An inquisitive old fart with a camera
We bought a used gas barbecue grill without a functioning lighter. So I bought one of these for a few bucks. I was amazed how quickly it ran out of gas. Taking it apart, I see that, even though it has room for a regular lighter’s worth of gas, they’ve made the tank smaller. Because they can. Because you can’t see it. What a rip!
So I’m back to turning on the gas and throwing a match through grill. *POOOMP*
This might go faster than I expected:
Unfortunately, I was correct:
Gorgeous day, inexplicably empty beach:
Populated only by large dead fish, perhaps caught in changing salt/fresh water in yesterday’s stormy weather. With eyes intact: not a sign of seagulls. Yet.
A bit before 10:00 last night, at the corner where Syd and I unleash dogs before wandering 170 hectares of scrub land, thee was a roaring fire, and explosion, and the end of a small, neat wooden house.
The explosion would have been the garafa, or 13-kg “supergas” tank. Interesting that it shows just this small tear.
Anyway, no one was home, and perhaps — some people here speak in a very garbled manner, and the neighbor is one of them — someone untied the Boxer dog in the yard before the explosion, though that’s a little hard to imagine. And he said that two guys on motorcycles had essentially firebombed the house.
The bomberos arrived in a fire truck 50 minutes later.
I think I know how I’ll decline to donate to them when they next come around begging for donations.
They’ve got a little guard shack and a backhoe, so it looks like action time on this lot near us. This is for the record. Let’s see how long it takes them to build something. Might be fast; steel-frame houses are becoming more popular. Or might not.
There is a reported case of Dengue Fever in Pocitos, one of the most upscale and populous regions of Montevideo. And a couple dozen more suspected cases.
So, what’s a government to do?
Why, the obvious: freak out and poison every living thing in the vicinity, assuredly killing every bee, butterfly, and ladybug, and probably severely impacting the health of small pets and children as well. Oh, yeah, and I guess it kind of wipes out any songbirds too
But you can be sure it’s perfectly safe, and that the HAZMAT suits are just a fashion statement. Some politico went on TV to say that rather than shut themselves inside, residents should open all their windows to allow the lovely curative chemical vapors to permeate everything in their living space.
Reminiscent of the USA in the 1950s: running behind the DDT truck…
Just another day in Yesterguay.
Pocitos photos courtesy of Lee Nelson. DDT photo shamelessly kited from somewhere.
A white truck called “colorado.”
Wednesday, 8:30 AM. A block from the beach. No one anywhere nearby.
About 500 meters from our front door, what looks like it can be only one thing: the base of a cell tower. I don’t like cell towers. I rarely use my cell phone. I have used one so little that I can still feel the numbness around my ear that no doubt you have long since gotten used to.
A year ago, a friend of ours did an epic canoe trip in Patagonian Chile. He described an incredible find in Lago Copa, in the middle of the middle of nowhere: a first-class lodge, probably 15 km from the closest road.
Nestled at the base of a mountain,
obviously unattended,
but also unlocked.
So they set up camp for the night there. We heard about it, and saw the photos, not long after he returned. They never learned who built or owned it.
Recently, our friend returned to Uruguay, and we had him over for dinner. The lodge came up. Someone had flown over the lake in December and sent pictures of it now.
UPDATE 2016+02+27: the location is -44.89179, – 72.623403. The landslide happened in December. As of today, Google Earth hasn’t caught up:
