A Warm Welcome

The entire Cuevas family has made us feel very welcome. Mexicans greet one another with a kiss on the cheek - every time someone enters or leaves, everyone else gets up and hugs and kisses the person and says "Hello" or "Good to see you" or "How are you?" When a new person (in this case, us) is introduced, everyone else clasps his/her hand and says "Mucho gusto" (Pleased to meet you) or some such, and if the relationship is close enough, the new person gets a hug and kiss as well. It definitely makes a person feel welcome and loved.

The first night we visited for hours and by bedtime, already had inside jokes - we told them about lutefisk because they are having a similar kind of traditional food (although I think it's likely to be much tastier) this weekend. And we found out that Cinco de Mayo is actually a Pueblan festival, rather than for the whole country of Mexico, and made jokes about that.

The sisters of Ricardo Cuevas, Saul's father, live in what used to be their parents' home. It is a mansion, with a circular staircase, a mural on the wall, many antiques, and numerous rooms designed for guests. They have hosted us for each dinner - at 2 or 3 pm - with two or three main dishes for each, and other relatives or friends. This weekend they made chiles nogadas, a Pueblan dish. A green chile pepper - like a bell pepper - is gutted of seeds and what makes it hot, then stuffed with a cooked mixture of apples, nuts, peaches, and other goodies. Next it's coated with an egg breading and deep fried, then topped with a white "nut sauce" - quite sweet. Friday, Saturday and yesterday there were lots of extra guests - the aunts had made 200 chiles. Yesterday was the biggest event of all. Besides the big dining room table, which seats twenty, there were round tables seating eight or ten set up all through their formal entryway. After we ate, in strolled a mariachi band! Wow. 2 trumpets, 3 or 4 violins, a guitar, bass and ukulele-type guitar, plus the maestro. And could they all sing loud and well!! They walked in playing and singing, arranged themselves on the circular staircase, and did an hour-long program. The maestro welcomed us from Minnesota, and they sang and played with great excellence. The crowd knew the group (Grandpa used to hire them every year on his birthday – the maestro’s brother used to perform with them and made it even funnier, but he died) and all the songs, and requested certain ones, and Rico and Saul were accompanied by the band on a few. It was the culmination of a week of warm welcomes!

Beautiful Puebla

We are currently in Puebla, Puebla, Mexico (Puebla is the capital city of the state of Puebla). After a two-hour car ride Tuesday evening to a Park & Fly hotel, a 15-minute shuttle ride to MSP airport, a three-hour flight to Phoenix, a half-hour wait on the tarmac until a gate opened and a rush to the next flight when we finally got off the plane, a three-hour flight to Mexico City, a two-hour bus ride to Puebla and a 15-minute car ride to the Cuevas home, we enjoyed great conversation and food until after 11pm and then slept soundly until 8 this morning.

Of course there are many cultural and other differences here, which are always fun to discover. Everything is smaller - cars, rooms, buildings, shops, streets, even the people, it seems! Pete's red head is even easier to spot towering over all the black hair. He is impressed with the solidity of the buildings. Everything's made of cement, so there is no give at all to the floors. The altitude is over 5000 feet, with four volcanoes ringing the city.

The Cuevas home is just one block off a main street, but very quiet. The floors are beautifully inlaid wood, and the many built-in cabinets are either painted white or stained wood. Our bedroom has white built-ins and a white quilt; the living room has white built-ins and white upholstered furniture; the dining room has a white crocheted tablecloth (which Martha made!); there are doors to many rooms, and they're all white. No wonder Saul remembers his mom always making them keep everything perfectly clean! They have a stained-glass window of a peacock in the stairway going up. Michelle is staying in a little room with a bathroom up on the top, which is accessed by a separate outdoor stairway.

We slept very well. The last time we went to Mexico, we slept in Laredo with a dog who barked continuously through the nights, and in Saltillo on a main street with a bus station outside our window. This time it was quiet and dark, and the little dog who barked only did so about three times. More later on our warm welcome!

