My wife is home 24X7 now, as she's able to work her technology job at home, with 2 monitors and her computer tweaked for international phone access and other tricks impossible not so long ago.Well, I think your son has a chance to behave better this time around...
It's kinda weird. I like her around, but this isn't quite how I figured it'd happen--not like 'boom'--instantly.
My 22 y/o son in Atlanta, just 2 months into his 100K a year 1st job after college graduation, is doing his AI work for the mega firm he signed on with. He's able to from his posh apartment on a wicked fast PC he self built and 3 big monitors.
He'll be fine.
Both are following company orders.
My 28 y/o son who owns a (used to be) always full a AirBNB is in a bad spot. He rents it from the owner for 4K a month and runs his boutique AirBN out of it. But nobody's booking.
Then he waits tables at a swank place and routinely makes very good pay there--enough income to live off of alone, but now is sh!t out of luck--they're closing for an undetermined length of time.
He asked if he could crash at our house, when push comes to shove....
That it was a miracle that as hard as he tried as a hell raising teen, to break my wife and I up, but couldn't, isn't lost on me.
Meanwhile my wife's all about helping him with food, with him moving back home with us, with his bills, etc.
Amazing woman. "Family stays together, helps each other" she says. Most USA born step mothers would've poisoned his food 15 years ago....
My wife, him and my lazy, 'Do what I please, when I please' self, are about to experience change--change that's going to require ongoing adjustments, to put it mildly
As I predicted weeks ago, this isn't gonna be easy, it's only going to get harder, and it isn't going away anytime soon.
Trump said we might see some return to normalcy by July or August.
I'm afraid he's being a bit optimistic....
Well, I think your son has a chance to behave better this time around...
I'm working from home with my little ones who are out of school till April 7...definitely an adjustment. Thank goodness for NFL free agency distracting me from this crisis...
Thanks, Mambo. I need to quit pissing and moaning. No need to throw myself a pity party--that only makes it worse. I need to suck it up. I'm--WE'RE not sick, in pain, broke or homeless.
It actually could be a lot worse.
How is S. American life out on the streets---are they shutting down restaurants for two weeks like here?
So, I guess it's like the tv show, The Twighlight Zone" and you're all dead already, or otherwise, everything's OK...
Has this changed your life?Heck yeah. Luckily for me I took a job in early February that allows me to work from home. Didn't anticipate schools closing so now the challenge is keeping the little ones occupied while I work. And of course more homebound than before. My wife always insisted we go out as a family on weekends but now we like everyone else don't have many places to go...
Heck yeah. Luckily for me I took a job in early February that allows me to work from home. Didn't anticipate schools closing so now the challenge is keeping the little ones occupied while I work. And of course more homebound than before. My wife always insisted we go out as a family on weekends but now we like everyone else don't have many places to go...
No wonder how in some places, animal adoptions have sky rocketed.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/second-dog-tests-positive-for-coronavirus-as-owners-warned-not-to-abandon-pets-2020-03-20
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/30/world/americas/bogota-colombia-coronavirus-silence.html
And it could quite possibly degenerate to what Italy is warily afraid of....
Italy Risks Losing Grip in South With Fear of Looting, Riots
https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2020-03-30/italy-risks-losing-grip-in-south-with-fears-of-looting-and-riots
Colombia has a long way to go to get where the USA and Italy are
https://www.as-coa.org/articles/where-coronavirus-latin-america#colombia
With Colombia pushing 1000 confirmed cases as of a few days ago (one can only wonder how many untested 'carriers' are running around) it appears the "long way" to get to where the USA is, isn't that far off.
Brazil is getting bad and even in remote areas, including islands in that region, its showing and growing.
Meanwhile 8 million population Bogata is looking at a THREE month shutdown....
Well I am definitely way happier today..my taxi driver found a place in the country where I can run without being harrased. Cops and private vigilantes pass me on motos and dont bother me there.
Whereas in Floridablanca only people with dogs can go out and walk their dog for 20 minutes.
I was trying to run up the 19 floors of my apartment complex 15 or 20 times and some people (sapos)ratted on me and the vigilantes patrol it every now and then and tell me I cant do it.
Running in the country a way better option.
Well I know people here that have fincas outside of Medellin and when they go to leave the city the police told them they can go.to.their finca but the aren't going to let them return to Medellin until after the.quarantine is over
So I hope you like it where you are
The whole country is shut down 50+ million people....the airports are closed to even domestic travel their isn't even bus service between cities and towns
I think it is safer here for me
Last I checked their were 100 confirmed cases in Medellin and about 1600 in Arizona where I lived
One of my wife's uncle's is sick.with the virus in New York
You should come to Colombia one day to see it for yourself
Then you will see why Mudd and Elexpat will never leave
http://diarioriente.com/altiplano/la-exitosa-estrategia-de-corea-del-sur-para-enfrentar-el-covid-19-sera-implementada-en-colombia.html?fbclid=IwAR2VCsuqlVF-IC__iqZfPpLJiEHdPiyIknYKwmxaG1ouXy8xcF_05cCbZTI
According to this article it looks like Duque doesn't think Colombia can withstand a lot quarantine and is looking to follow the South Korean model of virus containment
http://diarioriente.com/altiplano/la-exitosa-estrategia-de-corea-del-sur-para-enfrentar-el-covid-19-sera-implementada-en-colombia.html?fbclid=IwAR2VCsuqlVF-IC__iqZfPpLJiEHdPiyIknYKwmxaG1ouXy8xcF_05cCbZTI
According to this article it looks like Duque doesn't think Colombia can withstand a lot quarantine and is looking to follow the South Korean model of virus containment
Well I am definitely way happier today..my taxi driver found a place in the country where I can run without being harrased. Cops and private vigilantes pass me on motos and dont bother me there.
Whereas in Floridablanca only people with dogs can go out and walk their dog for 20 minutes.
I was trying to run up the 19 floors of my apartment complex 15 or 20 times and some people (sapos)ratted on me and the vigilantes patrol it every now and then and tell me I cant do it.
Running in the country a way better option.
http://diarioriente.com/altiplano/la-exitosa-estrategia-de-corea-del-sur-para-enfrentar-el-covid-19-sera-implementada-en-colombia.html?fbclid=IwAR2VCsuqlVF-IC__iqZfPpLJiEHdPiyIknYKwmxaG1ouXy8xcF_05cCbZTI
According to this article it looks like Duque doesn't think Colombia can withstand a lot quarantine and is looking to follow the South Korean model of virus containment
"""I was trying to run up the 19 floors of my apartment complex 15 or 20 times"""
Now why on earth would residents of an apartment tower have any issue with such behavior?
Because you arent following the"Rules"..even though they would never do exercise in their lives, but want to deny the others from doing it.
Many Santandereanos are like that.. muy chismoso y envidioso
Anyway, where I am running now is much better, and the taxista seems to think the peole wont complain about me running through the area.
The only risk I takis with the taxi driver, and he says he has very few clients that he doesnt know personally now, Very difficult just to pick people up in the street.
I amgiving him good employment. Pay him 20 mil an hour.
A LOT of babies are gonna be born in 2021!
Having my amorous young wife around 24X7 for weeks on end, with no place to go, certainly hasn't left us with nothing to do!!
It was always nice that she got a solid hour off at lunch and we could spend 45 of those minutes at home in bed together, but now that we're locked in the rabbit cage indefinitely, small wonder we're acting accordingly.
And acting, thinking creatively there, in the moment, around the house, helps keep us from going too crazy.
You are doing good for a guy living in the USA
But there is really no comparison to a guy living in Colombia. That's why guys that live here are never going back
You are doing good for a guy living in the USA
But there is really no comparison to a guy living in Colombia. That's why guys that live here are never going back
It sounds idyllic alright down thataway. I am sure I would love the overall 'scenery' and for a while anyways and find the differences between there and here very interesting. It's odd--but if I could climb the highest tree in our neighborhood, we could see the ocean--but it's a good 40 minute drive to the nicer ocean beaches for us.
I was very surprised that my wife--who goes to extraordinary measures to prevent her morena skin even a shade darker, told me she liked the idea--the 'vibe' of beach side living. She stays out of the sun and can't hardly swim, lol.
That--within walking distance to stores and other convieniences, is beginning to appeal more to me. I like a beach vibe too--but want 1st world trappings.
Not sure if it's in our budget right now --if we're ready for it, but I tell myself that if we REALLY want to live just about anywhere, if we 'will' it, it can be done. And without living in or around squalor.
There is one thing in life that will improve your life more than anything else and that is the people you have in your life. If you are looking to make a move.....find a place where you like spending quality time with the locals
Maybe we're missing something. The more we are around other people -and that includes nice people and wonderful family, the more we just like her and I, together, just the two of us.
We go out, to dinner, dates, travel etc, but increasingly, socialization seems more like an obligation than voluntary for us. Then, we can hardly wait to get home, in bed to relax, read -- hell, we even cook in kitchen and eat in bed. Have a mixed drink, glass of wine...
Before CV19, we got out to shop, hit parks, beaches, did our date nights, ran chores etc, but my wife always (99.5%) turns down offers to shop, double date, go to 'events' etc.
It's not quite a "Eff em all, just leave us alone" mindset, (she's socially gracious, almost to a fault) but virus or not, home or away, she likes me, and only Me, close by.
And she's mighty fine--with a face and body most high school girls would love to have, smart, generally laid back, easy going company. If I'm gonna be in jail cell CV19 awhile, at least I've got a great cell mate!
You two sound pretty socially introverted and this isn’t the first post you’ve written that gave me that impression. Absolutely nothing wrong with that. I think my personal preference is more in line with Cali’s though. I don’t like clingy women and I’ve always been of the opinion that the time you spend apart from your significant other makes the time together so much more priceless. Also I’m a bit of a social butterfly so the people I live around and surround myself with have a huge influence on my quality of life.Me being an introvert this is less rough for me. My wife is a total extrovert so it's tougher on her.
Maybe we're missing something. The more we are around other people -and that includes nice people and wonderful family, the more we just like her and I, together, just the two of us.
