The best time for me is when I get to do the Best of the BLT where I plagiarize from myself...call it my personal time capsule.

Big boss was on the travel list to my job...just a short visit. Long story short, the project manager took a promotion to go back to the home office so we're on our fourth PM. Who would have thought? Now that we're at it: admin is new so that's number four and construction manager is the third one. Including yours truly, there's only four of the original staff remaining on this project. Our client has had serious turnover including to project directors, uncounted guest project directors, two construction managers, and at least seven security managers, and a few replacements at the engineering level.

Friday is Fly Day! I've found, in life, that hobbies often become rituals later in life. It started with my father and the family construction business. I can go on and on but here goes another example. Back in 2012, while in China, I picked up flying toy helicopters. Don't know how they migrated from being called toy helicopters to drones but they were toys back then. If you click on the photo or the 2012 Christmas link to the right, you'll read my story.

Boss said I was supposed to take over the drone photography. Explaining my rich history of crashing drones did nothing to dissuade the boss' thinking. I'm a pilot in training for drone photography. Is there a spare handy?

It's official, I'm a DITWAD! (or is it PITWAD?)

US commercial drone photography requires a FAA pilot's license. There's nine tests for determining the need for a FAA license. If you exceed even one of the requirements, you need a FAA pilot license in the USA. No, I don't have a pilot license. I exceed four of the tests BUT...I'm in Mexico where there are no such requirements or an agency to enforce them.

My first flights went well with no crashes but I drained the batteries (2)...common for trainees. Leo the _____, gets "trainer" or "instructor" added to his long list of last names. The drone I use is centuries ahead of the cheapies I had in China. None of them had a camera. I saw one that was close in the Hong Kong train station.

My first solo experience didn't come out too well. The drone wouldn't fly. I'd remedied the cause of the error message but the propellers were spinning yet this high-tech contraption stayed on the ground. I tried reaching under the unit but the drone bit me...took off a chunk of my left index finger leaving it bruised and bloody. I drained two batteries yet didn't get all the photos I'd planned. Pictures were skewed. With experience...

Frankly, there are so many safeguards built into the drone that it's hard to crash unless it's a head on collision and you get warning for that….except for...a few months later, I was flying the friendly skies concentrating on avoiding obstacles and my next photo when I see tower crane yellow and suddenly, I'm seeing nothing but sky. I called for help who told me someone would climb atop the tower crane to retrieve the drone and toss it off, and I'd fly from there. That didn't happen. It was handed to me. One of the plastic legs was bent in the wrong direction. Factory wouldn't send me the part. Send it in. Boss said to send it to the electricians...they fix anything! Surprise! With a heat gun, the plastic was repaired and we had two successful test flights including an indoor flight. Been flying fine ever since.

As a going away present to our former project manager who gave me the photographer title, I videoed the last safety meeting where the crew was assembled. Again...another drone finger. The left middle finger. I walked around showing folks my "owie". Never try and catch a moving drone even without all of the blades.

Noting the owies and the collisions, I find my drone photo days are the most stressful of all of my work days...always on the lookout for the next introduction.

If you want to get amazed and dizzy at the same time, search out some of the stunt drone videos on YouTube (drone racing). It's safe to say I won't ever reach this level of drone expertise.

Drone based real estate photography is a growing industry. A realtor noted that some Omaha homes do use drone photos but it's not widespread. For final photos, we had a drone video my last project in Kosovo. While not TV network quality, it showed potential. The USFL touted drone videos in their broadcasts. A Facebook friend I met in a job interview started his own photography business. I suggested drones and he said he's interested using his brother but he needed his license. By pure happenstance, I was talking to a couple of visiting technicians, one of which, was a commercial drone photographer. He used tethered drones. A tethered drone has the battery packs resting on the ground while the drone flies above. A long, long wire is connected from the battery pack to the drone above. You can find tethered drones on YouTube as well. He videoed power lines in the Florida everglades for the local electrical utility.

My photos...I'm a regular digital camera shootin', Leonard friggin' Da Vinci of the airway! I need lots of pilot practice. Even priced the same unit on Amazon. It might be an interesting semi-retirement gig... The drone gives the project another dimension.

During my last stint in China, I brought a couple of drones (photo above) back home and tried flying them. My home was too close to the local airport and their radar signals jammed the signal between my remote and the drone. No issues like that here or collisions with low flying aircraft... My drones are safety buried in my Omaha storage unit.

I love the sunrises and sunsets here in Mexico and Arizona. While this may not be my top location in all the places I've lived, I do think about living between the border and Tucson after I finally hang up my construction boots...at least during the winter months.

