With this episode I catch on what has been going on lately. I've been attempting to learn guitar and have actually came up with a riff for a future song. Another song is done and I'm waiting for Aaron to finish the mix on it and also how the Grand Slam of the Ok, So Story Slam went for me as well as the status of the zine that I am working on. I also delve into the murky waters of Peruvian politics and describe how their President is elected as well as who the candidates were this election. Of course it's not over yet, the second part of the process is a runoff between the top two vote getters. I ended up talking for longer than I thought I would so there you go.
Opening Music: Alloy - Live To See The Day
Closing Music: Toys That Kill - Times We Can't Let Go
Email: notmovingpictures@gmail.com
Twitter: @notmovingpics
Blog: www.notmovingpictures.blogspot.com
Older episodes can also be found @ www.archive.org, just search for notmovingpictures
Written and Published by Don Leach.
May not be used without permission from the author.
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Showing posts with label Peruvian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Peruvian. Show all posts
Friday, April 29, 2016
Thursday, January 7, 2016
Don't Confuse Alone With Lonely
I spent the Christmas holidays by myself, unless of course you count the sporadic visitations of Alex The Cat and I don’t. My wife and son were visiting her cousin in Memphis and unfortunately I couldn’t get time off from work. They tend to not give me time off around the holidays even though I’m the only supervisor in the evenings and those that were on 1st shift jumped on requesting it early. The thing is that when people found out I was going to be alone they began to besiege me with invitations to join them but thankfully, I was able to defer their good intentions. You see, I don’t mind being alone, as a matter of fact I was looking forward to spending some time by myself.
For some reason people tend to confuse alone with lonely. The two are not the same. Time spent by myself is usually that rarest thing where I get to indulge myself. And I did. I stayed up as late as I liked, slept in without being concerned with setting an alarm. I ate pizza on Christmas Eve and Christmas day and since it rained for over two days straight I barely left the house. While I did get two podcasts recorded and ready to go mainly I read or caught up on my Netflix queue. Basically I just did what I wanted when I wanted. I didn’t venture outside until after midnight on Saturday. I finally braved the torrential downpours to get a few groceries and hit Whataburger for some comfort food.
I've said it many times that I'm not a social person not do I care much for celebrating holidays. If it weren't for my wife and son I'd never have a tree up or decorations of any kind around the house. It's just not my thing and there is nothing wrong with that. Not everybody is the same and I feel we should embrace what makes us unique. I'm just trying to be me and stay true to myself. As I get older it seems so clear to me how much unnecessary grief and drama we put ourselves through trying to project an image of what we really are not. Having said that I know that at times I drive my wife crazy with the way I am because she's Peruvian and they are very social people.
So there you have it. I was alone for Christmas and not sad about it. Sure I would have liked to be around my family but since I couldn't be, spending some quality time with myself was a nice option to have.
Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.
Monday, August 4, 2014
Vacation Thoughts So Far
I've been away on vacation and haven't had any time to write anything until now. So far things have been, well, different. We are spending two weeks with my mother-in-law and her husband, sort of. The original plan as it was explained to me was that since her mother's apartment was too small for all of us we would simply rent the downstairs apartment from them which is unoccupied. Where she lives in Pennsylvania there are a lot of houses that have been turned into apartments. Most of them are halved and then there are upstairs and downstairs apartments on both sides. That way a two-story house now generates more rent money and it's easier to rent out apartments than it is a full house.
As I said, their plan was for us to rent the downstairs apartment for two weeks. Then we would sleep on air mattresses and do everything else in the upstairs apartment. Only, the landlord wasn't willing to do this. No landlord approval means there is a major problem in this plan. Luckily a friend of my mother-in-law lives about a block and a half away. She graciously has allowed us to take over her living room and sleep on the aforementioned air mattresses. Even more luckily she has a daughter just a little older than my son and they have become fast friends. Not so luckily it is hot in the apartment and there is a neighbor who has a penchant for blasting music all hours of the day and night. Nothing is perfect in life and I just try and accept things for how they are.
What makes it easier is the knowledge that we cannot afford a hotel room for two weeks. Still, it will be nice when I get back to my routine and don't have to worry about intruding in the lives of another family. So what have we been doing with our time? We went to the Crayola Experience which our son loves. In fact, he loves it so much that we got annual memberships and in less than a week we've been there three times. We've been to a Peruvian restaurant where we met an unbelievable number of Peruvians that my wife knew in the brief time she lived here. We went to a Lebanese festival and watched some of their cultural dancing. There's been a visit to a comic book/record store, swimming at the Y as well as visiting family members.
Friday was a day trip to New York City. Now, you have to know that my wife and I differ greatly on vacations. If it were just me visiting I would have eschewed the touristic sites and gone into Brooklyn to find record stores to cater to punk, ska, metal and other indie music. I'd find a hot dog cart and later a pizza place. Then my visit would be a success. I'd also go to Red Bank, NJ and visit Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash (Kevin Smith's comic book store). But this isn't my visit, it's my family's visit and that means my uber-tourist wife gets things done her way.
