One hundred and twenty hours from now we’ll (hopefully) be on a plane back to Chicago. I have a countdown, of course, because I have a splitting headache and the “car bar” next door seems to be hosting Harley night. What a bunch of shitheads.

A word of advice to future homeowners: Always, always, always tour the area around your (potential) new home. Drive by on Friday nights. Drive by in the evenings. Drive by during the day. Drive by when it’s raining and/or snowing. See how it is on Sunday afternoons. Make sure you’ve been around the area enough to know whether or not there is an horse/car bar next door. That’s my helpful hint for the day.

…when I think that going back to Chicago will be quieter than here, you know it’s bad.

I just ran across an interested new site called LibraryThing (found the link on BoingBoing). It allows you to maintain an on-line catalog of your book collection.

This is pretty handy for us who have many books (at last count, I’m up to over 4,000–half of my boxes in storage are books). Basically, you do a title or author search, or enter in ISBNs. It goes out to Amazon, and several major libraries, to get the details (ex. photo of the cover, edition info, etc).

What’s really interesting to see is the other people who own the same books. You get a peek at what else they have in their library–some of the matches are pretty spooky. For example, a whole group of people have the same set of cookbooks that I do. Must be a lot of people with good taste.

I’m in the process of putting in some of my collection, mainly to see what recommendations come out. If you want to check out what I’ve got in there so far, click here.

Another thing that I really like about the site is the ability to easily export your catalog. A big fear I have when putting my info on unknown servers is “what if they go away”. By having the export capability (and import), I can load up my books, then export as a backup. I’m glad they thought of that.

If you are into books, or just want to see what other people are reading, then take a look at LibraryThing.

I recently signed up for the on-line portion of Cook’s Illustrated and I’m quite happy with it. They have all of their recipes on-line (over 2,700 of them) and everything is searchable (Google powered). Also has equipment ratings, ingredient taste tests, one-click shopping lists, and more.

If you are interested in cooking, it’s worth checking out. Just go to Cook’s Illustrated and click on the Free Trial (you can try it out for 14 days, after that it’s $20 a year). Since it has all the recipes from the magazine, you could even forgoe the mag and just do on-line and save some cash.

I think this will be the first in a series of myths I’d like to bust regarding PR. You see, before we came down here, we heard so many people up north talk about how cheap it was to live in Puerto Rico. Let me tell you, maybe in the past it was, but it sure isn’t anymore!

Sub-Myth #1 : Puerto Rican’s don’t pay federal income tax!

Sounds really good, right? No feds to pay. Well, keep this in mind: You still need to pay into Social Security and Medicare. And while you don’t have to pay US Federal, you DO have to pay the Puerto Rican income tax. And, get this: Because of the poverty down here, the HIGHEST tax bracket starts at ONLY $30,000! Also, any income you make from US based activities (ex. my ING savings account) require that you pay US Federal income taxes.

Sub-Myth #2 : Housing is cheap!

Well, if you consider a $250,000 home on 1/2 an acre cheap, then I guess it is. Don’t even try and live near any of the nice areas in the large metro (and tourist) areas, since the prices skyrocket. Frankly, we’ve seen much nicer houses in the Chicago metro area for similar prices.

Now, granted, you can still find some good deals. That 10 acre farm we were looking at was going to run us $150,000. But, keep in mind, it had a piece of shit house on it. We would have had to build a completely new house, for at least $100,000. (We didn’t want to live in a coffin. Our old apartment in Chicago was bigger than many of the houses down here.) Also, if you are in areas registed as farm land, your property taxes are very very cheap. But I haven’t seen real numbers on paper to prove this.

Sub-Myth #3 : Utilities are cheaper — you don’t have heating bills!

While it’s true that you don’t have any Natural Gas bills down here (except for Propane cooking), the electricity is far more expensive that what we saw in Chicago. In a bad summer month in Chicago, with AC running 24×7 for the whole month, I never saw an electric bill over $120. My typical bills–and this is with about 10 servers running 24×7–and an electric stove–were in the $60 range. Down here, we see bills of $160 a month–with NO AC. Only a fridge, washer, fans, and lights.

As an added bonus, figure on having your power go off at LEAST once a week. Heck, this last month has been horrible. Outages several times a week which last at least 8 hours at a time. Oh, and the water, well, it’s usually on. Except for the week or so when it’s not. Better make sure that cistern is filled! “Pay more get less” seems to be the motto.