While my beloved Huskers sucked for 2022...and the past twenty years...I made two trips, Phoenix and LA to see the KC Chiefs.

Mr. Ed and I did make it to Phoenix to watch our beloved Chiefs play the Cardinals. The pregame 9/11 21^st anniversary ceremony was very moving. The game fell on the exact anniversary date of 9/11. It's hard to picture a Cardinal from Arizona but a football game neighbor told me he had two in his Arizona backyard. I believe that if a pro sports franchise moves to a different city, they leave the team mascot behind. Hard for me to imagine a Laker in LA or Utah Jazz. I did a Facebook post...Chiefs 44-21. We ate like pigs and had a great time. The domed stadium was impressive.

For the first time since the COVID inception, I went to the game sans mask. No, it wasn't intentional. Thought I'd lost it but left it back at our hotel. It was very unnerving to say the least. I felt naked. It went back on when I found it.

Was very surprised when I awoke Sunday morning and Mr. Ed told me my beloved Huskers terminated our coach. I hadn't expected it so soon. A week later, we fired the defensive coach.

There's something about Phoenix, I-10, and me. Navigating by GPS, I was going to see some friends before meeting Mr. Ed. I just hung up after telling my friends my ETA. Just like my 2020 visit, as soon as I hang up, I see detour signs. I got all messed up. There were lots of detour signs but nothing telling me to keep going once I took the alternate route. Navigating by GPS, my phone kept getting me back to the closed I-10. I turned off the GPS and called my friends who told me to maintain course, I'd get there but it would be a bit longer. I got there on my original ETA. I sent the GPS folks feedback that their program needs an on-the-fly detour function. The reoccurring thought is "what did I do before the GPS?"

For the Mr. Ed fans, he's talking retirement next year...jealous.

For the LA run, it was the Chargers and Chiefs. I lost a bet...Trump lost the election so I had to buy dinner and pay off the $100 at the location chosen by the winner. We settled for the football tickets in the new LA stadium. No, I'm not a Trump fan but I thought he'd be reelected.

American had changed my return flight twice and canceled it once. We got it fixed and the flights went without incident.

The trip was pretty much a blur. I awoke at 0300 and was at the border about 0400. I debated about eating before or after I flew. Brunch at IHOP sounded better than wolfing down breakfast on the run as I headed to the door. I had time to kill before my friend would pick me up so I took my backpack to the hotel via hotel shuttle and used Uber to get me to IHOP and Barnes and Noble where I killed the rest of the time. I like the concept of Uber but had mixed success with post ride tipping and ratings. I disagree with their ratings. If you didn't give the driver a five-star rating, it was an international incident. Deserved or not, give them a five and call it a day. Sorry, I call a five-star rating white glove service...probably the equivalent of a perfect ten so I skip the ratings.

I used to hang at B&N years ago...before music CDs went the way of the dinosaur. I could get lost where time seemed to stand still. I wondered what, if anything they would display. The CD quantity was low compared to my last trip to BN (about nineteen years ago) but the quality was high. I don't read much but the books I do read are electronic so book stores aren't for me. I looked for CD suggestions to add to my collection...didn't find any omissions in my collection but it was a nice trip down memory lane.

Originally, the game was a day game but got moved to the evening. I was impressed with the construction of the new stadium but not with the design. The seating arrangement was steep. When someone in front of me stood up, my view was blocked. If I stood up, those behind me would be obstructed. From an enthusiast point of view, I was more impressed with the Cardinals stadium I attended in September for another Chiefs game. In both the LA and Phoenix stadiums, the roof retracts. In Phoenix, the field also retracts. The LA stadium is open ended with no visible AC. Phoenix has an enormous AC system.

Like Phoenix, there were many Chiefs fans that seemed to equal the number of Chargers in attendance. Chiefs 30-27 in a last-minute victory.

My friend and I were talking about going to NFL games…or any large event in general. About every three years, we go to a game remembering why we avoid going to these events in the first place. There's no place like home! No, it was a good experience but it still isn't better than staying at home watching the game on TV.

I stayed in the same hotel as the 2019 trip. I felt somewhat naked without a laptop but it was an overnight trip. It was the lightest I've flown anywhere in recent memory.

