Time For A Change

"We spend our lives learning many things, only to discover (again and again) that most of what we learned is either Wrong or Irrelevant. A big part of our mind can handle this; a smaller, deeper part cannot. And it is this smaller part that matters more, because that part of our mind is who we really are, (whether we like it or not)"

But What If We’re Wrong -   Chuck Klosterman

   Covid 19 has forced a reckoning on most everyone in the world whether they are admitting it or not. Nothing is going to be like it was, for a very long time. And if the truth be told (a scarce commodity in the present environment), things may never be the same again. The time has come for a reassessment of almost everything. How we live, what’s important, and what we should be striving for both as a person, and on a grander scale, as a species. Suddenly we have had to stop what has been routine for the past seventy five years. Most of us, if we even thought about it at all, have just been accepting the idea that the direction we were travelling in was the direction we should be travelling in. We’ve been walking along with our heads down, only looking up at loud noises. And it has led us here, trapped in our houses, fearful of our neighbours, having to wear a mask just to go shopping, and trusting our very existence to people that, if we met them in the local pub, we would laugh out of the room. The question now becomes, do we want to go back to what got us here, when the present crisis is over? Do we want to just sit and wait for the next threat, and the next one?

  But there is an upside. Suddenly we all have our heads up, looking around. And we have time. It’s like we are kids again and we’ve been sent to the corner of the room for a time out. Just enough time to think. Time to assess. Time to question long held beliefs. Time to wonder whether we can do better. Time to wonder if the promised rewards, now that it looks like they won’t be there, were even going to be worth the effort and sacrifice in the first place. How many times, both personally and as a society, have we walked past things that we knew should be changed and done nothing? Well there is no doubt now that changes have to be made, and are going to be made, if we expect to survive at all.

  So what are these changes? I’ll leave that to younger and wiser heads than mine. After all, I’m responsible for the present dilemma. I could have done more and didn’t. Trying to explain why at this late date would just be whining. I swallowed the Kool-Aid with the best of them. I grasp the straw of hoping I did less damage than some, but the effort to stand up for what I knew needed fixing was sadly lacking. And now that I’m old and hiding out in South America like some repentant aging Nazi maybe I’m safe from retribution. I feel sorry for those to whom the burden is falling and I can only hope they are more up to the challenge than I was. If you are one of those, don’t look to the past for any answers. You only have to look at your current leaders in almost every field to realize the futility of that course of action. Perhaps more than at any time in the past they are emblematic of the futility of the old ways of thinking. Literal live embodiments of stupidity and avarice. Fiddling while the world burns. This pandemic is giving you the chance to throw those people and ideas away and head down a new path, look for new solutions. Scary, and exciting at the same time. Because the next fifty years will decide how the story of Us turns out. And you will be its authors. Remember the old saying, "Risk is its own Reward". Don’t be afraid to burn some bridges, in fact burn a lot of bridges. Not being able to go back will keep you going forward. Not much can be worse than what we have now so what have you got to lose? This old geezer will be cheering you on. And I won’t be the only one.

Local Lojano Food

Since we are still not patronizing the local restaurants, we have taken up the hobby of cooking local meals. We have enjoyed preparing and eating encocado de pescado (a coastal fish dish cooked in a sauce of cilantro, onions, tomatoes and coconut milk), menestra de lentejas (lentil stew), empanadas de carne (a common stuffed pastry), pan de yuca (fried cheese balls made with a yuca flour) and patacones (an appetizer of thick green plantain chips)
Here, Sharon is preparing a traditional southern Ecuadorian soup called arvejas con guineo. It is a version of a typical dish called 'repe lojano' from the province of Loja. This version is a split pea and green banana soup which includes other local ingredients like garlic, cilantro, achiote (a subtle spice that is used more often for it's red colouring) onions, and a fresh, young cheese known as quesillo (similar to feta). It's typically served with sides of avocado and hot sauce. It was easy to make other than finding the right kind of banana since there are many kinds of bananas and plantains in this part of the world. Interestingly, the chef of this recipe warns one to be careful when peeling and dicing green bananas, and true to the warning, my hands got very stained after preparing them. The finished production:

We are becoming accustomed to shopping daily for fresh produce and learning about all the new ingredients. I thank Layla Pujol, an Ecuadorian chef, now living in Seattle, who has created a really thorough and interesting website about Ecuadorian food which includes many recipes - laylita.com. When I visit her site I get so hungry from the photos of all the amazing dishes, desserts and appetizers. We are so grateful for this website during this pandemic. It has educated us on the local foods and kept us busy at home cooking up feasts for ourselves.

