A few years ago I wrote an entry in the blog, how one person can change the world.  It is in the One Sided Conversations with the Damn Cat section, titled, Never under-estimate what your actions can do.  This is a story where the Tunisian fruit vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi, immolated himself touching off the Arab Spring, changing the face of several Muslim countries.  It still chills my back thinking about his actions.  It is the same with each of us, only on a much lessor scale.  We can say things to people which affects them and never realize it.

A very minor incident took place today that has me thinking.  I added it to the : One Sided Conversations with the Damn Cat.

Click here to read it.  Very short.

The Marine Security Guards at the Consulate had their 242nd birthday ball last night.  In the earlier years, Terese and I never care for going, but after she convinced me to go once, we have ever since.  I took only a few pictures this year.The Marine in the photo above is the “Gunny”, the head of the Marines at the Consulate.  Beside him is our US Ambassador to Brazil.  Beside him is an old Marine who was invited as a guest speaker.  Below are two pics of the flags.  The first one is when they were first brought out.  Once the National Anthem began playing, the Marine flag is lowered to give the Stars & Stripes the place of honor.Below is a an empty place setting for all the men and women who gave the  ultimate sacrifice for our country.I have several friends at the Consulate, and when I get a chance to have my picture taken with the better looking ones, I will not pass it up.  I am the one in the middle.

Heading to Texas this evening to spend Thanksgiving with my incredible, beautiful mother.  Until next time, kick butt and look for new adventures.  D.

This is a artsy place that covers several city blocks with quint stores.  On the weekends, there are perhaps a hundred vendors that set up to sell their wares.  I went there on a consulate sponsored trip last Sunday.  Below are some of the pictures I took. Some of the stores had incredible wood sculptures. I saw several things that I would love to have, but they were either more than I wanted to pay, or just knew I didn’t need them.

There were also several “statues” that sit/stand perfectly still until you approach them.  Only got a picture of one, because they usually want money to photograph them.  The one below is the “Mud Man”.  When someone comes up to look at him, he will reach out and put mud on them.Until next time, D.

The other day I had to open an office door with a broken lock.  It would not open, so it looked like I would have to take the door apart.  Then one of the other guys had the idea of removing the ceiling tiles of an adjoining room, and shoving someone over the wall who could then open the door.  Made sense.  So we removed the tiles and sure enough, it looked like it would work, provided that someone was small enough.  It was then, My Friend Chequeno came to mind.

I tracked him down and after the usual pleasantries, I told him we needed someone who was not very big to shove over a wall to open a door.  (remember, he is diminutive)

He looked at me, and said, Yes.

This told me he didn’t understand what I was asking.  So, I repeated the request.  Again, he repeated the answer, Yes.

So I said, My Friend, follow me.

I led him to the next building and up the stairs to the adjoining room.  I pointed to the removed ceiling tile and said, My Friend, we need to shove your butt over that wall to unlock the door on the other side.

He hesitantly smiled and said, Ok.

He climbed up a nearby ladder, and before he realized it, several of the other guys pushed his diminutive butt over the wall.  I heard a thud.  After about 5 seconds or so I heard him moving about, and shortly afterwards he opened the locked door.  He seemed to be a little dizzy, but smiling.

After he regained his senses, I thanked him profusely like I always do, and he went on his way.

I love that little guy.

The other day, I had to have a tire repaired on my truck, so I told him I would pay him $Br50 (about $16) if he would take the tire and get it fixed for me.  He came back and told me the charge was $Br180. (about $60)  Well, I became quite angry telling him that in the States it was much less.  I know it scared him.  After I collected my senses, I realized that was not bad for a truck tire.  In Brazil the gas stations do not repair tires; only places that sell tires do, which explained the high price.  So, I apologized to My Friend and told him the price was okay.

When he returned with the tire, he wouldn’t take any money.  I think it was because the fuss I made about the price.  So, I have to find some way to repay him without him realizing it.  He is such an innocent, gentle friend, and I hate to see him get cheated.

This week I had two good men from other consulates help me.  One is a ballistic door expert (Hernan) from Montevideo, Uruguay, and the other was a local tech (Lucio) from Brasilia.  Both good guys.  The tech from Brasilia is new to the job so he was still learning everything.

I had him and Bulldog replace a camera for me.  Several mistakes were made, but I assured him I did the same mistakes over the years, and all is simply a learning experience.

I took a couple of pictures as I stood around watching them work.  See below.