We go out, to dinner, dates, travel etc, but increasingly, socialization seems more like an obligation than voluntary for us. Then, we can hardly wait to get home, in bed to relax, read -- hell, we even cook in kitchen and eat in bed. Have a mixed drink, glass of wine...
Before CV19, we got out to shop, hit parks, beaches, did our date nights, ran chores etc, but my wife always (99.5%) turns down offers to shop, double date, go to 'events' etc.
It's not quite a "Eff em all, just leave us alone" mindset, (she's socially gracious, almost to a fault) but virus or not, home or away, she likes me, and only Me, close by.
And she's mighty fine--with a face and body most high school girls would love to have, smart, generally laid back, easy going company. If I'm gonna be in jail cell CV19 awhile, at least I've got a great cell mate!
You two sound pretty socially introverted and this isn’t the first post you’ve written that gave me that impression. Absolutely nothing wrong with that. I think my personal preference is more in line with Cali’s though. I don’t like clingy women and I’ve always been of the opinion that the time you spend apart from your significant other makes the time together so much more priceless. Also I’m a bit of a social butterfly so the people I live around and surround myself with have a huge influence on my quality of life.
Apparently there wasn't much chance of you catching the virus even before the lock down and social distancing became the norm jajaja
But the quarantine in Colombia is slowly killing me
I think maybe this board might be your only social outlet but it isn't a replacement for good friends
I'm probably the only guy here (left here or formerly a member) who doesn't have a face book acct. Tic Toc = schlock to me.
I let my wife set up an Instagram acct for me months ago and I haven't added/changed it once.
During regular (non CVirus) times, I might get out alone and drive somewhere 2 or 3 times a week, tops. That doesn't include us maybe going to the park, to places to work out or dates/weekend activities.
But as she works Mon - Fri 8 to 5, I open my eyes around 7:30 to see how tastefully dressed she is, take my breakfast in bed and then I go back to sleep til 10 or so. By 1:00 to 2:00, she's home for lunch and I'll usually have warmed some food up so we can eat quickly and get back in bed to errrr 'relax'.
I don't fix lunch everyday, as I don't want to feel like 'the house husband.' As before I retired, I do the outside, she does the 99% of the inside. Before I retired I explained straight up that was (is) the way things are. She replied "Honey, why don't you let me pay people to do the lawn?--it gets so hot"
I have yet to hear the oh so USA query:
"And what did YOU do all day??"
If asked, my reply would likely be: "Not much hon, relaxed..."
After she heads back to work, I might read out in our backyard's gardens --she makes sure I have the daily 'paper' newspaper (archaic I know) so I don't get "bored". I get a ton of magazines, half never get read. Even my chromebook, w 2400X1600 screen resolution being OK outside, might get some use, but not much there either. That or my phone work for streaming music to bluetooth speakers while I chill, suits me fine.
We have mega internet, tons of cable, netflix etc channels etc. but we rarely watch TV. -- we have our favorite music streaming a lot more than TV.
We don't want a dog, but after near sixty years, I can see why people prefer their company to human's.
But sometimes, sitting out in my private gardens, reading, listening to the birds sing, and sipping my coffee, I wonder if I'm gonna go out like Don Corelone in "The Godfather" --keeling over my tomato plants...
I'll be OK w that, even if unlike the Don, I don't have Grandkids running around at the time.
Why Germany Has Fewer COVID Deaths Than Neighbors
https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20200402/why-germany-has-fewer-covid-deaths-than-neighbors
They had massive amounts of test kits by mid January--engineering them before China could, and they used them.
Cheap prices will put many American producers out of business, especially those extracting oil from shale, as they need oil to be above $40 not to lose money.
Acc to Stanford--not a blowhard college::
""Since our society is so dependent on fossil fuels, it therefore is extremely important for us to know when these fuels will run out according to [4]:
Oil will end by 2052 – 30 years time
Gas will end by 2060 – 40 years time
Coal will last till 2090 – 70 years time
However, according to BP [5], earth has 53 years of oil reserves left at current rate of consumption ."""
This is my mid engine, 495 fully naturally aspirated horse power, 194 MPH, zero to 60 MPH in 2.8 seconds RESPONSE to the end of fossil fuels. My wife is all about it, lol....
https://www.ebay.com/itm/123844539124
Electric or turbo? Kiss my azzzz---pry it outta my cold dead hands first...
Down to $1.41 a gallon around here, $1.19 in S. Carolina, where fuel taxes are lower.Cheapest gas in San Diego is around $2.69 a gallon...
Using my Publix Grocery 20% off gas card, that makes it 95 cents a gallon in S.C.
And in today's international news, it indicates that oil prices are still crashing.
All dressed up and no place to go....
Cheapest gas in San Diego is around $2.69 a gallon...
Everything more expensive here. They'd charge for the air of they could....
About a buck and a half here.
What a difference a couple covid19 months makes...Looks like Colombia still has less than 500 corona dead, Brazil a big 11,000, but all of the Caribbean and Latin America still around 21,000 total, dead.
Meanwhile it's over 80,000 USA dead and all but certain to exceed 100,000 lives.
A lot more people moving around in the USA's 328 million population--right at half the combined 653 million population of Central, South America, w/ the Caribbean--that is "Latin America" .
I didn't realize ya'll have twice as many people.
It sucks, but although I've trekked to the beach a couple times and walked around the lake, pic nicked in park once--all during quieter times of AM/PM, whether it's trying to find what we want from the store or trying to work around crowds, life's still very different in South Eastern USA, mid May 2020.
I'll stay low key and clean, as long as there's so many untested people and case numbers going up.
Americans on average are older fatter and sicker than the average person in Latin America. So they will never have the death rate we have.
The average age of a Colombian male is 29 years old. For women, it's 31 years of age, overall average. Not many nations have an overall age difference of two full years between men and women.
Even though infant mortality there is more than twice the the USAs and the life expectancy slightly shorter, "Survival of the fittest " culls out the weakest--typically the youngest and oldest.
In the Philippines, average male age is 23 y/o, female's 24.
USA? Male 36.8, females 39.4.
Unlike almost every other nation, in recent years life expectancy in the USA has been DECREASING.
Tell THAT to your health insurance carrier.
I somehow figure the lower the average age, the more free time and sexual activity going on--lotsa babies coming along that aren't exactly 'making themselves.' LOL...
They must be REALLY busy in over a dozen African nations, where the average age of male and females is down well into their teens--15 to 19 y/o. In four nations, the aaverage age is 15!
Some middle eastern nations are way low average age wise, then above them, some poorer pacific islands.
Overall, the poorer the place, the younger the average age--and babies everywhere.
Meanwhile, at the other end, the eldest citizens by age--- it's our own former AXIS, WWII enemies--Germany, Italy and Japan, that with aged populations pushing age 50 for both sexes, they have diapers for adults greatly outselling the infant models....
https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/median-age/
https://photius.com/rankings/2019/population/death_rate_2019_1.html (https://photius.com/rankings/2019/population/death_rate_2019_1.html)
The death rate in Colombia per 1000 is 5.5
The death rate in the USA is 8.2 per 1000.
But the Incel rate in the USA is off the charts while it is close to zero in Colombia . Jajaja
It's hard to correlate that death 5.5 rate, comparing it to other nations with similar rates and trying to assume that certain behaviors occur more or less. But I'd guess that amongst rabbits, their rate and typical behaviors, Turks and Caicos Islands, with a 3.3 rate, has to have something in common!
My wife's country seems super young and you just feel the energy and excitement all around. Makes the USA seem somber and uptight. They're too busy living to worry. They don't worry about tomorrow.
Even the rich and middle class in the USA--young and old alike, seem to have more neurosis--panic attacks, worries and stress, than a lot of places overseas.
We're fecking killing ourselves, pretending it's civilized all the while.
In 2017, more than 70,000 people died from drug overdoses, making it a leading cause of injury-related death in the United States.
Eighteen percent of pregnancies (excluding miscarriages) in 2017 ended in abortion. Approximately 862,320 abortions were performed in 2017, down 7% from 926,190 in 2014. The abortion rate in 2017 was 13.5 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–44, down 8% from 14.6 per 1,000 in 2014 Gun Deaths Again Neared 40,000 in 2018, Latest CDC Data Shows. While overall fatalities remained relatively unchanged compared to 2017, the share of suicides increased.Jan 7, 2019
If you could stop abortions the population in the USA would become a lot younger thus a lower death rate. Get rid of the drug over doses and guns and we would have a 3.3 percent death rate.....assuming we get the corona virus under control.[/size
With the exceptions of Guyana (highest suicide rate on earth!-- long weird story) Suriname (tiny nation, weird) and Uruguay (inexplicable, but 2nd leading cause of death amongst teens) Latin America has very, very low rates.
The USA has a suicide rate twice as high as Colombia's.
But then, the Philippine's suicide rate is about half of Colombia's. For years now,, I have been suspicious about why those poor people are so fecking#*× happy!?
But it's the Caribbean Islands that have the lowest suicide rates of all.
Wonder what they're smoking??
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate (2012)
With the exceptions of Guyana (highest suicide rate on earth!-- long weird story) Suriname (tiny nation, weird) and Uruguay (inexplicable, but 2nd leading cause of death amongst teens) Latin America has very, very low rates.Probably just having more sex....
The USA has a suicide rate twice as high as Colombia's.
But then, the Philippine's suicide rate is about half of Colombia's. For years now,, I have been suspicious about why those poor people are so fecking#*× happy!?
But it's the Caribbean Islands that have the lowest suicide rates of all.
Wonder what they're smoking??
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate (2012)
The reasons people actually successfully commit suicide are complicated and some of the reasons have nothing to do with how unhappy someone is.I work in mental health and I think there is truth to accessibility increasing rate of suicide. However, the rate of suicide in the Great Depression went up 26%, so I won't be surprised to see the rates go up from covid, not only for economic reasons but also trauma related as a number of health professionals on the front lines have already killed themselves....
I believe it was England that cut the suicide rate in half when it switched from town gas which contained carbon monoxide to natural gas that didn't contain any.