Above is a meat dish called carne colorada with a side ensalada (salad), rice steamed in ground achiote which gives it the yellow colour and mote. Mote is prepared from dried hominy corn and then one can add onion and garlic, or spices. Colorada refers to the marinade of the beef. It is ground achiote, cumin, oregano and beer. It has an amazing aroma...and so tasty!


Around the corner from where we live is a family run business selling freshly made tamales, humitas and quihimitas for 50 cents each out of their home. Humitas and quimihitos are corn cakes steamed in corn husks each with a different level of sweetness.  I often ask Ken to pick up a humita for my breakfast on his morning walk with Dylan. The family usually has a line up outside their door just before the afternoon siesta or at dinner time for their delicious tamales. These are wrapped in banana leaves and stuffed with chicken, pork or cheese. For the price, and the taste, we're not making these at home!

Another common Ecuadorian breakfast or lunch is the bolon:

Bolones are large plaintain dumplings (balls) stuffed with cheese and/or chicharrones (chorizo or bacon) fried until crispy and often served as a breakfast or lunch. We bought 2 for $1 each to go alongside our homemade corn and lentil soup.

Sharon's favourite salsa (below) is made with tamarillos - tree tomatoes/tomate de arbol which is a South American fruit, orange-red in colour, similar shape to a roma tomato but has a thicker skin. They are often made into sauces and juices. We have been regularly making this local aji hot sauce that has hot peppers to accompany everything Sharon eats!

What do Dylan and Coral eat? 2-3 times a week they get fresh liver to supplement their regular diet. One lb of liver = 25 cents!


Buen provecho! (Bon appetite)

IT'S DIFFERENT

THE SUN COMES UP HERE   

click any image to enlarge

                                     

every morning at 6am. Never earlier, never later. And it goes down at 6:30 pm. Never earlier, never later. In fact, the length of the day here varies by a total of 2 minutes over the year. One of the things that is noticeably different here from what we were used to.

   Well here I am again with another installment of Ken Taylor's, “What shall we talk about today?” Brought to you by the ever present sunshine of Ecuador and the ever looming “When’s your next Blog post?” There are times when having friends can be a burden! And you know who you are!

    I thought I would ruminate today on a few things that are different here. What brought it to mind was watching the garbage truck pick up our trash today. Monday, Wednesday and Friday they pick up the green and recyclable garbage and Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday it’s the… what, garbage garbage? Anyway, the truck has three or four guys hanging off it and, unless there’s a big pile of stuff, the truck doesn’t stop. The guys jump off, run to your garbage can, grab it, run after the still moving truck, throw your garbage in and then just pitch your can to the side of the road as the truck keeps motoring down the street. I can tell you, these guys are in great shape! Sometimes your poor can is a block up the street and you have to go out and fetch it and bring it home like a wandering puppy. Today my lid was around the corner. And you better grab your can right away or it will get run over or disappear. But on the up side, as you will have noticed, some kind of trash pickup Every Day! How good is that!

   Next we have groceries. Everything is grown locally and comes into the market fresh every day. All the fruits and vegetables you could want grown right outside the city by little family farms and brought to the Market daily, sometimes in the trunk of a taxi. The variety is astounding. All the things you would recognize and a lot you wouldn’t. And the prices are... well reasonable is an understatement. It's an adventure for Sharon to ask questions about how to cook things that we have never seen before, and then after dinner to watch me closely and see if I die before deciding whether it’s safe to cook it again! I hadn’t thought about it until just now but at dinner she is always about three or four bites behind me! I thought she was starting to call me Petey for some reason but now that I think about it, I think it’s Petri. (Think about it!)

