Notebook
Greetings from old Mexico. We’re in Baja California, in Rosarito, and all is well, as these things go.
The office is up and running. I’m completely re-wired; the telephone, the fax, computer, printer, answering machine, photocopier and my Telnor Internet connection, which appears to be very solid. I have a local computer consulting firm to help keep it that way. Telnor is the Baja telephone company, which appears to have some association with AT&T.
In order that no one has to contact me at international rates, I have set up a Pac Bell voice mail box with a San Diego telephone number. Anyone calling my old Visalia number is referred to the new number in San Diego. I call there twice each day to collect my telephone messages.
My permanent mailing address has been changed from Visalia to San Diego, where I have a U.S. Post Office box. How do I get my mail from San Diego down to Rosarito? I have a Rosarito business office, Centro Internacional de Correos (International Mail & Business Center—or “MCD”). MCD picks up and delivers mail between Rosarito and San Diego every morning Monday through Saturday. It seems to be working pretty well on this end, though the forwarding from the Visalia address has been erratic so far.
The move was more laborious than I expected and took longer than I had planned. I planned for us to drive our two medium-sized trucks with our household goods and my entire office from Visalia, cross the border at Otay Mesa, and unload in Rosarito in one day. Otay Mesa immigration would not allow me to cross, it was not made dear exactly why. A Mexican friend went to every office on the Mexican side of the line at Otay Mesa searching for someone to bribe but failed. He said he begged, but no one would take his money. It makes me wonder what’s becoming of this country.
The next day a friend got a Mexican import-export office involved, and the problem was solved. It cost less than $100 on the Mexican side for papers of some kind, and about $450 on the American side to rent a truck and a loading crew. We unloaded everything from our two trucks—the temperature was close to 100 degrees—and put the whole enchilada in one big truck owned by a Mexican-American trucking company which crosses the border all the time.
I was in the office of the trucking company with the owner when the import-export office called to ask what I wanted to take across the border. The trucker didn’t know I understand Spanish. He said: “This guy is taking everything he’s ever owned, including the fleas on his dog.” The next day, day number three, the truck with our stuff was outside our door in Rosarito.
When I saw the house itself I was a little set back. I thought there would be window's in it but there were only holes to put the windows in. There was plumbing but it wasn’t hocked up (you keep a bucket of water in the bathroom and empty it in the toilet to flush), electricity but no plugs, a tar paper roof that was coming off, no cabinets or drawers or kitchen sink, no closets or face bowls or shower or tub and so on.
In short, we were missing some of the comforts of ordinary urban life in the U.S., we’re still missing some, but here we are. We’re putting things together piece by piece, I’m back in business, we will never have to move again, my expenses are going to go down significantly, I will refuse to grow any more debt, and the future looks good. It locks a whole lot better now than it did three and four months ago.
On the move to Mexico
Fascinating! Good luck in Mexico. My daughter and granddaughters, who live in Mexico, are visiting. They live in San Luis Potosi, a little farther south than you.
L.W.S., Illinois
Congratulations (I guess) on your move to Mexico. On the one hand, I hate to think that in a country the size of the U.S. you can’t find a place where you and your family can live and still do your revisionist work but, on the other, I definitely approve of your determination to get out of debt, which is entirely Biblical.
M.B., New Jersey
Enclosed is a check for $20 for one “Revisionism on the Internet.” I’m not interested in your bullfighting exploits, but did you run across Renk, an American bullfighter?
A.G., California
We never met, I don't remember why, but Renk was around when I was around and a little bit later. He had something of a career. Don’t know what happened to him.
Enclosed is $100 because I’ve neglected you. If you send some of your Holocaust Controversy leaflets, I’ll use them in no-postage-needed return envelopes for junk mail. What a super idea! Enjoy Mexico.
D.G., Colorado
Thanks. And congratulations! You'll be one of the first to receive the new printing of the Holocaust Controversy leaflet with all the new addresses and telephone numbers on it.
Bibliographic information about this document: Smith's Report, no. 46, September 1997, p. 2
Other contributors to this document: n/a
Editor’s comments: n/a