Rained much of the day today - at least, the morning. Hence, the morning was spent inside, doing admin stuff (calls to Williamstown Med Associates, who had messed up T's health certificate and had to fax another copy to us; setting up Janneke's phone, which we already used, like, four times today...Stuff like that). Kids played video games and squabbled. Average.
I did spend a bit of time this morning at the Santurce Plaza del Mercado, which is a very nifty old market a ten minutes' walk from here that I'm considering doing a project on. Took this picture:
Also shot a lot of neat footage in the rain there. It's in Santurce, as I said, which is a borough you get into via crossing under a highway from Condado, where we live. As I walked there, I thought, "This tunnel is really a demarcation point between the touristy Condado and the purely Boricua Santurce." And there's wall art (hate to call it graffiti) inside that underpass that, as it turns out, reflects just this difference:
The Frankenstein figure to our left is probably Condado, bending over backwards and changing its identity and becoming something it's not under pressure from the tourists. And the guy on the right is an actual, legitimate Puerto Rican. The sign he's holding says "Santurce's not for sale" or "Santurce doesn't sell out" or "Santurce doesn't prostitute itself" - any of those interpretations might be valid.
We'll see what it all turns into.
Lunch at home, though I ate little, having had one of the greatest empanadas ever made back at the Plaza. Then a nap, and Janneke went off to do some more admin stuff (copies, faxing) at a local Business Center, a tiny establishment (so she tells me) that's buzzing with all the tourists who don't have printers and need them, or need to send or receive a fax, or make keys (?!), etc. And the kids, the dog, and I to the beach.
I did some reading of Betsy's manuscript while the kids and the dog cavorted - didn't even wear a suit, had no illusions of going in at all. And I got a lot read, and the kids entertained each other. Q and I tried to get his daily 300 soccer ball touches in, and boy, that kid gets better all the time. I was admiring some of his latest moves, which I'd yet to see until today, and man. This kid is going to make some noise come high school. Hell, come Monday.
Coordinated via Cellular Telephone technology our arrival back at the spread with Mami, who then went for a power walk while the kids and I read. Supper, dessert, Skype with Auntie Jayne, Mr Bean, and to bed. I also reconnoitered on my dog walk this fine night looking for options for Pizza and a Movie Night tomorrow, and found only Domino's. Which I like, but which Janneke abhors, so I guess we'll keep looking. Fine by me, actually, because either way, I'm getting takeout from a criollo place. Pizza gives me heartburn.
El Yunque tomorrow afternoon, beach in the morning in all likelihood.
Some observations:
There is a well-established culture here of late-night (now, 10:30 or so) exercise bikers zooming up and down Ashford / McLeary, with hybrid bikes and helmets and lights. I must have seen twenty of them. And the other night there were a good fifty, less exercise-minded, bikers, mostly in their 20s, accumulated in the Parque del Indio up the street about the same time. As Clarabelle and I walked past, somebody shouted out, "Cuando quieran, arránquense pa' donde sea" (Whenever you guys want, take off, going anywhere), and the whole mad pack zoomed out - well-maintained, nice bikes, by the way - in a frenzied dash eastward. Strange. Not sure what to make of it.
Saw a cop here with a nightstick of the length and style of a katana, but made completely of the same leather-like plastic that regular cop nightsticks are made of. Dude was jacked. Never seen one of those before.
Puerto Ricans rarely signal their intention to turn in a vehicle. And if it's a right turn? Never.
Coconut flesh, scooped directly out of a coconut that you yourself saw fall and then pried open with your own hands is moist, and soft, and tastes just like you would expect it to.
Man, this wound up a lot more narrative than I thought. Let's hope other things in my future turn out similarly.
Tally-ho!
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