Ice cream goes to the dogs

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/38341496/ns/today-today_pets_and_animals/
My jaw dropped... awesome! Just look at that photo!

A sequence of events

Photo taken by Jurgis. The butterfly landed on the soap bubbles as he was doing the dishes. He fished her out and she hung around a while. He then took photos before releasing her into the great outdoors.
I woke up completely and quickly. That, in itself, was unusual. I'm notoriously slow to surface. My first thought was... surely it's 4:30 already? I checked my cell phone, which doubles as an alarm clock - 4:37! I hadn't set the alarm! Strike one. Without an alarm, I'm usually incapable of surfacing on time.

I put the kettle on and turned on the pc. Ack! My internet wouldn't connect. An overwhelmingly sickly smell drew me to the kitchen. The gas had run out (the gas stinks just as the bin empties for some reason) - coffee would be delayed. I shook Jurgis awake. Luckily, he'd asked me to wake him early. He tackled the gas (we keep a spare bin) and internet while I got ready. With coffee and toast going down well, the morning was saved.

The first bus that came along was an inter-municipal (the elusive Santana bus, Tat! *poke*) The smiling lady sharing my stop got on, so I asked the driver if it went my way. Yep, it did. What a ride! Everyone was smiling!  I wish I could take this bus every day. It takes a grand tour of the city. The route was different and thus interesting. I wished I had a camera with me.

Because I took a bus instead of the usual metro, I ended up on the other end of Parque do Juventude, a large, concrete and wannabe-grass walking area. It has some funky buildings. I walked past the building and wadya know.... a library! An honest-to-goodness fancy-schmancy library here in São Paulo!! Sadly, it was only opening later, so I couldn't go in. Not sure when I'll get the chance to see it, as it's far from home and my ours are a little crazy.

I walked over to where my student usually meets me. I had nearly reached my spot when a scruffy man walked past. I think he was homeless, but who knows. What was special about him? The big red nose he was sporting! When he caught someone staring, he'd grin. He was  having a ball. He left many laughs and smiles in his wake.

I spent the rest of my time there being entertained by an impish (he looked like a little imp) hopelessly drunk man who was dancing and clowning around with a huge grin on his face. He was having a ball!

What was that they say about "Smile and the world smiles with you"? Today, the world seemed to be smiling. It was good : )  I felt as though a load had been taken off my shoulders.

And back to the ordinary world...

Romany was caught grinning in his sleep.


The flash woke him up. He stuck his tongue out.... kinda mid-lick, but too lazy to pull it off properly.


The sun was obviously too good and he dozed right off again.

Technorati Tags: people,feel-good,bus,romany,library,life

Starting over

I found this article recently and it got me thinking. Actually, it doesn't do much to get me thinking of our dream. A while back, Kippy and Jaime wanted me to talk about my perfect home. Then just recently, someone mentioned being envious of a life of ease. I often say "I'm jealous" and you'll usually find it's relating to a certain way of life... a life we'd love to live again, a truly simple life.



Second Act

"We embark on a career path or a job before we really know ourselves at a very early age, but I think we're still a work in progress and over the course of your life you can stitch together a quilt of what you want to be and who you want to be." Lisa Schwartz

Now, if I were envious of a lifestyle, it's the one this lady has built for herself. That is a dream!

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A couple more videos of people starting over and fulfilling a dream... truly inspirational! I've linked to the videos, so I don't overload this page for those with slow connections:

http://vitality.yahoo.com/video-second-act-mandy-aftel-20592908
http://vitality.yahoo.com/video-second-act-donald-arthur-20045514


Gypsy (back), Vilkas (left) and Noble (front right), our 3 Muskateers. Gypsy was the older, sensible one, who kept the brats in check. To the left was the raspberry patch - wild and thorny, but a thrill to harvest. Through the gateway behind them was the stand of mulberry trees, kids' paradise, and beyond that, the stream. The dogs were lying under the pretty, but infernal Tibouchina tree - the leaves, when dry, make excellent dye *sigh* It never comes out!

For those new to my list or those who missed the original post, this blog speaks about the life we came from, which is poles apart from the life we're in now. We'll have that again : )

http://tintalasia.multiply.com/journal/item/282/I_remember_Whensday

Last night, Tat and I were chatting. A possible hermitage came up, but she's not the hermit type, being gregarious and all that. We settled on farming with goats, who are pretty cool critters, with Jurgis taken along as slave labour, something he seems to thrive on. Ah... now there's a life, hm?

