Hurricane Hunter in Puerto Rico

We recently had the pleasant visit in Mayaguez, on the West coast of our Island of the Hurricane Hunter from the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Of course the purpose of this visit is due to very unpleasant reasons. We will soon be reaching our hurricane season. Probably sooner than expected because lately everything has changed greatly even with respect to the weather.

A great number of public including thousands of children with parents and school teachers had the opportunity of boarding the Hurricane Hunter and were able to observe all the instruments that are used by meterologists on board to follow the course of storms and hurricanes.

The purpose of this visit is to alert the general public with respect to the hurricane season and to create awareness about the need that, not only the citizens, but also the government should have and how they should be prepared. They spoke to us about the 2005 hurricane season which resulted very active with regard to cyclones and they anticipated that in the next few years these types of atmospheric phenomenons will increase due to the heating of the earth.

This plane's crew is in charge of receiving all the information pertinent to nature phenomenons so that the agencies and all the citizens should be aware of its efects and course and may take the necessary precautions.

Puerto Rico is Mourning

An abundant group of people dressed with black shirts and carrying forty-nine boxes simulating coffins, representing the forty-nine soldiers from this Island who have died in this useless war, marched towards our Capital to manifest their claim in favor of ending the Middle East war and the return of our Puerto Rican soldiers. Hundreds of people marched silently under a burning sun starting at 2:00 PM from the Peace Pavillion in the Luis Muñoz Rivera Park all the way to our Capital, with messages that read: "An End to the War."

The boxes simulated coffins covered with United States flags and were carried by family members of our soldiers who died in Irak and Afghanistan, besides representatives from different religious, civil rights and anti-military, veterans, and feminists groups.

In the beginning of the public manifestation and carrying one of the coffins were the parents of Orville Gerena who died at the age of 21 last month in Hit, in Irak. They expressed they were hoping the number of dead soldiers would not reach fifty because Orvile was number forty-nine to fall in this war. His sister said she wished that her brother's death would be the last one of a Puerto Rican in this conflict. The 13 year old who carried her brother's photo and a white shirt that read "Orville, you are our heroe" assured that we must fight so that no one else should die.

The soldier's father said he was against the military reclutement because he understood it was "unjust" to sacrifice their lives in exchange for economic benefit promises. We are disproportionally paying for this conflict considering the high number of Puerto Rican soldiers lost as an oppressive and racist measure. It is not fair to sacrifice the lives of our sons in an unjust war which has been overly demonstrated has no sense whatever except for political and economical reasons.

Right now millions of people from different parts of the world are protesting against the conflict in Irak upon celebrating the third anniversary since the beginning of this war, qualifying it as an unnecessary aggression based on lies.

The war in Irak was the biggest mistake ever made by President George W. Bush and the world is against him. Irak should decide it's own affairs. Enough with the hypocrisy, enough with the lies. All soldiers should return home. Let there be no more war.

A Typical Monday

Every Monday morning I get up at 5:30 AM. Mondays are a busy day for me. Before I leave home I must turn my PC on and get into Christmas All Through the Year to create my daily posts.

The first place I check is American Greetings to see what the day's celebration is about. Sometimes I don't like what they're celebrating. Either they're too silly or simply ridiculous, so I skip it. I go on to Hi-Card's Celebrate the Date. Here I usually find more appropriate celebrations and the information is much more complete than in American Greetings. Very few times do these two greetings sites coincide in what the day's celebration is. Sometimes, though each may have a different celebration, I post them both because they are interesting and worth reading.

My next step is to check the birthdays and the history for each day. What famous people are celebrating their birthday each day (dead or alive) and what happened on this particular date many years ago. Then I must find an appropriate photo or tag for the birthday and for "On a day like today in...". After I'm finished with this post, I go on to my daily tips post which takes me the longest to complete. After I greet my group I start out by adding a tag with a daily positive thought. Then I go on to indicate what number of days have gone by since the beginning of the year and how many days are left until the end of 2006. Today is March 20th, the First Day of Spring. I started that countdown fifty days ago. I next proceed to add a link to our GuestMap where new members can add a pin showing us on a World Map, where they are from. All our members can check it out to see where in the world our members live.

I finish my post adding two tips for the day and I must find an appropriate photo for each tip. These tips are usually related to home, cooking, and decorating ideas. I end my post wishing everyone a wonderful day.