First was the Statue of Liberty where we faced long cattle like lines, overpriced food and hot weather. Next was a drawing in the park that looked nothing like my son. A short subway ride later we exited and walked a few blocks and were in Times Square. Times Square was populated by teeming masses of idiots who walked as if they were the only people around. They texted and drifted along halting and stopping at odd intervals, cutting across or just plain stopping to gawk or take photos. I include my wife in these goings on. As I said, she is the uber-tourist and she lives for taking pictures of mundane things like getting on the escalator at Toys R Us (we've got one back home but it's only one floor). I have to admit I bumped and then shoved my way through a few knots of tourists just to keep up with my family and I'm not ashamed about it.
One thing that has been made apparent is that I couldn't live in NYC without the hate coming out. I'd find myself becoming very dark, cursing out people and getting into fights. Let me rephrase that, all of that would be true if I had to exist in the tourist areas of New York City. If I could be in normal areas I'd probably have no problems. As we were making our way to the Port Authority to catch our bus home I was insulted by a stereotypically rude New Yorker for no reason and yeah, my first retort was to simply curse him out and advise him to keep walking. A few minutes late of course I was able to compose the perfect rebuttal insult that would have left him grasping for thoughts but by then it was too late. I don't know, maybe that's his thing, being the rude local to all the yokels. Good luck with that life and all the anger you invoke.
We've been to Cabelas, an outdoors type of gigantic store where I got some cool shorts (no you can't get a picture of me in them). Today we went to Hershey's Chocolate World in Hershey, Pa. It's the one place where my son didn't mind my wife making him pose for pictures. Here's a tip for you though, don't put the chocolate that you just spent a lot of money on in the trunk of the car. I already knew this but was over-ruled. Now everybody knows after it was all turned into more of a liquid than a solid. We've got even more things on the horizon. A day trip to the beach, more family visiting, a trip to the laundromat and another record store that I've found here in Easton. There'll be more though, we're not quite halfway through our visit yet. I see my feet hurting more and my wife making me pose for more pictures with things I don't care about. The things I do for love.
Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.
As I said, their plan was for us to rent the downstairs apartment for two weeks. Then we would sleep on air mattresses and do everything else in the upstairs apartment. Only, the landlord wasn't willing to do this. No landlord approval means there is a major problem in this plan. Luckily a friend of my mother-in-law lives about a block and a half away. She graciously has allowed us to take over her living room and sleep on the aforementioned air mattresses. Even more luckily she has a daughter just a little older than my son and they have become fast friends. Not so luckily it is hot in the apartment and there is a neighbor who has a penchant for blasting music all hours of the day and night. Nothing is perfect in life and I just try and accept things for how they are.
What makes it easier is the knowledge that we cannot afford a hotel room for two weeks. Still, it will be nice when I get back to my routine and don't have to worry about intruding in the lives of another family. So what have we been doing with our time? We went to the Crayola Experience which our son loves. In fact, he loves it so much that we got annual memberships and in less than a week we've been there three times. We've been to a Peruvian restaurant where we met an unbelievable number of Peruvians that my wife knew in the brief time she lived here. We went to a Lebanese festival and watched some of their cultural dancing. There's been a visit to a comic book/record store, swimming at the Y as well as visiting family members.
Friday was a day trip to New York City. Now, you have to know that my wife and I differ greatly on vacations. If it were just me visiting I would have eschewed the touristic sites and gone into Brooklyn to find record stores to cater to punk, ska, metal and other indie music. I'd find a hot dog cart and later a pizza place. Then my visit would be a success. I'd also go to Red Bank, NJ and visit Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash (Kevin Smith's comic book store). But this isn't my visit, it's my family's visit and that means my uber-tourist wife gets things done her way.
First was the Statue of Liberty where we faced long cattle like lines, overpriced food and hot weather. Next was a drawing in the park that looked nothing like my son. A short subway ride later we exited and walked a few blocks and were in Times Square. Times Square was populated by teeming masses of idiots who walked as if they were the only people around. They texted and drifted along halting and stopping at odd intervals, cutting across or just plain stopping to gawk or take photos. I include my wife in these goings on. As I said, she is the uber-tourist and she lives for taking pictures of mundane things like getting on the escalator at Toys R Us (we've got one back home but it's only one floor). I have to admit I bumped and then shoved my way through a few knots of tourists just to keep up with my family and I'm not ashamed about it.
One thing that has been made apparent is that I couldn't live in NYC without the hate coming out. I'd find myself becoming very dark, cursing out people and getting into fights. Let me rephrase that, all of that would be true if I had to exist in the tourist areas of New York City. If I could be in normal areas I'd probably have no problems. As we were making our way to the Port Authority to catch our bus home I was insulted by a stereotypically rude New Yorker for no reason and yeah, my first retort was to simply curse him out and advise him to keep walking. A few minutes late of course I was able to compose the perfect rebuttal insult that would have left him grasping for thoughts but by then it was too late. I don't know, maybe that's his thing, being the rude local to all the yokels. Good luck with that life and all the anger you invoke.
