Nov. to Nov.: Nica-steam to nasty-slush...

Exactly a year ago yesterday,
my wife and I said good-bye to friends at the airport in Managua.

Tres amigos had come to visit us in Nicaragua, and after a week-and-a-half of inside jokes and sweaty afternoons, they returned to Gringolandia... How strange it was that day to bid them farewell at the airport; they were going and we were staying?! (By that point we had been in Nicaragua for a little over five months, and the reality of living there hadn't fully sunk in yet.)

During their visit we had rented a car all together, but when they flew back al norte, we returned to our carless ways, taking a recycled yellow school-bus back to León...
Bus-drivers throughout Central America are known for their, uh, 'fearless' driving...
However, the diesel-scented machismo is tempered by a virtuous/cutesy side, attested to by the interior decor: Note the sticker of Tweety-bird ("Piolín" en español) decked out in hip-hop attire, accompanied by backwards-baseball-capped Bugs Bunny, and of course, on the right--blurry but still identifiable--la Virgencita...
Yeah, I bet you didn't realize that la madre de dios and Looney-tunes characters could harmoniously share wall-space, eh?


One place we took our friends during their stay was the Masaya Volcanic National Park, a tremendous smoking crater that occasionally burps up bolders that smash tourists' cars in the parking lot. Fortunately, the day we hiked around the crater was incident-free...And incidentally, (remember that I've recently become a bird-nerd), a colony of parakeets has adapted to the sulfurous atmosphere and lives in the crater's interior cliff walls...

And now, from one volcano to another, one year later: Yes, I know that I'm slightly obsessed with taking photos of Mt. Rainier from our balcony...but hey, remember Monet, the (overly-)celebrated Impressionist painter? Well, he was 'obsessed' with multiple images of the same thing, creating dozens of paintings of the façade of the Rouen cathedral, fascinated by the changing light conditions...and they're considered masterpieces...So, seriously, all self-justification aside, the scene of snow-covered roofs and the cloudy 'hat' on the mountain is definitely wintry, no?

What a difference a year (and a few degrees of latitude) makes!

The above photo was from yesterday morning--after a snow/ice storm that is unusual for Seattle in November.
(And it's official now: November 2006 has been the wettest month on record here--normally Seattle gets around 5 inches of rain in Nov.; this year there's been almost 16"--almost half the yearly total!)

Just a few white inches, but enough to shut down roads and schools in this hilly place...

We were happiily stuck in our apartment all day--vehicles couldn't get in or out of the hilly complex...on the road, there were vehicles abandoned from the night before...

The temperature stayed below freezing all day, although the sun did come out...

...and when it did, in the afternoon, we had a little visitor on the balcony: I had never before seen a hummingbird that wasn't, well, humming.
This was the first time we'd ever seen one perched...sitting...still.
(A humming snowbird? Or, rather, a non-humming bird, sitting and sunning himself...a sunning cold bird)
And because he was so still, my wife got worried and thought that maybe he was sick and had come to our balcony to die.

Well, he must have found a warm place to sleep, because we saw him again this morning, buzzing around in a most live fashion...He couldn't eat on our balcony, though, because a while back a crow stole our little nectar-feeder...

Now, after one bird-photo, another: Tango, our Senegal parrot, is doing well, getting tamer and tamer by the day, loving to do acrobatics on my hand. He's even 'squeaking on command' now--I've conditioned him to go 'kweek-kweek' when I squeeze his sides... And one last bird-photo, of Paquito-the-parrotlet, who's become my wife's shoulder-guardian. But he also has a little rubber-ducky nemesis:

As I wrap up tonight's 'column,' it's 'slushing' outside--a mix of sleet, snow, and rain is falling--finally thawing the freeze that began Monday...It's going to be in the balmy 40's tomorrow...

So tomorrow's view from the balcony toward the west, looking at the SeaTac airport control tower, won't look like this anymore...

If any of you ever come visit,
as you can see, it won't take us long
to come pick you up at the airport...

...if we still live here...

...as view-obsessed as I am,
apartments are,
alas,
never permanent...

