Saturday, Cinco De Mayo, 2012

Saturday May 5/12 update

Today was an interesting day with all sorts of characters on the street.  There is a huge full moon so I am certain that has a lot to do with these oddities.

I know some of you are getting tired of the hummers already but here’s just a few more shots of my little friend fifteen inches inside the house already.  He is visiting regularly now and, as long as I stay quite still, he is being bolder.

Bella wanted a quiet day today with only a trip to Coopera on her agenda.  I tried to get her to come to the Festival de Pan (Bread Festival) on Calle Larga near Todos Santos but I had to go myself.   There wasn’t much going on when I first went by so I thought maybe I had missed it all.   I went and had 2 “donair” lunch again at the Persia Pipa Bar a little further up the road.   Oh it was so good, even if I had to put up with teens smoking a hookah in the corner.  I have no idea what they were smoking but it didn’t bother me.

While eating my lunch I was watching this old indigenous Quechuan lady trying to use her cane to bring down something from inside the grating of the building across the street.  She made several attempts too, oblivious to traffic, before finally shuffling on her way without her prize.

I was walking by the Coffee Tree Café and literally came across an example of the blind leading the blind.  See the photo enclosed.  ‘Nuf said.

When I came back near the Todos Santos Festival area they had a singer and a few roaming clowns performing for a while.  One of the audience was the lovely Ecuadorian lady Doctor Norma who attends the afternoon Spanish classes that Bella, Chris and Bettye attend, and helps the teacher Martha with her local translations and idioms.

Singer and clowns  http://youtu.be/4Uw5O66MUAY

Then the entertainment gave way to barefoot ethnic dancers and this was one of the best displays I have seen of their joyful dancing.

http://youtu.be/JxKi95wWiK0

http://youtu.be/aCw9oHlPfT4

http://youtu.be/FQd8M4xWbms

From there I walked to Rotary Market to try to find a small shelf unit, about the height of my window mainly so I could have a stable surface to use for my hummingbird feeder.  After going from stall to stall and back again at least four times I finally settled on a shelf unit for $15.   When I got it home it was just the perfect height.

It only took about 10 minutes for the little guy to visit, and he wasn’t shy at all, coming in to feed.  Then he backed up to the window opening and did a complete 360 degree spin while hovering to check for danger then came back to feed again.  Oh how I wish I had had the video running for that but I usually let them come in daily the first time completely undisturbed so they will return later, which they always do.   He visited me eight times today, and at least twice more when the window was closed and I sure heard him scolding me over that.

http://youtu.be/E6CD6rlBeXE
http://youtu.be/IWWt6oRvsn0

I got an email offer to accompany two friends to Quito and back on Wednesday to pick up a goat (I’m not kidding!).  But I had to listen to my body, and not my heart, because an 18-hour drive is not fun, especially when 6 hours will be in the dark on winding mountain roads.  The carrot was to be photo opportunities, and there definitely would be some of those in the Avenue of the Volcanoes, but there usually aren’t too many places to stop on that highway, plus they would have a long day, so delays wouldn’t be too welcomed.

Segundo made an appointment with Bella for tonight for more English tutoring and showed up on time.

Enjoy the pics and the videos.    That was today’s excitement.    Hugs to all.

120505 Church Bells

120505 The blind leading the blind

120505 Serious wall art

120505 Chicken donair meat

120505 Doctor Norma

120505 Drum rehearsal by the Tomebamba

120505 Festival De Pan performers

120505 Great clown face

120505 Dancer handing out cheese buns

120505 Hotel Crespo wood art

120505 Hover specialist

120505 Such a great profile

120505 Beauty on the wing

120505 One of God's great creations

120505 Watch me soar

120505 Napoleon the insomniac

120505 A little old for thievery

120505 Going away without her prize

120505 Struggling home

120505 Persia Pipa Bar for good donairs

120505 Todos Santos landmark

120505 The beautiful Todos Santos

Friday May 4, 2012

Friday May 4/12 update

Well, I am truly addicted to the hummers.   Last night I had two more long visits inside my room by my little friends so I got 2 more great videos.

http://youtu.be/_u-xxxxlQSA   and   http://youtu.be/nr_bZJ3WTNo

We went to Big Kabudas last night for supper.  Mmmmmm good!  It is only 1.5 blocks from the Inca ruins so I got a terrific shot of the warrior statue backlit by the sunset.   Boy, the buses are packed between 5 and 7 with everyone trying to get home.

