i'm not usually this quiet when expressing myself in the blog. i'm concerned about morbid obesity. while waiting to pick up my luggage at the airport upon arrival, two obese teenagers flailed their arms to stretch their tired bodies, looking like big bird flapping his wings. their parents, twice their size, approved. at the grocery store a woman with a lower body shaped like a sofa pushed a cartful of groceries, the cart to her was like a walker. during the church service a baptism could not start because the godfather was delayed parking the car. the priest asked the godmother, a woman the size of three, to "run" to him and tell him to hurry. she glided over.
Puerto Rico, per capita, has a crime rate as high as Mexico's. if you're attacked, we are advised, the best defense is to kick and scream and not be passive. if you comply with requests you might not come out alive after the encounter. thieves often know the victims. they may be relatives of people who in the past worked in the home, and know the owner's habits.
we experienced graft. as my cousin settled in for the holidays, my 93 year old uncle received a call from a frantic man saying that he had found his son, my cousin, in an accident and the ambulance needed his social security number to take him to the hospital. my cousin took the phone and told him her son was right next to him. these scam calls by criminals who are good actors are popular in San Juan right now.
a member of one of the most prominent families in the Island worked many years in investment banking. when the market went through turbulence, the value of his portfolio disappeared. he committed suicide. how unfortunate the loss of a brilliant man, father and husband, whose family was associated with the rum industry. he should have reevaluated his life. during that turbulence, similar things hapenned to money our father had invested. the valuation of the portfolio went to practically nothing. two years later, it rebounded to half its original value. if only the banker would have waited.
