Ceiling down!!!

So I went out for a little while today and when I returned, Madeleina met me at the door and said: "Dad, don't freak out, but something bad happened while you were gone..."
    "You okay?" I asked.
    "Yes, dad. It's nothing like that...."
    "Then what is it?"
    "I think you better come see for yourself. But don't flip out, okay? It's bad but not the end of the world."
     With that I knew it was the end of something and decided to have a glass of wine before I went to see whatever it was.
     What it was was this: A huge chunk of the ceiling in the hallway that connects the kitchen to the three bedrooms and the bathroom had fallen. Just got waterlogged from condensation on the pipes connected to the air conditioner. It's happened before at the end of the summer, but never like this. This was hundreds of pounds of waterlogged dry wall that had become soaked wall.
    What could I do? I started singing, "This house is falling apart..." ("Anna Sun" by Walk the Moon), "This house is falling apart, we got no money but we got got heart. We're gonna rattle this ghost town, we rattle this scene, oh Anna Sun..." And then I pulled out some garbage bags, filled 'em, had Madeleina take them to the truck where they'll sit till I go to the dump, and in half an hour it was clean. And if you don't look up, ever, you won't even see that there's a huge chunk of empty where there ought to be a ceiling.
    See how easy it is if you accept things like that as regular occurrances? No need to go nuts. Just clean it up. Oh, and then call your son, Italo, and tell him he ought to come over and fix it.....

What's cooking?

Well, there seem to be lots of plans afoot. Most of them I cannot talk about. In fact I've had to sign a slew of "non-disclosure agreements" lately related to television shows, restaurant ideas, medicines and other stuff. For a minute it feels like you're (I'm) important, but then I know as well as all of you, that it's only very infrequently that someone else's ideas come to fruition. Or my own ideas. But at least I have some control over my own ideas. I fail sometimes for lack of funds, but generally knew that was going to happen going in, so I don't consider it a failure, just a lack of knowhow in terms of materializing the funds necessary to turn my pie-in-the-sky ideas into reality.
    I'll tell you one idea of mine that should have been jumped on years ago: When you were a little kid, and perhaps even today, we had camping cups. Camping cups were aluminum cups that were built by having several 3/4 inch pieces of aluminum on top of each other. Each was a bit bigger than the one below, and a bit smaller than the one above. So they crushed down on each other. The cup, when crushed, was just 3/4 of an inch tall. Snap it open and it was a full eight-ounce cup.
   My idea was to have a similar but much larger cup that you could use as the base for a hot air balloon. Something that folded up small enough to carry in a back pack, very light weight. But when opened up would be the right size for a single person to ascend heights via hot air. Now if that came with a small gas balloon made of super strong, super lightweight mylar, and if that balloon could be filled with a gas that could be held in a 10-15 pound tank: the balloon could be filled, then emptied back into the tank, allowing the tank and balloon to be used multiple times on a single trip, well, with something like that I could soar to several thousand feet and investigate some buttes and mountain tops in the Andes Mountains that are otherwise inaccessible and have never been photographed because of 24/7 cloud cover. The Matses, for instance, claim they came from a butte that is known to be about 40 miles long, 20 miles wide and never been photographed. They claim their fathers left it because there were monsters there that attacked them. Is that true? I have no idea. But I've been hoping to investigate the story for 20 years. And I can't until some damned machinest out there makes me my single person, lightweight, aluminum-cup/mylar gas balloon.
    Okay, so that's one of my ideas that hasn't panned out yet. But when other people have ideas and have me get all hyped up about them, have me invest time and energy in them...well, I'm old enough to know that most of them won't pan out for one reason or another. Might be lack of funds. Might be lack of enthusiasm, or waning enthusiasm. Might be someone in their family negates the idea. Might be a million things.
   So while I'd love to tell you all what's been swirling about, thinks I'm supposed to be included in, well, I can't. I signed those agreements. And once in a while someone's dream does come true. And when that happens, well, it's the most fantastical thing. So I'm rooting for them all, but still getting my stories in on time to make sure I've got a paycheck coming my way.

Project Done

Well, I got back and then didn't stay in touch. Why? Because I've had a guest here for two weeks. Hector, whom I know from Peru but who has also previously visited my home here in Texas, has been redoing my website/websites into one gigantic bundle of magic. He's decided to push my profile a little, using the covers of some magazines I've been printed in, lots of art, a couple of new sections and so forth. I'm a little nervous because it seems a bit grandiose for me, but then those who have seen it are impressed. He's actually done a great job. And there is more to come. But I think most of you will be able to see it at pgorman.com--it seems to be up over most of the known world already, though not here in Joshua, Texas. I've gotten notes from Bali, from several countries in Europe and so forth. So that's what I've been doing. Providing new material, hunting down old magazine covers, writing new text in several places. And there is even an "influences" section at the bottom of the Biography page. That was a great idea of his: I got to salute a lot of the things that occurred at just the right time in my life to have a huge impact on me. And some of them will no doubt resonate with most of you.
    Okay, now I'm behind on a couple of stories for work. I think I can catch up by the end of the weekend. And then I'll be in a position to tell you all a few new and good stories. Thanks for your patience.