Today is a busy day, starting with meeting Chris and Bettye at California Kitchen for lunch.   First Bella wanted to stop at Rotary Market to try to find a meat cleaver (so I better behave from now on) and we lucked out and found a wonderful specimen for only $10. 

We had a wonderful lunch then Bella and Bettye went to play bridge at Linda’s, just a few blocks away.  Chris and I wandered the small novelty shops and hardware stores where I completed my shopping for a multi-head ratchet screwdriver, and two folding mirror hair brushes.  Chris then got all the wooden spoons he wanted at the Rotary Market then we wandered downtown El Centro.   We got Chris a bus schedule at the iTur office and he wanted to find some paper products but we ran out of time as we had to get over to his place for an appointment.  Then I helped Chris for a couple of hours with a few free downloadable programs to work with his pictures, PixResizer and Photoscape, and another user-friendly site called Fotoflexer.   It didn’t take long before Chris was modifying his shots like a pro.  Chris has a good eye for photography so he sure had some good shots to work with.  He also showed me some photos of some of their previous homes and wowee, I’ll be keeping photos of our previous homes to ourselves.

Then, arrangements were made to meet the girls at a nearby large apartment on the river for 6pm.  There was an art show going on in the lobby, some nice work too, and one of the artists was probably a shirt-tail relative, Jose San Martin (Joe St. Martin in Canada..).   But our main reason was to check out some of the rental condos in the building, especially one occupied by a new couple Chris met, Jim & Frances.  Brad & Cindy, who we had met a few times before would also be there.  We got to look at another smaller condo in this 66 suiter and apparently no two suites are alike.  Chris and Bettye had also been shown another one before lunch, about 2500 sq ft that they could rent for about $850, unfurnished, but it had no balcony and no view of the river.  Jim & Frances’ condo is on the third floor corner with a killer view of the river.  We were surprised at how tight the building was as there was very little traffic noise.  Another lady showed us her condo on the same floor, no river view and it was shockingly tiny compared to these other huge floor plans.

Then the eight of us walked over to the restaurant across from Chris & Bettye’s place and most of us enjoyed the sea bass dinner again.  Scrumptious!  We allowed Jim and Frances to regale us with their travels, as they lived in Saudi Arabia for many years, and then they sailed the Atlantic twice, and then sailed the Mediterranean for four years.  We discussed the politics of the Middle East in such a frank and fascinating fashion that even the women were willing participants.  Good food, good beer, good conversation, what more could a person ask for, for a thoroughly enjoyable evening.  It sure beats talking about cooking and recipes all night.

It is amazing how this little network of friends and acquaintances keeps growing in such a short time.   There was a full moon tonight so all us crazies were running around.

Enjoy the pics and the videos.    That was today’s excitement.    Hugs to all.

120503 Inca Spirit

120504 Our Favorite Tree

120504 California Kitchen Gramaphone

120504 Calif kit huge lamp+skylight

120504 Bettye+Chris Apartment

120504 Flower Silhouette

120504 Bettye+Chris Apartment

120504 1/6 of Mercado at Rotary Plaza

120504 Cast a giant Shadow

120504 Hi-Rise construction next door to Palermo

120504 New Spanking Arsenal

120504 Yellow flowering tree

120504 Jose San Martin Art

120504 Frances+Jim rented condo view

120504 Lizard Art

120504 Bella, Cindy, Bettye, Frances, Jim, Chris, Brad, Al

120504 Full Moon, Werewolves abound..

Thursday May 3, 2012

Thursday May 3/12 update

Well, I am truly addicted to the hummers.  I have glued the crack in the top of the feeder base with the flowers on it, then glued that to the base below that holds the nectar.  The nectar is a 1/3 cane sugar/water solution that they seem to like.  Now this little rig doesn’t leak that sticky stuff all over my window track and windowsill. 

I have to leave this feeder on the window track as we don’t have enough windowsill on the inside for it to rest. 

This is a tricky operation as I have to be ready, focused, and perfectly still when a hummer decides to visit.  I have the camera set to Shutter priority at 1,000^th of a second which leaves me with an aperture of about f4, not bad for a clear picture of a fast-moving object if the focus is correct.  This involves aiming and zooming the camera at an object, in this case high on the window frame, to estimate the distance of the hummer.  I have to depress the shutter button ½ way and hold it continuously while I swing the camera over into position and wait for it to show up.  I also have the camera set for a 5 shot burst per second, for 2 seconds, at full resolution.  This means I get 10 shots by pushing the shutter button all the way for 2 seconds but then I have to wait an agonizing 10 seconds or so while the camera processes the 10 shots.  The other bad part of this is that once I have let go of the shutter button I have lost my focus point and it is hard to refocus without scaring away my little buddy.