Anyway you can read about the case study here.
https://www.amazon.com/Talking-Strangers-Should-about-People/dp/0316478520
If you like the book you should read every book Malcolm Gladwell has written
I highly recommend them....not that I agree with everything he says but he always gives a unique perspective on the human situation
https://photius.com/rankings/2019/population/death_rate_2019_1.html (https://photius.com/rankings/2019/population/death_rate_2019_1.html)
The death rate in Colombia per 1000 is 5.5
The death rate in the USA is 8.2 per 1000.
But the Incel rate in the USA is off the charts while it is close to zero in Colombia . Jajaja
I work in mental health and I think there is truth to accessibility increasing rate of suicide. However, the rate of suicide in the Great Depression went up 26%, so I won't be surprised to see the rates go up from covid, not only for economic reasons but also trauma related as a number of health professionals on the front lines have already killed themselves....
I am quite sure the despair over covid in the States will be worse than in poor countries because our standard of living is so high and we're basically spoiled....
The wealthiest nations on this short list are the ones with greatest declines in life expectancy, as well as living overall deceasing lifespans globally. It is believed that in the few years since they compiled data, suicides have increased, exacerbating the decline. In the USA the "opioid epidemic' has also taken a larger toll.
Things are just getting worse.
Suicides and addictions have caused the younger generation in the USA to decline more than in most places.
We don't need heroin and cocaine from distant nations, we make plenty of our own poison. In fact many OD on their legally obtained prescriptions.
Take into account how obsessed we are with 'depression'--panic attacks and stress and the drugs associated with it and things we once accepted as "Well, life sucks--that's just the way it is"---no wonder we feel hopeless. Add in increasing income disparity and an ever increasing but insatiable materialistic appetite, and it's not looking good.
If an alien came down and watched the TV commercials during the national network news, the alien would probably wonder why we advertise --why we take all those weird sounding drugs for weird sounding problems, while mentioning how "possible side effects may include death" etc. etc...Between the commercials, the inevitable murder and violence stories, we might not appear to be so "1st world, advanced/civilized" -- compared to 'less developed' nations.
https://www.oecd.org/about/members-and-partners/ (https://www.oecd.org/about/members-and-partners/)
The wealthiest nations on this short list are the ones with greatest declines in life expectancy, as well as living overall deceasing lifespans globally. It is believed that in the few years since they compiled data, suicides have increased, exacerbating the decline. In the USA the "opioid epidemic' has also taken a larger toll.
Things are just getting worse.
Suicides and addictions have caused the younger generation in the USA to decline more than in most places.
We don't need heroin and cocaine from distant nations, we make plenty of our own poison. In fact many OD on their legally obtained prescriptions.
Take into account how obsessed we are with 'depression'--panic attacks and stress and the drugs associated with it and things we once accepted as "Well, life sucks--that's just the way it is"---no wonder we feel hopeless. Add in increasing income disparity and an ever increasing but insatiable materialistic appetite, and it's not looking good.
If an alien came down and watched the TV commercials during the national network news, the alien would probably wonder why we advertise --why we take all those weird sounding drugs for weird sounding problems, while mentioning how "possible side effects may include death" etc. etc...Between the commercials, the inevitable murder and violence stories, we might not appear to be so "1st world, advanced/civilized" -- compared to 'less developed' nations.
https://www.oecd.org/about/members-and-partners/ (https://www.oecd.org/about/members-and-partners/)
Like I've been sayin----there's gonna be a whole lotta babies being born next Dec-Jan.....
I am quite sure the despair over covid in the States will be worse than in poor countries because our standard of living is so high and we're basically spoiled....
For my Colombian in laws, nobody was working before, nobody working now. And families there are used to spending alot of time together....
I woudnt be so sure of it. People still need to eat to be happy. They dont have any "helicopter money" being dropped on them here, though the congresistas, senadores, alcaldes and consejos still hang on to their bloated salaries and bennies.A lot of people very , very hungry, and some cant pay the rent and getting evicted. And you can only cram so many people in an estrato 2 house where only 2 are working. Also a lot of businesse here going bankrupt... permanently.
Not everybody has a gringo or family in the US still working and sending them money..although every time I past Western Union the line up to get in is about 3 blocks long.
For my Colombian in laws, nobody was working before, nobody working now. And families there are used to spending alot of time together....
Probably more a million abortions in the USA are coming down the pike as well.
But things will be pretty nice here in Colombia ...I'm sure.
It's all the right to lifers have to do is show young American guys the huge difference in the number of young hot chicks in countries with low abortion rates compared to countries with high abortion rates and the guys will all be against abortion.
My point is that it's worse for first world people. I work a suicide hotline
You have a very limited view point of what is happening here, Like I said, only a small proportion have a gringo or Euro sending them money, or family working overseas sending remittances by Western Union. And the governmnet is doing SQUAT to help them.No "Helicpter Money" here.
It is the estratos 2 through 4 who are suffering newly, and even some in 5 and 6.
A lot of people going bankrupt, cant pay rent, cant put food on the table-who were working before or who had family members workig before..who had busineess that are now bankrupt or near bankrupt..or professionals like lawyers and Accountants, Doctors, etc who had clients that went bankrupt or donthave money, and are now really hurting themselves.
It's hard to make concrete assumptions about a foreign culture based on numbers. Numbers seemed scarce, old and sketchy about abortion rates and Colombia.
But it appears that 'on paper' Colombia has slightly more (for Latin American) laws allowing abortion under certain conditions. Perhaps a lot more abortions are being done outside of govt clinics and hospitals? A good idea to me, but it sounds like that more than in the USA, in Colombia , they try and talk women out of having abortions, guilt tripping them
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2020/03/02/world/americas/colombia-abortion.amp.html (https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2020/03/02/world/americas/colombia-abortion.amp.html)
I think it is probably even harder to make assumptions about a country without ever having set foot in the place. LOL
Abortion is illegal in Colombia unless the life of the mother is at stake....the fetus has medical problems or the pregnancy came from rape.
There are no abortion clinics here ....if the girl meets one of the criteria and wants an abortion then she has to go to a doctor and request it and the abortion is done in a hospital. All legal abortions are done in a hospital.
No reason to try and guilt trip a woman from having an abortion here.
She either meets the criteria or she doesn't..
If she doesn't meet the criteria and she wants an abortion then she would have to pay for an illegal abortion some where.
I have no idea how many illegal abortions are done here but it would be a small fraction of the abortion rate in the USA.
If a woman is pregnant here people let her g to the front of the line in banks and just about anywhere else.
Instead of handicap parking they have pregnancy parking.
I saw a Mc Donald's commercial on TV here in Colombia years ago that blew my mind.....because I realized that if they showed that commercial in the USA a lot of pro choice women would have boycotted McDonalds.
In the TV commercial it shows a very pregnant woman driving a car....then it shows an animated baby inside of her tugging on her ambilical chord...then the women looks up and sees the golden arches of a Mc Donald's ....and she smiles and pulls the car into the McDonald's.
Mc Donald's knows how Colombians think.....I would love to see the reaction if Mc Donald's was ever stupid enough to run an ad like that in the USA jajaja
I don't pretend to know what even the air smells like there. As I indicated, info (and I didn't spend much time) was old, even sketchy in reporting, Tales of multiple nurses trying to dissuade women, repeatedly showing young pregnant girls baby dolls, putting in their arms etc., etc. All over the world, it's an issue that somehow gets worse if you're trying to get objective info online. So much BS out there.
Just like covid-19 reporting is a world class mess and the internet's handling of it a similar mess.
But as of the latest Colombian Constitutional Court's ruling, (below) it remains really hard for a woman to get a legal abortion there.
A girl gets preggars in a poor nation like that and it's a life changer. I bet it all falls more on family there than here.
In the USA, she gets knocked up, she has a shot at a govt. subsidized appt. and food stamps. If she has two more kids, she's taking home serious govt. money.
Still, I can't begin to tell you how many grandparents are raising their children's children. Their grandchildren. The parents are so F-----ed up that millions of grandparents have to do it.
As a child of divorce and as a divorced father, watching life around me--the overall quality and consistency of 'family life' has gone from bad to worse in the USA. Spouses are more like disposable options and the kids have never been more alienated from their parents.
Don't get me wrong, I thought my parents were total dinosaurs. But add warp speed digital, internet, gaming, cell phone and just about everything else accelerated into the latest USA generation, and they seem like Smithsonian Historical Exhibits.
I asked my 22 y/o son a question after he graduated from UGA, into a 96K a year computer job last December.
How come I never got bills for textbooks?
"Uh, Dad---books?--You mean, like "analog"??
I felt like a dinosaur!!
[size=78%]https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/02/world/americas/colombia-abortion.html (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/02/world/americas/colombia-abortion.html)[/size]
Spouses, especially husbands, are disposable because "every woman deserves to be with a man who treats her like a queen." That is our current reality in the US. Husbands are like cars, swap em out for a shinier one as soon as you feel any boredom or have to work on it....
I don't pretend to know what even the air smells like there. As I indicated, info (and I didn't spend much time) was old, even sketchy in reporting, Tales of multiple nurses trying to dissuade women, repeatedly showing young pregnant girls baby dolls, putting in their arms etc., etc. All over the world, it's an issue that somehow gets worse if you're trying to get objective info online. So much BS out there.
Are you talking about Colombia?
So was it the nurses in a hospital where legal abortions are performed ......trying to talk women that might die if they carry the birth to term....or trying to convince a woman that has a deformed fetus not to abort or maybe they just focus on the women that got pregnant from rape. Because those are the only reasons that permit a legal abortion to be performed.
Or was it the nurses at the doctors offices that preform illegal abortions that were trying to convince the Colombian women from having an abortion . Jajaja
Robert ....your posts are starting to remind me of Mudds. Jajaja And that isn't a good thing
If you look long enough, you'll find it somewhere on the internet. Especially on such a touchstone issue. If you don't find it, imagine it, slant it this or thattaway and post it however you want.
If you want something written in stone, get yerself a chisel.