More Letters to the Editor

I get quite a few positive comments these days from friends, or people I meet, about my letters to the editor, which I try to keep short and to the point. Apparently one woman didn't appreciate that, and wrote a letter to the editor to me, accusing me of dumbing things down. Someone also sent me a clipping from another paper, a letter to the editor saying the rich should pay their fair share - but no return address or note inside. That was a little creepy. But I figure most people who disagree with me don't say anything - not in nice Minnesota.

Anyway, here are some letters I've sent:

sent 7/19/11

The Willmar Salvation Army's summer meals program, where they feed kids whose main source of nourishment is school lunches, is a prime example of filling a need without government involvement. They have received some state grant money in the past, but I am confident that if everyone reading this who has $5 or $10 to spare would send it to them, the state government could cut this program off. I'm mailing my check today - how about you?

sent 6/9/11

"82% of Willmar High School graduates are going to college" - Looks like neither the ever-increasing costs nor the government cuts to higher education are stopping anyone.

Sent 4/29/11

I'd like to clarify the misunderstanding I see in letter after letter about the difference between tax rates and tax revenue. Every time tax rates have been decreased in the past (under John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush), tax revenues have increased - the total amount of tax collected has increased, AND the share of total taxes paid by "the rich" has also increased. This is because rich people take their money out of the taxable pool when tax rates increase. They put it back in when tax rates decrease, thus increasing the taxable pool and ultimately tax revenues. That's why raising tax rates, on the rich or anyone else, is not going to solve our deficit or debt problems.

sent 5/30/11

Rising standards of living for the nation as a whole are a good thing, and usually are accomplished in a general way (not just for corporate fat cats) by free markets and capitalism if ethical standards are upheld and followed. But the exploding standards of living of the last 40 years have not been accomplished by free markets, capitalism or increased productivity - they have been bought with borrowed money, both individually and as a nation. When loans are called, living standards must decrease. Unfortunately, it's not only those who signed the loans who suffer.

sent 3/29/11

We often whine that things "aren't made to last like they used to." But I remember when VW Beetles were amazing because they lasted 100,000 miles - that was unheard of. Cars, at least, are a much better deal than they used to be.

The Power of God through Prayer

Last week the Svea Silver slow-pitch softball team (our church has two teams, one in the Silver League and one in the Bronze League) suffered its first defeat of the season at the hands of the #5 seed in the playoffs. It was a shocker, to say the least. Our guys made many errors, couldn't hit the ball, and the other team ripped hit after hit to a few of the same spots the whole game and "ten-runned" us - the game, normally seven innings, was ended after five innings because they were ten runs ahead.

This loss dropped us down to the loser's bracket, giving us more games to play to eventually reach the championship game. Prior to last night's first game, against the last-seeded team, our team was confident of victory; we had "twenty-runned" this team in the first game of the playoffs. So when their players mentioned to some of ours that their pitcher was illegal (in order to play in the playoffs, you must be on the roster at the start of the season and play in two games during the regular season), our guys brushed it off and went ahead with the game. But it was another disaster. Lackluster hitting, error-filled defense and a general sluggish attitude contributed to a 13-10 loss for Svea. I was especially disgusted because I hadn't even wanted to come; I've had a bad toothache for a couple of days and drugged myself up with Advil so I could make it.

As the guys drifted off the field, a couple of the players talked to the umpire, who eventually confirmed that the other team had to forfeit because of an illegal player. Interestingly, the same thing happened to us last year. One of our players recruited a couple of "outsiders" in order to soundly defeat our cutthroat rivals; we had to forfeit, which led to our losing the league championship and remaining in this league another year. The recruiter publicly apologized to our entire team, and we learned a valuable lesson. Ironically, the "outsiders" didn't contribute to our victory last year, while the "outsider" pitcher last night was also a coach and probably made a difference in the game.

Perhaps you are imagining excitement and enthusiasm at receiving another chance to play. There wasn't any. The next game was already in progress and had to be stopped so our team could take the place of the forfeited team. Three or four of our players had already headed for home and had to be called back. No one felt good about getting to the next game that way. It was already 10:00 pm. And the mosquitoes were bad!

