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Published: August 8th 2015
Caro amigos de los Gringos Viejos:
This is a little late for the Colombia blog, since we have been back in Detroit for six months now. However, I do now have the hippo video from the old Escobar menagerie that I finally figured out how to send to you. It is not great, but maybe some of you will find it interesting. It was shot by our driver Diego from a perch on top of the fence that would have been fatal to me. TravelBlog does not let you post videos directly any more, so you have to get them onto YouTube, and then send a YouTube address to everybody. Here it is:
As for travel advice, we advise everybody to come to Detroit in August. The summer has been just about perfect. We have turned on the air conditioner three times so far, but the "heat wave" (93 degrees) has passed and they are off again. It has rained just about the right amount so that we have only turned on the sprinkler system a few times. The weeds, and our remnant flowers in the front, are going wild. Come and share an evening drink with us on the stone terrace in the back yard, where we can watch the lightning bugs while getting a nice buzz from Mojitos made from our super-abundant concrete box mint bed.
We have a big construction project underway: Our third floor is changing from junk rooms to a nice two bedroom apartment, with a super big tiled bathroom and a generous hallway connecting the rooms, big enough for a small bar and bare-essentials kitchen in one corner. All this with new heating and air conditioning separate from the rest of the house. Next summer we will be able to house both daughters and their families at the same time. It's ridiculous that we have lived here 40 years with a third floor full of absolute junk that just sat there making a fire hazard. Our contractor lives right here in the Canfield Historic District, and is doing a great job, with little or no dust coming down on us.
Steve
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Invitation accepted
Not this August, and not until Hannah is done visiting us--but I will find a way to get there ASAP and test out the new quarters.