Celery

A couple of people have asked me if there is a way for them to be notified when I´ve posted something new here. They´re no doubt really tired of checking, only to see that I haven´t. At any rate, I have attached a button if you want to "subscribe." I have no idea how it works, or if it works. I believe I know how to enter up to 10 email addresses to be automatically notified. If you want me to add yours, just let me know. Please, be orderly. No pushing or shoving. Some people have asked for fotos also. Aside from the fact that I don´t really like taking fotos are have any worth posting, I can´t figure out how to post more than one at a time. I´ll keep looking.

In one of my earlier postings about things I miss in Brasil, I neglected to mention celery. I remember a cooking show in the US where the host spoke about "the holy trinity" of celery, carrots and onions and that made perfect sense to me. I can find a word for celery in my English-Português dictionary, but I can´t find it in the stores. I was in an unfamiliar market recently and I found a very few plastic-wrapped trays of pre-cut carrot and celery sticks. But that was it. There was no other celery anywhere. As a sign of my adjustment, I´ve found a cheese that I like and am no longer bothered every day by the fact that Brasileans think Velveeta is Cheddar.

Some things are the same everywhere, and today I am waiting who knows how long for the delivery of a new stove. The last time I waited for delivery of anything, it was for a new bed and it didn´t get here until well after dark. It is my week for waiting. Yesterday I waited for a microwave repairman. But think about it: the microwave is still under warranty and the repairman comes to you!!! We didn´t need to pack it up and take it somewhere. But, just like in the US, it will be two or three days until he can find the right parts and come back.

Right now we are in the midst of a great old midwestern-US-style thunderstorm in São Paulo. The sky is black and the lightning looks like it directly outside the window. The thunder cracks are deafening. It did the same thing, although even more awesome, last night at midnight. It is the kind of storm we didn´t generally have in Southern California, and which I missed.

Tchau