...like snow, which,
alas,
must melt away...

Too many 'alases' tonight...too trite...
telling me it's time to sign off.

Looking up?

Remember when you were a little kid, how fun it was to look up into a snowy sky--how you felt like you were traveling into space at 'warp-speed' while the white flakes ('stars') flew past you?
Too bad it's not fun to do that when it's raining...

(This November has been the rainiest month on record here--over 15 inches of rain. Despite its precipitous reputation, Seattle actually only averages about 5 inches of rain in a 'normal' November...)

So, if you'd been a sky-gawking turkey up here recently, you'd have died.
At least, that's what I've heard. Perhaps it's an urban-farm-myth--that turkeys are so dumb that they can drown in a mere shower because they don't know that they should stop looking up at the rain...
One of my wife's coworkers said that when raising poultry on a small farm, it's better to raise turkeys and chickens together, since the little birds help out their bigger, duller, cousins...
Who knew? (Incidetnally, I LOVE the clay-mation film "Chicken Run"...)

All those turkeys...the tens of millions of turkeys that graced American's tables these past couple of days...Here's an agro-factoid for you:
to breed turkeys that have the desired quantity of 'white meat,' the farming industry has now ended up with birds that have been genetically 'modified' to have such heavy breasts that they can't even stand upright anymore. There's some gravy for your plate, eh? (I'm not a militant vegan or anything, just so you know...)

And, ah yes, the yearly joy of 'black Friday' as people gleefully begin the Holiday-shopping-season. (It's all about consumption--cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, and Best-buy...)
Reports from around the country show fights breaking out and police having to intervene.
Ah yes, the 'holiday spirit.'
Here in Seattle, there's a sort of passive-aggressive 'civility' that manifests itself especially this time of year in parking lots, at four-way stops, and in grocery-store aisles.
For example, you're shopping for produce. Watch the gore-tex-vest-clad lady over there, as her path to the parsley is blocked by another shopper's cart. Instead of calling out 'excuse me' or simply pushing past, Ms. gore-tex just stands there, face all a-crinkled with indignation, waiting for the 'violator' to finish squeezing the flavorless tomatoes and to get out of the way. A minute passes and the indignation climbs, but still, oh no, we're not going to be 'rude,' we'll just wait. Finally tomato-squeezer finishes and moves on, and Gore-tex-zilla, whose face is now red with eyes rolled way up, huffs past the still-unwitting 'violator' who ambles to the free-coffee-sample table...

Speak up people, just speak up--a little 'excuse me' won't kill the joy...And oh, when you get to a four-way stop and you have the right-of-way--just GO! This 'no, YOU go--no, really, YOU GO'-business just holds up traffic. It's not polite. It's stupid.

I wish I had come up with this phrase, but I didn't--'scando-japanese reserve.' Perhaps that's what keeps people from calling out 'excuse me' up here...False, cool, civility does not civilization make.

And now, a lengthy music-nerd joke, which was forwarded to me:
A C, an E-flat, and a G go into a bar. The bartender says, "Sorry, we don't serve minors." So the E-flat leaves, and the C and the G have an open fifth between them.
After a few drinks, the fifth is diminished, and the G is out flat. An F comes in and tries to augment the situation, but is not sharp enough; A D comes into the bar and heads straight for the bathroom saying, "Excuse me, I'll just be a second."
Then an A comes into the bar, but the bartender is convinced that this relative of C is a minor. Then the bartender notices a B-flat hiding at the end of the bar and exclaims, "Get out now! You're the seventh minor I've found in this bar tonight!"
The E-flat, not easily deflated, comes back to the bar the next night in a 3-piece suit with nicely shined shoes. The bartender (who used to have a nice corporate job until his company downsized), says, "You're looking sharp tonight; come on in--this could be a major development!"
This proves to be the case, as the E-flat takes off the suit, and everything else, and stands there au natural.
Eventually, the C sobers up, and realizes in horror that he's under a rest. The C is brought to trial, found guilty of contributing to the diminution of a minor, and is sentenced to 10 years of DS without Coda at an upscale correctional facility.
On appeal, however, the C is found innocent of any wrongdoing, even accidental, and that all accusations to the contrary are bass-less. The bartender decides, however, that since he's only had tenor so patrons, and the soprano out in the bathroom, everything has become alto much treble; he needs a rest, and closes the bar.

