we can't make anything in America anymore other than big pickup trucks and SUVs. But that's another story.

The van Handel's remarkably well and we think we'll probably buy one second hand when we get back to the states. Either that will buy one over here and use it as our Escape pod. Anyway getting back to Zaragoza, they put in a free parking area for camper vans complete with a dump station. It's right across the street from the tram station which takes you right to downtown. They have a beautiful square with an enormous Cathedral and Juan was very good at being a tour guide. We then went to an area called the tunnel which is a series of really narrow picturesque streets with Tapas bars and went from bar to bar having a glass of wine and various tapas items. It really is a different way of living. I really love that city as it's very small and easily walkable. We've been watching videos on YouTube from a guy named Tony about touring Spain and Portugal and that's his hometown.

We kind of got lost ended up in sort of a working man's bar and decided to stop and have a beer and sit at the table and look out at the people walking on the sidewalk. Juan ordered three beers and the total came to about $4 or less. I bought the second round with larger signs that have been frosted in the refrigerator and I think it came to six bucks. Bear in mind in America you'd be lucky to get one beer for $6 even at a dive bar. Why is everything in America so expensive? Why is everything in America just a freaking money grab.

And don't ask me if that included tip cuz they don't do that s*** here.

But I digress.

The Germans and the British love the idea of wild camping which is driving your camper down to the beach or out of the woods and just hanging out on somebody else's property or in public lands. It sounds neat in theory and you can do this still in some parts of America in particular in Canada on so-called Queensland which I guess is now called kingsland. What is your mind imagine people parking out in the woods for free or on the beach tend to leave litter and debris and dump their gray water and other things on the ground and it gets out of hand real quick. Driving vans on fragile Dunes are in the forest causes erosion as well. So they're starting to clamp down on this sort of thing. We've been using a app called park for night to find spaces sometimes right on the beach period

It's really peaceful period the camper has a pop top and we sleep up on the roof and zipped down the canvas so you can watch the ocean crashing in the shore and hear it at night as you follow gently asleep.

Other times we go to RV parks which are mixed bag. Some of the ones, particularly in Portugal are a little sketchy. We went to one in Lisbon which looked like a really nice place. It had hundreds of sites in these enormous bath houses which look like they've been designed for Expo 67. But everything was a little rundown they hadn't even mowed the lawn or anything. The toilets had no toilet seats and there was no toilet paper. It was kind of weird. Other places had toilet paper but you expected to put the used toilet paper in a bucket like you were in Mexico.

Other places where Immaculate and had brand new bathrooms. But you had to pay 50 cents to use the bathroom and a dollar for the shower. On the online review sites the Germans and the Brits wind continuously about having to pay for these things. But after every use a toilet with no seat I was happy to pay. And it was a short walk to an absolutely gorgeous beach. Across the street was a shanty of a restaurant that reminded me of something from Key West. It was dining European style we swallowed for hours there waiting for our food when it finally arrived it was well worth the wait it was just amazing that they produce such dishes from what basically was a food truck. I miss that aspect of the old key west. Now it's all Condominiums and chain restaurants.

Again I apologize for the spelling errors because I'm dictating this on the phone and I have a very sketchy internet connection so it's probably old disjointed to make no sense. Maybe I'll edit it when I get back home. Or maybe it's just the Parkinson's talking.

Not Dead. Yet.

 .. but I've been busy. Sorry I haven't posted for a while but we've been on the road and it's been kind of taking up all of our time. We get up in the morning, just to say around 10:00 a.m. and finally get on the road by 11:00. We drive 100 or 200 km to a destination and then hang out for a day or two. It's been a lot of fun it's also been a lot of stress.

Sorry for the typos and spelling errors but I'm using voice recognition on my phone and you know how that works.

Arrived in Barcelona and made our way to the campervan rental place. This is about a week or so ago. We picked up our camper and made our way out of town to supposedly a nudist resort. We drove off the main Highway and onto a very windy but well paved road. Sort of the kind of road that would give the dragons tail envy.

Then it turned into a gravel road. Then a dirt road. Then we forded a couple of streams. This was a lot for a two-wheel drive van. The van is made by Fiat and it's old in America as the ram workmaster. Over here it is the Fiat Ducato, please. It's powered by diesel engine has a 5-speed manual transmission. It's been over a decade since I've driven a diesel and 10 years since I've driven a five-speed or in this case a 6-speed. It did take a little learning and of course I stalled the damn thing right at the van rental place.

Anyway the dirt road got rough and rougher and I kept up the momentum so we wouldn't get stuck. We finally get to this place and it seems like it's better days were behind it. All the pictures in the internet showed a bright and happy place with lots of people. Here it was dingy and run down and there was nobody there. But since we had gone this far we decided to stay the night. The owner told us to drive down a steep hill that looks more like a tractor trail. We managed to do this as it was dry and turned around and parked in a nice bucolic area. Our first night in the camper!

I asked the owner if we would have trouble getting up the hill, as if it got rainy it looks like it would turn into a mud pit. He replied the water would run it off is not to worry about it. That turned out not to be the case.

So naturally that night it rained. And dry dirt turned into slippery mud that was almost like grease. What's even worse is the giant rocks sticking out of the road turned into slick glass like sections. I made a running start of the hill and the traction control kicked in. The traction control on this type of van depresses the engine horsepower so the engine started lugging and cutting back. We backed down the hill and tried it again.

Two more tries and no joy. We got halfway up the hill and the thing just runs out of power. So we backed out again at this time I turned off the traction control in floored it up the hill and it's slipping and sliding. Unfortunately there's a big tree on one side and a giant rock sticking out the other. We back down to try one more time.

This time we make it further up the hill and the van starts sliding sideways fortunately toward the hill and not over the cliff. Suddenly I hear it loud bang as the wheel hits the giant rock sticking out. I asked Mark what happened he said you blew out a tire keep going. Oddly enough the flat tire ended up give us some more traction. I probably should have taken air out of the tire as it would have helped the situation.

We fought our way to the top of the hill and pulled into a flat spot. Fortunately the van came with a spare tire and a jack and tools that had never been used. Three of us got to work jacking up the truck and changing the tire. The rim had a 6-in dent in it although the tire seemed intact.

So much for our first day on the road.

Things of course have gone uphill since then. When I like about Spain and Portugal is the food here is very inexpensive. There's no egg shortage here and when you do get a dozen eggs they're huge and have yolks that are bright orange not the pale yellow you see in the states. And the ice. They make ice cubes the size of your fist you only need to put one in a glass. Why do they have such nice things here and we can't have them in america?

