YOU GOT THE WRONG GUY!

One day I went for  a drive with my partner, Devon Popovich, to his brother-in-law’s residence, Mario, which was in the outskirts of Orange Cove.  We talked for a few minutes and in the middle of the conversation, Devon mentioned to Mario, “You know he’s from O.C too” and Mario replied,”Yeah...I know,” which startled both of us.   “Oh...so you know Cruzer then?” asked Devon.  “He jumped me one time when he use to be with the Deacons” he replied.  I was dumbfounded! Because, in the first place, I was never a Deacon, which was a local street gang in O.C even though a lot of their members grew up on my street and we went to school together, in fact, their president lived across the street from my house, but I had my own click and I never became a active member of their gang. but yet Mario was adamant that I, along with several other Deacons, pulled him and several of his friends out of his car and robbed them on Main Street, which was dead center of town.

I backed away a few steps, “Man you are sadly mistaken” I said, “Believe me I would of remembered this...I don’t play that way...dude.”  Devon had this look on his face as if he was thinking to himself,  “Awkward...maybe I should of had him wait in the car instead!”  I continued to plead my innocence until he said, “Yeah...you told me to stay down and pretend that you robbed me so that the other guys wouldn’t do anything to me!”  Suddenly I had a flashback, “Oh shit!” I thought, but Mario had his facts all twisted up because he and his buddies were really wasted that time.

He had his friends had just came out the pub that night, which was a small bar located at the end of Main street, and they were whooping and hollering out loud as they were walking...(actually stumbling) home.  Me and my two buddies, who I will call David and Lupe, had drank a case of Budweiser and a fifth of 80% Bacardi each and David had the genius idea of doing something risky like break into a store or into someone’s home, at that very instant, along came the three stooges singing Vincente Fernandez’s songs at the top of their lungs.  Against my wishes, David convinces Lupe to mugged these guys so they each confront one on one and the pouncing began. The third guy takes off running down the street yelling for the cops, “Policia...Policia” and David yells out, “Cruzer don’t let him get away!” so pendeho me was able to tackled him down, and he was in a total panic as I pinned him to the ground,  but I immediately told him, in Spanish, that I was not going to hurt him, which gradually brought him back to his senses.  I didn't want the other guys to see that I wasn’t doing anything to this guy because I feared for his safety, so I pretended that the Police were coming, “The cops...the cops...we gotta go!” and off we went.

“That was you...huh?” I said shamefully.  “Uh huh and now you’re a cop?” said Mario.  “I was stupid back then” I replied,  “ I’ve made better friends along the way” and I pointed toward Devon.  “Obviously” he replied, “Anyway...thanks for the handout."  “Yeah don’t mentioned it” I said.

Several years later while on patrol, we had a barricaded subject at the John-Henry’s lounge in Dinuba on South L street and the suspect was a old home-boy of mine, who was drugged up and armed with a handgun.  He had become upset because the bartender discontinued his tab so he waived his weapon around and demanded to be serve.  During the standoff, he asked for me by name, “ I’ll surrender to Cruz only...don’t bring anybody else in!”, so there I go waltzing inside, but I wasn’t really worried because I have known Chung King for quite sometime, in fact, he was relieved to see me, “Cruzer!...man...I was hoping you were working bro” he said, “Man...I’m so glad to see you...I told myself...the only way I going to come out is by having a fellow Deacon take me in.”  “Deacon!” I replied as I placed the handcuffs on him, “Shit...did I robbed you too!” 

CONGRATULATIONS TO MY GIRL!

Congratulations to my daughter, Sara Marie Balderas, for receiving her bachelors in Psychology, which was held at the PETCO stadium in San Diego on Saturday, June 17, 2017.  So proud of you...mama!  It was a beautiful ceremony along with great weather, good food and lots of people!

COOL FLICS FOR THE MONTH OF JUNE

In Theaters
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (pt-2)-sci-fi comedy/thriller-staring Chris Pratt & Zoe Saldana

Redbox
FIST FIGHT-Outrageous dark comedy-staring Ice Cube
THE WALL-semi-horror film with ugly-ass giant insects-staring Matt Damon

Netflix
TROLLS-good cartoon for both the children and adults
DR. STRANGE-marvel comic hero

REAL-ESTATE INQUIRIES PT. 2

One day as I was sitting at the benches by our apartment’s swimming pool reading my accounting text book, someone came up to me and asked, “Hey Cruzer...why are you taking college classes aren’t you retired?”  At first I thought “Well isn’t it obvious!” but actually this was an interesting question, so I thought it over for a few minutes before answering.  “Hmm...why am I studying...I mean...afterall I’m retired for Christ’s sake!”  Then it all came back to me, “Oh my two girls...that’s right, Rosita and Haley, who are now attending Fresno City College.”  I received an associates in General Education back in the late 90’s, which was only done because the Pd. gave a pay raise for every college degree earned and then I told myself, “Ok...I’m done with it!” but then my two girls came along and looked in my school files (how dare they) and discovered that I only needed a few classes to get my degree in Accounting (which is one of the hardest motherfucking classes I’d ever taken in my life!) so they nonchalantly confronted me, “Oh...so you preach to us about not giving up..huh...and what about you!”   

