OT: Nope - He Ain't Daid

[Guest guest]

Welcome back busy Butcher! Glad you ain't dead

 

*Smile*

Chris (list mom)

http://www.alittleolfactory.com

 

 

 

 

Butch Owen [butchbsi]

 

 

Hi y'all,

 

Though it might be disappointing to some folks in the industry, I am

still above snakes. I haven't posted in the last ten days (maybe a

record?) to a list or even off list to friends .. I've just dealt with

orders .. but this post will more than make up for that. The reason I

have not posted is because I have been moving and dealing with the

humma-humma here ....

<snipped>

... Y'all keep smiling. Butch http://www.AV-AT.com

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

The snakes ain't ready for him yet! They know he still has

too much work above ground, afore he's snake food!

Glad ya resurfaced ;-)

Janet

 

 

>Welcome back busy Butcher! Glad you ain't dead

>

>*Smile*

>Chris (list mom)

 

Making Light of Scents,

Janet Golden-Hogan

 

http://www.GoldenEssence.com

 

 

[Guest guest]

Hi y'all,

 

Though it might be disappointing to some folks in the industry, I am

still above snakes. I haven't posted in the last ten days (maybe a

record?) to a list or even off list to friends .. I've just dealt with

orders .. but this post will more than make up for that. The reason I

have not posted is because I have been moving and dealing with the

humma-humma here that is necessary to accomplish simple things that

most Americans take for granted .. like closing/opening utilities. We

have no shortage of red tape here in Turkey. Sometimes the system even

works .. sometimes we can circumvent it and take the high road.

 

Weekend afore the one just passed was spent destroying 9 + years of

documents/files after officially closing out my Turkish company .. and

giving away all the furnishings I had to friends because the buyers of

used furnishings wanted to give me a dime on the dollar so I told them

to go fly a kite .. giving to friends is a better thing to do.

 

I won't go into the details of what is required to close a company here

except to say that it is easier and a lot cheaper to give it away. I

didn't do that cause I'll no longer run Business Services International

so I want to kill it. It was my baby and the reputation it gained in

that 9 + years is one I will not allow to be harmed. Same will happen

for Appalachian Valley Natural Products .. some day.

 

Though I moved nothing but my desk set and that of my secretary .. with

PCs and other commo gear to the new location .. which is my apartment ..

it is like cramming a 36 inch waist into 32 trousers. Its happening but

its not easy. I had five office suites with accompanying storage/file

facilities in an office 5 X the size of my apartment and even after

destroying the history of my Turkish company I had to keep a lot of

information relating to the American company in Maryland .. and now

it looks like we will spend a bit more time on the shredder because

storage space is tight here.

 

Am I going to be happier here? Yep! I have a great view .. on a hill

overlooking Ankara .. outside my door are 24 hour restaurants, a fish

market, a fresh veggie stand, a shoeshine feller, two grocery stores and

anything else a person could want .. all within a minute or so walk.

Basically .. its a what's happening street. If I feel a need for a

break I just leave the PC, move to my living room and grab Tom Clancy or

a good American West history novel and cool it for a while. Nice big

balconies and my Rosa damascena plants are smiling and leafing out.

 

I will miss my employees .. but I was fortunate enough to find good jobs

for each of them .. no way would I have turned them out without income.

And last Friday evening they pitched an informal funeral for my Turkish

company at my favorite local pub. The weather was nice and we all sat

outside whilst burying 9 + years of effort in the most respectful way we

could .. as is the Turkish way .. even though this was really not in

accordance with any Turkish customs. It was a nice gesture and under

such conditions and after a few drinks or so with folks I love even this

old soldier can still shed a tear now and then.

 

My Turkish site still functions ... http://www.Bsi-Hq.com

 

To make y'all feel good about some of the things you take for granted in

the USA .. and probably some of the things you bitch about on a daily

basis cause we American critters can become spoiled due to a system that

does work .. here is some of the routine stuff I had to deal with.

 

For the last 7-8 years, monthly utility bills and such have been set up

so they can be paid via I-Net or directly to a bank .. good this is as

prior to that one had to personally show up at the service provider.

But .. closing them and opening them at a new location is not so easy.

 

As my Residence/Work Permit lists my office address .. that is the only

location I could have utilities connected to .. unless I get the Permit

updated and that takes around two months .. but since I have officially

closed my Turkish company, technically that withdraws my authorization

for a Residence/Work Permit .. Catch 22 .. maybe.

 

Only the Responsible Manager (as published in the Official Gazette) can

close out the old utilities. This is probably a good system and one we

could use in the USA .. having one person designated as the one to catch

hell if the train jumps the track .. the one whose feet are held to the

fire if irregularities occur .. that person was me. And closure must be

done in person .. along with a lotta notarized documents proving I am

authorized to do this and that.

 

One might think closing out three phone lines, a fax line, PC line and

a Cable TV line is easy .. not so! Regardless of what you take to the

PTT, they will want something else. " Where is your dawg? " " Didn't

bring him. " " Gotta go get him. " Come back with the dawg and its ..