Of course, some people say, well you like it so much there why don't you move there?

Exactly.

Halfway Across the Atlantic

10-foot waves don't look as dire when you are on a ship.

Just a quick note as we are halfway across the Atlantic and internet service is expensive.  Thanks for all the kind words and thoughts.  But I suspect I will be posting less and less as time goes on.  First of all, I have pretty much covered the waterfront with 6,000 postings.  Over time, some of my thoughts have changed, others have not.

A cruise ship is a good place for people watching.  It is also a place that caters to obsessive-compulsive personalities.  Our Cuban traveling companion has an in-law who turned out to be a hoarder.  She inherited about $160,000 and blew it all on a succession of cruises.  The siblings managed to get together and clean out her house, fix it up and sell it, and get her into an assisted living place.  Usually it doesn't work out so well for hoarders and OCD people.  It was interesting to me how she perpetually put herself in peril and then expected others (Mom, Dad, Siblings, in-laws) to bail her out.  A lot of people live that way, I guess.

But a cruise ship is a dangerous place for someone with no self control.  There is the casino, an art auction place, several "shops" selling jewelry of questionable quality, and of course bars and extra-fee restaurants.  There are also shore excursions and whatnot and of course, a desk devoted to getting you to sign up for your "next cruise" right away.  I noted before that one way to calculate the actual cost of a cruise is to take the come-on price (usually $499 to $799) and add a zero to it.  A $499 cruise can cost $4999 easily.  For starters, $499 is the price for one person, and when you add in taxes and fees and "mandatory gratuities" and a few extras - plus airfare to the port, overnight stay in a hotel and/or parking fees, and so on, well, it adds up.   You want a de-luxe suite?  It can easily end up in the thousands and thousands.  And if you gamble.... that's how our friend ended up spending $160K on a series of cruises.

[UPDATE:  I forgot to mention the seminar we went to, which talked about the "onboard shopping experience!"  The presenter was like a televangelist and exhorted us to buy Tanzenite, a "precious gem" from Tanzania that is only sold on cruise ships and at cruise ship ports.  We walked out when the lady told us to look at the person next to us and say, "I deserve this!"  Sounds like something a sub would say in a BDSM scenario.  Shopping is indeed a form of self abuse.]

I paid for one day (24 hours) of Internet, so I don't expect to be posting much for another week.  We pre-ordered several bottles of liquor for our room.  Expensive, but far less than buying drinks at the bar or paying $70 a day for a "drink package" as well.  We are going on some shore excursions but choosing simple, inexpensive ones.  One excursion listed for "Spanish Morocco" noted that it was a strenuous 7 hour journey to areas where there might be animal carcasses in the streets and sketchy restroom facilities - plus a journey into regular Morocco where they confiscate your passport.

We took a pass on that one.

When we get to Spain, I might have more internet.  But until then, bon voyage!

How To Spot eBay Arbitrage

People make money selling Amazon items on eBay.  It isn't hard to spot, though.

Mark broke off the antenna on the backup camera on the camper.  No big deal, I broke it off before while washing the camper. I reattached it with duct tape, but this time it was really broken.  I went on eBay and saw a two-pack of antennas for sale for $12.77.   "Last one!  16 sold!" it said.  Seemed like a good price so I clicked.   It never came.  The seller said it was lost in transit, so they gave a full refund.

The reality was, they forgot to order it as a "gift" on Amazon.  That's how arbitrage works. They list something for sale on eBay for a few dollars more than what it sells for on Amazon.  Since they are a "Prime" member, they get free shipping.  Someone "buys" their item on eBay and they then go to their Amazon account, and "buy" the item as a "gift" for their buyer and then pocket the difference in price.

One could, I suppose, even program a "bot" to do all of this automatically - and I suspect that is what happens.  Perhaps the bot glitched in this case and "forgot" to order the item on Amazon - or it was out of stock.  We'll never know.  Of course, the "seller" gladly issued a refund and suggested I reorder the item.  I got suspicious at this point.  How could the item be "lost in transit" when eBay shows it was never shipped?  I was a victim of arbitrage - or attempted arbitrage, anyway.

It isn't illegal, and it isn't really immoral, either.  When I clicked on "buy" on eBay, I thought I was getting a good deal,  Little did I know the item was for sale on Amazon for $7.50 for the pair.  I've been "stung" by this a few times, and you can tell when it happens as the package arrives from Amazon, not the seller, and there is a "gift receipt" inside.  You've been arbitraged!

Of course, the easiest way to avoid this "problem" is to open both Amazon and eBay windows and cross-shop the item in question.  You'll figure out pretty quickly whether someone is arbitraging on eBay.  Hint: Often the item titles are identical - making searching on Amazon for the same product advertised on eBay much easier.

Often the listing is word-for-word what was on the Amazon listing.  Perhaps another bot "scrapes" Amazon and automatically creates eBay listings.  Why not?   Another tipoff is this "Last one! Over 25 sold!" or something like that.  I seem to be buying the "last one!" whenever I am arbitraged.

Also, these are often inexpensive items - usually under $50 or so.  They mark them up by a few dollars, which seems pointless, until you realize that if you have a 100-bot army scraping Amazon for listings and then processing the sales, automatically, you can make an awful lot of money without a lot of effort.  That is, until everyone and their brother gets in on this deal.  At that point, you sell seminars and kits on how to arbitrage on eBay.  And yes, I have seen ads for this nonsense.

Is there any harm to this?  Like I said, I was the chump for not cross-shopping with Amazon.  The problem with this technique is that everyone is doing it and the everyones have set up multiple eBay accounts, so you end up with hundreds of nearly identical listings for the same item, over and over again, which tends to "bury" the real listings at competitive prices.  This makes eBay harder to shop on, which in turn means people get turned off by eBay.  The real risk is to eBay itself, although they make a commission on each item sold, so maybe they don't care either, if they end up being merely a reseller for Amazon.

Time was, whatever was sold on Amazon could be found on eBay for a few dollars cheaper.  And sometimes this is still the case, although I think less and less lately, and arbitrage is part of the problem.  Of course, Amazon is loving this, as they make sales, and it degrades one of their largest competitors.  If people turn away from eBay, so much better for Amazon.

But sometimes, you find deals that beat Amazon.  We bought a portable safe from masterlock for our trip.  It is ABS plastic and has a cable so you can lock it to a beach chair or under the seat of your car.  Not burglar-proof, but it deters the smash-and-grab set.  Amazon had it for $19 and eBay wanted a few dollars more (last one! arbitrage strikes again!).  Home Depot had it for the same price as Amazon.  The kicker was, Amazon wanted $12 extra to deliver it by today, while Home Depot had free delivery by today (it is out for delivery according to FedEx).  Home Depot has a warehouse nearby, so I guess they have an advantage.  Either that, or it is one of Amazon's games, designed to get you to pay extra for "fast shipping" when half the time, slow shipping arrives at the same "fast" time.

