Wednesday, the 30th day of May, 2012

So, the Miami Heat took care of the Indiana Pacers in six games; not bad… Now they will meet the Boston Celtics in the East Finals… No pun intended, but that series is a different ball game… Don’t have any expectation of the Heat coming on top on this one; although they looked really competent in the first game spanking they gave the Celtics…

Recorded the first two parts, and will record the third and last part today, of the Hatfield & McCoy mini-series in the History Channel… Kevin Costner (Hatfield) and Bill Paxton (McCoy) play the main roles. I’ve often heard about that feud in the Northern Appalachians (somewhere in Kentucky and West Virginia), but I don’t know how it all started or ended. Looking forward to the whole thing…

Spent this past week-end in the North-West part of the Atlanta metropolitan area helping Alex look for, and secure, her new apartment. She found, and contracted for, one in Alpharetta; I am very happy with her choice. It is a 1/1, on a 3^rd floor, on an excellent location, well kept complex, very attractive floor plan, and 15 minutes door-to-door to/from work. She will be moving towards the end of June (expected at work in Alpharetta on Monday July 2^nd) and I will probably be playing a role on the loading, driving and unloading a moving truck sometime towards the end of June…

Keep an open eye (very open, I’d say) on the weather, folks… There is some weird stuff happening out there (have you seen the movie “The Day After Tomorrow”? Catch it one of these days, if you can…) It is only the middle of spring and already summer temperature records are being challenged, if not broken!  Before Memorial Day, there had been already three named storms (one Pacific and two Atlantic) with one of them getting very close to a Cat 1 hurricane; very, very weird. Those of us who think we can continue to send thousands of tons of fossil fuel residues into the atmosphere on a daily basis without having to worry about it, may find it may be time to worry about it! More drilling may not be, after all, the best way forward; more coal and hydrocarbons burning may not be the best ‘long term investment’ for our grandkids and their grandkids to enjoy life on this 3^rd rock from the Sun…

So, we’ve talked about several aspects of living in ‘these here mountains”… Today, we will talk about Health Care, and here we go… There are no private practice doctors available in Van Buren County; there are nurse practitioners who have open clinics in Spencer, but no doctors (although there may be a supervising physician visiting the clinic every so often; I don’t know…). For you to find and see a doctor you must go to Sparta, White County, 30 minutes to the North, or McMinnville, Warren County, 30 minutes to the South West. My new doctor, Dr. Baker, is in Sparta; my old doctor, Dr. Jamieson, used to be in McMinnville (she moved back to Saskatchewan, Canada). There are county hospitals in both Sparta & McMinnville with the latter one being bigger and looking much better than the former (visited a friend in McMinnville's Hospital last winter and I was positively impressed) . The closest bigger and better equipped hospital though is in Cookeville, Putnam County, about one hour to the North.  After that, you are looking at Nashville (two hrs. away) where you find 1^st tier Medical Care (Vanderbilt and St. Thomas to name a couple). Pharmacological logistics are easier to fulfill. There are the typical chain outlets (CVS, Rite-Aid, Walgreens, etc.) in both Sparta & McMinnville; and we have a pharmacy in Spencer, Spencer Drug Co., which opened last year. It is run by a local pharmacist who came back to town after school; she is a delight to deal with; prices are competitive and service is superb! The last aspect of Health Care is Emergency Services; I have not tried them yet (thank God) but, when Sammy had a heart attack this past year, and he lives about five miles east of us, a Med-evac chopper showed up – at 2:00 AM – ready to lift him to Cookeville; they would have done it had he not been so afraid to fly! Now, some of us are relatively healthy and get by with the typical yearly visit to the doctor (whether you need to or not) and that’s it; that works well. If, however, we need to see doctors and specialists all the time, either naturally or by other causes (Hypochondria), we will be spending quite a bit of time (and gas) on the road to Medical Centers yonder where those species are more commonly found! So, as we grow old(er) and our medical care needs change, there may be some challenges and opportunities we may need to face and conquer; but, for now, all is well in Paradise!

Now, food for thought…

“Confidence comes not from always being right but from not fearing to be wrong.”

