Saturday In Brazil

 I’m trying not to be impatient and I want the rejuvenated GANNET2 to be put together properly but for now I’m feeling a little stifled without wheels and no place to go.  Rusty enjoys his routine. 

I was out walking Rusty on the lakefront in the dark at four in the morning, a bit earlier than routine this Saturday morning but Rusty was insistent.  When I opened my phone I saw the United  States had bombed Caracas.  The effect on me personally, 3200 miles away is nothing at all. One can hope the effect on Venezuela ends up beneficial though there’s lots that can go wrong. 

The effect on US foreign policy isn’t my concern any more than it is yours, we’re just spectators, little people as Florida Senator Rick Scott terms us. My first thought was perhaps Venezuela can turn its economy around with a new government, if a new government is installed as seems to be the aim. 

I have no doubt reaction will fall into two camps, support for change and outrage but I’m guessing economics will win out in the end. If Venezuela with its vast oil wealth can provide jobs for its people South America as a whole will breathe a vast, if private, sigh of relief after the outrage has run its course. 

Everywhere we go locals in Spanish speaking countries tell us how fed up they are with Venezuelan refugees clogging up their communities. They blame drug trafficking and rising crime on them and if illegally kidnapping the president of Venezuela leads to them all going home to lead productive lives I don’t  think people in these countries will mind. I dare say the refugees themselves would be glad to go home to a functioning economy. 

I hope it works out that way. I assume the United States will grab Venezuela’s oil but I believe from my own observations that historically US imperialism is better overall than the Chinese or Russian variety. I’d prefer to live in a world with no power grabs of any kind but as we know power corrupts and absolute power has corrupted ex-President Maduro. And to President Trump’s benefit the noxious Epstein files are forgotten.  We are observers at the chess game  of power between Very Important People. Some of us  get bombed in the process but most of us don’t. 

A reader sent me a rather interesting article about the supremacy of BYD Chinese cars even as the US bans Chinese drone imports thus ending civilian drone use in the US. Russia is officially outraged by US actions in Venezuela but China is watching silently. And China has an ever larger stake in South America taking trade opportunities from the US with no difficulty at all now that trade barriers are a fact of life in the US. 

I hope life gets better for ordinary people in Venezuela and Layne summed it up pretty well when she pointed out we may get to visit Venezuela after all so there is that. Peaceful regime change in Bolivia means we have active plans to visit that country in 2026 and first reports indicate fuel shortages in Bolivia may be over. I just hope good comes from the violence in Caracas 3200 hundred miles from where I am brewing my first cup of tea of the day and Rusty is snoring. Life as usual. I trust it is for you too while strong men in power play with our futures.  

In that spirit here are some photos of nothing very much at all in the constricted circuit of Rusty’s daily walks. 

A white peacock was here:

There are a couple of cats that hang out around our block. Someone puts out food and water for them and on early morning walks I see them curled up in the armchairs when no humans are around. We aren’t telling anyone we’ve seen them snuggling in comfort.

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.  

But I am a member of the official old farts  club, I’m an Idoso so I guess these are young peoples’ problems.  

I have trouble enough staying awake all night even on New Year’s Eve. 

I yelled at the properly colored peacock to keep off my lawn but it just ignored me. 

Everyone does.  

Oh well, roll on 2026 and let’s hope for the best. 

I found a thought  on line. 

Happy New Year