   What about meat? Well there’s lot of it, again all local and fresh, but good luck recognizing a cut. In the supermarket you can get something that is recognizable but the cost is quite a bit more. If you go to the market, find some beef, (at least I think it's beef, for now I've decided not to ask) and indicate what you want they will cut you off a nice chunk of steak (???) for the price of what you would pay for a single sausage in Canada. And if we get something on our plate that is… slightly inferior… to what we had hoped for, then the fault is mine.  I’m the one with the pointy finger who assured Sharon that I knew what I was doing. Good thing she was standing behind me and didn’t see me close my eyes and cross my fingers. More Spanish lessons here I come. I’m not sure but I thought I heard a woman the other day say, “They must have a Very big dog!” But it was in Spanish so I was probably mistaken.

   A lot of people here cook with propane and there are trucks with full propane bottles prowling the streets from six in the morning, all playing the same tune announcing that they have propane for sale. You can hear them everywhere. Talk about an ear worm. But after awhile you don’t even notice. And if you run out of propane, no need to get in your car and go to fill up. Just listen for the ice cream man and go to the curb with your bottle. How convenient is that. Quite often there is someone with a loudspeaker going by with a truckload of produce as well, so you don’t even have to go to the market if you don’t want to. On the side streets next to the market are stores selling whole chickens. Somewhere from $4 to $6 dollars for a whole chicken depending on the size. Plucked and cleaned with the feet inside to be used for stock. And guess what. I’m getting quite good at butchering a chicken at home in the sink. Sharon uses the carcass for chicken stock and Monday, Wednesday and Friday (see above) they come and pick up what’s left.

   This is also a great area for coffee growing and there are a myriad of choices of really good, fresh ground coffee for around $3 a pound. Before the virus every street had a little restaurant with great coffee for breakfast and lunch. Lunch would be something like a hearty soup, rice, beans, and chicken with a big drink for $2.50. Couldn’t make it at home for that. A lot are closed at the moment but hopefully they'll be back. And then we come to dessert. Called pasteles. They love their pastries here. There is a pastry shop on every block in the downtown area. When we are out shopping Sharon has provided me with a special pair of blinders, like the old milk wagon horses used to wear, just to keep me focused. So I just plod along in a straight line, pretending not to see. But I do get out by myself occasionally, and, like the milk wagon horse, I don’t forget the route. And there are little fresh homemade bread stores everywhere. When I am out walking the dog early in the morning the whole city seems to be filled with the aroma of fresh bread and buns. Not great for my aim to cut back on bread. 

   And finally, it seems as if every second house here has a dog. But they never take them out for a walk or let them in the house. In fact, half the time they are on the roof of the house since there are a lot of flat roofs here. So that means occasionally there is a concert. Hundreds of dogs, all over the city, barking, barking, barking. Luckily they are usually short five minute sonatas, not symphonies. Sharon can quite often follow my progress when I walk the dog because as we walk by each house the resident two pound killer canine will come rushing out to protect his or her turf, barking furiously and warning the next dog in line to get ready to take up the chorus.  And then in the morning roosters, crowing. The city seems to always be alive somehow, at least when I’m awake. And then, because of the curfew, at 9 pm it all goes quiet. Sparkling street lights on the hillsides. No traffic, no dogs, no roosters, just quiet. Getting up the energy for another day of crowing, barking, baking, cooking, talking, laughing, and just living. To hell with Covid 19, it’s a new day, we’ve made it this far, let’s not waste it.

                                 PS. R.I.P Carl Riener Thanks for the laughs !

In Reference to el Blog de Mi Esposo - June 9th

In Reference to el Blog de Mi Esposo (June 9th)

These signs 'Lojanos - Somos Responsables'
(Citizens of Loja - We are Responsible)

are posted throughout Loja.

Take note:

#5 Cuidamos a nuestros adultos mayores. (We are responsible for our older adults.)                                                                                                                                                         

(click on photo to enlarge)

I'm doing the best I can to look after our 'adultos mayores'!

Cheers and Salud to you all!

