An inquisitive old fart with a camera
General observations, generally during dog walks
A couple of large zapallo (squash), each about 16″/40cm long:
One I only spotted from the road the other day, growing behind the chiquero (pigpen; unoccupied). It had wedged itself into the fence; I removed it, maybe damaged stem. If so, it becomes dinner.
Finally, two of the loofahs (which I did plant), joined on the left by an even larger zapallo, which I didn’t.
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.
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.
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:
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….
Hand-fed as chicks, these sociable guinea hens come all the way from the neighbor’s yard to peck the ground at my feet, as if they can find nothing to eat in the 100 meters between.
Even when I’m using a noisy 5.5 HP lawn mower. I stopped it to take pictures; when it was running they would let it get even closer than this before moving.
The electric bill arrived today, for the first time in a plastic envelope.
Granted, typical mailboxes here are anything but watertight, but does Uruguay really need a million or more extra bits of plastic going into landfills every month?
Fishermen on pier getting ready to pack up and go home.
Even agressive Photoshop filters don’t make them particularly interesting.
Actually, they belong to my neighbor, whose two remaining guinea hens were pecking at the feet of one of them, which is almost interesting. In a limited way, on an off day.
Cow gaze: you can almost sense the intense cerebral activity.
It fascinates me how the beach changes every day. I took this photo from exactly where I stood yesterday; now, instead of a wide passage to the sea there remains only a narrow one you can step over.
Semana de Turismo (or Semana Santa, or Pascua) gone, walk to the beach means socks and a jacket, and perhaps moving ‘firewood’ a notch higher on the to-do list. And having the beach to yourself. The waves are puny and brown, but almost iridescent with the blue they reflect from the sky, the sands blows crazy, and the channel cut by rainwater hosts mini-tsunamis. Here’s a (mercifully) short video clip, with lots of wind noise.
Always something.