Not sure, but maybe it was the hospital nurses at 'Our Lady of Great Agony'....
Got it...new Mudd report. Jajaja
I don't have to look it up to know that the story isn't plausible. But I do have the benefit of living here .But I understand the internet is a confusing place ....and like I said before this board does more harm than good .....assuming there are any newbies out there.
Whah?? --I thought you, Mudd and Uncle Elex were all step brothers!! LOL.......
See more confusion LOL!
Malls have been open for weeks, they're drunk and elbow to elbow at the beaches--it's almost like there wasn't any problem. Meanwhile, we're looking at 100, 000 dead US citizens in three months.
Insane. We get a repeat of this virus and the current economic effects will seem comparatively small.
And like prior recessions and the great depression of the 1930s, as goes the USA's economy, so goes the rest of the world....
On the contrary, if enough people die there won’t be enough people to fill all the open positions. At some point you gotta start rooting for the virus.
You're probably a big Cleveland fan too!
Now that’s just plain insulting!!!! ;D ;D ;D
Man this sh!t is getting old. June already, it'll be 90 days this week my wife haven't been apart from each other more than 10 minutes, stuck in our little house 99% of the time. I'm physically out of shape--feck, I'm just overall 'bent' head and body, from all this crap. Like a hamster in a cage, without a wheel. If I had young kids---I'd be in such a piss poor mood that just like hamsters, I'd be at risk of eating them.
So whatta ya gonna do? What everybody under ten and over age 30 does: watch TV. Meanwhile the 'thirty somethings' who don't, run around wild, spreading the virus.
107,000 dead in the USA, 40,000 UK burned or buried, 30,000 in Brazil--so far.
4634 in China.
There are 1.4 BILLION people in China, where it ALL quietly started, with lots of travel, huge cities and 4634 dead???
Just when I thought all the worst covid-19 USA news (with our death #s rising) was our state being 'first' to recklessly drop restrictions (bars and nightclubs opened today despite numbers still high) three redneck racists shot Anmaud Arbery--a black kid, just an hour south of us----more national news 24X7.
Now another death and the inescapable bad news with the latest police killing of another black man, and we are making shocking headlines worldwide. Come'on everyone, watch America, 'the land of milk and honey' and hooray for hollywood, burning from sea to shining sea. I can feel half the planet, laughing and kicking us while we're down.
I love my country, but we've got real problems and the whole world and their news sources have it front and center.
We look really, really bad now. Torn up by virus, a quarantine and a cancer like hatred of racism that's been simmering and burning four hundred years now.
nahh..this site is just way too boring..
And if you post anything interesting or funny , even tongue and cheek you get all these caustic comments from the peanut gallery..
why bother?
Who the hell keeps this site running, financially anyway?
Must be you, Robert..
nahh..this site is just way too boring..
And if you post anything interesting or funny , even tongue and cheek you get all these caustic comments from the peanut gallery..
why bother?
Who the hell keeps this site running, financially anyway?
Must be you, Robert..
https://cis.org/North/Countries-Send-Us-Suspiciously-Large-Numbers-Fiance-Visa-Holders (https://cis.org/North/Countries-Send-Us-Suspiciously-Large-Numbers-Fiance-Visa-Holders)
A bit interesting
Well you finally got me to post something Robert.
Same old sh1t I always post.
Got to have rocks in your head to take some desperate young woman from a 3rd world country back to the states or any developing country.
Better just travel around and have various girlfriends in different countries.
Unless you find the "Unicorn" and you have 1 or more kids with her, and after 10 or 20 years living with her in her country , take her and the kid(s) to your country just before you croak, so they can get better opportunities.
Then there are the desperate sheep-shaggers who bring a woman with 2 or more kids back to thier home country.
There are many of these guys..in Europe, US, wherever.. I cant understand it. Giving up their freeedom, and retirement to be slaves to a women and kids that arent even his .
And it is not empathy and generosity and benvolance on thier part.It is loneliness , sexlesssness and low self esteem.
With half the money you spend on the women and her kids, you could make hundreds of poor families in the Philipines, Colombia , Laos or wherever, happy, and provide food, health and educational opportunities for scores if not hundreds of third world or developing country children, families, and older people who need the help.
"""Better just travel around and have various girlfriends in different countries."""
Just not a a viable, affordable option for almost all guys under age 60 in the USA. Most are working and don't have the time or money. Some have businesses, families etc. That also extends to a lesser extent to guys over age 60.
Very hard for most guys to be 'footloose and fancy free'---there are ties that bind most guys to one location.
Then, once you hit age 60, your appeal to women in 3rd world nations--your 'marketability' goes wayyyy down, so the number of good, younger, available and attractive women goes down. There's a lot of available 35 to 45 year olds who want kids--and/or already have ones at home. The 45 to 55 year old segment shows less risk, but more often than not, their age has taken a toll.
Yet most guys in their mid 50's & 60s still are (whether for play or marriage minded) clicking on, pursuing the young hotties--they don't 'get it'. Their balls and brains think they're still 39 y/o guys.
So like moths drawn to the flame, they expose themselves to greater risk, which increases proportionate to their increasing age.
https://cis.org/North/Countries-Send-Us-Suspiciously-Large-Numbers-Fiance-Visa-Holders (https://cis.org/North/Countries-Send-Us-Suspiciously-Large-Numbers-Fiance-Visa-Holders)
A bit interesting
I honestly think if it wasn’t so easy for Canadians to cross the border just to visit or come over on a work visa for a while and just never leave, the number of K1 applicants from Canada would be a lot higher. I personally know two men in the tristate area living with Canadian Women that have been in the U.S. illegally for years. My suspicion is up north this happens a lot more than anyone realizes. Even when I was working in Montreal for a few months a couple of years ago I’d meet women and men that were dating or engaged to people in Vermont and Maine. I think obtaining a K1 visa was probably the furthest thing from their minds. I might be wrong. I’m sure Expat will chime in on that.
The willingness to date a single mother, in Latin America at least, improves upon how attractive the pool of women that are willing to date you by at least 2 points. If you can get a nice looking 7 with no kids in Colombia, you can most definitely get a 9 with kids!!! If she has multiple children and you’re actually willing to financially support your ready made family, the sky’s the limit!!!! There’s nothing wrong with it. I’ve dated single mothers in Colombia and Brazil. I’ve never however, been a father to those children on any level except for maybe the occasional birthday or Christmas gift.
The problem is men that delude themselves by thinking these relationships are built on genuine, sincere love....because I’d say 95% of the time THEY ABSOLUTELY ARE NOT!!!! Most women love their children more than anything. Especially Latinas!! They are usually 100% willing to love and devote themselves to a man they have absolutely no physical or emotional attraction to if that means improving upon their child(ren)’s quality of life. But Cali and Expat are correct. Bringing them stateside completely eliminates her need to continue that façade. There will be plenty of other better looking, richer men willing to do exactly what you were doing back SOTB. Better to leave them where they are. Like Cali said....Colombian Men don’t want to carry on relationships with these women anyway; and honestly Brazil isn’T too different IMHO. At worst all you have to worry about is her getting bored and %ucking some other guy...and let’s face it. What you don’t know won’t hurt you.
I see guys in the USA marrying gringas with another guys children all the time. Of course the losers are going to think that they are going to think they are getting a better deal with a younger hotter chick from a third world counrry.The moment you set foot in the US with your wife and child you'll lose alot of leverage. At the same time this is coming from me, and the main reason I'm in the States is so my daughter can get a good education.... but I do send them to a good charter school, so it's not even a normal American school...
I brought a trophy wife to the USA and I'm no worst for the wear. I had a good time ... certainly much more enjoyable than the gringas i was attracting in my late 30's.
I'll be bringing my wife to the USA when my daughter is 5. I'll be 62 and my wife will be 34.
I know that there will be a million losers in the USA that will think that stealing my wife and raising my daughter would be a good way to spend their lives.
But they haven't met me yet. Jajaja
My wife understands that if things don't work out between us that my daughter living with another man is not an option.
Of course I would try and show the guy where he can get a younger hotter wife without children...but if that doesn't work ...I will just have to take him out.
I don't think it will come to that since my wife already knows me well enough that it would be a death sentence for the guy and probably me as well.
Guys in Colombia aren't much interested in
marrying women with children or even cohabitating with them.
So why am I going to go back to the States with millions of sex starved guys.
Because my wife and daughter will get about $2700 a month in Social Security benefits and I want my daughter to be educated in the USA.
The moment you set foot in the US with your wife and child you'll lose alot of leverage. At the same time this is coming from me, and the main reason I'm in the States is so my daughter can get a good education.... but I do send them to a good charter school, so it's not even a normal American school...
I already have my daughter's private school picked out.Agree 100%. Just know your wife will be hit on constantly and aggressively. I'm amazed by the lengths American men will go to to try to f-ck another man's hot wife....
Having spent most of my life in Arizona and watching the children of my friends and family grow up.....I have a good idea which private schools have a tendency to produce not just well educated kids but successful kids.
At a certain point the parents have a lot less influence over their children than do their childrens peers.
So it is imperative that your child makes friends with other kids that have similar goals.
I see guys in the USA marrying gringas with another guys children all the time. Of course the losers are going to think that they are going to think they are getting a better deal with a younger hotter chick from a third world counrry.
I brought a trophy wife to the USA and I'm no worst for the wear. I had a good time ... certainly much more enjoyable than the gringas i was attracting in my late 30's.
I'll be bringing my wife to the USA when my daughter is 5. I'll be 62 and my wife will be 34.
I know that there will be a million losers in the USA that will think that stealing my wife and raising my daughter would be a good way to spend their lives.
But they haven't met me yet. Jajaja
My wife understands that if things don't work out between us that my daughter living with another man is not an option.
Of course I would try and show the guy where he can get a younger hotter wife without children...but if that doesn't work ...I will just have to take him out.
I don't think it will come to that since my wife already knows me well enough that it would be a death sentence for the guy and probably me as well.
Guys in Colombia aren't much interested in
marrying women with children or even cohabitating with them.
So why am I going to go back to the States with millions of sex starved guys.
