Sunday Continued

The trip home

Goin' places that I've never been.
Seein' things that I may never see again
-Willie Nelson

During this trip, my WIFI card died. While I had building access to the Technology Center, it was a simple matter to plug in an ethernet cable and blog to my heart’s content. However WIFI has become so cheap and prevalent, that it is virtually impossible to get an internet connection by any other means in hotels and airports.

So I have pent up blogging energy, and you are getting several posts together.

First, a couple pictures of friends. Here Zorida is saying goodbye to Dianne and I.


We are having a drink at the restaurant where she used to waitress – she now works as a cook at the restaurant across the street. Conversations are slow, as she speaks no English and we speak no Spanish, but between Dianne’s Spanish-English dictionary, and my electronic translator, and of course a pen and paper, we have deep discussions about life and culture.

We also have races to see who can translate faster. Dianne’s book requires less configuration changes, my translator can also say the word when my handwriting is not legible (most of the time).

We were not able to visit her home this trip, and she was disappointed because she has made some improvements while we were away. She made us promise to stay with her on our next visit. We will communicate by “snail mail” as she has no computer, or email.


Here is Napoleon (Napo for short), who has mixed feelings about us leaving. He can finally get his porch back without the funny speaking people on it, however they were pretty good at scratching that spot dogs have trouble reaching.

It’s a tough doggie call.


Finally, on the bus trip, Dianne decided to photograph the countryside. Her guardian angel with the twisted sense of humour intervened (ask her about it), however.

Every subject she wanted to capture was either spotted a bit too late, or the bus hit a bump, or once even a truck passed the window exactly as she pressed the shutter release.

End result? 37 completely useless photographs. I don’t think we ever laughed so hard.

Here’s one of the better ones…



I don't know either.