Lucio working on the camera.  I realized a few years ago, to let the younger guys do this work now.This is Bulldog, but not a very good picture of him.  He was looking at me, but didn’t realize I was taking his picture because his glasses were on his head.  I will get a better picture of him when he can pose appropriately.

I love this guy, too.  Both he and Chequeno makes my job so much easier.  I love being around them and I need to find some way to thank them.

While I stood by watching these two work, I got to taking pictures of the incredible trees nearby.  They do not see winter as we know, as it is just Spring followed by Summer followed by Spring again. As you undoubtedly know, I have become a Master Beaner.  I am convinced I could make a good living from cooking beans, if it was not for the side effects. (think flatulence)

I now have decided to direct my culinary endeavors to pickles.  I love pickles and the grocery store down the block and around the corner only has two different pickles to choose from.  Very disappointing.  So I decided to become a Master Pickler, too.

I ordered several pickle mixes from Amazon.  When they arrived, I read the instructions and went down the block and around the corner to the grocery store to find things to pickle.  I purchased cucumbers, carrots, garlic, little red hot peppers, yellow bell peppers and those big green peppers that are used to make chili rellenos.   See below:The ingredients.The preparations.The finished produce.  I will let them sit in the refrigerator for a few weeks then test them.  I will let you know.

At the very least, this next adventure should produce no side effects.

Until next time, kick butt.   D.

This is inventory time at work, so I am trying to get the usual tasks completed while at the same time, having to figure out the inventory issues.

Since this is the US Government, they have to update/upgrade everything on an annual basis.  So, just as I got last year’s inventory process figure out, they change it to a new improved method, which requires learning the process all over again.  Very frustrating….  They do these improvements every year.

The Marine Ball will be a week from Saturday.  Nov. 18th.  It will be a bit strange without Terese, since we only went to these because she wanted to.  I will watch the people dance and jiggle to the music, then I will slip away.  The following day I will hop on a plane and head home for Thanksgiving and see my incredible 900 year-old mother.

I have befriended the little lady in the mail room.  When I get my mail several times a week, I visit with her a few minutes.  She confides in me when she is upset and I turn on my halo and convince her it is not as bad as she thinks.

The other day, she told me the Brazilians at the Consulate, specifically the Local Guard Force, has nicknamed me McGyver.  (spelling may be incorrect)  He is a TV character that has some sort of knack to get things done.

She told me the guards say I can open a door with a paperclip.  I don’t know where they get such nonsense, but I decided to have some fun with it.  Now, every time I work on something in their presence, be it an x-ray machine, door controls, video monitor, camera, etc., I will ask one of them for a paperclip.  Then when I get through, I will hand it back.  Sometimes, I will bend it out of shape first.

Sunday, I will go on a Consulate sponsored shopping trip.  It was planned last week, but cancelled because of the weather.  I will take some pictures and show you what the place looks like.

A couple of months ago, I hired a young woman to come in and clean my apartment once a week.  Her name is Camila.  She is probably in her mid-twenties and I am told her husband recently lost his job, so I give her a few extra Reals. (pronounced “hey-eyes”)

For some reason, she tends not to understand what I tell her.  Perhaps she just doesn’t want to.  I originally told her not to do any laundry.  Sounds simple, but she does it anyway, so I decided, Okay, let her do it.  But then I noticed she was putting the detergent into the bleach port, so as a result, my clothes tend to smell more like the detergent than what I want.  I specifically told her to use the extra rinse cycle to eliminate the smell, but she doesn’t.  I even put little green stickers on the washer settings so she will know which ones to use, which she doesn’t use. So last Wednesday when she came, I took her into the utility room and specifically pointed out the issues.  Maybe it will work okay.

I have two bath mats in my bathroom I have placed for when I step out of the shower, but every time, she places them in a different place, almost as if she is trying to tell me I had them wrong.  So, every week, I have to place them back where I want them.

I have several of the Amazon Echos in my apartment, and I think the one in the kitchen scared her when it started talking, because she always unplugs it.

But she does the things I don’t want to do, like cleaning the bathrooms, kitchen, floors and rugs and taking out the trash. (I never was a very good trash emptier – you can ask my mother) Camila changes the sheets and towels and washes them.  A bonus to this, it makes me do as much of my laundry as I can before she shows up, because if she washes any shirts, she will button every button after hanging them up.

I shouldn’t really complain, because I only pay her about $50 a week which includes her transportation.  I noticed she uses my coffee maker, so I always leave out a little bag of fresh coffee for her to use.  That is something Terese would have done (and much more).

