Howdy! Welcome to The Bluelou Times! I've visited and lived in many interesting places in my young life. I've recorded many of my memories in letters I've sent to my friends. This web page archives several of those letters. This is a sample. My friends think I should be a writer. These memoirs are my first attempts at being that writer. If you like it, you can find many more just by clicking on the links to the left, right, or top of the page. You can also let me know by clicking the e-mail link below. Please Check Out My Sponsors (And Some Interesting Stuff Too..) You can click on some of the flag links above. In 1994, I'd sold or given away most of my worldly possessions in three weeks (truck, ATV, fridge, washer, ACs, etc.) and boarded on a plane from Atlanta to Frankfurt Germany thinking I'd made the dumbest mistake in all my life. The story of those three weeks is a tale of its' own. I decided that since I'd made my bed, I'd best sleep in it. I flew on to Istanbul and then to Ankara. I was fumbling with my luggage trying to explain to the customs agent that those were truly cooking spices. Who in their right mind would want to take drugs INTO Turkey? All the while, someone who could have easily bailed me out of this mess...was laughing at me and my traveling rummage sale. Hey, I deserved it! I'm still the world's worst traveler. This person was my then roommate and longtime buddy, Mike Veal (aka Mr. Wheel). It turned out to be the best thing I'd done and I don't regret a minute. Mike's still with my company and we stay in touch. He's been a long reader of the Bluelou Times. Believe it or not, he's been to more places than I've traveled.

