Making Repairs

I spent a good part of the day working on the van we bought last week. The oil was black and there was some soot in the muffler. The former tells me that the oil hasn't been changed in a while. The latter tells me that it has had poor combustion. The van lacks oomph while tackling the hills up here. I changed the oil and replaced the spark plugs and wires. Next weekend, I will replace the distributor cap and rotor. It's better, but not running smoothly. It took forever to do because of the locations of the spark plugs. You can accurately describe it by saying that it's a bitch to change the spark plugs. This is for a '93 Ford Aerostar with a 3.0 L engine. It may be possible that it doesn't have much go because it is a 3.0 L engine rather than the 4.0 L. In any case, it was an arduous process I don't wish to repeat.

 

Our relatives downstairs had trouble with their more recent model Ford F-150. Some bonehead engineer made access to the spark plugs vertical on the larger engines. When you drive through water, as was necessary this morning in some flooded areas, the water pools around the spark plugs and causes misfires. That was a pain too. You engineers at UTPA who are going to work for car companies need to keep maintenance of vehicles in mind when you design them. And don't do something stupid like put spark plugs at the bottom of a vertical column where water can collect when drivers go through puddles.

 

It is customary for migrants to fix their own cars. It's rare to find a migrant visiting a local mechanic. The cost of professional repairs makes the whole thing too expensive for migrant wages. You'll often see migrants working on their own vehicles and, if they have friends, doing it with their friends over a few beers. You have to be self sufficient to some extent to make it.

Only a few changes

Some of the red flagged migrants who were required to provide more proof of working eligibility were unable to do it and have left for other opportunities. As far as families, only one family is known to be leaving the area. Overall, it was single men who have left, mostly. Everybody else was able to buy themselves real social security numbers to use.

Not again

This morning, at roughly 5 am, my wife woke up and noticed lightning headed our way. She woke me up and we turned on the weather radio we got yesterday to listen to the NOAA broadcast. Sure enough, there was another severe thunderstorm warning and tornado watch in effect until 6:15 am and 6 am. We got dressed and got our stuff ready. We dressed the boy and awoke the girl and her grandmother. Shortly thereafter, the siren went off. We got a call from downstairs to invite us down. I put a pot of coffee to brew so we could wait out the storm. This time around, things were a bit calmer as we saw it coming rather than waking up to the siren. We had time, prior to the siren, to check TV and listen to the radio.

 

Last night, our son fell asleep with his hands over his ears in anticipation of the blaring siren. This morning, while we were dressing him, he put his hands up to his ears. He was prepared when the siren actually went off. The family has been glued to The Weather Channel these past two days. This is good from the awareness standpoint. This is bad because they may worry, unnecessarily, about some of the destruction possible if we were to have a tornado. We take the threat seriously because there was a tornado in Rice Lake, two or three years ago, that tore through the city. Our relatives tell us that they were shocked to see all the downed trees and destroyed homes as they drove in. They have pictures.

 

Perhaps the worst thing of all is that we have missed another opportunity, this weekend, to sleep late. I'm making it a point to take a nap today. I expect that we may have more awakenings in the coming days.

Oh, Crap!

"Oh, Crap!"

 

That's what went through my mind this morning as I awoke to the sound of a siren that warns Rice Lake about severe thunderstorms and tornados. Around 5 AM, the siren started blaring across the street from us. It had gone off earlier this week during a tornado watch. My wife and I were not home to hear it. This morning, we were. My wife and I jumped out of bed and started getting dressed. The kids awoke on their own with all the noise. Being so close to the siren, we had to shout to hear each other through the droning sound. We still had a bag packed due to the bad weather earlier this week, so my wife grabbed it to head out. My mom has a little bag with important papers that she grabbed. We ran downstairs with some relatives on the ground floor. My son grabbed on to his mom for dear life and refused to let go. My daughter was home during the first siren, so she knew what the siren meant, but was still scared by the significance.

 

The first reaction you have when you awake this way, siren blaring, is to run. Thankfully, cool heads prevailed; it would have been embarrassing to go outside in minor articles of clothing. Once we were ready to go, we went outside to see from where the threat would originate. In the dark, with no breeze or rain, this is nearly impossible. After making sure everybody was downstairs, I went back up to our apartment to check the Weather Channel. Our relatives have the weather channel through Dish Network, which is not local. We have cable, so our weather channel has local updates. Sure enough, there was a ticker at the bottom of the screen giving us the details about the severe thunderstorm warning. It was headed our way from the direction of Cumberland. After a while, the siren turned off and silence settled in. Our neighbors and we were outside watching the skies for any bad signs. I went in and out to check the skies and the latest updates on TV. I'd like to reiterate that this is a horrible way to wake up in the morning.

 

Given our innate tendencies to seek more information and to be prepared, my wife and I decided to buy a radio that receives NOAA broadcasts and runs on batteries. This time around, I was able to check the TV. Had the power gone out, we would be clueless as to what to expect or how long to worry. Radio Shack has some walkie talkies that have a 10 mile radius and receive NOAA broadcasts. These would be really handy for both information and communication should things go bad. We may get those later. For now, we got a cheap little radio from Wal-Mart with a button that instantly tunes to the weather broadcasts. I need to buy stuff to tune up the van we recently bought, otherwise I would spend the extra money for the walkie talkies. We will also be going over LED flashlights this weekend. We did not bring our flashlights with us, so now we have to buy one. We prefer LED lights because their batteries last forever. You can leave them on for a couple days and they'll still be lit.

