Author: doug

L’il Big Dog

It’s hard to convey how huge this collar-less puppy is. Like a cross between a bear and a horse. I can say, however, that we were relieved to see that he did not intend to go on the walk with us today. Something about 60 kilos of puppy crashing through the undergrowth and charging by on narrow bits of path, as the one time he did, makes a walk a little less relaxing.

¡Hecho!

You may think you are looking at a rusting dishwasher that has been used mainly as a drying rack for the last 15 years, and is now useless, since the control panel no longer works and water from wet dishes can’t be pumped out.

But, after a more thorough disassembling than was really needed, and some rewiring, it has now become a rusting 15 year old dishwasher with only one function: the on-off power button now turns on the water drainage pump.

And nothing else.

Yea!

What a difference a century makes

In 1965, the population of Uruguay was 2.68 million (current 3.36 million).

Wikipedia: The Executive Tower (Spanish: Torre Ejecutiva) is the official workplace of the President of Uruguay. It is located in front of the Plaza Independencia, in Barrio Centro, Montevideo.

History

The original project was started in 1965 as a future Palace of Justice, but the 1973 coup d’état interrupted it.[1] By the time the military government ended in 1985, the building was too small for the Uruguayan justice system, so the project remained halted for decades until in March 2006, President Tabaré Vázquez decided to finish the building and use it as an extension of the Estévez Palace.[2] The President’s offices were transferred there from the Liberty Building in September 2009.

In 1873, the population of Uruguay was around 0.4 million.

Wikipedia: The Estévez Palace (Spanish: Palacio Estévez) is a building situated in Plaza Independencia, Montevideo, Uruguay, designed in a combination of Doric and Colonial styles by Manoel de Castel in 1873. It has served as the working place of the President of Uruguay and has been eventually converted to a museum, housing artifacts and mementos of the Uruguayan presidency and its office holders.

The Palacio Estévez is the little gem to the left in the photo above. Ah, the good old days.

Can’t be too safe?

I bought butter from Mercado Atlántida (which has expanded rather remarkably over the last few years; currently subsuming the neighboring butcher shop) and was startled with the cashier’s behavior, swiping the packages on the countertop then holding them below. When I asked, she replied “alarmas” and sure enough, I see there are security strips. On butter.

Isn’t that kind of overdoing it?

Looking online, I see these things cost around 4 US cents in bulk in the US, or around 2 pesos, but importing would bring them to more like 7-8¢ each, or ~4 pesos, meaning roughly 4% of the cost of the chunk of butter.

Worth it? Well, if people are shoplifting butter, I’d say so.

FWIW, cost of this butter was around USD 4.33/pound, versus 4.90/pound or so in the US.

For the bees.

For some reason, the yucca plants are falling apart this year. The first—a few weeks ago—appeared to have been caused by heavy wind. This one, not sure, but even though it was hanging over the driveway, I knew at first glance I had to leave it for a while: the bees were having a field day.

That was almost two weeks ago.

So what’s my excuse now? (Rhetorical question.)

Trash collection, mostly.

Yesterday morning, I stopped a half block away from the garbage truck workers. Most car drivers have some respect for occasionally ditzy dogs, but garbage truck drives go fast. Best to stay clear.

The lift on the back didn’t work too well, perhaps because—duh—there wasn’t enough space in the truck. Stuff kept spilling out. They lowered the container, compressed the load, and picked up most of what it had dumped in the middle of the road.

Which reminds me that…

This morning, approaching from the other side, I see that apparently a neighbor, perhaps Tabaré whom I met recently, cleaned up the bit in the road.

All the other stuff? One day, probably fairly soon as summer tourist season is winding down, they’ll come around with a loader and dump truck. Not pretty, admittedly, but eventually things do get cleaned up.