Ba-dum-chhhhh...

Red and black make...pink?

A blog with "Nicaragua" in the title can't not mention the recent election down there...
So here are my dos centavos...

Most of you have surely heard at least a little bit in the news about how Daniel Ortega, the Sandinista politician who was leader of Nicaragua back in the '80's, has just been elected president again, almost twenty years later...
"Tio" Sam is not too pleased...

The majority of Nicaraguans who are now of voting age are too young to remember the Sandinista-revolution of the late 70's and early 80's, and then the civil war that raged through a good part of the 80's...(and it's surprising how many Americans don't know what 'Iran-Contra' means--the illegal underground arms-deals of twenty years ago in which the U.S. illegally sold weapons to Iran (!) in order to arm the Contra rebels fighting the Sandinista government.)

Nicaraguans have been desperate for change for decades. The Somoza dictatorship (which ruled for much of the 20th century) didn't help the poor...The Sandinista's experiment in socialism didn't offer lasting help...and the supposedly more open democratic-capitalistic governments of the last couple of decades haven't helped...Most Nicaraguans today live on less than 2$ a day. It is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, after Haiti.

The fact that Ortega could be re-elected after almost two decades out of power, after a bloody civil war and an international blockade that crippled the country--this is all sad testimony to the desperation of ordinary Nicaraguans, who just want something to get done! (It's a pathetic echo of the recent elections in another Latin American country--Peru--in which a former president, also from nearly two decades ago, was elected, despite the fact that his previous administration ended up dragging the country into economic chaos...people are desperately choosing known-but-hopefully-lesser-evils in their elections...and this is the 'best' hope of human government?!)

Now, to get to the reason for the 'colorful' title of this blog:
During the revolutionary years, red and black were the colors of the Sandinista party...
Those years ended up being bloody years. There were promising social improvements at first--within a few years the illiteracy rate in Nicaragua plummeted from almost half of the population to around 10%.! (Alas, it has since climbed upward....) Medical care was free! ...Dignified housing was provided for the poor!..
...and then, at least according to the 'official' story, 'foreign imperialistic intervention', a.k.a. the Reagan administration in Gringolandia, got in the way...tens of thousands of Nicarguans died in the bloody war, blockades made the economy collapse, and it's only recently that most land-mines have been removed from the northern parts of the country.

Red and black became associated with the years of bloodshed and hardship...
So, in more recent years, Ortega decided to have a color make-over:
instead of red and black, PINK would be the new official Sandinista color--soften the image, woo the young...this street-scene from León shows one of the campaign signs.

However, the sign (which says 'love is stronger than hate') is NOT from this year's campaign...it's from years ago, the last time Ortega ran for president...and lost. He was voted out of office originally in 1990, and ever since has endeavored to re-take the 'throne', losing every time...I guess persistence paid off...

Last year, with his party in control of the Nicaraguan legislature, constitutional amendments were put through to make it possible for someone to become president of the country with only 35% of the vote! Incredible, no? ( And people in this country are still in a tizzy over the fact that the current president became president with just under 50 percent...) Since Nicaragua has many parties, in the presidential election there were several candidates...Normally, the top two vote-getters would end up in a run-off...Well, the constitutional amendment made it possible for the top candidate to automatically 'win' without having to go through the run-off procedure if he got at least 35% AND was at least 5% ahead of the nearest opponent...

And that's what happened.
The weeks and months ahead should be interesting, to say the least.

Many Nicaraguans are afraid the U.S. will again try to interfere, perhaps blockading the country economically...The fact that Ortega is a buen amigo of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez doesn't help...

Surprisingly, though--despite the years of foreign intervention in Nicaragua by the U.S., most people there are very friendly to American visitors and residents. (Thousands of Yankee ex-pats now live in the old city of Granada--buying up the old colonial real estate and pricing out the locals, and in the surfing-paradise of San-Juan-del-Sur...)

