An inquisitive old fart with a camera
A Christmas card received in the end of March. Typical of Correo Uruguayo was my first thought. I looked closer: mailed 20 December, arrived in Uruguay 28 January, and delivered 28 March. Two months in country before it got to our house.
Ridiculous? Look closer. “Caviahue” is the name of our house. There is no city, state, or postal code in the address.
Can you imagine the USPS delivering a letter to an address with no city, state, or ZIP code?
Turning on a Trifield FT2 EMF meter, we drive under some heavy duty power lines, just to see, you know, if there might be any radiation from them.
…what are you looking at?
I got back from the feria today, unpacked fruits, veggies, cheese, nuts, and other good stuff, and found these in the bottom of the bag.
The first digit of the three items on the left is a 1. The second digit of the first item is also a 1. A cursive 1, I guess.
The list on the right has a classic Uruguayan backwards 9 and Z-style 4, but other than that the numbers are pretty legible. The letters, however…see if you can figure them out and then scroll down for the answer.
Easy, eh?
A jet flew overhead, and out of curiosity I looked it up on flightradar24.com, finding this far more interesting flight path. A helicopter, obviously checking for something, finally returning to MVD
where it probably landed on the “X.”
What was it? Here things get strange.
It’s listed as a privately owned Bell 212 helicopter, illustrated with an image of a private jet, registered in the United States. That is certainly no private jet path, especially with an altitude as low as 50 feet at one point! And I seriously doubt a US registered chopper is doing surveillance in Uruguay.
But the jet is easily explained: N845RL is a US-registered jet. About which the photographer writes, “I have no idea what this private Learjet 45 is doing at Aero Sports Fair 2002 in Brazil wearing US Registration and flag. Anyway, welcome!”
Flightradar24 also says the helicopter private, which I doubt, however
I find no government Bell 212 helicopter registered in Uruguay. But the Wikipedia article mentions the military version called the Bell UH-1N Twin Huey, and
I know the Uruguayan Air Force has those.
While this is going on, I sent Syd a message with a link to the flight path which was very near his house (a couple times it got close enough to us that I could hear it, but I never saw it).
And he replied that he had just been watching the TWO helicopters, one white and one black, directly overhead. Being a bright day, the “black” may well have been military green, but the white? And why only one on the radar?
A bit of strangeness to make the day more interesting.
Pigeon footprints, filled with bits from the pine trees deposited by a slight breeze.
24 hours later the cut up rusty car is gone.
Meanwhile, literally around the corner, this gem, which I first recorded almost ten years ago (with the same car in the driveway!)
Interesting collection set roadside.
Someone has cut up an entire (old) car and neatly stacked it…for whom?
The patio where I try to grow things in containers.
The side of the house, which an amazing squash plant has made impassible.
One of the avocado trees I planted 12 years ago. The other is on track to produce only a handful this year.
It is the other tree that has produced monsters in years past.
I had to stop when I saw this perfectly silly little car parked near the beach. I’m pretty sure it is too small for me to be able to even sit in, much less drive.
What is it? A Toyota! Specifically, a Toyota Publica from a period when the average Japanese man was under 5’7 “ (170 cm) tall.
You can read about the National Car concept and this one’s specs here. 28 horsepower, 700cc. Fascinating in a small way.