Because my wife and daughter will get about $2700 a month in Social Security benefits and I want my daughter to be educated in the USA.
Don't people 62 and older who live overseas have their SS checks auto deposited into their USA bank accounts and then continue to live overseas, just accessing their bank funds electronically?
I'd guess 90%+ of US citizens draw between $1400 and $1900 a month SS. How can someone draw $2700?
Even if you can draw from your Exwife's SS,
that seems a stretch and at that, I thought to collect off of your Ex's you have to be non married.
My SS benefit is $1814 at the age of 62....but my full retirement benefit at the age of 67 is $2577 per month.
When I collect my 1814 at age 62 my minor child is entitled to half of my full retirement benefit or 1288.50 a month and my wife will be entitled to child in care benefits of 1288.50 per month also.
My wife needs to be a US resident and have a SS number to get that benefit
My wife will collect the 1288.50 until my daughter turns 16 and my daughter will collect her 1288.50 until she turns 18.
https://www.amazon.com/Get-Whats-Yours-Revised-Security/dp/1501144766 (https://www.amazon.com/Get-Whats-Yours-Revised-Security/dp/1501144766)Man, that is sweet that your pension is almost 80%. I only lasted 12 years in.my county job (it's all I could take without going nuts) so next year at 50 I will be able to collect 24% monthly which hopefully I can save until I actually retire, hopefully by age 60...As for SS, I'll be 62 in 2033 with two girls in college so I will need to start collecting...
I got this book and it didn't seem to indicate anything as described above. Although it was BEFORE the 2016-2018 changes included edition, I've seen the $2700 amount mentioned here before then.
Any additional SS info--source recommendations--including PMs, would be much appreciated!
I would certainly love to get more at age 62, w/o waiting additional years to add 7% or so annually for each additional year I wait.
But my SS at age 62 as indicated 'by the govt' is under 2K a month.
I figure I'll wait until age 64 or so before drawing, although I could probably afford to wait longer. I'm retired on pension--that's about 80% of my prior income, so SS would kick me over that amount to where I'd take home more.
Meanwhile, as long as I have north of 100K or so saved (liquid cash) to cover emergencies without needing to use credit for another car, anything house repairs/appliances/improvements/health related/emergencies/travel) I'll just keep dipping out of savings each year, burning liquid cash--(my achille's heel in a divorce) then when I elect to draw, hopefully things will be OK.
I can do that for a while actually--my 'cash pad' is OK for a while--although if I bought a new (wife approved!) C8 Corvette, the balance would change.
I can't draw on my still working and single older ex's SS, because I remarried.
If you had a twin brother and YOU took SS at age 62 and HE waited until the traditional 'full' age of 67, it wouldn't be until you both reached AGE 83 that (if both of you are still alive) that he would ONLY then to begin to pull ahead, in terms of total amount of $$$$$ that you both will have taken from SS.
BUT, you'll have received SS checks for five years--more active years, age 62 to 67, while during those same years, your brother got none, waiting for more later at 67 instead.
For my 24 years younger wife, the good news is when I die, she'll possibly get some of my SS. (Half my pension kicks in right away) The bad news is she'll probably have to be single and 62 y/o before SS sends her a dime!!
Latest so called 'news' is that pre covid-19, SS WAS actuarially sound (solvent) until 2035. Now they say due to covid-19, it's 2033. But don't worry--they'll raise payroll taxes to cover it!
My SS benefit is $1814 at the age of 62....but my full retirement benefit at the age of 67 is $2577 per month.
When I collect my 1814 at age 62 my minor child is entitled to half of my full retirement benefit or 1288.50 a month and my wife will be entitled to child in care benefits of 1288.50 per month also.
My wife needs to be a US resident and have a SS number to get that benefit
My total family income from SS will be $4391 per month.
My wife will collect the 1288.50 until my daughter turns 16 and my daughter will collect her 1288.50 until she turns 18.
You might want to think about giving your wife that child before it's too late
Man, that is sweet that your pension is almost 80%. I only lasted 12 years in.my county job (it's all I could take without going nuts) so next year at 50 I will be able to collect 24% monthly which hopefully I can save until I actually retire, hopefully by age 60...As for SS, I'll be 62 in 2033 with two girls in college so I will need to start collecting...
That's with you ALIVE, collecting your SS benefit AND with your wife under age 62?--meaning your young wife can collect her own SS "child in care benefits" for how long?
As I read the facts, I can grasp a 'death benefit' if you die, covering your CHILD (at a % of YOUR SS level before your death) and maybe until she's 18 or as long as she's in school, up to age 21.
And I'd think any additional (third SS income source) $$$$ your wife might stand to collect "child in care" now would stop once your child is 18 and or done with college.
I've never had any reason to doubt your factuality, but like Momma said:
"If it sounds too good to be true...."
Going from $1814 a month to $4381 a month, just because you married and had a child from overseas, then brought them here and got them SS numbers sounds too good to be true. But God bless America and I hope 'the check's in the mail' for the three ( or more) of you!! I mean--ya gotta LOVE this place!!
Maybe I oughta conceive eight or so kids (8 X 9 months = 72 months) or marry and adopt some foreign woman with eight youngins, ready to come here!? Think of the exponential cash flow!! Plenty of $$$$ for live in nannies!
Why aren't tons of guys doing this?
But I think that regardless of whether or not your child can SS qualify for $1200+ a month now (as the law stands) and your wife can qualify for her own separate 1200+ a month while you're alive, that the gravy train stops once the kid/s become adults--that there's also a limiting 'stop point' for that separate "child in care" check portion your wife might get.
I think upon your death and your child becoming legally an adult --it changes ALL that. Once you die, and after the kid's grown, your wife won't see a cent of SS, no survivor's benefit until AFTER she's 62.
Again-- that your wife won't see any of that after your child's an adult--in fact your wife won't see any SS after the kid's grown and you die, at least UNTIL she's 62! I am far from expert--but that's how I have see it working, unless there's disability involved.....
It's scary enough thinking how the huge age gap between my wife and I will only become increasingly and painfully apparent in 15-20 years. If it was when the kid leaves, If our SS--if any of our income/s dropped suddenly about then, it wouldn't make things any easier.
In advent of any divorce in my situation, my pension and any SS benefits once I begin to collect, aren't subject to division, In fact, my pension, my income there would go UP, as I opted for a lower pension amount that would leave her 50% her whole life I died. That pension amount would revert back to maximum. And I think she'd have to be single, AND age 62 before she could draw from my SS after my death.
While making (collecting) more $$$$ would obviously have appeal I wouldn't refuse, it's not lost on me that right now, remaining married to me makes more financial sense to my wife her divorcing me or my dying. We still need each other and it's good both personally and financially.
But sometimes I do miss the indescribably wonderful sound of a child's laughter. It's as close to a real 'youth tonic' as has ever been invented. And it's beyond monetary remuneratory value!!
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/tomhager/2018/05/07/social-security-benefits-dont-forget-the-kids/amp/ (https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/tomhager/2018/05/07/social-security-benefits-dont-forget-the-kids/amp/)
My wife will collect child in care benefits until our daughter is 16 or a little over 10 years
There isn't much point in having more children because SS limits a family's benefits to 150 to 180 percent of your full retirement benefit.
Damn you CP!!!--I've been on the phone with international adoption agencies ALL day!
YOU talk to my wife!!! :D :D
Well, after 2 months of lock down(severe)things are finally opening up here,but unfortunately, COVID cases and deaths are skyrocketing exponentially.
But you can get all that info. from the worldometer site
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ (https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/)
A quick search on a chromebook (google android) for "latest covid-19 South America" gave nothing newer than June 1st, The internet sucks worse than ever b4.
Entering 'Colombia" and I got this 7 day old article> [size=78%]https://www.pressherald.com/2020/06/13/colombias-medellin-emerges-as-surprise-covid-19-pioneer/ (https://www.pressherald.com/2020/06/13/colombias-medellin-emerges-as-surprise-covid-19-pioneer/)[/size]
I tell you, if a city of 2.5 million (Medellin) has only 4 deaths so far, they must be doing something right.
We don't have 300,000 people and we think with 'only' 32 deaths, people think that we're doing great, so party down! Soooo stupid and undisciplined here. The age 21 to 30's are running around like it's rave time or something---they have by far the greatest number of positive tests, although they the least likely age group to come in to be tested.
My 29 y/o son has collected $1200 up front, then $600 a week federal and an additional $365 (=$965 a week) unemployment from the state since early March until August, to go beaching, kayaking, fishing (with my gear) drink $30+ a bottle wine, 'dine'--etc.
Yep, fifty grand a year to NOT work, (some states --NY, HI, CN--pay a lot more than $365 a week) although he could make as much as $300 additional ea week on the side, w/o losing any govt benefits.
But why spoil the party for a few hundred measley bucks, when you know you're gonna eat and make rent no matta what? Whatta country....
Imagine, it's like the longest 'summer vacation' we ever had as kids.
Dont know where you read that crap, but although Medellin is doing better than other parts of Colombia, there are way more than 4 deaths.
https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2020/06/13/world/americas/ap-lt-virus-outbreak-trailblazing-medellin.html
Yesterdays news
Here are the latest stats
https://mobile.twitter.com/diegocsarpaz/status/1274836882254372864/photo/1 (https://mobile.twitter.com/diegocsarpaz/status/1274836882254372864/photo/1)
As of the 17th of June there where only 4 deaths due to the corona virus in the city of Medellin and 7 total in the Aburra Valley.
I imagine the cases of infection will go up after the "Dia sin IVA". What a stupid thing to do during a pandemic. Pales in comparison to a Trump rally. jajaja
https://www.metropol.gov.co/tableros/tablero_covid_19.aspx (https://www.metropol.gov.co/tableros/tablero_covid_19.aspx)
http://thecitypaperbogota.com/news/colombia-marks-grim-mortality-record-as-nation-prepares-for-further-economic-reopening/25518 (http://thecitypaperbogota.com/news/colombia-marks-grim-mortality-record-as-nation-prepares-for-further-economic-reopening/25518)
Cases and deaths increasing everywhere in Colombia.
