8:47am- I’m woken up by the people above me playing what I think is a cello. They were playing until 1 last night and then at it again this morning. I was up until 3:15 or so thus 8:47 is a bit early.
9:15am- My alarm goes off on the phone. I hit snooze.
9:25am- My alarm goes off on the phone. I hit snooze.
9:35am- My alarm goes off on the phone. I hit snooze. I realize that my hotel room doesn’t have a clock in it anywhere.
9:45am- My alarm goes off on the phone. I hit snooze.
9:55am- My alarm goes off on the phone. I hit snooze. Takes a minute to fall asleep as I try to reconcile the dream I just had about not being able to find my spindle kit to make a fire (yes starting a fire with no matches is possible) for the manager of the hotel.
10:05am- My alarm goes off on the phone. I hit snooze. Again try and figure out the fire thing for a second.
10:15am- My alarm goes off on the phone. I hit snooze.
10:16am- Finally get up.
10:18am- Email Natalia to find out if I have a shipping quote yet. Turn on the TV and settle in on ER. A show I never watched once until this trip. Not sure I’ll watch it when I get home but it’s in English.
10:22am- Open the HP Mobile Workstation, my Office Season 4 episodes 1-9 torrent is done. Only took 6 days. Episodes are all available online if you live in the states. They aren’t viewable down here so I have to go the BT route.
10:37am- Start converting the office .avi files to mpeg4 for the IPOD so I can watch them on the flight home.
10:53am- Got an email from Natalia. Still no quote.
11:04am- William Joseph Carroll sent me an email from his ‘work’ trip to Oregon. Pic of him with his 22lb 36in King Salmon from a trip on the river yesterday. Glad it was him and not me.
12:39pm- Office files were corrupt. 2.2gb and 6 days of downloading and no worky. Bummer. So I messed around with those for bit and no luck. So I started over with 8 individual torrents for each episode and we’ll see what happens. Gilmore Girls and Scrubs were decent though. Spent some time cleaning myself and other things you do in the bathroom including a good nail clipping. I’m dressed and headed out the door to see the city, get some food, take a few pics, get some sun on my Ushuaia-blanched head and do some good ole’ fashioned people watching.
12:57pm- Still here IM’ing the Trunk Monkey about the joys of Lasik recovery and Land Cruiser moderation.
1:24pm- The new Jack Johnson is playing in my cab on the way over to the Automovil Club Argentina office. Driver had no idea what he was listening to. Or I didn’t understand him when he answered my questions. I have some stickers from the ACA but want to track down one of these. They have an antiques market here in the city on Sunday. My flight is scheduled for Sunday night so I’m going to go see if I can track one down there.
1:42pm- I leave the ACA and take some pics of the nearby sculptures and plazas. I feel weird taking pics in crowded cities. Makes me feel touristy and at this point I feel like I’ve gone a step beyond a ‘tourist.’ Maybe not since I’m looking to buy antique souvenirs for my truck.
1:49pm- I get my buddy pass confirmation for my flight home. THANK YOU Barbara.
2:14pm- Wondering around Northern BA looking for a bite to eat. I wander into what I think is a mall looking for a food court and find an ice cream stand. Chocolate Chip and Swiss Chocolate in a waffle bowl for my lunch. Perfect.
2:45pm- The mall was actually a large 18 screen multiplex in a 200 year old renovated building. A movie was not on my agenda and even now not sure why I did it, but I was there, it felt right so in the theater I went. I decided on 21 since it’s in English and I’d heard a bit about it. I enjoyed it. But then again I’m easily amused by movies about people with badass math skills. Good Will Hunting, that Russell Crowe/Ron Howard movie I’m drawing a blank on, Pi. Numbers+me = total confusion. Previews for the movie? Run Fatboy Run, We Own the Night, King of the Streets, Ironman, Super Agent86, and Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead. Why does this matter? I have no idea but I was able to translate the titles from their Spanish Equivalent so there they are. I think I got them right. Coke, with ice, and Runts for snacks. Pineapple in the Runts down here.
4:49pm- A quote came in from Ushuaia. 22 days from the start of the process. Still no ship date though. Yeah I’m glad I came here. (see 6:17pm)
5:02pm- Andres was my cab driver on the way back from the north end of town. He talked the whole time like he thought I could understand him. I just said ‘oh si?’ a lot. Oh and threw out ‘en serio?’ once or twice.
5:18pm- I went shopping for toys. It’s J’s fault. He spotted these toy Land Cruisers when we were in Castro, Chile in the corner of some hole in the wall junk store. I’ve been searching every town since. I estimate 200 stores I’ve walked through. Nothing. If the stores I checked tonight didn’t have them none of them will. Bummer really. Thanks J’s for sending me on a scavenger hunt with no reward.
5:33pm- Back at the hotel. Settle in to do nothing. Okay to stop sweating and do some packing.
6:17pm- Quote came in from Natalia for shipping out of Buenos Aires. Less than 2 full business days since I started the process here. Headed down in the morning to pick it up and over to customs to start the paperwork of getting my truck out of here.
6:43pm- go to my truck grab my huge duffle bag, my ipod, two books and some other miscellany to get packed for the trip home.
7:14pm- lit up brickbreaker (video game on the blackberry) while getting rid of some of the sugar I’ve taken in today. Legs fell asleep from sitting on the throne for too long. Damn game.
7:28pm- browsed the internet for awhile. Land cruiser stuff. Ebay looking for ACA medals. Indiana Jones trailer etc.
8:10pm- went for a walk to find dinner. BA is a bit of an enigma. A quick overview reveals a city of wealth, healthy economy and cleanliness. Walking around at night that all changes. The shops in my neck of the woods put all their trash on the street corners each night and it is cleaned up by the sanitation crews. Filthy at night, sparking clean in the morning. However before they get clean up the piles are ransacked by the impoverished for anything they can use. I saw two young girls waist deep in trash, tonight, ripping open bags and sorting through the contents. Fairly sad.
8:58pm- I ended up at McDonald’s for dinner tonight. I don’t eat there in the states and didn’t really want it but sometimes I just don’t want to go through the 90 mins process of eating in Latin America just for a chicken sandwich. To be honest with you, sometimes eating alone, for that long is depressing. Last night I ate a pizza in a crowded joint while watching the local BA club dominate a club from VZ. It was fun and intense. But tonight I just knew I needed food and didn’t care what it was. I was more than happy to eat quick, and head back to my hotel where even watching dumb TV makes me feel less alone.
9:08pm- Done with my chicken sandwich, coke with ice again and fries. I ordered and ate in less time than it takes a waiter to even acknowledge your presence in a real restaurant. Oddly I enjoyed it.
10:08pm- David Archeleta rocked it on American Idol
10:14pm- grabbed a coke from fridge. Need to get some work done tonight.
10:23pm- Cracked open the laptop and finally caught up on some lingering emails from last week.
11:12pm- Finished this post as well as some cheesy movie on FX about the same time. Hopefully you enjoyed my day as much as I did.
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