An inquisitive old fart with a camera
Zero degrees Celsius this morning (32° F). The sun made quick work of this frost on the car, as it did last year and the year before.
Yesterday our neighbors from the campo stopped by in town, commented on how cold it was, and taught me a new saying: Julio los prepara y agosto se los lleva. July prepares something and August takes them. Huh?
Old people, they explained. The two coldest months of the year.
It’s the time of the yellow trees. I don’t know what kind they are, but for their own reason they all turn yellow for a while in the middle of winter.
I’ve wondered what they race at the autodrome between here and the airport, and the answer, this weekend, is fuscas, only they refer to them as escarabajos (beetles). Despite my fascination with them (example, example), I won’t be there. Other plans, and it will be cold.
The “Superescarabajos” are reportedly the largest and most popular category here. There will be 30 of them racing.
Something orange in the front yard just caught my eye. When I went to investigate, it had found its way into the drainage ditch. Guess I’d better check the back yard.
We have two phones in our house: one local, and one VOIP with our business number in the United States. The six pictured here comprise neither of those two.
The farthest we brought from Mexico. Nice, solid thing but it dropped and cracked. Next to it, one we bought in Chuy, one of the towns on the Brazilian border where bargains can be found, and stuff brought back duty-free with a foreign passport. I hooked it up after taking the picture, and shortly after hearing it crackle and sputter, chucked it in the trash.
I know we’ve brought phones form the States. But why, and why so many?
Meanwhile, I realize the concept of a land line is kind of quaint. Why spend USD 15 on a phone and not-very-much (a bit over USD 10 last month) for a fixed line, when you can spend USD 500 on a smart phone and a bunch per month for a mobile plan, risk losing the phone and personal data, meanwhile irradiating your brain every time you use it, and your gonads when you carry it in your pocket?
Obviously I’ve thought about these things, their real consequences and costs, and speak with some authority.
Alas, I still feel like a phoney. And an old school phoney at that.
To a North American or European, it might seem a bit bizarre that a woman stopping at a kiosk would make no effort to pull to the side of the road, and instead simply “park” in the middle of the road. And it’s not that there was no traffic — we were stuck for a few minutes waiting to cross the road.
I would probably have to explain to a Uruguayan what’s wrong with this picture from my standpoint.
Es lo que hay.
It’s classic palm-to-the-forehead “the work how she is done in Uruguay” moment. You’ll recall we just went through a poorly thought-out repair on the corner nearest us, and seeing as elections are coming up, it was quickly fixed.
Here’s the main thoroughfare, the bus route, a few blocks down the same street. You’ll notice in the foreground a new strip of concrete, so people turning off won’t hit potholes immediately. Instead, they’ll go one meter before hitting potholes. Eventually, but inevitably.
You’ll notice on the other side that they made the concrete patch lower than anything surrounding it, so that it collects rainwater. As you can also see, the puddle extends into the dirt section of the road, which means the potholes will start forming with the first vehicle to drive through.
We’ll see if they’re as quick to fix this. Your guess?
.
If there’s one thing I’d care to win less than a trip to Brazil for the UY-UK match, it’s probably a noisy, rattling and dangerous (especially given Uruguayan drivers) pile of outdated technology. Not that I stand a chance of winning (oh, such stinkin’ thinkin’!) but fortunately cupones (coupons) were only offered upon purchase of certain Father’s Day (today in Uruguay) items, and we’ve only bumbled into a couple of those the last few weeks.
Around $9,000 new in the land of the Untied Snakes, prolly $19-20,000 here. I found the local web site, but under precios it has no prices. It does have an enticing shot of snow-capped mountains, though …
… amusing because Uruguay has neither snow nor mountains. Oh, details.
Can you spot what’s wrong in the following?
I need to get some documents to Mexico. Sent Priority, they can be there in two days for $54.38. Or by paying only 25% more for “Economy,” I can ensure they won’t be there for a full week.
Nothing unusual about a package with “Air Mail” in French and English. Unless it’s mailed by someone who lives in Germany ….
I have a talkwalker.com alert set for my name, and got curious when it notified me of a pirate site featuring one of my books in a collection. However, it was called How to Draw Perspective, and I have never written a book with that title.
It took several days to download the 1.3 gigabytes of files using free and restricted bandwidth (four files; only one allowed per day).
At the end of which I found this:
a scanned PDF file of the Russian-language edition of Draw 3-D. I think we sold the rights to it 13-14 years ago.
Suddenly this copyright violation doesn’t seem important enough to make a fuss about.
