On November 21st, 1999 14 Cubans left their country on a small aluminum boat headed North. The boat had a faulty engine and took on water during a storm. Only 3 survived and were picked up by 2 fishermen who handed them over to the U.S. Coast Guard.
Of the survivors was a young boy Elián González, his mother (who was divorced from Elián's father) had perished at sea. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) released González to his paternal great-uncle, Lázaro who was living in Miami. Back in Cuba, Elián's father was not aware his ex and son had attempted to escape Cuba and wanted his son returned.
There was much publicity about the custody case as the remote family wanted to keep the boy in Miami. (according to Wiki) Attorney General Janet Reno ordered the return of Elián González to his father and set a deadline of April 13, 2000, but the Miami relatives defied the order. Negotiations continued for several days as the house was surrounded by protesters as well as police.
On Thursday, April 20, 2000, Reno made the decision to remove González from the house and instructed law enforcement officials to determine the best time to obtain the boy. In the pre-dawn hours of Easter Eve, Saturday, April 22, more than 130 INS personnel and agents of the Border Patrol's special BORTAC unit as part of an operation approached the house, knocked on the door and identified themselves. When no one responded, they entered. Four hours after he was taken from the house in Miami, González and his father were reunited at Andrews Air Force Base.
The next day, the White House released a photograph showing a smiling González reunited with his father, which the Miami relatives disputed by claiming that it was a fake. After González was returned to his father's custody, he remained in the U.S. while the Miami relatives exhausted their legal options.
I was reminded how Easter affects people differently.
I looking for good food and make me feasting all weekend long. In Delray Beach tonight and tomorrow. Watchout on Sunday I living in Miami and looking to be feasting...
(inspired of another blog. I'm not off my rocker)
The White house Press Secretary comes under a lot of scrutiny because some of the things she tells the American press have been proven not to be true.
Actually, I'm entertained by the odd comments she's forced to make. I realize it's her job to support the president and his administration, but it appears she's got no limits.
Recently, she commented Congress isn't smart enough to read Trump's tax returns.
What a decoy against the truth.
and checking it thrice. Taxes are done, no last minute rush to the post office. Client meeting today. the contractor is 4 weeks behind schedule and holding us up from completion. Car is making clicking sounds when I back-in and the mechanic in Delray said stop by Saturday so he can have a look. The rear brakes were replaced a few weeks ago. I suspect that's the problem, but I need to be in Miami Saturday for other reasons...
Two different places on the same morning... Singer Phil Collins did something like that. Performed a concert one morning in Europe, boarded a Concord and performed another morning concert in America.
Alcoholics. My adult life has been involved in woodworking and cabinet manufacturing. The first few years it was in wood shops cutting parts, assembling cabinets, installing hardware and assisting installation crews. After, I used experience from college and learned to design, draft and engineer cabinets and furniture, moving out of the factory and into the office.
Some of the larger companies had journeymen carpenters who completed industrial arts courses and registered as skilled union workers. Those were the early days. As I got older, I found many of the large companies had gone bankrupt and closed their doors. Smaller shops with lower overhead became the norm.
This was years after soldiers came back from the Vietnam war and guys with talent looking for steady jobs took some woodworking classes and ended up in the cabinet business. That was the good part. The bad part was many of them had drug and alcohol addictions. All of them smoked and a few were still suffering nightmares as young men fighting for America came back with little support to get them 100%.
One of those guys was Murray. Skinny, tattoos everywhere, missing a few teeth and needed a few beers during the course of the day. Murray didn't drive. He lost his license on a DUI and came to work on a bicycle. He had a small ice chest strapped to the back of his bike and no one was allowed near it as he parked in the back of the shop near the bushes. We knew Murray went back there on lunch and cigarette breaks to chug a few beers. The owner knew Murray was a liability, but you can give him a shop drawing and he would give you a material list, cut all the parts and assemble some of the finest wall units you could hope for.
Murray didn't often miss work. It had to be something serious as he couldn't afford to be without pay. Maybe it was a run-in with the law for missing child support, but he was there first thing the next day eager to work.
I hired 'the Rock' a guy down from New York looking to make a clean start. We didn't ask and he didn't tell. Fantastic cabinetmaker. He didn't show up for work one Monday. We later found out he was in line at the check cashing store when someone popped a beer next to him. The entire weekend was a drinking binge and lucky for him the Veterans had him on the rehab program, cleaned him up and put him back on the street. He was good for a few months. The next time he went off the edge, involved cocaine and he wound up in jail. A jail fight knocked him out, put him in the hospital where he died.