Both Birmingham bosses were in Bangkok for work. I suggested my web page for tour ideas. Don't forget the world famous Lady Boys! One response: "OMG". The other "LOL". On my Facebook feed, one of my former Mexican colleagues wrote that he was headed to Nebraska. We exchanged messages. He was headed to Omaha for training. I gave him a few recommendations including the world renown zoo and my favorite Mexican restaurant. I even asked him to go see my mom. Returning from running errands to the apartment one warm Saturday afternoon. The front door has a magnetic lock with a keypad to enter a code to deactivate the lock. You still need a door key even if you have the combination but none of the codes worked. Called our admin guy who was hanging out in Phoenix along with much of our crew. Was trying to think of things to do to kill time. I was authorized to spend the night in the nearby hotel with only the clothes on my back. None of the movies appealed to me. It was a scorcher of a day and bake in the sun I did. I had car keys but the remote for the gate was in the apartment. It took several calls between the landlord, admin, and me. None of the codes including a new one worked. The landlord eventually came and he gave me a totally different code which didn't fit the regular code pattern. The keypad was simply worn out. The direct sunlight may have overheated it as well. Scary moment averted though I'm apprehensive just going outside during the daylight hours. A couple of months later, I saw the landlord and a technician replacing the keypad. So far, no further incidents. Keep thine fingers crossed. Yes, it was the Mexican Independence holiday and we had two and a half days off from work. Normally, I'd head to Tucson for a day or at least, Wally World. Trying to reduce my freezer/cupboard levels, I didn't need much and I was short on days to spare in the US. I'd spent several days in the US for my cataracts and had at least two more days with my laser surgery the following week in Tucson and the follow up to that just across the border in Nogales, AZ. I narrowly avoided getting my face painted with celebrating Independence Day with colors of the Mexican flag. Not my thing. Lots of cars with Mexican flags streaming in the wind. I was impressed. My laser eye surgery went as planned. It didn't start out well as the surgeon jammed his lens in my eye without warning. My eye welcomes my touch, not from others. Speculation says the unannounced jam was intentional but it went away quickly. I heard several clicks and a couple of minutes later, it was over. I was intrigued at the workings of the eye surgery office and staff which seemed to me of a high-tech eye surgery as meticulously planned as McDonalds does about hamburgers. I had contingency plans for a ride home but drove myself back to Mexico stopping to shop and have dinner on the way. The follow-up exam was uneventful and I wait for my January trip home to get my corrective lenses. I haven't needed glasses since I had the cataracts removed so vision is fine other than reading work presentations from medium distances doesn't happen. Both eyes secrete far more mucus than ever before I had the cataracts removed. The eyes know that there's something foreign inside my eyes. Each time I awaken, my brain tells me I fell asleep with my contacts in my eyes. I don't see black streaks in my vision...white ones when the eyes are changing focus. I haven't done anything with my old contacts and eyeglasses other than the ones I had changed in hopes it'd clear up the slight flaw in the left eye. No, I'd be a liar if I said I'd worn the glasses with the new lenses for an hour. Following my eye surgery, I reported the results to the siblings. Gigi reported that she got another bout of COVID. She's had it before at least once. According to the evening news, COVID cases were reported at pre-pandemic levels of 2020, so I'm back with the mask. It's hard getting back into the habit of wearing a mask. I wasn't the first in the office to resume wearing the mask. Some followed my example. Those that followed don't seem to wear theirs as religiously as I. I ditched the mask after then next vaccine. Word has it from our client that we'll be getting the newest COVID shot from the consulate. I booked an appointment with the Nogales AZ Walgreens for my COVID and flu vaccines on a holiday before Thanksgiving. The Walgreen vaccine came first with no announcement about the Embassy vaccine. Was reminiscing back to 1994 working in Armenia. We moved from the hotel Armenia (now a Marriott) to the Embassy to have electricity and water which was rationed outside the embassy for two hours a day. The embassy had an auditorium and they played popular Hollywood movies. You could hear and feel the subway trains pass by. Fast forward to now. My apartment literally borders the project where I work. This is the next best thing to working at home. The commute is about twenty seconds. Reluctantly, I admit that being just south of the US border simplified my cataract removal. It was also good for travel during COVID. Besides the food and the extremely close proximity for me living to the project, travel will be about the only thing I'll miss from this post. You always miss the friends you made at every post. Got an email from a friend/former colleague living in Tucson a few days before my last trip to the Nogales, AZ eye doctor. He'd dropped out of sight for years so when I saw his email with contact info, I jumped on it. After my follow-up exam, I drove to Tucson and we reminisced for a couple of hours. We spent time on two different posts, Tanzania and my first stint in Beijing. One of my faves is catching up with former colleagues whom I haven't chatted with in a while. Two my Armenian engineers were an example. One had a fruit farm and the other was building his own hotel. I wrote about this years ago but it's still applicable. While landing in Tucson, I overheard someone say that Tucson is the only place where you run the heater and the AC in the same day. I can't confirm the exclusivity but concur with the concept. On the day of my YAG surgery, it just felt that fall was in the air. I hope the fall season stays for a while. I wear short sleeved shirts but to protect my skin from the sun, I wear removable sleeves. The locals are starting to ask if I'm cold without a jacket. I still log my meals. Got a few pesky pounds that linger. Was thinking getting low carb pasta would be the hardest thing I could get overseas. When I was home in July, T told me if I made my own pasta, I can make some truly low carb pasta. Google to the rescue! I found a video with recipe online. Ordered the tools and supplies from Wally World that day. I still have a lot of expensive edamame pasta but I want to play around with the homemade pasta. My first attempts to make weren't good. On my second weekend, I did more fooling around with the pasta machine. I m getting better but it doesn't look like the video. With the trial pasta batches, I go through eggs like air. The basic recipe is eggs, cream cheese, oat fiber, and salt. I couldn't resist so I tried some pathetic looking pasta noodles...didn't even try spaghetti noodles. At best, three-quarters looked like egg noodles for tuna noodle. Nothing I d show to guests, but it wasn't bad. More work is in order. It's gonna take time to get it remotely close to the video. I'm performing under less than optimum conditions. I've maintained that the natural gas that feeds my stove and oven is low grade. The oven isn't exactly precise...just adds to the challenge which is part of the international lifestyle romance.

I came to the hard conclusion that four laptops, four phones, and one tablet is just too much technology to have and maintain. My main laptop has been less than reliable so I bought a new one from Amazon. It's a sixteen-inch screen, in between my usual 17 inch and the 14 inch. I was surprised it didn't have a number pad. Not looking at the photos before I bought it is on me but it's not a big deal.

I gave one phone away. One phone and one laptop went to the Geek Squad. The tablet is likely to go next. It's hard saying goodbye. Separation anxiety? Stay tuned for further updates.

Setting up the new laptop was an adventure. During the initial setup, the laptop crashed. I restored the computer to factory state and reinstalled the software. All was good with the world but at the end of the first day, that same computer crashed again. Another restore and it returned to satisfactory except for one software upgrade which the factory and I scheduled a one-on-one remote repair session with someone in Mauritius. My company has a project in Mauritius. Mauritius tech was transferred to an American tech (Douglas) and the problem was remedied. Thank you Douglas! For the record, I work with MS Office but my personal word processing software is WordPerfect hands down. Yup! Still the dinosaur. WordPerfect has more features but I have both Microsoft and Corel suites on my personal computers.

To be fair to Dell, running windows update made the computer crash, three times but I never lost data, just plenty of time but gained lots of learning.

Early one morning, I was looking for the wallet on my way out the door. No such luck. I looked and looked and even went back to the place I thought I'd left it...the Ley grocery store where I lost it before. Visions where I'd lost a wallet at the same location a couple of years ago were fresh in my brain. I took one of our Spanish speaking colleagues to translate. Nothing was turned into lost and found and the video tape showed I took it with me. I'd heard that before only to have the finder call me a couple of weeks later. I put the credit card on hold and transferred all my payments to the debit card. I even turned over furniture multiple times. At lunch, I prayed and was drawn to the bathroom. I checked there a few times previously. It was in the pocket of my shower bathrobe, bathroom...you make the connection! Disaster averted. Card reinstated. You always find something in the last place you look! I was elated that I didn't have to get a new credit card. Regular readers of the BLT know that getting bank cards replaced has been a nightmare for me of late.

A few weeks later, I got a call from the same credit card company. Someone used my card number and they were questioning the charges. I checked their app. Nope! Wasn't me. A new card is on the way. Getting new plastic has been a pure hassle for me. I transferred the rest of my monthly charges to the debit card. Other than the wait, I had no hassles getting my plastic this round.

One of my banks was changing names and getting that to work was a complete mess. My sister went in but that didn't work. When the name change was official, I spent a lot of time with tech support but we got it going. Fast forward to now, I got a new debit card. Spent hours with support working on a PIN change. They promised to call...nope! A couple days later, inspiration hit so I connected with my VPN and shazam! It works and I did it all by myself saving myself a trip to the bank north of the border! A trial test confirmed my theory.

The company furnished my apartment with two TVs. At the time, I had cable TV but really didn't watch it because it was in Spanish and I have YouTubeTV. Before my eye surgeries, I mentioned I don't watch my bedroom TV. A colleague asked if he could use it. His was stolen. Begging the question, how was it stolen. The construction crews working on his apartment, broke into his apartment taking the TV. I'd resumed watching that TV so the answer was no. They broke in, stole stuff, fixed their damage, and got paid to do it by the property owner. How convenient!

Fast forward to now. A different colleague, living in the same compound, had his valuable bag taken including his cell phone and his passport! He's from Kosovo and the nearest consulate is in Des Moines Iowa. The first challenge is avoiding getting ID'd. Next: getting a temporary ID to allow him into the US to get a passport. Current plan is to have him driven by another colleague with a driver's license to Des Moines (1,500 miles one way) and back to get a passport. No, he can't fly without an ID either. Lastly, not having his apartment broken into. Maybe they can visit my family in Des Moines and even drive west to see Ma! Wishful thinking!

Several BLT issues ago, I wrote about our staff selling food and drink to other staff. Just got an email announcing that as of October and beyond, on site food and drink sales are persona non grata. The Coke machines downstairs are still in business.

Got an email about a non-official Halloween party. Let's dredge up some ideas. Take a little bit of this (bib overalls) and some of that (COVID smiley mask), toss in dark shades from cataract surgery, and a Rasta hat with dreads from a Halloween party years ago. There were a few creative costumes.