Sub-Myth #4 : Goods and services are cheaper — no sales tax!

While there’s currently no sales tax on the island, there is (and has been) a 6% excise tax on every good that is imported–and that’s just about everything. Take for example simple stuff like video games. Whereas in the states I’d pay $20 for a game, down here I pay $23 (obviously more than 6% markup there). Clothes are another thing marked up even more. Name brands are nearly always a couple dollars more down here than they would be in the states.

As if that isn’t bad enough, the new sales tax (which will be anywhere between 5 and 8 percent) will be going into effect soon. So you’ll have an effective combined sales/import tax of between 11 and 14 percent on everything. And when I say everything, I mean everything. How often do you pay 8% tax on FOOD and MEDICINE in the US? Well, welcome to Puerto Rico, folks–’cause that’s what they are planning. (I’m hoping they don’t make the idiotic move and tax food and medicine, but the government down here isn’t exactly known for making good decisions.)

Still with me? Well, then head off to the grocery store, where I always walk out paying more than if I was in Chicago. Did you see the article about how Chicago has some of the highest milk prices in the nation? Well, PR prices are higher than those–and have been. (Kinda odd that we pay well over $4 a gallon for milk, yet there are dairy cows all over the place.) Beer, wine? All more expensive (by a large margin). The only spirit that is cheaper is rum. Most of the meat is imported, so that raises the price. Medium sized boxes of name-brand cereal are $4 a box and don’t go on sale. Etc, etc, etc.

Low Wages

In large part because of these myths, wages are abnormally low down here. Jobs that would pay $40,000 in Chicago pay $20,000 here. Let me tell you folks, the cost of living in Puerto Rico is NOT half of Chicago. As an added kick in the nuts, PR is going to have an even harder time as real estate prices continue to trend downward.

This really helps me to understand why there is so much poverty down here. Many things are run down because people can barely pay for the over-priced basics. In addition, all of this spawns a huge underground economy–an economy that’s un-taxed and un-regulated. The vicious circle will continue until people start seeing some VALUE from their tax dollars.

So, these are some of the myths I’ve learned first-hand by living down here. So, the next time someone tells you that Puerto Rico is “so cheap”, think again.

 

I was checking out games at Toys R Us the other day and ran into one called “Sukoku Fever” for the Game Boy Advance. I hadn’t seen any reviews, but it looked decent, and was $20, so I picked it up.

Why did I get another Sukoku game when I already have one for the DS (as part of Brain Age)? Well, because the GBA version will fit into my Game Boy Micro–the super tiny GBA. It’s a lot easier to carry around the tiny Micro than the bulky DS (though the new, smaller, DS does look a lot nicer than the original).

Here are some things I like about Sukoku Fever: You can choose grid sizes. You can do 9, 8, 6, and 4 sized grids. This is something I missed in the Brain Age version, since sometimes you just want to play a quick game. Another nice feature is that you can change from numbers to letters and even shapes. It’s a little thing, but it adds a twist to the gameplay. The interface is also clean. Not too hard to use, and has some helpful hints that you can turn on/off. For instance, you can turn on “pencil marks”, where the system tells you the possible numbers for a grid square. Finally, all the puzzles are randomly generated, so you have an “unlimited” number of games.

What don’t I like? Well, I think it was written by the same people who’ve done other cheapie puzzle games for the GBA (like the card games, etc). This means that (a) the music sucks (but can be turned off) and (b) the settings don’t get saved. In other words, every time you turn on the GBA you gotta go in and shut off the shitty music.  I also think they could have done the game save better, but it’s workable. (BTW: The 9 sized grids are small, but still readable on the Micro. The other sizes are perfectly readable.) 

All in all, it’s worth the $20, even more so if you have a Game Boy Micro. It’s the perfect matchup between a simple (yet fun) puzzle game with the super-tiny Micro. This is a great “train” game. I could see myself playing it on the El, like I used to with Tetris.

Today my last official work day, I sit here and look around… listening to the birds and coquis singing as the sun sets leaving a dim outline of the beautiful mountains in front of me.

I glance over to the platform and watch it move back and forth while I imagine seeing the signal being transmitted today into space.

