After five years, brown waves are starting to look normal. A little.
Sunrise
A welcome clarity in the air and my mind after days of rain and gloomy weather.
I thought they had fixed this (rain)
Back in February, I made a short video about our road the river.
In June I mocked the attempt to repair it, only to change my mind, change my mind again a week later, then again within 24 hours.
Alas, this year’s freakish weather has proven too much for it.
No, for real.
You’ll recall that all of five days ago I was noting the extreme and unseasonal heat.
Today, 1 November (equivalent 1 May topside) at 34°46′ south, we are chasing off a chill with the wood stove. It’s not that cold, but the fire feels nice.
Halloween in (non-urban) Uruguay
I stopped a posse of trick-or-treaters with ¿puedo sacar un foto? (Can I take a photo?) It took none of my school-picture-photographer expertise for them to expertly group. In response to my ¡Perfecto! Muchas gracias I heard several de nadas.
OK, still broad daylight, but here are unaccompanied kids, acting “abnormally” (in other words, as kids), and it’s all OK.
Which is not say I saw no parental guidance (but certainly none distrusting or fearful!). Just that adults had to be there only for the really little kids.
After I took this picture, I assumed that Junior Senior (left) had been distracted. On the second take, I realized his mother was telling me in heavily-accented English that he doesn’t like pictures. Cool. Gracias. Cooler: an advanced soul recognizing the danger of facial recognition technology? LOL. Maybe.
Name that beverage!
If you said, tap water this morning, congratulations! A few hours later, the tap water has cleared up again.
We had thunderstorms starting in the wee hours yesterday, but apparently it was the flooding from the rain all day that caused the electricity to go out five or six times, for a few minutes each, much later.
Apparently 162 people were evacuated from their homes, and 9,500 houses left without power.
The potholes in front of our house are growing as a result , but at least the road did not become a river as it did before they fixed it.
Willows!
On my second try, success at getting willow cuttings to root. Off to the campo I go to plant them….
Too hot for October
4:00 in the afternoon. This thermometer never gets direct sun, and sits in a well-ventilated area. The end of October equates to the end of April up north.
Just. Ain’t. Raht. Fortunately, we have a stiff breeze blowing, so it’s not that bad.
Voting day
Today is voting day #1 — a runoff election will occur in a month if no one gets a clear majority today.
An Uruguayan friend explained to me yesterday that if, instead of putting the list from one party in your voting envelope, you put a blank piece of paper, your vote goes to whoever gets the most. You also have the option of annulling your vote (voting is required by law). One way is to put two lists (“votes”) in your envelope. I suggested she do this so that if her father, who votes Colorado, asked her who she voted for, she could say Colorado, and answer her mother that she voted like her, for the Frente Amplio.
I’ll be eligible to vote in 2019, and though I generally have little interest in politics, I do find it inspiring to live in a place where they actually offer choices, unlike voting for one or the other half of the Rich Lawyers Party in the United States.
Lagarto, a.k.a Big Ass Lizard
Update: actually, lagarto simply means lizard, with no reference to size.
This is Jerry, our host today, and owner of the El Nido Hotel in Parque del Plata, armed with alcohol spray bottle to nail the incredibly annoying, biting flies that apparently lay eggs under your skin but we. won’t. go. there.