A follow-up note to the last issue, we didn't make it to the next Lucha Libre (Mexican Professional Wrestling) but we did find another on my Facebook. Working six days a week means days off are a premium. The show was an hour earlier, there were fewer matches, and gaps between the matches were longer but we got out much sooner which was good on a school night. Nobody in our crew was fluent in Spanish but we relied on our experience. Fortunately, no incidents created the need. I did see Tecate beer on sale but I stuck to water. The heat in the building had been shut off prior to the event so it radiated cold. The coat I wore didn't keep me warm. We sat in the front row this time. We were slapping fives to the wrestlers as they passed and ducking wrestlers as they were flying into neighboring chairs. Yes, we could hear the smacking of the chairs on the wrestler...that was real. There were no trans or little people like our first show. The snake made a return appearance but none of our crew indicated they were brave enough for that Facebook moment. I didn't see any fliers announcing the next event though I probably will see some announcement on future Facebook feeds. Guys were saying it'll be a while before the next event but were thinking it would be something to do when the next event happens.

Had two tickets to the December Raiders-Chargers game in Vegas. My friend canceled. I've been a longtime fan of the Bellamy Brothers whose only appearance was the same night as the game. I thought about selling both tickets to see the concert but the concert is after the game. Now, I have tickets to both and I put the extra ticket on the Ticketmaster web site for resale. Let's see how that goes. As dumb luck would have it, I bought the ticket insurance, so I filed a claim for refund. I bought the tickets in May realizing there was a lot that could happen between when I bought the tickets and when the ticket would be used. I was thinking/hoping/praying I'd be elsewhere in the world but that was wishful thinking. The ticket didn't sell online but the insurance company confirmed I'd be reimbursed.

I asked my taxi driver what the spread was of the game. He said Raiders by three. "Who died?" Chargers QB was out for the season for pinky surgery. Chargers should have rolled but they felt they shouldn't maintain possession of the football. I left at the beginning of the fourth quarter with a score of Raiders 63-7. Chargers scored a couple more touchdowns but the game was a bust.

I was impressed with the new stadium but new stadiums give teams liberty to crank up ticket prices to stratosphere levels. As the old Bud Light commercial goes for Mr. Nosebleed Season Ticket Holder, it took two sherpas and a mountain goat to get to the seat. I could see the field however.

Las Vegas tourists live with taxies. The stadium doesn't have good taxi access so I felt better about leaving early. Busses parked close to the stadium. I kept looking and asking about a taxi stand but hailed a taxi off the street and I was early for the concert. Had an interesting ride with a racist taxi driver whose driving skills made me question my own mortality but that's another story. Email me for details...

The Bellamy Brothers wasn't a bucket list concert but it's close. I hit their web site on occasion and see lots of tour dates but timing and location never really meets my availability and the window of opportunity was getting smaller. Given my mobile status, I didn't see many future opportunities so I was kinda giddy! Ticket was row 4. My musical heroes keep passing on to the great concert jam in heaven. The ticket said no photos or recording but folks were snapping pictures and taking videos so I got a few photos myself. Nothing was said. The Bellamys played all their hits. My seat was four rows from the speakers so there was some distortion. I felt like the drummer mailed in his part of the show compared to their albums but they played all their hits. One tick of the almost bucket list.

The rodeo was in town. I can't recall ever seeing so many cowboy hats anywhere, ever. I saw the San Antonio rodeo only because Journey played after the rodeo.

My only bitch about this trip is that I have global entry so I can travel through TSA quickly. My information is in the Southwest computer system yet it didn't appear on my boarding pass nor my eticket. I almost missed my return flight having to wait to get through security.

The first project award of this bidding season was Medan Indonesia. While I loved working in Indonesia and hated leaving, it's doubtful I'll go as it was bid by our Istanbul office who believe I make too much money. Again, I respectfully disagree. I'm underpaid! I haven't heard anything specifically about me going or not going anywhere. I'm not much on wagering. If I were, I'd bet my money on Bluelou-no-go. There isn't much on the list to bid but we still have a bunch of work to do. Word is that we secured the Hanoi embassy construction. Call this a bucket list wish that I get to go.