Coming back to the ranch Saturday morning, where the noisiest thing heard all weekend was the air conditioning coming on, is a huge difference from Houston.

I’m not sure what to call the experience of driving back from the cruise ship terminal.  May be the best word for it is “combat driving shock.”

Houston, thanks to the boom in energy over the past few years, has ballooned up to more than 6-million people.  Departing from the docks area, we were still in the continuous band of development of Greater Houston an hour and a half later.  The spreading monster will consume Huntsville, TX shortly, I’m sure.

The city has the same overbuilt feeling to it that I first experienced driving through Los Angeles 40-some years ago.  Being from Seattle, and driving down I-5, L.A. was culture shock personified and there’s a kind threshold that takes place with a city as it passes through the 5-million mark, or so.

Not that lots of cities aren’t bigger…they are.  Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles all line up as bigger.  But something happens when a city gets to be the size of New York:  the population density is high enough that things like subways and trains coming in from the suburbs to an extreme island population core, actually makes sense.

The difference – if I can say this right – is that NYC has the feel of a well-raised loaf of bread.  High density, crusty in places, but damn entertaining.

Houston, on the other hand, while going up a bit in the central core area, is more like a pizza than a loaf…and the only other city I’ve been through in the past 10-years that has the same vibe is Sacramento.  Like Houston, it just seems to go on and on, forever.

According to this report, Chicago’s growth has been faltering – on the other of a quarter of a percent in a year in 2013.  Job creation in Chicago seems to have failed, as much as anything.  Houston by comparison claims job creation of 4.2% more jobs in the past year.

As you know, Elaine and I have been contemplating moving “out west” to get closer to our kids.  But driving through Houston at 8 AM on a Saturday has a totally Los Angeles vibe to it, complete with the grayest gray there is when the sun’s not out.

It’s a grim reminder that we “can’t go back” to the era of “right-sized cities.  The damn planet has gotten too big for that.

You’re welcome to play along as we keep tossing darts.  Eugene, Oregon is close to the kids, nice flying country yet lots to do, but without pizza-city vibe to it.  The Washington Coast towns (from Astoria, OR north are interesting, but run a bit too gray for our tastes.

Friends are having a house built in the hills north of Phoenix, but the closest airport is a 30-mile drive down the road to Deer Valley.  Plus, too close to the dissolving border for our comfort.  That ACLU 100-mile “Constitution Free Zone” is worrisome. 

You’re welcome to toss ideas in the hat.  As interesting as the Texas Outback is, being out west again has a certain calling to it.  So if you have ideas, please send ‘em along.

Drone Regulation

I keep forgetting to mention that the FAA is working toward regulation of those increasingly popular drones we’ve been reading so much about:

The FAA proposed a framework of regulations that would allow routine use of certain small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in today’s aviation system, while maintaining flexibility to accommodate future technological innovations. The FAA’s proposal offers safety rules for small UAS (under 55 pounds) conducting non-recreational operations. The rule would limit flights to daylight and visual-line-of-sight operations. It also addresses height restrictions, operator certification, optional use of a visual observer, aircraft registration and marking, and operational limits.
            The proposed rule also includes extensive discussion of the possibility of an additional, more flexible framework for “micro” UAS under 4.4 pounds. The public will have until April 24, 2015, to comment on the proposed regulation in the Federal Register, which can be found at http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=FAA-2015-0150. For more information and links on the proposed rule, see the FAA’s press release page at www.faa.gov/news/press_releases/.

As a pilot, I’m not very happy with the “micro UAS category, since even with a 1/4” thick windshield, I’m pretty sure 4.4 pounds hit at 80-miles an hour would go through it.

Not that I should worry:  The FAA hasn’t been able to go with a driver’s license in place of a third class medical – and that issue has been around for at least 10-years.  No reason they shouldn’t study this decision until it become irrelevant, as well.