Who knows?  What is interesting to me is how we are constantly manipulated in the marketplace.  And with the Internet, well, there are so many more subtle ways to manipulate us these days!

Arbitrage!  Beware!

You Thought Eggs Were Expensive!

Food Prices are about to skyrocket!

Tariffs end up tanking economies - that is a  basic fact that any economist will tell you.  Never, in the history of the world, has a tariff-fueled trade war ended up being advantageous for anyone.  Tariffs merely increase prices overall, which reduces demand, shrinking economies.  As prices rise, inflation takes off - the sort of "stagflation" we saw back in the late 1970s.  I lived through that and it wasn't pretty.

Already the CEOs of Walmart and Dollar General are sounding the alarm.  Their low-income customers are cutting back - cutting off - non-essential spending.  The poor had little in the way of disposable income, now they have none.

While we are the breadbasket of the world, our crops consist mostly of corn, soybeans, and wheat.  Yes, California grows a lot of produce in the Central Valley, but that is a seasonal crop.  You can say goodbye to buying fresh fruit from South America when it is out-of-season in the North.  And for things like bananas  and other tropical fruits, well, they will be hit with tariffs, as they don't grow in the United States.

Even though we grow a lot of produce in America, a large portion of our produce comes from Mexico and Central America.  So expect prices to rise considerably.  And for things like Coffee and Tea, well, they simply don't grow in the US.

Yes, this may be a windfall for some farmers.  Their US-grown tomatoes will be worth far more, now that tomatoes from Mexico are tariffed.  But the net result is higher prices for consumers.  US farmers won't simply sell at the lower prices we have today, once the competition is selling at higher prices.

Other farmers are going to be hit and hit hard.  The vast farms in the Midwest growing thousands of acres of wheat, soybeans, and corn, are going to see their export markets shrink and thus demand for these bulk crops shrink.  There is a carry-on effect as well - fewer hopper cars filled with corn for CSX to ship to the coast to send overseas.  Struggling farmers will buy fewer new tractors and harvesters, meaning John Deere will have to lay off workers.  And with tariffs making US-made tractors less attractive, sales will slump further.  Traffic at the Ro-Ro terminal here in Brunswick (where we export American-made agricultural and construction equipment) will decrease and layoffs will ensue.

This is not "chicken little" thinking, but the logical outcome of a trade war.  It is what happened in 1829 and 1930 when this idiotic thinking previously took hold.

Tariffs can be enacted in such a way to limit collateral damage.  Small tariffs or tariffs limited to specific products may only affect a narrow market or cause prices to adjust slightly.  The so-called "chicken tax" of the 1960s was enacted to tax commercial vans from Europe, in response to Germany tariffing American chicken.  The net result was that VW stopped selling it windowless cargo van in the US, but still sold their passenger version.  Today, Ford imports "passenger" vans with cardboard seats and cheap plastic windows, which are converted to cargo vans at the port, to avoid the tariff (a process known as "tariff engineering").

The chicken tax illustrates another thing, though.  Once enacted, tariffs are damn hard to get rid of.  Each trading nation has a gun pointed at the others' head, with each saying, "Let's put our guns down - you go first!"  The Smoot-Hawley tariffs of 1930 took a decade or more to alleviate, as new trade agreements had to be painfully negotiated with each trading partner.  Tariffs are easy to enact, difficult to eliminate.

Tariffs of ridiculous amounts shut down trade entirely.  Trump is tossing around double-digit numbers and blanket tariffs without much consideration as to how they affect markets.  And the net effect of most tariffs is higher prices and reduced trade.

Consider the "anti-dumping" tariff levied by the International Trade Commission during the Obama years.   The ITC used to be down at 4th and D street and one of my jobs as law clerk was to go down there and make copies of "section 337" complaints.  You see, you can ask the ITC to levy tariffs or actually exclude products from import, based on a number of factors.  Naturally, we were interested in Patent and Trademark complaints - section 337.  If someone overseas infringes your Patent, and they import the infringing goods, you can file a complaint with the ITC and get an exclusion order commanding Customs to stop the products at the port of entry.  The importer either has to pay to have the products shipped back or have them shredded.  We saw a lot of knock-off sneakers get shredded.

Anti-dumping complaints are a different beast and go back to the Smoot-Hawley tariff act of 1930.  They became very popular in the 1970s when Japanese car manufacturers were accused of "dumping" cars in America for below cost, in order to get market share and a foothold in the market.  It worked.  Honda, Toyota, Nissan, et al. sold cars for cheap at first, but people quickly realized how much of a bargain they were and how reliable they are.  Not long thereafter, people were paying more for Japanese cars than they would for a US-made car,  And the "Japanese" car was likely assembled in America, negating  much of the anti-dumping tariffs.

In the case of an anti-dumping complaint, counter-tariffs may be levied if the ITC finds the products are sold for below cost.  One of the funniest complaints was filed by Mercury Marine against Yamaha, claiming "certain power heads" were being dumped on the market for below cost.  The case was dismissed when it turned out that the number one customer for these power heads was..... Mercury Marine, which used them in their "American-made" outboard motors.  Truth is stranger than fiction.

Anyway, once an anti-dumping complaint is validated by the ITC, the tariff order has to be signed by the President, which in this case, was President Obama.   Unlike Trump's tariffs, the amount and reasoning behind the tariffs wasn't just pulled out of a hat, but was judiciously deliberated by the Administrative Law Judges of the ITC, after hearing arguments and pleadings from both parties.  There was due process involved.

Even so, "Obama's" tire tariffs accomplished nothing, other than to screw consumers.  Tire prices - imported and domestic - skyrocketed for a brief period of time - and "American" tire companies simply pocketed windfall profits. Once the tariffs ended, well, we went back to the way things were, and today, Chinese and Korean tires dominate the market.  Even "American" brands like Firestone are owned by Bridgestone, a Japanese conglomerate and the second-largest tire company in the world.  Plants were closed, no jobs were saved, and today, of the five largest tire companies in the world, only Goodyear represents the United States.  Tariffs did bubkis.

