Sailing off into the sunset

On the dissection table

When a piece of equipment dies, I always try to see if I can repair it, and if not, disassemble it as thoroughly as possible. We got this heater second-hand a few years ago, and I had the idea to pre-heat the infrared sauna with it, which worked brilliantly.

Once.

Obviously the second time it overheated, but peering into it I could find no sign of a fuse, so moved onto phase II.

Long story short: the fuse is very well concealed, and NOT designed to be serviceable. The two motors and the heating element still work just fine, so maybe I’ll look into temperature controllers at dx.com [deal extreme, since defunct] if I ever need to heat a chicken incubator.

Or something.

In which I become an herbalist

Ten days ago I posted a short video about comfrey.

Five days ago, my son stumbled steps in the centro (at 5 AM, ahem), creating what turned out to be a nasty fracture of the tibia that required surgery and several screws.

x-ray of broken ankle — Did I mention nasty?

He spent three nights in the hospital, during which he spent some money for outside food and TV rental in his double room. Retrieving him, I paid 719 pesos (USD 38.45) for at-home anti-coagulent, antibiotic, and pain meds, and 1,410 pesos (USD 75.40) for 15 daily in-home visits to administer the anti-coagulent shot. That was it.

What would this cost in the USA, $25-30,000?

Today I made a poultice for the first time, using comfrey I transplanted from a friend’s place over a year ago. He said it felt good!

Also interesting: we’ve been here over three and a half years; he’s only had medical insurance in the last six months or so.

Uruguayans make Mexicans look like Americans

Ahh, I know what you’re thinking. In fact, this apparently sloppiness involves a remodel job in our very crooked little farmhouse. The piece to the right is the ceiling; the top piece slants up to it. It will all look just fine tomorrow. Oh no, that’s Labor Day: Thursday. Or Friday.

As I watched Martín cutting sheetrock (yeso, pronounced jeso), I marveled at this knife. Turns out he bought a cheap one (made guess where?) that fell apart after three days. So he melted a piece of thermofusion water pipe around the blade to make a handle.

When we lived in Mexico, I thought the Mexicans were the ultimate do-anything-with-nothing people. Compared to the Uruguayans, though, they’re like USA-Americans hopping into their Dodge 350 to go to Home Depot to buy yet another specialized electric tool….

Truckin’

Long day yesterday with my son in the emergency room—badly broken ankle from early morning wandering around with his friends in town. At dusk on the way back, I spotted this truckful of girls. Technically a horrible photo, but then it captures what I wanted. Obviously enjoying themselves!

¡TronKEElo!

Muy tranquilo.

Unseasonably pleasant yesterday (think October in the north), beach empty. Shorts and bare feet, mesmerized by lazy churning of barely-waves which continue to amaze me because look at how much open ocean they have in which to develop:

Give me a W! Give me an A! Give me a V!….

Reminiscent of our first stay in Uruguay in March 2009, when walking on the beach brought an especially peaceful feeling after the tension of living in Mexico. I could have fallen into a trance watching the swirling water….

Buying cool things really cheap in Uruguay

When my little bedside alarm clock died, I figured it would cost me at least USD 20 to get something here—if I could find it. So far, I have seen nothing even remotely appealing at any price.

Then I remembered dx.com, deal extreme, found a cheap little clock that had good customer reviews, and ordered it. Took a month to get here, but (drum roll, please)…

clock01

…total cost: USD 4.80 delivered from Hong Kong. Probably would cost more than that to mail it from here to Hong Kong. How do they do it? Dunno, but it’s a cool site.

clock02 — Unadvertised benefit: free lesson in Chinglish.

A little noise can be a good thing

I’ve mentioned the noisy airplane advertising and motorcycle advertising. This story comes from our friends Syd and Gundy who used the motorcycle advertising service, with a rather remarkable result.

Their dog Leah disappeared on Christmas afternoon 2011. They had briefly attended a get-together near us, then returned home to prepare dinner for guests joining them at 5pm. At about 4pm, Syd took the dogs out to the woods for a walk. Fireworks exploded. Leah went into panic mode and fled. Syd searched, returned home for an uncomfortable dinner, and then their guests joined them for another search. He continued searching on his own until dark and early the next morning and again in the afternoon.

Two days after, a Spanish-speaking friend suggested an ad on the loudspeaker bike, and went with them to order it. While making the aural message, the company suggested posters, included in their cost. The posters ended up in vet offices and places where dog food is sold. One of those posters was seen by that same friend’s daughter’s ex-boyfriend, who had seen a Facebook posting by a couple in Pando (20 km away) showing the dog they had found at the beach in Atlántida. He realized they were likely the same dog, told his Facebook friends how to contact his ex-girlfriend, who told her mother, who emailed Syd and Gundy a link to the Facebook posting.

Thus Leah was rescued, having been very well taken care of in the meantime, as a result of noisy motorcycle advertising.

Though the noise part actually contributed nothing.

Comfrey!

Saw this nifty little video yesterday, and remembered the comfrey (Spanish: consuelda) I transplanted last year from a friend’s place after they raved about it. It immediately wilted and looked dead. Don’t worry, she said, it will come back! Indeed it did.

As soon as I finished the video, I dug some up and took it to the campo.