Reminds me of the old saying “I’m from the government and I’m here to help…”

Speaking of Which (Lighter side of things)

Grady up at the www.nostracodeus.com project found this one circulating out on the web as an email headlines “Gas Bill”:

A man living in Kandos (near Mudgee in NSW Australia) received a bill for his as yet unused gas line stating that he owed $0.00.

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(Near 19’.30” N 89’.23” W @ 18.4 Knots)

Our cruising adventure pulled up anchor for the last time on Wednesday evening as we wrapped up a visit to Trujillo, Honduras on what the cruise brochures call “The Banana Coast.” Next stop: Houston early Saturday.

After going ashore for a tour of Trujillo, Elaine and I returned to our balcony for a leisurely snooze (or, in her case snoozette) while the crew put away the tenders that were used to ferry adventurers to shore.

Turns out, there’s an interesting tale of “battling cruise lines” in here:  The Norwegian line didn’t get one of the early (prime) slots at the island of Roatan, so they opted for a mainland stop.

Good call.

We like contrast in life.  The offshore islands are mostly flat and Trujillo has these marvelous mountains as a backdrop.  The reach over 2,000’ feet vertically and we were assured they could be scaled up to a radio tower location in a shade over four hours.

My cardiologist might disagree.  However, since the ship wasn’t going to be here a week, that hike came off the table. 

Despite a mighty police presence, the Honduran woods are not where sane gringos would be hiking, but then again, we don’t know many sane people,just sayin…

The city of Trujillo has a small but very nicely-developed Port district, and since the town is fairly compact along the base of the mountains, when the cruise ship comes to town, it’s a very big civic deal.

The shops spring up along the walkways and all kinds of goods are for sale.

Although we’d rationalized to ourselves we didn’t need anything, there was this turquoise necklace that caught Elaine’s eye that was very inexpensive  ($10). and I thought “Aha!  All this prepper talk about bargaining/trading might be put to good use here…”

The dickering was set to begin….

Before making my offer, a lot of thought went into the process:  Where to draw “my line”?

I wanted to just practice, not insult the fellow on the other side of the table from me.  He was somewhere north of 6’ feet tall and as muscular as I was rotund.  Strategy call:  Insulting low offer, or just guess his markup and go from there.

It’s an article of faith that in the post apocalyptic world bartering will be a critical skill.

Settling on an opening offer of $8-bucks, which the shopkeeper immediately snapped up.  I reminded myself that next time I’m in Trujillo (very low probability event) that I’d open with a 30% off or 40% off and assume the idea of an “insultingly low offer” is something barter book writers made up.  Maybe they don’t get out and practice; can’t say.

Better off taking the Harvey MacKay (Swim with the Sharks) approach:  I should have opened at zero and worked my way up from there.  A fine lesson of American capitalism is this:  If you have the money, eventually someone will buy the insult.  Look around you.

So much for Mr. Hard Bargain Driver.

Remembering the “old days” of the Caribbean from living on Grand Cayman for a couple of years in the mid 1980’s when Zero Halliburton brief cases of cash proceeds from bankrupting apartment complexes was landing there in the Texas S&L scandal days, the next logical place to visit was the duty-free liquor dispensary.

There, the spread in booze price was explored a bit:  Bottle of a so-so name brand rum that would be $17 at the discount liquor store in the next county up from us was going for $11.

Bottom line here:  If you’re looking to save a lot of money on booze by spending a couple of grand on a Western Caribbean cruise, you really ought to instead invest in remedial math classes at the local junior college.  The money would be better spent.

Saving of $6 a bottle didn’t seem like much of a deal.  Once upon a time,; maybe, back in my wilder sailing youth perhaps, but in the “since airplane’s again” mode, fitness and clear-headed trumps everything. 

One of Elaine’s boys has a wee-one:  I think Charli-Jane is about 2 1/2 now, and since her reading is starting early, we got an autographed kids book ($10) that met Elaine’s tough standards. 

