Rat Story #1 ocurred recently after we had constructed our house in rural Veracruz. It was made of adobe mud walls and had cement floors. It has wooden rafters and a tin roof that heats up in the hot season. It is dry but could flood with long periods of rain or a hurricane. It is still standing and with relatives living in it now.
One night we are in bed and the wife is asleep. I'm looking up at the rafters wondering what in God's name I was doing in rural Veracruz. Then I see him walking on the rafter, slowly and delilberately -- a big ugly rat. I reach over for my .22 rifle, unlock the safety and aim.
"Don't you dare," was all she said. She was right...the piece of tin was worth a lot more than the dead rat. She grew up on a ranch so she knows about these things. I put the gun down and noticed the rat had stopped and turned his head toward me as if to say ... well, you can imagine what the rat said. He certainly knew how to pour salt on the wound.
Rat Story #2. We had just moved into the palapas in our Maya village when one afternoon we both noticed a smell like something had died. Sometimes in the city we don't get those type of smells... I went outside and tried to find the source but to no avail.
When we got back from the ranch the next day the smell was overwhelming. Being the farmgirl that she is,she pointed to the loft and said 'it's up there. Go get it and get rid of it'. Being the farmgirl that she is, she knows what to do in these types of situations and how to get me to do it.
I crawl up into the loft over our air bed and find the dead critter directly over my pillow. The critter was not only smelling but beginning to ooze as well.
At night, just before going to sleep, she said ' you know, that dead, dripping rat was right over your head. If you hadn't gotten it out it would have dripped on you while you slept.' She didn't tell me something I didn't already know but being the farmgirl that she is she wanted to make certain I knew.
Rat Story #3 involves my friend Poot and catching the tepe. It's actually something all civilized people should know. It's ecologically sound as it uses no chemicals or otherwise degrades the environment. Poot traps these animals with a rock and stick trap outside their dens. One night they're wandering back in from a night on the jungle and bingo, there is one trapped tepe.
Poot caught one, skinned it, cut it up, built a fire of really hot coals, laid the tepe meat on banana leaf stalks, covered the whole thing with a metal card table top and then buried it in dirt for a little an hour. Technically speaking the tepe is not a rat but it has rat teeth and rat hands and feet. And the Maya absolutley do not eat house rats, like the one in Rat Story #2.
With no condiments or marination -- just the meat, and no other requirements. To be served with hot tortillas and habanero salsa. Tastes like a cross between pork and chicken. Mmmm....that's good rat!
So there you have my nominations for best rat story. If you've got better ones, let me know.
The truth is we can never have too many good rat stories.
I like everyone else in the world have had to buy a used car. We all want to buy our dream car at the price of what we have available for the purchase of our next car. That normally isn't very possible. Then every now and then we see an ad in the paper for a real cheap car, just the model we are looking for! Can it really be that good of a deal?
Beware! Many times if a car is priced so low there is a reason for it. Many times that reason is because there is something wrong with the car! Most times, it has been in a serious accident and the insurance company declared it as being totaled. You don't want to buy this car no matter how cheap it is. So how do we tell if this is a good deal or a lemon? Let's examine further!
The most obvious place to investigate is the title. If the car has been totaled or salvaged the title of the car will have that stamped on it. Therefore always ask the owner to see the title of the car while you are test driving it. If they are hesitant or if the title is at their brothers' house this is sure warning sign so beware!
You also need to be ware if the owner tells you that he lost the title of the vehicle so he has gotten a new one. This can be done to eliminate the salvaged title, or hide a high amount of miles on the car. When the title is unclear or looks clean but you are still unsure then resort to the next step of inspection.
When I was younger and very ambitious to get a nice truck for a little amount of money I didn't take the proper precautions and I got fooled! This particular truck supposedly had less than 100,000 miles on it. It was a good price but the truck was pretty dirty and used. I should have seen the warning signs, "dirty + used = over 100,000 miles" but I really wanted this truck and so I bought it.
I enjoyed the truck and had no major problems with it for a few years. Then I thought it was time to retire from a truck and get a car. So, I listed the truck hoping to get a good amount of money for it. To my surprise, the first interested person bought the truck. Yep, he took the VIN and told me he would be back within 48 hours to give me a check. That was easy!
To bad the excitement didn't last very long! Later on that night this gentleman called me back and asked to get out of the deal. I was a little shocked as I didn't know why he would have wanted out of such a good deal. He went on to tell me that he went online and checked the VIN of my truck and he found that it actually had 100,000 more miles then what was on the odometer. Was I shocked you might ask? Yeah, and mad also. I owned a truck that wasn't even worth what I owed on it just because I didn't check it out before I bought it.
What did I do? I took the hit. I lowered the price and told people that I wasn't for sure if the miles were accurate or not. It took much longer to sell and I didn't get nearly the money that I had expected. I also was a little mad at myself for not checking the VIN online myself before buying the truck. Oh well, live and learn right!
If you are unsure about the car that you are considering to buy, then check it out online. The technology that we have today is incredible, and we should use it to the best of our ability. It can save us a lot of money at the same time.
So, remember this as you continue on your used car search. If you find a deal that is to good to be true, then it normally is! I'm not saying that you can't find good deals, but these deals normally come from someone that you know and can trust. Not from an ad in the paper. I hope that you do find your dream car, and happy hunting!
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Jack Deal has sinced written about articles on various topics from Computers and The Internet, Health and Web Development. Jack D. Deal is the owner of Deal Business Consulting. He can be contacted at jddeal@jddeal.com Related articles can be found at and. Jack Deal's top article generates over 2240000 views. to your Favourites.
Warren Scott has sinced written about articles on various topics from Sports Car, Humour and Cars. To find the perfect used car for you check out where they have a large selection of. Warren Scott's top article generates over 6600 views. to your Favourites.