What’s with this car’s paint job?

Oh wait.

In case you were concerned

This is where our weekly street market is located. During Thursday afternoon, all regular traffic for every house on each block is restricted. That’s a fair number of houses.

So what if there’s an emergency and police or an ambulance need access?

Not to worry: there are rules directing the vendors to leave enough space in the road for a large vehicle to pass.

Lines and light

I have never imagined I would feel comfortable living in a house with an electrical bomb suspended in the air 10 meters away. Maybe it’s just me. But nice fading light and angles, after another boring blue-sky day on the coast of Uruguay.

Design notebook 20250911

Design notebook 20250910

Uruguayan commerce: embracing Emerson

“Emerson,” you ask? My favorite quotation from Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882 ): A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds….

Which reminds me of the question, “How do you say ‘quality control’ in Latin America?”

To which the answer is often, “¿Que?”

Inspirational

I found myself staring at the chopsticks (which we never use) that come with sushi from Tienda Inglesa, wondering what this message in Japanese might say. Something inspirational like

Bon appétit? Buen provecho? Happy sushi?

So I did the obvious (which nobody could do a few years ago) and ask ChatGPT (GPT stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer, but you knew that).

Me: What does this say in English?

ChatGPT: The Japanese characters in the image are written vertically and read as: おはし (ohashi). In English, this means: “Chopsticks.” Let me know if you’d like help with pronunciation or more context!

Uh, no. I’m good….

From days gone by

Looking towards what was an auto shop at the back of what was an Esso gas station, waiting my turn to get a trunk-full more of firewood because spring is not coming quickly enough, I had to admire the artistry of the wrought iron on the gate. No spikes threatening to lacerate anyone who tries to climb over. In fact, the spikes are curved like handles to aid in any attempt.

Another time….

Not sure what was there before…

…though I think I can say with some confidence that I wouldn’t want to be cutting with a chain saw closer than this to power lines.

Carpenters

In addition to leaf-cutter ants, the woods have carpenter ants. We’ve seen some in weakened trees, but I had never seen how much sawdust they produced. If ants are higher in the tree, sawdust will likely blow away before it reached the ground. So I found this pile impressive, and was reminded why I’m glad not to live in a wooden house.