Author: doug
Design Notebook 20181201
It took us three consecutive day trips to Montevideo to get our Uruguayan passports renewed (actually to get our Credenciales Cívicas updated, a process gratuitously complexified by various functionaries in different government offices) – but we’re now good for ten years, yay! The latter two days involved lunch at new places: Lisandro, offering a variety of sandwiches and salads, but better yet, a peaceful location in crazy Carrasco, and Estrecho, similar fare but better, on Sarandí, the busy walking street in Ciudad Vieja. (Fun to note that Lisandro’s web site offers the address of their other location in Zonamerica as “Driving Rage,” which could, in this country, well be a Freudian slip.)
Yesterday, in Estrecho, the waitress gave us tourist map.
At first glance, it seemed promising.
But then I looked closer.
I guess the idea is you find a bike and make your way, maze-like, through this circuit that just kinda looks like it was laid out to accommodate the sponsoring restaurants and stores. Since we were recently in the area, I looked closer and quickly found a couple that gave addresses nowhere near their Carrasco locations.
On the flip side, this:
Postage-stamp sized listings of exactly 100 businesses, with details in 6-point type.
In terms of design, it’s attractive, and not particularly informative. It might be interesting to follow some of these routes, but I find nothing compelling about them. Nor would I settle on any of the sponsoring restaurants without learning more about them.
In the end, though, it’s got maps. And I love maps!
If the shoe fits…
…or whatever.
Weird sky made weirder
Weird sky this afternoon:
Well, OK; could have been weirder:
(I just discovered a kaleidoscope filter in my $30 Mac image editor.)
Thanksgiving treat
“Thanksgiving” potluck late lunch at Jerry’s hotel including Uruguayans, Canadians, and South Africans as well as Americans. Quite a feat to organize (I didn’t) and fun to get together with some people we haven’t seen in a while.
And then this visual treat on the sand-covered patio:
Little pleasant surprises
The brakes on my bike had gotten bad enough that stopping without putting shoes on pavement was no longer a sure thing. (You will, by the way, often see Uruguayans braking bikes and even motos using that method.) So I rode it in the wilting heat this morning to the little bike shop for them to do their magic. Bicycle repair really does seem like magic to me, especially after I try to do it.
I then walked to Tienda Inglesa, where a cashier last night has shortchanged me 20 pesos. I thought something was wrong, but the mathematical part of my brain seemed to be on vacation. When I got home, I confirmed it. 20 pesos is maybe $0.60, but there are lots of new hires for summer in Tienda Inglesa, and it bothered me that the cashier had not counted the money up – at least not the small stuff – the way I’m sure they’re required to do.
Was she lazy? Incompetent? Perhaps skimming a coin here and there? I can’t speak to the first two, but long story short, at the end of her shift she counted 20 pesos more in her till than she should have, and all was duly noted by Tienda Inglesa, and promptly given to me after the requisite recording and my signing in a spiral notebook.
I was impressed.
Back to the bike shop, a pad had been replaced, brakes now threatening to throw me over the handlebars. For a total of 50 pesos, or $1.50. Which made me wonder when was the last time in my native country one could have had something like this done for $1.50 – the 1960s?
Indecision
I’m not sure what left this trail, but I get a kick out of the little loop-de-loop lower left. Maybe the whatever-little-critter version of turning around as you head out the front door because you forgot the car key, only to realize it’s in your hand.
Mochaspace
After trying wicker chairs, which require difficult cleaning after time in a damp climate, and uncomfortable Uruguayan stuffed furniture, we settled on a comfortable lawn chair for my wife in the living room. It’s great! And we replaced the rustic and rotting wooden bay window with an aluminum one that actually keeps rain out (what a concept).
All told, it’s a wonderful little spot for a dog to hang out, watch live “television,” and munch on a Hibiscus flower, with a backup tennis ball nearby (we didn’t put it there) just in case.
The dream and the moth
Ever since The Matrix was released in 1999, more and more attention has been given to the thought that maybe we live in a simulation. Search for simulation hypothesis and you’ll potentially be busy for a while. Then there’s the idea of the reincarnation trap, the idea that we are fooled into reincarnating by the Archons so they can harvest fear energy, and we remain trapped in devastations and wars of this simulation again and again. Essentially, the advice of going toward the light is a huge spiritual deception. When you check out of the body, you should go away from the light. Nota bena, Shirley MacLaine.
I woke up early this morning and, not wanting to get out of bed, lay there thinking and dozing. I thought about this light thing, wondering what it would look like, and then I was in a dream, in black space, seeing it. Aha! I turned away and found myself face to face with a large bright television-like screen. I started to look at it, then abruptly shifted my focus back – they’re trying to block the exits! So I decided to simply go around it, and I don’t know what more happened, but then I was awake again.
I went downstairs to a remarkable sight. My office window was open more than I would have left it – nod to a certain dog here – with screen removed, as it often is. In the downstairs bathroom I saw this:
A huge black moth on the ceiling, exactly centered on the window.
I have seen moths a few times in Uruguay, but not many, and never huge (this one is about 5 inches/12.7 cm across). And never black.
So I gently opened the window, carefully removed my homemade screen, closed the bathroom door, turned off the ceiling light (just in case), and gently touched the moth with a piece of newspaper. It was gone in a second, fluttering out the window…
…and into the light.
Another snake
This from yesterday. As last time, almost off the trail. Definitely alive, but very sluggish — I gently nudged it with a stick. Syd yelled at his dogs to keep them away from it. Happily, none really noticed snake nor yelling. And regardless, managed not to step on it.
Here’s the last one (30 September) — different coloration:
And this from November 2016 — Falsa Crucera de Hocico Respingado – Lystrophis dorbignyi (the tail is a giveaway):
And this from last November — Falsa Coral – Oxyrhopus rhombifer rhombifer (?):
I’m not particularly into snakes, but it presents an interesting challenge to figure out “who’s who” in the local snake world.