I use up a whole battery per session because this involves a lot of waiting and guessing when they may appear.  The routine that has been working is to continuously listen for their distinctive cheep cheep cheep cheep to know when they are sitting in a tree or on the wire nearby.  When the cheeping stops, I quickly grab my camera, turn it on, focus and zoom on the upper window frame, hold the shutter ½ way and swing into position.  The silence means they are usually in flight to a nearby flower for a feast.  Maybe one in eight trips is to my phony display of flowers.   If they don’t show up within about 15 seconds then they have chosen another flower.

I have got a few shots this morning and I am going to have to be satisfied with those.   I went down for lunch and when I came back there was a wasp at my feeder which I never want to encourage so it was necessary to pull the feeder inside and close the window for today.  Hopefully they will forget about its location.

I relented and put my display up again and the darn wasp returned, but still only a single wasp so I sent him to his great reward and continued on, being rewarded with 9 awesome shots 3 great videos of the hummer entering our home, what a great thrill.

http://youtu.be/3xqnZ6hLZCQ

http://youtu.be/QLqKDXNRiFo

http://youtu.be/VDWSQdfpb7Y  This one is great!

The photos have been Photoshopped to eliminate the cruddy parts of the background.

I now have no doubt whatsoever that I could get them to come right to my hand but the logistics are too hard.  I would need another person.  I am just grateful for the opportunity to interact with nature.

We were to go to a benefit concert in Banos tonight but the logistics for evening travel there are uncertain and the event is to include a magic show and childrens’ choir.  Bella is not fond of magic shows  and it is not to be a nice day today so we have decided to forego the trip.  We will probably just meet Greg and Leona at Big Kabudas for burgers tonight.

Enjoy the pics and the videos.    That was today’s excitement.    Hugs to all.

120503 Hummer 1

120503 Hummer 2

120503 Hummer 3

120503 Hummer 4

120503 Hummer 5

120503 Hummer 6

120503 Hummer 7

120503 Hummer 8

120503 Hummer 9

Wednesday May 2, 2012

Wednesday May 2/12 update

Bella made a bunch of appointments today and forgot again that today was Rosa the cleaning lady’s day, so I am housebound again for most of the day.  Her main appointments are to get her teeth cleaned at the Coopera dentist in San Joaquin, then to a cooking class, so she wasn’t home until supper time.

Rosa came early and started cleaning right away.  My only request to her is to put everything back in its original place.  We hate having to reposition everything after a cleaning session.   She actually worked some extra time today so I paid her a bit extra.  That is quite a change from the last cleaning lady.

To pass the time I am trying to move the feeder closer, right on the window track to see if I can train them to eventually enter the room, wouldn’t that be neat?   Actually one did come right in and fed on inside flowers where I could have touched him easily but I wasn’t expecting him, he snuck in on me and I wasn’t prepared with the camera, darn it.  I did get a few nice shots today though and three videos.

http://youtu.be/w3-VsgqS5O4

http://youtu.be/_VJTxrOj2hs

http://youtu.be/KZIPnxpK8uE

In between all this we had a 10 minute deluge, right about the time that Rosa would normally have finished so her overtime was a good thing or she would have been drenched.

Tonight the neighbor lady is to pay up her $20 too.  We will be very relieved when that happens.   We don’t want any bad feelings in the neighborhood.  I am confident she will come through now.

A little hummer just did it to me again, popping in for about 30 seconds and sampling all 4 flowers!  The little shit knew I didn’t have my camera in hand and also knew I would sit still as a statue so I wouldn’t interrupt his meal.  I wonder how big their brain is??   One of these days………

Then, I am all set up, I have lured the little guy in and he is just popping his head above the feeder, I am about to press my shutter button to record,… and Pancho meows at my door and scares him away….  Ugh…

Sorry that today is all about hummers again but I am really happy with my work today and I decided to go the extra mile and clean up the background on these, it makes them that much more impressive.

Enjoy the pics and the videos.    That was today’s excitement.    Hugs to all.

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