We've been to Cabelas, an outdoors type of gigantic store where I got some cool shorts (no you can't get a picture of me in them). Today we went to Hershey's Chocolate World in Hershey, Pa. It's the one place where my son didn't mind my wife making him pose for pictures. Here's a tip for you though, don't put the chocolate that you just spent a lot of money on in the trunk of the car. I already knew this but was over-ruled. Now everybody knows after it was all turned into more of a liquid than a solid. We've got even more things on the horizon. A day trip to the beach, more family visiting, a trip to the laundromat and another record store that I've found here in Easton. There'll be more though, we're not quite halfway through our visit yet. I see my feet hurting more and my wife making me pose for more pictures with things I don't care about. The things I do for love.
Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.
Sunday, March 31, 2013
The Robbery That Wasn't
My wife had a scare this past week which is a roundabout way of saying that I also had a scare this past week. She took our son to school and then went to her English class and after leaving went to the store to buy some sillao which is soy sauce. She prefers the Peruvian kind if she can get it. Once she got to the store she discovered that her purse was missing and she went into a panic. Convinced that somebody had stolen it out of her car at the school she raced home and woke me from my fitful slumber to deliver the bad news.
I asked her where she had last seen it and she said she had it at the Hobby Lobby the night before but she knew that she had left it in her car afterwards. Leaving her purse in the car has been her standard procedure and many times I've spoken to her about how it's inviting someone to steal it. Now I told her that she needed to go back to the school and call the police to file a report. As she left I started compiling a list of who we had to notify and what we had to replace. Important things like the credit card company and the bank were at the top of the list but other things were important as well. Her drivers license, her social security card and more were all in there.
She didn't come back to quickly so I was sure that the police had came and were taking her report. After a bit longer she showed back up with a sheepish look on her face and I knew that it had been found. At the school she found out that her car was parked in a blind spot for the cameras so that was no help. Once the police came and took her report she decided to go to the Hobby lobby store that she had been to and, you guessed it, they had her purse.
The night before while there our son had needed help zipping up his coat and she lad laid her purse down to help him. She the proceeded to walk out not realizing that she hadn't picked her purse back up. Against all odds nothing was missing which was a major blessing. After it was all over we were able to laugh about it but I made sure to make clarify the dangers in leaving her purse in her car like that, not that I think it will make any difference. Perhaps at least she'll make sure it can't be seen.
The truth is there really isn't much anyone could get from robbing us, we're that bad off. Of course in our current predicament financially anything we lost would be hard to overcome. Later that night I started thinking about how little interaction I actually have had with thieves and robbers in my life. In my forty-eight years on this planet I can only think of two instances when something along those lines has occurred and both have been since I married my wife. Does this mean I assign some kind of blame to her? Of course not, it just worked out the way it did.
The first was right after we got married. We were living in her apartment intending to only stay until we found something better. She had already had a problem with someone with a key entering her apartment and stealing small amounts of money (mostly from a cup of coins) but we thought we had fixed that problem by keeping the front door locked and installing a padlock on the back door. That way only we had the key to it. It worked for a while until one night after coming home from work we found that the thief had jimmied the lock open in the bathroom window, crawled in, and made off with her laptop as well as the camcorder we had bought to film our wedding with. Then he or she had left through the much larger bedroom window.
To top it off her jerk landlord refused to believe that it had happened from one of his employees (relatives) and basically accused us of faking it. It was all I could do to restrain myself from punching him out and I think he realized he had crossed a line so he dropped his point and left quickly. Needless to say my wife no longer felt safe in that apartment and we got out as soon as we could.
My second encounter with a thief occurred in the house that we bought and currently live in. It was somewhere around three years after the previous break in and my wife came home with our then less than a year old son to find that we were the victims of a burglary. Some scumbag had busted our door in and grabbed what turned out to be mainly things that had sentimental value. He was in and out more than likely in less than five minutes.
The hard to take thing is that our neighbor saw the perpetrator exiting our driveway with what turned out to be one of our pillowcases stuffed with our belongings. She give the info to the police and they did basically nothing, probably because she didn't see him leaving the house and couldn't one hundred percent identify him. I know, it's a garbage excuse from them but honestly I didn't expect much in the first place. The powers that be in Tulsa have more important things for the police to do, like give out speeding tickets.
So there you have it, my life experience with getting robbed (so far). Two burglaries, no holdups, no car break-ins and nothing stolen from my desk at work, at least that I can recall. After all, I am getting old and my memory isn't quite what it used to be. That sound you hear is me furiously knocking on wood hoping that I haven't jinxed myself.
Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.