Before I shut down my PC, I check any messages that have been added and write a comment. I also check to see if there are new members requesting membership and then I finally check my e-mail. Once I am finished I have breakfast and leave home around 7:15 AM. At 7:30 I must be at the Police Headquarters Station in my community where I volunteer five hours every Monday morning from 7:30 AM to 12:30 PM. It's very near my home. All I do is when I get on the main road, I turn left and in two seconds I'm already there. It doesn't even take me five minutes to get there after I leave home.

And... what, you may be wondering, do I do at police headquarters? I take phone calls. I answer emergency calls. I radio police cars that are on the streets to inform where they are needed urgently if there has been any accidents on one of our area's roads. When nothing in particular happens, I study my musical theory. Today I was studying for a test I have next Saturday. Sometimes I bring my "cuatro" along and I play a few songs when I'm not busy.

Dreams

My mother passed away on April 21, 1982, already twenty-four years ago. To me it still feels as if it were only yesterday. It doesn't really seem like such a long time. But twenty-four years is a lifetime.

In all these years I have had many deams with my mother. But never once have I dreamed she was dead. Every time I dream with her she is alive and well.

One of the oddest things about my dreams is that my mother and I are always travelling to different places together or visiting people in other countries. In my dreams I have travelled with her to Spain, Mexico, France, Italy and New York. What is odd about this is that while she was alive my mother never visited any of these countries, except for New York. We lived in New York for some sixteen years. But I have visited these places. I am familiar with them and I lived in Spain for two years.

During these dreams we are always going somewhere on the subway, or we are getting ready to board a plane, or we are already on the plane. Sometimes we're simply walking down a street side by side. I consider the part about the subway strange because as a child in New York I had a great dislike for trains. I was terrified of them. The most interesting thing about my dreams is that they are always in full color. I have read that most people dream in black and white and that dreaming in color is not the usual thing.

Now, how do I know my dreams are in color? I remember them. When I wake up the first thing I do is start recalling what I was dreaming about. I begin seeing in my mind visual images of my dream and recall the color of the clothes being worn and the color of the surroundings, or the food we were eating. Like two days ago. We were in Spain participating in a big celebration where there were a lot of people. When we sat at the table for dinner, I noticed that our steaks were green. But other plates had normal colored steaks. Now, why should ours be green I wondered? Yuk!!! I don't even eat normal looking steak, imagine eating green steaks. At that moment, I woke up.

Sometimes I get up in a hurry and I forget to ask myself what I was dreaming about at my waking moment. If I get out of bed without wondering about it I no longer remember. Sooner or later it will come back to me. During the day I get these sudden memory flashes and my dream starts coming back to me. I remember like in episodes: something now and later I remember more. I don't remember it all at the same time. The episodes come to me unexpectedly when I'm not even thinking about my dream.

I have friends that say they never dream, but I don't think that's true. I just think they don't try to exercise their memory. I've exercised my mind so much with regard to dreams that recalling comes easy to me. There was a time in my life when I kept a diary about my dreams. I no longer do. And when I wanted to dream with my mother, I went to bed thinking about her. My last waking thought was for my mother. It worked sometimes, but not always.

Another detail about my dreams is that I have what I call "re-run dreams." I tend to repeat certain dreams. For example, last night I had a dream that I know I had a week or so ago. The same dream except that this time there was a person who wasn't there the previous time. But all the other circumstances were the same.

The saddest part of dreaming with Mom is waking! I always wake up at the most interesting moment of my dream. Oh, how I wish I could continue for at least some ten minutes more! That's life. The show must go on. My life must continue.

Trust

Today I confirmed once again that no one can be trusted. My brother Lewis used to say that I was like Saint Thomas: "I had to see to believe." I can't help it, that's my nature. I'm very untrusting. I probably have reason to be. I'm not going to discuss my reasons here. It would be too long. But today I think I honestly tried not to be untrusting.

I was at my friend Johanna's house today when, out of the blue a relatively young woman opened the gate, came in, and sat on the sofa without even being invited in. She looked very untidy. She was offering a big heavy decorative gold edged plate for $3.00. Immediately I suspected it must be stolen. She also carried a small black briefcase box with a bunch of musical audio cassettes. Johanna, told her she didn't have any change.

So the woman told her that she would go to the grocery store nearby to change the bill and would bring her change back. She assured she was an honest person and would not steal. I kept my mouth shut, but was speedily sizing her up and thinking that I wouldn't trust her as far as I can throw a horse. But Johanna, a little doubtfully, went to her room, got the money, and handed her a ten dollar bill. The woman left the plate and the box with all the used audio cassettes. She said she'd leave them there and would take them when she brought the change.