The custom shop I worked at 8 years ago had 2 guys on house arrest wearing ankle bracelets and often they were visited by counselors/agents with breath analyzers, just to be sure they were clean. Hard life.
I'm in a different environment now. No longer directly connected to manufacture. I'm away from that crowd. Although I miss being directly connected to the manufacture of high-end custom furniture, I don't miss the problems surrounding it.
Thanks for reading my blog!
It's safe to say the whole world knows about WD-40.
Sold in cans as a water-displacing spray, people probably use it more for it's penetrating oil lubricating properties than it's ability to repel water.
Having dozens of household uses, WD-40 gets squirted into sticking locks, squeaky wheels and stuck door hinges. If someone spray painted your car with graffiti, WD-40 and a soft cloth can usually liquefy the paint and remove it without harming your cars finish.
It's truly amazing stuff... and I read the 39 other attempts at creating this product failed. Hence the name WD-40. I can only imagine that WD-39 sure must have been nearly the same. Surely...
Musician news today reports Peter Tork who played bass for the 60's teen sensations The Monkees died at the age of 77.
Mickey and Michael are the two remaining members still kicking...
I caught a few year old interview with singer David Lee Roth (of Van Halen fame) and at 64 years old, he's lost a good portion of his hair. I'm not sure if he's accepted baldness as some recent photos appear that he's had some transplanting on the roof. The part I found surprising is his likeness to actor Joe Pesci who is 76 years old.
Maybe they are 2nd cousins.
It doesn't appear the years have been good to him.
Picture a profile photo of a woman in a hotel room and the caption states what city she is in when the photo was taken. Orlando Disney? Hyatt in Atlanta? Hilton in Paris? or 5 miles from home at the Double Tree Suites in Shitsville, North Dakota?
Actually, there's no way to prove or disprove what is stated with photos like that.
Maybe stationary, restaurant menu, holding up a key with the hotel name on the tag... something. But that's not the full story.
From a man's point of view, if someone took the photo of her and she's in bed or wearing a sexy nightgown, chances are the photo was taken by a guy... possibly the one night stand that her profile claims she's NOT looking for.
My advice: Move on.
A few weeks ago my neighbor asked to borrow my lawnmower. He's cut my grass when I'm busy so I didn't mind returning a favor. The big question was "Do you need gas?" He replied " No."
That was a mistake as 2 minutes into job and the mower stopped.
I asked to see the gas can and the top was cracked. I suspected dirt or water was in the can and now the carburetor was clogged.
So, I dropped the mower off at a local repair shop and they did maintenance (draining the oil, sharpen the blade, replacing the air filter) including pulling the carburetor apart and cleaning all the parts.
They called this morning to tell me the mower was ready for pick up.
I'll only cut a little today as I need to get back to my office and finish a quotation I wanted to send out yesterday.
Time to get out the SPF 70 sun block.
I whacked it today and I'm not embarrassed to talk about it.
My plans were to drive down to Miami to do laundry and much needed yard work.
As scheduled, I was in the back yard whacking it and no one was looking.
This went on for a few hours with only a break for water and to move wet clothes to the dryer. I was nearly finished whacking it when I heard a neighbor whacking it too!
My tool is a 12" electric 'string trimmer' aka weed whacker and he had a much larger gas powered whacker. Feeling somewhat intimidated at the size of his whacker, I decided to roll up the extension cord and head back into the house to shower.
That's enough whacking for this week...!
I pondered my next business move and with all that blogging about Koncubine or whatever that brewed tea is called. I have an empty house in Miami that would be perfect for converting into a mini brewery. It wouldn't surprise me if one of my neighbors had a meth lab... so brewing alcoholic beverages (in a spare bedroom) should be a 'piece of cake'
I saw my accountant yesterday and she said it's totally feasible to open a new business like this. My overhead is low.
Business names are racing through my head. I've got a bunch of sticky notes with company names and the best I've come up with on short notice is:
Ginu Spirits Company GSC for short. My first product will be called
Ginu Wine!
(note to self: contact the state of Florida and incorporate)
I can see it now... radio commercials and TV commercials.
People will be asking "Where can I buy some Ginu Wine?"
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