Andean alarm clock

Without opening my eyes, I know it is cloudy this morning. The bedroom has not been engulfed with the usual brilliant sunrise. I roll over and burrow deeper into the blankets. There is not much enthusiasm in greeting a cloudy day. I hear the neighbors rooster - he doesn't sound thrilled either. The pack of wandering dogs are having their morning gathering in the pasture behind our house. Even their greetings are unusually subdued.

I am on the fuzzy edge of falling back to sleep when I hear a trumpeting bellow of discontent. Oh.... not again, grumble, grumble. Roll over. Burrow deeper and cover ears with blankets.

MMMMMmmmaaaaaaaaaahhhh.

Again, again and again. The cow in the neighbors' pasture is not enjoying her early morning location. She is loudly complaining to the maitre d' about where she has been placed for her first breakfast. Even without looking out the window I know exactly where she is. She is on the rocky upslope from the short-cut path. Not sure why she always gets left there. It's a steep slope with rocks and not much grass. Although, it would make sense if she was a goat. Based on her tone, I have no doubt that her rope is tangled around the rocks and shrubs and she can't reach anything. I shuffle my way to the bathroom and open the window. Bingo  -- that's exactly where she is.

There is no use trying to get back to sleep - her insistent tone makes it impossible. And the cold bathroom tiles have given me enough of a shock to go in search of my fuzzy slippers and head downstairs to go make coffee.


A couple of hours later, all is quiet in the back pasture. The complaints have been addressed and the cow is now nicely settled in the lower field, happily munching her way through her second breakfast

-----------------------------------------------------------------.s,t & d.

Hockey playoffs and commercials

Hockey. 

It is the vital elixir for the well-being of (almost) every Canadian. And it is all the more sweeter when it's The Playoffs. There is no other heart-thumping experience quite like being in the home team arena with a capacity crowd. Although my team is no longer in contention, I feel it is important to support the remaining Canadian players.

Ecuador is not known for its love of hockey, although I have heard there is a league in Quito that is gaining popularity. The local networks carry every sporting event, as long as it's futbol / soccer. We have heard they also love basketball, baseball, ecua-volley, formula one, archery, tennis, golf, swimming, badminton, ping-pong, polo - but not hockey. Not yet.

So we decided to break the bank and signed up to watch the playoffs. What you need to know is that we haven't watched TV since Jan 2014. Oh wait, we did have the program 'Musica de la Feliz Navidad' on during Christmas. Aside from that - nada.

It is a strange watching hockey when I can look out my window and see the Andes Mountains. But it is exciting, even when the video and audio feed are out of sync. We hear the goal before we see the goal.

Then the first commercial came on. It was about a car (I think) and filmed in Vancouver. I found myself wanting to catch every detail, to look for any change that has happened to the city since we moved away. Am I going to notice anything in less than 30 seconds? Unlikely. The other commercials reminded us to turn down the volume and go make popcorn.

Here's to all of you that love hockey - no matter where in the world you are.

May the best team win.

Yo soy una llama y mi nombre es Jama.

After banging my head on the desk all day I was finally able to remember the password for this blog. No doubt, all of us have done something similar at some point in our life. How long has it been since last we spoke? Only three years you say? Jeeezers !!!!! what has been going on?? Much like my last explanation: LIFE and lots of it. I will fill in details as we go.

Recently (relatively speaking), D and I were presented with an opportunity to look at life a different way when I was down-sized from my corporate life. At the time it happened I was far from seeing the silver lining, in fact it was more of a putrid, dirty diaper colour. The mis-deed happened two days before we were to leave on a big ol' jet airplane, to what we anticipated would be a trip of a lifetime.

It was Dec 2012 and, according to those that misinterpreted the Mayan calendar, the world was going to end. To commemorate this auspicious event, we decided that the best place would be in the middle of the planet. Ok, not the actual middle, as in the core - that's way too hot and there's no antiperspirant strong enough for that. We were heading to the equator, to a small country called Ecuador.

                                  Yo soy una llama y mi nombre es Jama.

On the long plane ride from northern North America, I knew that I had to make a choice. I could continue holding on to my anger & resentment about no longer being needed or let it go.

Fortunately, while enjoying a stop-over in the Houston airport (read: in a beverage establishment), logic did kick in. I was not going to let 'that which will no longer be talked about' have any effect on the enjoyment of the trip. But wait a minute (another beverage), turns out, that is exactly what it did. D & I had been traveling, in search of a place to land when we retire. We knew it would be in the southern hemisphere, we just hadn't found 'the place'. Ecuador (with thanks to my mother-in-law) was next on the list of places to see. So.... instead of looking at this trip as an exploration for maybe relocating in 10 to 15 years, we said 'why not right now?'.  Why not --- indeed !!!!

After battling cancer, it was an easy decision for us to grab the reins of life and say giddy-up !!!
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Needless to say, we made it happen. This is start of our adventure in Ecuador. Stay tuned.