I kept quiet, but was telling myself things like "if you think negatively, you will be right." So I told myself I would believe she was coming back with the change and I waited for her return together with my friend.

The minutes ticked by and turned into a half hour, and then an hour, and I finally said to Johanna: "Don't expect her to return with the change." "To her, right now, ten dollars means much more than some old cassettes." It was obvious she was a drug addict. Even Johanna knew that because she's seen the woman before. So why did she trust her? All one has to say is "I don't have any cash right now."

Personally I practically never have any cash on me because I pay everything with my ATH card. I keep my money in the bank so that I don't spend on things that really aren't necessary. It's a good way to save.

But once again I confirmed that no one can be trusted.

Greeted by the Full Moon

When I opened my eyes this morning at 5:30 AM. the first thing I noticed was that a full moon was up in the sky outside one of the windows on the west side of my bedroom. Everything was still dark. But there was the moon as if it were wishing me a good Wednesday morning.

I know the moon has been full since yesterday March 14th, but I didn't get to see it then because yesterday was very cloudy and many dense clouds hid it from me.

Now I just lingered in bed for a few minutes wondering why everyone says that when the moon is full people feel depressed or their behavior has negative changes. Personally, I'm not sure about that. It was one of my nieces who mentioned it to me some time ago. And I remember that after she mentioned it, my sister-in-law told me once that she had been feeling stressed and depressed those days and I noticed that we had a full moon when she told me how she felt. I then told her what my niece had said about the effects of the full moon on human behavior. We discussed her feelings briefly and then dismissed the subject turning to other more interesting matters. I guess this is one of the ways these theories get passed on from one person to another. The same as gossip, LOL.

But I finally decided to get out of bed, put on a robe and picked up my camera from the top of my computer where I keep it. Then I hurried outside and took this picture of the moon.

Since I heard this piece of information about the full moon, I've made it my business to get informed on the subject of the effects of the moon. The full moon has been linked to crime, suicide, mental illness, disasters, accidents, birthrates, fertility, and even werewolves, among other things. Numerous studies have tried to find lunar effects. So far the studies have failed to establish anything of much value or interest. Lunar effects that have been found have little or nothing to do with human behavior. Up to the present it has been concluded that all the studies have failed to show a reliable and significant correlation between the full moon, or any other phase of the moon and the aspects I mentioned above.

I figure that if so many studies have failed to prove a significant correlation between the full moon and anything, why do so many people believe in these lunar myths. There's a possibility that the reason could be media effects, folklore, and tradition.

We see a lot of films and works of fiction where lunar myths are frequently presented. The repetition is constant, forcing an association between the full moon and human behavior. For this reason it is not surprising that such beliefs are widespread in the general public. Many lunar myths are rooted to folklore. So many things are explained by legends
and these legends are passed on from parents to children and from generation to generation.

Misconceptions about such things as the moon's effect on tides have contributed to lunar mythology. Many people seem to think that since the moon affects the ocean's tides, it must be so powerful that it has to affect human behavior as well. The fact that the human body is mostly water greatly contributes to the notion that the moon should have a powerful effect on the human body and therefore an effect on behavior. Eighty percent of the earth is unbounded water. Some people seem to think that 80% of the human body is also water. That is not true. I mean it's not as high as 80%. Besides, the water in our body is bounded and for this reason the full moon doesn't affect our body's water as it affects the earth's water which has no boundaries.

Now every time I notice there's a full moon, I start analyzing how I'm feeling on that day and the days before and after the full moon. I have come to the conclusion that I feel exactly the same as I feel at any other time during the different phases of the moon. I feel fine.

Christmas All Through the Year

Christmas is the longest season of the year on the Island of Puerto Rico. We begin celebrating around a week before Thanksgiving and the celebration extends all the way up to January 15th more or less. So it's a month of celebrating and feasting. We are of a very celebrating nature.

I belong to an MSN group named precisely "Christmas All Through the Year" (CATTY). Though we celebrate other holidays as well through the year as they make their appearance on our yearly calendar, we concentrate on Christmas crafts, getting ready for the next season so we may have all our gifts on time. No last minute shopping for us. We're already counting the days. Today is the 73rd day of the year and there are 292 days left in the year 2006.

During the Christmas Season I had the season's CD's on my car's CD player. And after the all the celebrating was over I have continued to listen to the Christmas music even though we are practically in the Spring Season already. Whoever chances by my car, if the windows are open or takes a ride with me, may think it strange that I'm listening to Christmas music. I really don't care what they may think. I just sing along with the CD.