Dry

Dogs! Argh! We're into day 2 of our regional water cut. The pleasant enough,but extreeeeemly slow chap at the water department said it was due to a burst water mains and water would be restored the same day. That was yesterday.

The air is dry. There are pollution warnings out. This photo is from our local news. The airport is on a 'fly only if necessary' due to the pollution.


This photo is from a different news agency. Apparently admissions to hospital have increased by 70% today due to respiratory issues.


Our water system is here complicated. We run off a cistern on the roof. This is because of the city's frequent water cuts. A storage box of water means that, during a cut, we still have water for a while. That's all good and well, but.... unless we go outside to the yard wash tank, which is fed directly from the street, we have no idea the water has been cut or if it's been restored.

Enter dog.

The son of a second-hand sea sausage used the standing space in front of the water tank as his personal WC! Let it be known that I leave home by torch light - It was dark when I checked the status of our water supply!

Apparently, I will have plenty of luck today, especially since I couldn't wash it off.


Does this look like the face of evil terrorism??

 

Technorati Tags: pollution,romany,cistern,water

Up 'n down week

My week started with Kippy's wedding and a computer format. I hate formatting because they never go as quickly and smoothly as I'd like. This time, my scanner went belly-up. We eventually got the scanner working by sneaking up on it... and disabling my webcam, as the pc wanted to use the webcam as a scanner source. I was finally functional by Wednesday afternoon, but without a printer. Let's say that lessons and admin became very interesting this week. I rely heavily on technology.

Along with this came an all-pervasive tiredness. No idea where that comes from. I picked up towards the end of the week. Then yesterday, Thursday, we took both dogs up to the village. At the church, we parted company. I had Romany with me. Jurgis had Dingo. She was going to the vet who confirmed that she's diabetic. She was already totally blind in the one eye and had minimal vision in her remaining eye. This past month, she lost a lot of weight. Generally, the dogs start piling on weight as the cooler weather sets in... she just got skinnier and skinnier. She was already a skinny dog to start off with. Her appearance was conflicting... glossy coat, perky ears, still all tail-wag, but otherwise clearly going downhill. She'd lie in the corner under my desk, not following Romany out. We made the decision to let her go. All I'll say is that her tail was still wagging.



While we were out walking, it rained. No ordinary rain, but a typical São Paulo garoa, rendering umbrellas useless. We were soaked through. By nightfall, I was feeling ghastly... sore throat, achy, sheer bliss, of course. This morning, after chasing of the mule train that ran me over, I dragged myself out to teach. What a weird class. She's a new student who wanted me to go over her application for a job. We met at a Starbucks that had Wifi, but she didn't have a service provider, so she couldn't access it. Most of the lesson was spent trying to find an internet connection. This afternoon, I dragged my sorry self back home and went to bed, waking up in time for supper. I think I'll just veg with housework this weekend.... and a few blogs. I'm way behind in everyone's blogs.

PS. The top photo is simply there because I thought it was pretty. I was looking for photos of Dingo and found that one. Not sure what Heidi and Specs were looking at... probably a hyperactive dog.

 

Technorati Tags: garoa,format,dingo,work

Random oddities

Did you know that the time period when you're just falling asleep is called the hypnogogic state and the time of awakening is called the hypnopompic state? See the article here.

One seed appears to be sprouting. I think it's a catnip. Expressing my lack of conviction, Jurgis suggested I haul the cat over it and do a 'cat scan' for confirmation.



My bus was dying two days ago. It stalled every time the bus slowed down. I was the last passenger and had at least half my journey to go still. The bus driver insisted on trying to get me all the way. I had my own private, albeit barely functional, limousine. So sweet. The bus drivers know me well.

Our dogs were barking earlier. We looked out to find a guy standing on the neighbour's roof. Hands on hips, cigarette in one, he turned to us and said, "The tenants really trashed this place."

Speaking of tenants. Our neighbours on the same property moved out not too long after we moved in. Then the neighbours to our right moved out. The neighbours to our left are either doing a drastic spring clean or they're moving out too. Think we should change our deodorant? We had the same thing in our previous home where many of the houses around us ended up empty for a long time. I'm not complaining. It's infinitely quite. And speaking of empty houses. With so many empty houses, why is it always so hard to find a house to move into?

When I was walking in town this week, I saw an old Japanese man selling strands of origami cranes. His sign said, "Passaro Feriz." : )

I miss my origami queen. No one to make random birds for me at random places in town. Guess I should stick to roses.