The weather

Well, I have always kind of joked of this place being the Texas of South America but it is really beginning to feel that way, at least at this time of year.  Yesterday was the first day of Spring or Primavera here.  We were expecting warmer weather and yesterday was a very nice day.  Today it is drizzling and the weather is in the 50s, not the 70s like predicted.  I stepped outside to test the weather and came back inside and decided I needed to be wearing a jacket today instead of a short sleeve shirt.  I remember a saying in Texas, "if you don't like the weather, stick around awhile, it will change".  Looks like that saying works down here, also; only in reverse.  
Short blog but I thought I would share.  I really need to start carrying around a notebook to write down my thoughts as they happen so I can have more things to write about when I do one of these blogs.

Now you know why

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kv0CgiMIBV4

The video explains almost all of why I am here.

Basilica in Paysandu

These are photos I took of the Basilica here in Paysandu.  This Basilica is about 150 years old.  If you have a chance I also took photos of the Basilica in St. Louis, Missouri.  Comparing the both you can see a great deal of similarities in design.  There aren't any mosaics like in the one in St. Louis.  The pictures on the ceilings are all hand painted.  It is a great looking church.  It is quite a bit different than the ones you can see in Europe.  There isn't any inlaid gold, like I expected to see.  They use gold here for other purposes other than to decorate their churches.

Anyway, I wanted to share.

Paysandu

Other than some new cuts and bruises, it has been a fairly uneventful week here in Paysandu, Uruguay.  With some exceptions like me breaking a plate glass window and cutting my thumb with a vegetable slicer that I bought at K-Mart when I was in St. Louis, MO. 
We bought a new dining room set when we first moved into our new apartment.  It is not the sturdiest, well made set; although I have to say the table seems to be fairly sturdy, the chairs are mierda.  Two have already been broken.  Mine was the first on then Sebastian's was next.  It must be how males of the species sit down.  Anyway, he and I sit at lawn chairs at the table using the seat pads to let us sit a little higher.  The "funny" thing of it was I had just gone to a hardware store and bought brass "L" brackets to help make the chairs better. I guess they weren't made to be modified.
So there I am sitting in my lawn chair when I lean down to my right to pick something from the floor and the lawn chair slips on the floor and I go crashing down.  I hit my left shoulder on the corner of the table and tap the plate glass window with my right hand.  Down I go and I hear the loud tinkling of broken glass.  Thankfully I didn't get any cuts from that and it mostly cracked the glass to the top of the frame.  It is going to cost about $200 to replace that.  
Tuesday, Fabiana was slicing potatoes with the food slicer and not using the other part so I was going to be the teacher and show her how to use it correctly.  I didn't realize that the slicer part of it was like a razor blade and sliced the tip of my thumb.  I bled like it didn't want to stop.  Here's a little hint from Heloise secret.  If you have a bad cut, put sugar on it and it will help stop the blood flow.  Anyway after a few bandaids and some paper tape it was wrapped up.  The next day when I was drying off from a shower, I lifted my left foot and hit my thumb, blood again.  Three days later it is doing okay, due to an incredible healing process that God has given my body.  It is a little sore but I can type with it and no pain.
The weather here has been stifling for the past few days, thankfully with a lot of wind.  I am sitting in the dining room right now with the door open and sweating like a pig; of course we all know that pigs don't sweat.  Houses and apartments were not built with weather conditions in mind.  Cold in the winter and hot in the summer.  We are going to buy a couple of fans and get some peaceful sleep at night, at least.  Think I'm going to take a couple of showers today just to get cleaned up and cooled off.  
We are expecting a break in the heat.  It is supposed to be in the mid to high 60s here for the next couple of weeks but the trade off is that it is supposed to start raining tomorrow; which is not a bad thing it cleans the streets and cleans up the atmosphere.  The other side of that coin is we will be under an orange alert that might turn to red because the entire country will be under a tornado warning.  I heard a "air raid" type alarm sound off this morning but no one seemed to pay any attention to it.  I don't know if it was a regular test or if something was actually happening.  There were a lot of cars sounding horns and things.  I cannot even begin to imagine what it would be like here if a tornado hit.  Building here are made of brick with what I consider, by US standards, to not be very well made.  There is hardly and metal supports for the brick, of course on a block every house or building is up against one another.
Anyway, this is the latest and greatest news from my life in the south.

