Summertime in Calheiros

Here is a view out our back window which Pat captured with a bit of help from the zoom lens.  

Gerrit made up a little story to remember whenever he gets frustrated by multiple word definitions in Portuguese: "He threw a fit because the jacket didn't fit his fit build.  He was fit to be tied."  "Fit" has at least four common definitions in English.  Portuguese is just as messy as any other language, including English.

The heat wave mercifully backed off about July 19; the days became partly cloudy and very pleasant, but here on July 25 we're getting some more heat.  Not as bad, fortunately.

We got the new pool chlorinator cells and they still didn't work!  Same problem as before.  Next thing to try is a new electrolyzer control unit, which Gerrit ordered on July 21.  This better do it.

On Tuesday July 22 Gerrit started taking a sledge hammer to the low stone wall we have along the far end of the pool.  It was built there for the boules court beyond it, but we will use that area for something else (plus clambering over the wall is a shin-busting headache).  After an hour of pouring sweat, only about 1 m (3 feet) of the wall had been partly taken down.  The magnitude of the job was sinking in: time to find someone with a jackhammer.

The following day he picked up our custom-cut granite slabs for building up the pool-cover end of the pool, and learned firsthand how heavy granite is.  He got the slabs hauled up next to the pool with the help of a hand truck and our lift.  He pieced them together and they fit perfectly.  They will eventually be glued onto the patio slabs already there to build up their height, but we need to work out how to get the wiring routed underneath first.

Pat has set up a weekly Tuesday swim get-together with our friend Maayan at the Arcos de Valdevez public pool, about 20 minutes away.  The aquatic center there has beautiful, full size indoor and outdoor pools, where Maayan can swim laps and Pat can get some water-walking exercise.  It's a fun time for them both, and a different swimming experience than our backyard pool.

She is also doing a lot of cooking.  She has bought a Kitchen Aid mixing appliance to replace the one she left behind in the US.  It will be a great all-purpose kitchen appliance, and Gerrit likes that it makes pure ice cream and frozen fruit sorbet too.  She has also made several batches of pastel de nata now, the Portuguese national pastry, and has raised it to an art.

Pat is also taking care of watching for interesting events, pulling Gerrit up out of his git-'er-done rut, and keeping life interesting and fun.  She is also slowly re-stocking our household goods.  And buying way too many herbs, in Gerrit's opinion.  Pat begs to differ: she says she will be adding interest and zip to her vegetable dishes and Gerrit should be pleased about that.

We got our Certificate of Baggage, finally, which is required to allow us to ship our remaining goods from the US here.  But unfortunately somehow our original June 25, 2024 date of entry into Portugal is shown as our start of residency rather than the actual May 2, 2025 date.  That puts us over a year and makes us liable for taxes and duty on our goods.  We're not sure what to do now, but our immigration consultant is exploring our options.  We hope we don't have to restart the entire Certificate process.

The new pool electrolyzer control unit arrived on Thursday July 24.  Gerrit put it in the following day, the job went smoothly, and it began working right away.  So the chlorinator cells have been fine all along!  He put our original chlorinator cell back in and it's got plenty of life left in it.  Oh, well, so now we have two spare cells.

We've made the Saturday farmer's market here part of our weekly routine.  Every Saturday morning we head down there and fill a couple sacks with fresh local produce.  Pat (or Patrícia as she is known here) is getting great at working with the vendors and counting out change, and is becoming friends with many of them.  Last Saturday, July 26, she got a big hug and kisses from one of her favorites.

We are in wildfire season now.  We have had three of them in about the last week, all about 25 km (15 mi) away in a wilderness area east of here, near where the Spanish border jogs south.  The bombeiros (firefighters) have been heroic in getting them all under control quickly.  They are supported by volunteers, and we will be upping our contribution.

(As usual, you can click on any photo to enlarge it, scroll through them all, and click outside a photo when you're done.  Also, you can click on the bold underlined phrases to play the audio.)

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First Dip, Craft Beer, and Clean Granite

Wednesday July 9 was our weekly get-together with the expats at the craft beer bar Letraria in the center of Ponte de Lima, and as we left we met four storks strolling through the parking lot.

Then on Saturday we took our first dip in the pool.  The water was 25 C (77 F) so it was a bit nippy for Pat, but Gerrit loved it.  Maybe it's our imagination, but the salt water felt silky.  We thought we felt the same thing in our friends Steve and Lisa's saltwater pool in Florida, so at least we have consistent imaginations.  (Actually the salinity of a saltwater pool is only about 1/10 that of the ocean, so there isn't much difference from fresh.)  It was really great fun, we laughed like kids, and then we sat and admired the view of Ponte de Lima from the best seats in the house.