I asked her where she had last seen it and she said she had it at the Hobby Lobby the night before but she knew that she had left it in her car afterwards. Leaving her purse in the car has been her standard procedure and many times I've spoken to her about how it's inviting someone to steal it. Now I told her that she needed to go back to the school and call the police to file a report. As she left I started compiling a list of who we had to notify and what we had to replace. Important things like the credit card company and the bank were at the top of the list but other things were important as well. Her drivers license, her social security card and more were all in there.
She didn't come back to quickly so I was sure that the police had came and were taking her report. After a bit longer she showed back up with a sheepish look on her face and I knew that it had been found. At the school she found out that her car was parked in a blind spot for the cameras so that was no help. Once the police came and took her report she decided to go to the Hobby lobby store that she had been to and, you guessed it, they had her purse.
The night before while there our son had needed help zipping up his coat and she lad laid her purse down to help him. She the proceeded to walk out not realizing that she hadn't picked her purse back up. Against all odds nothing was missing which was a major blessing. After it was all over we were able to laugh about it but I made sure to make clarify the dangers in leaving her purse in her car like that, not that I think it will make any difference. Perhaps at least she'll make sure it can't be seen.
The truth is there really isn't much anyone could get from robbing us, we're that bad off. Of course in our current predicament financially anything we lost would be hard to overcome. Later that night I started thinking about how little interaction I actually have had with thieves and robbers in my life. In my forty-eight years on this planet I can only think of two instances when something along those lines has occurred and both have been since I married my wife. Does this mean I assign some kind of blame to her? Of course not, it just worked out the way it did.
The first was right after we got married. We were living in her apartment intending to only stay until we found something better. She had already had a problem with someone with a key entering her apartment and stealing small amounts of money (mostly from a cup of coins) but we thought we had fixed that problem by keeping the front door locked and installing a padlock on the back door. That way only we had the key to it. It worked for a while until one night after coming home from work we found that the thief had jimmied the lock open in the bathroom window, crawled in, and made off with her laptop as well as the camcorder we had bought to film our wedding with. Then he or she had left through the much larger bedroom window.
To top it off her jerk landlord refused to believe that it had happened from one of his employees (relatives) and basically accused us of faking it. It was all I could do to restrain myself from punching him out and I think he realized he had crossed a line so he dropped his point and left quickly. Needless to say my wife no longer felt safe in that apartment and we got out as soon as we could.
My second encounter with a thief occurred in the house that we bought and currently live in. It was somewhere around three years after the previous break in and my wife came home with our then less than a year old son to find that we were the victims of a burglary. Some scumbag had busted our door in and grabbed what turned out to be mainly things that had sentimental value. He was in and out more than likely in less than five minutes.
The hard to take thing is that our neighbor saw the perpetrator exiting our driveway with what turned out to be one of our pillowcases stuffed with our belongings. She give the info to the police and they did basically nothing, probably because she didn't see him leaving the house and couldn't one hundred percent identify him. I know, it's a garbage excuse from them but honestly I didn't expect much in the first place. The powers that be in Tulsa have more important things for the police to do, like give out speeding tickets.
So there you have it, my life experience with getting robbed (so far). Two burglaries, no holdups, no car break-ins and nothing stolen from my desk at work, at least that I can recall. After all, I am getting old and my memory isn't quite what it used to be. That sound you hear is me furiously knocking on wood hoping that I haven't jinxed myself.
Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
I Hope It's Not Another Rough Start To The Week
So far today, this week has started off better than last week. Last week I should have known that there would be issues since my wife was starting a seven week long course. Every time something like this changes our schedules we have communication issues. By now I should realize it in advance and take care of it before it has a chance to happen. But no, that would make too much sense. My wife had talked about trying to get out of her class early so that she could take care of our son when it was time for me to go to work. Still, I should have clarified everything.
I ended up waiting as long as I possibly could before concluding that my wife intended to meet me at my job and pick up our son. Therefore I rushed off to work in an effort not to be late. To do that I had to speed, something that is not exactly out of character for me however once I arrived in the parking garage she was nowhere to be found. The only thing I could do is drive back home and see if she had gone there, but once I arrived I found the garage empty (of her car at least).
It was time to call work and explain why I wasn't there and luckily my manager was off on vacation and since I'm a supervisor I knew I'd be okay. Perks of the job. However I really needed to drop my son somewhere, preferably a safe place so now I rushed over to the Peruvian family that usually watches him. The husband was home and said that no, my wife had not made any arrangements for them to watch him but he'd be happy to. As I left I decided to make one last visit to our house just in case my wife had made it home and was wondering where our son was.
The path I take goes by a park but before you get there you have a hill to go down and as I flew down it I realized that I was going much too fast. Unfortunately just as this dawned on me I saw the police car sitting to the side. Whether he saw me or was drawn by my bright red brake lights I'll never know but sure enough he pulled out and lit me up. He used the standard question of if I knew why he had pulled me over and I answered honestly that my speed had gotten away form at the bottom of the hill. Then he collected my drivers license and asked for my insurance info. I had my old card but not the updated one and he wanted to make sure that I did have insurance, which I do.
