Category: oddities

Aerial surveillance happening

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.

Oh, great – a map!

Our little freezer in the casita died, fortunately not containing nothing more valuable than a few kilos of doggie hamburger (but oh did it stink after four days!). A prompt home visit by technicians (under USD 12) determined the motor was dead, meaning repair would cost more than replacing the whole thing. So how to get rid of it? One of the guys suggested there was a number for the intendencia you could call.

I still haven’t found that, but I did find a map of home waste collection, showing the different zones, neatly color-coded. Aha! This might be useful! But no, that’s it: just that. No schedules, no legend.

Flight patterns

Though we rarely heard planes before, despite being close to the airport, it wasn’t because they weren’t there. Now we rarely hear planes because planes are rare. Last couple mornings I’ve heard them, gotten curious, and seen some interesting patterns on flightradar24.

Here a flight that has already circled overflew the airport and circled some more off our coast.

I guess because of this flight in from Paraguay, which also had to circle, presumably for the plane already on the ground.

And then the plane circling offshore has to wait for an incoming flight from Madrid.

And finally gets back on final approach.

And so this morning:

More circling, this time to allow a flight from Panama, seriously behind schedule, land.

Wheee! Why do you do this? I hear you ask. Well, it’s more interesting than cutting the lawn in sweltering heat, for one thing….

Cleaning our unoccupied casita is an annual event I do every five years or so, whether it needs it or not. Among stuff that’s been floating around in there since my son left seven years ago is a Mexican 1,000-peso note.

I was reminded of preparing to move to Mexico from Spokane, Washington, in a pickup truck. I had fun giving things away: on Craigslist advertised a pile of post cards from my grandmother, few of which actually said anything, sent to us kids from around the world in the 1960s. Some stamp enthusiast eagerly took them. I has a small box of coins as well. Some I gathered while working a job in West Germany that took me to 14 countries, despite my goal of leaving each with no coins, and many more, also from my grandmother, including some WWII era aluminum ones from Italy. I took those to the closest elementary school late one afternoon, introduced myself to the principal, explained how these might be interesting for geography, history, math and more, and asked if he had a 5th grade teacher who might be interested. He did indeed.

Which got me thinking. The date on this bank note is in March of 1982. What was it worth then?

Well. It turns out that the Mexican peso had been devalued 30% a month before this note was issued, and it only got worse from there.

It was a very not-good year for holders of Mexican local currency units.

Hmmm.

Apparently the owner of the property next door is also an architect who designed the addition and remodel.

I would not be tempted to hire her based on the brutally industrial aesthetic, but this morning at 10 AM, I see another reason she might not be my first choice.

It’s a measuring thing. As in measuring the length of a car before designing a place to park it in the shade.

What’s the thinking here?

Who could possibly have thought this design was a good idea?

Background: when we moved here, we installed a wood stove, and I went out of my way to find newspapers for starting fires. Not an easy task. Even cardboard was rare then (it’s abundant now).

Then I discovered blue alcohol, and that was the end of needing newspapers to light fires. I bought my last bundle in 2018, and use them mostly now for cleaning paint brushes. Which I did recently in a fit of spring cleaning.

Inside of each newspaper is this glossy (and thus useless) magazine.

And every time I see it I have the same question: who could possibly have thought this design was a good idea?

A little short

I’ve gotten back into infrared saunas, perhaps ironic now that spring is here. But when I come back after it’s been warming, there’s a burning-plastic sort of smell I can’t quite place. Yesterday, a few minutes in, the sauna turned itself off. Power outage? I hit the button and it came back on. And then I heard it.

So, off to the electrical store tomorrow. Why the adapter? When we first got here, I immediately replaced the Schuko plugs on several new appliances with tres-en-linea (above). But then it occurred to me that it might void the warranty. I’ll replace the two ruined t-e-l with one Shucko.