House of pain, at our convenience

Hours: we open when we arrive. We close when we leave. If you come and we’re not here, we’re on different schedules.

Such a deal, Paypal

And I thought they were good at this

When you buy at the street market (feria), the vendors use skinny pads and add up your purchase.

Usually they’re right.

In case you’re curious: morrones (peppers), two types, pepinos (cucumbers), naranjas (oranges), bananas, cebolla (onion).

Black Friday and lemons

A new thing this year — Tienda inglesa does its damndest to induce consumer madness. Sounds like they did a pretty good job of it. No Walmart Black Friday fist fights and hair-pulling, but it takes a while for such fine traditions to develop.

I waited until Saturday afternoon to venture in, and happily the refrigerator model I might have been interested in buying, had sold out.

And oh yeah, lemons off our tree.

Last time…?

I’m trying to remember the last time I was seriously in a physical book shop…over ten years ago? Libraries ceased being important to me maybe five years before that. Born in the 50s, I lived for libraries and bookstores. I’ve written books, sold over 10 million, so libraries and bookstores…important! But I left the land of my native language, the Untied Snakes, in 2007. And digital happened.

I love this photo.

Is cellophane even a thing any more?

I left the Untied Snakes 13 years ago, and can’t remember the last time I saw this stuff. But here it is in Uruguay, a brittle plastic bag from the only place in the country that sells bagels. Split open through normal handling.

The discreet charm of technology in Uruguay

A change in our medical insurance involved a one-page form for each of us. The person sitting at the computer printed out the empty forms, then filled them in by hand.

So now I can only guess that someone has to type that information into the computer?