Then came the next standard question of if I knew how fast I had been going. I'm sure I could have thrown a number out that would have been reasonably close but instead I just shook my head and said "I really don't know" with the full expectation of him informing me just how fast I had been driving. Instead he just told me to sit tight and went back to his car. After a few minutes I watched him (in my side mirror) get out of his car and observed that he only had my license in his hand. This was indeed my lucky day that he had not written me a ticket for speeding. He gave me back my license and told me to watch my speed and get my updated insurance card and keep it in my truck.
When he pulled me over I came to the conclusion that I could not control anything on this day so just take it easy and drive somewhat close to the speed limit. What would happen would happen. It was only after pulling out that I realized that he hadn't had his radar on so he really did not know how fast I had been going when he asked me. Right then and there I became positive that if I had guessed at how fast I had been going he would have written me a ticket for that speed since in essence I would have "confessed" to doing so. Instead my ignorance actually ended up helping me this time.
At a much lower speed I continued on to our house where once again I determined that my wife was nowhere to be found and then drove on to work. One hour later than my appointed time I clocked in safe and sound. My wife called later and I relayed what had happened to me. Of course it was my fault, she had told me to take him to the babysitter (she hadn't) and that one of their daughters had even been at our house on Saturday and they had discussed it all. I didn't bother to try and tell her that I'm sure they did, in Spanish, which I speak very little of. It's not worth trying to prove my point because no matter what decision I make it will turn out wrong, at least the way she spins it.
Hopefully the next time we have a change in the schedule I'll remember this and other past incidents and will actually talk to her (or listen depending on your point of view) and make sure we're in complete agreement about what is supposed to happen. Not likely of course but I can dream.
Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.
I ended up waiting as long as I possibly could before concluding that my wife intended to meet me at my job and pick up our son. Therefore I rushed off to work in an effort not to be late. To do that I had to speed, something that is not exactly out of character for me however once I arrived in the parking garage she was nowhere to be found. The only thing I could do is drive back home and see if she had gone there, but once I arrived I found the garage empty (of her car at least).
It was time to call work and explain why I wasn't there and luckily my manager was off on vacation and since I'm a supervisor I knew I'd be okay. Perks of the job. However I really needed to drop my son somewhere, preferably a safe place so now I rushed over to the Peruvian family that usually watches him. The husband was home and said that no, my wife had not made any arrangements for them to watch him but he'd be happy to. As I left I decided to make one last visit to our house just in case my wife had made it home and was wondering where our son was.
The path I take goes by a park but before you get there you have a hill to go down and as I flew down it I realized that I was going much too fast. Unfortunately just as this dawned on me I saw the police car sitting to the side. Whether he saw me or was drawn by my bright red brake lights I'll never know but sure enough he pulled out and lit me up. He used the standard question of if I knew why he had pulled me over and I answered honestly that my speed had gotten away form at the bottom of the hill. Then he collected my drivers license and asked for my insurance info. I had my old card but not the updated one and he wanted to make sure that I did have insurance, which I do.
Then came the next standard question of if I knew how fast I had been going. I'm sure I could have thrown a number out that would have been reasonably close but instead I just shook my head and said "I really don't know" with the full expectation of him informing me just how fast I had been driving. Instead he just told me to sit tight and went back to his car. After a few minutes I watched him (in my side mirror) get out of his car and observed that he only had my license in his hand. This was indeed my lucky day that he had not written me a ticket for speeding. He gave me back my license and told me to watch my speed and get my updated insurance card and keep it in my truck.
When he pulled me over I came to the conclusion that I could not control anything on this day so just take it easy and drive somewhat close to the speed limit. What would happen would happen. It was only after pulling out that I realized that he hadn't had his radar on so he really did not know how fast I had been going when he asked me. Right then and there I became positive that if I had guessed at how fast I had been going he would have written me a ticket for that speed since in essence I would have "confessed" to doing so. Instead my ignorance actually ended up helping me this time.
At a much lower speed I continued on to our house where once again I determined that my wife was nowhere to be found and then drove on to work. One hour later than my appointed time I clocked in safe and sound. My wife called later and I relayed what had happened to me. Of course it was my fault, she had told me to take him to the babysitter (she hadn't) and that one of their daughters had even been at our house on Saturday and they had discussed it all. I didn't bother to try and tell her that I'm sure they did, in Spanish, which I speak very little of. It's not worth trying to prove my point because no matter what decision I make it will turn out wrong, at least the way she spins it.
Hopefully the next time we have a change in the schedule I'll remember this and other past incidents and will actually talk to her (or listen depending on your point of view) and make sure we're in complete agreement about what is supposed to happen. Not likely of course but I can dream.
Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Today at lunch my mother in law served piccarones and I was reminded of the first time that I had them, almost four years ago in Lima. My wife, son and I had gone with her friend Jenny and her daughter to see some of the sights in Lima including the Magic Water Tour in the Parque de la Reserva which is a water fountain complex some of which are interactive. It's a pretty impressive sight.
On the way back Connie and Jenny decided to have the taxi stop and so that they could get two orders of piccarones. You might ask why only two orders, well it was because since I had been such a picky eater Jenny was sure that I wouldn't like them. They were so convinced of this that they didn't bother to explain what piccarones were or even ask me if I was interested. Once we returned to Jenny's house where her husband Ernesto now was they found out just how wrong they were. I not only liked piccarones, I loved them!
Since they had only gotten two orders there wasn't enough for everybody to eat and be satisfied with but at least they learned their lesson. Never think a fat guy won't like something covered in syrup, only bad things can happen when you do this. Piccarones look like donuts but are made from pumpkin or sweet potatoes and served with a bitter sweet syrup. They are delicious and I haven't had them for a long time, too long in fact.
Since that trip to Peru my eating habits have become decidedly less finicky and I can't wait to return to really experience a part of Peru that I passed over the last time. Although I have to say that since my mother in law is such a good cook that maybe I'm already experiencing those things while I'm at home. Lucky me.
Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
The Week In Review, Health Scares And So Forth
Last week proved to be a difficult one in my household. My wife had been having symptoms that sounded like they were TIA which is also called mini-strokes. There is no lasting damage but it can be a precursor to an actual stroke so she went to the clinic and had an MRI of the brain scheduled. Five days before the MRI she stopped having her symptoms but decided to err on the side of safety and went ahead with the MRI. Once there they saw a dark spot and sent her to the Emergency Room and due to a mis-communication (happens a lot in U.S. healthcare it seems) she was admitted. The doctor thought that she was continuing to have her symptoms. It was determined that she had a blood clot but that it was old and wasn't currently bleeding so she was allowed to go home. The followup MRI is on Tuesday and hopefully it will show that the clot has decreased in size otherwise surgery may be needed.
She was understandably upset and her nerves were on edge and then she developed something new. She said her head felt like when you fall down and scrape your knee, that sensation, and she was almost sure that it had started to bleed again. On Wednesday she went back to the clinic and they did the neurological tests and determined that she was fine, what she was feeling was brought on by stress and worry. Since then she's been doing much better. Perhaps she just needed to hear from another person to relieve her tensions. Around this time our son started sounding like he was getting a cold but really it was nothing to hold him back. He took his medicine every day and since we caught it early it's almost all the way gone now. He's at a wonderful age when little things like being sick are not enough to hold you back or slow you down.
As for me, well I had a follow-up appointment at my doctors office so that he could check on a few things. He decided to take the decision out of my hands and started me on medicine for high blood pressure since it seems to be getting worse instead of better. He also put in for me to have another sleep study so that I could get a new C-Pap machine for my sleep apnea which as he remarked, is quite severe. I stopped using my C-Pap machine over four years ago after my son was born and it then later simply disappeared. I have my suspicions about what happened but in the spirit of keeping harmony in the house I'll keep it to myself. For now.
Perhaps with a new C-Pap machine and the exercise routine that I started a few weeks ago I'll be able to discontinue the medicine as long as my health improves. The other thing that he discussed was my cholesterol level which is also high. As a matter of fact he said I'm in the pre-diabetes stage which means I need to make lifestyle changes now before it's too late. So I've been doing a lot of thinking about what needs to change and how I can make it happen. I'm already on the way with my commitment to exercise so now we have to see about a change in diet, even though I wrote last time about not doing so at this time. Karma has a way of biting you in the butt, doesn't it?
I believe the best way for me to do everything is to make a loose schedule of what needs to be done each day and that way I can have something to work towards. Since I agreed to teach in my men's quorum at church (two Sundays a month) and I want to start learning to play bass guitar, as well as needing to start to improve my pitiful Spanish language skills (after six years of marriage to a Peruvian woman it's way past due) I'm sure I can fill up the time that I have before and after work. And if I can't then my wife will be more than happy to assist me so I better do it on my own. We keep putting our heads down and are trying to move forward no matter what obstacles are put in our way. The only other option is to give in to despair and give up on life and I don't see that as an option. Life goes on whether we agree with it or not. Stay tuned.
Published by Don Leach
She was understandably upset and her nerves were on edge and then she developed something new. She said her head felt like when you fall down and scrape your knee, that sensation, and she was almost sure that it had started to bleed again. On Wednesday she went back to the clinic and they did the neurological tests and determined that she was fine, what she was feeling was brought on by stress and worry. Since then she's been doing much better. Perhaps she just needed to hear from another person to relieve her tensions. Around this time our son started sounding like he was getting a cold but really it was nothing to hold him back. He took his medicine every day and since we caught it early it's almost all the way gone now. He's at a wonderful age when little things like being sick are not enough to hold you back or slow you down.