- Peter T. McIntyre

So, stay confident, my friends…

Wednesday, the 23rd day of May, 2012

Ahhh…  And then there are the people who dwell in ‘these here mountains’… What a breath of fresh air! They are certainly different from what I got used to in South Florida… Ever since we started to build the house in the Summer of 2007, and thus started coming here often, I had kept my attention/guard up a notch to ensure that I did not walk into unwelcoming places or found myself in the middle of unwelcoming scenarios (in case you don’t know or haven’t noticed, I have a very discernible Spanish accent in my speech). As a visitor then, I never experienced anything but a welcoming and refreshingly warm response wherever I went. During that time, I gathered once the courage to ask a visiting neighbor, long-time resident of over 30 years, if I would be liable of running into unfriendly situations because of my accent and my distinct Hispanic appearance; he promptly, clearly and without a shade of doubt all but assured me that I should not expect anything but the treatment that any other person would receive… And he was right! I came here to stay for good in August 2009 and, ever since then I’ve had nothing but positive experiences with everybody, both locals (natives) and transplants (or ‘forners’ as we are familiarly known!). And then, there is the special case of my brother by another mother: Sammy!  He is a 48 years old kid, sharp as a tack, born and raised here, with the biggest (though delicate) heart and most open mind I’ve ever known! Now, make no mistake, even here in Paradise - and like everywhere else - you will find all kinds of people. I know folks who are very friendly to me and, nonetheless, hold a very open and well known antipathy for ‘forners’ moving here (I guess they think we are likely to, sooner or later, imperil their customary lifestyle). I also know people who are racist (several levels of severity), and they are open about it; you know where they stand, and although I may not agree/identify with that way of thinking, I welcome that openness any day of the week and twice on Sundays! They do not mask it like other more politically savvy folks do elsewhere. In conclusion, I’ll close like I opened: the people… What a breath of fresh air!

On a very personal note, this past Saturday my oldest daughter and first born, Clarissa Ane, called me to let me know that she and her husband, Damon, are expecting a child and that I will become a Grandpa this coming November! She’s been married two years and she is three months into the process!

On Saturday morning, I was having my third cup of coffee when I got a call from friends saying they had found a rabbit in their garden, and the rabbit had died (maybe heart failure after being caught doing the wrong thing at the wrong place, I don’t know…) I was asked if I wanted it and I said yes. It was a good doe of about 5 lbs… Came home and ‘processed’ my first rabbit (kept the back feet; they’re drying). After about 15 minutes I had over two pounds of prime rabbit meat ready to go on the freezer and to be consumed at the right time (Jan is in Gainesville with the girls this week and will be back on Wednesday the 23^rd).

The Basketball season (the true one!) continues… The Heat and Pacers are getting to the end of their series; it is 3:2 Heat.  They had a couple of sub-par games (2^nd and 3^rd) but then rebounded and, on game 5 last night, the really spanked the Pacers. Let’s hope next game is the last one of the series… On another conference, somewhere in the South and West I believe, lowly Oklahoma City sent the all-mighty LA Lakers packing!

My garden is struggling (and so am I with it)… The plants are not growing as expected and, instead, they are getting yellow and wilt… I’ve tried from watering every two days to watering twice a day and nothing has changed; I believe that the quality of the top soil we bought to start it up was less than optimal… Oh well; I will continue to work on it and I’ll get something out of it (even if it is only worms!)

And there is an investigation on the Facebook IPO… Apparently Morgan Stanley inflated the valuation of the stock and now, after a week of trade, the stock is threading waters and has lost almost 20% ‘at press time”… For those of you who bought, hold on to it; it may be a piece of memorabilia sometime in the future; for those of you who did not, well done; just, like with everything else, wait and observe behavior and, if merited, act…

Now, food for thought:

“We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”

