An inquisitive old fart with a camera
Atlántida, Uruguay
I try to limit posts to a photo or two, but there are times, like yesterday, where one or two photos don’t do justice.
There appears to be a congress above the neighbors’ house.
Not to difficult to see faces interacting.
A dragon?
A dinosaur?
All leading up to …
… a spectacular finale!
The best rule for driving in Uruguay is to try to watch every person and vehicle — pedestrians, bicyclists, motos, and other cars and trucks, constantly imagine the stupidest thing they could do — step into traffic, swerve in front of you without notice, run stop and yield signs — and plan for it.
In this case, I might have been distracted by the conversation and so didn’t see the approaching out the side window. Fortunately, the passenger’s field of view allowed her to see it before it cleared the A-column for my view, and warn me. Locals will recognize the voice 😉
When we bought this vehicle in 2010, the blind spot was one of the more pronounced criticisms I could find online.
The triangle caused by the A-pillar split should be helpful, but since my eye level is near the top, it provides no help. Still, I have most often had problems with the passenger side, so perhaps I had a lapse of attention.
Which — when driving in Uruguay — can prove expensive, dangerous, or worse, as perhaps you can imagine.
You can buy a Maserati in Uruguay in only one place, Punta del Este (natch). Two Ghiblis were on display when we went for the buffet lunch at the Conrad Hilton Sunday (USD 55, but 45 when you pay with foreign credit card and they deduct the “value added” tax of 22% or so — noice!).
So what would one of these beasts set you back in Uruguay?
Maserati Ghibli 350 3.0 V6 A/T – U$S 174.990
Maserati Ghibli S Q4 3.0 V6 A/T – U$S 197.490
Well, considering things like Ferraris and Lamborghinis, those prices didn’t sound too outlandish — until I looked up the prices in the United States (bold):
Maserati Ghibli 350 3.0 V6 A/T – U$S 174.990 starting from $70,600
Maserati Ghibli S Q4 3.0 V6 A/T – U$S 197.490 starting from $78,550
I can’t do an apples-to-apples comparison, not knowing the customization involved with the UY prices.
Being someone who, at age 17, owned a Volkswagen bus at a time when his friends were wet-dreaming Porsches, I can’t imagine any scenario in which I would throw $70-80K at a freaking car. (For the record, we had hella more fun in Bus than any of my friends “cool” pseudo-sports cars.)
But, 150% markup? Where’s the extra going? I’ll give you a clue: starts with a “g.”
It’s been clear for a while that a comadreja (possum) had been getting into our compost barrel.
Its last visit was indeed its last.
Since lately I’ve only taken compost out after dark (without a light), I don’t know how long it had been there. But I expect I would have heard it moving when I emptied scraps on top of it. The last time this happened, I actually tipped over the barrel so it could escape.
I just recently bought a book, Compost Everything: The Good Guide to Extreme Composting, whose author would have left it there. I’m not there yet. I took it to the overgrown corner lot to let nature do its thing there.
Obviously it couldn’t climb out. But why did it die?
From sunny t-shirt weather the last couple days to this: perfect ruination of the weekend for which two of our neighbors ventured out from Montevideo. Sometimes pouring rain, sometimes just rain. The wind has been subdued compared to prior years (2012 perhaps the worst so far).
SPOILER: this video is just three minutes of driving. Nothing actually happens. Which is actually exactly how days like this feel. (Though I did get my Kindle library organized — aren’t you excited?)
I was able to buy the little thingie on the right for my Stihl weedeater! Almost USD 5, but so what. I indicated my relief that it wasn’t just me who lost things. Previously I lost the main nut for attaching the blade, threaded counterclockwise, which cost about the same at the time in USD (and of course immediately found the lost one). Se gastan, the girl said (I think), meaning (I think) they wear out (get spent). Correction appreciated —.
Our fig tree in the campo, in need of pruning. (Search for “figs” for other posts if this is even remotely interesting.)
Cool flower, horrible photo.
I’m hoping this was run over, and not killed gratuitously por las dudas. Syd and I recently encountered a small dead snake while dog walking, which led him to find a site about snakes in Uruguay. Unfortunately it’s awkward to ID non-venomous snakes, and I’m tempted to take all their info and organize it into a functional web site. Anyway, there are four venomous snakes in Uruguay: rattlers (widespread, but not here), two vipers (one widespread, one not, but neither here), and coral snakes, distinctive as hell: in terms of threat, if you plan to mess with any brightly-colored red-yellow-black snakes please contact me because I’d like to take out a life insurance policy on you.
And yes, the por las dudas guy at the beach was indeed an idiot.
Note the clouds. We’re supposed to be inundated tomorrow. Google weather indicated today that we were in the midst of thunderstorms, though all I could see was blue sky and sunshine. Trust my experience or Google?
There is:
Corvina (drum)
Lenguado (flounder)
Merluza (hake)
Cazon (school shark)
Angelito (angel shark)
Tambera (type of corvina, I think)
Camaron (shrimp — way too much work and tiny OBTW)
Mariscos (shellfish, seafood: not sure what they mean by this)
Lisa (mullet)
We buy only the first two. The others tend to range from weird to nasty.
It appears we’re in the veranilla — couple days of “little summer” before it gets cold again. Walked the dog in a t-shirt. Had I gone to the beach, I might have worn shorts and walked barefoot. Recall that this is the equivalent of the end of February in the northern hemisphere. Should be this way tomorrow as well.
Then the forecast for the weekend is the Tormenta de Santa Rosa, which means wind — lots of wind. And rain. And Dutch pirates not attacking Lima. But that’s another story.
A couple months ago, we approached an older dog, complete with dog jacket (almost an obsession in Uruguay). Benji was eager to engage the target. I told him, no, we don’t hassle older dogs, but it turned out to be young, and very eager to play, and though loose, more or less inclined to stay within the borders of its large yard.
I say its large yard — I actually have no idea even now to what house it belongs. Its owner cares enough to worry about him being warm, but not about being loose and possibly hit by a car. Go figure.
We saw him the other day, and the two chased each other around that yard. The little guy has a tighter turning radius, so it’s not as one-sided a chase as might appear. However, when I noticed Benji grabbing the little guy by his jacket, I decided enough is enough,put Benji on the leash, and continued toward the beach.
The little guy followed. So, next thing I know, he’s followed Benji into the water (Benji loves it when I throw sticks for him, and loves to splash around in the water).
Something in me says that a jacket designed to keep the dog warm in the air might have the opposite effect in the water. Maybe not. It’s probably polyester.
And with all the running, it probably makes no difference. But it’s winter here; this was a t-shirt/thin hoodie/windbreaker day. Not for the first time, I had to ask myself, is this dog in the water with its jacket my problem? Is it my responsibility?
Answer: absolutely not.
A block shy of our exit from the beach, little dog turned tail and headed home.
We’ll see him again.