A few shots today from a Sunday stroll. This is our street and
construction for the tranvia continues as far as the eye can see in
both directions.
Haven’t really updated this blog since our Colorado trip. Wow. It was great visiting with family and touching bases. Didn’t see all the friends that we would have liked, the 3 weeks seem to zip by. And here we are planning our next trip to Japan in the October. Got all the accommodations booked, made the plane reservations. But will probably have to tweak the one from Cuenca to Quito. The airport here is still dicey. They can close it due to rain and you’re left hanging without a refund if you have a ticket that day. Will wait a month or so and see if they change the policy. Otherwise we may be taking a scenic van ride to Guayaquil and flying to Quito from there.
We started Spanish classes again. Wednesdays and Fridays. It’s
officially winter here, I think, which means the temps can dip down
to the mid 50’s during the day. No biggie, we haven’t needed
additional heat or cooling in apartment. Which is probably good
because we don’t have any. Except for some alpaca blankets and a
wool poncho. Which I sometimes use as my South American version of a
Japanese hanten. I’ve worn that poncho to a more than a few
ceremonies down here, so it’s seen some things…
Coming back to our apartment life here in centro, it strikes me that we’ve pretty much broken our “dependencies” for things that fill a lot of space: books, bookshelves, stereo and home entertainment centers, separate rooms for separate functions, furniture, other than a comfy chair and a nice bed.
Neither of us are really into collecting clothes, tools (other than a laptop, kindle and good set of headphones) , don’t need a car or other vehicle, or many cooking appliances (we don’t even have an oven now.) I do like a desk and good chair, but I’m comfortable in cozy coffee shops, libraries and other shared spaces, especially with headphones. My exercise is portable: body-weight routines, yoga, walking and qi gong don’t need equipment. I can meditate and fast anywhere. Which pretty much takes care of my mind/body routines. Miko uses some light-weight bands. Everything we truly need to setup a new home can fit in a couple of suitcases each. While we both prefer urban environments, a rural or isolated place wouldn’t incur much of a shift with semi-decent Internet connectivity.
Back in the States it’s becoming more noticeable how much of a hurry people are in and how stressed life seems to be by contrast. Part of it is being retired, I’m sure, but it also seems there’s more dissatisfaction with life these days. I’m grateful that for now, anyway, our time and space is more free of clutter than it’s ever been. And I think most people, even those in the busy US, have this option, to a greater extent than they may realize. Something about possessions that own us, and the constant hype of manufactured desire for material things that may warrant a future posting. But I’ve been slack enough just getting to this one posted, so…