E has a bee in her bonnet about idiotic kids books (Grimm’s Fairytales) that serve to do little more than take perfectly good children and install the “fear fonts” in them (to borrow the font module idea from 1980’s coming…yes, we’re that old…).  I still check under bridges for trolls.

With a cut of the dough going to a local school, I didn’t try to dicker on this purchase…just wouldn’t have been right.  Still, it might have been a good idea, since it might be considered practice for running for public office where it seems an equal opportunity to screw everyone, even the nice people, is a necessary prerequisite.

Walking and shopping resumed, but by now, I was getting a little warm (it was 91, or so) about the time Elaine (with a twinkle in her eye)  suggested I go sit on a railing which separated the recently-built shops from the beach.

She was busy issuing unintelligible instructions inb my general direction as several groups of tourists wandered by:

I called out to the tourists and asked them if they could smell my burning butt over on the walkway…and somehow that resulted in a good laugh and a picture being snapped.  Locals don’t sit on these railings which is why birth rates are still high here, if you follow.

There’s only one ship per week through this burgh, at the moment, although a local bar owner (who was kind enough to lend me a black marking pen, allowed me to do some “point of purchase advertising (this column may drive you to drink now and then)  on the counter of the Bahia Bar at the top of the tender dock where the tourists flood in and out, like a sea of humanity.  Or fleas.

The bar owner didn’t flinch when we asked for something good – and local – to drink.

He hauled out some native Nicaraguan rum that would make a fine brand for a novel about the tropics and poured us shots about twice the size (and half the price) of drinks on the ship.

This was for a dark golden rum aged in what I swear were old bourbon barrels…as they had that distinctive smoky-corn flavor but none of the corn “nose” to them’

Figuring science was my middle name, the discussion followed quickly as to whether there was a clear version…which there was…and since it didn’t lay down in casks for an hour (or whatever), it didn’t have that corn kind of taste.

You might be able to duplicate the taste of the aged rum with a bit of Makers Mark, a bit of Everclear, distilled water and maybe a dash of Kitchen Bouquet to adjust color.  Maybe a damp spoon of liquid smoke…but not worth the effort.

The bartender runs a place an hour or two drive up the coast where he has a restaurant and bar which keeps him busy because with the cruise ships coming in one day a week (it will go to two ships a week in October) aren’t enough to really keep a business going…yet.

If all American foreign aid could be administered this way (haggling with locals on the price of goods and drinking Central American rum) I think US foreign policy would be a lot better off.

Back on this ship, we had snacks and rehydrated about 2 PM and waited for dinner time to roll around. 

Elaine struck up a co0nversation with one of the wait staff from the Philippines.  Asked about why she decided to work on a cruise ship, her answer was pretty interesting:

In the Philippines, with a BA in Restaurant and Hotel Management, she was only able to make about $10 a day.  On the ship, she makes several times that.

The best part, however, is that she has plans when she finally ends her cruising days and dreams are what drive people…all people.

Before you rush down to sign up to work on a ship, though, the reality of work should be considered first:

• Crew work 8-9 months
• They work 10-hours per day
• No days off
• Time in port (when you get it) is about 3-6 hours, depending on port)
• Crew have a hard time getting cabs to internet cafes
• They make a bee-line for them on shore because crew has to pay high connection charges on ship.  (That’s because the cost is a pass-through to everyone who uses it)
• This limits relations to email a couple of times a week
• Phone calls to home are done with cheap international calling cards.  Which one is a kind of verbal tradition/initiation when joining crew
• And Houston has a Seamen’s Center nearby when berthed in Houston. 

Seamen’s centers have played a major role in the writing lives of many writers…thinking back to how Louis L’ Amour described them.  In the days before the Internet, the Seamen’s Centers were where those little books of the Everyman’s Library were passed around, dog-eared and worn, and aspiring writers and poets would read from them  in the forecastle, when there was time at sea…

Last night’s dinner was the Brazilian themed restaurant.  This is quite a meal, if you go there:  You do the salad bar (great seafood chowder and fresh French bread and Brie somehow ended up on my plate).  Then the staff comes along and slices off whatever meats you want. 

