I am not sure how much CRIM, sellos y estampillas (property taxes, seals and stamps) normally cost, but it sounds like with this program they will be waived for a period of 5 years if you buy a house between September 1, 2010 and June 30, 2011! 

We’ve received conflicting information about property taxes in Puerto Rico and housing in general. It’s hard to find accurate information as every person we talk to has a different interpretation. Some people have even told us there is no property tax!? In any case, it sounds like good news for people like us who may buy a Puerto Rican house within this time period.

To read more about this new law check out this Caribbean Business article or this blog post.

Is there a light at the end of the tunnel?

With my dad, everything seems to have changed. I just want to know what happened to him. Where he is now. What is going on. How can someone be here with us in this plane of existence and then suddening is not?! And if that is it -we exist and then we don’t-, then what’s the purpose? What’s the purpose of all of this in the first place? There is so much life all across the planet -lifetransplanet if you will but no one truly understands it.

It’s like we (kind of) understand the biological processes and the chemicals and minerals and all sorts of things, but we don’t understand what that spark is in the beginning or that flame that we carry with us until we die. That same spark that must be in seeds to germinate into trees and plants, frogs, mosquitos, Schnoodle. It’s why we eat food- that spark that sustains our flame. And it’s that same spark that makes us create something out of the “thought realm” like building or remodeling a house, writing a book (or blog!), or creating a data file.

Because what are thoughts? Are they simply the chemical results of our brains’ activity? And if so, why would this thinking create so much of what we see as reality in this world? Every building we see, every car on the road, every THING we have started at some point as a thought-a spark of creativity.

And then, what are memories? Mind travel machines? Why do we yearn to learn so much? Why is so much of our lives spent trying to figure stuff out? To remember so we don’t have to repeat mistakes? To have some connection to those who no longer exist?

And so, if only to confuse us more, then what are dreams? Could our sleeping world be parralelled with the death world as many suppose? Are dreams just there to help us sort out our days and process the things we didn’t have time to process while awake (or alive)? What is our subconscious? We understand so little about our conscious life, but our subconscious? We know even less.

I’ve been having dreams almost every night where my dad either hasn’t died yet or has come back and everyone says “you gave us a big scare” and he just chuckles as he would. I had another dream where we were waiting in the hospital but it was more like an airport -a soul port- and he was a departure (if you think about a hospital, it is kind of like that -people dying are departing and people being born are arriving at the same centralized place).

I didn’t want him to go wherever he was going. I wanted him to stay with me. So we could just hang out and plan the future. So we could talk about things like this -the philosophy of what life and death are without actually having to experience it deep within my being. In my dream when he saw me start to cry, he also began to cry to see me so sad. And I awoke from the dream shaking and crying in “actuality”.

So what is going on here? Why is it that we just walk around our lives completely oblivious to the most important thing: that we only have so long in this form. We do so many things in our lives that are meaningless, or worse: mean! And I suppose we are lucky that we don’t have to think about death all the time or our lives would be weighed down and so heavy we wouldn’t even want to get out there and make something of it. But we have the perfect balance (usually): we understand the impermanence of our situation, and yet we have enough time to create the world we want to see -even if it is just in our home and backyard. And in the process we can change society as a whole for the better. And granted, that is subjective, but I think most people could agree that we want peace, love, joy and cooperation. We want to be treated as good people with something to contribute.

I think it starts with that realization, and it ends when you have fufilled some sort of purpose (or get taken out of the game too early). And it should not just be a realization of ourselves, but of others. Of treating others with respect as the beings that they are on this planet whether animal, plant or human. It is about being kind and also about forgiving.

But in the end, I really don’t know. This matter of life and death is just as mysterious as ever. It’s a puzzle that we’ve been asking throughout the ages over and over again: why am I here? …And where do we go after? Where are you, Dad?

I keep hearing this song lately and feel compelled to listen carefully to it

Another example that demonstrates the importance of these Spanish orthographic components is the tilde ~ ’ (both the ~ and  the ‘ are called tildes although they are somewhat different). In the case of the ~ tilde, it goes over the n to make it a separate letter of the alphabet -ñ.

With the tilde on the n the word año (pronounced anyo) it means “year” without it, the word ano means “anus”. As you can see, these little dashes and wiggle marks (diacritical marks) can make a big difference!

