Mexican Water Heater

As you may recall, for the past couple of years I have used a solar shower.  It worked okay but it took a couple of hours to warm up even in the heat of Aticama.  It finally broke so I needed another way to heat water.

We use a lot of black hose at the house and at the orchards.  The fact that the water came out hot got me to thinking that if I used more hose I could get enough volume of hot water to bathe.  Leaving the coiled hose on the patio table in direct sunlight provides almost 5 gallons of hot (probably 120 degrees) water in less than an hour.

In addition to the patio bathing, the water is a great temperature for doing dishes and laundry!

Good News!

Hi Friends,

I apologize for not posting for the past couple of weeks but I have been awaiting news from the doctors and did not want to post until I had the results.  Well, the results show that I am 100% cancer free and the doctors say there is no reason for me not to live to be 80 or more!

I am at my brother's house in Bakersfield, CA now waiting for my new passport book to arrive before I return to Aticama.  It has been over 100 degrees here for the past week and the forecast is for 100+ for the next week or so.  It may be hot in  Aticama but living right on the ocean keeps it feeling much cooler.

I miss my dogs and my friends but am enjoying a wonderful visit with my brother Rick and his family.  Rick had his second knee replacement on Tuesday and everything went well and he is recovering rapidly.  Part of the reason I am here is to help him with his recuperation but he is doing so well, there is not much I can do but enjoy his company!

Unlucky, lucky or just plain dumb?

For as long as I can remember, every time I read a story or heard one on the news about a gun accidently going off and injuring or killing someone, I was skeptical.  First of all, if you drop a gun 100 times it may go off once or twice.  Even then what are the chances that when it does it will be aimed at someone and not just blank space?

The other day I was sitting in the kitchen reading my book and my loaded pistol was lying on the counter.  My pistol is a type of pellet gun but does shoot lead pellets powered by a shell about the size of a 22.  Anyhow, I put my book flat on the counter and pushed it inward so it would not fall on the floor.  I pushed it just a little too far and the pistol fell off the corner of the counter and was heading toward the floor.  I reached over to grab it but was too late.  It hit the floor, went off and I felt immediate pain in my forehead!  A weapon had been dropped and injured a human being, ME!

When a pistol drops, it has basically 4 places to land on: left side, right side, bottom and top.  In order to discharge, it must hit directly on the hammer.  What are the odds?  If it does hit directly on the hammer what are the odds that the barrel will be pointing directly at someone's head?  If you think of the range of the pistols aim like a circle, wherein it could shoot in any direction, a human head takes up a very small portion of that circle.

Well, as they say in the westerns, it just grazed me.  It put a furrow about 1/8 inch wide and 2" long in my scalp just above my right eye.  Unlucky that it hit me when it went off; lucky that it just grazed me and didn't hit my eye; and, dumb for putting a loaded pistol so close to the edge of a counter!