There we were offered sausages and lamb cuts (pass) and several kinds of steak (filet mignon, thanks, a small bit) and both marinated chicken  legs and bacon-wrapped spiced chicken  (hell yeah).

The end of the rather perfect evening involved Elaine walking into the casino on Deck 6 where she turned her $20 stake into $89 – how she does this is the 9th wonder of the world.  My $20 stake was turned into a $10 stake, so apparently my luck didn’t make the tender ride back to the ship.

I’ll be sure and check tonight on whether it has caught up yet, or not.

Email for the Calendar Impaired

One of our readers excitedly sent me what I call an “email for the Calendar Impaired:

Interesting FEBRUARY.

This year !
This February cannot come in your life time again.

Because This year February has  4 sundays,  4 mondays, 4 tuesdays, 4 wednesdays,  4 thursdays,  4 fridays & 4 saturdays.

This Happens once every 823 years. This is called money bags. So send to at least 5 people or 5 Group’s and money will arrive within 4 days. Based on Chinese Feng Shui. Send within 11 mins of reading.

Since brushing up on my math skilled (try wading through Wolfram’s Mathematica, right?) I got to thinking “Hold it:  7*4 is 28 and so EVERY February has four of each…”

I was going to send the reader a note that February of 2009 also started on a Sunday.

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(From anchor, 5-miles offshore from Belize City, Belize)  Just out this morning is the S&P, Case-Shiller monthly housing report and it looked pretty good from the headline numbers:

New York, February 24, 2015 – S&P Dow Jones Indices today released the latest results for the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, the leading measure of U.S. home prices. Data released today for December 2014 shows a slight uptick in home prices across the country. Nine cities reported monthly increases in prices.

More than 27 years of history for these data series is available, and can be accessed in full by going to www.homeprice.spdji.com. Additional content on the housing market can also be found on S&P Dow Jones Indices’ housing blog: www.housingviews.com.
Year-over-Year

Both the 10-City and 20-City Composites saw year-over-year increases in December compared to November. The 10-City Composite gained 4.3% year-over-year, up from 4.2% in November. The 20-City Composite gained 4.5% year-over-year, compared to a 4.3% increase in November. The S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index, which covers all nine U.S. census divisions, recorded a 4.6% annual gain in December 2014 versus 4.7% in November.

The fastest year-over-year gains were in San Francisco and Miami, where prices rose 9.3% and 8.4% over the last 12 months.

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(Somewhere off Belize City, Belize)   There was, as far as the crew was concerned, a first yesterday at about 4 PM as the RCCL Explorer of the Seas and our own ride, the NCL/Norwegian Jewel were both leaving port at Cozumel, Mexico.

Spontaneously, passengers on both ships lined up on their balconies and along the rails to cheer the “late arrivals” coming back from shopping and excursions ashore.  An example is the lone female runner above who was roundly cheered – and I mean with the kind of applause and hoopla that would be found at the end of a marathon.

I wasn’t sure what to make of it:  Were the cheers sincere, or was it a kind of ‘piling on’ – like booing is when a bad call is made in sports?

Hard telling,

Cozumel itself was a lot bigger than when I’d been here in the 1990’s (ferry over from Playa del Carmen)  and again in 2002 (Holland-America’s Masdam).

First time here, as my traveling companion from the 1990’s reminded us by email, it was a time when riding ATV’s into the hinterlands of the island of Cozumel might result in an unwanted encounter with masked banditos.

That was then.   Today, it was almost as many police as it was tourists; at least that was the talk shipboard from the returning explorers.  A good thing.

A reality check over Monday breakfast, however, decided against the shore excursion.  What do we really need?