I went to move the car closer so Sarah could get away from the mosquitoes, and as I went I had a picture in my mind (I think the Lord put it there) of the teams praying together before the game. Pete had led a short devotions and prayer before most of our games this year, but he was gone with our twins and I was pretty sure he hadn't appointed anyone to take his place. As I drove back, I prayed, "OK, Lord, if I get back in time I will ask if I can pray." However, as I pulled into the parking lot, I saw the first batter for the other team take his first swing. It was a base hit, and they went on to score three runs on a few good hits, a missing outfielder and a couple of errors by our team. It was not looking good.

I had another picture of myself going over and praying with just our team before they batted. I walked over and as they came in off the field I asked, "Did you guys pray before the game?"

Someone answered, "No, that's the problem."

I pressed further, "I suppose you didn't pray before the other game either, did you?"

"No."

"Can I just pray for us now?"

"Sure!" And they gathered around as I quickly said something like, "Lord, You know we're frustrated and upset. But we trust You, and please help us do our best! Amen!" Everyone echoed, "Amen!" as the umpire called for the batter.

I am NOT saying that a prayer to God is a magical charm that results in instant success and glory for anyone who will say a few words. But it was a different team that batted around in the bottom of that first inning, scoring six or seven runs. And it was a different team that went on to win the game 16-7 and advance to the next round of playoff games, next week. I believe the Lord orchestrated that entire series of events to say to our team, "Just remember Me." And I pray that message will stick with some of those guys for the rest of their lives.

The Power of God through Nature

This morning I had awakened and was listening to the rumble of thunder when there was a huge lightning flash and the loudest crack of thunder I've heard in years. My thoughts flew immediately to Lucky, our dog who is quite scared of thunderstorms, and Philip's new kitten in the entryway. I went to see how they were doing, Tico started meowing, and I brought her down to Philip, who was sleeping in the basement because of the heat and humidity. When I went back upstairs, I noticed that the garage door was fully closed, so went to let the dogs out - but they weren't there. I saw Lucky sitting under the eaves at the other doorway and let him into the entryway - poor thing! Shadow (the other dog) was nowhere to be seen; I figured she had gone into the brick garage.

"My" computer beeped at me and had an orange light, so I pushed the power button and it went off. That concerned me a little, but I spent some quiet time with the Lord, then woke Sarah and Philip to do chores in the barn. Pete is gone this week, so they are in charge of the turkeys. When I turned the computer on, it beeped in that orange sort of way again. Yesterday I determined to transfer all the pictures and videos onto the expansion drive we have, so they would be easily transportable - but I didn't get it done yesterday. I don't think Carbonite backs up all videos, so the worst case scenario here is that the computer is totally fried and all the videos are lost. I pray that's not the case!

I tried to get email and my online task list on the other computer, but Internet connectivity is very low. Soon I discovered that the phones aren't working - the line must be dead and it appears to have fried our answering machine too. The other extensions work but are not connected, but the main one won't turn on. My best guess is that a surge came through the phone line and knocked out the phone, the Internet router, and my computer, which is connected by cable to the router. That would explain why the other things plugged into the same outlets work, and the other computer is OK (it's connected by WiFi). At this moment, I'm praying that either Carbonite backed up the videos or the hard drive is OK. Lord, Thy will be done…this wouldn't be the first time we lost a bunch of video footage.

As Sarah and Philip were leaving for the barn, Chris, our neighbor boy, came over with Shadow, who had taken refuge in their garage. I mentioned to Sarah that she really needed to leave the garage door partially open so the dogs could get in and out. She insisted that she had left it open and left Shadow in the entryway with the kitten for company. When we tried to open the garage door, it wouldn't budge. I remembered it being locked one time, so we spent several minutes trying to figure out how to unlock it; then Philip (accidentally?) pushed the automatic opener, and the door opened! We gawked at each other while it went up, then back and forth a couple of times, and finally stopped just far enough so the car could get out. I pulled the car out - better to have it stuck outside than inside - and after several minutes, the door shut itself. It opened itself later, and then I unplugged the Lift Master.

Now I've discovered that the phone line is working, the Internet is working, but our answering machine/extension phone system is not, and I'm about to try the computer again. The power of nature is displayed once more!