Back in Texas, Everything is Upside Down

Well, I'm back again. And boy, what a mess things are. My boys forgot to cut the lawn for six weeks, forgot to train the baby cats not to poop in the living room, and Madeleina went off to college just three days after I returned. That's the big one. She's not far away, but because of band and required courses and the requirement to take a dorm room, it's doubtful she'll be home one day a week for the first semester. Which is probably great for her but stinks for me because I miss her already and it's only been 5 days!!!!
    Enough of complaints. The trip was fantastic! The first group included old friends--four of them--and six newcomers and we all had a rollicking good time in the jungle, with the medicines, with everything. That was followed up by one of the new guests buying the rights to the after-sting medicine I make, Gorman's Jungle Juice. My huge old hotel room was turned into a factory for several days, with five of my team making 200 liters of the medicine for the fellow to bottle and distribute in the US in hopes of getting a national chain interested. As it's the freaking best after-sting medicine around--it works on mosquito and bee and hornet bites, black fly bites, chiggers, horsefly bites, and poison sumac and poison ivy among other things, and I mean it works in seconds to reduce swelling, kill bacteria, eliminate itch and redness and seal the wounds--I think he might get it done. If not, the contract calls for it reverting back to me in 24 months. And if it works, well, I'll be good too.
    And making that medicine in that bulk was a gas. We turned it into a party with lots of fruit, good things to drink and eat in the room, lots of breaks when the heat of the day began to overwhelm us (no air con in my room in Iquitos), and lots of laughs.
    And then, to top it off, a television show asked me to coordinate a trip for them and then put me on camera for hours. And paid me. I can't talk about it but as soon as they put out trailers, I'll post more. Suffice to say it was great.
    Actually, even topping that was having Chepa and Sierra and Alexa there. Chepa went off by herself or with her sisters a lot, so I had the girls nearly every day when I was in Iquitos. And I think it was a vacation they will remember for a long time.
    Okay, not a great post. But did want to let you know I'm back and missed you all as well. Thanks for being there.

Off to Peru

Off to Peru, see you in a month. Leaving four tough dogs to guard the house.
Have a great July, everybody.
PG

Happy about a Change in a Texas Law

Gonna say I'm really happy this second. Immensely happy. I started writing about the truancy laws in Texas a couple of years ago. The laws allowed kids to get Class C misdemeanors which followed them their entire lives. I know, it kept my kid Marco from the armed forces when he wanted to join. But the associated fines were so high that it cost families in which brothers took care of their siblings and were 20 minutes late 10 times a semester to be forced to quit high school rather than rack up more fines ($500 a pop, plus court costs) that they would wind up serving jail time for when they couldn't pay. It was very bad and affected 100,000 kids in Texas annually.
But on Friday, Texas' Governor Greg Abbott signed a bill into law that makes truancy a civil offense from here on out. No more criminalizing kids for being late, or even cutting class. There will be civil repercussions but not criminalization. And my editor, Gayle Reaves, and I, worked hard to help get that word out and I think out work was in the mix of things that tipped the scale here in favor of the new law. Cheers to State Sen. Whitmire and his associates for having the courage to challenge the law and get it fixed. A tip of the hat to everyone--and Texas Appleseed knows how big a part they played--in getting this junk off the books. Cheers to all of us! It's nice to be on the winning side now and then!

