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Tuesday February 21, 2017
I
finally put together the videos of the Herederos scooter competition
on Feb 12/17. It is on YouTube at https://youtu.be/LB9YZrD9IQY.
I finally remembered how to change from portrait mode to landscape
mode. YouTube seems to be the only platform that can do this
easily.
Monday
I kept myself busy finding neat apps for the new phone. By far the
most incredible app is called Smart Tools, which includes all kinds
of neat things like light, ruler, c ompass, magnifier, mirror, metal
detector, converter, metronome, barcode scanner, cardiograph, dog
whistle, thermometer, night vision, calculator, polygraph,
translator, and much more.
Then,
I shut off the phone to nap and I couldn’t get it to fire up again,
even though it was fully charged. So I jumped on Buzzer and went to
El Centro where I purchased it. They removed the protective cover
and the back cover, took out the battery, replaced it, and pushed the
button without the cover, and it fired up..! I think the protective
cover adds another rubber layer to the buttons and that probably
hampered my efforts to press them. So I made the decision to just
leave the phone on, and just found more apps to save the battery and
to allow it to sleep undisturbed at night.
I
was taking the dogs out and noticed some movement on the ground.
Here was another baby bird on the ground, helpless, unable to fly.
Its feathers were not fully developed and it was probably a sibling
to the one Cristina was already nursing, so I called Cristina to
look. So now Mother Goose has 3 birds under her wing...
I
then finally got back to working on my few Pase Del Nino photos from
last year. I didn’t actually take them, my stepson Christian did,
because I was still laid up from the accident. I have them in my
line-up for sale, but it might be a year and a half before anyone
sees them. I have quite a backlog, and I am only uploading 1 per day
for sale at the moment.
Today
I had Gustavo come over and help me with 2 projects. First I needed
to extend the piping from the upper roof eavestroughs. Since we
glassed-in the terrace, the rain coming off that roof was directed
down a narrow channel between the terrace and our bedroom.
Occasionally, the heavy volume of rain comes against the bedroom wall
and seeps in along the metal beam, bubbling the paint on the inside
wall. So, extending the pipe to beyond this point would negate this
problem. Gustavo was an hour late so I had almost everything in
position by the time he got here. The 135o elbow that I
bought for the purpose was just perfect! I hated to cut
my screen but there was no other choice. Gustavo was a big help for
the final fusion(s) with silicone, and screws for good measure. The
extra pipe now comes about a foot from the main eavestrough so I fear
that we could get an overflow right at our main doorway below. So,
later, when I went downtown, I bought a “T” to deflect and halve
the downflow. Hopefully I can install that myself.
Next
was the relatively simple task of screwing together the two section
of the king bed base. It was just an awkward job, necessitating the
removal of the mattress which was was too heavy and awkward for me to
handle alone. My cordless drills are now useless so we had to use
the regular drill and were always changing from drill bit to
screwdriver for these two operations.
If you remember my post from Sunday, a Presidential candidate has to win over 40% of the vote to avoid a runoff vote in April. We watched the election results all night and the Government candidate, Lenin Moreno, flirted with that mark, but never did attain it. Our candidate, banker Guillermo Lasso. was a close second, so a runoff was assured. But then the Army said there were voting irregularities, then the Elections office said they would not announce the results until at least Wednesday, touching off huge protests against fraud all over the country.
I
was going to meet Gustavo later for a protest at the election office
but he begged off, so I went to a protest in El Centro instead. It
was esentially the same protest, mostly by the opposition parties,
against the obvious voting irregularities and the Government’s
shoddy attempts to cheat their way into saying that their candidate
got 40% of the vote to avoid a runoff election against our candidate. Most of the crowd were in
favor of Guillermo Lasso, the alternative, but I had to like some of
the signs that basically said, “We didn’t vote for Moreno or
Lasso, we just want real democracy, end the fraud”. Again I seemed
to be the only white face in the crowd, and I did walk the whole
length of the “parade”. I actually held a flag for about a
minute and a half...
You know that I have attended many different protests, primarily with the Coopera people and this is the first time that there weren't cordons of police and army to control the crowd, and it made no difference whatsoever. Thankfully no agitators or hotheads were around to cause any trouble.
I
hope you enjoy the photos.
That
was the day's excitement. Cheers, Al
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OK
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| Our extension begins in the middle of the photo with a 135o elbow |
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| And the pipe runs well past the bedroom window |
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| Water from all these little roofs go down a 10" path |
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| The king bed's base should be more solid now |
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| I met the protest coming up Bolivar |
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| The protest originated at San Blas park |
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| Opposition Assemby candidates march together |
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| They are leading cheers for the Lasso group |
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| People of all ages are marching against the attempted fraud |
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| Hundreds march |
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| It is all very orderly |
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| Virtually no police in evidence, very strange |
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| Working their way to the city center |
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| Long flags have a lovely effect |
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| Lots of megaphones leading chants |
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| Some friends are also protesting |
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| It is all well organized |
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| The big stop in front of the Governor's offices (and the press) |
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| Many more people join the protest here |
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| This is where they really want to yell |
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| This is all for show for the TV, radio and the press |
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| Protests like this are across the country |
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| Certainly lots of patriotic flag-waving |
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| The opposition candidates have a little platform |
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| People are united against the Government fraud attempt |
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| Many different groups are united |
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| The politicos get to incite the crowd |
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| Neighbors have a ring-side seat |
