Long Weekend Again

Uruguayan Labor Day is Friday, everything is going to be shutdown. On my walk to work this morning there was hardly any cars on the road already as families are taking off for their beach homes and other destinations.

What are we going to do? I don't know.

Bought my first art

Well that's not entirely true as we haev plenty of art, that's ours, but Chris picked them out. This one I picked out at the mercado del puerto. There are artists everywhere, this guy is setup inside the market. Usually the father is doing the selling, this time it was his son. I got a small piece done in pencil, crayon and paint. It's of a corner in the old city that captures tha architecture of the buildings and has a vendor and busses. I liked the busses.

It only cost $25 which was a deal. I'll take a photo of it sometime

More Bus Fun

Just when I barely got the "transbordo" thing down, we get on a bus and ask the guardo (Fair taker, some busses have them some don't, otherwise the driver takes the money and issues the ticket) for dos transbordos. Well out print the tickets and I look at them and don't see the word transbordo on them, so I hand them to him and explain that I wanted 2 transbordo tickets. He then points out the word "hora" (Hour) and that the passes are good for one hour. On the next bus I hear the guy in front of me say to the driver "un hora", and I realized, out goes transbordo tickets, new thing is 1 hour and 2 hour bus passes that allow you to ride on the same bus line as many times within 1 or 2 hours.

The comun (Common=regular) ticket is what you would usually get if you don't ask for something else.

Old Man Moment

My office is going through renovations right now and we have contractors tearing down walls and replacing this or that. I have moved to a new office for now. I went to my old office to get something and "Kid Rock" was blaring on the stereo. "Excuse me sir, I'll turn that down" says one of the young contractors as I entered the office. I told him not to worry about it.
I've been there and done that! I listed to AC/DC and B.O.C. (Blue Oyster Cult) when they were still cool!

Funny and Informative Click and Clack

Dear Tom and Ray: Can you use a hybrid vehicle to jump-start another car? Recently when my girlfriend was visiting me in Cleveland from D.C., her car wouldn't start. The first thing I tried was jump-starting it from my hybrid. Before I knew it, there was smoke coming out of both cars! Naturally, I panicked and quickly disconnected the cables.

I soon realized that the insulation on the cable's pincers was melting and generating the smoke. I'm sure the cables were connected to both 12-volt batteries correctly. Any idea what might cause this? Happy ending: Eventually, we got my girlfriend a new battery, and she was safely on her way home to D.C.

- Tim

Ray: You likely used a cheap set of jumper cables. If you use really thin cables and send lots of current through them, they're going to get hot. There are ways to exacerbate the situation and make them get very hot.

Tom: If your girlfriend's car is much bigger than yours, her battery will try to draw a lot of current from yours. That'll generate extra heat. So will a failing starter motor; if her starter is giving out, it will keep trying to draw current until it either starts, melts or fries the wiring, whichever comes first.

Ray: And all that heat can set some frayed insulation a-smokin'.

Tom: It's possible that if you had left things alone, her car would have started before the fire did. But if you're not a mechanic, and you see smoke coming from the site of a repair you're attempting, abandoning ship is exactly the right thing to do.

Ray: Just to be sure, we checked with Toyota, which sells more hybrid vehicles than any other manufacturer, and it said that there are no restrictions against using the Prius, for example, to jump-start another car.

Tom: The Prius, like most other hybrids, has a 12-volt battery, in addition to its larger, hybrid battery pack. It's a small 12-volt battery, and it's located in the trunk. But there's a pair of jumper terminals, marked with plus and minus signs, under the hood, to allow the car to jump-start or be jump-started.

Ray: As long as that 12-volt battery is in good working order and is properly charged, it should have done a perfectly adequate job of jump-starting your girlfriend's car.

Tom: But despite that, you did exactly the right thing, Tim. You saw smoke, gave up on doing it yourself and threw money at the problem. Women like that. It shows that your judgment is stronger than your ego. I'm sure it added to your girlfriend's confidence in you.