" Wrong color that dawg. " So get another one the color the gummit dude

wants. " Nope, that dawg is a female .. gotta be a male. " .. and so on.

Takes three trips if one is lucky. And none of the service providers

are in the same location .. water on one side of town, gas on another,

telephone on another, and electric on another. Good it is that taxis

are cheap here. And good it is the way I circumvented all the

prohibitions on hooking up new services to my apartment .. they are all

in my landlord's name .. so if/when I decide to fly I can just fly.

 

Then there is the Muhtar .. the area Block Warden maybe is the best way

I can describe it. S/he is supposed to have a record of where every

person lives .. and what color their dawg is. Its not a tight system.

I have lived in many places in Turkey and never cleared a Muhtar when I

left to go to another place. But lately they have begun to require one

clear the old Muhtar afore checking in with the new one .. likely it is

that this is due to increased security measures brought about by Global

Terrorism. To make a long story short .. this I was able to negotiate

rather easily .. and good it is cause this can be a real hassle.

 

Now I have to deal with updating my Residence/Work Permit .. or leave

the country for 24 hours every 90 days and return on a Tourist Visa. It

can be done .. and likely will be done as there is a technical clause in

the law that says the Responsible Manager must be available to answer

any questions on finance and such .. for one year following the closure

of a company .. and another technical clause saying Responsible Managers

must be in residence. I will see if there is another technical clause

that says I have to get my butt outta here.

 

I have a weapon .. 9MM .. with Turkish gummit permit to carry concealed.

Not that I feel a need for it but after 30 years in uniform, the last 20

of that as a Military Cop .. and the fact that there are bad guys out

and about .. I want to keep it updated. A cowboy I ain't .. and a lamb

I ain't .. never had a desire to martyr myself. It expired 22 March.

Tomorrow, I will begin the process of renewal. Gotta go to a gummit

shrink (did it 5 years ago) and have a cuppa tea with him .. then he

will certify that I am not nuts .. maybe. Last one joked that he might

not be able to do that cause an American voluntarily living in Turkey

with passport that would let him live in the USA gotta be nuts.

 

But that was tongue in cheek .. most Turks do NOT want to live in the

USA. Granted .. there are a heckuva lotta things about life in America

that are easier and smoother than here .. but there are a lot of things

here that are dear to them .. and to me. Cultural and social they are.

I am a conservative feller .. I like the respect accorded to parents

and to the elderly here .. and the kindness and hospitality and

helpfulness of every Turkish citizen I have ever met .. excluding some

who are robots .. are gummit employees. I like their way of life

because it is the way I was brought up in Kentucky afore folks in the

USA started leaning a bit too far left to suit me .. afore we forgot who

and why we were what we were and what being nice to our neighbors was

all about. I guess this is a normal price to pay for modernity and

there is no doubt that the Turks will pay it in time .. but I believe I

will be long under snakes afore that happens.

 

Everybody in Turkey has a rank. Big brother or big sister or uncle or

father or grandfather .. or little sister or daughter .. and such. The

rank (of course) changes according to the person being addressed .. and

according to how close you are to that person. I like this. I think

we should think 4-5 times afore insulting an aged person who we should

show formal respect for. Disagreeing is normal here .. but Turks have a

talent for disagreeing without being disagreeable. I like that too.

 

There are smart alecks here as there are in any country .. but one can

go to a pub and know they will not be bothered by them. The management

would not tolerate it .. nor would the other customers. Not true for

the foreigners though .. take a foreigner away from home and you often

have instant asshole .. just add alcohol. Thus, I don't frequent pubs

where foreigners hang out. At my age, I am Big Brother or Uncle to most

folks and I like that.

 

I like the security here .. for years (while married) my American family

roamed about with no concern of being attacked or mugged and such .. it

just does not happen .. except there are some purse snatchers operating

in the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul .. mostly immigrants from the Balkans

and the ex-Soviet Republics. If a person even looks like they are going

to bother a woman or child here .. fifteen Turks will be on his butt

like ugly on a wart hawg. Turkey is safe .. unless one is specifically

targeted by a bad guy .. and that doesn't happen to tourists.

 

I like the geographic location of Turkey. For me, a trip to 20 or so

countries costs about as much as it does to fly from Boston to Hotlanta.

 

I like the food here .. Turkey being the crossroads between two worlds,

the West and the East .. and the inheritors of the best of what the

Ottoman Empire had to offer .. means that the culinary arts are above

and beyond what most folks are used to. I like the fresh veggies twelve

months a year .. the fresh fish as Turkey is surrounded by seas .. the

prices are great and the service in even the smallest cafe is similar to

what one would expect in a VIP lounge in Europe or in America.

 

I like the wine, the beer .. Efes Beer .. Turkish for the English word

Ephesus .. and the Raki .. a real aromatic treat made by co-distilling

grapes and Anise Seed. Lion's Milk its called .. goes down smooth as a

baby's butt and after a couple you feel like a lion .. one or two more

and you bray like a donkey. The real reason it got the name Lion's

Milk is because though its clear, it turns milky when you add water.