Always happens, and always burns

Well, first off, the good news: Madeleina, my baby, is growing up. She just graduated from high school and is headed to Tarleton State University in the Fall. The bad news: She wants a car. And I just got out from under the mortgage. And she does not want the little Lincoln sportster that used to belong to Italo, even though it's a great car. Oh, boy.
    But then there is this: I leave for Peru in four days to take a group out to the deep green for a Jungle Jaunt. It's going to be great. But these things are always tight. Guests don't understand what goes into them, from taking care of emergencies for my team whether I'm in Peru or not, to repairing buildings, buying new small boats and motors so that we have what we need out there. Heck, I had to buy four new sponge mats at $80 each for this trip because a few were getting a bit ratty-looking. Then I've got to rent rooms, hire the team, rent river boat cabins, send gasoline, motor oil, drinking water and a host of other things up river. I've got to put in and pay for orders of magic mushrooms, sapo, nu-nu. I've got to pay for my own hotel room for a month in advance, buy my airline tickets, pay the bills while I'm gone. All of this, plus the money we use on the ground--for taxis, food, boat food, jungle food, staff, a couple of new pots and pans, maybe a few new hammocks to keep things fresh, shotgun shells, re-upping the med kit, just a million things go into a jungle trip. The only monies not already committed are the money I'll spend on fresh food and dry goods.
    So whatever people pay me, I'm lucky to come out of a successful trip with $2000 in my pocket for all the work to get it organized and then a month down there setting up, doing the trip, decompressing from the trip. That's what I was looking at for this trip, provided everything went as planned.
    Nonetheless, at the last second, someone almost always gets cold feet or has a legit life emergency that needs taking care of. I got that call this morning. One of the guests has an emergency. I hope she was lying because I don't wish an emergency on her. But I have to take her at her word.
    AND she needs the money for the trip back. I can keep the deposit plus $100 she said. She meant to be generous. I get it. But what she doesn't understand is that if she paid $1800--I already gave her $100 off the trip price--and I return all but the deposit, I will stand to make a maximum of $700 on this trip. I immediately sent her $500, but I know we're going to have an issue later. I have already spent well over $1000 of her money, and hired an extra staff member to take care of the women on the trip. That staff member has to get paid, whether I need her or not. I can't just say, "oh, I had a cancellation, I don't need you anymore." And now, of course, I have a hotel room that will be used by one when I paid for a double; a boat cabin used by one, when I paid for a double. A new roof on a hut that cost $340 (leaf roof, plus work to put it up) that I no longer need for this trip. And on and on.
     Madeleina said I should not give her anything with the trip starting in less than two weeks. But then I don't like to be hard-nosed and had already sent the woman $500, knowing Madeleina would say something like that. She's right, of course. Nobody should get anything back when it's less than 30 days from the trip starting. I just don't have it in me to be that cold.
    But damnit, I spent several phone calls talking with this woman. I ordered some special jungle medicine for her that was paid up front by me. Ah, nuts.
    I really hope she has no family emergency. But I sure feel burned.

One Bit from My New Drug War Follies Column for Skunk Magazine

So here's one bit from my new Drug War Follies column for Skunk magazine. It's off topic, which is generally, well, drug war idiocy, but then the good folk at Skunk have always allowed me to run off the rails a bit.
Here it is:

In the “Freaking Unbelievable But True” category, this note: In June Texas’ Governor Greg Abbott signed into law two bills that will enhance the good citizens of Texas’ Second Amendment rights. Those rights refer to the second amendment of the U.S. Constitution that calls for a “well regulated Militia” which has the right to bear arms and notes that that right cannot be infringed upon. Over the years that’s come to mean that any flipping nut can walk into a gun shop in Texas and purchase as many guns as they want, up to and including .50 calibre rifles so long as they don’t have outstanding warrants or a criminal history that prohibits them from having a gun. For those people we have what’s called the “Gun Show Loophole”. The gun show loophole allows any private seller to bring his or her guns, including semi-automatics, to a gun show and sell them to anyone without even that cursory phone call to see if they’ve got a criminal history. Just pony up the cash and buy your weapons.

    In all, we’ve got more than 300 million guns here in the U.S., and Texas had a huge percentage of them.

    But Texans don’t like restrictions and regulations. And up till now—at least for the last 20 years or so— one restriction people in Texas hated was that they couldn’t walk around with their six gun in the open. Yes, they could walk around with AR15s on their shoulders, or 30.06 rifles hanging around their neck in public, but not handguns. So in June, the good governor of Texas got rid of that bit of fluff, signing into law a bill that now allows people to wear their holsters proudly in any and all public places. Kids soccer games, city parks and so forth.

   That still wasn’t enough for the gun loving nuts. So Gov. Abbott also signed into law a bill that will allow people to carry their hand guns visibly on all public college campuses—formerly places where guns were prohibited altogether, even licensed concealed weapons.

   Now I’m all for protecting yourself from the bad guys, but that’s rarely how it works. If the bad guy has his gun on you, well, you’re not gonna have time to draw before he kills you. And since your now-visible gun is gonna make that bad guy nervous, I’m picturing a lot more people carrying their weapons proudly will get blown away by bad guys. Or at the very least, have their guns taken by the bad guys.

   And a lot of college professors are going to be very nervous about handing out “F’s” to people. Who wants to give an “F” to a student with such low self-esteem that he/she needs to carry a visible weapon? “Hey professor! You gave me an F in Classic Literature? F yourself!” Boom!

