We learn something new every day. I saw a video yesterday of two kangaroos boxing in the middle of a suburban street in Australia. They actually throw punches but they also kick like 5-year-old girls and maybe some boys. I never knew that.
When I go to Mexico I am either given a visitor’s visa on the airplane if flying out of San Diego or I buy one for $29, and either one is good for six months. If I am caught in Mexico beyond the expiration date I can be arrested and jailed. I only have to cross the border, get another visa before six months are up and I’m good to go again.
I’ve learned recently from my girlfriend that the United States made it almost impossible for the average Mexican to get a visa to come to the U.S. Anyone trying to legally visit the United States is required to apply first and that the application period can be a year or longer. Applicants are required to show proof of a job; proof of bank accounts and proof that they own property and property taxes are current. The cost for the application is the equivalent of $500 American and if they are denied they don’t get their money back. In Mexico $500 is a lot of money. It turns out that only about 20 percent of the applicants are approved and it doesn’t matter if family lives in the United States or not. So, it is cheaper to pay a coyote to find a place to get them across the border illegally instead.
Having a Passport is a big deal. No one wants theirs stolen or lost. How hard would it be to put GPS chips into Passports and then link them to a visa electronically through a database run by the State or Immigration? Upon returning across the border the purchaser’s visa is then scanned and retired. If a visa is not scanned before the expiration date then the Passport will signal its GPS coordinates to law enforcement. We have the technology to do this. We tag animals for crying out loud, why not Passports?
On another note she said that the train that was bringing in all the children from South America through Mexico was derailed about two months ago in the State of Jalisco, right at the peak of all the attention on the children crossing our border. That’s why the flow into the US dropped to a trickle recently. I hadn’t heard about that in the American Press and then actually saw it on the news on television in Mexico. Our government has been saying they have the situation under control now. Our government probably derailed the train is my guess but no one is talking.
And, last but not least, something else I learned recently and having nothing to do with Mexico was that golfers live longer than the average man; much longer in fact. Â The AMA had to use asterisks in determining the average lifespan of men.
It’s hard to believe but men die on average only three years after retirement. That’s an average. Golfers skew that average and live on from ten to twenty years and more after retirement. I guess the researchers determined that if you go outside and walk six to seven miles (depending upon how good or bad a golfer you are), carry, and push or pull twenty five pounds of golf clubs and do that three times a week then you’re definitely going to be in pretty good shape. Secondly, the doggone sport is so difficult that every golfer puts him or herself through masochistic rituals each time they tee it up to play a round in the hopes that they shoot a round lower than their age. I think the average golfer’s blood pumps hard too because they all swear like sailors after a bad shot.
I would like to be like Bing Crosby. He collapsed walking up the 18th fairway of his favorite course. He never burdened anyone. He went out with a tip of the hat. No long illness with people tending to you. That beats being a burden to my family and having tubes attached to me.
We baby boomers are not like our parents who retired to reading the newspaper and puttering around in the garden. I would like to try to beat their demise by 20 years or more.  Defeating old age starts with trying to learn something new every day to keep the mind sharp and to get out in the sun and breathe in some life. Who cares if you get skin cancer?  You’re already old and seriously, how many people die from skin cancer in relation to the numbers who get it. Most people have it and don’t even know it.
Get life boomers….get some sun….catch some waves…hit a golf ball….ride a bike…learn something new. Just do something other than puttering in the garden and growing your own daisies. Your children will be proud and happy.
Joe Moris may be contacted at (760) 500-6755 or by email at                              [email protected]
