Souvenir Photo Studio, by Al Bourassa: Thursday April 21, 2016 Paseo

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Thursday April 21, 2016

Very early Wednesday morning I was walking the dogs on our normal route when we could go no further because a 30 foot tree had tipped itself over across the pathway. I was quite impressed that the city had a crew there with chainsaws before noon, and they had carved a nice bench, and some tree cross-sections for possible tabletops in the process.

Then my buddy Oswaldo popped by and gave me the scoop on his home invasion. Apparently he had entered his yard, closed the big gates, and had just entered his home when 3 men kicked in his door before he could close and lock it. They had pulled out a decorative section of his security wall to gain entry to the yard. They were on him so quickly, beating him senseless, stripping, blindfolding, tying and gagging him that he couldn't even properly describe his attackers, other than that he thought that they were Peruvians from their accents. They cleaned out his place of valuables, guns, leather jackets, a plasma TV, etc., and caused a lot of damage looking for cash. One of the fellows asked if he could just kill Oswaldo, but the leader said he was harmless and spared his life. They stole his small car but, because they did not know how to disarm the alarm, the car shut itself off and they abandoned it only 3 blocks away.
It took Oswaldo 3 hours to untie himself and then the police did not even come out to investigate!
Oswaldo is leaving soon for Canada, and is frightened to return to his home. He is staying with a sister in the west end, and his lovely acreage will now soon be for sale. His vehicles are for sale now.

Oswaldo said that he was feeling sorry for himself until the earthquake made him realize how trivial his troubles are in relation to those poor folks on the coast who are killed, maimed, homeless, starving, etc. We are certainly more fortunate to be here in Cuenca.

I have been taking the dogs to the park near the small creek and unleashing them so they can frolic a bit. Then I got lazy and just let go of the leashes. Then Mariposa figured that she could get the advantage over Turi by grabbing the leash to control her! Then Turi caught on and did the same thing to Mariposa.... Crazy smart mutts...

Today I called the fellow at SRI to see if the online filing has been fixed. He claims that yes, it is ready to try... So maybe next week I will give it a whirl.

I also heard from my new Canadian accountant that my tax papers were finished and ready to sign. After a couple of corrections, it appears that I will finally be getting a refund after many years of paying the piper...

Cristina has started her trek back to Cuenca from Tulua, Colombia at 5pm. I expect her back here around 2am on Saturday. I would go crazy on a bus for that long but she does not seem to mind it because it saves us a lot of money.

Tonight I jumped on Toxic, had a yummy meat lovers' personal pizza at House Of Pizza, then went to the Puente Roto (Broken Bridge) to meet the Herederos de Cuenca biker gang.

A small car pulled in, filled with so many balloons that I could barely see the driver! Then 2 other people also climbed out!

We had six bikers present by 8:15 but one left early for some reason. So 5 of us headed down Remigio Crespo to Unidad Nacional, back on Gran Colombia then 3 de Noviembre to downtown and Parque Calderon. The Old Cathedral is lit up with yellow, blue and red lights to represent the Ecuador flag colours, so we took a few pics and returned. Jeepers, we waited longer at the bridge than the actual ride....!! Hopefully it will be more exciting next week....

I hope you enjoy the photos. That was the day's excitement, Cheers, Al