    Unfortunately, those things are not the worst of these new laws. The worst part of these laws is that in reality they will only apply to white people. You get six black 18-year-olds walking into Walmart carrying guns—even water pistols—and you’re gonna get six dead black kids being carried out. The U.S. and particularly Texas, is very frightened of black men. They get killed with amazing frequency just for being black. Now imagine they’re standing on a known drug corner, just shooting the shit while waving a semi-automatic rifle around or practicing their quick-draw? It is not a pretty picture. It’s a freaking pool of blood with the kid asking “What about my second amendment rights?” as he lays dying, dropped by half-a-dozen cops.

    It’s going to get messy.

    Still, Gov. Abbott felt so good about expanding that second amendment that he went target shooting immediately after signing those bills into law.

It would all be funny if people weren’t dying and the prisons weren’t full.

Called a Winner but Feeling Like a Loser

As I frantically struggle with a cover story for the Fort Worth Weekly that's due tomorrow--and I mean frantically, as in I'm not getting it, I have written nothing worthwhile on it and it stinks so far--I just got the news that the Houston Press Club, the foremost press organization in Texas, has awarded me 2nd place as the Texas' print journalist of the year. Several stories, including two on criminalizing middle and high school truancy here in Texas and the long-lasting effect that has on students and their families, another on gas companies ripping off royalty payments to homeowners, and one more on former Texas Governor Rick Perry leaving millions uninsured because he refused to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act made up the package that was judged.
So why can't I get a handle on the new piece????? I don't know. I guess I'm just a loser. Got to keep working. Have a great day, everybody!

Dinner at the Gormans, Friday Night, June 5

You know, when you've been a chef and a dad and had to feed a room full of people--maybe 150 at the restaurants, though i preferred the New York joints which had about 46-60 seats--or a family full of 8 including sons' girlfriends and so on, you get used to cooking a bunch. And you get used to cooking several things at the same time. Simple as they might be, you've got your eye on two/three/seventeen different dishes at the same time. 
      Well, I don't cook in restaurants anymore and my kids have grown up and moved out and I never know whether I'm eating with just Madeleina or if Chepa, my wife/ex-wife is coming over with the kids and whether my son Italo will show up with his baby, Taylor Rain and his wife Sara, or if my other son, Marco will show and bring a friend or three. Or if Madeleina will bring two friends or not show up for dinner at all.
Then there are the dogs: Boots, the guard dog; Blackie, a big dog that only answers to that name who showed up 8 weeks or so ago and adopted us, and the two new border collies, Keys and Beautiful. Plus the cats, of course, and the birds ......
      So I cook chicken--big chicken for Boots and Blackie every day. Way cheaper and better than dog food in a bag or can. Nothing fancy and no, they do not sit at the dinner table. Just two, three pounds of chicken with some veggies and rice mixed in for each of them. The border collies get a pound of chicken livers mixed with rice and puppy food, or chicken gizzards or hearts--again, way, way cheaper than anything I can buy at the store. Livers, gizzards and heart are all bout $1.50 a pound. Mix that with left over rice or beans and such and they get the three pounds of food they need daily for about $2. each, rather than if I bought 6 cans at $1.50 each.
      But the family is unpredictable. Today I bought smoked virginia ham from the HEB deli, paper thin, with some slightly thicker baby swiss and a loaf of sesame seeded french bread for hot sandwiches for Madeleina and I. Then I made some homemade coleslaw and a potato/egg salad to go with it. Enough vinegar in each to cut the need for mayo to a minimum.
      But then I had to buy and make chicken wings in case Chepa and the girls came over, or Italo and my granddaughter and his wife, or Marco and his girlfriend.
And then I made pico de gallo—diced red onion, tomatoes and cilantro in fresh lime juice with good cracked black pepper—in case everyone came over and I came up short and needed to make some fat burritos with left over chicken, black beans, avocado, sour cream and cheese--along with the pico de gallo.
      So I've got about 4 meals ready. The liver and rice for the dogs smells really good. I hate liver but I might go for that and give them my chicken burrito or hot ham and baby swiss sandwich.
Either way, I'm keeping the cole slaw and potato/egg salad for me. Don't even think of taking that.
Dinner at the Gormans. More complex than might initially appear.

Madeleina Dancing All the Way....