Seniors- Stay Home

        So, here I am again trying to figure out what to post on the blog, something that keeps me up many nights. Especially after Sharon has posted and made me feel like I'm not holding up my end,

         

click on any picture to enlarge

The quarantine for most of Ecuador has moved from Red light to Yellow Light which, as Sharon noted, means a lot more stuff is open and a lot more movement is happening. But in all the notices from the Government here it is specified that people over 70 should remain at home. On reading that my first thought was "oh, too bad for them” and then I realized, "wait a minute, that’s me”. If you are not my age (OLD) l will let you in on a little secret. When you get to this age (OLD) you can’t figure out how it happened. Just yesterday I was 25. And if you are in good health you look in the mirror in the morning and go "Holy Crap! Who's the old fart?”.  It's gotten so bad I no longer look up while I brushing my teeth. I FEEL 40...(well maybe 50 if I’m being honest), but the powers that be, and the virus, have decided I am frail and about to drop dead any minute. Something that I personally do not intend to do anytime soon.

Always waiting

Now, I go out and walk the dog for an hour early in the morning when no one except me is up and about. And then I go out again around 2pm for 20-30 minutes, again with the dog, and then I go out for a final time just before the curfew at 9pm to have a last pee before bed.  The dog, the dog! Pay attention! And remember, we are on the third floor with no elevator which means a lot of stairs, every day. So, I get enough exercise I think. But I talk to no one, and I am beginning to feel a bit like The Man in the Iron Mask, or the Prisoner of Zenda or something. And the problem is I know the regulations regarding Geezers is not going to change until a vaccine is found. And you know that’s not going to be until this time next year, at the earliest. So, I am thinking of letting the beard grow, and the hair, and the eyebrows, and the nose hair. Then in a years' time I could emerge like one of those guys that has been imprisoned in the tower for years, blinking in the blinding light, squinting at all the fuss, my clothes in rags, and having trouble speaking after all this time. Sharon would lead me to a giant table where a huge feast would be laid out and I would gorge myself on my favorite food, all the while wiping my greasy hands on my beard. Newspapers and TV would try to interview me about how it feels to finally be released. And I would ask only one question, “Who’s the US president?”. If the answer was “Donald Trump”, I would turn and go back to my room saying, “Call me in four years!” as I close the door.

Anyway, that’s how I imagine all this ending, as I daydream while trying to find something new to watch on Netflix or start my next online book. How will it really end? I have no idea, but mine is as good a guess as anyone's, and I am glad we are here in Loja during all this. The weather is consistently lovely, the people I have met are friendly and helpful, and I look forward to getting out and exploring more. Luckily, we have a perfect view across the valley which changes by the hour so as I sit here trying to be slightly creative I am constantly reminded that, aside from a slight case of ennui, things could be a lot worse. And are, for millions of people around the world, and even next door. So as things open up and you go out to your socially distant restaurants and your walks in the park in the sunlight, spare a small thought for us feeble old nitwits who gaze longingly at you through the bars of the castle tower. AND, if you don’t, remember the Monty Python skit about the “Raging Grannies”. Coming soon to an alley near you!

Local Fauna in Loja

It's been awhile since we've posted 

but not much has been happening in our lives lately.

Like everyone, getting outside and exploring has been limited

since our lock-down / curfew (toque de queda) in Loja.

But the fauna has not been locked-down and continues to thrive, non-stop. This lock-down has given me the opportunity to truly explore my neighbourhood and become acquainted with the local parks and walkways.
above:  This red blossoming bush lines the streets along the two central rivers of Loja, Rio Malacatos and Rio Zamora.

There is a richness of wild colourful orchids that seem to grow everywhere!



Below are a few of my favourite plants and trees that I have yet to classify but they are in abundance along the streets and trails in the local parks.

This orange blossom grows like a weed and has taken over large areas along the rivers. It is spectacularly colourful but I'm certain the city gardeners don't appreciate it's nature. From my understanding, this plant can be used for medicinal purposes. But, I've yet to have this confirmed.

And, there are horses and donkeys in Parque Jipiro, one of our biggest parks in the city. There are at least 15 and all are well-cared for. They roam about freely with only one tethered at a time in different areas of the park. Initially, I thought they belonged to the local farmers. But I have since learned that these horses reside in the park, belong to the municipality of Loja, and a person can ride one through the park for $3. 

