JohnF13

Un- urned critisism

I drive past the one in Acequia nearly every day, I think I have seen a truck in there once....it was backed up to a bay door but it could have been a decoy....

Too many protest groups get away with stuff because they make outlandish claims that " x" causes " y" without any proof. But when proponents want to go ahead the protestors claim that proof is needed from them. Level the playing field, if you want to claim that emissions cause cancer or whatever, state your case along with peer reviewed proof. That works both ways, but the responsibility lies with the group making the original claim, not the other way around.

There is always someone around who can do task "A" better than you can. The trick is to find them and encourage them to stay with your organization. Easy to say, hard to accomplish. A lot of times, the ego of the owner/manager gets in the way and the promising person gets canned. In my working life I always encouraged my staff to do better than me and darned it, most of the time they did that. There are two types of manager, those that think all of their employees are idiots and those that encourage challenge. Challenge equals improvement, IF you as a manager can handle that.

There are so many restaurants to choose from in Boquete. Some charge high prices and live or die at the whim of the monied crowd. Others start off well but staff turnover or unexpected costs drive down the quality of the food. My favorite complaint on this subject is restaurants not changing their cooking oil often enough. The between change periods get longer and longer and that imparts bad flavors into the food. Others fight with you over the jubilado discount, a sure way to drive off customers. But, I think the big thing is the number of eateries, not even the high number of us in Boquete can support them all.

We don't generally ask for the jubilado either unless the resteraunt is clearly charging N.A. Prices. We eat quite often at Zum Emslander in the San Franciso Plaza, his menus clearly state the regular and jubilado prices. Trout, salad and fries for two, less than $14 and the wait staff are excellent.

My Canadian accountant included my health insurance premium in my tax return this year, it got me back an extra $1200. Worth bearing in mind if you are considering local health insurance.

I am using Edwin Urriola from Boquete. Recommended by Diane Heideke. Very good, not so fast, but I'll take good over fast any day.

Don't know about hay, but my local guy has alfalfa cubes, $20 or so for 40 lbs.

Bud, if you decide to bow out, I'd be interested in your gear

I think that because of the current " be frightened of everything" phase that most sheeple are praying to, they are worried that your antenna will do many things, including increasing cancer, causing Alzheimer's, lowering property values, being an eyesore and affecting TV reception. Have you ever asked them why? Don't forget, you cannot prove a negative - if the claim is cancer, you cannot prove it won't....Not being a particularly neighborly person, I would suspect my action in the face of sheepleicity would be to put the darned thing up. It's your property.

Seems to me this is a business opportunity for someone. I dont understand how EShop, MBE etc can get stuff here at a "reasonable" price but cant get items back out again. Those companies are the experts, they should be able to figure something out - unless they have a no-compete clause with DHL. Maybe the demand isn't there, but there has got to be a way.

My P.C. Guy has the same problems, he tells me it is a one way street, in and done. He says to biggest problem is the required paperwork and customs stuff. I wouldn't have thought that would be much of a problem returning stuff with a return authorization but apparently it is.

It certainly seems as though there is a "Panama surcharge". I have always known DHL is expensive - both for getting documents into the Country and out. I know an importer in Panama City, I'll talk to him and see if he has any ideas.

Renewables always promise big and woefully underperform, to the extent that conventional power stations need to be available for backup when they fail. In Ontario, Canada, the government has "invested" heavily in renewables and still they only produce a fraction of power needed, usually at times when it is not needed. In the US., look at Solyndra or Ivanpaugh, both heavily subsidised by government and both huge money losers. In Europe, most governments are backing away from renewables, realising that the only way they work is with the input of billions of tax dollars. Is there a future for renewables? Likely, yes, but on a more community or individual house basis. I ran a home off grid for 5 years in Ontario quite successfully, but the time and effort needed would dissuade 99% of the population. Thats why they call crazies like me the 1%! Until reliable battery systems come along, IMHO renewables are just dreams..Harsh, but true from someone who has done it. One last comment - did I save money being off grid? Well, if you dont count the cost of the equipment, my time and mechanical abilities then maybe, yes. If you do count those things, then it was an exercise in losing money.

Is there a club or a loose affiliation of people? I was looking at this solution while back in Canada, but life happened and nothing got done. Are licences required here, is gear available?

Poulan lawn tractor for sale 17.5 hp, 42 inch cut. About 2 years old, bought from Do-It for $1600 or so. Very low hours, never abused apart from the occasional rock! Selling because my two horses are much more efficient grass cutters, so the tractor doesn't get any exercise. Fresh oil. Asking $1000 for quick sale. johnferguson1301@gmail.com. 65793388

There is a world of difference between "legitimate" tourists and chronic border hoppers. I don't think any legititimate tourist is going to be bothered by any of this and the noted increase in numbers and amount of money spent seems to provide proof of that. Personally, I am not a fan of the border hopping lifestyle, just seems to me, from both a moral and monetary security point of view that it would be preferable to obtain some kind of legitimate residency. The requirements are quite simple and the monetary demands very low, so why not?

I think World Wide will cover to age 75.

You can also check out Magda Crespo insurance in Alto Boquete. magda@magdacrespo.com www.magdacrespoinsurance.com 507 720 3240.

Ouch Bud........Some folks seem to think that Panama is one of the U.S. States and expect everything to be provided, including medicare. Of course, they dont expect to hsve to pay U.S. taxes. Apparently soverignty is an unclear concept to some.

There are quite a few Canadians in Panama. Check out the facebook page under the same name. I believe Cdn health care requires you to spend about 6 months in Canada otherwise there is a waiting period ( but bot if you are a refugee). There are health insurance plans here and while they can be expensive, they provide far superior service to anything the Cdn public system does.

Well.......Itis raining rainy season rain here in Potrerillos Arriba right now....Love it!

Oh, yeah, and on the real upside, the cats play with and kill scorpions.

There are two types of geckos in our house. Roof geckos and dead geckos. One of my cats is a super fast hunter ( he even caught a bat in mid air once) so the ground geckos are dead meat. Unfortunately, he eats them, then I gotta clean up the puke. Gotta love cats.