Serenity Prayer

Through observations here in Paysandu, I believe that people here live the Serenity Prayer only they are not really aware of the prayer, their lives seem to follow it's path more closely than anywhere else I have ever lived.
Pardon me if you may be offended by it's content but I want to take the liberty to share that prayer with you so you can more closely understand what life is like here in Paysandu.  I cannot speak to the entire country because I believe living in Montevideo may be a little different.

The Serenity Prayer

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will; That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him Forever in the next. Amen. --Reinhold Niebuhr This personifies life in Paysandu.

Retirement

Retirement

Standing in the kitchen, peeling potatoes, I had a revelation.  I was thinking about people I know that are or were once retired.  I was wondering about Glenn Dyess, since I haven't heard from him in a while.  He and Lynda bought an RV and, the last I heard, are travelling around the United States, enjoying retirement.  My father retired and live quite awhile afterwards, about 15 years.  Sometimes I think he would still be alive if a nasty infection hadn't gotten the best of him.  There are some people that retire and become professional, on their own time, fisherman.  

We spend most of our lives before retirement in the fast mode looking forward to that day we can retire and get into the slow mode. The problem being some people don't know how to get into the slow mode.  They do okay for the first few months and then they get bored, they start thinking of things to do; they don't really know how to slow down.  They begin thinking about going back to work; the one thing that they became tired of doing almost all their lives.  They finish up the list of things that was on the "to do list" quicker than they really wanted to and they run out of things to do around the house.  Most of them don't have a "bucket list".  These are all the things they were prevented from doing because they didn't have the time because they were at "the job".  Slowing down is something that needs to learned, just like a profession.  Once a profession was acquired, we learned how to be, either, the best there is at that profession or how to get by at that profession; regardless it is the reason we wake up early in the morning to prepare for a day of work. It is the reason we look forward to the weekend, to rest up.  Instead of using the weekend to rest up, people usually play harder than they work during the other five days of the week.  The weekend is actually a practice period that should be used to prepare for retirement; unfortunately, it is not what we are taught to do.  People have had it "drilled into them" that the weekend is not for resting but for doing all the things that they couldn't do during the week.

I was just as guilty as everyone else, mostly through ignorance. I didn't realize that Saturday and Sunday were my practice days.  I began a thought process for retirement long before I actually retired.  I began practicing retirement.  I stayed home and only went places when I was invited or when I needed to go to the store for food.  I didn't completely slow down because there were those times when I needed to do something because I wasn't keen on being bored.

I just woke up from an afternoon nap to continue writing.  This is what I am talking about.  Take a nap in the middle of the day, they are good for you.  Your body knows what is good for you, listen to it.  We spend the majority of our lives torturing our bodies and when we get older we wonder why we feel pain in certain parts of our bodies.  I can't lift some weights at the gym because I played too much softball when I was younger. My knees sometimes don't want to lift the weight of my body when I bend down to pick up something from the floor, too much running when I was younger.  When you get older you will find out these mysteries on your own.

When you retire, stay retired and use it for what it is meant for.  It is the last chance you are going to get. Don't be in such a hurry to get things done once you separate yourself from employment.  You are not going to die any younger than was already planned for you, you might actually add a couple of years by finally giving your mind and body the rest it really needs.  Being retired makes you a member of a special group of people.  It is like telling someone that you were with the First Recon in the military.  You can be proud to be a part of an exclusive group.  When they ask you what you do for a living, hold you head high and look into their eyes and say, "I'm retired"; they will be jealous.

Changes

I am beginning to see changes here.  They are subtle, but for someone who has lived through these same changes in the United States, I guess I am more aware of things that are developing here.  I remember when I first came here and an airplane flew over the city or the river people would stop and stare.  The flights were rare and we would maybe see an airplane every 4 or 5 months.  I have noticed that the frequency of small aircraft flying overhead has increased, not dramatically, but I have seen a change.  We have an airplane flying overhead at least 4 or 5 times per month.  They are privately owned planes like Cesnas.  I have also noticed an increased frequency of commercial aircraft flying in the Stratosphere.  I remember when I was a child we would rarely see planes flying overhead.  As the city grew so did the frequency of planes.  I have not noticed an increase in population because this is a city of only about 70,000 people but it is becoming more aware.  There are people living here that want to see changes here.  The old guard are content to sit at a bench next to the river and watch traffic but the younger people are desirous of seeing progress.  We will just have to wait and watch.