Guess what Ken and I will be doing once this opportunity starts up again?

If you recall from our post dated April 29th, I was foolishly "foraging colourful vegetation and wild flowers from alongside the river" to brighten up our apartment. I also wrote, "this may get me arrested." Well, yes! Had I been reading the signs, I would never have taken up such an activity as the new gringo in a foreign city!

The city of Loja 'toque de queda' changed last week. We now can be out and about (with purpose)  from 5am to 9pm. This suits Dylan's schedule much better than having to be indoors by 2pm in the afternoon! More local businesses have opened to 30% capacity and just this alone has brought back some of the vibrancy in Loja that Ken and I had grown to love.

Beneath the masks we must wear, I think a few more smiles are starting to appear. 

At least I hope.

Cuidate.

It is Sharons' birthday today. So she insisted on going for a

"little" walk.

The Rooster Crows at 5 am

   WARNING, THE FOLLOWING ARE CORONA VIRUS INSPIRED, SELF CENTERED MUSINGS. READ AT YOUR OWN PERIL!
 
   Sometimes when you are just sitting doing nothing thanks to the corona virus you wander into your head to see what's going on in there, back in the shadows. This happens to me these days at five in the morning.
   Every morning at 5 am here in Loja, a local rooster on a nearby roof starts crowing and reminds me to get up and stumble off "to visit the facilities" as the English would say. When I return to the warmth of the covers I relish the fact that I have another hour before I have to get up and walk the dog. I snuggle down and wait for unconsciousness to overtake me, unfortunately to no avail.  Since we got to Ecuador and settled into this apartment my brain has decided that this is the time to assess my life and decide whether it has been a success or not.  This is, of course, a result of all the extra time that the virus has dumped into my lap whether I wanted it or not. Normally I would ignore this chance for introspection since self awareness has never been high on my list of priorities.  Picking over the entrails of past suspect decisions can only lead to regrets, something that is a huge waste of time and to be avoid at all costs. After all, what can you do about it now?
   However this time it seems to be different. One factor is that I am now at an age where looking back is much more fertile ground than looking forward. Three months ago I could look forward with some fairly certain expectations. Now? Not so much. I have no idea what is going to happen in the near term and even less of an idea for the long term. For once experience is of no value. So why not spend some time looking back. The worst that might happen is that a reader will say, "well there's a half hour I will never get back!"
   First of all let me say right of the bat that my generation, and me in particular, had the best of it. So this trip down memory lane will not be a woe is me journey. I had the happiest of childhoods, raised in a loving family who never wanted for anything and always had food on the table. We were middle class, and my parents were always encouraging and open to my doing whatever made me happy. This was in Whitehorse in the Yukon in the fifties so we had no TV to tell me that I didn't have the coolest stuff and should be unhappy because I didn't. I didn't even see a TV until I was sixteen years old and am firmly convinced that I am better off for it. I was an only child and although I had some bouts of loneliness, the upside was that I was the center of attention most of the time and got away with more than I should have. My mother was endlessly curious, found the humour in almost every situation, and encouraged me to try anything that struck my fancy. Best of all she thought I was incredibly funny. I could make her laugh anytime I wanted to. I read voraciously, had lots of friends, and as long as I was home when the street lights came on, was pretty much allowed to do whatever I wanted. I was a B student at best, mostly because I could never settle on one thing for any length of time. I was never an athlete of any distinction and was never made to feel bad about it. I was expected to find out for myself what "turned my crank", and get on with it.  But perhaps the biggest thing was, it was the fifties. Everyone had a job and everyone had money; not a lot, but enough to put food on the table and a roof over your head. And if you lost your job or quit you could get another one the next day. Understand, I am talking here about my experience and how that experience shaped me. As a result I have never worried about money or thought for a moment that there might come a time when I should, or needed to. You can imagine how freeing that was when it came to planning your next step in life. Nothing was off the table.