Harley-Davidson went a similar route.  I worked for a fellow whose wife was a Trademark attorney in-house at H-D during the transition from the AMF years (boo! hiss!) to the reorganization under new management.  The company was pretty broke, but they started licensing their marks and that provided enough income to fund development of their next generation "Evolution" motors.  They also filed an anti-dumping complaint with the ITC for motorcycles above 750cc.  They could not keep all Japanese bikes out the market (which were, indeed, killing off domestic bike production in the US, UK, and Europe) as H-D didn't make smaller motorcycles.

But they prevailed in the big-bike segment and the ITC levied a tariff on big bikes.  The Japanese responded by making bikes of 749cc or less, and still managed to do well.  Of course, the traditional Harley buyer wouldn't touch a "Jap Bike" but it did give H-D some breathing room for a few years.  

But, once again, the relief was short-lived.  The Indian brand was revived in America and Polaris started selling big "Hogs" as well (the two merged later on).  There is no secret sauce in building motorcycles and with domestic competition, well, the tariffs didn't do much to protect H-D's market share.  Not only that, but their target audience started aging out.  I commented on this before - how the younger generation isn't interested in big, loud, "hogs" and the image that goes along with them.   Motorcycling in general is on the decline, and the first part of 2025 has seen a 20% drop in sales, due to the recession. Boomers are aging out, and the next generation doesn't have the disposable income to buy what is a fair-weather friend and a very expensive recreational toy - one that is frustrating to ride in our ever-crowded roads.

So H-D is in trouble today, aided and abetted by some mis-steps in trying to reach out to the younger market as well as a ill-fated foray into electric bikes.  Tariffs didn't save the company, or if they did, it was only a short-term bump, not a long-term benefit.

So, in addition to tariffs causing a lot of financial pain for consumers, they don't end up helping the industries that they are supposed to help.  And a lot of other industries and business segments - particularly agriculture - end up being hurt by reciprocal tariffs.  And Trump thinks he can "warn" foreign countries not to enact such reciprocal tariffs.  That hasn't worked.

So why do people support tariffs?  For some, it is ignorance, for others it is greed.  I've heard people say things like, "Well, the foreign company will just have to take the cost of tariffs out of their profit margin!"   But in many industries, profit margins are measured in the single digits.  You can't simply cut your profits by 35% to match Trump's tariffs, when your own profit margin is less than 10%.   These ridiculous tariff numbers amount to an exclusion order, eliminating an import altogether.  VW simply stopped selling its cargo van (shown above) after the chicken tax was enacted.  They can't afford to "eat" a 20% tariff, and padding the price accordingly would make the van unaffordable to consumers.  They simply left the market at a time GM, Ford, and Dodge started producing their own vans.

So a win for the big-3?  Maybe.  VW is still around, and cargo vans, as I noted, are now imported with disposable seats and windows to avoid the tariff.   Mercedes assembles knock-down "kits" in South Carolina and avoids the chicken tax as well.  Dodge (Ram) builds its "Promaster" vans (based on Fiat designs) in either Mexico or Turkey.  I'm getting so tired of winning!

The other argument made by the pro-tariff set is that tariffs on imported goods will raise their prices, thus nurturing domestic industry.  Unprofitable businesses will become profitable!  The problem is, of course, it that prices of domestically-produced products increase as well.  Oddly enough, the people who make this argument about tariffs insist it will not raise domestic prices!  But if tariffs increase prices to the point where domestic industry takes up the slack, don't prices have to be hgher by default?  You can't have it both ways.  If domestic production was profitable at current prices, people would be motivated to produce, domestically.  And indeed, some are, many of which are foreign companies - such as Mercedes, Nissan, Toyota, Honda, KIA, Hyundai, BMW, and VW, to name a few, as well as a host of companies whose names and products you never heard of.  Most all of them use non-union labor, however.  Hmmmm...... something there I can't quite put my finger on!

No, prices will go up with tariffs - full stop.  But what about the greed factor?  I noted before that prior to the income tax (enacted as a result of our entry into WW I) the Federal government was pretty small and weak and funded mostly by tariffs and other government fees.  The greedy faction wants to go back to that old model - of a tiny government and no income tax, like the days of the "robber barons" and trusts.  I mean, that is swell for Billionaires to consolidate their wealth and take over huge sections of the economy, but sort of a raw deal for the rest of us.

I live on an island where these robber barons used to vacation.  South of us is Cumberland Island, home of the Carnegies.  Adjacent that is Little Cumberland, home of the Coca-Cola heirs.  Back in the late 1800s and early 1900s (the "guilded age" for a privileged few) you could make unlimited amounts of money and pay little or nothing in taxes and leave it all to your heirs.  As a result, we were devolving into the class-based society they have (or had) in Olde Englande, where Lords and Ladies and titled persons owned all the land an everyone else was a servant or serf, living as a perpetual tenant with no hope of climbing the social ladder.  You were born into poverty, you stayed there.

I mean, I get it.  If I was Elon Musk, I would want no income tax and no gifts and estates tax.  But I'm not Elon Musk, and I have to get by on my savings and Social Security.  I don't want to see the stock market turned into a casino (which it already has, to some extent) or Social Security abolished, just so some filthy rich guy can get even richer.  Others seem less bothered by this and assume that the "savings" will somehow trickle down to them through unknown means.  You gotta have faith - right?

Faith-based economics, however, are always doomed to failure, whether it is the Tulip bubble of 1637, the real estate bubbles of 1989, 2008, and today, or the global trade war of 2025.  Like I said, at least with the anti-dumping tariffs, there was some sort of judicial process and logic applied.  Traditional tariff levels of 1-5% don't seem to affect markets too much.  But today, we are seeing numbers as high as 100%, which generally amounts to an exclusion order.

All I can say is, stock up on coffee, because it is about to get expensive.  And enjoy your bananas while you can.  And if you have a reliable working car, keep it, because in the next four years, new and used car prices are going to increase at least 25% or more.

Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. And sadly, the MAGA set all flunked history or simply believe "this time, it's different!'

It isn't.

Passive Income - Rent vrs. Mortgage

Is it better to be a landlord or a mortgage holder?

There is a lot of talk, mostly inaccurate, about passive income these days. Self-styled internet "influencers" exhort their followers to seek out "passive income" as a way to get ahead in life.  Social activists, on the other end of the spectrum, decry passive income as parasitical losses and argue that landlords shouldn't exist - and everyone should own their own home, which is the "American Dream!"

Both are laughably wrong.

But let me address that last argument to get it out of the way.  The American Dream has never been about home ownership!  The American Dream was the idea that you could succeed on your merits in a society, regardless of your background or social status.  Granted, it is often a laughable farce - the two people touting a "meritocracy" today - Trump and Musk - were born into privilege and wealth in the millions.  They hardly "succeeded" based on merit, but moreso based on background, a huge head start, and lots of chicanery.