Including Antioquia , with over 3600 cases.
Sure , may not seem like a lot now, but increasing exponentially
And like Wayne Gretzky says- dont look where the puck is now-look where it is going..
Antioquía might have 3600 corona virus cases total but Arizona has almost that in new cases per day. My mom isn't in good health and she still lives there.
As we approach the end of the first half of 2020, they're already canceling events scheduled for 2021, Cities that released quarantine restrictions are renewing them.
Even if they get a vaccine --hopefully around 2021, the virus can mutate.
Yes we've had weird viruses, influenza, the black plague, etc., but this is uncharted territory.
In over 120 days, I haven't been away from my wife except or a one hour Dr's appt. This is very weird.
Dont worry. It is gonna be OK. Dont believe everything the MSN puts out.
https://colombiareports.com/medellin-announces-curfews-amid-fears-covid-19-could-collapse-colombias-2nd-largest-city/ (https://colombiareports.com/medellin-announces-curfews-amid-fears-covid-19-could-collapse-colombias-2nd-largest-city/)
Hasn't the key to success in Medellin been giving up your cellphone info, including location access so that they know who's who and everywhere who and you have been, are and are going?
The people in the USA just aren't ready to give it up, but I bet big brother already has most of that info already, but like they watch where we go online, they're not telling....
Obviously never rewad the article...and look at the graph.
There is no more "sucsess" in Medellin or anywhere else in Colombia than any other place.
All the strict lock down did is delay the inevetible.
Anyway you look at it, with Antioquía having ⁴close to seven million people, the amount of cases and deaths has been amazingly low.
Even if they were missing half the cases and the perhaps inevitable upsurge curving upward, they clearly were doing something Brazil wasn't.
Was it cellphones and people tracking?
I want to know what technology and surveillance amongst other things, had to do with that.
One of the biggest risk factors for getting sick from covid19 is age and on average Colombians are about 10 years younger than the average American.
Also there is evidence that people with type O blood do not contract covid 19 as easily as other blood types and type O blood is the predominant blood type in Colombia
Add the stricter quarantin measures compared to the USA and you get a much slower infection rate.
But even with all that.... the Mayor of Medellin predicts that a majority of Medellin residents will eventually contract covid19
There is no stopping this virus anywhere
The game plan is simply keep the infection rate in check as to not overwhelm hospitals and wait for heard immunity or a vaccine.
Could you send a link please? All the google chrome hits here are for articles from back in June--lame--AND they make Quintero out to be some kind of genius. IF he is AND if he says things along the lines of:
"""[size=78%]But even with all that.... the Mayor of Medellin predicts that a majority of Medellin residents will eventually contract covid19"""[/size]
[size=78%]Well, going on about a 130 days in quarantine, it doesn't exactly make my day....[/size]
[size=78%]So much misinfo, filtered and fed BS on the net in the USA....[/size]
After rewording and digging a bit, found this (supposedly) from July 3rd:
https://www.medellinherald.com/antioquia/mmn (https://www.medellinherald.com/antioquia/mmn)
It, like just about everything, praises the "Marvelous Mayor Quintero" and how he has kept 2.5 million Medellin's death rate down to an unbelievably low 15.
And this is the same guy who says most people that a majority of Medellin will eventually contract covid regardless? Maybe he's just trying to scare the sh!t out of people.....
Unless you just start arresting people that leave their homes like in China ....there really is no realistic way to stop the virus ....other than herd immunity when about 70 percent of a population has had the virus or a vaccine when a majority of people have been inoculated.
I mean once there are so many cases of the disease that you can't do contact tracking ....just how are you to stop a virus. Masks just slow it down ....but they are never going to stop it.
I tend to agree. All this quarantining, mask wearing and social distancing is an exercise in futility. At some point we’re going to have to be forced to suffer the consequences of letting this thing play out.
https://www.as-coa.org/articles/where-coronavirus-latin-america#colombia (https://www.as-coa.org/articles/where-coronavirus-latin-america#colombia)
With Colombia pushing 1000 confirmed cases as of a few days ago (one can only wonder how many untested 'carriers' are running around) it appears the "long way" to get to where the USA is, isn't that far off.
Brazil is getting bad and even in remote areas, including islands in that region, its showing and growing.
Meanwhile 8 million population Bogata is looking at a THREE month shutdown....
Actually , a lot of countries, like Japan, Kprea, Switzerland and Austria..have got the cases so low , some after an initial quarantine, but all with the people and culture disciplined and responsible enough to undertake social distancing, mask wearing and hand-washing / general sanitation. Plus the medical systems in these countries are competent and empowered enough in undertaking of TTIT- Testing, tracing the infected, isolating and quarantining the infected, Treatment-sufficient ICUs, drug treatment, ventilators and well trained medical staff.
None of these countries came anywhere near "Herd Imunity",
Even in the Major European countries where the virus iitially hit very hard, things are now under control. The worst case of the major European Countries is Belguim, the case rate total is 6000 per million. or 0.6% of the population. Even if you take the most conservative estimate saying 20 times as many people have it as have actually tested positive, you only get 12% of population infected.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ (https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/)
So yes , you can control the virus if people are disciplined, employ social distancing, face masks where you cant avoid people, hygeine, and where the medical system sucsessfully employs TTIT..
The problem is in colombia, and other Latin Countries, the discipline and sense of social responsibility is not there (or atleast worn out after months of quarantine), and the medical system is under-staffed, under equipped and corrupt.
The worst case is the coast. You think these people are responsible, disciplined or have common sense?
https://www.hoydiariodelmagdalena.com.co/archivos/388119 (https://www.hoydiariodelmagdalena.com.co/archivos/388119)
As far as protecting the old people , Colombia does have the advantage of having younger people. You would think they would have a disadvantage of most of them living with the extended family, but after the disaster countries like Canada allowed with the EXtended care facilities, I somehow doubt it.
Excellent post. At best the introduction of an effective vaccine sooner rather than later, will save lives. Darwinism still is relevant.
There wont be a vaccine or herd imunity for a long, long time, if ever, so better to live with it, and protect yourself and love ones with common sense precautions.
Or there is a bit of another hope..the virus may just weaken and go away by itself like SARS and so many other viruses did.
I plan to go flying when I can, but will wear N95 mask, face goggles, gloves and antiseptic and stay away from people and only on airlines that take specific precautions.
No vaccines for:
SARS
Chagas disease (American trypanosomiasis)
Chikungunya
Dengue
Cytomegalovirus
HIV/AIDS
Hookworm infection
Leishmaniasis
Malaria
Respiratory
Syncytial Virus
Schistosomiasis
https://www.livescience.com/56598-deadliest-viruses-on-earth.html (https://www.livescience.com/56598-deadliest-viruses-on-earth.html)
There's still no vaccine for ugly, although if you drink enough alcohol, it lessens the effect to where even ugly girls don't look half bad!
In a 'good year'---the flu--if it's not too virulent, it kills about half a million people a year, or about how many have died from covid-19 so far this year.
In a bad year, like the 1918 Spanish flu,18 million died. The experts are pretty much in agreement that we could get another Spanish flu, but that with the vast increases in travel and mobility, it'd be far, far worse. No vaccine there either. They tried unsuccessfully to create a vaccine for that, but not until the 1940's did vaccine development begin to take off. Even today, half the time they make a flu vaccine, it turns out to be ineffective,
In more recent years there have been other viruses, including MARS, Hanta and others--and no vaccine. Hell, there's no vaccine for plague--they feel it's not a high enough incidence problem.
Just like wildlife--animals, plants and insects, viruses today go nation to nation through our airports and shipping ports daily.
The difference is that none of the diseases you listed are as contagious as covid19
SARS was quit a bit deadlier and people showed symptoms right away so it died out.
It is still possible that covid19 will mutate into something less contagious or more deadly.
Both scenarios will cause the virus to die out quicker.
:D Glad you got to get out - it's not good to be cooped up at home for too long . . .
I bought a bike . Safe for covid since it's outdoors and good exercise....
Thanks! It's real easy to get soft--weaker physically after 130+ days 'inhouse' and only a couple hours apart (for Dr. Appts) from one other person/s--especially if one other person loves to cook, all styles and ingredients. Bakes, vegies, all cuts of meat, deserts... With a bi weekly grocery run, we have (after initial supply shortages) almost food overload--we're cooped up captive eaters.
Did Dominoes a couple times and it was either a Frito Burrito or rehab for me, but otherwise have stayed out of restaurants.
Before we usually went once or twice a week for a hyper physical hot pilates or yoga sweat session and if you could make it through all the demanding poses and hold--you felt good to live another day. You again passed the test and hopefully not too sore...
That was at least four months ago. I'm about as active as in a nursing home probably. My own fault. Guys go into prison in 4X10 cells and come out in better physical shape every day.
There's a good Aussie 7 minute work out on youtube that we do--it typically turns into 9 or 10 minutes length, but that's not a whole routine in and of itself.
But as Calipro says:
"""Best to stick to indoor sports right now.I get sun on my balcony and do cardio in the apartment""
The CARDIO is what we're really missing out on. Being more active. And that cardio workout is probably the best way to extend your life in years. But enough of that---I have to quit watching the news while relaxing in bed as I currently am-- because my wife is calling me sweetly for her exquisite chicken parmigiana & garlic bread (and dandy Italian salad that as custom, I'll add the finishing touch to)
I bought a bike . Safe for covid since it's outdoors and good exercise....
Yes bike supply cannot keep up with demand. Didn't know about the dogs. Crazy times...
Heard bike sales have gone through the roof. So have dog adoptions. Shelters have been emptied out in places. I wonder what's gonna happen when all those dog adopters go back to the old nine to five, and start leaving the dogs alone for 8 or 9 hours a stretch for the 1st time.
I remember as a teenager I had a German Short Haired Pointer, Caesar. Caesar didn't like my Grandmother's kitchen dinette chairs vinyl upholstery. In fact, he completely removed said upholstery from four of Grandma's chairs when I left him alone for a bit.
