The Twins: Samual Gaston Bair and Oliver Royden Bair

The Twins:
Renee and Matt had twin boys on August 9, 2013. Samuel Gaston and Oliver Royden pretty good names. They were early by about seven weeks.

Today, September 13, they are five weeks old.

more details and pictures to follow

Mexico City 2012

Mexico City trip January 2012
In November I suggested going to Mexico City via the bus from Nuevo Laredo because my brothers, Jimmie and Warren, had done that in August 2010. Just an idea.

We started checking flights and found that all Austin-Mex flights go through Houston as does San Antonio Mex. The price was about 360 each. So we had to check more and more. Then on a Sunday night I found AeroMexico flights out of San Antonio non-stop two hours to MEX! for about 260 WOW!!! Then I checked the full price and it was about 320. That was good but deceptive. It was like "I will fly you to your destination for a good price, but landing costs extra." Not too good.

Since the good fares come out on Tuesday, I checked Hotwire on Tuesday morning and they had SAT to MEX for $198 with American Airlines. Full price! Depart 10:30 AM Arrive in Mex at 3 PM. The Aeromexico flight landed at 9 PM. (Hotwire publishes FULL prices)

This was very good so we bought two tickets and planned to park in long term parking at SAT (about 10 dollars/day)

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Tuesday 10 Jan
depart Austin drive to SAT, park car on 4th floor long term parking, get on plane, go to DFW, get on MEX at 3 PM
waited over an hour at immigration for extra clerks.
pressed the button for customs and got a green light which goes on through.

bought a taxi ticket for 150 pesos to hotel and got to Hotel Marlowe for 4:30 PM
Taxis charge by the zones and you can get a firm price before getting in the cab. It was also good that we had printed the name and address of the hotel for the driver.

There was a note from Kenza (daughter of Colin & Hamida) that she would meet us at 7 PM
We walked around for a while. Marlowe is right near Bellas Artes and the Blue Tile house of Sanborns. Quite a busy city. With 20 or 22 million, it is easy to look crowded and busy.

Met Kenza for dinner and it was delicious

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Wednesday 11 January
43rd Anniversary Breakfast at Sanbornes
bought tickets for Balllet Folklorico to see the inside of Bellas Artes.
went to top of Tower of Americas (45th floor) to see a very good view of the city

walked over to Hotel Isabella to see Jimmie's digs. While walking towards Zocalo, found the Pastriella Ideal which makes wedding cakes and any other pastry you can think about.
visited the lobby of Hotel Ciudad on one corner of Zocalo.

walked around Zocalo a few times.

took the Turibus to visit the whole city - upper deck - good view.

Found the Templo Mayor near the end of the day and it was almost closed, so we have something else to visit on the next trip

Went to Ballet Folklorico at night "Viva Mexico".

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Thursday 12 January
breakfast at Hotel Marlowe.

took cab to Hotel Geneve in Zona Rosa.
Our room was ready so we left the bags there and
then took MetroBus Insurgentes out to Terminal del Norte to catch a bus to the Pyramids.
Very worth seeing and I think it is full of people with ideas about everything during a Solstice or Equinox or any other day. Today they stayed home and there were just a few hundred people there.
Took the bus back to the Terminal and caught the Metro to the Hotel Geneve

Then we dressed up and caught a cab to Pujols, a very good five-star restaurant in the Polanca neighborhood (Embassy Row?) and they did not disappoint. The bill said "Aren't you glad you're not here at night?" We liked it.

We walked home through Chapultepec Park and passed the Museo of Modern Arts. It was closed already, and we got home OK. Save something for next trip.
Friday, 13 January
up early to get to the Museo Anthopologia. caught one of those chancy buses on Reforma and got there on time - actually early.

This museum is definitely WORLD CLASS. Such a very clever way of exhibiting things. The model of the Pyramids was very good and we were glad that we had visited them yesterday. The exhibits of all of the different cultures of Mexico were very good.

In haste to get back to the hotel to meet Kenza for lunch, we took another one of those buses but it stopped early and we had to hoof it the rest of the way. I thought that the buses went up and down Reforma and 99% of them do, but I found the other kind.


Saturday 14 January
Went to Frida Kahlo's house. via Autobus Insurgentes and walking around San Angel and a then a bus to the edge of Coyocan and then a LONG walk around the park.

Frida's place is worth seeing. We met someone from Austin who was there with her husband who studies the educator John "learn by doing" Dewey. It seems that Trotsky was a great fan of Dewey and Dewey had visited Trotsky at Frida's house back in the 30's before Trotsky moved over a few blocks. It is a small world.

took the metro back to the southern end of Condesa-Roma neighborhood which has the best walking in town - even if it drizzling.