But the idea itself has merit, and while a child in the ghetto has little chance of becoming a Billionaire, you can elevate yourself somewhat in society by applying yourself.  My Grandfather, for example, was born poor as his Father had killed himself.  He went to City College, got a law degree, joined a firm representing "City Bank of New York" and became partner, moved from Brooklyn to Larchmont and even became Mayor.  Local boy makes good!

And similarly in my own life, I went from college dropout stoner to millionaire lawyer in about a decade or so, mostly by not being a stoner anymore.  I'm not saying that luck isn't a factor - it is.  I'm not saying that everyone can do it - statistically they can't.  But the American Dream isn't about owning shit, it's about not being locked into the caste you were born in, as was (and is) the case in so many parts of the world today (and what the "meritocracy" mavens want to make permanent in America).

And yes, owning a house is just owning shit.  It is a machine for living (a term coined by Le Corbusier, btw) with lots of expensive parts that break regularly.   I guess when I was a kid, I thought if I owned a car free-and-clear I would be set for life.  Only later did I realize that cars are just appliances and they wear out fairly quickly.  Houses are no different, and they can be expensive maintenance nightmares.   Even just keeping them clean and tidy is a chore, over time.  It is only those who are renting who look on wistfully at the "lucky" homeowner who is up on his roof blowing off pine needles or cleaning gutters.  There are advantages to renting that most tenants don't realize.

Which brings us to the second point - are landlords "parasites" who shouldn't exist?  Well, there are situations where people want to rent for logical reasons (other than not being able to afford to buy).  My next (and last) home, for example, will likely be rented, as I will not have to worry about maintenance and repairs as I become more decrepit.  Young people starting out in a new city and a new job likely would prefer to rent as buying a home involves not only down payments, but transactional fees that can be as much as 5-10% of the purchase price (on both ends).  If you don't plan on living in a house for at least five years, it makes more sense to rent than buy.

And ask the folks who bought at the peak of these real estate bubbles how "lucky" they feel to be a homeowner!  No, no, there are legitimate reasons to rent and legitimate reasons to be a landlord.  It is only in recent years we have seen mega-landlords using software to collude on rental pricing.  That is the problem, not renting in general

But what about passive income?  As recently noted in an article online, it is sort of insulting to tell poor people - who spend 100% of their income on survival needs - to seek out passive income.  To have passive income - in the form of rental income, interest income, dividend income, capital gains, and the like, you need to have money to invest or at the very least, a decent income stream to cover money you borrow.  Yes, my first real estate "investment" was a nothing-down deal, but I couldn't have swung it without a substantial income stream and disposable income.

So, on to today's topic! Finally!

Last month I was a landlord.  This month, I am a mortgage holder - a banker of sorts - as the buyer for our condo asked us to take back a mortgage.  So they gave us about $30,000 and asked us to take back a note for $110,000, payable in monthly installments at 7% amortized over 30 years, at $750 a month.  Their first monthly payment cleared the bank yesterday.

As a landlord, I was responsible for all repairs and maintenance to the inside of the condo, and I had to find and vet tenants and deal with vacancy when they left, as well as rehab the place when it got worn down.  We also had to pay property taxes, insurance, as well as the condo fee and special assessments.  In addition, as remote landlords (a bad idea) we had to pay a management company to manage most of these things.

Probably the best year we had was 2023.  No vacancy, no repairs, no increase in the condo fee, no lease-signing fees by the management company.  According to Quickbooks, we cleared $6403.  Other years, we lost money or made far less.  It isn't easy being a landlord, to be sure!  And if our tenant stopped paying rent, we would have to initiate eviction proceedings, which can take months, cost money and you never get reimbursed for the costs.

Now, as a holder of the mortgage, we stand to make $8941.80 a year in principle and interest payments, which is steady regardless of whether there is a tenant in the property or not.  We don't have to pay for repairs, condo fees, taxes, or insurance.  Just those checks coming in, no hassle.  What's even better is that if the buyer stops paying the mortgage, we can foreclose on the property and take it back.  The costs of foreclosure all come out of the buyer's pocket, in the form of their down payment or even their own wallet.  It is a much nicer deal all the way around.

Mark's Father used to do this in rural Maine.  He would buy distressed properties for cheap - often bank foreclosures - as he knew the mortgage managers at the local banks.  He (and Mark) would fix up the properties and then sell them.  Since most rural Mainers had little money and crappy credit histories, he could take back a mortgage as payment and have a steady income stream in retirement.  Naturally, he vetted his buyers carefully, which in a small town wasn't hard to do as everyone knew your business.  That is, of course, the key - finding a good buyer.

But the point of this posting is that, in terms of passive income, being a landlord is a shitload of work and a shitload of risk, for less reward than other forms of passive income.  You would probably be better off just investing in a mutual fund.  Yes, the depreciation deduction is a nice perk, particularly if you are in the higher income brackets.  But after ten years, well, that's done and now you have a capital gains problem!

And that capital gains problem can be alleviated, in part, by using the installment provision of the tax code - by taking back a mortgage.

Doctor, My Eyes! (Posterior Vitreous Detachment)

 The human body doesn't come with an owner's manual!

I went to an eye doctor the other day - a retired fellow who was quite active back in the day in developing a lot of the eye tests that are used today to detect eye problems.  I was telling him about my old doctor, "Dr. Dolittle" (no, really) who had an oak-paneled office in the State Tower Building in downtown Syracuse, New York back in the 1970's.  He wore a waistcoat with a pocket watch on a chain, even!  He had these wooden racks of lenses and he would put this contraption on  your head and start stacking lenses until the bridge of your nose hurt.

My new doctor said, "like THIS?" and opened up a drawer containing a wooden case lined with felt with row upon row of lenses.  "Old School!" I cried, "No school like the old school!"  I knew I liked this guy from the get-go.

The reason I went was I recently had an eye infection and also I was seeing zoomies - black streaks (and sometimes white flashes) at the periphery of my vision.  I was also seeing darker than normal "floaties" in my line of sight, as well as a wallpaper of lighter floaties in my vision.  It was concerning and I remember reading something that this could be a sign of a detached retina or something.  Geez, I am really falling apart!

Well, my retina is OK, but I learned about posterior vitreous detachment, which is illustrated in the diagram above.  Simply stated, there is a bag of goo inside your eyeball, that fills up most of the space.  Between ages 40-65 or so, part of this goo bag may partially detach from the retina which may lead to weird things in your vision, temporarily.  It can also be caused, I believe, by physical injuries,  It is not deemed to be harmful per se, but if the zoomies or flashes come back, it may be a sign the retina is detaching.

