Perspectives

Rafting down the Pacuare River in Costa Rica, swimming through the calmer parts, canyon walls and waterfalls on either side.





I've seen these scenes a million times from the riverbanks and overviews, never from in the river. It's quite a change of perspective and i enjoy the new take on old views.

It was relatively safe - our guide fell in the river within the first ten minutes but pulled himself back in quick enough, and a Spanish woman almost fell in but held on to the side and we pulled her in just before she was crushed between the raft and a very large boulder. Yup, safe enough for anyone to try.

Former Work

In front of Ford Field (the large covered structure on the right) is a brick building. That buidling is in Brewery Park - the former location of Stroh's Brewery, where my maternal grandfather worked many years ago. If you care to learn more about Detroit's brewery history, tours are offered.

Correction

My mother informed me she had a photo of the desk from before we began refinishing it.

Work.

Spent the last couple weeks refinishing this desk.



My mom stripped the desk then left it for me to stain, shellac, and put back together. In the mean time she painted this room and bought those curtains that i would later hang.







Inspired by the Costa Rican cart we were given a number of years ago, and by the skin colour variance in my family, i stained the wood 3 different colours. I also hand-sanded all the original screws to remove all the nicks and the old yellow stain (unfortunately we do not have a photo of the desk before it was refinished).



All that's missing is a little girl drawing little pictures at this little desk.

Raw

The way i remember the story, on the way home from the beach, my father spotted some fishermen in a small boat, hauling a shark onto shore. He stopped the car, walked over to them, and, not speaking the language, bargained with them for the shark's jaws.

I doubt that's a 100% accurate rendition.



We've had those jaws in our family ever since that time in Somalia, some 30 years ago, and they remind me of the rawness of overseas living. I now have them at home, and i now also carry a permanent reminder of that rawness.



This weekend also marks the end of my Stats class. I took 80 minutes (out of 240 allowed) to get an 89% on the final exam. I think i finished the class with a low A.

I set out with two criteria for this class: watch none of the dvd lectures (it's an online class - all lectures are provided on a set of 6 dvds), and no use of the special features of the fancy calculator that was marked as a requirement for each homework, quiz and test. I even managed to go the first couple weeks without using any calculator, after which i grew tired of long division (not to mention square roots) and started using perl for nothing more complex than sqrt().

Now that i'm done with the class, i plan on watching the dvd lectures; maybe the material will start to make sense.



Taking closeups of one's own arm (these 3 are full frame) is a little tedious and best not done in a hurry; pardon the imperfections.

Changes

While many folks attended graduation on the Diag, a few blocks away the old Ann Arbor YMCA was being demolished. I watched it for hours. The right side of the building was hanging precariously over the road just prior to this photo. Despite this danger, the hoseman sprayed on.

Trash Talkin'

That bandage cost me $150. Dawn, the woman who put it on me, was very nice and i recommend her bandaging to anyone. Hopefully she will one day be able to travel to Rome and see the original cause of the wound she was bandaging.