Well, she's not looking at things properly but from my perspective, this is a good week for my Madeleina. She's graduating from high school. Just graduated an hour ago, actually. And she's slated to go to Tarleton State U in the fall, with at least a good portion of her way paid for by grants and awards and the rest by dear old dad's check book. Her best friend is going there, so she's got something to start with. And one of the people I worked with, Dan Malone, a writer for the Fort Worth Weekly up until about 2005 or 2006, is teaching there. He's won a Pulitzer for her reporting, so if you're planning to study journalism, you can't do much better. Anywhere. For any price.
    More: Two days ago at a senior function, she won a beautiful trophy for "best supporting actress" in a play she recently did. She was fantastic. Not the lead, but a great supporting player. One trophy given. She got it.
    On Sunday she went with me to the Union Pacific Rail Yard in Fort Worth, one of the biggest rail yards in the US. We had to breach security to get in--at several different places--but we did and I had her take photos. She's got a keen eye and takes good, rock-steady pics. The art director today asked if he could buy a few from her for my cover story next week. She's non-plussed by the idea, but I can tell you, it takes years to get your first photos published for money. And here she's got it on during her second or third shoot. That's several hundred bucks out of the blue! That's a credit! Yikes!
   Somehow, this is not ringing in as a good week for her. She's sad about high school ending though she's detested most of high school. Just a little afraid of change, I reckon. But if she saw things the way I'm seeing them for her, well, she'd see a very different picture than what she's seeing.

Someone Asked about Chikungunya virus

Someone Asked about Chikungunya virus. It's in a class of viruses known as alphaviruses, which he/she said were epidemic in some parts of the Caribbean, Columbia, and Venezuela. He/she said that "macrophages infected by 

the virus persist in the synovial (joint) tissue long (sometimes years) 
after the infection has been defeated by the body's immune system, 
leaving no traces in the blood."

    He/she then said they'd had sapo, which relieved symptoms for three months, but that after three months a neck ache began that spurred on an entire systemic polyarthritis. He/she wanted to know if the Sapo/Kambo could have been responsible for the serious relapse, and what could he/she do to eliminate the chronic pain caused by the polyarthritis. I'm not a doc, as you all know. But stil, I had to try to help. This is what I wrote:

X: Well, you've acquired one of the few diseases in South America that I have not had the pleasure of having. There are not many that have missed me over the years. So you need to understand that the comments I'm about to make deal with the general polyarthritis, or rheumatoid arthritis and not your specific type of arthritis. These are general comments. And I'm not a doc but will put the question to a friend of mine who is and has dealt with a great deal of illness in Central and South America. I will pass along his comments when I get them in a day or two.

     My feelings: the single best natural medicine I know for boosting the immune system and alleviating the pain of rheumatoid arthritis, arthritis, bursitis and so on is Una de Gato, cat's claw. Having spent six months in a hospital and a couple of additional years very, very sick with juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis as a youngster--which periodically attacks me as an adult--I can vouch for the medicine. Three/four sticks of good Una de Gato in three liters of water, steeped just to the point of steaming--way below boiling--for about 12 hours, will yield 1 to 1 1/2 liters of the dark, sour medicine. One gulp in the morning and one at night and your T-cell count bounces 20-50 points per day. For those suffering from severe auto-immune problems--AIDS, for instance--that bounce of several hundred T-cells in just a couple of weeks can make the difference in living or dying. 

     So for any arthritis issues, or any auto-immune issues, I suggest Una de Gato as a first line of defense.

     But Sapo/Kambo cleans at a much deeper level. It is a restart button on your entire system. Because it is bioactive--better stated: Because the peptides in Sapo/Kambo are bioactive--it does no harm. What it does is sweep the garbage out of your system. I'm sure you know that. It eliminates toxins from organs, veins, arteries. I do not think it would have, or could have, been the spark that caused the pain in your neck. Rather, I think the stiffness in your neck, which led to the polyarthritic condition, was simply the disease fighting to stay alive. Diseases, like the rest of us, do not like being killed. 

     So if you were my patient--and I know you are not, and that my comments are general in nature--what I would probably recommend is regular use of Una de Gato--three weeks on, three weeks off--along with a Sapo/kambo regimen of TWICE daily use for three-five days, then a week off, then another three-five days of twice daily use, then a week off and then a third round of three-to-five days of twice daily use. I think that would eliminate the problem for good. I do understand that the Yaminawa suggest doing it every other day. But I was taught by the Matses, who did it differently. Either way would do your body good, but I can only recommend the way I was taught.

    And there is no issue with taking the Una de Gato and Sapo/Kambo simultaneously.

I hope that helps.

Peter G

Mortgage Done!