I'll own that, Like Father Flanagan (Spencer Tracey) said of the troubled boys sent to his orphanage in the great classic (1938!) movie "Boys Town" -->"There's no such thing as a bad boy"
She even let me keep the dog.
My wife is home 24X7 now, as she's able to work her technology job at home, with 2 monitors and her computer tweaked for international phone access and other tricks impossible not so long ago.
It's kinda weird. I like her around, but this isn't quite how I figured it'd happen--not like 'boom'--instantly.
My 22 y/o son in Atlanta, just 2 months into his 100K a year 1st job after college graduation, is doing his AI work for the mega firm he signed on with. He's able to from his posh apartment on a wicked fast PC he self built and 3 big monitors.
He'll be fine.
Both are following company orders.
My 28 y/o son who owns a (used to be) always full a AirBNB is in a bad spot. He rents it from the owner for 4K a month and runs his boutique AirBN out of it. But nobody's booking.
Then he waits tables at a swank place and routinely makes very good pay there--enough income to live off of alone, but now is sh!t out of luck--they're closing for an undetermined length of time.
He asked if he could crash at our house, when push comes to shove....
That it was a miracle that as hard as he tried as a hell raising teen, to break my wife and I up, but couldn't, isn't lost on me.
Meanwhile my wife's all about helping him with food, with him moving back home with us, with his bills, etc.
Amazing woman. "Family stays together, helps each other" she says. Most USA born step mothers would've poisoned his food 15 years ago....
My wife, him and my lazy, 'Do what I please, when I please' self, are about to experience change--change that's going to require ongoing adjustments, to put it mildly
As I predicted weeks ago, this isn't gonna be easy, it's only going to get harder, and it isn't going away anytime soon.
Trump said we might see some return to normalcy by July or August.
I'm afraid he's being a bit optimistic....
Well, have about written off heading back to Davao City Philippines anytime soon. Covid-19 has about killed that off for 2020.
Was looking forward to spending a few weeks there at the house. It's a house my wife worked so hard to save up for and paid off. First thing she did was make sure both our names are on the title--I never would've known had she not done so. It's close to a really nice new mall and not far from some great beaches. It needed a little work--we added air con and a 2nd level--her family helped make sure it was done right. We probably have 25K into it, total.
By default, I am also tied to her family's land a couple hours away. It's a largish farm--I know nothing about growing coconuts, rice and fruits and it's wayyy out there. It'd be hilarious---just the thought of my USA, 'city slicker' self trying to run what essentially a plantation, borders on the bizarre. I hope her Mom lives to be 150 years old--she's able to keep it going amazingly well.
The 1st youtube video really resonated with me. It points out how the area has much fewer non natives (tourists) running around and us being still rather novel to them, that they're very friendly. Just a sweet, laid back vibe but with a youthful big city buzz still going on. The 2nd video about expenses is pretty spot on.
It also points out that the area ---out of 110 million people on 7000+ islands, tends to have the highest percentage of friendly, petite morenas--the darker complexion girls, than just about anywhere in the nation. There's still a lot of Spanish blood mixed in there from the 400 years of Spain ruling the whole nation, but the girls around Davao are typically tan as cookies, they look and taste great too. Sooo fresh, clean and sweet. Not too jaded like a lot of Manila and Cebu girls. Province effect.
My wife is certainly morena, petite and pretty IMO. I moan and groan because as she tans after a minute out in the sun, she stays out of sun as much as possible.
I tell her how most USA women would die to have her tan and glowing skin, but she doesn't buy it. Told her how here, women can never be TOO tan, too thin or too rich and that oh well, she's got two out of three here in the USA anyway...
I've noticed that as 'western ways' have invaded the area increasingly and brought foods with saturated fat and other bad stuff with them, how more of the women are heavier than before. But it's still a wonderful place.
Increasingly we talk about the possibility of moving there and a guy could do a lot worse, but I don't think my mind's quite ready for that....
[size=78%]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGbg94Qmmww (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGbg94Qmmww)[/size]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwX0s14JG70 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwX0s14JG70)
When I saw the bachelor paradise on the video I thought it would be a bikini contest like this one
https://youtu.be/2Cq86maj2m4 (https://youtu.be/2Cq86maj2m4)
When I saw the bachelor paradise on the video I thought it would be a bikini contest like this one
https://youtu.be/2Cq86maj2m4 (https://youtu.be/2Cq86maj2m4)
I watched that and even though some of those babes are half the age of my wife, half way through the vid, this came into my head......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PTDv_szmL0 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PTDv_szmL0)
Not me..this is what came into my head..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aj9VArxREqY (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aj9VArxREqY)
Not me..this is what came into my head..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aj9VArxREqY (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aj9VArxREqY)
Looks like similar prices to here in Bucaramanga
Here is somehing for you to do Robert..Compare Bucaramanga to Davao City on Numbeo
Hmmmm. I don't think I will be going to Bucaramanga anytime soon.
https://youtu.be/CqtVl9y2coM (https://youtu.be/CqtVl9y2coM)
But if you can really live on 900 bucks a month as this guy claims you can do in Davo then it might be an option for some.
There are no orientals in Bucaramanga..only made reference to that film for "[snip]s and giggles"..not any refernce to anything happening in my l¡fe or Bucaramanga (what bizzare thinking to somehow relate this to BUcarmanga??)
And thats OKay .. I sure wont be going to Medellllin soon with 28,000 cases and quarantine 3 days a week and night curfew.
As a matter of fact I will probably go to Quindio-low case rate and everything is opened up.
If I didnt have emotional attachment and moral responsibity to someone here, I would go to Canada, and somewhere else with a low case rate and more freedom, wih the situation under control, when the weather got to cold (Spain in the fall?),
At any rate I will be going back to Canada for back country skiing for 2 months in January and February. First time in 2 years.
I didn't think there where orientals here ....I was surprised that you compared Davao to Bucaramanga.
Sounds like you have a child now.. emotional attachment and moral responsibility ...sounds like a parental relationship.
Awww--come-on now---play fair. "Child"? Isn't she 19 y/o? Legally she's an adult!
I'm thinking maybe a couple months old...he was asking me about the fertility clinic I used about a year or so ago.Expat with a kid?! Man I want to hear more...
Expat with a kid?! Man I want to hear more...
I thought it was his 19 y/o gf.
I don't know that he has a child but he must of been interested in the idea to ask me about the fertility clinic I used.
And now he is emotionally y morally attached .... maybe his girlfriend is pregnant.....it's the only thing that would morally attach me.
The only thing that could literally make my life and relationship stronger, literally longer, physically and mentally better, would be a child/ren.
That laughter, the ways they morph as they grow and just captivate our hearts and minds is a powerful elixir.
So what is holding you back?
There are plenty of things doctors can do now to help your wife conceive.
Speaking of kiddos...Brazil opened it’s borders to foreign tourists yesterday so at least I get to go and visit my son. Been more than a year!!!
I guess they figured no one who comes there is going to make it any worse, so they just gave up on the travel ban. Still a lot I have to figure out with respect to going and coming but the first good news for me in a while.
Stay healthy gents.
I didn't think there where orientals here ....I was surprised that you compared Davao to Bucaramanga.
Sounds like you have a child now.. emotional attachment and moral responsibility ...sounds like a parental relationship.
I don't know that he has a child but he must of been interested in the idea to ask me about the fertility clinic I used.
And now he is emotionally y morally attached .... maybe his girlfriend is pregnant.....it's the only thing that would morally attach me.
So what is holding you back?
There are plenty of things doctors can do now to help your wife conceive.
Greedy. I figure if I'm lucky, I have twenty 'good years' left. I want to be able to travel light. There's other pros and cons in the equation, but that's what it boils down to.
Contrary to how my life has sometimes felt, I realize that I can't have it all, at least not a 2nd time with kids anchoring my life. Again. Even if a live in nanny was in the picture, it'd be head and hands on raising kids for me/us/--a lot less time planning trips as well as being spontaneous and actually travelling.
It's like today we decided to take q weekday off and head an hour off shore to deserted Cumberland Island. There's basically no infrastructure---there's wild boar & wild horses running around and no concessions, never mind 'diaper rooms.' Bringing a kid there and the necessary provisions, would be a nightmare.
Not that my boys haven't seen the world, but looking back, I was frugal--saving for their 'needs'--lessons, musical instruments, video games, cars, college etc. I guess we sacrificed for them more than I realized. I played soccer, other sports with them, did scouts--school field trips etc, etc. Their stepmom went to--did a ton of stuff for them. My kid's friends---they still talk about how great sleepovers at our house were. I paid like 5 grand for a saxophone because my son had gotten that good after playing a rental horn for years. Crazy. Parents ARE crazy when it comes to their kids and usually oblivious to it. Nobody can tell them, even when a trainwreck is coming.
Now I'm living it up more, busy spending their inheritance.....
What about your wife.....is she really OK with not having a child in her life?
I don't think it is as important for you to have a child as it is for her....because you have already had kids
Don't be greedy..... Don't let your wife turn into a dingy cat lady one day.....with a 30 cat colony.
Without a family life seems to be meaningless for most women. But some women get involved in charities or sometimes work to bring some meaning to their lives.
Don't forget you could potentially double your Social Security take by having a child if you wife decided to b e a stay at home mom....at the very least your child will get half of you unreduced Social Security benefits from the time you decide to collect.....until your child is 18.
She sounds like a great woman. Hard to know what I'd do but I can say at 49 with a 7 and 5 year old I've got all I can handle. And on the other hand my 82 year old mom has Parkinson's and dementia. Watching your parent lose their faculties is not fun. If you have a kid at 60, how many good years does your child get to enjoy with you? Kids have tons of energy and expect their parents to have the same lol
Not having children was a painful, thorough discussion that we had a long time ago, years before we wed. Of course it's been discussed again at times, including the tremendous sacrifice she made. I knew/know the risks--the 'biological clock', natural bio urges etc. And that risk still exists.
When I die, before the ink is dry on the sale of our home, she'll be on a plane back home.