Elaine and I have gotten into the habit of traveling light in our old Beechcraft, so we’re painfully aware that “The more you buy, the more you schlep…”  I don’t need another T-shirt, golf shirt, or aloha shirt.  Elaine prefers going up to Seattle now and then for Nordstrom’s Rack, but even that joy has declined in recent years.  Place has change  – or, God forbid – we have…

We both hate knickknacks (more crap to dust and move). 

Jewelry purchasing in foreign places is as likely to be plated as solid, I didn’t bring my stone and acid to test karat claims, and  as E noted “Why buy more jewelry to wear in Palestine, Texas?”  Practical point there.

Speaking of Texas, a couple or four items of interest:

Apparently there was some snow/freezing rain back home.  Damn shame to miss it.  When snow is a novelty, not the opening scenes from Day After Tomorrow, snow, ice, and even the odd power outage can be fun.  Especially when a day or two later its back to the high 60’s.

Panama hasn’t had to shoot any perimeter intruders, but he did spot an outside water pipe break (very close to the outside air conditioner unit).  A really odd break of the house water shut-off valve, turned out.

Until I called, I had visions of the water line break occurring over the big air handler under the house in the crawlspace.  That would not only have drenched the air handler, but would have likely spewed up on the kitchen floor and I was already head-tripping about how a complete kitchen remodel would be next.

Fortunately, the break was outside so other than moving 600-gallons of mud around, and fishing pipe under the AC compressor outside, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.  Although, Elaine’s a tad disappointed in no new kitchen.  I’m thinking about church Sunday.

Apparently, when we packed, we took all our luck with us. 

To this day, I’m convinced Panama used up all his luck during two combat tours in Vietnam, a string of purple hearts, SF and Rangers.  That takes a good pile of luck to pull through all that.

I end up lucky wherever I go, except it tends to run in five minute streaks.  I can win like crazy for 5-minutes in a casino and then the winds of Fate change.

Which leads me to wondering whether people only get just so much “luck” in life, and when you’ve used it all up, you die.  (Or leave the casino broke.)

It would certainly be anti-climatic for the afterlife to begin this way: “So what am I doing here at the Pearly Gates?”

“Oh, you used up all your luck.  Did you bring warm weather clothing?”

I made a note to try to take a little luck  with me.

Back to Texas notes:

We had a fine conversation with a fellow Texan from Bryan, Jerry, who’s been cruising (his wife’s insistence) for about a dozen years.  He reports that despite what some people might claim, the cruise industry really has helped to spur tremendous economic growth around the Caribbean.

When the cruise stop at Honduras opened up, his wife (a retired school teacher) would bring paper and pens & pencils to the local Honduran school folks.  A few boxes each trip.  People-to-people humanitarian aid; from the heart.  The kind of stuff government don’t seem to be able to figure out.

Or, when they do, there’s always a damn 98% handling charge.  Sometimes it’s hidden by inflation, but that game hits the knee of the curve and it’s no Laffer matter.

Then there’s the other question about “techno conquest”:  Is progress having a smartphone, which in turn means you have to work to support the phone instead of just going fishing, knocking a few coconuts, and kicking it?  They didn’t get to vote on that.

About mid-morning E & I wandered into a Trivial Pursuit tournament where we had our you-know-whats handed to us by a group called the Cal-Tex Team.  I’d argue that four people against two wasn’t a fare match-up from the start.

Our lack of exposure to popular culture (if that’s what watching TV shows like Friends can be considered) worked against us.  I mean seriously, is knowing that Lisa Something was the female star of the show… I’ve been testing that piece of the great puzzle of Life trying to figure out what knowing that will do to improve my lot.

Elaine’s not going to learn anything about fitness, exercise, clothing, makeup or being glamorous from such blocks of Life-minus-time expenditures.  I’m not going to learn intermediate aerobatics, fine points of falling trees, or how to use a cut-off tool more smoothly on the metal lathe, either.

