A Touch of Summer

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Because Argentina didn't go on day light savings time, it starts getting light at 5:00 a.m. If we happen to briefly wake up after 5:00, our bedroom is light enough that it is hard to go back into a deep sleep for another forty five minutes or an hour. But it isn't disturbing enough to make us get up at that hour. Heaven forbid! However, for 18 years when I was working, 5:00 was my wake up time, and I bounced out of bed immediately when the alarm sounded. How did I do that???

The temperature is rising, and Elder Kroff's handy dandy iPhone reported that it would be in the 80's in Bs. As. He also checks out the temperatures in Switzerland, Italy, and Salt Lake City. People of interest live in and around those parts of the world.

We had a taste of Argentina's humidity today. Rich walked to a Pago Rapido to pay some facturas today and upon his return there were beads of sweat on his brow. He said it has been a long, long time since he has felt uncomfortable in a long sleeved shirt. I guess it is about time to break out the short sleeve white shirts that I brought with us.

I had a great day finally having time to finish up some work on my desk that had been pushed aside. I am ready for the November 3rd transfers, and started today on the December group. There are 24 missionaries (all elders) coming and 10 going home. I have my work cut out for me.

Today we decided to leave at 4:00 when the elders left. We were ready to start the weekend and have our "P" day. Now that the weather is turning nice, we want to spend our Saturdays doing things other than shopping for food. So we are going to try to do our grocery shopping on Friday nights -- starting tonight. We changed our clothes and hopped on the bus that would take us about 20 blocks away to the big Carrefour we discovered a few weeks ago.

Dark clouds were forming in the West and rain was predicted by 7:00 tonight. How can they be so exact? We thought it best to get to the store and back before the weather deteriorated. We found Carrefour with fewer people than we expected. That is probably because it was late afternoon and most people were still on siesta. We shopped and bought, and took their remise service home with all our grocery.

I discovered I left my cell phone at work. I have been really good lately to remember to put it in my purse at the end of the day. So we walked to the office to get it and then on down to McDonald's for the "usual." Holy Cow! It was packed with a kiddie birthday party. The noise level was astounding. Should we stay? There were some tables outside on the patio so we decided to take our food out there. The wind was picking up, and then here came the rain. We went inside to finish eating and then headed for home. Luckily we had two umbrellas in my purse. We only live about three blocks from McDonald's so it wasn't a bad walk, but with the wind blowing and rain too, we had to hold our umbrellas tight so they wouldn't flip inside out. It did happen to Rich's, but he recovered. We made it home with dry heads, but wet legs.

We talked with Marianne on Skype and chatted with Melissa by typing. Nate and Melissa are moving to Littleton, Colorado next week. Nate graduated with his masters last May and has found a job as CEO of an upscale photography company. He is eager for the challenge to increase the business and use what he learned with his degree in Economics. We are having a hard time not being there to help with the move, but then on the other hand, glad we don't have to watch them drive off. Melissa reminded me that we left her first. We have never lived apart from our daughters until this mission.

This is one of those red trees that we see blooming all over. This one is just around the corner from where we live.
A close up shot shows what I call the "bottle brush" bloom. We have one in our yard at the office. It will be interesting to see how long it does stay in bloom.