On the flight to LA, I didn't realize I was in the wrong seat. I was reminded of this on the flight back to Tucson. Sitting next to me on this flight was an older gentlemen accompanied with who I assume was his daughter across the aisle. I don't normally help folks who carry too much luggage on an airplane. My personal policy should mirror the airlines...if you can't lift your luggage, either part with the cash and check it but don't bring it on the plane! It may sound cold but airlines do have rules and not being able to lift your luggage is a clear indication it violates those rules. No, this was something different. The man needed a cane and his walker and a wheel chair waited for him on the tarmac. I helped her every step until she met their ground assistance crew. She mentioned she was carrying tamales to give family. This whole scenario reminded me of my mother and father during his later years. Generally, my mother didn't fly in airplanes. To the woman and her father, I'm the one who helped you off the plane. You have no reason to remember me nor will you read this. Instead of you thanking me, I'm thanking you for bringing back the memory of my father and mother. Yes, Mom's still here but she's not traveling these days.

The flight back to Tucson landed just before lunch. It was a work holiday so I ran errands and saw the latest action flick stopping along the way making it back to Mexico at 2100 totally exhausted!

I made four trips back home: Christmas/New Years, March, June, and September. They all involved variations of the five F's.

The Christmas 2021 trip was by far the most interesting. I had left the doctors' office after bawling them out for sending me to their web site. I'm a construction engineer. I don't know the significance of the written test results. I wanted a nurse to call me and explain, what, if anything, was significant in my test results. They did.

My sister works at the Med Center in Omaha. I sent her a text telling her I was there with the room number. She came in panic mode. Guess I left out the part that I was visiting a friend. She could start breathing and I could stop laughing.

I just left the hospital when I got a call from the nurse I wrote about. "Have you seen your doctor?"

"No."

The implication in her voice was that I should, my blood results were out of whack. Seeing a doctor on short notice during the Christmas holiday is spotty at best but I got in the next day.

I hoped that a friend and I could go to Vegas to see the Raiders and Chiefs play but a three night stay would cost a grand so we changed plans to go to KC before I heard from my doctor. We go to KC for BBQ and other non-healthy food and alcohol consumption. Not knowing what the remedy for me would be, I cancelled the KC part of the trip. Omaha was icy and snowy and the internet went down but I managed to rebook my flights back to Tucson where I drove back to Mexico. Rainy and cold in Tucson means the mercury is above freezing and that beat freezing ice and snow.

I was diagnosed prediabetic. After a few hours of disbelief, logic drew me to the conclusion that two separate tests from two separate organizations couldn't be wrong! I followed the advice of my doctor and saw my optometrist and met virtually with a dietician. I've lost weight before but put it on by having too much good life sacrificing gym time when I went home on leave. I put on another twenty during COVID, my COVID-20. I'd lost my COVID-20 by passing on weekend lunches. The dietician said no more skipping meals and got me counting carbs instead. I still hit the gym...five days a week here in Mexico. Doc prescribed some medications and said I should see him in three months for the meds to stabilize. Add a podiatrist to the growing list of doctors brought on by age. After the return appointment, doc cut my meds in half. It's a confirmation of success having lost weight. Another quarterly appointment with doctor and optometrist said maintain the course I was on...blood tests were normal and I'd taken off another forty to fifty pounds. I was down two waist sizes and falling out of my pants. Docs told me I could move from quarterly to six months apart. No insulin or blood testing needed. Maintain course! I wish you could hear the marching band playing the victory tune in my brain! I haven't seen the podiatrist yet. I found more and more friends with the same condition as I. Those that took the medical advice fared well. Those that didn't, haven't fared well. I doubt they go to Excel to see if they can have a particular food or meal but they have found some success as well.

The diet is pretty simple but requires lots of planning. For meals, three meals at sixty grams of carbohydrates. I allow one snack at thirty carbs. Daily total is 210 carbs. Sometimes, I haven't cleared the dinner table before I finish my snack. If one meal goes over, counter it by reducing the next one. No, I don't pay much attention to calories but I know I could eat a stack of steaks without coming close to my carb limits so some discretion is necessary. I track my consumption on an Excel spreadsheet. I'd heard for many years that writing down the foods consumed is the key to a successful diet. I'm not sure about that but it helps me maintain course. Unless I'm traveling, meals are planned a week or more in advance. It makes grocery shopping easier. I read that constipation is common for those on a diet. Once the weight starts coming off as the food consumption shrinks, the body gets clingy to the foods at are consumed.