As for me, well I had a follow-up appointment at my doctors office so that he could check on a few things. He decided to take the decision out of my hands and started me on medicine for high blood pressure since it seems to be getting worse instead of better. He also put in for me to have another sleep study so that I could get a new C-Pap machine for my sleep apnea which as he remarked, is quite severe. I stopped using my C-Pap machine over four years ago after my son was born and it then later simply disappeared. I have my suspicions about what happened but in the spirit of keeping harmony in the house I'll keep it to myself. For now.
Perhaps with a new C-Pap machine and the exercise routine that I started a few weeks ago I'll be able to discontinue the medicine as long as my health improves. The other thing that he discussed was my cholesterol level which is also high. As a matter of fact he said I'm in the pre-diabetes stage which means I need to make lifestyle changes now before it's too late. So I've been doing a lot of thinking about what needs to change and how I can make it happen. I'm already on the way with my commitment to exercise so now we have to see about a change in diet, even though I wrote last time about not doing so at this time. Karma has a way of biting you in the butt, doesn't it?
I believe the best way for me to do everything is to make a loose schedule of what needs to be done each day and that way I can have something to work towards. Since I agreed to teach in my men's quorum at church (two Sundays a month) and I want to start learning to play bass guitar, as well as needing to start to improve my pitiful Spanish language skills (after six years of marriage to a Peruvian woman it's way past due) I'm sure I can fill up the time that I have before and after work. And if I can't then my wife will be more than happy to assist me so I better do it on my own. We keep putting our heads down and are trying to move forward no matter what obstacles are put in our way. The only other option is to give in to despair and give up on life and I don't see that as an option. Life goes on whether we agree with it or not. Stay tuned.
Published by Don Leach
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Vieja Skina, Peruvian Ska
I thought I'd show a Peruvian ska band today since I showed one from Argentina the other day. Through the next few weeks I intend to show as many South American ska bands (or any musical type) that I like as I try to connect with some good music that doesn't get much exposure here in the U.S. The first group I will show is called Vieja Skina (translated to Old Skin in English) and they are from Lima. According to their translated Myspace page, "Old Skin is a band of Ska/Reggae, with also some jazz fusions. Is formed in early 2007, little by little the band has been taking shape and growing, with a series of changes in members, rehearsals, concerts and support . We hope shortly to have some songs recorded, and so also the EP. The band is rehearsing, we hope to see in the shows. Thanks for the support everyone who is always with us, health and good vibe SKA!" Check them out, give them a chance and see what you think.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Satelite Kingston, Ska From Argentina
I've just come back from a short vacation which explains why I haven't posted for several days. The purpose of the trip was to visit my wife's cousin and her family, particularly her 5 month old baby girl. While it was nice to get away and visit it was extremely muggy there and since it was just for a few days the drive there and back really got to me and right now I'm just trying to get back to my routine. Anyway, I had prepared some Cd's to listen to while driving and some of them were Peruvian and Argentinean ska because recently I had been getting back into ska in a much bigger way. Back in the mid to latter 90s I volunteered at Marshall University's radio station (WMUL) and did a ska and reggae show called Ska Beat. Ever since I still listened to some of the music but not like I had done before. I had been looking for 80s Peruvian music and after that I found some current ska bands (mostly in Lima) and started expanding my search which led me to Argentina and the band Satelite Kingston.
This song stood out to me on the CD that I made because I like the singers voice and how it melds with the tempo of the music. Plus the traditional ska sound is my favorite. As far as what the song is about from what I've been able to understand is that in 1972 some political prisoners opposing the military dictatorship from various groups planned to escape from a prison in the city of Trelew. The leaders were able to escape but 19 others were slower to get out and got to the airport as the plane with the 6 leaders on it was taking off. They surrendered to the military and of course there are different versions of the story but 3 of the survivors state that they were made to lie prostrate on the floor and then machine gunned which resulted in 16 deaths. The military version is that the prisoners grabbed a machine gun from a guard and an intense firefight resulted that ended with 16 prisoners. Some people in the town were arrested and the entire town ended up going on strike against this action. 2 of the survivors were later "disappeared" (a process involving the government kidnapping people and holding them for torture and then usually killing them) and the other ended up missing. It's a very sober message.
Unfortunately the bands website is unavailable due to exceeding it's bandwidth which to me means they have something that you can download there but too many people have done so and so I must wait to get more info on the band. But their myspace site is still okay and can be found here. Still, there's not a lot of information about the group that I can find especially since I'm cursed by not speaking very much Spanish. Here's a live version of the song recorded at a radio station in which they were all crowded into a small booth to perform.
As I said I can't get a lot of information on the band but I did find a site that showed the band's membership consisting of:
Alejandro Pribluda: guitarra
Daniel Flores: teclado
Daniel Zaltzman: baterÃa
Germán Cohen: trombón
Gonzalo Santos: trompeta
Hernán Fernandez: saxo
Julián Cuestas: trompeta
Milton Alonso: bajo
This however doesn't seem to be a complete list as there is clearly a female vocalist in the group. Perhaps in the future I'll get more information and go more in depth about the band.
