Evening all:

Quote Of The Week:

“I took a speed reading course and read ‘War and Peace’ in twenty minutes. It involves Russia.” Woody Allen

Yesterday, almost 5 hours later than scheduled, Marcia and I stepped out of the airport terminal in Buenos Aires. The shuttle bus driver advised us that it was the first day of winter. The penetrating rain, gusty wind, and cold told us he was spot on correct.

This cold was a far cry from Sunday last week—Father’s day. The day was picture perfect, and being the senior guy in the family it became my call as to how it should be celebrated. Question, what to do so that everyone between 2 and 66 will not just cope but have a great time as well. The answer was plain as day, watch some Shakespeare in the park. That is exactly what we did, the whole Cincinnati gang went and enjoyed a lighthearted production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Sitting on a blanket and bag chairs under in shade of an old Oak tree—it couldn’t have been better.

As mentioned, Marcia & I arrived safe and sound in Buenos Aires. It did take a little longer that we had wished for. The flight left Atlanta promptly at 8:45 last Thursday night. At 7:30 Friday morning we made several tries at landing – heavy ground level winds, wind from the wrong direction, fog, and rain made each pass a no-go. On the final try, for about a second, we saw the runway and terminal with planes sitting at the gates from about 800 feet up. Finally, low on fuel, we left for Montevideo, Uruguay. Since Delta has no landing rights there they had to negotiate for a load of fuel. Fuelled up we had to sit and wait for the winds to shift and when they did the tug used for push-back couldn’t be found. Eventually all the stars aligned. 3.5 hours later our captain slammed the wheels down hard in Argentina – it was exactly 12:10 in the afternoon.

Today was perfect, sunny, mid sixties, an outdoor artisan market, and for lunch a couple of cheese empanadas with a cold beer. Tonight we’ll walk to the Ave. 9 de Julio [which is wider than Paris’ Champs d’Elysee] for dinner. If we arrive at the restaurant shortly after nine we’ll be amongst the early diners. Argentineans are notoriously late eaters.

With all of this we skipped our quick sojourn to visit Colonia, Uruguay. It is now scheduled to start at 8:30 in the morning – 50 minutes away on a hydrofoil boat. Back at 6:30 we’ll be just in time for the opening reception of my “congress”.

Make it a great week. Remember, a little Tango here and a little Tango there.
Cheers,

Dirk

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