Evening on Rua Alemanha

Me my my sogra

This is at special time, when folks sit outside in their carports and on the curb enjoying the cool, as the houses cool down after the nice rain shower or two we had during the almost hellish temperature maximum of today. Almost hellish, as just when it got almost near siffling... spash... ahhhh...

I am sitting here in the “red” with my laptop, and we just turned on the Xmas lights… I am sitting here, listening to two really loud stereos, some evangelical music at a neighbor’s, the cars and motorbikes that drive by and blast propaganda, the church bells doing the misa thing, various dogs barking, kids talking, babies crying, the telenovela on the TV in the barzinho across the street. I watch all this, like it’s on a big screen HDTV, and wave at the neighbors that walk to and fro.

I am enjoying the moment after a walk along the Parque Linear which runs thru the city along the café latte colored Rio Camandocaia. It used to be a fowl smelling ditch of a river that occasionally overflowed during really big rainstorms, now it has a bike path and walking along with a number of workout stations, and a funny little fountain for kids to play in. There is a huge beach volei area and another equally impressive place for kids to do skateboarding. It is planted with nice plants and it really dressed things up nicely.

I have been taking a walk there for years, at times having to dodge truck exhaust, crazy motorbikes and a capivara or two. It is just plain luxurious now. And heavily used by a lot of people… it is a very nicely planned and designed project. Had I more battery, I might take a snap or two… The whole turma came over to sit in the dark and watch O Caldãro do Huck, and well it finally cooled down, and so I went o get a glass of water and they were in rapt attention, and well… off I went… I decided to head to the Supermercado Guarani to get a melitta coffee maker. Why old people the world over think they need these horrid plug in coffee makers is beyond my comprehension.

It was funny as Milton was telling his mother that I make the best coffee… and I have both Milton’s father Aristeu to thank, and my cousin Gary who showed me the proper way. Aristeu told me that coffee needs to be made fresh, and then put into a thermos, never reheated, never microwaved, he told me this as he was taking a cup out of the microwave. The house is a bit tense at times, and he used to get up very early to go get recycling stuff all over town, and made coffee. I think he enjoyed the quietness of the early morning when there were no car stereos, gas trucks,

There are rumbling s of chopes or even a boate tonight. Let’s hope we can get a sitter for the sogra, as last time we went out she put on such a scene that Milton had to take her to the emergency clinic as she was complaining about “falta de ar”, come to find out she felt better, so stopped taking the remedio… Spencer has my permission to leave me on an ice flow if I get this nutty… of course in this heat, an iceflow sounds pretty damn nice.

Just now a curious little churros truck just drove up and parked across the street… and Valdir is walking about organizing a pizza run… things are starting to hop around here, I gotta go...