More Loose Change or

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The hummingbirds are back in town. Strange that they leave during the summer months. I wonder where they go. Maybe, like so many Santiaguinos, they’re escaping the heat.

Out on my walking route, ads on posts proclaiming “Perro Perdido”. How many dogs get lost just in our neighborhood! Mug shots of missing pets change weekly.

Went to see the movie “Selma” last night. I needed to refresh my memory about those events. Then I realized why I seemed to have a memory gap about those years….I was in Colombia in the Peace Corps then and had little contact with US news. It’s disturbing to me to think that was the situation in my country just fifty years ago. And it’s not over yet.

Fires rage out of control. Chile is living the consequences of climate change. Years of drought has converted much of the landscape, even in the normally rainy southern climes, into dry tinder, yellowed hills and fields replacing the once lush green ones. Now winds fan the flames through the hills of coastal Valparaiso, a tragedy that is becoming a yearly event. But amidst the fear and worry of hillside residents came moments of joy. Passersby noticed a burrow dug by a female dog under a pile of burning tires. A local man crawled in and, one by one, pulled out seven puppies of varying colors. Each rescued puppy elicited cheers from onlookers. They were then reunited with their clever mom who had taken cover beneath a container. A canine version of the rescue of the 33 Chilean miners?

The Lollapalooza rock festival came to town this past weekend. My son and his wife took their three young girls. Today – a Whatsaap photo of the ten-year-old twins performing at the Kidzpalooza, one singing before a microphone, the other playing the guitar. Wish I’d been there. Little teeny-boppers in the making. So soon.

Pierre Auguste Renoir said, “I like a painting that makes me want to stroll in it.” Oh, yes!