Similar to Greek Ouzo and Arabic Arak it is.

 

I like the bread and the pastries. World's best bread says EVERY one of

the foreigners who have visited here .. baked fresh 24 hours around the

clock .. and no preservatives. Pastry shops on every corner .. wanna

gain a few kilos just stop off once a week. Martin Watt went mad when

he visited here and wanted to stop on every corner.

 

I like the ladies. Hard to find a more exotic and feminine bunch of

female critters .. poor or rich, they have a way about them .. a kind of

knowledge that they are superior (behavior wise they are) but don't have

to show it .. they can control men without letting them know they are

being controlled. This is not the case amongst the ignorant peasants of

the East and those who have migrated to the cities .. but they are not

my running mates. Lemme just say that Turkish women are NOT subservient

and this is in GREAT contrast to ANY country in the world with a Moslem

population. Turks are Moslem .. but they are NOT Islamic. In fact, due

to the fantastic efforts of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (the father of Turkey)

check this out http://www.ataturk.com/index2.html secularism is not

just a law on the books .. its a law one does not want to violate as the

penalties are great. Proselytizing is outlawed .. Christians, Moslems

and Jews live side by side and there are houses of worship for each on

the same street. Our last Deputy Prime Minister was a Turkish Jew and

two terms before that the Prime Minister was a lady. Ataturk made a big

deal out of women's rights .. the world's first female Supreme Court

Justice and world's first female commercial airline pilot were Turkish.

This was but six years after women got the vote in the US of A .. the

19th Amendment passed in America in 1920 .. this was 144 years after the

founding of our Nation. Ataturk adopted a Civil Rights Code for Woman

in 1926, three years after creating the Republic of Turkey from the

ashes of the Ottoman Empire!

 

I would speculate that close to half the lawyers, doctors and engineers

of the younger generation are women. Why? Because they are smarter?

Yes! Not more intelligent .. but smarter! They know where the path to

success lies so they devote a lot more time to studies than do their

male counterparts .. thus, they do better on the placement scores in the

annual university entrance exams. These exams are tough .. winning odds

are like 15% or so. If you don't make that cut to the free universities

your parents can pay your way to a private school .. but that is very

costly even by Turkish standards. Education standards here are very

high .. similar to those in Europe, but Turkey is technically European.

 

Someone might say .. my description of Turkey as a secular country does

not jive with the fact that they now have a moderate Moslem party in

government. Well .. lemme say that that's the way democracy works from

time to time .. and if I could have voted last time I would have voted

for that party. Or .. maybe its better to say that I would have done

what others did .. voted AGAINST the other parties. The Turkish

Constitution and the Turkish Military are legally and officially the

guarantors of secularization, westernization and democratization in

Turkey .. it matters not which party is in control. In fact, the system

just absorbs whatever party is in control .. and I often say that the

system could use a bit of screw tightening.

 

When will I return to the USA? I get asked that 2-3 times a week. The

answer now is .. after the US Presidential elections .. maybe. If Hanoi

Kerry wins .. I will not return until he is either defeated in a future

election .. or is impeached .. or I find it necessary to return to my

homeland to fight against Global Terrorism on my own home soil. I hope

that day does not come .. but it might. This is not intended to be a

political statement and I ask that it not start a thread on politics on

this list. But I am asked the question of when I will return often by

friends on this list. It is the opinion of but ONE old soldier .. might

not be the right answer for you and yours but it is my answer and I now

provide that answer to lots of folks who haven't asked yet. I believe

strongly in the American system and have done my best to defend it for

more years than most can imagine .. in and out of uniform .. but I

function according to my personal desires and beliefs.

 

When is the next Rose harvest/distillation? Should kick off around the

15th or so of May .. I will be in the Rose Fields of Isparta then .. as

I have been for many, many years. What of prices this year? Nobody

knows now .. that will be determined around the first week of June. But

we can bet our bootie they will NOT be less than last year. In the last

couple of weeks I've received " fishing " inquiries from international

companies inquiring on the purchase of large amounts of Rose Otto .. two

wanted 50 kilos. Either they think they have found a magician who can

pull rabbits out of thin air .. or they are fishing for lower prices by

claiming to want large amounts of oil. My reply to them was that it is

likely that there are not 50 kilos remaining from the next harvest that

have not already been paid for .. and that's a fact.

 

So y'all .. that's where I've been .. and its not over yet. I have been

able to handle all orders and all requests for information .. if you

have sent me a post that is important and I have not replied .. I have

not received it. This is not at all unusual in today's times as the

I-Net is in one helluva mess. If you have sent me a post and it was not

important .. just a social conversation .. its in the que.

 

Y'all keep smiling. Butch http://www.AV-AT.com

 

Bulk/Wholesale/Retail GC Tested EO, Rose Otto, Tested Hydrosols and

other nice things shipped from my store in Friendsville, Maryland.

 

American By Birth ** Southern By The Grace Of God ** Patriot By Choice