How to quickly clean rusty tables (w/pics)

[Bonehenge (B A R R Y)]

Maybe they tossed a few bags of weed into each hauler to stay legal.

[mac davis]

I've never heard of anyone needing armed guards here...

Guns and ammo are illegal here and a federal thing.. you can actually get deported for possession..

mac

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[mac davis]

On Thu, 22 Nov 2007 11:24:06 -0800, "Edward Hennessey"

careful to offer

Kind of different here, as the gringo dollar/peso HAS trickled down to the local population.. You still see a lot of poverty, but also a lot of new AC units on houses, fairly new pickups and suv's, etc.. We had a friend visiting last week who screwed up big time and filled his diesel pickup with unleaded.. The station was closing but the attendant made a few phone calls and got a friend to come help.. The took his gas tank off, emptied and cleaned it.. drained his lines and filters... All with hand tools and 5 gallon cans.. Took 4 hours and a lot of work but they refused to let him pay them! These are folks that probably make $2 an hour and could use a few bucks.. My friend figured that it would have cost $600 and 2 days in the States. His wife speaks Spanish and gave the little kid $100 and told him to give it to his mom..

torrid summers and the differential effects of

It's catching up in this area..lol We paid $30k each for 2 lots... built a nice house (1,600 sf including shop) for another $145,000.. The friends mentioned above just bought a lot smaller and further from the water than ours for $65k and are building a 1,400sf house for a little over $100 a foot.. On the "yuppie side" of the hiway, they're selling condo units for $500,000 and "golf course lots" for up to $650,000!!

As to drugs.. I'm at the age where you wonder just when your drug of choice became ibuprofen... You can buy anything here over the counter but narcotics... We stay stocked with antibiotics, etc.. at very low cost..

We don't have a smuggling problem here, but since there is such a large gringo population in the area, the do find the occasional meth lab.. One of the locals was busted for buying crack and it cost them almost $10,000 to avoid deportation and possible loss of their home.. scary stuff..

mac

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[Han]

mac davis wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I borrowed my sister's Peugeot (this was in Holland) and drove to Schiphol airport to pick up my daughter. I realized the fuel level was low, and thought to help my sister pay for fuel. No problem. My US credit card paid for the Euro 95 gas, and I got to the airport, found my daughter, and started driving back. Engine started to stutter. This got worse, I realized I had put gasoline into the tank of a diesel car, and was happy to reach a gas station on the A2 (Breukelen, just north of Utrecht). Called the ANWB for help. It took about 35 min for a technician (??) to arrive. My AAA (North Jersey) card was good. He emptied the gas tank, we filled it with good diesel, and he towed me to start the engine (manual transmision). Car engine ran more smoothly with every km I went. We were just in time "home" for my father's funeral ...

My sister said her car's engine had never run as smoothly until that time. She finally had to sell the car this year, after quite a few more km's.

[Edward Hennessey]

Big Mac:

This last account recalls the day a wheel bearing went bad twice in one trip which led me to a larger town for a replacement. Though I had the tools for the work, after the two-gallon jar of rancho honey had cracked all over the front seat (and occupants) on a notable bump, visions of clean were right there with the bearing in urgency. At 4 p.m. Saturday, I found a shop with the bearing and asked the owner if his people could do the work while I turned back into a human. He said "We close at 4:30. But for you, I'll get people to stay. I need to tell you it will cost you double for the overtime." Without further conversation, "Do it" came out of my mouth. When the bill landed, labor was $6.

Regards,

Edward Hennessey

[Bonehenge (B A R R Y)]

We're all happy to hear that.

[mac davis]

Wow.. good price.. ;-]

Labor is still reasonable, unless it has something to do with the building trades..

You can't buy new tires here.. no idea why.. So, when we had a blow out, we went to the States and bought 2 tires.. took them to the nearest tire place and had them replace the worst 2 tires with the new ones, put the new ones on the back and old ones on the front and balance all four.. When the guys finished and asked for $15 we gave them $20 and told them to go out to dinner.. I was expecting at least a $50 charge..

mac

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