Friday, October 9, 2009

Venezuela

Pine Mountain News

I spent the week finishing a small furniture
order and delivering it. I performed the fall
maintenance on the furnace and turned it
on for the winter.
Our greenhouse garden is still producing
fresh vegetables `and all the windows and
doors have fresh caulking to keep the cold
winter winds outside.



Poem of the Week


Panoramic








by emily d stine

because slow death is beautiful
as chlorophyll fades
from each leaf point

the color spectrum
spanning from
life
to
death,
paint by number.

dying perfection
watching each leaf
falling
onto
the
sidewalk
p a n o r a m i c

a mosaic of aborted foliage
coloring
the blank
concrete
biodegradable art
made more beautiful
by
stepping
on
it.
crunch


Feature Story of the Week

Venezuela






Amount I knew about Venezuela before

I went there: zero. Now, I’m not sure I’d

recommend this as a general rule,

because god knows what you’re going to

get into. But, since you’re reading this,

you’re going not going to be in the same

boat that I was.


Now, what happened to me was that I

was kicking around in South America

when an editor I knew managed to get

a hold of me to write a story about

some goings on in Venezuela. I argued

that since I didn’t know a thing about

the country I maybe wasn’t his man,

but he used the cunning persuasion

technique of throwing lots of money.


So I ended up In Venezuela with a day’s

worth of work to do, a fat check waiting

for me and no pressing plans. So what

you need to know about Venezuela is

this; it’s officially called the Bolivarian

Republic of Venezuela, it’s a medium

sized country, highly urbanized and their

President is classically not a huge fan

of America.


Don’t let that last one dissuade you

from traveling there, because the

country as a whole is stable and

prosperous, and even with my (very)

limited Spanish, the people were warm

and welcoming. Hugo Chavez, their

president, was the reason I was there,

so Caracas, the capitol city, was my

first stop.


Caracas is a very large and very

interesting city, and I do mean large,

the overall urban area has more than

five million people. Like a lot of South

American cities, you get a mix of

architecture dating back the

seventeenth century butted right up

against skyscrapers. There’s a little

less of this in Caracas, but there’s

still plenty of stuff to see.


Like the birthplace of Simon Bolivar

who is, as you might have guessed

from the name of the country, quite

important historically. I’m kind of

history guy, so I eat this kind of

thing up. You might also want to

take a look at the Parque Central

Complex, which is a series of seriously

grim looking buildings that are actually

the cultural center of the city. If you

want to see art and performance, this

is the place to go.


The rest of the country is worth seeing,

too. I didn’t quite as into the outdoors

things as I usually would when Rich is

along, but there’s certainly a lot to see.

I’d recommend Andean Venezuela,

where the Andes stretch through the

country and there’s incredible hiking

and camping in the area.








For those of you less into hiking and

more into hedonism, there’s the Isla

de Margarita. I admit, I went there

because an island named after one

of my favorite drinks sounded like a

match made in heaven. The beaches

there are beautiful, with warm weather

and crisp blue waters.


All in all, I had a lot of fun tooling

around Venezuela on my unplanned

and under informed trip. I would

recommend the trip for nearly anyone

who enjoys seeing new cultures and

beautiful countryside.



Pine Mountain Evening


It is evening once again at the Pine
Mountain ranch.
Fall is here and the
nighttime temperatures approach
the
freezing point.

We have just finished dinner and are
gathered in the
family room. There
is a cheery fire in the fireplace and

Laurel and Grace are playing a game
of scrabble.
I am seated in my easy
chair readingmy Discover magazine

and enjoying my
sample coffee of the day from

http://www.coffeefool.com.
Tonight I am enjoying Colombian Supremo.

This full bodied
American roast coffee is
mild and enjoyable in flavor. It is just
the
right coffee to relax and end the day.
Grace
won at scrabble and now my coffee
is finished too.
It is time to head off to bed.
See everyone
next week.


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