This will be my last time operating the Arecibo Observatory Telescope. I pause from writing to check the twenty one monitors in the control room to make sure that everything is working fine. It is. Then I walk over to the radar transmitter room and glance at the racks of panels with flashing lights (some green, yellow, red and white) while I check yet another set of monitors makings sure that the transmitter is behaving as it should. All is well. That’s good.
I walk over to the computer / server / atomic clock room and repeat my search and all appears to be running fine. I take a moment and stare at the SETI@home systems called SERENDIP.

Recently, SERENDIP went through an upgrade so there’s going to be more data collected. Good news since they now migrated it with the ALFA system which collects seven times more data in one sweep. The technology is AWESOME. I would love to hear one day that, yes, we made contact. Wouldn’t that change the way this world runs today.

There were times that working the grave yard shift was quite challenging. It was difficult staying awake and observing. Physically, I could not keep up with the rotating shift but I endured. I recalled the night when we were observing the asteroid that supposedly would strike earth in the near future, therefore, it was important to observe it and calculate the prediction of it striking earth. A few weeks later there was an article in the science magazine talking about this asteroid. I enjoyed the process of discovery / investigation, confirmation, and information. Very Cool

I met scientist from all over the worlds and most would run their observation remotely. Sadly to say I didn’t get much of a chance to get to know some of my co-workers but I did get to know the Telescope Operator crew and I sincerely enjoyed being apart of this wonderfully dedicated team. Not only were they serious of their responsibility but they were also a lot of fun. I’ll miss that. I’ll do my best to keep in touch.

The thought of leaving saddens me yet it must be done. Change is always a good thing. I‘m leaving the working environment but not the friendship I’ve made here in Puerto Rico. I’ve met people whom I respect and love. Their friendship for me is ever lasting.

THANK YOU for making our experience here a very special and unique one. I’ve learned so much and I’m grateful for having you in my life. Once more, thank you my friends and family of Puerto Rico.

I was up at around 7:30 chaining up the dogs and was able to spot the movers as they were approaching the house. I waved them in (luckily, the dogs didn’t try running out–they were too scared) and they are currently in the process of packing up the furniture. After that, they bind up the boxes, and off in the truck everything goes. This is a pretty light move, so they should be done by around 10 AM.

If you are looking for movers to/from PR, take a look at Pan American Latino Express movers. They were the people who moved Evelyn’s parents (and us) down here, and they are moving our stuff back. They have always been on-time and the crews are friendly. (The same crew that moved us in is moving us out!) It cost about $5500 to move an entire house (lots of stuff) from Chicago to PR. It’s costing about $1800 for us to ship our 40 boxes, 2 bikes, 2 ladders, couch, and mini fridge back to Chicago. Not too bad for a trip of over 2000 miles, and cheap compared to the value of my cooking equipment and the bikes.

Update: Well it’s 10:15 AM and the movers are all done and out the door. In about a month we’ll have all of our stuff back in Chicago.

Well, the last box was packed today. Altogether we’ve got 40 boxes, big and small, going back up to Chicago. That’s nothing to the 400+ boxes we have in storage right now!

So, tomorrow (Monday), the movers come to take it all away. It took about 3 weeks for Chicago to come to PR, so I’m guessing it will take the same amount of time to get back. Some of our stuff has really gone for a world tour: My Folio books come from London, to Chicago, down to PR, and now back up to Chicago again. Quite a trip!

Evelyn’s last work day is also tomorrow (her “weekend” days are Tue/Wed), though she’ll probably have to go in on Wednesday for the final paperwork. After that, we’ll spend the next week just being tourists and saying goodbye to people.

It’s a bit sad to be moving on, mainly because there are a number of people I’m really going to miss. However, the decision to move down here in the first place was much more difficult that the decision to move back. While I treasure the friendships I’ve made done here, this place just isn’t right for us at this time, if ever. Come on, Puerto Rico! Get your act together!

Well, the tickets have been booked. We’ll be on American Airlines flight 1854, departing on Wednesday July 5th. We leave San Juan at 5:40 PM and arrive at Chicago O’Hare at 9:33 PM.

The Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority (PRASA) has been hit with a $9 million fine — the largest ever paid by a utility for violating the federal Clean Water Act (CWA), according to a US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

It seems that they can’t run their water (fresh and waste) treatment plants properly. Take a look at the cash involved:

PRASA has pled guilty to 15 felony counts of violating the Clean Water Act, agreeing to pay $9 million in fines and $1.7 billion to upgrade plants throughout the Commonwealth.

Wonder if this means that water bills are going up again?