The truth is that I am listening to the same CD all the time which has twenty songs. But there is a big difference in this CD. It has the typical Christmas songs, but they have these innovative arrangements which makes them sooo joyful that one just has to sing along. Besides, it's bilingual. Some songs are in Spanish, some in English, and some half and half. They are not the same boring songs. They have a new spark that makes them different. The songs sound so lively and different. I don't get tired of listening to the same CD while I drive around in my car. On the contrary. I look forward to my drives. I feel renewed every time I listen to it. Traffic jams don't affect me. The songs are sooo beautiful.

So this year I'm truly living and celebrating the Christmas Spirit all through the year. And though you may not believe me, while I'm driving and listening, I am being reminded constantly of all my wonderful CATTY friends.

I can thank my lucky stars the day I happened to be checking a long list of MSN groups and when I saw the name "Christmas All Throgh the Year, I stopped short because I immediately knew that group was for me.

Springtime

Each day when I drive away from my home I'm always observing all the trees, bushes and the sky in our area until I get to the main road whichis quite a busy one and there's always too much traffic. So I must put my full attention on driving.

Today the sky was very cloudy. It rained most of the night so everything was nice and wet. I've been observing that some of the mango trees have bloomed. Others have not. This is a sign of spring. Spring is only six day away, but of course that doesn't mean that the weather will warm up and a lot of flowers will suddenly bloom. It just means that soon things will be changing. You don’t have to look far to see signs of spring. From the budding of the trees and the warming of the temperatures to the animals coming out of their winter hideouts, there seems to be a promise of new birth and color in the springtime air.

In the United States, spring is a time of transition not only for plant and animal life, but for the weather too. It can mean weather extremes from very cold and snowy days to humid and stormy days. Some of the country's biggest snowfalls have occurred in March, and the period from March to May is the time of year when much of the south is most likely to get severe thunderstorms with hail and even tornadoes. This is why the beginning of spring is a good time to put together an action plan for what you and your family would do in case of a severe thunderstorm or tornado. One has to be prepared for the unexpected.

This year spring will begin on the 20th of March exactly at 1:26 PM. At least that's what they said in our local news. It's possible that the time varies from place to place. Since I'm on the Island of Puerto Rico, maybe that's the time for this Island. I find it odd that a season should begin at a precise time of day. I would think it should start at 12:01 AM when the new day begins. But I see it's not like that at all.

I've observed other signs of spring besides the flowering of the mango trees. All trees are much fuller now. A month ago the leaves were very scarce and one could see the light through the trees. Now they are full of leaves practically leaving no light visible through the branches. Another sign of spring is that daybreak is occurring a little earlier and at 6:00 PM it's still light. A month ago it was total night at 6:00 PM.

This Island has the strangest weather behavior I've ever seen. It could be raining a storm and then the next minute the sun starts shining and it gets really hot. But what always suprises me most is the fact that it could be raining and the sun shining at the same time. Puerto Ricans usually say that a witch is getting married when it's rainy and sunny at the same time, LOL.

The coolest rainbows occur when the sun shines and it rains at the same time. I've been lucky enough to see double rainbows when this happens. But I have never been lucky enough to have my camera with me at the moment.

When I left home today it was cloudy and rainy. That was an hour ago. Now the sky is nice and blue and the sun is shining full force. That's this Island for you! Never know what to expect from the weather. Never a dull moment.

I have my camera with me today. I hope I can get to use it on some interesting subjects.

~Cuartel de Ballajá~

Here's an inside view of one of the halls on the ground floor. This is where all the groups take their lessons around the square building's halls. There are other groups on the third floor also.

~A Typical Saturday~

Every Saturday morning I get up at 4:30 AM and get ready to go to my music lessons in Old San Juan. I live on the Island of Puerto Rico. My friend Margarita Claudio picks me up at 5:30 AM. It's still dark when we head for San Juan, but Spring is practically here and pretty soon it will be much lighter at that hour.

On our way sometimes we discuss weekly current events since I don't usually see Margarita all week. At other times I just look at the dark sky observing the stars that are visible. Sometimes we get into a discussion on the correct way of certain Spanish words which most people tend to use incorrectly. Being a teacher for so many years, I guess that's one of my specialties, LOL.

