Strange sighting today: a black and a white helicopter flying along the coast. Then they do a huge circle and pass overhead before continuing on their way.
Author: doug
Debugging
No, not tech. Clearing out the under-counter corner cabinet, we found all sorts of critters infesting bags put away with just a rubber band, plus an unopened infested bag of Quaker Oats and bulgur wheat from (not the first time!) La Abundancia.
Design tip
Vacuum repair
After 13 years, one of the plastic flanges that held our vacuum cleaner’s filter in place broke. Shortly after, the stress broke a second. But, epoxy and a few metal washers, and I have flanges again – possibly stronger than the original.
Hot hot hot
Yes, they actually sell a container for freezing lemon wedges. Perfect for my first harvest of hot chili peppers, segregated pending an expert opinion regarding the heat of each. One “wedge” of yellow is probably about right for one batch of salsa méxicana, but red and green/black? Ya veremos.
A classic camper
Plenty of campers around, including the military-looking minimog/whatever (mostly) German contraptions, a few fancy rigs, some ghetto stuff, and then this absolutely classy gem from Argentina.
Tiny snake
At the end of our driveway I found this little guy heading into the road, and encouraged him to keep moving. Lots of traffic with a mini-market next door, and unfortunately a lot of ignorant Uruguayans will kill any snake por las dudas (just in case). making no effort to determine if it’s a threat.
Best I can guess is it’s an immature Culebra de Peñarol.
Is there a plumber in the house?
A friend’s inherited Rube Goldberg plumbing setup for in-floor heating. Just screams of careful, well thought-out planning and exquisite craftsmanship! (Yes, two supplemental electric pumps.)
Ah, technology
Obviously things were entertaining before our recent, marvelous technological advances. But just not this kind of entertaining.
Lidenor no more.
Apparently one thing you don want to be when a forest fire comes through is a huge commercial sawmill. I’m told 55-gallon drums of wood preservative were exploding like bombs.
This is the remains of what I thought I had documented: an automated machine for chopping and splitting past-expiry wooden telephone poles into firewood.
Unfortunately, no effort was made to remove the metal mesh embedded in the ends of the poles – eucalyptus being prone to serious splitting. I took most of those pieces back to exchange for “real” firewood. I didn’t plan to ever buy firewood from them again for that reason.
In semi-related news, today is the third Thursday in a row for which rain has been forecast – and failed to materialize. It is brutally dry out there.