Stannous Flouride's Book of Truthiness

Those of you who have lived in San Francisco for a while may remember a Mission District store called Four Brothers Furniture. It was at the corner of 18th and Mission in that beautiful enameled steel building and had the most marvelously outrageous collection of furnishings you have ever seen.

Yesterday I found its superior. The same store times a thousand. No, times 10,000! Here are a few of the pictures I took:

That, is a chair. I was dying to but didn’t want to risk trying her/it out.

That, is a life-sized horse.

This is what drew me into the store in the first place. It stands about 4-5 ft./120-150 cm tall. The store is so packed full of stuff that I actually had to go outside to get the full body:

I wanted to get this for my pal Robin.

How about a little UK uber allies? This was just part of the massive UK-themed selection.

Remember those giant bottles that they used to use for roadside ads?

I think this is what they do with the caps:

I took at least 10-15 more with my camera because my phone was dying. If I figure out how get them off that memory card I’ll add them.

I did buy one thing. A gift for Lily Prillinger, the Haight’s  cool bike cop.

This is so far the rainiest ‘dry season’ I have ever experienced. I realize that that is a relative term and that compared to the ‘wet season’ these intermittent showers might be a literal and figurative drop in the bucket.

But when one wants to go traipsing around in a mangrove swamp these brief downpours are more than enough to stifle those ambitions.

So today I was assigned to the lab. Doing the mundane sort of job that is necessary for such long term research. My task was to measure into glass vials small samples of soil from Chiapas. Each vial had to be placed on the digital scale and zero tared and then have a sample of fine sand and soil placed in it that weighed NO LESS than 0.2050 grams and NO MORE than 0.2098 grams. A tolerance at which as few as 5 grains of very fine soil spilled on the scale can make the difference between acceptable and not.

I did this for a bit more than four and a half hours. I did 72 vials (on only one did I manage to hit within the margin on the first scoop).

I was surrounded by some very beautiful young Mayan women. I believe, from the labels on their smocks that they were all college science students though it was not clear whether they were there because they wanted to become environmental scientists or were there to pick up some credits.

I was the only English speaker present but was able  joke and make them laugh with what Spanish vocabulary I have. Por ejemplo: when one sample contained flecks of iron pyrite, I said ”Mira! Oro! No se lo digas a nadie. Vamos a compartir y ser rico! (Look! Gold! Don’t tell anyone. We will divide it and be rich!) And they all laughed (though admittedly they may have just been being polite to ‘el gringo viejo’.

I have enough understanding of the nature of such work that it is all part of the greater whole, that every task is as important as any other. The woman running that section of the lab Dra. Olivia Ortega (who speaks as much of my language as I do hers) apologized for the postponed field trip and for assigning me such a ‘boring’ (her word) task.

She was surprised to learn that I would be there for 6 weeks. I learned later that most volunteers are there for a week to ten days.

I believe I put her concerns to rest when I said, ”No importa. Lo que usted necesita hecho voy a hacer.” (It is not important. What you need done I will do.”

It may not have been the day I wanted but I WAS reminded by the day’s tedious task as to why I am NOT cut out to be a scientist.

Because of last night’s rain they put off going out and tromping around a mangrove swamp.

But I had a very productive day: I learned how to get there by (an oft intermittent bus), I went shopping for some foodstuffs*, I picked up plenty of Pepto Bismol (a hedge against future intestinal problems), I got a haircut (of a sort that looks much like what wore as a defender of ‘Murrica’s freedom) and bought some art supplies.

Last night I’d already shaved off the rather white beard I had been experimenting with. It made me look and feel old.

With these tonsorial changes I look and feel ten years younger.

But it will be the improved coolness that is what really matters. Today, because of the rain last nite it was brutally humid.

Over the course of the day I drank about  3 liters of water and two beers but never once felt I had to pee’

*Don’t get me wrong, I adore my 83 (her) and 82 (him) year old  hosts but the food I have been served is of a sort I haven’t eaten since the 60s: white bread, American cheese food, instant coffee, artificial sweeteners, instant pre-sweetened iced tea, margarine, fake fruit juice, etc.

Now, I grew up learning to eat what ever is on your plate without complaint. I even waited to meet the guy who runs the program to ask if they’d be offended if I brought my own food before doing so. He laughed and assured me that it was fine. They’d dealt with vegans, vegetarians, gluten free eaters, etc. My preferences were minor compared to what they had had to adjust to in the past..

(In other news I think I’ve figured out how to get the pictures off of my digital camera and on here so I can add some illustrations of the stuff I’ve been seeing. Stuff like this in a traffic circle in front of the pre-school across street:

I’ll be working on a long term survey of the soils and waters of the coastal mangrove forests as pertains to climate change.