This song stood out to me on the CD that I made because I like the singers voice and how it melds with the tempo of the music. Plus the traditional ska sound is my favorite. As far as what the song is about from what I've been able to understand is that in 1972 some political prisoners opposing the military dictatorship from various groups planned to escape from a prison in the city of Trelew. The leaders were able to escape but 19 others were slower to get out and got to the airport as the plane with the 6 leaders on it was taking off. They surrendered to the military and of course there are different versions of the story but 3 of the survivors state that they were made to lie prostrate on the floor and then machine gunned which resulted in 16 deaths. The military version is that the prisoners grabbed a machine gun from a guard and an intense firefight resulted that ended with 16 prisoners. Some people in the town were arrested and the entire town ended up going on strike against this action. 2 of the survivors were later "disappeared" (a process involving the government kidnapping people and holding them for torture and then usually killing them) and the other ended up missing. It's a very sober message.
Unfortunately the bands website is unavailable due to exceeding it's bandwidth which to me means they have something that you can download there but too many people have done so and so I must wait to get more info on the band. But their myspace site is still okay and can be found here. Still, there's not a lot of information about the group that I can find especially since I'm cursed by not speaking very much Spanish. Here's a live version of the song recorded at a radio station in which they were all crowded into a small booth to perform.
As I said I can't get a lot of information on the band but I did find a site that showed the band's membership consisting of:
Alejandro Pribluda: guitarra
Daniel Flores: teclado
Daniel Zaltzman: baterÃa
Germán Cohen: trombón
Gonzalo Santos: trompeta
Hernán Fernandez: saxo
Julián Cuestas: trompeta
Milton Alonso: bajo
This however doesn't seem to be a complete list as there is clearly a female vocalist in the group. Perhaps in the future I'll get more information and go more in depth about the band.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Madeinusa - Peruvian Film
Madeinusa
This is the last film that my wife and I watched this past weekend. I had bought the dvd on Ebay since it is set in Peru, the director is Peruvian, the star is Peruvian and my wife is as well. At first I didn't think she would like it but it turns out that she very much did. One thing I didn't consider was that Sunday was Easter and the film is set in Holy Week so that turned out to be an interesting coincidence.
The film follows a young woman named Madeinusa (pronounced Mah-day-en-oos-sah) who desires to leave her small town as her mother did before her. The people there are from Indian stock and speak Quechua (a native language) as well as Spanish. The town doesn't have a telephone or much else in the way of modern conveininces. Her father is the mayor and has an unhealthy obsession with her. Her younger sister is extremely jealous and doesn't understand why she would want to leave. A stranger comes to town during their Holy Week celebration which doesn't sit well with the townspeople. They have an unusual belief that during the period of Good Friday to Easter morning (from when Jesus Christ died and was resurrected that God is dead and there is no sin. Anything is allowed from theft, to sex to incest with no punishment or guilt. Madeinusa is enthralled with the stranger and wants him to take her with him when he leaves town. I won't ruin it and say how the movie ends but I will say that I didn't see the ending coming.
Overall is was a very good film that showed a direct look at what some small towns are like in the Peruvian provinces. It's a completely different way of life that really doesn't exist much in this country anymore. I recommend this film for those who like to experience new things in life. It's hard to believe that this was Magaly Solier's (Madeinusa) first time acting, she does a wonderful job.
This is the last film that my wife and I watched this past weekend. I had bought the dvd on Ebay since it is set in Peru, the director is Peruvian, the star is Peruvian and my wife is as well. At first I didn't think she would like it but it turns out that she very much did. One thing I didn't consider was that Sunday was Easter and the film is set in Holy Week so that turned out to be an interesting coincidence.
The film follows a young woman named Madeinusa (pronounced Mah-day-en-oos-sah) who desires to leave her small town as her mother did before her. The people there are from Indian stock and speak Quechua (a native language) as well as Spanish. The town doesn't have a telephone or much else in the way of modern conveininces. Her father is the mayor and has an unhealthy obsession with her. Her younger sister is extremely jealous and doesn't understand why she would want to leave. A stranger comes to town during their Holy Week celebration which doesn't sit well with the townspeople. They have an unusual belief that during the period of Good Friday to Easter morning (from when Jesus Christ died and was resurrected that God is dead and there is no sin. Anything is allowed from theft, to sex to incest with no punishment or guilt. Madeinusa is enthralled with the stranger and wants him to take her with him when he leaves town. I won't ruin it and say how the movie ends but I will say that I didn't see the ending coming.
Overall is was a very good film that showed a direct look at what some small towns are like in the Peruvian provinces. It's a completely different way of life that really doesn't exist much in this country anymore. I recommend this film for those who like to experience new things in life. It's hard to believe that this was Magaly Solier's (Madeinusa) first time acting, she does a wonderful job.
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