Sunday 15 January
up at 6:00 AM at the airport before 7:30 and arrived home at 4:30 PM


more details and pictures will be added

One thing about the Autobus Insurgentes: It needs a pass to swipe in and one buys the pass at any station. OK? But it must be "validated" at only certain other places which are open Monday to Friday only. So we have an un-validated Autobus pass which we will keep as a souvenir.

On switching hotels: The Hotel Marlowe had a good price for two nights only and some friends had stayed at the Hotel Geneve which had a good rate for three nights. Moving from a clean, neat hotel in El Centro to a clean, fancy hotel in the Zona Rosa was a very good direction to go. The other direction would have seemed like a burden.

trip to New England with Chet & Elaine

Paulette and I went to Cambridge, Ma for wedding of a friend on October 1, 2011. We extended to visit to drive around New England with Chet and Elaine who flew in on Saturday Oct 1.

Here is a blog of how the trip is going.

Sunday Oct 2: picked up car at Logan drove into Boston and got lost a few times even with Gigi our trusted GPS voice. picked up C&E in Arlington and went over to Harvard Yard for a tranquil walk towards Harvard Square.

drove downtown to Copley Square and saw some "blessing of the pets" at Trinity Church then toured Boston Public Library - very impressive. Attacked Lobsters and Crabcakes at Legal Seafood in the big Mall attached to a big WESTIN hotel. (convenient parking furnished by Chet's handicapped parking sticker which is good until 2013)

Monday Oct 3: on the road again at 11:00 AM towards Lawrence. Gigi-GPS has ideas that make no sense, but the driver is a rookie.
stopped at Andover Inn where the South Bend family stayed for the wedding 57 years ago.

The wedding breakfast was held here also. The Inn has been updated several times and is very handsome and luxurious.


Then on to Lawrence:
found Sacred Heart church, but it was locked,so we walked around a bit. The we met a nice Dominican nun who lived there are let us in and gave us some history.




The school is now apartments for older residents (50+) and the church church is struggling. They have the old Latin Mass and the stained glass windows are gone - but it looks pretty much like it did 57 years ago.



There was an altar rail and Mantillas for the ladies and the nun said that prayers for painting the building were answered and she has some prayers in the future.

Then we walked around the grounds on the North side.





(note: There are more pictures, and they will be added when I have more time.)

Then we went to the house on Brookfield and to St Patrick's school and to the grocery store in North Lawrence.

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Then we started on the big adventure of finding the cemetery of Sacred Heart parish.

We stopped at a diner near the church and the clients (inmates?) suggested that we could get to a Jewish cemetery nearby. The waitress looked it up on her cellphone and said it was in Andover. When we went there, we knew we had gone too far, so we stopped at Whole Foods and asked directions and ate. "Two blocks past the Cadillac dealership, turn left on Williams and, and, and..."

There was a cemetery there all right and it had a few gravestones marked Gallant, but it had no directory or assistance. So we called for the wizards: Bernard and/or Normand.

Bernard had the quick answer "Call Normand"

Normand said "Go to Lawrence, turn on Mount Vernon, take a left fork in the road at one quarter mile and you will see it soon. I missed the forks or what should be forks, but after coming back to Mount Vernon and starting over, I found a new fork and took it and we were in the same cemetery that we got to by going to Andover!

Then we started walking the rows:



and Elaine found it!


:


Here is Google Map rendering



Then we went on towards the ocean for some lobster.


Tuesday October 4
We went to Portsmouth via the long coast road. We visited Strawberry Banke which is the original settlement on the river. It's harbor was called something Pond which was created by a twelve foot high tide.

Then we went down to Salisbury Beach in Mass looking for a cottage similar to the one that Omer and Alice used to rent back in the forties.

Again, Elaine found it.

and another view:


Wednesday October 5
Went up to Maine for two major sites:
Ogunquit Museum of Art and LL Bean


The leaves have not yet turned colors. This one might have been left over?

Then we ate in Kennebunkport at Mabel's which has a newspaper clipping about being a favorite of the Bush family. It was nice.














Then on to L.L.Bean...




L.L. Bean is a nice place with lots of nice stuff, but somehow none of us wanted to go rafting or hiking, so we just moseyed on back to Hampton Beach for TWINS NIGHT (2 lobsters for 21 bucks)



It seems that the Hampton Beach hotel (Ashworth by the Sea) has been a very nice anchor spot for going to Lawrence, Salsbury Beach, Portsmouth, LLBean and Qgunquit. We stayed here three nights and today we move on down to the JFK library and then to some nice place on the Charles in Cambridge.
Thursday October 6:
Up early and down to Boston for the JFK Library

and a play at night based on Huck Finn. Both were very nice. For the many fans of Mark Twain, "Big River" is a Broadway musical based on Huck Finn , . and it does it a very good job of staying on the story. Tom Sawyer always has ideas about keeping thing "interesting" and I appreciated this especially on this trip.


