Shout Outs to the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

 We are home.  

We traveled under God’s protection and brought all three vehicles home safely, none in need of any repair!  Thank you, Lord.  Most of the trip is landscape nothingness but the harrowing hour through Houston makes up for the hours of tranquility.

Our camping spot was available for as long as we need it.  We have inspected the attic, ceilings, walls floors and see no indication of damage at home.  Hopefully our one cracked PVC pipe on the sprinkler backflow valve will be all the plumber finds.

Nancy had a dining room table covered with all our mail and packages.  It filled up the back seat!  I was able to get the packages and mail open and put into stacks of taxes, insurance renewals, car registrations, things to be filed and a stack of Christmas cards that arrived after our departure.  She has it all grouped together with notations on each envelope that I may have asked her to open.  Without her I am not sure we could do this.  I tried every service the USPS offers and every one fell short.  

We left behind in South Texas a crisis of a great magnitude.  I know the media is trying to downplay the situation but it is real.  Thousands, yes thousands, a day are just walking into our country,  our Border Patrol has to stand down and do no more than transport them to a processing center.  In the meantime the sex traffickers, drug dealers, gang members, felons are taking advantage of a pre-occupied Border Patrol.  

These folks are not emaciated.  They are not naked.  Most have cellphones.  Children are being sent unaccompanied and will serve as walking, talking “anchor babies” for their family’s plea to come in.  Coyotes charge thousands to get someone across the border but have no concern for their safety.  Young children are left to fend for themselves and young girls are raped.  The children end up in what amounts to temporary, portable orphanages and I have no idea what happens if they can’t find a family or friend to take them.  

The covid situation has made it worse.  About 10% are testing positive but are sent on their way, mostly by bus, so spreading in that contained space could increase that percentage.  

And for this we were asked to stay in for a full year, businesses closed, families were kept apart, etc. for our safety and then we are to accept this situation?  There is something terribly wrong here!  The borders were closed with a “wait in Mexico” program in place.  Legally the first country you come to when you ask for asylum is where you must stay, all of Central America came into Mexico.  But, interestingly enough, 94 countries,  last count, were represented so far.  I always wonder how they all manage to get to Mexico in the first place.  Especially the ones from Africa and the the Middle East. 

We were parked right by the Bentsen Palm state park that was granted a no wall sanctuary.  So we saw much more than those more inland.  Despite the sojourns through our gated neighborhood, we never felt in danger.  If they were “runners” it meant there was a reason they were not just turning themselves into Border Patrol.  We were advised to lock our vehicles and coach houses.  Do not interact with them, walk away and notify Border Patrol.  Response time was immediate, but not now.  

But there were a lot of good things we enjoyed too.  We did not live as if under siege.   People played pickle ball, rode their bikes, took their morning walks, golfed, swam in our pool, took yoga classes in our craft room, attended line dancing classes, had patio cookouts, wine tastings and upcoming, and we are missing, is the Tail Light Send off party where the permanent residents say goodbye to the Winter Texans.

Personally Ted and I did a lot of shooting and mahjong playing in our protected bubble of friends.   He shoots at a Sporting Clay  venue in Edinburg, skeet at Mission Skeet Club and just plain, old target practice with a clay bird thrower at our own gun range.  He is sort of in charge of the equipment, times, etc. and helps most of the shooters with their skill.

I played mahjong three times a week.  We were given permission to use two card rooms with 4 in each room at the clubhouse.  We washed the table covers, cleaned the mahjong tiles, and had hand sanitizer for after each round.  When the park next door sent people over for the night of the big freeze and they had no electric, we played at Sue’s house.  When a social group, one of whom tested positive had a meeting in the clubhouse, we played in my coach house.  We obeyed the 72 hour rule and were okay.  

We have many dear friends from all over the country now and do enjoy our time.  But we missed the activities that had to be cancelled and hope next season will be more normal.  I mentioned the big freeze.  We never lost power or water.  Ted did drop the hose and we used water from our tank that has a heat pad,  we never even had to use the generator.  We had a whooping electric bill though!