Needless to say, I went straight to Fresno State to go for my 4-year degree and they told me that I needed to go back to city college...can you beat that!  Here I was thinking that I was done with community education and I later find out that I still needed about six more classes just to enter FSU!  So now I’m close to the end and in the process in obtaining another 2yr degree (this time in Business Accounting) and most of all setting a example for my two girls, Hanzel & Gretel, who are actually becoming my competition, which kind of makes studying fun, but actually there is no such thing as too much education because that’s one thing that no-one can ever take away from you...think of it...you can lose the ability to walk, talk, see or hear, but as long as you can think with your mind...you can practically accomplish about anything...just ask Stephen Hawking and his bank account plus using your mind is a good combative source to fight Alzheimer’s, Dementia and other senile diseases, thus, explains the reason that I now possess a real estate broker’s license, which brings up another subject...real estate investments.

A young lady came into class the other day complaining about the high price of renting in the decent part of Fresno, which is roughly between $850-1,200 a month ( I know... it’s practically a house payment...right!).  Now I’m constantly (with the help of different sources besides the WEB) conducting research on real estate trends and new developments, and several of Fresno’s real estate experts speculate that for somebody to survive owning a home and maintain it, for example, pay the monthly mortgage of $1,200 for a $150,000 home, electricity, water, groceries, clothes, cellphone, cable, property taxes, car payment & insurance plus any repairs acquired, medical, dental, vision & life insurance and recreational expenses, a person or couple must make roughly about $53,000 a year, where the median of a suitable job in the valley is about $30-35,000 a year.  And the worst thing about this scenario is that there is a major assumption that both house values and apartment rates are going up every year with the back and fourth restrictions on home loan accessibilities and rising interest rates added with increase unemployment hikes and a rapid declining financial economy. So what is to be done...Cruzer to prevent us from taking our hard-earned money from our wallet and putting it into the pockets of these rich apartment owner(s)!  

I realize that there are many young couples, who are barely starting in life, either sharing a apartment with another couple to split the expenses or living with their parents to save up.  For example, there are these four couples that I know, who are each renting a $850 2-bedroom apartment for the past three years, which is a total of $30,600 and have nothing to show for it except a non-cash incentive in their state income tax form.  Only the men work in this group because their young wives are trying to study for better careers and taking care of their babies.  Now each man makes roughly $29,000 a year and are on their 2nd year of employment with low scores on their credit report due to lack of any other financial obligations.  

The thing to do here is for these two guys to gradually build their credit scores to at least 750 for a decent home loan with workable closing escrow cost or perhaps a FHA loan with low closing costs and down payment and stay employed for a minimum of two years than merge their income together, which is approximately $58,000 yearly, to qualify for a roomy residence...let’s just say with a monthly mortgage of $1,400  that’s $150 less than a $850 two-bedroom apartment, but that $30,600 goes straight into their equity instead of throwing it away, which in several good years quickly doubles.  Now if they decide to depart from one another then they can simply sell the house, split the profits and get their own home with the proceeds plus now each has establish credit to get another loan.  If one party wants to keep the house then he/she can refinance and buy the other party out.  Renting the original house is also another option whereas the monthly payments can be used in a payment of another mortgage payment.  (This is how many people get into the house business) But you need to act fast before the inflation cycle starts up again and turns everything upside down, which has been proven by history, so whenever you’re ready...call me! 

THE LESSON

                                                                                      

  Every day was the same routine, first it was the early morning blood draw at 5:30 am, followed by breakfast at 7:00 am, then the nerve racking Doctor's visit between 9:00-11:00 am. hoping for good news that will finally relieve my worrisome anticipation.  Afterwards, I resorted to whatever’s left of my future whether it involved special treatments to my pre-existing medical condition or fulfilling and cherishing the counted days of my life existence I have left in this world, but as usual, I receive the same answer, “We need to conduct more tests,” which returned my heart, my mind and my spirit back to the dreaded life of despair.  After weeks of follow-up examinations with no light at the end of the tunnel and mentally preparing my wife on how to survive life without me, I finally succumbed to what I had feared the most...extreme depression and questionable fate.