Frankly, dieting is hard. It's not fun saying no to foods or limiting quantities of food I used to eat but neither is taking that weight off. We celebrate life events eating. We need food to survive. The dietician asked about my feelings regarding my new diet. I wasn't happy as I view spontaneity in cooking fuels my creativity. The new diet really requires advance planning to succeed so I'm living with different rules. It's brought on the challenge of how can I still have the foods I want yet maintain my goals. I've been playing with recipes and sauces expanding the variety of my cuisine. I convert the recipes to being diet friendly but I maintain the recipe intent. Sometimes, it's a new spice or sauce that gives food a whole new outlook. I get a rush when I find a product that I can find that's sugar free. While traveling, I order food hoping I met my diet requirements and going to my spreadsheet afterwards for my report card.

Right now, I'm down 75 pounds which is my goal when I started. My sister said I needed to lose 100 pounds to meet my body mass index (BMI-what my weight should be for someone my height/build). I like my legs! I don't intend to gain that weight back. Buying smaller slacks is my touchdown dance.

I've been asked, with the weight loss, do I feel better. Like before, like my CPAP mask (aka, the chick magnet), I don't feel better. With the mask, I sleep a couple more hours a night so I don't feel sleepy during the day. With the weight loss, it takes stress off the joints. No, I don't feel better. I just don't feel the negative with the sleep loss or the pressure on the body that the extra weight places on my system. I'm not missing what I don't feel.

Several months ago, I donated a couple pairs of pants that I'd grown out of. I traded them back swapping out two pairs of used pants for four pairs of new. At the time of swapping, I had a bit more weight to lose before I could wear the used pants. I've bought interim pants on Amazon. I call them interim because my goal was to lose a lot more weight. Looking forward to clothes hanging on a skeletal frame, shopping for more, smaller clothing, and returning my chick magnet to its' homeland!

Never underestimate the value of paper... In an update, I wrote that I moved to a different office. I'm the third occupant of this space. The first occupant was old school. Rather than do everything electronically, there are a book shelf full of binders of paper documentation of early work. While in Laos, for months, I remember watching a colleague scan multiple volumes of paper into electronic documents months/years after the work was completed. That too would be the fate of all the binders in my office. My company was hit by a virus that impacted all of our projects, domestically and internationally. We shut down our computers worldwide. Work in the field kept going best it could. The first test was about a week after the shutdown, payroll. Not paying our employees would create an avalanche of problems one could only fathom. We got paid. Three weeks later, computers started coming back on line. The main part of my work is invoicing for work in place. If I don't do my work, the company doesn't get paid! I asked for my computer to be started first and my request was granted. A month afterward, weren't fully up to speed but working towards that goal. My pharmacy back home had a similar issue. Never underestimate the value of paper!

This computer outage brought back an unpleasant memory when I was in Tunis. We had a virus on our local network. It was a local, peer-to-peer network so restraining the virus was comparatively simple. Yours truly spontaneously became the IT guy. With the help of a home office IT colleague, we fixed our network. This bit of revelry made me say a prayer in thanksgiving that I'm not the current IT guy.

As we were having computer meltdown, our local IT guy had given notice he was leaving. I couldn't help but think he was leveraging this moment of weakness for a raise. It'd be good time to ask but rotten timing from a company perspective. Apparently, he'd received an offer from the consulate to be the IT guy on our completed project. The consulate folks said he needed to get another clearance and it'd take three months to get it...he postponed his resignation.

In previous editions, I wrote of a famous local restaurant, La Roca, "The Rock". Famous American Actor, John Wayne, the Duke, used to frequent this place when he was in the area. Word has it he had a house near Nogales. I kept pushing this place on friends without having been there based on the recommendation of my former neighbor. The wife of my buddy was leaving to go home and take care of the grand baby. As a going away present, I offered to buy dinner at La Roca. They were going there that evening as a going away party for one of their colleagues. The next day, my buddy said they'd go again. The place is literally built into a rock. Food was good but I can do the same or better remaining in my neighborhood. We were so close to the border that I felt I needed my passport. OK, I wanted my passport.

Right around the corner from the restaurant, was a street fair, May flower festival. There was a band playing, food stands, and even a boxing/professional wrestling ring. No, we didn't stay long, just to see what this place was about.

The bar at the food court across the street was advertising Lucha Libre (Mexican professional) wrestling. We assumed they were going to set up a wrestling ring right there. As time got closer, I saw no wrestling ring and to set one up takes quite a lot of time. We went searching returning to the street fair where we were the night before. Wasn't there. We kept looking around town. We found a baseball stadium and a bull fighting arena. Now, the bull fighting arena is now a large food court. One stand had the largest tortilla I'd ever seen. It looked like an ultra-jumbo pizza crust about the same size as a manhole cover. We'd already had dinner and tortillas aren't carb friendly. We'll keep looking for the Lucha Libre folks but my opportunity seems to have evaporated. My wrestling buddy departed for home. I read somewhere that to see bull fighting, Mexico City is the place to go.

