Photos: Daniel Silva
Design Notebook 20181018
Today’s dodgy doggieness
Design notebook 20181016
The horses
Returning from our walk today I noticed the tethered horse and her colt, looking great in the late daylight. I put Choco Mocha Latte the dog in the car, returned to take a great photo, and, um, no. Colt decided it was time to lie down now that three humans and six dogs had safely passed by. The light would have been better rendered by a real camera, which I don’t carry anymore.
There was no chance for a photo earlier, when the colt was happily running in circles. That got the dogs rather excited.
Who does the horse belong to? Who knows…. It appears tied in various places within a few blocks of Syd and Gundy’s house.
Also chickens wander around from time to time, but disappear quickly when they see the dogs. For some reason.
The end is nigh!
At least for paltas (avocados) in 2018. I took the last three off the “big” tree, including one that managed to remain hidden and is undoubtedly the record-holder for this year’s crop:
858 grams, or for those of you in Myanmar, Liberia, and the Untied Snakes:
1.892 pounds. Or 1 pound 14.271999979939547 ounces. Or if you want full ‘Murkan, 1 pound 14+34/125th ounces.
6-1/2 x 4.25 inches / 16.5 x 10.8 cm.
I decided that the overgrown nature of our yard needs to be addressed, and in doing so discovered the extent of the comedreja’s (possum’s) raids.
The tree above this pile still has 30+ smaller avocados. It’s fun to remember two years ago, when our total harvest was 30+ avocados, and the comedreja getting one was devastating! This year we (and friends) have had avocados for almost seven months!
Meanwhile, both small orange trees are laden with flowers. Not very many bees, but some, and doing their job. Hopefully we get more than three oranges next year.
Not firing on all cylinders
Yesterday: Syd expecting house-sitters arriving by bus at our usual dog walk time, suggests we go at 1:45 instead of 3:00. No problem. I show up on time. Except that it’s 12:45. And now his dogs are all agitated, so we go an hour early. I wonder what exactly I was thinking. It must take a special set of skills to misread a digital clock: my computer and cell phone.
After the walk, I stop by (an hour early, but fine with them) to collect house keys for friends going away for several days, in case a real estate agent wants to show their house. Out their front door, I am unable to lock the fence gate. I ring the doorbell. Don comes out; also tries it without success. This is weird. Well, let’s check the driveway sliding gate, he says. It doesn’t work either.
At which point he realizes we’re using my keys, not theirs. Well, there’s that little mystery solved.
It’s spring, getting warmer, but nights are cool, so we’re indulging the last of our firewood.
Is it just my imagination, or is the wood stove laughing at me like I’m an idiot?
Quadruple bypass on a bun
Last couple days, I’ve had to venture past the peaje – tool booth – a couple times, to buy tiles. A phone call confirmed that what I wanted was en stock, and the visit to pay for them confirmed, as last time, that that means “come back tomorrow afternoon after they’re delivered from Montevideo.” That’s OK: it’s not far, and I like the certainty of seeing goods versus waiting around for delivery of – whatever….
And, of course, the odd chance for cultural enlightenment. At the Costa Urbana shopping mall, which sprawls above Avenida Giannattasio and contains perhaps 157 stores selling shoes (I’m not sure an accurate count has ever been done), I saw this appalling Burger King ad, for a quadruple-cheesburger with bacon.
I have noticed that Uruguayans have gotten noticeably fatter the nine years we’ve been here. Still not perhaps up to American Standards, but definitely noticeable. But – I immediately wondered – is this uniquely Uruguayan? Something in me said yes, but that seemed unlikely.
So I went online.
This horrific “flame grilled to perfection” culinary disaster represents the maximum extent of Burger King’s US offerings: a mere 1,480 calories and 2,340 milligrams of salt.
Now let’s look at Burger King’s Uruguay site:
OK, maybe I added something. Click on that, and you can see that they offer more info about “nutrition:” this should be interesting, no?
Ah, yes…
… their further nutritional info is also maybe you’d like some chocolate-cake ice-cream thing or French fries?
The type in red is my addition: also maybe you’d like a trip to the emergency room in an ambulance?
This is the same profoundly misled/ignorant place where feedlot beef commands a premium.
Paradise Uruguay. Uruguay Natural. No: just more exploitation of ignorance.
Sad.
A year ago, I brought back a cheap pair of boots from the United States.
The puppy found them great fun to chew on. The tongue on the right is mostly destroyed, and the backs of both have suffered as well. That’s unfortunate, but not sad.
In general, I can’t find shoes my size here, and when I do, they’re anything but cheap. Again, unfortunate, but not sad.
In addition to the structure of the shoes, Mocha apparently finds the laces to have a lovely mouthfeel. I’ve had to tie them together and figure new lacing patterns. That’s annoying (and challenging) but not sad.
Yesterday we were gone to Montevideo for many hours, and Mocha got to them again. This time the laces were severed in a way that made them unusable. Very annoying. But still not sad.
Only then, after months of putting up with this, did it occur to me to simply buy new laces.
I find that quite sad. Maybe I’ve been in Uruguay too long?
Spotted at the DMV
We got our new car three months ago, so this is old news, but as we were getting the license plates I swiveled my chair slight and surreptitiously took this picture.
Umm, maybe they’re – umm, maybe – who the hell knows? Is there information here that a just-another-human bureaucrat can’t access with a few key strokes?
I like that idea.