Damned Dog

 There are days when Rusty really gets up my nose. I can’t say I hate him because I don’t but some days I hate the hold he has on my heart. 

At 4:30 this morning he went outside as I sat up, insomnia brought on by an uncomfortable bed and prepared to summarize yesterday’s inverter installation. An hour later (mostly spent reading as I am old and lazy) I realized he was still outside on a cold damp morning. Panic ensued and I went looking for him through the garden  and he was nowhere to be found. I went out in the road shivering in the damp cold morning worried the one car an hour may have got him or a wild animal might have dragged him off, in my panic forgetting he’s the meanest sonofabitch in the valley. My wandering woke Adrián himself subject to insomnia but he also has alarm cameras which probably alerted him to the prowler.  The love of my life (the other one) was nowhere to be found…until Adrián’s headlights illuminated my dog sitting in the long grass of the neighbors field not twenty yards from the warmth and comfort of the cottage we are renting. He looked cute and alert. “What’s up guys? Have you lost something?” Bloody dog; I nearly had a heart attack.

I hugged Adrián and went back to the fire to warm up and compose myself and try to draw back the threads of yesterday’s progress. Inverter installed minus a couple of wire extensions that need to be delivered. 

Maria Jose showed Robert our Florida neighbor in his Toyota camper truck, how she keeps her maté straw clear when she is drinking the foul stuff.

There’s no accounting for taste but Robert, an otherwise normal American loves the stuff but his straw (“bombilla”) gets clogged. She has a trick straw to clear blockages.

Plus she drinks rough cut maté where Robert prefers the finer cut which is more likely to clog she says.  I like my black tea bags thanks with stevia and milk and I think bitter Yerba Maté is for the birds.

It’s an Argentine habit widely enjoyed in Uruguay and southern Brazil. You will find hot water dispensers at gas stations where you can refill your Thermos on a road trip.

Then you add the hot water to your maté (cup) and suck up the bitter grassy flavored water and share the straw. I observe native customs but I don’t necessarily enjoy them. They sell the stuff by the ton and in Uruguay decent coffee is hard to find but maté is everywhere. 

You can get flavored maté too or sweetened but for hardcore drinkers that’s bogus. Ginger flavored (“ you will feel good” is the slogan on this six dollar bag):

Anyway the inverter should be done today. Next week we have a few more small jobs to wrap up and off we go, starting with a tour of Uruguay in winter warmed by our new heater. Can’t wait. Rusty will be annoyed but after this morning he deserves it. Well, not really but what a scare.

Adrián my hero, master mechanic and dog finder extraordinaire.