13000 Tabs For Raphael

Two years ago I decided to help our friends Denis and Therese collect can tabs for the benefit of their niece’s son, Raphael. Denis and Therese live in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, and have become friends here in the Rio Grande Valley.

Raphael has Cystic Fibrosis which makes doing many things we take for granted almost impossible for him. BUT, Raphael and his mom are not going to allow his condition to slow him down much. His mom, Annie, has become very active in the Cystic Fibrosis Assoc. taking an active role in fund raising as she helps Raphael in his ongoing battle.

For anyone dealing with Cystic Fibrosis breathing is a huge problem but technology is helping and the medical people have developed a breathing vest for patients. Wearing this vest allows them to breathe much easier and to finally do some of things we all do every minute of every day without a thought. The problem is they are extremely expensive and of course as these young people grow they need larger vests every two or three years. Through the Cystic Fibrosis Assoc. the vests a traded in, reconditioned and passed on, but even with that trade program the cost is prohibitive for the average family.

So who is Raphael? Permit me to introduce you to him.

This is Raphael, the beneficiary of our efforts.

When Raphaels’ mom found out about our collection efforts, last week, she sent the picture along with this message (translated.)

This is the picture of Raphael. He now plays in a hockey league and he is a very good player. He is so motivated and determined that is almost unbelievable. When I think that last March he could barely skate....

He is now one of the best players on his team. We are very proud of him. On this picture he received the trophy given to the first star of the game.
Thank you all for collecting the can tabs that we are still gathering. In school Raphael with his friends also collect them.
Annie (mother of Raphael)

The first summer (2010) we were able to collect a couple of pounds of tabs thanks to help from our kids, our Grandsons and a couple of our friends. We were working on the effort when I ran into some trouble and we had to leave Texas early.

Last spring we decided to take this to another level and set a goal to try and collect five pounds of tabs.  Since I had no idea what 5 lbs of tabs meant it seemed like a worthwhile goal and we got started.  About mid summer I realized that 5 lbs was going to be a whole big bunch of can tabs and started to think that maybe it was unattainable.  Thanks to a great family and super friends we achieved our goal.  In fact, thanks to our family and friends we shot past that goal by three pounds.  Last Monday we took Denis and Therese just over 8 lbs of tabs.

So what does 8 pounds of can tabs look like? Here is a picture.

Those are giant zip locks, bigger than they look.

It’s quite a few. Since I wasn’t about to try counting them I decided to weigh some and figure it out. There is no way to know for sure but within a couple of hundred, either way, there were 13,000 tabs in those bags.

Many many people got on board to help us and I want to try to thank them here. There is no doubt I will miss someone and if I’ve missed you please forgive me.

Special thanks first of all, to Grandsons Brendan and Cole. These two young fellows did a great job.  They got some help from their parents, their other Grandparents, their friends, and a hockey team and brought us a lot of can tabs. Our kids really helped out, thank you, Leslie, John, Colleen, Tim, Rob, Brenda, and Brady. My brother Rick sent us a big bag, thanks Rick. Sister Peg, nephew, Errant, thank you. And our friends, thank you so very much, Darcy (your family and staff), Elwood, Ken and Doreen (over 3000), George and Judy, Gary and Gloria, and many more.  Thank you all.

Therese, Bernie, Neal, Denis

(13000 tabs)

So now what? Since this isn’t something that allows us to say – job done, we have to get back to work. Raphael and others in his position need our help. One of our son in laws asked me one day why we don’t just give them some money and be done with it? It’s a really good question but collecting these tabs is different. It’s a way for a whole bunch of people to come together, for each of us to do something a bit different, and help out those less fortunate.  Take another look at that picture of Raphael.  Without your (our) help and the help of many others he would not have that "first star" medal, he is so proud of.

In that spirit I would ask you to please help us out this year. This year's goal is 10 pounds, about 20,000 tabs so we obviously need a lot of help. If you would like to help us, please leave me a comment here so I can get in touch with you.

