VagabondJim

 (In a Museo del Pernil* in Quito.  In Spanglish with a lot of GoogleTranslate.) Me:  In South America you call it Castilian; in the North we call it Espanyol. Server 1: It's all the same. Me: Nope, take the word: Guagua (pronounced "waawaa!").  In some places it's a bus in others it's a baby.  They make the same sound.  Server 2: Really??? Me:  Yes, my ex-wife used to go crazy when nobody in United States of (both - America and Mexico) would understand what she wanted when she asked for a Bombilla Them: What?  Eventually when they point at a few lights, I figure it all out.  A light bulb (pointing)   Me: (Mime a drinking straw.) Them:   Ahhhhhh. Me: Like Piscina and Alberca (two words for 'swimming pool.')  Server 2:  Looks up bombilla on the internet.  It's used in Peru,Bolivia, and some other places.   Ahh, I understand. Server 1: (Walking away, addressing Server 2) Somos Vecinos . * Exactly as much a museum as Madrid's Museo de Jamon...just

  Washington Post 09June23...It's like they know Monday is coming. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/06/09/ellis-rosen-cartoon-caterpillar-butterfly-email/

 And, exhausted. I truly hate driving in L.A. now. And, the generally nice LAX Flyaway was a shitshow today.  Still, 10 days of parking and $20 in bus fare is ABSURDLY cheap long term oarking.  For anywhere I've ever lived.  At anytime as an adult.  $60 all in.  Wow. Bedtime. Thanks for reading. Much more to come in the next few days. Somos Vecinos, Jim

  ( Do you know where you're going?  What's your polestar?) (Old sailors love their sextants.) (Closed until at least August.  The home of the dissolved Assembly.) (Aristotle weeps) (No, no fucking way.) (Wow, just wow.  And, this elevation sucked a lot less than it would have last week.  4,000m+  Still left me winded.  And, awestruck.) (Doors seem to pull me in.) (Contra the advice of Lyle Lovett, do NOT 'step inside this house.' 'The House of Grief') ($5, including the first, and best, beer in memory) (I turned the corner and just stopped.  This picture fails to capture the moment. Nonetheless,..) (It feels to me as this captures my experiences here quite well.  Don't ask; I could never explain.  It just does._

 Literally. (Served first, I thought it would be the entire meal.) (But, lo!,  then came the eggs!) I'm just here to answer the REALLY BIG questions, y'all.  Nothing else really matters.  

 "Asides" will be occasional series; my ramblings on subjects that are dear to me and of importance to the blog but not a destination.   Modern photography is amazing.  The computational stuff has made it VERY easy to get a stunning exposure. Whereas on used to have to think about how and how much light to let hit the film, no one needn't.  All.  The move away from chemicals to pixels made that not just possible but inevitable.  The old trade of was to choose between a fast burst through a wide opening (a small aperture (f-stop)  = large opening) or a long exposure (slow shutter speed). Short exposures with a wide open iris would stop motion - think sports. Tiny apertures with long exposures would create amazing depth of field (how much of the picture is in fine detail, moving along an axis away from the film) - think Ansel Adams.  (And his colleagues in the f/64 club.) Assuming that was done right, there was still room to screw up.  In the dark room.  I never played ther

~1330 I asked a pharmacist for some help.  I mis-steped the other day and immediately felt it in my back.  NSAIDs were not cutting it.  It's going to take a massage or two when I get home. Muscle relaxants should help.  I hope. And, I am definitely forcing myself to rest. ~5k steps so far (not a reliable count) but only 12 zone minutes. Going slow and improved cardio combined.   Breakfast (from my favorite ladies at Mercado Central, why go elsewhere?)  Roast pork, potato, and mote.  YUMMY.  And a guanabanana (no, I have no idea what it is) "shake" ( Batido ).  Happy, happy, happy! This stuff is so damn good.  I wanted 'fried' pork but it was not in stock so I went with what I know.  "Fried" is actually braised first and then seared in its own fat.  I know it from Bolivia and love it. Really, pork rules.  It just rules the proteins completely.  Sorry, cattlemen (I do have friends in the dairy business; milk is the bomb for protein drinks.) Then a short Tr

"Saturday In The Park" Saturday in the park I think it was the Fourth of July Saturday in the park I think it was the Fourth of July People dancing, people laughing A man selling ice cream Singing Italian songs Eh Cumpari, ci vo sunari Can you dig it? (Yes, I can) And I've been waiting such a long time For Saturday (Chicago was the first band I saw live.) Today is Sunday.  It's the 4th...of June.  I don't care.  I dig it. In the summer of 1980, yes 43 years ago, I watched some old dudes playing bocce in Assisi. Sundays, parks, old dudes, somethings never change.  Nor should they. 

 Remember, false precision and not MediCal instrumentation    Can you guess when I got here? 

 It's a lava flow, too.

Quito, ~1545 Exhaustion is setting in and I'm doing my best to pay attention.  Honest, I am.  It's also about accepting limits and being smart.  That's very hard to do here.  Elevation is tough on a fat (but thinning) and balding dude. Today's sole destination:  Science! (For kids) My two favorite museums, in the world, are Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry and Muenchen's Deutsches Museum. [Immediate digression, to live in the moment: While it has rained here everyday, it sounds like a doozy is about to blow in.  Thunder for the first time.  Big temp and light drop just now.  Glad I'm blogging rather than logging footsteps  at this moment.   I hear the stores shuttering; I do not hear the touts.  Oh, shit... 20 minutes later... I now have 3 bananas, some cookies and chips - perfect for a rainy night dinner.  Plus about 4 litres of various fluids.  Hydration matters at elevation. Supermercado Santa Maria must be one of the nice girl Santas Maria.  Much