Wednesday Apr 18/12 update
Bella was up before me to bake bread and prepare food for
her bridge enthusiasts and also for supper.
So I came down to a sinkful of dirty dishes as my first chore of the
day. Bella mentioned that it is dark in
the sink area and that we could use some good lighting. That gave me a purpose to vacate the
premises.
I left just before Rosa was
to arrive to clean house at 12:30 and walked up past Coral to see the
seamstress to try to repair my backpack straps and zipper. She quoted me a whole $2 and said to return
at 4.
I caught the #15 up to the Cemeterio and then walked past
the airport to Kywi and MegaHierro.
MegaHierro kinda had what I wanted but everything was too bulky or
needed too much ancilliary stuff like wiring and plugins. The nearest plug to the sink is about 6’ away
so I started off looking for something with that long of a cord.
At Kywi I found a 30 LED light, rechargeable, emergency
light for $9.99. The cord was barely 2’
but I decided to get some good Velcro to keep it in place but also to make it
removable for charging and for emergencies.
It was such a great idea that I got a second one for my headboard to
read by. It even has a low setting where
it only uses 15 LED’s. It is positively
scary that I am so clever.
Then I started the long trek home. About 10 blocks from home I hear a “Hello,
how are you today?” and it is this fellow that owns a Ferreteria (hardware
store) who likes to chat in English whenever he sees me passing. He was there with his cute little daughter
and they agreed to pose for a couple of shots.
It was good to hold me up a little because it was about 3:20 and I
wanted to pick up my backpack in the next block.
Even though I was early it was fortunate that my backpack
was ready. This is the same backpack
that I had bought for $10 a couple of months ago and have now spent a total of
$3.50 on repairs. I kinda like this
cloth backpack because it is light, has 2 large compartments, is expandable,
and has drink pockets and front bungies for securing more stuff. I usually wear it to carry my jacket,
umbrella, Tilley hat, sunglasses, fanny pack, muti-tool, city map, plastic
bags, my big camera, a bottle of water and napkins.
The bridge game was well underway upon my arrival home with
Bettye and Chris Petersen and Manon Stephenson joining Bella for the
afternoon. They are all such nice,
intelligent people, and a joy to be around.
I installed the two LED lights and they are truly a
Godsend. I don’t know how I did dishes
before?? Maybe I’m too used to being a
mushroom…. You all know that one,
right??
We enjoyed a lovely supper with homemade Nanaimo bars for dessert. Bella had to make some ingredient
substitutions but they turned out great. Mmmmmmmmm good.
After our company left I did the mound of dishes again and
could actually see what I was doing. Did
I mention I love the new LED lights??
We are having Etapa Internet issues again tonight and have
lost our signal so this blog will be delayed.
Enjoy the pics.
That was Wednesday’s excitement. Hugs
to all.
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120418 Proud Hardware Dad & daughter |
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120418 Let there be LIGHT above the sink |
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120418 Let there be LIGHT at my headboard |
Thursday Apr 19/12 update
Still no Internet this morning so I have decided to take a
trip to Etapa. As I got off the bus I
saw a huge bicycle procession dumping onto the 12 De Avril and don’t know what
it was all about.
I still didn’t quite have my bearing for the exact location
of the Etapa office but it has all fallen into place now. It turns out that they haven’t taken any bank
withdrawals the last two months so they
cancelled our service! They needed an
authorization letter from Banco Pichincha and $57.22 cash. Now why didn’t they tell us if there was a
problem when we were ther signing up with Michael Berger?? Ugh!!
So off I go to Banco Pichincha and stand in line for over an
hour for the 2 minutes worth of work, then hike back to Etapa, only to stand in
line for another ½ hour to make the payment, before going back to talk to
AnnaIsabel to get my Internet hooked back up.
It is funny how Michael Berger just happened to show up right then and
helped confirm my understanding of her Spanish and broken English. Now I have to go back again on May 5 to make
the May payment in cash but the rest should clear the account, no problem.
We also arranged to have a technician come out tomorrow
because our download speed had dropped off significantly in the last week
again.
I left Etapa determined to get my directions intact. Etapa is near the Rio Yanuncay on the 10 De
Augusto, near where it joins with 24 De Mayo and the 12 De Avril. I also happened on the Quinta Bolivar, a
residence of the Liberator of Latin America, Simon Bolivar.
They were having a free art exhibit so I popped in while
waiting for the #16 bus. There was one
particular artwork that caught my eye because of its incredible attention to
detail called “Patio” by Carlos Munoz.
As I was exiting man stopped me to ask if I knew that they were for
sale. He showed me a price list hidden
behind a door. He was one of the artists
and he was asking the highest price of $700 for a mediocre painting. Unfortunately there was no pricing on the
“Patio”. The house has some beautiful
grounds and has a good view of El
Centro.
Enjoy the pics.
That was today’s excitement. Hugs
to all.
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120419 "PERCHAS" by Catalina Carrasco in QB |
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120419 "EN EL JARDIN" by M. Soledad Burbano in QB
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120419 "PATIO" by Carlos Munoz in QB |
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120419 Simon Bolivar painting |
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120419 Simon Bolivar bust |
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120419 Bicycles on the move |
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120419 Quinta Bolivar |
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120419 Quinta Bolivar info |
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120419 Quinta Bolivar courtyard |
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120419 Quinta Bolivar spider plant backlit |
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120419 Quinta Bolivar view west |
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120419 Quinta Bolivar view of El Centro |
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120419 Quinta Bolivar yard 1 |
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120419 Quinta Bolivar yard 2 |
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120419 Quinta Bolivar yard 3 |
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120419 Rio Yanuncay east |
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120419 Rio Yanuncay west |