Life has a currency:  Time.

Like luck, you only get so much of it.  And it’s what you buy with the currency called “time” that matters when the move to underground housing comes along.

Internet at Sea, II

If you’re wondering how you missed Internet at Sea, I, it’s because you missed some of the fine print in Monday’s report.

Over on the comments side, there was one from a fellow who said (in so many words) that “If George can effectively work from the high seas, then I might take a cruise after all…”

The simple rules of making it work:

Speeds are fastest when people are off the ship.  Slowest speeds come around 7 AM when everyone gets up to post of FB or to check email from back home.  My response time when I post the Coping section (around 6 AM Central) is pretty good.

By the time we get to the 8 AM posting time for the news and press release festival, however, everyone is uploading encyclopedias and trying to get Amazon to stream.  Forget that.

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(Somewhere off Cozumel, MX)  As promised, this morning’s report is coming via a shipboard internet connection as we attempt to relax, although the truth is, that is one of the few things in life I’ve never really gotten the hang of.

There are a couple of things we have learned, so far:

1.  People don’t really “dress up” for cruising anymore.  Elaine, who’s been on far many cruises than me over the course of her lifetime, has seen the attire worn shipboard through a whole cycle.

Back in the early days of cruising, there was a certain minimum expectation about clothing:  Tie at dinner, and the most famous and glamorous were invited to sit at the Captain’s Table.

That doesn’t seem to be the case, nowadays.

The Captain is a very businesslike fellow and though there has been a photo-op with him, the number of people I saw wearing jackets was nearly zero.  I felt like the odd man out.  Thankfully, I didn’t wear a tie.

But even at the most upscale restaurant on the ship, I was severely over-dressed, as was Elaine.  Live and learn, I suppose.

2.  The main reason to be early at the port of embarkation is to get a seat.  The actual door-opening to board was about noon for a 4 P.M. departure.  Since this was a capacity cruise (2,300+ people) the seats in the waiting area at the port began to fill up quickly.

To kill time, we sat around reading or, as Elaine likes the upper reaches of the smartphone games, that was a way to get to level 1,500-something of a game and kill an hour and 20-minutes.

3.  Buying a “any restaurant you want” was a smart choice.  Not that the food in the ships always-open buffet is a bad deal, but the optional other restaurants on the ship are much nicer than 1,000 of your friends being lined up for the carving station at the buffet; that kind of thing.

On the other hand, the break-even point for booze and the unlimited drink package is around 6-7 drinks per day, per person, when you run out the numbers.

Other thank being hard on the body, we didn’t do that and I think it’s been a good (at least cheaper) choice.

Internet connectivity shipboard is fair, not particularly fast.

What they don’t tell you in advance is how to set your email client to download headers only.

Once you do that, net download speeds become acceptable.  On the other hand, downloading big email attachments can be a time and money consuming pursuit.

They aren’t kidding, though, when they advise before hand that the definition of “high-speed” internet connections on ships is a lot different that internet connections on land.

Other than Elaine misplacing her guest card (so we both had to get new ones; hers was found not 15-minutes after we got the new ones) the trip has been uneventful.,

Ship board gaming is almost a mirror image of how trading options works.

In the stock market’s options arena, I will usually study a position and enter it when I think the time is right.  From here, the price, no matter how patient I am, tends to crater to half what I paid for it.  If I hold on long enough, the value comes back and I make a little bit.  Sometimes.

Viewed as a graph, this pirce chart looks a little bit like a bit “U” with the right side price often ending just slightly above the left-side entry price.

Now, on shipboard gaming, my experience is about the mirror of that.

Sunday, being a sea day, I figured the Lord’s work was to make me rich.  So I went into the casino with a pair of $10-bills.

In short order, couldn’t have been more than 30-minutes later, I was up to just under $70. Better than a 3:1 return on my initial $20.

A person with half a brain would have cashed out at this morning.

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