I have been reading several of Bill O’Reilly’s books lately.  I read Killing Lincoln a few years ago, and finished reading Killing England last week.  Currently, I am reading Killing the Rising Sun.  These are extremely well written and the research by Martin Dugard is incredible.  Even the little footnotes are good.  These are books that are easy to read because they hold your attention.  I have several more waiting to be read.

Speaking of books, did I lend any of you my Les Miserable book?  It has been read by perhaps a dozen people.  Its pages are bent and dog-eared and it is dirty all over, because it was read by several men who ran the milling machines at the plant years ago.  The cover has been taped on, because the book got into the hands of a child of a friend who was reading it.  Needless to say, it is my favorite book, so I keep it in the china hutch.  But it is not there, and I don’t remember if I loaned it out.

… maybe Camila took it home to read, even though she doesn’t know English.

D.

Been an interesting week.  Friday the Marines had a wingfest and I did most of the cooking using Terese’s recipe.  It was a hit.  We ran out of wings so I went to the refrigerator in my shop and retrieved another 4 kilos.  All and all, we cooked 24 kilos of wings and still ran out.  That is 52 lbs.  Next time, we will start with 30 kilos, 66 lbs.  Below are the original 20 kilos before cooking.

Since I only had a few wings that evening, I decided to award myself with my own.  I have an air-fryer which is a contraption that fries food with hot air, without using a politician.  Takes about the same time, but with no oil.  They came out very well.

On the Sao Paulo compound, I have 57 cameras to take care for.  These are scattered all on the perimeter fence and some inside the buildings.  I had to go to each one and get the serial number off it for the upcoming inventory season, which meant dragging a 25 foot extension ladder around.  So, I got Bulldog to help, and with the golf cart I have access to, we puttered around the compound completing the task.  Every time, we placed the shaky ladder against a tall pole for me to climb, Bulldog would touch my shoulder and look into my eyes and say, No fear, Meester.  I need to get his picture sometime.

I was on the roof of one of the buildings the other day, and when my Friend Francisco found out Bulldog was helping me with the cameras, he climbed up on the roof to tell me that next time I need help, to come get him instead.  I just smiled.  Here is the first picture I took of him some time ago.

Here is an extremely interesting picture.  On my way to work, I happened across the little girl looking in a window.  The window and little girl were not there a few days before.  What you see is artwork by a sign painter on a green wall.  This shows a bit of the incredible artistic talent these people have.

Now, here is a picture of me and my friend Ricardo when we went to a local Irish pub that we go occasionally.  Ricardo is the one smiling.

After drinking slowly throughout the afternoon, I wanted some chips and queso to squelch the alcohol, but when I ordered it, they were baffled.  I was taken back by this, because Brazilians love cheese.  So, I explained how it has melted cheese.  They asked me, what kind of cheese.  I said, I don’t know. Cheddar I guess.  The bartender had a baffled look, but said okay.  So, a few minutes later he brought me a bowl of melted cheddar cheese.  I forgot to tell them that queso also has chili in it.

Here is something I thought about the other day.  When I first encountered Marines in my work in Moscow, I was at awe.  I called them sir, as they did me.  I looked upon them as the heroes they are, and held them in admiration.  Over the years, I began to view them as just good men that I fully appreciate.  Eventually, as I encountered them on a personal level, I spoke with them about their desires and goals, and even their fears, and I began to see them as incredible individuals that I enjoy being around.  Many are ornery, and a few don’t really seem too bright at times.

Now it’s to the point that I see them as my kids.  I don’t hesitate to chew their butts out then the use a fly lock to hold a FEBR door open.  And they know they can ask me to man Post One (main control center) when they need to run to the bathroom.  When they call me to report a problem, I just answer the phone with, What did you break?  The other day as I was leaving the Consulate, several of them were heading home and before I knew it, a bit of my dad came out, and I told them, No damn-fool shenanigans!

So, I have come a long way with them.  During the wingfest the other day, I told Gunny (the head Marine), that I need to get a picture of his Marines with me for my 900-year-old mother.  It will happen soon.

Oh yeah.  One more thing before I tell you to kick butt.

This week, former President Obama is in Sao Paulo for a personal visit.  I am guessing it is to make a expensive speech.  Luckily, I don’t do much with presidential visits, but I am at awe at the expenses that takes place.  I would estimate upwards of a half-million dollars, just so he can fly here and probably make a speech which pays him that amount.  It is one of the perks of being a former president.

Okay.  Until next time, kick butt.  D.