 

In the end, the severe weather system blew over us with no incident. It was traveling at 45 miles per hour, giving it little chance to dump its fury on us. The severe weather warning ended by 5:45. Back home in the Rio Grande Valley, we have lots of time to prepare for a hurricane. In the case of a tornado, you have to have your systems in place all the time. You can't afford to put it off because everything happens so quickly. Hot weather is a perfect breeding ground for tornados, so we may have more loud awakenings in store. One can only hope that the season passes without event and that we are sufficiently prepared should the worst happen. Personally, I prefer a hurricane over a tornado. The days of forewarning hurricanes offer give you plenty of time to prepare or get out of town, despite what some people would have you believe. If you have a Cat 5 hurricane coming at your direction, what do you think is going to happen? Whatever the case, you too should be ready for the worst.

Just like home

I think a little piece of the RGV came with me to the north. Over the past few weeks, we've been having temperatures up in the 90s and 100s. We do get some respite with cool days here and there. But, the locals will tell you that it's been a hot summer. Just today we saw people driving north towards Superior, WI to spend the weekend. There isn't much civilization up there, but there are parks, lakes, and more trees. Unlike the RGV, most apartments and houses do NOT have air conditioning. They come with a furnace for heat, but no system for cooling. When we stayed at the dorms in Oshkosh, the only cooling came from open windows. This is the same in Rice Lake, open window cooling is all the rage. Hot weather and high humidity make our stay here just like home.

 

If you grew up poor in the RGV, you may remember the days in which it was damn hot. The humidity prevents your body from cooling off by evaporation. Your sweat beads up. Your clothes, your bedding, and the very air you breathe are moist. As you listen to the sounds of the night, a barking dog, a passing car, the rustling of the mesquites, you try not to think about the heat. On occasion, you'll hit the shower with just the cold water to cool you off. A shower is just the right thing if you have a fan. Despite all the noise, you manage to sleep with your fan set on High. Some nights it works, others only offer a few minutes respite. You probably don't see this anymore with the increase in crime in the RGV, but we used to sleep with the door open. We would lock the screen door and sleep near the door. Some people would sleep outside if there were no mosquitoes.

 

We are suffering thusly these days. The only difference between here and home is that we don't get temperatures over 100 degrees frequently or for very long. When we return in October, the heat should be abating back home in the RGV. I hope it is. We are not particularly fond of the heat back home. We do like the warm winters, however.

Observation from afar

I've been reading the blog posts from my friends back in the RGV regarding Gov. Goodhair's (Sergio Sanchez's term) visit with local mayors for their endorsement. I have just a couple of points to make. The first, is that Democrats assume that they have a guaranteed vote in the RGV no matter what they do. In this I agree with Earn My Vote. You Dems, recall them I'm not one, take the RGV for granted. They need to start earning our vote rather than getting a blank check every election. People are starting to question "what have you done for me lately?". With Republicans, you know going in that you can only ask for so much. With Dems, on the other hand, the RGV gets promised the sun and the moon; only to get squat. On top of that, the Democratic leadership is NOT Hispanic. Seems like a lot of lip service to me on the left side.

 

My other point is that if you are an RGV mayor, your job is to get as much funding for your municipality as possible. You go for the party that can yield results. Let's say RGV Mayors endorse Kinky Friedman, an anti-politician. He's promised to do as little as possible while in office. How's that going to help? If they endorsed the tough grandma, who has alienated Republicans, who just happen to be in power, how does that help? If they endorse the Democrat, Chris Bell, who will have to fight with Republicans in the legislature to get anything done, how is that going to help? With resources running scarce due to the Middle East conflict on the Fed level, our local leaders have to rely on state resources. Any mayor worth their salt and interested in doing good for his community would and should do the same. You have to think about what's best for the community. What are you going to do, replace a Dem mayor with another Dem? That's brilliant!

 

If you are shocked or disappointed that our mayors are endorsing Rick Perry, you are a Dem who is more loyal to the party than the people you want to serve. Again, what has the Democratic party done for the RGV, lately? I'm not talking individual politicians. Some of our local reps actually do stuff for us. I'm talking about the Democratic party of Texas and at the national level. When I vote for mayor, I expect results, not party loyalty. Anybody running for mayor in the RGV will obviously run as a Dem, so what's the difference other than somebody willing to get things done rather than stick to party lines. Is this an open-minded thing to do?

Waiting for the fallout

After Immigration requested work eligibility verification from the plant workers, they gave the people 5 days to come up with the documentation needed. This means that Wednesday, tomorrow, is the last day that people will be able to work. The sentiment amongst some of the illegal immigrants who are forced out of their jobs is "vamos a darle hasta donde de", meaning "we are going to take it as far as it goes". Even if they don't get the proper documents, the plant is legally required to pay them for their work. For many, another paycheck is essential. Wednesday is the day when we get the fallout of last Friday's request by the feds.

One thing that has cropped up is a premium for "rented" identities. Under normal circumstances, you can buy a social security number and birth certificate for around $150. I have friends who have some extra identities stashed away for resale back home in the RGV. The going rate for a rented identity currently is $500. That's roughly one week's paycheck at the plant. It's a small price to pay for the chance to finish the season until the end of September. I know the rate because they are hitting all legal migrants with offers. Some people are taking the cash and others are wary of doing it. Those who are going into it see the potential of collecting unemployment insurance and a tax return on work they did not do. Those who have good credit and who are in college aren't going for the money because of the potential to cause problems with future credit and financial aid.

For those unwilling or unable to acquire the needed papers, they will be leaving the area for greener pastures. I'll be getting news about what the families are going to do. Really, there are only two options: stay, or leave.