   So for fifty years I traveled the world trying to decide what I wanted to do with my life, first by myself and latterly with Sharon, who has put up with my flaky lifestyle with grace and good humour at every step. Don't ever suggest to Sharon that something "might be fun" because in short order you will be doing it. I once said to her that I had always had a fantasy of sailing to the South Pacific. I was 58, had never been on a sailboat or gone sailing in my life. I had no job, no savings, and no idea how to accomplish this feat. But Sharon said "OK" and two years later we found ourselves off the coast of Oregon sailing down six foot swells on our way to the Panama Canal. To this day I have no idea how we did it but at no point did it seem like a pipe dream to either one of us. Keep your face pointed in the right direction and take one step at a time.                                                                                           
 Looking back it seems that for me it is necessary to reinvent myself every ten or fifteen years. Once you have accomplished whatever you are doing at the moment it seems a waste of time to just continue doing it because you can. Where's the challenge in that?  "Appeared on Londons' West End Stage at 24 to good reviews", check, move on. Of course being an actor meant having huge amounts of free time to explore other options. The unexplored is endlessly fascinating. I've been bored, but never for long. And who wouldn't want to work in a Mars Bar factory, or be a Farrier, as long as it wasn't for the rest of your life? I've even been a ring waiter, pushing cages of tigers and bears into the big top for the Moscow Circus! ...in Australia!!
   There could have been, however, one impediment to this freewheeling lifestyle that I am so casually describing. Children. At some point in this saga an unconscious decision was made that children would be a fly in the ointment. Was that a selfish decision? Who knows? I don't even remember making it, if I ever did. I have no regrets about it. It helps that I am a self centered egomaniac of course but there are worse things to be and how tragic would it have been if I'd had children and resented them all my life because they kept me from doing what I really wanted to do. I can't say I had that much self awareness at the time. It's just how it worked out.
    So, as a result of all of that, I still haven't decided what I want to do with my life. And now we have moved on to a new adventure, probably my last. Sometimes that saddens me because there are so many more adventures to be had. I always thought riding the Pacific Crest Trail on horseback would be fun but that's not going to happen. But as I said at the beginning, we had the best of it. At least from this vantage point it seems that way. There are some things that people today say are big leaps forward that I, as a grumpy old man, can only describe as great leaps backward. For instance without TV I wouldn't be constantly being told that my car isn't new enough, or that, if I could just put up with a bit of anal leakage, I could do away with zits forever. And if there was no internet I wouldn't be slapped in the face every day by misguided cretins wearing MAGA hats. But if I carry on here I will lose it completely.
   So here I sit, looking back from what one my friends calls my fifth life,  feeling that it has pretty much worked out. For a lazy, no talent, irresponsible, gadfly I did OK. Did I make a major contribution to the betterment of mankind? I would say ........no. Do I care ........no. Does that perfectly sum up how useless my mere existence has been? Depends on your perspective. I have always taken to heart the old adage "No one ever lay on their death bed and said 'I wish I had spent more time at the office' ". Why are we here? I have no idea and intend to spend zero hours of the time I have left pondering that question. I will find out in due course and have no intention of coming back and telling you. Some things you have to find out for yourself.
   I do know one thing for sure. When the last few breaths are on my lips I can turn on Frank singing "My Way" ..... and smile.

