Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.--Thomas Jefferson

Today was my day to pack up our bags for the return to Baja. But instead it turned out to be another day of total useless frustration.

First I went to my physical therapy appointment, with plans to go from there to get AT&T to figure out why my cell phone hadn’t worked for the last 3 days. Right in the middle of physical therapy session my cell phone rang. I was astounded that it rang since it hadn’t been working. It was my sister who wanted me to go to the bank and sign some papers on my mother’s account.

My siblings are all co-signers on my mother’s account. After my oldest brother’s recent passing, my sister went to bring the account up to date with just the remaining three of us as co-signers on her account. In order for that to happen, each sibling has to sign a piece of paper for the bank agreeing the deceased sibling should be removed from the account. So although my sister has given the bank my brother’s death certificate, it is not enough. I have to agree to have him removed even though he is no longer living. When I went to the bank they could not contact the account manager in New Mexico to get the papers as the New Mexico bank’s phone was not working. They called and called, but no luck. So I had to leave without accomplishing my small task. My banker told me she would be in the office until 3:45 pm.

Then I went to the AT&T cellular store to see if they could do something about my wacky cell phone. They replaced the SIM card and it is seemed to work ok there, but when I got home it didn’t work again. I called them back on a land line to ask them what was going on and they told me that my area was having issues with cell phone reception from some recent repairs. They would file a complaint. I said you’ve got to be kidding, that’s all you can do? You can’t look at my phone and see if that’s the problem. Well no, I had to go somewhere else half way across town to do that.

I got on the internet and sent my sister an email about my failed bank experience. I called my sister on Skype and left her a message on her cell phone. Then my internet service went down too. My home phone has no long distance carrier since we have it on a minimal service contract. So now I am without my cell phone to make long distance calls, my internet to make calls through Skype or any other way to make contact with my sister and explain stuff. She finally called and it turned out she did get my phone message from Skype. She could call me on my home phone, even though I cannot call out. The banker in New Mexico wouldn’t fax the form to Denver as the bank wanted to mail it so it remained an original document. I leave for Mexico on Friday I told her. I know she said, I am working on the banker. She finally persuaded the banker to agree to fax the form to my Denver banker. But it now was 3:30 and I knew my banker would be gone before could get there. At 4:45 my banker called and said the papers were ready for me to sign but she was leaving—why was she still there???? I could have done it if I had gone when my sister told me to go.

In the meantime I decided my sister needs a Limited Power Of Attorney to represent me on my portion of my mother’s account so she doesn’t have to jump through 15 hoops when I am down in Mexico and can’t sign and send documents readily. I paid $20 to get an online power of attorney which I spent the next two hours modifying. Our bank account has a benefit of free notary service. I called the bank to see if I could get a notary there to sign the Limited Power of Attorney at the bank when I go to sign the checking account form. Oh yes of course, they said, however if it is a Power Of Attorney then the legal department must review it first which will take about 30 minutes. Aaaaargh! This morning, a day later, Esperando was home and called his banker to see about the Power of Attorney. It turns out that my sister could not sign for me in absencia EVEN with a Power of Attorney. How did life get so ridiculously complicated? Cell phones and computers run our lives. And all banks want is to see if you can squeeze blood out of a turnip or sign over your newborn before they will help you. I never did get the bags packed. I cannot believe how complicated things are any more. I’m not saying I would want to go back to the days of mimeograph machines—oh well, maybe I would.

Packing up a princess for success

Lupita’s dedicated serving staff (Duena de la Casa and Esperando Esposo) are packing up her vittles and her chattels in preparation for her upcoming move to Mexico, the return to her “ancestral homeland” as the vet referred to the move just the other day when she gave Lupita a clean bill of health. Lupita now weighs 3.5 pounds, but her accumulated goods far exceed her tiny little self.

Lupita is flying with us in-cabin to San Diego on Friday where we will stock up our truck with food and other goodies for us humans and other pets before we start the drive down the Baja. We will spend the night with Junior Birdman, Esperando’s son, and acquaint Lupita with the concept of cats (he has two) before continuing on to Catavina for an overnight, then on to Santa Rosalia the next day.

Lupita’s chattels are many and take up more space than five Lupita’s would. First of all there are the pharmaceutical items: parasite medicine she continues to take for coccidia; Frontline for ticks and fleas; and Interceptor for heartworm. Then, there is the little pile of assorted small doggie clothes and her harness and leash, a whole folder of papers that includes her rabies certificate and health certificates for the airline. Besides all that there are assembled favorite toys and chewy sticks, her blankie, her carrier, her food and water bowls, a sufficient quantity of food to get her home, and Boulder Dog Food Company’s All Natural Turkey bits which make an excellent training treat that she will die for. More puppy food will be purchased in San Diego for the long drive down to Santa Rosalia.

Esperando and I are hoping sufficient suitcase room will be leftover for the two of us to bring back the items we brought up with us when we came, before there was ever a Lupita in our lives. My how life changes in the blink of an eye! We will need a small suitcase or perhaps a mini Louis Vuitton trunk just for Lupita’s stuff, although I wouldn’t want to encourage her spending patterns—she is already in way over her head. Good thing she is still too young to apply for credit cards.

What the well-dressed puppy is wearing these days

Let’s talk puppy clothes. I find it becoming sort of an addiction. I think deep down I must be really perverted to be dressing a little dog like a doll in tiny clothes. It started in El Paso when we were driving back to Denver, and I knew it would be cold there and in Taos. We bought Lupita a cute little pink cable knit sweater since we thought she might get cold. After we got back to Denver and she had the surgery for her abscess, the vet wanted her to wear a t-shirt to cover the sutures. I thought the protruding ends of the suture material might catch on the sweater and be irritating. Esperando offered up the cut-off ends of a long sleeve gun-metal gray t-shirt. It was a humble homemade article although the neck had a nice finished look, with the cuff turned back at her neckline. I must admit the gray color didn't do much for her complexion. She wore that for a week until someone at the Landrover dealer commented on her “grunge look” when I went to pick up my car for servicing. Hmmm? My dog looking grungy?! That was not to be! Off I went to Petsmart to peruse the doggie clothing and found some really hot little numbers. Now my dog is better dressed than I am.

She seems to like wearing clothes. That is, she obliging pokes her nose into the neck hole and stands still while I feed her little paws into the sleeves. She seems to actually prefer some clothes over others and is consistently more cooperative in putting those on. As I child, I used to dress my cat up in my doll’s clothes, so it’s almost like returning to some familiar state of mind. I got a bad enough time in Vancouver when I bought a doggie raincoat for Sweet Pickle. Since he is large and has lots of hair it saved me from using up multiple towels to dry him off everyday when we came in from walking in the rain and snow. A street reporter doing a special on doggie clothes snagged me on a corner and wanted to me to explain why a big dog like Dash needed to wear a jacket? So I had to tell him about the facts of life which caused Dash to be propelled onto public TV in a newscast. How embarrassing!

Lupita is more fortunate than some dogs in that she has the money to work on her fashionista collection. So far she has three sweater vests, a gray and pink hoody with Canine All-Star written across the back, a small doggie Harley Davidison t-shirt, a really cute Rock Star t-shirt with a sequined guitar on it, and a fuzzy purple fleece jacket that has the words Princess emblazoned across the back. Unfortunately she considers the jacket be more of a chew toy. I am afraid it won’t hold up well to that kind of treatment.

I have seen some street dogs in Santa Rosalia wearing clothes. We are talking about dogs much bigger than Lupita who live in a hot climate. Unfortunately they do not have a change of clothes, and what with lying around on the street, their clothes could often use a good wash. What a silly world!