- Albert Einstein

So, keep your minds open, my friends…

Wednesday, the 16th day of May, 2012

Another aspect to manage carefully when living up here in ‘these here mountains’ is the intake and processing of information… There are no daily newspapers in Spencer. There is a weekly newspaper – the Mountain View - which reports all local events, from arrests to arraignments to accidents to foreclosures and birthdays! There are local newspapers in Sparta (White County) and McMinnville (Warren County) which are a little removed from us – don’t really care about Warren County High basketball teams – and I don’t know (honestly, I have not inquired) if they deliver to our house. With the newspaper not being there, you have left radio, TV and the web. Well, there are no local radio stations to speak of (although NPR on the WEB is still there) and our TV coverage comes from Nashville (frankly, I really do not care if there was another shooting last night in West Nashville!) So, one is left with network news, and this is where you really have to pay attention, otherwise you fall pray of the nuances of news network… ABC, NBC and CBS network news come up once a day for 30 minutes (actually about 13 minutes if you subtract commercials) at 5:30 PM CST all three of them and, of course, you have to pick one because they even break for commercials at the same time! Although I like Brian Williams from NBC, the level of information is the same in all of them: general, sanitized, summarized and managed for the time allotted, so I does not matter which one you watch. And then you have the really dangerous ones: cable network news! If you watch one, you have to watch them all, otherwise you are left skewed (or is it screwed?). On the left, there is MSNBC with all its liberal biased reporting; on the center there is CNN; and on the right there is the fair-and-balanced, FOX NEWS. The same piece of news is given three different slants; for you to get a flavor of the actual information you have to watch the three channels, sift through the shameful ideological BS, and then take what is left with a grain of salt. (For example, this past week Rupert Murdock – the owner of FOX – was declared unfit to run a corporation by the UK House of Commons. MSNBC reported on it for a whole morning, about five hours; CNN reported on it for about five minutes; FOX reported on it for ZERO seconds!) So, you’re left with the Internet news outlets, most of which are backed by reputable news agencies (AP, EFE, UPI, etc.) and, like with TV, you have to read the same report on more than one outlet in order to get some of the actual facts. Bottom line is that, if you want to learn a bit about what’s going on out there, you have to work for it. More later…

I was remised last week to mention that the Miami Heat CRUSHED AND DESTROYED the NY Knickerbockers! (Thanks Lillian for keeping me on the ball!). Now, on the second round of the playoffs, the Heat is tied at 1 game a piece with the Indiana Pacers; let’s see what kind of spanking they end up administering to the Pacers!

We finally had a break on the dry weather this past week-end… It finally rained long and sustained and, even though we are still several inches below the normal rainfall levels, we are moving in the right direction…

Mothers Day came and went… It was the 2^nd Mothers Day since my mom’s been gone… I tried to give Jan a very pleasant day and I think I was successful even though her children could not be here; several new, old, young and ‘more-mature’ friends called to wish her a good day. Her daughters sent her flowers and have some other presents to give her next week when she’s in Gainesville for a week with them. I called Ligia, my sister, in Venezuela and wished her a Happy Mothers Day!

Now, food for thoughts:

“When a diplomat says ‘yes’, it means ‘maybe’; if they say ‘maybe’, it means ‘no’; if they say ‘no’, they’re not a diplomat at all!”

Warren Christopher

US Secretary of State in the 1990’s

So, keep practicing diplomacy, my friends…

Thursday, the 10th day of May, 2012

I got feedback from two different people regarding my posting from last week; both of them said that it sounded melancholic and as if I was longing for something to be different. Sorry I gave that impression; it was not intended like that at all. The idea behind the writing was to start documenting how different the lifestyles are between here and, say, South Florida. This is nothing short of paradise! I should have added that the only thing I regret about having moved here is that I could not do it ten years earlier! (Oh, and I do miss the daily newspaper; I know I can read it on-line, but it is not the same… I miss the facsimile).

Having said that, get ready for this week’s rendition of Bluffites Lifestyle… When it comes to food acquisition and storage, things get interesting when living in “these here mountains”… To live here, in or around Spencer, TN and specifically Hawks Bluff, and to be happy living here, you have to learn how to manage your food supply down to a science. Save-a-lot is the closest grocery store; it is in Spencer; it is very modest. Then there are Kroger and Wall-Mart in Sparta and McMinnville both(equidistant to us); Food Lion (that used to be in Sparta and it closed) and Sam’s Club are in Cookeville; Publix is in Hixson (north Chattanooga). We very seldom go the Spencer Save-a-lot; most of the time we go to Sparta or McMinnville (30 minutes) or to Cookeville or Hixson (50 minutes) less frequently. Regardless of where you go, a cooler is a must for the perishables you may buy. And what you buy, and how much of it you buy, depends on the size of your cooler, pantry, fridge, and freezer(s). We have not found yet a reliable, convenient and attractive farmers market for the veggies, so we are still dependent on Kroger (Wall-mart veggies are more challenging)… The meats are a crap shoot; we go from Kroger having a decent variety fairly priced, to Publix’s prices being simply outrageous, and any other store in between (Food Lion in Sparta was the best!). We have learned how to include deer and wild hogs into our diets and the variety turns out to be quite pleasant. The flavors are rich, and the different was of preparations are very attractive. Fish is another story… Whatever you find is certainly not fresh (you know you are eating shrimp because you see it, not because you taste it) and the prices are ridiculous; get a load of this: we went to Publix a couple of weeks ago and Tilapia (the same most-insipid-fish-ever that used to be $3.99/lb not too long ago!) was $9.99/lb, Salmon $14.99/lb and Grouper $17.99/lb … stuff that! So, we eat seafood only occasionally… We look forward to the fish fries held occasionally by friends who fish the local waters…

