But if you’re a dog, gotta look anyway.
Author: doug
Refrigerator shelf repair
A few years ago, I looked into buying replacement plastic door shelves for our Bosch (not a good brand when licensed to Brazilians, unfortunately) refrigerator, and they were available from a place in London. I put it off, though, and discovered a year or two ago that they are no longer available for our model. Uh-oh.
But our refrigerator guys were here at some point last year installing a DC split (heating/cooling) unit in our bedroom. DC because a DC motor can be variable speed, unlike AC, so you don’t get crazy noise, and temperature fluctuations. This is helpful if, for example, you’re trying to sleep. We put the previous unit downstairs in the dining room, where it performs admirably despite its diminutive size.
I asked the refrigerator guys about the plastic door shelves. And as an aside pointed out the long dent in the side of the refrigerator that had appeared after they removed it for repairs, a year or three before. The more senior of the two, in his 30s, was horrified at that revelation and offered to fix the shelves for free with epoxy. Can’t complain!
Well, yes, actually can, even for a free job, where a few days turns into a few weeks, and we have to wait a few further weeks for the sticky epoxy to set, since apparently mixing equal amounts of Part A and Part B (thoroughly) presents challenges I am unable to fathom.
Alas, yesterday we realized that the bottom shelf was falling apart, probably because it’s the recipient of the heaviest loads. I consulted with Nico, font of knowledge specializing in the Uruguayan knack of fixing anything with anything, and he suggested I heat plastic with a candle to bend it. (Last time I heated plastic to bend it was around 1974, working in a screen printing shop and making little countertop displays.) I had leftover acrylic from fixing shattered glass in a door window in a casita where a certain muchacho lived for several years, and it worked like a charm. Well, excepting soot.
Of course this involved fun with dangerous power tools, in this case my table saw with all safety “features” removed immediately. I marked the depth of each tab cut with a marker. The only problem I had was lifting one tab to put epoxy underneath. It was tight and broke. But there are ten others that “have its back.”
It feels very strong now. We’ll see!
Another visit to Aquas Dulces
Strange structures seem to dance, witch-like, as we drive into Aguas Dulces. They turn out to be paja (straw), the local equivalent of quincho. However, here they also use paja in walls as well as roofs.
Starting my walk around town, I notice what must have once been a map but appears to have evolved into an existential statement:
A house that survived, inexplicably, the storm that destroyed so many others. I remembered this one being in much worse shape, and indeed: compare with the picture in the previous post. Somebody’s been busy!
Lovely afternoon light. There’s a cat in the picture, and several more nearby.
Next morning, an amazing breakfast in an amazing setting. The onshore wind blows back the top of the waves. The face of the farthest break is at least two meters high.
Funky beach, funky houses.
¡Hasta luego, Aguas Dulces!
Patterns
The triangles in the grate caught my eye, but there are so many other visual things going on as well.
The roof trusses in Syd and Gundy’s new house are complicated, and make a crazy spider web when projected onto the wall.
Montevideo: faces on buildings
Running errands in Montevideo the other day, I saw a building that seemed to share my sentiments about the weather.
Then, on Av. Italia, something I probably should have seen at some point but never have.
But then, I note it wasn’t there in October 2015. And it’s not as though I’m on Avenida 18 de Julio driving, seeing as it’s one of my least favorite streets to drive on in Montevideo. Narrow lanes and lots of buses and pedestrians.
Savoy
~1958 Plymouth Savoy, still going strong after almost 60 years, in Estación Atlántida.
Strange shadows
We walk by this house every day. Now at just the right time, and right time of year, for this bit of weirdness.
Fast house construction
I have often commented on how long construction takes in Uruguay. Simple houses can take the better part of a year.
By contrast, using new technology, here’s the house Syd and Gundy are building as a rental.
This is in fact a bit misleading because, being Easter week, the workers have only put in a few hours of work the last three days.
Isopanel – interesting stuff.
Universe responds
Two parked white vehicles
I guess there’s nothing technically wrong with this parking, it bothers me viscerally.
And I can appreciate that ambulances and fire trucks sometimes put reverse lettering on the front of the vehicle, so you can read it in your rear-view mirror. But something about this application of reverse letters escapes me.
(Flete: transport)