On the one side, I am glad to hear I am no going blind.  On the other hand, it is like, really God?  This is how life plays out - ending not with a bang, but a whimper?   As we get older, we just gradually fall apart, getting more and more comfortable with the grave.  By the time you are 90, you end up like my neighbor, who told me yesterday that she is ready to die.  And I get that.  It sounds sad, but after nearly a century of living, you get comfortable with the end game and oddly enough, are not scared of it.  Maybe that is why horror movies always use old people as jump-scare props.  We are literally, the walking dead.

What is a real tragedy, I now realize, is when a young person dies - they are not gradually used to the idea and plans and dreams are cut short, and they may leave behind a spouse or children.  So much possibility - left undone.

But old people!  They're ready to check out.

Crazy Conspiracy Theory - New Northwest Passage!

 

Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by incompetence.

People are rightfully scratching their heads as to why Trump is alienating our best allies in Europe and the Americas.  His anti-Canadian rhetoric is rightfully pissing off Canadians, who are puzzled as to why their best friend is now their best frenemy.  Of course, the reality is, America doesn't hate Canada, only Trump hates Canada.  And Trump is doing this on the orders of Vladmir Putin, who wants to divide America from its allies.  Make America Weak Again!

Yes, let's go back to before WW I when our military was tiny and unprepared for war, and our projection onto the world stage was almost nonexistent.  Back then, the sun never set on the British Empire, and well, you know how that worked out.  Maybe all empires are destined to fall, eventually.

Similarly, the noise about taking over Greenland seems stupid as well.  What is the strategic value of Greenland?  There is none.  However, it is a way of attacking our allies in Europe without attacking them directly.  We piss off Denmark while at the same time worrying our other European allies.  What's next?  Do we demand that France hand over Saint Pierre and Miquelon? (I'll bet most of you didn't know these islands even existed - I know I didn't!).

And why threaten Panama?  The canal thing was settled decades ago, and there doesn't seem to be much clamoring on anyone's part to take it back.  Yea, the Chinese had the franchise on the ports - but those were sold to Blackrock recently.  No, no, once again, it is just empty sabre-rattling designed to annoy our Southern neighbors (that and the threats of tariffs) and divide the US from its natural allies.

But maybe there is another explanation?  I heard this crazy theory online and I don't buy it for the reasons stated above.  Putin simply wants America to be weak and isolationist.  There has already been talk of cutting the military budget by 25% (the real "third rail" of America politics - not Social Security!) which would actually cut the overall Federal budget by a significant amount, compared to the penny-ante layoffs going on in various departments.

What is this conspiracy theory?  The New Northwest Passage.  It goes like this: Global warming is inevitable, particularly when right-wing governments across the globe squash environmental initiatives. Sea levels will rise, coastal cities will flood or become walled fortresses like the Netherlands already is.  Palm trees will grow in Canada and the sea ice that blocks the fabled Northwest Passage will be a thing of the past!  Whoever controls Canada and Greenland will control the biggest shipping lane in the world - a direct connection between Russia (our new friend!) and Europe (boo! hiss!).  And just in case, we'll be sure to control the Panama Canal, too!  Waddya gonna do - go around Cape Horn?  They don't call them the roaring forties for nothing!

It is, of course, a ridiculous proposition.  Why would it be advantageous to sail through the Northwest Passage from Asia to Europe, when you could sail through the Suez canal or even around the Cape of Good Hope.  Already today, some shippers are finding it cheaper to avoid canals and use huge ships (that would not fit through Panama or Suez) and just take the long way around.  Whatever the financial advantage of a Northwest Passage would be, it would be far offset by the economic damage caused by tariffs and trade wars.  Why would Trump want to control this passage that would mostly be traffic to Europe?  Vance has already expressed his views on helping European trade.

And speaking of economic damage, if all the sea ice permanently disappeared from the Northwest passage, the damage to our coasts would be staggering.  A substantial portion of the population of the US lives on either coast, and a major rise in sea levels would cause trillions of dollars in losses and forced a hundred million Americans to migrate inland.  And speaking of migration, such flooding would result in a worldwide migration crises.  Yes, the planet is burning up and Trump is diddling with Greenland.  .Priorities!

No, it is just online nonsense.  A more rational explanation is that like a bull in the china shop, Trump just wants to destroy things - on orders from Putin.  By Making America Weak Again, it paves the way for a new Russian or Chinese Century, while America looks inward and disengages from world affairs.

And engaged we are.  We have military bases in nearly every friendly country across the globe - and a few unfriendly ones as well.  Recall that the first gulf war was to rescue our "ally" Kuwait, which was essentially defenseless against Iraqi aggression.  Country after country has relied upon our foreign military bases and promises of protection, in lieu of their own military forces.  And yes, this has been a sore point, particularly with regard to NATO, at least until recently.  Disengagement with the world will mean the world will re-arm itself, which is good news for foreign weapons makers, not so much for Lockheed-Martin.

But the damage has already been done. America has aptly demonstrated that it is a fickle ally.  Even if a Democrat is elected President in 2028 and the Democrats take both houses and a majority of the governorships (and obtain a majority in the Supreme Court) it is doubtful our reputation will recover without years or even decades of atonement.  Why would any country rely on our promises when every four years, foreign policy can swing 180 degrees overnight?

In a way it is game over for the American Century or the American Empire.  The country has been looted, both financially and philosophically.  Today, it is every man for themselves, make money or die.  All must labor in service of the almighty shareholder!  Make it big by gambling on Bitcoin!  Only suckers work at "jobs" anymore!   And it is a message a lot of the younger generation has bought into - a younger generation who disturbingly voted for Trump.  Sadly, a lot of younger people are getting their information from bloggers and influencers, who tell them anyone can be the next big star!  All you gotta do is hustle and grind - work three jobs at a time for silicon valley startups!  Deliver food for Uber!  Rent out your spare bedroom on AirBnB!  You'll be the next Andrew Tate in no time!

It is no way to live.  And sadly, members of this next generation (particularly young men) are the most likely to latch on to these stupid conspiracy theories.  It ain't just Grandpa watching Fox News every night!

I used to feel bad at the state of our country and the world which we left to the next generation.  But when I see young people embracing the insanity, and as I slip slowly off the mortal coil, all I can say is, you have a good time, but be sure this is really what you want.

Northwest Passage?  Please! Spare me!

Weird eBay Experience!

You know you are old when you see this on a survey site.

I tried to buy a sink on eBay the other day.  We have a tiny sink in the camper in the corner of the "wet bath."  It is made of plastic, and is about 8" by 12" in size and cracked.