Well, that's it. The mortgage is done. Do not owe another penny on this house. Insurance and taxes paid through Jan 1, 2016. Made the last payment last week. Today I went to the bank site and there was my Chase credit card, but beneath it was nothing. It was as if the mortgage never existed. No note of congratulations, but also no note reminding me of the next payment. Started out with $73,800 on January 11, 2002. Finished in 13 years, 5 months. It wasn't easy, but it got done. Now it's time to pretend I still have that mortgage payment, plus the extra $600 a month I've been putting toward it for the last four or five years and use that to pay off credit cards, get Madeleina a good used car to use at college in the Fall, and all that jazz.
    Unreal. And it doesn't really feel like anything yet because I made the last payment just a few days ago. I will be it will feel like something next month when I don't have to pay it. Then I'll be jumping for joy. Right now, I'm just thrilled that the universe allowed me to get 'er done. Better or worse, it's now ours all the way. Bank ain't got no papers on me. Hooray!
    I'm gonna guess that Chase won't send me a congratulatory note because they bought my loan from Century 21 about 6 years ago, figuring I was gonna pay interest for 24 more years. I still owed about $65,000 then and the bank was drooling over the $90,000 in interest that was going to produce. Didn't happen. The bank can't be happy. Oh, well.

A really good hour

Well, it's been a really good hour. First off, I found out I'm a finalist for Journalist of the Year in Texas with the Houston Press Club, the premier press club in Texas. I don't know if I'm a finalist in the "Under 50,000" category or the "Over 50.000 category" but I'm in there somewhere. I've won it twice and came in second a couple of years ago. Winning it is a big deal because there are some very, very good journalists here in Dallas, Houston, Denton, Corpus Christi, San Antonio, Fort Worth, Austin, Amarillo, Lubbock, Odessa, El Paso and elsewhere. When I've lost in the past, I always look at the winning entries and the judges--generally a big time university program from another state--has always been right. The work that has beaten me has been exemplary! I try to keep upping my game to stay on top, but it's hard, hard, hard.
    Then, I got notice that Shaman Portal--just plug in shamanportal.org--a great resource, named my book Sapo in My Soul, as their Book of the Month.
    Then, I got word that I will have access to the fantastic Fort Worth Davidson rail yard in a couple of days--it's the heart of this city and I really want to climb into an engine and drive that baby a little ways.
    Then a check I've been waiting for arrived.
    Then, several sticks of sapo, which I thought were lost in the mail, arrived. And they are beautiful, filled with wonderful medicine.
    And now I'm gonna start cooking dinner. And tomorrow someone comes to put in a new septic tank since the rain we've had crushed ours.
Is that a good hour or what?
Thanks, universe!

Marco Was a Big Help Today

Every now and then, my younger son, Marco, comes through when you least expect it. And when he does, it's a treat, because he's very focused.

    He came by yesterday to talk about a game he's designing and the challenges it presents. He talked about how he no longer looks at computer games the same way, instead of enjoying playing, he now sees the work that was done to make the game. For instance, one example that wasn't over my head, was that the computer always knows where your player is and will kill it every time--unless you build in a certain number of misses to give the human player a chance. "So it's up to me, the designer, to say that the robot can only hit the human once in four or five or ten times. Otherwise, the robot would always kill the character moved by the human," he said.

    When it was my turn to talk I complained about the house. We've lost shingles, the dogs have eaten through a couple of pipes so that gray water, which we run out of the kitchen sink into the back yard, not just sits under the house. And the dogs are under the house and muddy and I won't let them in wet, and with all the rain we've had on top of the pipes--they also tore the pipe from the washer and dryer that goes into the septic tank so that water just pools up--it's a flipping mess out there. Then the dogs uncovered the septic tank--dug down to it and somehow broke the top so that it's been filling with mud from the rain. And the rain has prevented mowing the lawn. Should I go on? I know other people have it one million times worse than me, but it still sucks to have paid off a house this week that's in such shambles. And it was overwhelming me, because there is all the regular work to keep a house going and the work to pay for everything that has to get done. So yeah, I was feeling sorry for myself. Even though I know most of the people in the world have it harder than me. So I was hating myself for being such a wimp as well.
    And it wasn't a lot of work to fix it. But with my leg and the open wounds, even covered, I can't go anywhere near septic water. 

    Marco to the rescue. Yesterday, after we talked, he said he'd come over today to help. And he did. I told him first thing needed was to cut the grass in the near back yard, so that we could properly lay out new pipes for the gray water. That meant fixing the riding mower, which froze during the last several weeks of rain. He got that done while I cleaned up the near back yard of firework paper, things the new dogs had chewed to pieces--wood, sox, a couple of brushes, grill utensils, a couple of old hoses now filled with holes. Then I rode the thing and did the near back yard while Marco nailed a piece of commercial corrugated plastic over the 6 foot hole in the skirt of our house. Then he installed a new pipe section to the washer/dryer outlet and got that in place. By that time I'd gotten one of the three large far back yards (outside the inner fencing, but inside the outer fencing) cut. Then he laid the pipe in a ditch he dug--a 50-foot ditch just six inches deep to keep the new dogs from tearing it apart again--so that the gray water will now run out past the near back yard. On Monday I've hired people to clean out the septic tank. I bought a new lid. Once that's done, I think the plumbing around here will be back in working order.