Welcome to the world Easton Michael Dobson, son of Margaret and Josh Dobson born 28-July-22...Bluelou...the great marginal uncle. Easton was born by C-section a day after his mom's birthday. That's a nice birthday present even if the stork was a day late.

One of my local colleagues asked me how my Spanish was coming along. Well, I probably doubled my vocabulary but that doesn't say much. We were told that we needed a foreign language for college. I wanted to take Spanish in high school but Dad threatened to disown me if I did. I took French but that didn't seem very macho for this Cornhusker so I dropped it after a year. I didn't need French in engineering college. First time I used my French was in Paris in 1997 and that wasn't a lot. The French know more of the English language than the Americans know of the French language. Maybe, if I'd be in a location that seemed a bit more international...

For 2022, my company was awarded two projects in Mauritius and Congo but I have this reoccurring nightmare that I'm stuck here in perpetuity. The finishes are going on so the finish line is in sight. Finishes are the best part of construction. Our project in Hanoi should be starting in spring 2023 as well. Mauritius and Hanoi would be my choices. Each has their winning points. Mauritius would be awesome if I hadn't given up scuba diving. I believe I'll still be in Mexico. Stay tuned and you'll find out in future BLT updates.

My Thanksgiving tradition is making turkey, carrots, and potatoes from the crock pot with canned gravy…on Thanksgiving. Yes, we worked on Thanksgiving Day but I still got my workout followed by a turkey dinner.

The company Thanksgiving was held at the same place a few years before. It was on black Friday. Dinner was a combination pot luck/catered affair. The American workers weren't there...bachelor party I believe...so there was an excess of food. Even if the workers would have shown, there aren't enough to eat all the food that was there. I cleaned out my cupboard excess making Stovetop stuffing and Jiffy corn muffins. My stuffing was buried under a bunch of excess food so I took it home and trashed it because I needed to retrieve the pan. The muffins...saw three at the buffet table so maybe the other three were eaten...hopefully by humans. It was a tough gig as I was still counting my carbs...had a couple pounds to go. Nobody said it was BYOB and carb-laden sugary sodas was all there to drink. With all that food, it was tough avoiding temptation but while I exceeded my meal carb limit, I stayed within my daily limit and the weight I gained came off. Yes, it's an understatement to note that the diet was/is my obsession.

We did have a company Christmas party at a nearby party venue. I'd already eaten dinner so I didn't stay long. I'd been to the gym, had dinner, and even cleaned up the dinner dishes before I went to the party. I didn't want to trash my diet again. Not having Diet Coke at a party is a sure excuse to get me to leave early. I could have hit the nearest convenience store but this venue wasn't the type for BYOS...that's Bring Your Own Soda. I needed to get ready to hit the road on the next day. The company gave us the day off to benefit those that were partied out from the night before.

We did have a party for our workers as well. I wasn't informed and had already planned lunch...a date with a cheeseburger. Tortillas are a limited stipend in my dietary cuisine. The party started around 11am. I was told the party would be over at 130pm. Nope! The music was still going strong and didn't stop until 315pm. Some of our work was accompanied by a three piece band: accordion, drum, and trombone. I was hoping to go home early as all the energy was drained.

For Christmas 2022/New Years 2023, I kept it pretty close to Mexico though I did head north of the border as I had available days I could be in the US without jeopardizing my tax status. I'll be going home in January to see the doctors. Christmas dinner mirrored Thanksgiving with turkey and the trimmings including stuffing. I invited a Ukrainian colleague, who, unbeknownst to me, invited another colleague. Dinner in the crock was for two. The girlfriend hates that my adlib attempts are usually successful. Here I go. I had smoked turkey in the fridge. A half-hour later, I had smoked turkey warmed up in the oven and we made due for three. Kick in the hate! How's that for spontaneity? The stuffing you ask...I had my share but the rest ended up in the trash. There's a pattern here...

As you can conclude, 2022 wasn't as eventful as past issues of the BLT. I'm good with boring. I'm seriously looking at my future whether it's work as I know or something else. If my decision is something else, the lingering questions remain: where will I be and what will I do.

February 2023 will be my four-year anniversary here in Mexico. I haven't lived anywhere for that long since I graduated from high school! I'll also turn sixty. Stay tuned!

I do share the US Government Facebook posts about our project. Friend me and I'll pass on what they share.

Feliz Navidad! Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Happy Kwanza! Happy Chanukah!