An inquisitive old fart with a camera
A little visual symphony as the morning sun hits the beveled mirror at the far right. Though a visual artist, and author of a book on perspective drawing, I have no idea what’s going on with the reflections. Notice the shadow of a plug in the white patch on the left.
What little this has to do with Uruguay: the wall on the left faces almost south. As we approach the summer solstice, the rising sun now shines on the south wall of our house morning and evening.
A smoldering fire of damp vegetation unattended on the side of the road,
an old tree caught in late afternoon light.
Given the heavy rain yesterday, I was eager to see if our tajamar had filled. According to locals, after the first filling, the draining water seals any porous regions, and the pond becomes more watertight.
Well, maybe the rain was coastbound. Was a little disappointed to see that the plants I transplanted at water level were still above water level after previous draining.
Meanwhile, the stuff in the corners—that I did NOT plant—appears to be thriving.
And I swear I heard a frog…
..and there’s this pretty little purple flower.
Paciencia…ya veremos. Patience…we’ll see.
I see this dog almost every day, but always on the ground. As I approached, he got to his feet to bark at me. Heavy rain at home today, and I guess he got tired of wet paws. I was in Montevideo making an appointment to get our passports and dealing with ID nonsense for our son.
(This age and condition of car, by the way, is often seen in Uruguay. Probably 25 years old, it would still fetch USD 1,500-2,000.)
…speed test reports before and after today’s installation of fiber optic internet. I did a number of tests before and after; these two are the most extreme. All, however, indicate a speed multiple of at least five, enough to go full-time VPN, using Overplay. [Edit 11/24: as with other VPNs I’ve tried, too slow for regular use.]
The upgrade also cleaned out some of our electronic-device-and-innumerable-wires clutter. The three AntelData installers (run line, gte connected, install modem) were friendly, efficient, and competent. I guess they’re subcontractors, but no importa…job’s done.
Though it’s been official for a few weeks now, today we got our new cédulas (ID cards) as legal citizens of Uruguay. Look at the expiration date (“Vence”) and eat your hearts out, fellow UY immigrants! To those not in the know, “E.E.U.U.” means Estados Unidos: United States. I blurred out my birth state so you wouldn’t know I was born in Connecticut.
But it gets better. My wife, being of a certain age, got one that says Sin Vencimiento — No Expiration. After a certain age, they issue your cédula for life. The trilingual kid from the attorney’s office who went with us said, Oh no, they’ve made a mistake! We have to get them to change it! Which, of course, to one of a certain age, being perceived as not of a certain age by a 20-something, made him a very cool trilingual kid indeed. More so with his second language being Hebrew, which my wife studied years ago, stories of which she shares in her captivating and highly recommended (by a totally impartial source, of course, of course) memoir The Lullaby Illusion.
No photo (you’re welcome).
Stiff onshore breeze pushing spray off the tops of tiny milk-chocolate-brown waves, some kids playing in the surf. Peaceful, nice.
Hot sun, but saving breeze.
Martín and Rafael, building the outdoor roof in the campo, and son Jesse, mowing the lawn shirtless, all fried and feeling the heat. I did inside chores: sealing floor tiles, putting up last of doorway molding, adding a strip to the bottom of the front door to close a 2cm gap which allowed all sorts of interesting critters to enter.
Poco a poco….
The Mother Earth Nursery sells only food, medicinal, and a few entheogenic plants. I went yesterday and spent about USD45 on plants and potting soil. I don’t know what I paid for this tomato “plant,” but here’s the thing: the container contains a couple liters of excellent compost, and this one yielded 26 seedlings.
That’s going to be a lot of tomatoes, regardless of what I paid….
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That cat has gotten a little annoying the last few nights. If he doesn’t come in at dusk, he wakes us up in the middle of the night to get in. If he stays in at dusk, he wakes us in the early hours to go out.
Last night, apparently, he found something fascinating to catch by jumping up on the bathroom mirror…
…after stepping in toothpaste that had oozed out of the tube of locally-produced stuff.
But the floors are stain-free and the door frames look great!
Just wish I’d gotten motivated to do this long ago, before moisture got into some of them.