Author: doug

Lies, damned lies, and…

…speed test reports before and after today’s installation of fiber optic internet. I did a number of tests before and after; these two are the most extreme. All, however, indicate a speed multiple of at least five, enough to go full-time VPN, using Overplay. [Edit 11/24: as with other VPNs I’ve tried, too slow for regular use.]

The upgrade also cleaned out some of our electronic-device-and-innumerable-wires clutter. The three AntelData installers (run line, gte connected, install modem) were friendly, efficient, and competent. I guess they’re subcontractors, but no importa…job’s done.

Picture or it didn’t happen.

cedula

Though it’s been official for a few weeks now, today we got our new cédulas (ID cards) as legal citizens of Uruguay. Look at the expiration date (“Vence”) and eat your hearts out, fellow UY immigrants! To those not in the know, “E.E.U.U.” means Estados Unidos: United States. I blurred out my birth state so you wouldn’t know I was born in Connecticut.

But it gets better. My wife, being of a certain age, got one that says Sin Vencimiento — No Expiration. After a certain age, they issue your cédula for life. The trilingual kid from the attorney’s office who went with us said, Oh no, they’ve made a mistake! We have to get them to change it! Which, of course, to one of a certain age, being perceived as not of a certain age by a 20-something, made him a very cool trilingual kid indeed. More so with his second language being Hebrew, which my wife studied years ago, stories of which she shares in her captivating and highly recommended (by a totally impartial source, of course, of course) memoir The Lullaby Illusion.

 

Mandatory shirt-off-on-the-beach day

No photo (you’re welcome).

Stiff onshore breeze pushing spray off the tops of tiny milk-chocolate-brown waves, some kids playing in the surf. Peaceful, nice.

Hot sun, but saving breeze.

Martín and Rafael, building the outdoor roof in the campo, and son Jesse, mowing the lawn shirtless, all fried and feeling the heat. I did inside chores: sealing floor tiles, putting up last of doorway molding, adding a strip to the bottom of the front door to close a 2cm gap which allowed all sorts of interesting critters to enter.

Poco a poco….

 

The incredible Vivero Pacha Mama

The Mother Earth Nursery sells only food, medicinal, and a few entheogenic plants. I went yesterday and spent about USD45 on plants and potting soil. I don’t know what I paid for this tomato “plant,” but here’s the thing: the container contains a couple liters of excellent compost, and this one yielded 26 seedlings.

That’s going to be a lot of tomatoes, regardless of what I paid….

Oh, that cat.

<toothpastepaw1
That cat has gotten a little annoying the last few nights. If he doesn’t come in at dusk, he wakes us up in the middle of the night to get in. If he stays in at dusk, he wakes us in the early hours to go out.

Last night, apparently, he found something fascinating to catch by jumping up on the bathroom mirror…

toothpastepaw2

…after stepping in toothpaste that had oozed out of the tube of locally-produced stuff.

The perils of doing the “ecological” thing

metalsmith, Uruguay

Here you see the local herrero, installing the metal gate posts he promised 3-4 months ago. He has a good sense of humor, and we have a running joke about his never getting anything done on time.

I stopped by his shop the other day and spoke with his wife. He wasn’t there. I mentioned there was no hurry, since since several months had passed, though the rotting wooden posts were getting worse.

The next day he showed up, and the day after that the job was done. I know who I’ll talk to the next time I need a response 😉

What you see in the foreground are the “ecologically” treated fence posts, that lasted (in sandy soil) perhaps three years.

Dunes, doin’ their dune thing

I’ve mentioned before the boardwalks from three years or so ago: here and in a picture here.

One I walk almost every day has the odd distinction of being at ground level near the road, where it is rotting away and creating opportunities to fall that would inspire lawsuits in the Untied States of Amurka. Yet where it crosses the dune, at a level based on wind erosion, the protected dune has regained its normal height.

Which is almost to the height of the handrails of the boardwalk.

In which I fail a simple technological challenge.

Returning from the beach, I thought I’d use the video on my camera to catch the “mewing” sounds of the frogs. I turned it on, heard better sound further along, turned it off, started it again just in time to catch a raucous call, and a loud bird landing next to another overhead in a dead tree.

When I got home, I discovered that I had turned it off when I thought I was starting it, so missed all the good stuff.

So anyway, here’s the bird: