2016 resolution....

is going to be....JEFF BE SMARTER....you've got a good life, act like you want to keep it ! See that nice little Robalo in the pic below ? well that fish could easily have been the last of my life, no kidding, I was fishing the rocks this morning and sight casted this little guy and was kinda proud of myself. I got him right below  and like routine I went to just lift him straight  up the 10 or 12 feet to me and he came off the hook....and laid there wedged in some rocks. I actually took a bit of time and thought about it and took my satchel off and laid my rod down and made the first step down alright and then slipped and first fell on my side and then believe it or not went head first another 6 feet or so bouncing off  ragged boulders  and into the water. If I look anquished in this pic it's because I am. I'm a little scared, a little relieved and a whole lot humbled. I could have broken my neck. And I actually thought that, as I climbed up I was relieved to be able to move.

Here's pic of my noggin 6 hours ago when Tony and MP cleaned me up. I'm certain I have broken ribs, breathing is painful and difficult. The entire right side of my face is swollen and now 6 hours later it's REALLY swollen. My hip and left shoulder have hematoma and I have scrapes and scratches , to many to name. But I'm whole and think I'll be alright, we have a new hospital close by and any signs of breathing difficulty or the such and we'll be there. Just another lesson learned, my whole life it's been the hard way....And I'm embarrassed by it.

When we got here I brain farted my way into needing a new atm card. I got a really nice lecture from a lady at the Alaska USA Credit Union helpline...She asked me " Mr. King, why would you put in an improper pin number time after time knowing it won't work ?"....then she reassured me that MP's card was not effected and when I told her that the problem with that was that now my wife has all the power she said " well Mr. King, try being nice to her " . Yikes. So they take my address down and send me a new card and a new pin. It's a miracle it arrived. I spelled the entire deal out for her....'tennis' as in the sport, 'yacht' as in a the boat, Mazatlan....on and on and on...this how it came addressed.

You know you've arrived as a semi-local when you can go down the chicken aisle at the market or the local Pescaderia without getting a little quesy. Here's a pic of me and Slah with our fillet artist ready to go to work on our catch after a trip north.

Team X got 15 nice Corvina. It took me two hours to finally get a good hook up but I rallied and caught a few. Slah got about 8 or 9 and Ernesto got one on the first cast. Our friend Stan had a mombo hooked and fought it so long it finally separated. These fish , just like the Robalo that tried to kill me this morning have a uniquely soft mouth and when hooked on the side they wear a big hole, we lose a lot of them. Here we are having Comida and a pic of some friends cleaning off their catch.

Ever since we arrived we've wanted to go a Venado ( Mexican Pro League) baseball game. The trouble is they all start at 8 p.m. which is ahhhh....well.....difficult for us. But I'm no dummy so I go to the official Venado web page and on Dec. 4th a game starts at 6 p.m....so we go and the day was actually the 5th. Then the next and only remaining 6 p.m. start was on the 26th.....here we are at the game, it started at 5 p.m. so we got there for the 4th inning. That's just the way things work around here, ya gotta be cool man. Oh, we won 8-1 .

Sunday morning we were in the Colonia of Juarez for the market. I guess you've arrived when you can eat the wonderful street food and only get a little claustrophobic in the mass of humanity. Here's a pic of me and MP having breakfeast tacos. I finally found the right taco sauce. One thing I learned  is that the green sauce that makes you think it's avocado is actually the super nova hottest of them all and it'll ruin you for a day. But this guy had green sauce that really was avocado and man oh man it fantastic.... and hows about buying an entire chicken for 3 bucks ?

The day before I caught these 3 pargo I had a new friend named Pepe show me how to downsize to smaller plastic and just let them free float through the tidal pools under the rocks that tried to kill me today. I got lucky and pulled one after another up and Pepe said ' good job' and I said ' well Pepe you are my teacher ' and he said....' yes, that was a big mistake most gringos don't learn so well '.

On Christmas eve me MPeasy and Tony did our luminary display again, a gift to the building. When I was a kid the neighborhood did them and I guess it just stuck with me. So here we are , smiley the salmon. Someone said to me....'oh no Jeff, more fish ????? and I said 'yup, Merry Christmas'.

All of us here at Mile 5014 wish you a Happy , healthy and prosperous New Year. I'm not kidding, I'm resolving to grow up and be more deliberate in my actions. I wish you luck with any modifications you have planned for the New year...it is work in progress eh ? And they say a picture is worth a 1000 words so here's how I feel about you, me , MPeasy, Max and Sam and the circle of life.....oh, I found it out surf fishing of course.