Friday October 7:
Went to Fanueil Hall for a good visit and enjoyed the atmosphere and walking around.

Then on to MFA.org or the Museum of Fine Arts for their display of everything. They have a good collection and it is worth three days. One exhibit that ends on Monday was "The Clock"

"The Clock" is snatches of film from all ages of film that feathure a CLOCK. We walked in at 4:30 PM and walked out at 5:30 PM and saw pieces of "Casablanca", "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" and about 100 other films from all over. It is also on exhibit in Montreal right now and it will probably tour. "Too clever" You will enjoy it, but you will be exhasted after one hour.


Saturday October 8:
Left hotel (Courtyard by Marriott on the Charles) at 8:30 and go to LOGAN by 9 AM. I think everyone got home on time.



Thursday December 22
We printed out the blog for Roberta and she liked it so much that
I had to make a movie.



In the Mood. Canyadigit?

It was a good trip

just another message

I wonder how this works

voter id in Texas

There is talk about a voter-id bill coming up again (and again and again)

My experience with voter-id is twofold...
When I registered and when I am the judge.

When I registered to vote in 1962 in New Orleans I was in a long line with a big crowd and the State police were walking up and down the line to suggest to the people what was valid id and what was not. One couple talked in highly accented English about what they had. The trooper assured them that a bill from the city water department was valid and then he started talking to them in German - the trooper had been in the Army in Germany and had learned some German. It was very touching to see this civil servant giving such good help.
The potential voter in front of me had his entry to the race track (he was a trainer) and some other papers. The trooper said "Maybe so, but check when you get to the front desk." The front desk said that the race track id was not good and that he should go get something else. I had a driver's license and a birth certificate, and I remember fearing that the clerk could be having a bad day and that I would have to go get something else, but my fears were unfounded and I got to register to vote. Hooray.
Did I mention that the I and the former German got registered and the Negro got sent home? We called African-Americans Negros in the early sixties - which was just ten or twelve years after the Nuremberg trials and just 16 years after WW-II. Why the German did not have his nationalization papers was beyond me, but I got my papers and I started voting at the next available election.

That was in 1962.

Since 1982, I have been the precinct judge at precinct in Austin, Texas. We have a good turnout and anything that delays the processing of a voter is not welcome and may discourage voters from voting. If the clerks have to look up extra pieces of paper and identification and make judgments about the validity of each one, that will slow things down and push the decision event further down the process chain. There is a possibility of unnecessary disclosure about telling the clerk - your neighbor - that you are getting food stamps or that you have some other business with the government. That's none of their business.


We should make the voter-id card a photo card and have the judgments made about voter eligibility made by people who are trained in doing that.

The costs will be high - high compared to what? Everything has a cost.
There is a way to generate voter turnout and pay for elections and pay for voter-id cards. In May of 2009, ther was an election in Austin and no candidate got a majority, so the two leaders were poised to have a runoff. The one trailing decided to concede after examining the evidence and there was no runoff. The runoff would have cost 500,000 dollars and would have had less than ten percent turnout!

Elections cost money and if we have a low turnout, the cost is especially hard to bear.

If we gave a tax rebate to anyone who votes in at least half the elections in a certain cycle, the turnout would be higher. We could have a spot on the election ballot to choose
"Voting as present, but not voting for any candidates or issues."

This would put a twist on things such as that runoff just mentioned.

Consider this possible headline:
The runoff cost 500,000 dollars, but the bill was picked up by the voters who did not vote.

In summary, a voter-id with photo will cost money, but it will be effective and having it paid for by the voters who do not vote will make the cost acceptable.

healthcare pay systems

How well does private insurance work as compared to other pay systems?
When we see results that rank the US below 36 other countries in this or that health statistic, we know that it is a nationwide measure.

Can we get statistics per insurance carrier to compare patients of Blue Cross to patients of Cuba?
to compare Kaiser to France?

just wondering

walking the long walk

Long Walk Theory - just invented by me a few months ago:
Go to the nearest bus stop.
Take the first bus that comes along.
Go to the end of the line.
Walk home.


Today 4/30/09, I finished another long walk. I took the #3 bus going North, but got out at 38th Street because the grand-daughters are coming over at 11.

it was 4.6 miles and it was mostly through Pease Park.

If I had stayed on the bus to the Northern terminus, it would have been a twelve mile trip.
I will do that next week, but start much earlier so that I can get home for my morning nap.

Other Long Walks that I have done:
Route #3 Southbound = 8.5 miles
Route #331 Eastbound = 7 miles
Route #338 Northbound = 5 miles

These are built on the Austin bus lines, but


A-Train in NYC to Prospect Park and walk back to midtown....