Our sad little plastic sink.

I had replaced the faucet but still it looked like crap. We had a similar sink in the Casita that cracked and I recall finding an oblong corner sink in stainless at the time (online) but never got around to ordering it.  So I searched online for "RV corner sink stainless" and got dozens of listings for this sink below.  I went on eBay and there were literally hundreds of identical listings for the same sink.

Nice sink, but it wouldn't fit in our camper!

Problem is, it is a symmetrical corner sink, and I need an oblong one.  What was weird to me was that eBay was flooded with listings for this sink, and it was all I could find on Google.  Google thinks that once you click on one thing, that is all you ever want.  So you click on one "MAGA" site and that's all you hear forever and ever, amen!  Ditto for the Democrats - I am still getting texts and e-mails, several a day, pleading for money from a candidate running for dogcatcher in South Dakota - who has zero chance of winning, by the way.

But I digress.

I kept searching and searching, setting eBay to load 100 listings at a time and scrolling through hundreds of listings of this stainless steel sink before I found anything different.  I saw this nice sink on eBay made of ceramic and bought it.  It came in two sizes, one 8x14 and another 10x18.  The listing showed them in left-hand and right-hand options, so I selected the smaller size, right-hand option.

Classy sink!

Once again, I find hundreds of listings for this same sink, mostly in the larger size.  Why are there so many listings for the same item?  Are they trying to SPAM the system so you buy their product - by drowning out other listings?  I see this a lot on eBay - a listing for an item with the notation "only two left!" but dozens of listings elsewhere with the same item, similarly notated.

The right-hand model as selected. 

So I ordered it and it arrived by FedEx in three days!  But when I opened the box, my heart sank.  The sink was left-handed, not right-handed as shown in the listing and there was no faucet.  I re-read the listing and it said "includes faucet drain" which I thought meant faucet, but they meant the drain pipe.

The seller had contacted me when I ordered, with a long-winded e-mail addressed to "Dearest" so you know it was from China (well, that and all the stray Chinese characters in the listing).  All the listings for all these sinks are poorly worded and full of stray characters.  The language is often vague ("This is best sink!") and short on details ("See photos!").

So I contacted the seller and asked about the faucet and told them it was reversed.  They replied they didn't sell faucets and the "faucet drain" language was an error.  They also admitted that the smaller size sink was not available in the right-hand configuration and that was also an error in the listing.  They offered me a $14 refund if I would keep the sink.

But of course, I don't need a left-hand sink, I need a right one.  So I told them that, and over the period of a few days (their messages always coming at 11:00 PM EST) the offers of refunds increased to $20, then $28, and so on until they reached $50.  They begged me not to return the item as it would cost them "eBay points" or something.  I filed a return request and told them I would rather return the item for a full refund and they could re-sell it.  They refunded my money and told  me to keep the sink!

I found another sink, right-hand orientation, open box, from a surplus seller, minus all the mounting hardware.  I found the faucet online for $25. So I ordered both.  I left positive feedback for the original seller on eBay as I thought they were very decent to me, even though their listing was poorly done and they sent me the wrong sink.

But here's where it gets weird.

I e-mailed the original seller and told them I was not comfortable keeping the sink and asked if they wanted it back and that I would pay for the postage.  They refused but asked me for my e-mail address (we had been communicating through eBay), which I ignored.  They asked again and again and said they wanted to send me a "free gift" for being such a nice person.  The free gift was a MIG welder worth over $100!  I got very suspicious about this!

Free MIG welder?  What does this have to do with sinks?

Why does he need my e-mail address to mail me a MIG welder anyway?  Why, after giving a full refund of $58 does he want to throw over $100 worth of merchandise at me?  I don't get it, but it sounds too-good-to-be-true and we know how that works.

Perhaps just selling my e-mail address?  Trying to debit my PayPal account? (good luck with that, there is only $14 in it and no credit card or bank linked to it).  Trying to debit Zelle?  I don't know.  Maybe it is legit and the shipper wants an e-mail address?  Sounds implausible.

Years ago, I would have loved to have a MIG welder, but my days of welding things (or wanting to) are far behind me.  It just struck me as weird.

Then eBay sent me a "survey" request about the transaction and I filled it out, noting that the seller was communicating well and offered refunds and gave a full refund.  At the end of the survey were a series of demographic questions, including asking which of five genders I was, and my age....

.....the latter of which stopped me in my tracks.  I am now the "65+" box and there ain't no box after that.  So long as I was in the "50-65" I could kid myself that death was a long way off.  And the "26-49" range?  I will live forever!  But such is not the case.

65+

Boy does that sting!

* * *

Here is the actual conversation with the seller. I cut and pasted this and for some reason the text was rotated 180 degrees (???) So I had to go in and manually edit 30 different formatting commands from "rotate -180" to "rotate 0".   Still the messages are in reverse order - scroll down to the end and read upwards, sort of like Twitter BlueSky.

8:01 PM

That is too generous! But thank you for the kind gesture!

8:00 PM

P

May I know your email? I would like to give you a free set of this product as a gift​‌‍‍‍‌‌‍‌‍‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‍‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‌‍‌‌‌‌‍‌‍‍‌‌‌‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‌

7:03 PM

You are very kind. I left positive feedback on ebay. I finally found the right hand sink as an open box item from another seller. I really really like the sink!https://www.ebay.com/itm/296504515293

6:59 PM

P

No need, I'll give you the sink as a gift. Can you do me a favor? I would like to know your email address​‌‍‍‍‌‌‍‌‍‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‍‍‍‌‌‌‌‍‍‌‍‌‌‍‌‍‌‌‍‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‌

6:00 PM

Mar 23, 2025

Thank you for the full refund! I will gladly send you back the sink and even pay the postage. Let me know what address to send it to! You have been very nice!

2:48 PM

P

I will refund you $40 and keep the product. Do you think it's okay?​‌‍‍‍‌‌‍‌‍‍‌‍‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‍‍‍‍‍‌‍‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍‍‍‌‌‌‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‌

7:57 PM

Mar 19, 2025

Here is a picture of the sad little sink I have in my camper. Your sink would have been so much better but it's not the right kind cuz it doesn't have the holes on the right side. I will do a return through eBay.