    You know, I needed help on this one. I'm very glad Marco volunteered. He came ready to work and worked well. And my leg didn't get exposed to junk that could make it worse. I always love my sons and daughter, Madeleina. But sometimes they really, really come through, and then I love them the same, but add an extra dash of proud to it.

Fridge Cleaning Time

Well, after weeks of rainy days--almost Seattle like, down here bucolic Joshua, TX--I've run out of things to do in the house. Laundry? Done and redone. Vacuum? Done and redone and will get redone again if the damned border collies, playing in the mud under the house get in here again! Bathroom? Scrubbed and rescrubbed. What was left? Oh, yeah, the fridge. Did it last on the day I came home from Peru about 3 months ago. How bad could it be?
      Well, the sacred medicines were fine. Most of the cheeses were fine. But those five nearly-full containers of sour cream? They'd turned into a science experiment. That stick of butter I lost last month? Found it. Somehow worked its way into the organic strawberries I forgot about and the mold took over everything. And while I've been buying zucchini and yellow squash twice a week, turns out there were a few that were lost in the veggie drawers that were turning into a puddle of goop.
     Nothing appeared to have opened, yet there was some dried, sticky brown stuff on the back wall of the fridge--I mean, probably 4 ounces of sticky stuff, which probably came from a quart of something that someone spilled and decided not to tell me about.
     It's all clean now, and I've thrown out enough garbage to fill an entire kitchen bag. Who knew the jar of sauerkraut was empty, or that there were three open jars of dill pickle spears or 7 mustards in the back?
     So I'm taking a break, assessing it all, tossing what needs tossing, having a glass of wine to get through it, and I swear, just like I've done for the last 45 years since I've been on my own, that I'm never gonna let that fridge happen again. Only this time I mean it.

Money Oh's!, Money Woes!

Okay, so I'm not complaining about anything here. That's first off. But I am going to think out loud for a minute and for some reason, I think that might be of interest to some of you. Of course, I might be completely nuts and all of you break your computers once I start....please don't do that, just skip this blog piece.
    Why skip? Because this is about my personal finances, which no one might think is of any interest. I got it.
     Here's the deal. I now owe $2200 on my mortgage. It wasn't large to begin with, about $72,000, but now it's within reach to close it next month. After that, I'll be responsible for about $4000 a year in home insurance and local home taxes. Very doable.
     But I owe about $14,000 on 3 credit cards. Not a ton, but more than I would like. Some of it was picked up in small quantities--getting groceries when I had no cash, for instance--but most of it was picked up with some medical stuff, a couple of trips to Peru with guests where I lost a couple/few grand and had to cover it with credit cards. So no big deal, but finishing the house won't finish the debt.
     Then I owe Madeleina $2200 that I've borrowed since I began--and she as well--getting social security a couple of years ago. Again, no big deal, but I got to get it taken care of.
     Then I owe my son Italo $2000 for the Lincoln sports car that he owned, got wrecked, fixed and wanted to sell. I had to buy it because he was proud of the work he'd done in getting it all fixed. Still, there is a $2 grand note that needs to be paid.
     Then there is about $10,000 worth of work that needs to be done here at the house: New front fence, 200' long; new roof, new living room flooring; $1,000 to get my little green truck with 300,000 miles to pass inspection and give me another 5 years, and a host of small stuff that everybody who owns a home has to take care of routinely.
     So while I'm very glad that I might be out from under the mortgage--which has been getting a $600 additional monthly payment for a few years, which is why I'll be finished in 13 years and not 30--I will still need $18,000 to clear all debt, then another $10,000 to fix the house/grounds.  
     So I need to come up with about $30 grand.
     Guess I better start working harder/faster.
     That's all. Wasn't so bad, was it? Just listening to a dreamer...
Thanks,
Peter G

That Time of Year in Texas

Well, it's that time of year in Texas. We've had probably 20 days of rain in the last 25 days, making lawn mowing impossible but keeping the grasses--which will be brown in August after no rain in 50 days--growing wildly. We've had so much water the septic tank flood plain won't hardly accept any more, meaning we're running all water out of the house via hoses except the toilet, just to keep it at a functioning level. And it's also that time of year when every goddamned sip of coffee finds a new bug in my mouth. I just pulled out the cutest little thing--about 1/4 inch long, narrow. It wasn't in there when I poured the coffee two minutes ago, so it must have made its way in unnoticed while I put my sneakers on. But then there are moths, the crazy long-legged mosquitos that don't harm anyone so I don't kill them, lady bugs, small bees, fruit flies. Heck, have a glass of wine and you have enough fruit flies in it in two minutes to do a high school science fair experiment.
    Funny: I don't remember this in New York, and I don't remember anything this thick in Peru or even India.
    Just Texas. This time of year when the windows are open and the rain pours down.