That's sooo ironic. Athough she's exemplified achieving the 'American dream' through hard work, her heart, which (Ironic I know) is ALL about family, Back home and to a large extent also, to her 'new' family here.
But my family mostly lives a thousand miles away in Michigan. She reminds me to call, birthdays etc. In her mind, she's with her family back home a lot closer to heart---they're true blood and the only thing that really matters to her in the end. Family.
Basically her first 5 years here, she was a public school classroom paraprofessional. Every year there, she was elected employee of the year. My younger son was 8 when she came here, attended that school and she even walked him to school. They offered her a Teaching job, but she turned it down because of being "English 2nd language" she was worried she'd not be good enough, which (as I told her) was far from true.
She overlapped a job at Chick Fila and in a year was made Manager, Chick Fila has perhaps the best USA corporate culture and training set up in the USA--tremendous company. But it was physically taxing. Hiring and firing, dealing with customers--all that was great experience.It helped her confidence.
A frequent customer there noticed her and encouraged her to apply at his Fortune 200 level company, a corporation that sells dental and medical equipment across all the USA and Canada. They gave her books full of doctor's offices who DIDN'T buy from them. Cold calls, rejection--the worst. They closed that (thank God) and she worked her way upstairs. It's not like work that her computer engineering degree way back when trained her for, but it's odd how it's coming full circle. HTML, SQL, JavaScript, Google Anayltics and whole lot more, are part of her work. If the company maximum yearly pay raise is 2--3%, they somehow break the rules and give her 3 to 6%.
Whether as a stepmom, wife or as a worker, she gives 200%.
She worked and as it was her money (and for the 1st 12 years, we had separate accounts) I knew she was helping out, I knew she was saving to buy us a home in the Philippines.
She has always (from a LONG distance) doted on her beloved nieces and nephews--her family. They will look after her when I die. She appreciates all this nation has done for her--she's patriotic for here (and increasingly USA conservative) and home and has dual citizenships.
But her heart is still at home and one day, so will be her bones. She's true and loyal, but in a hard to describe way, me and life in the USA are just a means to an end elsewhere eventually. She'll never be a lonely "cat lady"--never be alone. If her home country and I disappeared, she'd probably end up being a social director at a nursing home, some kind of social service, etc. She already has us doing stuff like that in the community since the kids are gone. If I'm gone, maybe she'll finally find a guy she really deserves.
Bizarre as it sounds, her making me happy is what makes her happy. It drives her. We're not terribly social--yet it seems like her acquaintances always want her to be their newborn's Godmother, because they know just how innately good a person, what a wonderful 'role model' she is.
It will be our ultimate irony, for reasons largely previously mentioned, that a women this fine and suited as a Mother, wasn't.
As a kid, I hated when the Teachers rolled out the "Someday you too can be president" speech, if we had one, her child actually probably could.
She's still super young looking, pretty, hardworking, with an exceptionally wonderful personality. Underconfident and overachieving. Life can, life does change--I can't smugly accept how great I've had it and think that's the way it's always going to be. But today, in the here and now, I think we're pretty good. I may go, but as long as she stays healthy, she's going to be fine. She was simply made that way.
Great points. For me it's a combination of pushing 50 and watching my mom deteriorate that gives me this sense that life is too short. When my mom was more capable just a few years ago she was our kids babysitter. My wife is super extroverted so all the covid guidelines are tougher for her than me, as I've never had any problems keeping away from people lol
Thanks. When you have kids, it's a blur of working the logistics--figuring who's taking whom where and more. That and a whole lot of reacting to always changing situations--redirecting behaviors, dealing with 'this and that.' It takes a lot of energy.
Ages 5 and 7? THAT's a LOT of energy alright!
Even when we're alone, the vast majority of our brain's focus and resultant activities is active--forward reacting to stimuli, fixing things so they don't become problems, not so much planning or thinking about the past.
I suppose it's different when one parent is staying at home, but there's rarely a dull moment regardless. There's always a 'next.'I tell so many couples that it is critical that they find someone to afford them a break--even if it's hard to find family, get a nanny, a baby sitter--but it's critical that couples carve out time to 'date' --or at least have undistracted time alone for the two of you.
Your marriage and family will both be better off for it.
My 1st marriage was little more than logistics for the kid's sake. She worked nights and weekends, I worked weekdays. Not good.
Parents, really people in general, are so busy dealing with all kinds of situations that we never really allow ourselves to think:"Someday, these will be the ""Good old days""==the school assemblies, birthdays, sleepovers etc--even the disasters--the exploding diaper on the white furniture, the time the kid painted his bedroom wall with crayons, pie in the eye--a million things.
We're just too busy, typically 'doing the best we can' dealing with one thing and then the next thing, often w/o a break. Time flies, things blur.
My Mother died last year after 16 long, painful years dealing with Parkinson's Disease. My Dad was the greatest guy on earth--he was her rock. To say "He was there 100% for her" is an understatement. Now he's 85 and dementia, not eating enough--the sadness of being told he shouldn't drive anymore, all that and more, are setting in. With the years, I am getting the typical 'aches and pains' that inevitably come with time. He's had them for decades, now to certain points of disability. I just never knew it. Because he never complained. Kids will tell you if they prick their finger.
I see all too well that the last years are not pretty.
It resonated all too well once. It was after I royally pissed off my wife, she appropriately lowered my ladder down a few rungs. Looking me dead in the eye, she said:"And WHO do you think is going to be changing YOUR diapers??" One of those 'feck me dead' moments...Glad she's still here!
But my Dad's up in Michigan and I'm in Georgia, so I tip my hat to my two sisters, who along with a caretaker who comes in a few days a week, they help him keep going and out of an 'assisted living' institution. If we were up there living and my kids were still young, I think I'd go insane. Family drama, stressors...
But maybe not. Although the pace would render my life a blur again, somehow we'd get things done. Somebody has to. When my wife and I have a difficult situation--one that we HAVE to summon up extra effort for, we look at each other and we both say:"It's time to--or 'We have to:
"RISE to the occasion!!" And we do, Thank God.
For all of us, later on in life if we're lucky and don't get hit by a truck, we get a break--some time out That's a good time to look back and hopefully reflect on the good moments--the funny times, the golden moments and milestones of our lives.
In the last couple of years, my Dad has said several times that as we get old, time just moves sooo fast. When I was younger, I thought our age difference was as if it predated the ice age.
That's where my head's at more of the time lately. That and how no matter how much covid sucks, it could always be worse. That's why when a guy here on PL finally got his wife here and it was just a kaleidoscope of experiences, I tried to say, "Take a second and realize that later on you'll be looking back and saying how these (USCIS and all) were "The greatest days of our lives"--the "Good ole days"
Exactly as Ferris Bueller said:
""Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.""
Save Ferris!! ;D
Great points. For me it's a combination of pushing 50 and watching my mom deteriorate that gives me this sense that life is too short. When my mom was more capable just a few years ago she was our kids babysitter. My wife is super extroverted so all the covid guidelines are tougher for her than me, as I've never had any problems keeping away from people lol
I'm 58 and neither my wife nor I work. If it wasn't for my two year old daughter ...I don't think I could handle retirement.Looking back I should have pushed for a nursing home sooner. Once they lose their mental faculties everything gets alot harder....
I love my wife but I couldn't be with just one woman here ....if it wasn't for my baby.
My mom is going down hill fast as well ...so I'm going to be working on getting my wife a visa sometime next year.
I'm 58 and neither my wife nor I work. If it wasn't for my two year old daughter ...I don't think I could handle retirement.
I love my wife but I couldn't be with just one woman here ....if it wasn't for my baby.
It would be alot harder for me to at the least not feel tempted in Colombia. I get way more attention from women there...
Sometimes the life you live makes you 'walk the line' accordingly. At least you have an unpredictable, endlessly entertaining toddler princess to help pass the time. She hasn't even learned how to curse at you yet!!
If we lived in Davao City where our house 'over there' is, it'd be a helluva a lot harder for me to be faithful. There's younger, older women all around over there, but not a one that's any better than what I've got already.
That's what keeps my pants up. (outside the house)
It would be alot harder for me to at the least not feel tempted in Colombia. I get way more attention from women there...
Take advantage smigo!
With COVID here its even easier to find lonely women
But way harder to keep a secret..
With COVID here its even easier to find lonely women
But way harder to keep a secret..
Take advantage smigo!
I'd think it'd be harder to find "lonely women", what with covid and most people staying with others--in groups that are compartmentalized socially.
And that's the only reason why I'd guess it'd be "way harder to keep a secret."
It's your life, and while you've been kind of cryptic lately, I thought things were somewhere along the lines of you caring for your 19 year old Colombiana who's bearing your child, being there emotionally for her, yada, yada.
It's not like the 4 or 5 people who follow and occasionally post here are gonna upset your apple cart, spill your beans etc. I see a lot more wacko stuff--posts and pictures, from other people's facebook and Instagram than I've ever see here.
I will continue to be cryptic and you can assume what you want LOL
But I can assure you I dont have a gay lover ;D
Prove it!! ;D
He ain’t gay ....he just went MGTOW on us. Jajaja
https://www.facebook.com/307508382739569/posts/1709979582492435/ (https://www.facebook.com/307508382739569/posts/1709979582492435/)
""""Elon Musk has gotten into some trouble surrounding coronavirus. He tussled with local authorities when he insisted on keeping his factory open despite lockdown orders. On Twitter, of course, he called shelter in place orders quote, “de facto house arrest” and predicted quote “close to zero new cases in the US by the end of April.” At the end of April, with many new cases every day, he tweeted quote “free America now” in all caps. On this issue, we do not agree.Elon MuskI mean this is a hot button issue where rationality takes a backseat. So in the grand scheme of things, I think this is— what we have is something with a very low mortality rate and high contagion. And something that is of low risk to a young person is of high risk to an older person. Essentially, the right thing to do would be to not have done a lock down for the whole country. But to have, I think, anyone who is at risk should be quarantined until the storm passes.Kara SwisherAll right, but this storm is coming again. You know, you’re talking a lot about saving humanity but these are humans that die in the process.Elon MuskEverybody dies.""""