  I began to realize that everything I have accomplished in life only consisted of pleasing one person .....myself!  Never had I given much thought in helping others or have I contributed to any charity or needy organization.  That night, before reciting the Lord’s prayer for mercy, I began to wonder if I were to died and I found myself standing in the presence of the good Lord, what would I say if he asks “What have you done to benefit your fellow man.”  Surely, I could not lie to him nor can I invent some excuse that will convince him to allow me through the golden gates of Heaven.  “What a selfish fool I was” were the words blurted from my lips.  I asked in prayer for the Lord's forgiveness for my self-contained greediness and yet above all else, I egotistically requested for a favor with a promised commitment that I would donate to several charities and attend church on a regular basis of my preferred religion. The following day in the presence of my wife, the doctor entered my room unexpectedly with a piece of paper in hand “Cruz!  you don’t have the disease!" He said with a cheerful smile “Here...see for yourself” Under the lab results in bold letters were the following words “No evidence of Lymphoma”...I was going home!

  I remembered telling myself on the way home from the hospital, how thankful I was to the Lord and that I will fulfill all the promises I had made to him.  For the next three months,  I attended church on every Sunday and contributed to various charitable organizations, but later in the year, I moved to another city and found myself barely making ends meet where I turned around and used as an excuse to skip church services because it was too far to travel and I convinced myself that the good Lord will understand my absences due to my financial instability and physical handicap with the same reasoning behind the inconsistency of charitable spending supported by my self-denial that I did not have a nickel to spare, but yet always had a dime to waste at the casinos or some other pleasurable recreation. 

 One Saturday afternoon, I made plans to go to my mother's house after I picked up my monthly paycheck and perhaps take her to the 5 o'clock mass so that I can gratify my obligation of helping her cope with the loneliness and misery of my father's passing and perhaps add a positive mark to my lagging track record of church attendance, but first I needed to travel to a nearby town to cash my check before the bank closed or I would not have enough money to comfortably enjoy the weekend.  On my arrival, I noticed the bank was closed because of the town's yearly festival and the next bank closes to me was back at my hometown, which was about forty-five minutes away, so I decided to cancel all my church plans and as I was calling to disappoint my mother, I received a phone call from my wife.  I explained to her about my situation and of my next step, and she told me that I needed to pick-up her brother from his house so that he could repair our dryer, but he was not going to be home at the time for several hours.  I tried to persuade her that we needed money for the weekend, but she was adamant about fixing the dryer.  So I asked her "Shall I go to church then?" which she replied "Well...there's no other better place to buy some time."

 So I met up with my devoted Catholic mother at the church, but as I entered inside I suddenly began to feel lightheaded due to the usual occurances of my declining bloodpressure.  During this time, Father Raul was lecturing about the ten Leopards, who were eventually cured by Jesus Christ, but only one of them returned to to show him any gratitude, while the other ungrateful nine carried on with their lives without so much as giving him a thank you.  At that moment my lightheadiness disappeared as I saw a beam of light gazing on top of the holy cross, which was where I suddenly realized " Am I one of the nine Leopards!  Here I am attending church to accomodate a inconvenience, and not for the sake of the Lord nor for the good intentions of my mother .

  Did I not make a promise to God that I would devote some time for him and work on improving his attempts to better mankind?  Where is my gratitude for his cure on me?  Why have I not returned to thank him?  I turned to my mother, who was in deep prayer and I remembered the guilt I felt inside of not being there for the only other true mentor in my life, besides the Lord, which was my father on the day he passed away and now here I am treating my mother's companionship as an obligation rather than a desirable privilege!  

"What a selfish fool I was and what a selfish fool I still am." I said to myself as I got down on my knees with the urged to cry, but instead, I asked the Lord for his forgiveness and thanked him for showing me the short journey of my wrongdoings. I only had a few dollars in my pocket and as the ushers passed the collection basket, I told myself that I was giving every penny to the good Lord and to the fellowship of his church.  I wanted to go home with absolutely nothing in my wallet nor in my pockets.  This was the very least I can sacrifice for this priceless teaching that was provided by my Creator, my Saviour...my true Father.  This is what I truly deserved to hold nothing of value on me except for a new unselfish beginning of my heart, soul and spirit.  Thank You Lord for this personal blessing and insight you had given me.  Thank you for the re-opening of my eyes and Christian virtue once again.  Thank you for finally ridding of my selfish ways and foolish past behaviors.  And most of ..oh good Lord....Thank You for this wonderful and valuable lesson!