Author: doug

A very, very small thing

My favorite note-taking pen broke the other day – sad! 🙂 But wait—it broke exactly as it ran out of ink! Hmmm.

It says “Courtyard” (by Marriott). I remember them as a nice place, but having gone nowhere in over 5-1/2 years, we haven’t been near one. And before that, we didn’t stay in one after what, early 2000s? I have no idea.

In September 2012 we traveled to Connecticut for my niece’s wedding. Since freebie pens were not a thing in Uruguay (and still aren’t really), I noticed the “junk drawer” in my sister’s kitchen, and asked if she could spare some pens. We came back to Uruguay with a handful, secured with a couple rubber bands.

Which gives me an idea. Yes! Some of those pens from 2012 are still in my collection. Grab a sheet of paper to test, and results:

  • 3 put into service;
  • 5 retired.

The cute little plastic container was one of several gifted by our neighbors Wayne and Janet, who left Uruguay for British Columbia in May 2023.

Small things.

Peluche’s perch

Peluche, a friendly neighborhood dog, enjoying a day at the beach courtesy of the ever-remodelling neighbor’s sand pile. Or is that he has already staked himself as King of the Mountain with a child’s shoe?

As for figuring out what a dog is thinking, just let it go 🙂 .

When I first asked his name, the owner told me with a sheepish smile.

Parque Francisco Lecocg

A house guest wanted to see local fauna , which presented a challenge until I discovered Parque Francisco Lecocg. At the edge of protected wetlands northwest of Montevideo, it has a number of species, including peacocks who crowd the entrance road as if looking for handouts (I wonder why), and freely-wandering llamas. Neither is native, but hey.

The park consists of large enclosures. Apparently the idea of rheas and monkeys wandering around freely isn’t as visitor-friendly, so sorry guys: fences.

For some reason, there is a grassy enclosure with a few capybaras (largest living rodents, native to South America) next to one packed with them. They were to the right of this photo; note the absolute lack of vegetation if you don’t believe me.

A substantial aviary unfortunately appears to be uninhabited.

You can also find, somewhat inexplicably, several zebras. A couple of boys did their best to get a reaction from one of the three we saw.

Alas, it just stood there, doing absolutely nothing.

Though not necessarily a tourist attraction, this is the kind of place I’m glad to know exists. It was full of families, active barbecue grills, and kids playing futbol. Atlántida had a small and unexciting zoo until “animal rights activists” “liberated” the inhabitants, many of whom apparently succumbed to vehicular traffic (but for a good cause—?). I don’t know the details. Our local is now part gardening center and part playground, where it is equally popular with families.

Spider on the workbench. Why?

Our house guest complained of mosquitoes in the casita (little house) so I had to clear space on my horribly cluttered workbench to slap together a screen insert for the window.

In which process I discovered a rather large, upside-down, and pretty-much dead spider. No idea how or why it got there, nor what killed it.

I think spiders are cool, but yuck.

Orgonics

It looks like I tossed a perfectly good Orgreenics omelet pan. Fact is, it was a perfectly good Ogreenics omelet pan for eight or nine years. Until it wasn’t. No matter how many “surefire” Youtube videos I watched and how many times I tried to season it, it just got stickier and stickier.

I cashed in some Disco (supermarket) points for a replacement, which isn’t perfect, but isn’t bad.

It’s been several weeks since I dumped this. I have almost no doubt it’s in somebody’s kitchen as I write this.