It's still dark when we arrive at Old San Juan and there isn't much traffic at that hour. Since it's by the ocean, it's rather cool and very windy, so we wear jackets. We are practically always the first two students in our group to arrive. Right now we're studying level 5 and there are ten levels in the study of our typical string instrument which is the "cuatro". As soon as we get there we start practicing. It's only around 6:30 AM and class starts at 8:00 AM and lasts until 10:00 AM. You're probably wondering why we get there so early. It's a matter of being able to find a parking space where one won't get fined $50.00. The later you get there, the least possibility of finding a nearby parking.

Our teacher for this semester is very different from the one we had last semester (Myrna Perez). Her name is Violeta. I compare her with a busy bee who goes from flower to flower sucking the flower's nectar. Why? Because she doesn't stay in one place like last semester's teacher. One moment she's here, another she's there and everywhere. She goes all around the area from student to student standing by each one to listen and see who's out of tune. Last semester's teacher could distinguish who was out of tune without even moving from the center. She really had a fine ear for music. It's not that Violeta doesn't have a fine ear for music. It's just that she can't stand still for long. She has to be on the move. She has a happy go lucky spirit that can't stand still. She's full of fire. I think she's a wonderful teacher and always tries to make us understand in the easiest way possible. For Violeta there are always short cuts. She doesn't like long definitions in the theory of music. She likes to be precise. She likes to teach us the tricks of the trade. With tricks that aren't easy to forget, one remembers her lessons.

Last Saturday I learned something that last semester's teacher had explained. But I hadn't really captured the essence. But Violeta taught us a trick we would never forget about how to play all the scales without memorizing them. All one has to do is put finger number 2 of the left hand on any note on the 5th string and if you keep the correct order of the rest of the fingers on the rest of the strings, one would play each scale without even knowing it. For example, if someone tells you to play the F major scale, all one does is put finger number 2 on F in the 5th string and you can automatically play the complete scale without knowing it. It's just a matter of always putting the correct fingers. And it's true. I can do it now. I can now play any scale. Last semester I tried to memorize them. This semester's little tricks are making learning much easier.

Another thing is that Myrna Perez didn't give us any breaks. We played through for two hours without stopping. Violeta is the first one who likes to take a coffee break. At 9:00 AM she gives us ten minutes. We could either go to the ladies or buy some coffee and drink it. We enjoy the class so much, that the two hours go by really fast.

Another particularity of Violeta is that our group has been together for five semesters now and she discovered we know our faces, but not our names. So she said she was going to give us a quiz next Saturday. Our group is divided in two sides: half the group on the left side and the other half on the right side. Margarita and I are on the left side. By next Saturday we must know the names of all the students on the right side. And they must know the names of the students on the left side (our side). I think this is a great idea because, how can one be together for such a long time and not even know our names. It's an excellent exercise which will make us really get acquainted with our fellow students. We've always greeted each other, but we don't know our names. I only know a few of the names of those who sit near me.

I wish to clarify that last semester's teacher and Violeta are both excellent music teachers each in their particular ways. As a matter of fact all the teachers we have had in each level have been excellent. In level 2 we had Violeta's daughter as our teacher. She and her mother are different as night and day. Violeta is more fun. Our first level teacher, Karla, was very young and very sweet. Our third level teacher was Ivan, son of the Francisco Lopez Cruz who instituted the school of "cuatros" when he lived. So, as you can see, we've had excellent teachers.

When we leave, it's no longer cool so we must remove our jackets. Besides, the locked up car has gotten excessively hot with the shining sun and until the car's air conditioning cools it down, we must suffer the heat wave. So off with our jackets.

There's usually more traffic in Old San Juan at the time we leave, so it takes us quite a while to get out of the cobbled streets. We get to see tourists all around the streets who are visiting this beautiful Island and who are fascinated with Old San Juan. They wish to stay, but we are anxious to leave, LOL. But once we're out, the going is good.

Mind you, a lot of the tourists enter the area where all the groups are taking their music lessons because it's a historic bulding. So they stop to listen to all of us play. They are fascinated by the instruments and the music and they start taking photos of us while we play.

We always return home through a different route from the one we came. We arrive at my house between ll:00 AM and 11:30 AM. Sometimes we don't go straight home. We stop at Plaza Las Americas Shopping Center to get some things we might need.

Photo 1: Myrna Perez last semester
Photo 2: Fort El Morro in the background, taken from the front of "Cuartel de Ballajá."
Photo 3: Front view of "Cuartel de Ballajá"
Photo 4: Old San Juan Street
Photo 5: Inside view of "Cuartel de Ballajá"

Note: The double "L" in Ballajá is pronounced like a "J". The English name would be "Ballajá Headquarters."