The placement of an accent is not by accident. A many regular words in Spanish have emphasis on the second to last syllable (the penultimate). These are words like:

casa =house
mesa =table
Pablo =Pablo (Paul)
señorita =miss
computadora =computer
ojos =eyes
examen =test

All of these words must end in either s, n, or a vowel. If they do not end in s, n or a vowel, then the regular words have the emphasis on the last syllable. For example:

regular = regular
particular = private, particular
nariz =nose
normal =normal

Words whose emphasis is NOT on the second to last syllable for s, n, and vowel-ending words or whose emphasis is NOT on the last syllable for all the others are irregular and need an accent where the emphasis SHOULD go. These include:

teléfono =telephone -if it were standard it would have the emphasis on the “o” after the f since it ends in a vowel.
lápiz =pencil -if it were standard the emphasis would be on the “i” since it ends in a letter other than s, n or vowel
educación =education -if it were standard the emphasis would be on the ”i”  

If you change a words by making it plural (adding an “s”) this can sometimes remove the accent. For example:

población =population
poblaciones =populations

or the opposite:
examen =test
exámenes =tests

In the first example (poblacíon) because it has become plural and there is an s, the emphasis goes to the second to last syllable which is where the emphasis should be and why there was an accent before. In the second example since it ended in an n, the stress should be on the “a” but when you make it plural it would move to the second e (the second to last syllable).

However, in this following example the accent stays because the second to last syllable would be the “i” and the emphasis needs to be on the “a”

lápiz =pencil
lápices =pencils

The other reason to add an accent has nothing to do with signaling the pronunciation emphasis/stress, but rather to specify what the word is refering to. For example:

tú versus tu -tú means “you” while tu means “your”
él versus el – él means “he” while el means “the” (for a masculine object)
sé versus se -sé means “I know” OR “Be” while  se is the reflexive part of a verb
más versus mas -más means “more” while  mas is a conjunction that means “but or although”
cómo versus como – cómo means “how” and like dónde, cuándo and other words that start a question, they have the accent whereas  como means “like” or ”as”. It can also mean “I eat”. As in the joke: ¿Cómo comes? Como como como.  (How do you eat? I eat like I eat.)

For more on these common Spanish mistakes, visit this site. It is in Spanish, but is quite useful.

 This site also had some games you could play to work on your Spanish. Try the él versus el or tú versus tu ones.

Don’t worry too much about accents unless you are writing something formal, or hanging a sign or otherwise doing something that is in stone. It is kind of like writing dont instead of don’t, pry instead of probably,  thru instead of through or loose instead of lose. But as I said before in the example of año and ano it’s good to at least be aware!

Kitchen Before

Kitchen After -the fridge and stove will be delivered from Hispano Appliances tomorrow probably

Bedroom before

Bedroom after-I love nice wood floors!

Bathroom before -green and yellow? Really?

I think the bathroom is the most dramatic change

Britton and I stopped by Tailgate the Safety Way in Greeley at Greeely West High School today in the midst of finishing up the rental work. It is an event they do every year to increase people’s awareness about safe driving among other things. It was ok.

I thought there would be a lot more going on, but we just kind of milled around and looked at the crashed cars and watched the so-called “celebrity” drivers go really, really, slow with “beer goggles” on. We also watched a helicopter (Medivac) land. But it was free and we appreciate all the work people did to put the event on (including people I work with). Plus, we got free food, which is always a good thing. And it’s not every day you get your picture taken with Larry the Crash Test Dummy. Which of course reminded me of the Crash Test Dummies from the early 90s.

That’s what I call a smashed up car!

Wall of Tomatoes

Welcome to the jungle

Handful of tomatoes

The bounty

“The fresh eggs from the recalled firms are being diverted to USDA-approved facilities for pasteurization,” Food and Drug Administration spokeswoman Patricia El-Hinnawy said Wednesday.

Well honestly, that is about the expected result.  Instead of fixing the problem (large scale centralized food production) we come up with another quick fix.

I just find it amusing (especially after raising a few hens in our backyard) that there is all this hoorah about some eggs.  People really should just take matters into their own hands and raise a few themselves.  But as we’ve seen, the government does NOT want that. 

I mean just think.  People could be responsible for themselves and there wouldn’t be a need for a .gov agency to oversee EVERY single egg this country produces and consumes.  It really is laughable the lengths we Americans go to in order to feel safe.

Show me your papers