Another Day

Just a note on Friday morning:  no earthquake in northern Chile. The first we heard was someone asking if we were okay. We’re great: the new radiator is being shipped from Santiago to Caldera today according to the mechanic. No idea when it might arrive yet. But earthquakes? Nothing. 

Another sunny day at Camp Lost. 

Rusty was having none of it. No walk to the beach today. He sat just outside the campground gate and stared at me. Disapprovingly. 

May Day is a national holiday in Chile so we were not alone, a family gathering, some hard core tent campers in the cold sand and us. 

Rusty wanted to walk the campground. So we walked the campground. 

I sat in the sun and read a book recommended by Webb. LAWRENCE IN ARABIA. It’s a history of the fall of the Ottoman Enpire and the creation of the Middle East mess. Everyone has heard of TE Lawrence, the one of Arabia but this book also looks at three contemporaries busy sticking their fingers in the pie dividing up Palestine. 

There’s the German with a speech impediment, the Jewish agronomist bringing back farming to the desert and the man from Yale, an American seeking petroleum for Standard Oil. 

The various elements have my curiosity perked up so that should help pass the time as we wait for our new radiator. 

Rusty found something to pique his interest in the sand. 

It was probably disgusting but I kept my distance. A discarded picnic bone maybe or left over fish. Whatever it was he had his usual full dinner with his usual full appetite. 

He only likes to eat once a day in the evening. I give him a few cookies in the mornings and if he doesn’t finish his dinner we leave it out for him overnight in case he wants a midnight snack. Rusty knows what he wants and this is how he tells us he’s hungry: 

Tomorrow we meet Tarquin. A new face.