ChinaFubar

Anybody remember Arlo Guthrie’s iconic “Alice’s Restaurant?”  Remember one of the main issues during the song was the dump being closed for Thanksgiving, and no one ever heard of a dumb being closed on Thanksgiving?

Seems a lot of times I feel that way here in P.R.  I mean, sitting here in the car, sitting here in my little borrowed car, we seem to come to a lot of stuff that logically should be open, but for some reason isn’t.  And we find we’ve driven a long time to get there only to find out it’s closed, or closing, or we can’t get access.

First, shopping.  The laws have recently changed, and with it the mall hours, but first time we experienced this was going to the shopping mall close to our apartment,  Aguadilla Mall.  Has a K-Mart as one anchor, and an Amigo grocery as the other anchor.  Got there about 7:30 on a week night, K-Mart and Amigo open, mall closed.   Ok, look at the door sign, mall’s open late Thursday, Friday and Saturday.   So Thursday we go back, and the mall still closed at 7:30, even though the signs say closing at 9.  We check our Spanish/English translation… no, we’re not totally stupid, it really does say open to 9 on Thursday’s but the mall still closed at 7… ok.  Home we go.  With a stop off at Rex Ice cream at the Aguadilla town square.

So, that Sunday, we decide to head to the mall in Mayaguez.  Get there, about 1 in the afternoon, seems not a lot of cars.  “Gee, the recession’s hit pretty hard here, mall is deserted” we thought.  Wrong….mall is closed.  Now this is a pretty large mall. several anchors, etc.  Ok, what’s up with that.  Found out later stores and shopping malls are closed on Father’s Day in Puerto Rico.   Now since my father bailed when I was like 3, I never celebrated Father’s day, so I never kept track of it… Oh, ok…. Father’s day you close the malls… Give the old man a tie and let’s go shopping.  So we head home, stop at Rex Ice cream at the Aguadilla town square.

Fast forward a couple of months, and we decide to go out to a local state park for a hike, picnic, etc.  Sunday, afternoon.. think the state park would be open.  And you would be wrong my little friends….  Get to this park after a half hour of narrow winding roads… nice picnic areas, barbque grills, pavilions, all that fun stuff.  Behind a locked fence.  Sign says park is opened until 3.  Ok, it’s only 1.  Why closed.  No reason.  Just closed.  Go home, stop at Rex Ice cream at the Aguadilla town square.

So we get savvy about this.  Look at the guide books to see what days places are open.  Then head to Cagua to the Botanical and cultural Garden.  Well, ok, part of this is our fault, decided to have lunch on the way, and got there at about 3.. find out the Garden closes at 4.. and they charge 7 bucks to get in so to us, not much use to go in for an hour, takes at least 2 hours to see the place according to the guidebooks.   So, go home, stop at Rex Ice cream at the Aguadilla town square.

Which brings us to our latest adventure.  Decide to go to the Rio Camuy cave and park.  We plan ahead.   We have lunch on the way, so we get to the park oh, about 1:30.   And, we’re stopped at the gate.. “park is full, reached capacity for the day, can’t let any more people in – come back tomorrow”  Huh?   Park Closed?  After a 3 hour drive?  CRAP!

Check the map, Ah, Arecibo Observatory  not too far away, let’s go there.. plug that into the GPS… and after an interesting trip through progressively narrower and windy roads, we find the place.  And……IT’S OPEN!!!! YIPEE!!!   Interesting and impressive place, will write about that later post.  No Rex Ice cream today>

So, the point of all this, is we’re finding out that just because a place should logically be open, or signs say they are open, or will be open, that is not always the case.  Be flexible and have a backup plan.

And Rex Ice cream in Aguadilla Town square is always open until 9.

Well, it finally happened! I can kiss this place goodbye, I won the lottery!  At least I’m getting numerous e-mails telling me so. Too bad, I have to share with 5 other lucky winners, or I’d have the whole $500,000 to myself.  Who knew the Beijing World Cyber Olympics Games 2008 Lotto Promotion would pick my numbers and pick me to be one of the 5 lucky winners.  Great!  Now I can invest in some beachfront Property in Arizona!

Ah yes, back home where I understand the big news is the UFO landing in nearby Needles, CA.  Seems like a good story, “Men in Black” strange looking trucks and misplaced helicopters.  Combined with a person I know who claimed to pick up a couple of “sorta funny looking and hot and sweaty  and stinky,  and couldn’t understand anything they were saying” hitchhikers.  Got scared of them and dropped them off in town.  Pretty sure they weren’t aliens of the south of the border illegal variety, those are common enough to identify fairly easily.

Gee, makes life in Dongguan seem down right boring… the big news here is… is….is…. well, we’ll get back to you on that one.

And since this is “silly assed Sunday” I guess I’ll post this video link, scammed from Imagethief.

And this my friends, is what happens when a blogger posts on a Sunday morning after too many cups of coffee.

Ok, time for a break from all this Olympic Visa nonsense.  We’re about to be inundated, worldwide, by The Olympics, and all the back stories, side stories, front stories and who knows what stories that will come of it.  But really, check the blogroll for some very good sources of information

My only comment about the whole thing today?  The Visa Olympics.  No, not sponsored by VISA  but an Olympic event where everyone tries to get a visa to come to China, vs Chinese trying to get a visa to go to anyplace else.  Can be graded on “degree of difficulty”  I say this because I just had to make a trip to Hong Kong to get 6 months of bank statements and a “statement of bank balance” so my wife can get a visitor’s visa to U.K.   I, being an American, can just show up, go through immigration and done deal. Her, on the other hand, being Chinese (even though she’s a US permanent resident) has to jump through hoops and file copious amounts of paperwork.  I think we had it way to easy with the China Visa situation for a long time.

But I digress, had a little rant there. Sorry.

The real story today is the “Legend of the Ghost of NB”.   This actually happened, I used to work for the company involved, and while I never met NB, I know some of the other players, at least the ones still alive, and have heard this all first hand from the folks involved.  I’m not naming names, some are still alive, and I think NB’s wife is still around, and may not even know the whole story as of yet. Read the rest of this entry »