The revolutionary murals in the city of León are fascinating relic of the past but in no way depict any persistent menace towards Gringo-turistas. For example, the painting surrounding the doorway below:



You can see revolutionary figures triumphantly 'stomping' dictatorship on the left (in the figure of a dog-like Somoza) and imperialist Uncle Sam on the right (depicted as a puppy--perhaps Somoza's lap-dog). The 80's were wild times in Nicaragua...
One can only hope, for the sake of common Nicas, that the first decade of the 21st century will continue to be 'mild' in commparison...

Do societies ever learn from the past?
Or does a change in color-scheme just 'paint things over?'


To conclude, a complete and banal change of subject:
at the end of the last entry, I'd tried to upload a photo from last week's stretch of cold clear weather--the view from our "Sunset view" balcony of a foggy morning...here it is:

(who knew that Renton could seem so scenic? Amazing what a bit of fog can do...)

What's in a real estate name?

...already mid-week in mid-autumn...
I've been meaning to write this since Sunday;
every weekend I enjoy testing my absurd-o-meter
by perusing the real estate section in the newspaper.

The names of new condo-complexes and subdivisions are so often scratch-your-head-worthy. The classic example is perhaps the use of 'estate' in any name--apartments and tract-housing are hardly 'estates,' eh?

Some names are merely slightly annoying.
"Brix" for example...I guess "Bricks" was too mundane, and "Brickes" would be too much in the vein of 'ye-olde' corniness...At least the building in question actually has an 'old-world' facade of red baked blocks of clay...

Urban overpriced buildings need to use creative spelling to stand out from its neighbors...
...such as "Bolero"...I guess that building can just dance away from its more mundane peers...

"Verge" caught my eye. On the verge of what? trendiness? the burst of the real-estate bubble? Or maybe you will have one of those "almost!-views" touted in ads--lean out far beyond the railing of your postage-stamp balconette and you'll get a hint of the sun setting behind the other building behind the cranes...on the verge of a view...

I saw a townhome complex a while back--"Lendemain." Ahh...the use of French to 'upgrade' a locale..."Lendemain" simply means "the next day." I wonder if in the suburbs of Paris there is a "Tomorrow" being built...
And while we're speaking French, why not mention "Châteaus." That's right--'chateau' with an 's' on the end. Ack! If you're gonna try something in French, at least know that you have to have an 'x' on the end! "Châteaux," since 'castles' so often come in cookie-cutter complexes...no?

Or maybe you want to look into a complex with a Spanish name. "Mira." I wonder if somewhere in the outskirts of Madrid a neighborhood named "Lookie-here" is advertising itself in the glossy section of the weekend paper?

But the icing on the cake for me this weekend was:
"Cambria Hills."
Not a bad name in itself...picturesque...conjuring up a rolling British pastoral scene...
"Cambria"--the ancient Roman name for what is now Wales.
But..."Cambria Hills" touts its three "French"(?!)-themed-areas: Provence, Rhone, and Loire.
Who came up with these 'themes?' Is there any concept of geography?
Why the Welsh-named sub-division with French-named sub-sub-divisions?!
Nothing in the architecture of these homes even remotely alludes to anything Celtic or Gallic...
(The color schemes available in these homes are "lumière, vintage or crème." Ahem.)
I wonder if there are even hills there...

Ahh...ostentation + misinformation = an equation for modern real-estate monikers...
Surely many people must live in these new areas in spite of the names, rather than because of...

I must admit that I am not immune either; my wife and I live in "Sunset View."
(speaking of 'sunset'--now that daylight savings time is no longer around, nightfall at this latitude now takes place before 5 p.m! Ugh...By December 21, sunset up here will be at 4:15--disgustingly early for 'nighttime' to begin...)
There is no view of the sunset; the apartments all face south...
But at least there is a view...on a recent foggy morning, for example:
...except that right now the blog website is not allowing me to post photos...another time, then...