Trip to Sonora
Part I

(Mamacita is talking to Jane even as I start this write.)

We decide to take a little trip to Mexico, to Aconchi hot spring. This was maybe ten years ago. We thought it sounded pretty easy, and the state of Sonora had this "easy entry" program that they had just started — then we find out they had already blown it off by the time we got there. Oh. That's why we didn't see any signs about it when we crossed the border.

We get to the frontier checkpoint and we're way short on papers and stickers and all that. The guy was very nice but for sure turned us back. We went to the closest crossing, Naco. The place name on the other side is Naco. There is some kind of a "Dollar" store real close to the border and there's hardly anything else of note.

The next town up the road is Bisbee, and our friend Jane lives there. We stayed with her while we got our papers together, and this consisted of getting our voter registration forms faxed to us from our county clerk. This got us into Mexico. Nowadays we have passports and all of that. We had a nice visit to Bisbee, probably wouldn't have seen it any other way, and then we moved on.

We cross into Mexico and head west on Route 2 to Cananea, have a nice lunch and then head south on 89. While looking for 89 I missed it and turned around on the shoulder which is probably where I got something in the tire making a slow leak. We cruised down 89 and found a little motel (the motel) in Bacoachi. The next morning the proprietor said my llanta se falta aire, like my tire is low, so we found the local llantero and got it fixed. After that at the local gas station some young boys were pointing at a bumper sticker on our car "fearofwriting.com" and saying "internet! internet!"

The next town we came to (as opposed to passing by the outskirts) was Banamichi, utterly charming, with a grand total of one sign for a business, a little abarrotes (convenience store). There were other businesses, but everybody knew where they were. But we had no idea where to get anything to eat other than cacahuates and twinkies. After we looked around the church, undergoing some renovation or repairs, we walked on in some random direction and ran across a wonderful lady whom we asked where one might get lunch. She started to try to explain how to find it, but since that would be much more complex to a stranger than it was far away, she just led us to a hacienda a block or two away where some women were running a little cafe. After she got us introduced and settled in she kissed us both on the forehead and went on her way. That's just one of the reasons we really liked Banamichi. The thin and expansive tortillas, like tablecloths, and the local favorite hot sauce didn't detract at all.

Express Card
nice gizmo

I finally found a use for the Express Card slot in my MacBook Pro. I now have a serial port. I tried the dongle-type USB to serial converters -- blow that off. They worked fairly well for reading the programs of two-way radio equipment, but writing to the radio was a waste of time. Maybe one out of five tries would actually work. But this new thing has access to some non-wimpy voltages by way of the card slot, and I have tried it on several different models of radio with no problems.

It might be inferred that I am running Windows when I do this sort of thing. Guilty as charged. If the radio manufacturers would desist in their misguided efforts to protect intellectual property -- software, when they are hardware makers and the software is just supposed to support their product -- it would be feasible for someone to write a one-size-fits-all application, maybe even a Mac app, that would allow you (or me) to put in one @#$%&* program and dump it into all of the radios we have in our organization regardless of make and model.

Superpod
A thousand dolphins seen off Skye
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/highlands_and_islands/10488165.stm

It's obvious what that's about. We're all in serious trouble, them included, and they are having a big meeting about it.