The 138^th Kentucky Derby was ran this past Saturday, May 5^th (also known as Cinco de Mayo to our Mexican friends – The day of the Battle of Puebla). Before the race, the experts and pundits said that this field was exceptionally deep and talented. I noticed a couple of colts that run from the front and were not used to relinquish the lead (Take Charge Indy and Bodemeister); and there were other colts who run from behind (Union Rags, I’ll Have Another, Creative Cause, and Gemologist) which I also liked. The winner ended up being I’ll Have Another, which is who Jan wanted me to place a bet on for her and I forgot the name, so I bet on another horse… Still haven’t heard the end of it…

Now, some food for thought…

“Everybody is a genius; but if you judge a fish on his ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid.”

Albert Einstein

So, keep on looking for the right tree, my friends…

Thursday, the 3rd day of May, 2012

To live here, in or around Spencer, TN and specifically Hawks Bluff, and to be happy living here, you have to be very comfortable with yourself and with your mate, if you have one. With yourself, because you are apt to spend quite a bit of time by yourself and with yourself; some hunting, and some gardening, and walks around the area, and lots of yard work, and any other hobby or interest you may have will keep you busy and happy. However, if you are an extrovert and need constant company, hopefully your mate shares your view/needs, and he/she likes being with you, and you have each other to keep company; TV becomes your main source of news and entertainment; so you better get a good one and a good signal delivery service (Dish, DirecTV and Ben Lomand – a local provider – are your choices). You get to appreciate your neighbors greatly as they become a key source of support, companionship, learning, a reason for partying and – yes - a source of entertainment as well. On the other hand, if you are one who needs to be busy/entertained often (not too thrilled with being by yourself or with your mate only), then you may be up for a challenge (or up the creek). If you’re one that needs to go to the mall on Monday, to the game on Tuesday, to the movies on Wednesday, bowling on Thursday, to the bar on Friday - and grab a bite on the way to wherever you’re going - this lifestyle may not be quite what you will be comfortable with, unless you are willing to have a long commute each way. All those things are available, plentifully, in Chattanooga (1 ¼ hrs each way), Nashville (2 hrs each way), or Knoxville (2 ¼ hrs each way); and if that is your lifestyle, you may as well move there to begin with, right? To be continued…

The Florida Panthers lost to the New Jersey Devils in the hockey playoffs… Yes, it was 4-3; and yes, the fourth game went to 2 overtime periods; and yada yada yada… The fact of the matter is that they lost and the hockey season, as far as I am concerned, started two weeks ago and is now over! Ah, but not all is lost… The Basketball season (the one I like, the playoffs) started this past weekend and the Miami Heat humiliated the New York Nicks (margin was over 30 points…) YES! They beat them again on Monday (or was it Tuesday?) and will play again today… GO HEAT!

Our garden is in… It is not too big (4x16) and close to the house to see if we can manage better the deer raids… Planted banana peppers (the best flavor ever!) that I bought from the kids at the high school green house, tomatoes (I don’t know what type because they were a present from McGee), broccoli (also a present from McGee) and cabbage, from seeds bought at Wal-Mart (or China-Mart as some folks call it…). Built a simple irrigation system with an old hose and so far we are making sure the little ones do not wilt under the already powerful sun… Next month I will build a more sustainable irrigation system using a barrel to collect (and reuse) rain water…

There are three houses for sale in our neighborhood (HB Phase I)…  Two of the houses are log homes and one is a traditional board sided home… They are 1,500 sq. ft (log, on 16 acres), 2,500 sq. ft. (siding, on 2 acres) and 7,000 sq. ft. (log, on 4 acres) respectively. Any one of them is a great but for anyone…

Now, food for thought…

“Strong hope is a much greater stimulant of life than any realized joy could be.”

 - Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

So, stay hopeful, my friends…