How our Activities have Changed

During our first visit to Ecuador in 2017, I bought a field book, The Birds of Ecuador. Since moving to Loja, I have been eager to learn about the birds in this area. But my bird watching has changed. I hear their songs, see them fluttering in the trees, but I certainly never thought I'd be sharing this activity with my cat, Coral, from our apartment windows!

What do we see from our windows and balconies? Many Ecuadorian ground doves, various sparrows like the rufous-collared sparrow, yellow finches (I may have seen the saffron finch), the golden grosbeak and a beautiful rust-coloured bird who I've yet to identify. There are short-tailed hawks soaring above us and at dusk we always see and hear the very vocal pacific parrotlet flying to their nests in small groups. I can't wait to leave my cat behind and head out to some local birding sites. Loja, and a nearby town, Copalinga, are touted as great bird watching locales.

"A V-8 a day, keeps the doctor away", was my daily motto at lunchtime at the South Arm Community Centre. Now, I make my own juice to my liking! It is a V-6 or sometimes a V-7 jugo depending on what is fresh at the local market but it always includes a pimiento rojo picante! This change is an activity I intend to keep.

I had been regularly enjoying fresh flowers. (Bouquets cost $3-5, with fresh roses being 25-50 cents each!) These days I've become the 'crazy gringo' who forages for colourful vegetation and wild flowers from alongside the river.  This may get me arrested, so this activity needs to change.

My weekly visit to the local grocery store, Gran Aki. I'm about to get sprayed with disinfectant. We get sprayed, our temperature checked, given hand disinfectant and then we walk through a tub of disinfectant solution to then get inside where a recently disinfected shopping cart awaits us!
This performance can't change soon enough!
But from the local news, sounds like we'll be doing this for awhile still.

Dylan's activities have changed too. His last walk of the day is at 1:30 pm (Ecuador's toque de queda is 2pm to 5am) so to keep him stimulated for the remainder of the day, he has his toys. Well, these toys are no longer. They are chewed up bits of rope or bone that have disintegrated to being too small for any enjoyment. I have been keeping my eyes open for larger sized dog toys, which are difficult to find since most of the pet dogs are of a smaller size. But I got lucky, or I guess I should say, Dylan got lucky last Friday...

We are doing fine but keen to change our activities as you read in the previous blog by Ken. I am baking sweet pastries (known here as pasteles) more than I have ever done so in my life. In fact, I used to say I didn't have a sweet tooth. Things have got to change before my size does!

Blogging?

  When we started this blog we sent out a note to our friends to say we were up and running. Part of that message was, "I may regret this". I think I am already there. I have never done well under pressure and this is pressure!! Thinking of something to put in a blog is one thing, sounding  somewhat intelligent while doing it is another.  So today, if it's alright with you, I will gleefully abandon that idea.
  The first time I saw this view from our back window, the virus was not around, or at least it hadn't affected us much. I thought I could still go out and find interesting things to talk about and take pictures of. Then I would upload our fabulous new life and all of you would be terribly jealous and wonder why you weren't doing something similar. I would then sit here being smug, an attitude I have perfected over the years, at least so my friends tell me. But unfortunately for me, and probably fortunately for you, that has not been the case. The only time I am outside is at 6 am when I take the poor trapped dog for a walk. Not a soul on the streets and the light is bad for pictures.  After breakfast I sit around reading or corresponding with the few people who haven't written us off completely, and then at 1:30 pm it's dog walking time again before the 2 pm curfew when everyone has to be off the street. You can imagine how exhausted I am by that time, so a nap is now required. Then it's more reading and browsing the internet where I pick up some bizarre bits of info that are of no use or importance to anyone and that I will casually throw into a conversation at some later date whilst wearing the smug look referred to earlier. Then for awhile I gaze out the window, at the view above, and ponder whether it is worth even getting up tomorrow, until it's time to turn on the news and see how everyone else is coping. That tends to bring up waves of guilt as I realize that we are incredibly fortunate to not have to stress about where our next meal is coming from or how to pay the electric bill this month. So now I have to turn on You Tube and watch some funny dog or cat videos to distract myself. By now the burden of all that guilt is enough to make me switch to Netflix and start watching something like "Better Call Saul" so I can see someone who is even more screwed up than I am.
Then I look at the dog and he's got that, "I have to

cross my legs for HOW LONG?" And the guilt
comes flooding back.  With it comes the realization that I have accomplished nothing today, even with all the extra time the pandemic is giving me. Maybe I should go out to a bar and mingle, get the virus and then people would feel sorry for me and overlook the fact that I must have been a huge disappointment to my long suffering parents. But nothing is open and everyone else IN THE WORLD is inside weaving, or studying astrophysics, and is going to emerge from this lock-down a new and better person. I will just be a bearded fat guy who has read every John Sandford book.  Is being an expert on the adventures of Lucas Davenport a saleable commodity? So now I go back to the office (yes, we have an office!! Oh the shame!) and I think about what I should Blog about.  As I gaze at the view below absolutely NOTHING comes to mind and I am now frozen with self loathing.  Maybe tomorrow I will start an exercise program.....or get back to my Spanish........ or start on online course ...........or write to..........

I CAN do better....I MUST do better.....I WILL do better...........Oh, are you still reading? Good Night.