To those of you that helped out in 2011 Thanks again, to those of you on board for 2012 thank you in advance. Your effort is appreciated.

As usual, thanks for stopping by and please do leave a comment when you can.

Neal and Bernie

Greetings from Nuevo Progresso, Mexico

Bernie and I decided to spend a couple of days in Nuevo Progresso Mexico last week and had a great time.  We Love It There.

Approaching the Border

As you approach the border they make it really clear they don’t want guns coming into the country. It seemed funny to be seeing this huge sign at the border when we hear so much about the violence down there right now. When I thought about it, it’s the same as we are in Canada, no guns allowed. The problem is the “bad guys” don’t worry about the signs. Hmmm?? Maybe the Texans have it right.

We parked the car and walked over, the same as we have many times except this time I remembered the camera. Bernie just rolls her eyes and groans when I do that.

This is a shot from up on the bridge, you can see the Rio Grande River and if you look to the back of the picture (right/American side) you’ll see a bit of that famous Border fence. In this area the fence is built on top of a high earthen, dike like, support structure so it appears much higher than it is. I haven’t measured it but it looks like about 15’ of steel on top about of 15’ of earth. It’s pretty intimidating. I found a spot I could drive on top of the dike, because the fence isn't up yet, and did so for 4 or 5 miles. It was a hoot, the Border patrol 4X4s are everywhere and we’re bouncing along in the Smart Car. They left us alone, they know we couldn’t be smuggling anybody our Smarty, OR MAYBE, they wanted nothing to do with anybody dumb enough to drive a Smart car up there.

A couple of years ago we were exploring down under the international bridge leading to Reynosa with our van. I was just having some fun but admit I was scaring my poor wife. It was interesting because the bridge goes on for two or three miles, and under it there are farms, before you get to the river/border. It’s all very low land and I suspect it’s a hot spot for illegal’s. All of a sudden, from nowhere, I had a Border patrol 4x4 on our tail. He just drove there about 4’ off our back bumper on a dirt road. I didn’t know what to do, although I had a pretty good idea what he was doing on his radio. So I kept my speed, made a quick left and kept going, dust flying everywhere, 2 or 3 miles to the Border Patrol parking lot. He followed us right onto the lot but when we parked, to go to the duty free store, he kept going. (I think he had to get a wash) Our hearts were beating pretty well by then. Note to self, stay away from under the Reynosa Bridge. 

Sorry I got off topic, back to Progresso.

This shot is from the bridge, the Boundary is in the middle of the river.

Welcome to Mexico.

They like Winter Texans here.

Looking North on the Main Street in Progresso.

Looking South.

The pictures don’t do it justice but try to count the dentist and pharmacy signs in these pictures. There has to be at least a hundred, probably more, dental offices in this small section of town. Add a similar number of pharmacies and you know how this town exists. The number of Canadians and Americans that come here for dental work and prescriptions is mind blowing. You sit in the dentist’s office and talk to people from all over the continent. I was chatting with a lady from Illinois who wants “to be a Canadian in her next life.” It was fun.

The food court of the dentists mall.  In the back you see the bar and in the front (empty tables) the only food normally being sold is candied pecans.  The bar is cheap and the pecans are delicious.

You can’t blame people for coming down here for dental work. The Mexican dental prices run at about 1/3 (sometimes less) of the up North numbers. The people are certified, many are trained in the U.S., and they are very skilled. We have talked to folks who fly down, stay in a hotel, rent a car, and walk over to their dentist.  They still save tons of money. Prescription pharmaceuticals run at ½ or less and they’re the same brands you buy at home.

Also from those pictures note the absence of police and military. In the five years we’ve been coming here the Mexican army has always had a huge machine gun placed right in the middle of the street, at the bridge end, along with a number of machine gun equipped soldiers standing guard. They’re all gone. We were told they have posted them S. of town to make snow birds feel safer. I kind of liked having them there but we feel safe either way.

So we did our shopping, had lunch at our favourite restaurant, The Red Snapper, and headed home. We’ll be back tomorrow, and again and again.