July 2 Amazon Trip Coming Up Soon

Good morning, everybody. Just a reminder that I've got a few slots still open for my July 2-July11 Amazon Jungle Jaunt. Real jungle, dirt under your fingernails, lots of good medicine, including ayahuasca, Sapo, nu-nu and probably some local magic mushrooms--all offered at the right time, of course, and under the right guidance. And you don't have to take any of them. The trip is still a blast because we go night canoeing, swamp walking, high jungle medicine collecting, ride on fantastic riverboats overnight on the Amazon, collect wild foods, swim in a lake that's home to several families of pink river dolphins, bathe in the glorious Aucayacu. Trip cost: $1900. Does not include your airfare to Iquitos or back home, and does not include your walking around money--for presents for your friends and families--but does include everything else. We pick you up at the airport and drop you back off when it's time to leave. It's a very cool trip and only a few slots open because I keep the trips small at a maximum of 12 guests. To join, just send me an email at peterg9 at yahoo.com Do not forget that 9 at the end of the peterg, okay?
It's gonna be good.
Thanks for listening,
Peter G

A Column for Skunk I'm Working On

So this is raw and needs to be reworked, but I am pissed at the Texas State Legislature. So that's what column #86 for Skunk Magazine, the only mag that ever gave me a column, is going to start with. Here's what I'm thinking...

DRUG WAR FOLLIE #86

Rights? You ain’t got no stinking rights! Just ask Texas or the Feds: if they get away with what they’re trying, it’s gonna be more of a freaking mess than it already is.

Ah, Texas! You’re dry, mostly flat, largely desert, regularly attacked by monster hurricanes and gigantic, killing tornadoes, and you’re run by a handful of good old boy families that keep most of the money to themselves and then make most of the laws the rest of us live with. And the U.S. Congress isn’t much better, though it represents a considerably more beautiful land mass.

   Why mention Texas in a column? Because if you don’t live here you cannot imagine what the politicians propose. They want to make it illegal to video police officers beating or killing people. They are trying to revive a bill that would force women to look at pictures of their fetuses prior to abortions, forbid women to have abortions after 20 weeks, even if the woman’s life is in danger. Hell, a few of the pukes tried to pass a bill that would force a mother to carry a fetus to term even if it was declared dead. You see why I’m pissed off? I don’t have to love the democrats to hate the extreme republicans. And down here in Texas we have what’s called home rule. That means that any city or municipality with a population over 5,000 can make rules they like. It mostly applies to traffic speeds, whether or not you can have an old mobile home on your property, what local sales taxes will be. That sort of thing. Not always nice, but pretty regular stuff. But they’re on the brink of making a state law—which always supersedes local law—that cities and municipalities cannot make rules regarding gas drilling--a bane down here in natural-gas-rich Texas--that are considered unreasonable. What that means is that if a town votes to not allow gas wells within 1,000 feet of homes, hospitals or schools, and the state says 300 feet is reasonable, the local law will be abrogated. Towns that have banned hydraulic fracking of gas wells have already been put on notice that those bans are unreasonable. They want the gas, they’ll get it and the hell with what the local city wants. This is the same group that criminalizes truancy for kids as young as 12, and is demanding federal monies for schools with the right to use the money as they see fit rather than having it earmarked for schools. This is the same group that insists that Creationism be taught as history alongside—and as equally possible—as evolution, that the world is 6,000 years old, that Jesus rode dinosaurs, and that religion belongs in public schools.  The same group that listens to TransCanada say that the Keystone Pipeline will produce about 46 permanent jobs and then claims it will produce 250,000 jobs. This is the same group that is insisting that Jade Helm 15 is not a military exercise but a military operation that will imprison or kill several million Texans this summer.  Oh, and two bills that will kill anti-LGBT-discrimination laws are making their way through the Texas legislature as well. Ain’t these legislators special? As in ‘specially fucked humans’ of course.

     I’m a balancer. I’m here to balance the insane rhetoric of this group of politicians who know nothing with some sense and sensibility. But I am way fucking outnumbered here in Texas.

    And the Feds ain’t much better. A caucus of the U.S. House of Representatives just voted to make it a law that doctors who perform abortions should be arrested and face five years in jail, despite abortions being legal.

    Wake up and smell the shit, everybody. You’re probably facing similar repressive nonsense in Canada from people who call themselves Conservatives and who claim to want less government involvement in their lives. They are all lying through their teeth. I’m upset and I hope you motherfuckers know it. We need to say that roses are roses and shit is shit. And yes, you can video those cops who kill unarmed people who are already in cuffs.