9:26 AM

P

OK， This can also be doneWould you be willing to keep him for a refund of half for you? You can sell or use it in the second-hand market, which is a very cost-effective price. We only have one stock of this product, and if it's sold out, we won't sell the sink anymore because the shipping cost is expensive and it's prone to damage during transportation. This is our last sink, and we will refund you $28. Would you like to keep it?​‌‍‍‍‌‌‍‌‍‍‌‍‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍‍‌‍‌‍‌‍‌‍‍‍‌‍‌‍‌‌‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‌

8:27 PM

It is very late here and I have to go to bed. I'll send you a photo tomorrow. I was really looking forward to installing the sink! It makes me very sad that it didn't fit and that the correct model is not available.

8:25 PM

Wouldn't it be cheaper to just ship the unit back to you for a full refund? I appreciate your generous offer but I would still be out $40 and stuck with the sink I can't use. I'll send you a picture of where I want to install it and you'll see why it won't work. It's reversed from the way it should be. The only reason I bought it from you was that you were the only Merchant who offered the right hand model with the faucet hole on the right.

8:24 PM

P

Do you think it's okay to refund you $20? I'm sorry, I understand that you just wanted to buy the right product. It was my fault. Can you forgive me?​‌‍‍‍‌‌‍‌‍‍‌‍‌‍‌‍‌‌‍‌‌‌‍‍‌‌‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‌‍‍‌‌‌‌‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‌‍‍

8:18 PM

I'm not sure why I should have to pay for an error on your part

8:16 PM

It is a beautiful product, I just want to buy the right one.

8:15 PM

P

It was an error in our link and graphic display. In reality, we only have the product you received​‌‍‍‍‌‌‍‌‍‍‌‍‌‍‌‍‌‌‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‌‌‌‍‌‍‍‌‌‌‌‌‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‌

8:13 PM

Why did your listing show that the right hand hole was available? There was even a selection icon for the two different sizes and left and right orientations. I am very confused by this.

8:12 PM

P

There are no other styles available, our product only has this one. We apologize for the inconvenience​‌‍‍‍‌‌‍‌‍‍‌‍‌‍‌‍‌‌‍‌‍‌‌‍‌‍‌‌‍‌‍‌‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‌‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‌

8:11 PM

Do you have the correct sink in stock? With the faucet hole on the right hand side? I still want to buy the sink but I want to buy the right one. Please advise.

8:10 PM

P

I know, this is our display error. I will immediately go to the factory to rectify this issue​‌‍‍‍‌‌‍‌‍‍‌‍‌‍‌‍‌‌‍‌‍‌‍‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍‍‌‌‌‍‌‌‌‌‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‌

8:10 PM

P

Dear my friend,Hello, the return label for this product is USD17.94 . We are willing to refund you USD18 and you do not need to return the items. Do you think this is a feasible solution? You can sell it in the second-hand market. It's difficult to do business now, and we don't have any profit left. Your understanding and support will be appreciated, thank you.Of course if you have other ideas, you can discuss with us and we will try our best to meet your requirement.Please do not open return first, because eBay will deduct our points. Thank you for your understanding and support.If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us and we will reply within one working day.Looking forward to your reply.Thank you!​‌‍‍‍‌‌‍‌‍‍‌‍‌‍‌‍‌‌‍‌‍‌‍‍‌‌‌‍‍‍‍‌‌‌‍‍‍‍‍‌‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‌

8:09 PM

I mean the faucet hole on the right. I understand you don't sell the faucet.

8:08 PM

Can I just return this and get the one with the correct orientation? I really like the product but it's not going to work if it's reversed

8:06 PM

P

This model does not include faucets, dear. Our manufacturer does not produce faucets​‌‍‍‍‌‌‍‌‍‍‌‍‌‍‌‍‌‌‍‌‍‍‍‌‌‌‍‌‍‌‍‌‍‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‌

8:06 PM

Why did the listing ask me to select a left or right orientation? Do you not sell the one in the other orientation? The picture shows it with a faucet on the right. Do you sell one like this?

8:05 PM

Mar 18, 2025

P

Yes, the graphic designer is not very skilled. I can refund you $14. Would you be willing to keep the product?​‌‍‍‍‌‌‍‌‍‍‌‍‌‍‌‍‌‌‍‍‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‍‌‍‍‌‍‍‍‌‌‌‍‌‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‌

8:04 PM

I'm confused. Your listing shows the sink offered in both left and right orientations. Does it not come in both directions?

8:02 PM

P

Hello, dear buyerSorry for the inconvenience caused. We do not sell faucets, and the orientation of the basin may be a visual issue. We can refund you $10 and you can keep the product. Do you think that's okay?best regardsNICO ​‌‍‍‍‌‌‍‌‍‍‌‍‌‍‌‍‌‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‌‌‌‌‍‌‍‌‍‌‌‍‍‌‍‌‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‌

8:01 PM

Mar 18, 2025

I received the sink today. There are two problems.But first, let me thank you for your kind communication. Also, the shipping by FedEx was very fast! And the packaging was excellent. Heavy cardboard, lots of Styrofoam, and even a little knit bag for the drain pipe which was a big surprise - heavy bronze with a ceramic head. Very, very nice!But, I thought I ordered the "direction right" model with the faucet on the right. I even checked this twice, as when I clicked on "direction right" it showed the faucet on the right. The one you sent has the faucet hole on the left and that won't work in the confined space of my RV.Also, the listing says "with faucet drain" which I thought meant it came with the faucet shown as well as the drain. This seems to be an error in translation. In English, faucet means faucet and I never heard of the term "faucet drain" before.All that being said, I love the sink, it is just in the wrong direction and I need a faucet.1. Can I return this for the correct model with the faucet hole on the RIGHT as shown in the listing picture, attached?2. If it does not come with a faucet, do you sell one, and if so, can you provide me with a link to the listing? I will gladly pay extra for the faucet.3. I suggest you amend the listing to make it clear the faucet is NOT included, to avoid confusion in the future.You have a great product! It seems we have an error in communication, though.Look forward to hearing from you!

11:57 AM

P

Dear customer,We're thrilled to hear you're looking forward to receiving the sink. Your enthusiasm means a lot to us! We're confident you'll love it. It's been crafted with the utmost care to offer both functionality and an upscale appearance.If you encounter any issues during installation or have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out. We're here to assist you every step of the way. And we'd be absolutely delighted if you could share a picture of the installed sink. It not only helps us see the product in use but also serves as great inspiration for other customers.Thank you again for your order, and we hope you enjoy using our sink for years to come.Best regards,NICO ​‌‍‍‍‌‌‍‌‍‍‍‍‌‍‌‌‌‍‌‍‍‌‍‍‍‍‍‌‌‍‍‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‍‌‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‌

6:48 PM

Mar 12, 2025

Thanks for your e-mail! I look forward to receiving the sink! I will send a picture of it installed if it works out well. It looks very upscale!

11:14 AM