The Golden Van: Idoso

Thursday, January 1, 2026

Idoso

I keep seeing these reserved parking signs around Brasilia. The handicapped ones are obvious because they show the classic wheelchair symbol with the word “deficient” next to it. Portuguese is often not a nuanced language. You aren’t “differently abled” here, you’re deficient. Okay then.

In the case below, “Idoso” (which means “elderly”) can qualify you for a different sticker for priority parking if you are at least 60 years old.

Before New Years I posted a photo Layne found of my perfect (idioso) elderly man’s New Years Eve…

My friend Doug in Key West used it too and I with my puerile sense of humor thought it was hilarious. Clearly I struck a nerve as I heard from some others who felt the same way but Doug lives in Key West and I miss the place from time to time and wished I could have walked past his house to say Happy New Year. Of course at midnight I’d have been taking 911 calls not being busy getting drunk on Duval Street but that’s not the point. I’m old and grumpy and relieved to not be alone in evading New Year’s Eve.

I had some chocolate cake left overs yesterday morning as I enjoyed the sounds of parakeets chirping and young Brazilians groaning as they wound their way home. Had Doug been here I’d have had to persuade him to shout “keep off my lawn” with me down at the exhausted revelers as he’s much more kind than me. Actually there’s no need because Brazilians are tremendously polite even when hung over…

Daniel asked me to take his portrait which surprised me but then as he tried to share his Instagram with me so I could send it he remembered he had fallen in the lake and his phone was dead, and his clothes were soaked.

That did not stop him grinning cheerfully through the fumes of revelry. Rusty survived a hot twenty minutes of fireworks without going catatonic so I guess after 11 years his trauma of being shot at in his youth when he was abandoned has worn off. I laid on the bed hugging him after the loud banging woke me from a deep sleep. Layne went on the patio to watch the show while Rusty huddled with me. As soon as the noise stopped he fell asleep where only a few years ago he would spend hours trembling in the darkest corner of the house.

That firework interlude did not stop him from waking me up at five am for the usual dawn patrol.

At that hour Brasilia is cool and pleasant, t-shirt weather certainly but not hot and humid as it might be later in the day. I suppose I should be grateful to Rusty for dragging me out of bed but gratitude is hard to find at five am.

We were not alone which is unusual at that hour but January First is a special day for youngsters.

After many walks around here I finally noticed the information board at the hotel next to our complex. I was told the place fell into disrepair in the 80s but was revived and brought back into service twenty years ago.

By now weird concrete structures are stamped “Oscar Niemeyer” in my mind.

There are normal colored peacocks strutting the hotel grounds but this white one seems to live a solitary existence.

I suppose this bird is too different to fit in easily and I often see it wandering around our complex all by itself.

We walked the perimeter fence of the hotel with me following Rusty’s nose.

I don’t mind aging particularly as it gives me cover to be ignored, but I found the young revealers to be really quite pleasant when I crossed paths with them. This young couple were hung over and needed water, of course I said with a smile. I had no water though,

…so I suggested they try going up to the nearby gym. I figured there might be a water fountain there. She was really taken…not with the old man, but with his dog of course. Good boy.

I follow where Rusty leads and snag a photo here and there as we go.

This is Lakeside, or part of it, and it’s huge as you can see.

It stretches down to the side of the lake as you might expect where there is a marina.

On the way I passed some revealers clearing their heads as they waited for a ride home.

An electric powered jet ski. Maybe they are everywhere but I’ve never seen one before.

No sailboats in evidence but I saw some boats being used as crash pads by bleary eyed Brazilians.

There was a band still making noise at the restaurant next door. Indefatigable, these Brazilians.

Festive entrance to the lakeside restaurant.

Rusty has been to 19 countries and he takes it all in stride.

I spoke to my sister in Scotland New Year’s Day where it’s snowing and cold. She said she she put in an appearance with her husband at the party where youngsters were dancing to her son’s bagpipes but then they quickly fled like proper old farts back to their home and their cats. That’s another member of the do nothing end of year club. I’ll have to appoint Doug as the membership secretary of the club as there are too many of us.

This is a Build Your Dreams Chinese electric car, quite popular in Brazil.

And cars are getting assembled in Brazil like this Chinese gasoline powered Chery sedan. China is getting far, far ahead of the US in the world market for everything and I don’t like seeing it.