It's so nice to cross this border.  The Mexicans ignore you on the way in.  On the way out the Americans just ask a couple of basic questions while they scan your passport and it's done.  Its seems so strange becuase of what we go through both ways at the Canadian border.


As a side note I read yesterday that the country wide murder rate in Mexico is lower than Washington, D.C., Chicago, and many other places in Canada and the U.S. It’s all about drugs. If the gangs weren’t fighting each other for control of drugs Mexico would be among the safest places on earth. 1.6 Million Canadians will visit there this winter, for the warmth of both the sun and the people.  These two Canadians sure enjoy it.

So our two days in Progresso ended and we were happy.  We'll be back once or twice before we go, keep those Margaritas chilled.

We have our heat back. Some days are getting back into the 80’s and the air conditioners are running quite a bit. We’ve put away the heaters :-)  :-)  :-)  OHHHH Ya. Time to go to the pool and start thinking North, it’s getting tooooo hot.......  Appologies to anyone reading this from up North.  I just had to throw that in.

It's time to go for today.  Thanks for stopping by and please leave a comment when you can.

Neal and Bernie

Happy New Year

Best wishes everyone, we hope 2012 is a great year for you with lots of good health and great times.

The last picture of 2011, Happy New Year

We spent New Years Eve at our home resort, Tropic Star.  They had a great New Years Eve party.  There were about 400 people up at the the ballroom and fun was the order of the night.  We shared a table with friends Jan and Leo, Sally and Jim, and had a great night.  We danced until my feet gave up on me but that was just before 12 so it was perfect.  At midnight the resort provided a bottle of champagne to each table and a great midnight snack of sandwiches, chips, ice cream, and brownies.  Our activities director and the volunteers that made it happen deserve a lot of credit.  It was great and I suspect today will be a quiet one with a nice long afternoon nap.  I went outside to get the newspaper about 7:30, it as like I was standing in a graveyard, not a whisper anywhere.

The Tropic Star Ballroom

Music was provided by a group called Heartland Express.  http://www.myspace.com/heartlandexpressband1 

They are well known here in the valley although we hadn't danced to their music before.  They were really good, with lots of two step, swing, and polka music.  It was fun to watch the band at work last night.  They tried a few waltzes and the floor stayed pretty much empty.  So they went back to swing and two step and filled the floor right away.  They did a good job of keeping people on their feet all night.  The crowd was there to party and a good time was had by all.

Bernie and Phylis hard at work .

We had such a good time last night I'd like it to go on, BUT, 2011 is all wrapped up and we're off on a whole new year.

SO

HAPPY NEW YEAR, BEST OF EVERYTHING IN 2012.

Bernie and I are exited to be headed into another year of full time travel with our RV.  We're anxious to spend as much time as we can with our kids and the grandchildren.  It's funny how it took me 60+ years to figure out why my parents were after me to come over all the time.  As they say "tooooo soon old, toooooo late smart."

We'll leave the Rio Grande Valley in about 7 weeks for a long and slow trip to Vancouver, then over to Calgary, and Winnipeg for the summer and the required six months in our home province (state.)

We haven't planned anything beyond next summer, although discussions of the North Eastern U.S. are on the table.  I have to admit I really do want to try taking our rig to New York state.  I think we Might be a bit long for the city but the state is a "must."  My bucket list includes driving through Manhattan and Central Park, (Smart car only).  I was there once a long time ago and have always wanted to drive through it,  I understand there are some RV parks across the river in New Jersey that we could get into.  Bernie and I have this saying we use all the time, "if not now, when?"  So doing this trip is simply a when?  There is no "if."

I think that's all I have in me for today, thanks for stopping by and please do leave a comment  when you can.

Neal and Bernie

PS, I see, from the information this blog gives me, that people visit here from all over the world.  I see people stopping by from India, Russia, China, and many many more.  I'd love to hear from you.  Where you are from, and/or what you do in you country.  Please say hello by leaving a comment and telling us about yourself.  Thanks