Book Corner - Finished Reading

The Last Jihad

Author: Joel Rosenberg

Paperback 352 pages

An oldy but goodie from 2002. A political thriller, you can pretty much guess what it involves by the title?

For me it started off as a good read but kind of lost my interest towards the end.

Last of the warm days?

I had heard that it was supposed to get cold this weekend but looking at the weather forecast it's not going to be so bad, in the upper 60's. Today was a beautiful 77!

Sloooow Internet Access

I have to admit one reason I haven't been posting as much as I should is that my Internet access has been really slow lately. Trying to watch TV shows has been a chore, if not impossible.

Better WiFi Reception

This has to be the coolest tip yet for WiFi. Increase your WiFi strength by making a simple antannae.

Visit this web site for ideas:

http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/template/

I made this little contraption out of a smoked almond can and our signal strength went from 1 bar to 3!

Instead of the WiFi signal radiating all around, you can direct it towards the area most needed.

This might not be the prettiest example, but it works!

Sunset over the old city - Montevideo

Me on the hill

The author on "the hill"

Nice relaxing day

Spent a nice afternoon sunning on "the hill" with Chris and then lunch at al fresco at Rumi Bar. We then went to the amusement park for churros.

When we went to the hill around 2:00PM or so there was hardly a soul out, but as the hours picked up more and more people appeared on the rambla and such. I was really surprised at how packed the amusement park was.

Here is a picture I took around 2:00PM, this is a nice sunny day, around 80 and it's a ghost town. Most Uruguayans have gone out of town.

Blast from the past redux

Thanks to Dr. Google I was able to find the email address of a missionary couple that was in Okinawa, Japan when I was there in 1989. I had often tried to Google them but usually didn't have good results. Off of a whim I tried yesterday and the first result looked hopeful, sent an email and sure enough it was them!

If you are a military person and looking for other Christin's to fellowship with while overseas or in a different State look up Cadence.org
http://www.cadence.org/maps

I can't even begin to tell all of the stories of the great times I had at the (Camp)Hansen Overseas Christian Serviceman's Center and the Kadena one. Changed my life completely and learned many valuable lessons.

Semana de Turismo begins

Holy Week? Not here, it's tourist week, when the beaches get populated one last time. It's often thought that places like Argentina has nice beaches, but actually not, and they flock here to visit our beaches.

I forgot if there was fireworks last year or not, I haven't seen any for sale, but chances are there will be.

Nice Warm Day and Holy Week Starts

It was a nice warm day, went to the beach to relax and read. It started getting windy as it usually does but the sand was packed so we didn't get sandblasted.
The amusement park was open and all the rides were in full swing.

Next week starts Holy Week, but better known here as tourist week. Tourists from other countries like to go the beaches here one last time before it gets too cold.
Uruguayans on the other hand like to go camping next week.

I get Thursday and Friday off next week so I get a mini-vacation.

Book Corner - Finished Reading

Graveyard of the Atlantic by David Stick
The University of North Carolina Press 1952 Nineteenth printing, May 1987
Hardback 264 pages

I bought this book at a garage sale probably 5 years ago and it has sat on the bookshelf between two countries ever since then. Finally took it down and read it.
The book is about the many shipwrecks along the North Carolina coast and the rescue attempts, good and bad that occurred with them. It was a good read.

Cat Walk

Had to take the cats to the local vet for travel shots. Packed them up in the carriers and placed them on a travel hand cart with bungee cords. Walk the 3 blocks to the veterinarian only to find out they had closed 30 minutes prior, all the while Feral is crying her little heart out.

Till next time...

Pesca Grande - Big Fish

Shopping the other day Chris came upon another big flounder at the seafood counter, I say another big flounder as this is the second one we bought. Total cost? 168 pesos, around $7! Back home that would be well double the price or more.
Took some pictures so you can get an idea of the size, just fit our small stove!
And yes, delicious!

Jacket Morning

A chilly morning today and windy, had to grab a jacket for the first time in months!
Hopefully the warm weather will make another appearance soon.