Almost as if in honor of that it rained last night for the first time, I was attacked by mosquitoes (enough to wake me) and I got my first attack of diarrhea.

Oh well, that’s what DEET and Pep to are for.

Off to get muddy!

I took LOTS of photos and videos of this wonderful Parque Nacional, the wintering place for thousands of flamingos. Unfortunately, I have not yet figured out how to move them from my phone to my pad even though both are Android devices.

We took a boat ride that brought us within 4-5 meters of them. We were in the midst of 100s of them making and awful racket.

I think there is a definite correlation between a bird’s beauty and its cacophonic call. Peacocks also have a screechy sound.

But flamingos do soar gracefully and many passed just above our heads.

We then took an excursion into a mangrove forest that looked and sounded like every jungle movie I’ve ever seen. We alighted on a rather dilapidated pier and followed a narrow boardwalk to a swimming hole that had fresh water bubbling up from below and a little further on, as far as we could go before the gaps in the planks exceeded the walkable parts I saw a baby crocodile, about 20 inches long.

(everyone called it a ‘crocodilito’ but I was unable to tell whether it was an alligator or crocodile at that distance)

After our excursion (lots of pics later, I promise) we headed to the beachfront town of Celestun and a fantastic seafood lunch.

I have a lot more to discuss about this trek but have to get ready for my first day of work. Chao.

(btw- I know the Italian spelling is ciao but to Spanish speakers it is spelled as above)

It is ten minutes past the pick up time but I am chalking it up to the manana attitude for which Mexico is so well known.

On the other hand the taxi they sent to pick me up was 15 minutes early. I guess it’s a wash.

I have texting and have Whatsapp installed on my phone. If you want receive notes and images, send me an email with your number

The old part of town is quite beautiful but one of the dangers of travel in the off-season is that not everything is open. 3 of the 4museums I tried to see were closed for renovation.

I still had a great time and created my first post card, a view out the door of a café

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So you see why I don’t promise everyone a post card.

Each one is an original painting. And this one is going to my darling daughter who will be 26 on Sunday.

Feliz cumpleano, amorcita!

I had a long but mostly pleasant expedition.

I gave myself 90 minutes before my shuttle pick up to put the last few items in my suitcase, shower, stash my computer, gather my things and then head downstairs where I found the shuttle just pulling up.

Only one other passenger, over in Noe Valley. Against my suggestion the driver followed his GPS which took a rather circuitous over the hill and up the entire length of Church St to Day St.

But we made it okay and I arrived at Aero Mexico an hour earlier than I’d allotted time for. (The curse of having had a former airline ticket agent for a mom is always getting to the airport WAY early)

But it made it possible to book a coveted exit row seat. Unlike ‘Murrican carriers, they don’t charge extra for that seat.(they also allow two full size suitcases at no extra charge and include free alcoholic beverages with the meal. I’d forgotten what it was like to fly without being squeezed for every fucking penny!)

One of the first things I noticed at the gate is that Aero Mexico divides the passengers up into groups so that the two outer window rows board first, followed by the two middle seat rows, and then the two aisle seat rows.

It makes for very efficient boarding with less people to climb over.Far too sensible for ‘Murricans to adopt.

The flight was pretty uneventful though I was given a nice view of the Glen Canyon dam and the Grand Canyon just as the sun set.

Flying into Ciudad Mexico at night really showed what a massive metropolitan area it is, though I would have liked to see Pococatepetl.

Unfortunately, once I was in C.M. things went a bit less smoothly. Though I had a 2+hr layover it was just enough time to claim my suitcase, pass through customs*, and get to the gate.

*(I was allowed to bring in the 14 different types of apples and pears though. My hosts were very pleased.)

I paused to send a couple of emails and was so distracted that I only heard the final boarding call.(missing it would have meant a 12 hour layover with no way to call my hosts in Merida. Whew!)

This time, however, I was far less fortunate with my seating. I had been assigned the window seat in the very last row. You know, the seats that don’t recline. On top (or beside) that were my two row-mates who were even wider than I am.

Even in the dark Merida is a lovely city.

I went out and bought an Android cell phone and was only able to access it with a couple of hours of intervention by two lovely young women at a TelCel phone store.

I would have ended up throwing it across the street.

I have been taking lots of pictures but won’t be able to use them to illustrate these posts until I get to a computer or figure out how to use the new phone to do it.

It feels like I have been tossed into the deep end of the bilingual pool

but my lousy espanol is getting me by so far.