On Sunday evening July 13 we went with our friends Maayan and Dan to Caminha, a little town north of here almost to the Spanish border, for a craft beer festival.  We each bought small empty glasses for 4 €, which was basically the entry fee, and then beer prices varied.  Many varieties were available, from all over the world.  Everything was cashless -- you just flashed your debit card and within seconds you were enjoying your beer.  We had dinner there too, from one of the many food trucks.  There was live entertainment for most of the festival from an excellent group doing Django Reinhardt style swing/jazz guitar with backup.  We met some English expats there, friends of Maayan and Dan's (and now of us), and had a fun and lively conversation until the festival began to wind down and everyone went home.

On Tuesday July 15 we went to Braga, the third-largest city in Portugal, about 40 minutes away.  We intended to participate in a Quiz Night at a café there with our friends Maayan and Dan and Simona (a friend of Maayan's and a Portugal newcomer).  Unfortunately Quiz Night filled up quickly, so we made our own quiz show by guessing and lying about obscure word definitions, and had a nice dinner at the café.  Here is Pat next to a fountain in the heart of Braga.

Gerrit finally finished pressure washing the black algae off most of the house granite.  It glistens white now, you can see the tiny mica flakes twinkle in the sun and everything looks fresh and new.  We'll see how much algae comes back by next spring.  We're hoping that from now on it will be a relatively quick touch-up job each spring.  We had to do that for tree pollen on the deck at our place back in Seattle too.

Before	After
Before	After
Before	After
Before	After

(As usual, you can click on any photo to enlarge it, scroll through them all, and click outside a photo when you're done.  Also, you can click on the bold underlined phrases to play the audio.)

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Portuguese People, Pools, and Provisions

Gerrit's new obsession is our swimming pool.  He's figured out most of how it works from manuals and notes, and the regular maintenance requirements from websites, so look out.  He vacuumed the pool and cleaned the filter himself on Wednesday July 2 for the first time and everything is squeaky clean.  Keeping it that way will be a full time job though, so getting a pool cover installed as soon as possible will really help keep the bugs, leaves, and dirt out.

Unfortunately the saltwater chlorinator is defunct though.  We went to a pool supply center, got some descaler for it, and gave it a good treatment, but it's still not working.  The tech at the pool supply told us that chlorinators are usually good for about five years and ours is eleven years old, so it's probably time for an upgrade anyway.  Now to find one.  This brand is a little obscure and they seem to be available only in France (if at all).

At least the Google AI (Gemini) was sympathetic and friendly when Gerrit confessed his butane tank latching screwup to it after having asked it what was wrong (see previous post).  Gemini has told him before that reporting actual problem solving helps it learn new solutions to the problem.  But can an AI actually be sympathetic and friendly?  Gerrit is trying to resist the urge to thank it when it is helpful.  He's heard that many gigawatt-hours of energy are wasted by people thanking AIs all over the world.  

Now the grill is going great, and he has slow-cooked a pork roast and a grilled a chicken.  He got the temperature wrong on the pork roast so it was rather dried out, but a little drizzle of olive oil worked surprisingly well to moisturize it without making it taste like salad dressing.  The chicken was excellent, and many more happy BBQs are to come.

On Friday Jul 4 our housekeeper Inês was here doing her normal fabulous job.  We offered her a ride home again, this time warning her a day in advance and definitely not refusing her offer to come in.  Her husband Pedro was there, and they showed us around their beautiful, neat-as-a-pin place.  They have been there for 35 years and the place looks brand new, fresh paint and finishings, everything.  They keep an immaculate house.  They have a small farm with grape vines, a field of corn, and a small orchard of fruit trees.  They invited us to stay for lunch and we had a wonderful time together.

The all-Portuguese conversation flowed freely, believe it or not, with Gerrit handling most of the verbiage and Pat interpreting the non-verbal part.  We talked about our jobs, the political situation in the US, how long we had lived various places, our offspring, and so forth.  It turned out that Pedro is an engineer for Formula 1 race cars!  He travels all over the world for his job.  [EDIT: that was Pedro's son-in-law.  Still not quite getting all the Portuguese!]  We became fast friends, took group photos, and parted on the best of terms.  Boy, it's really not been our experience that the Portuguese are hard to get close to.  They are warm, friendly, and welcoming, they touch and hug readily, and they love to celebrate.  It's quite an honor to be included with their friends and family.

Another language success story was at the local swimming pool supply, where no one speaks English.  We've been in a couple times now, needing to talk tech about chlorinator cleaning and other things, so Gerrit plunged in and mostly got his point across.  It's amazing what you can talk about using only the present tense, with the vocabulary of a six year old, and some mental tap dancing to find words you know to express the things you can't.  The patient and friendly staff there help, too.

We went to one of our favorite local restaurants for lunch, but it was deserted.  There was a note written on notebook paper taped to the door with just one word: férias (vacation).  We had to laugh, it was so Portuguese!  No "sorry we missed you", no return date, just a simple "we're gone".  The sign has been up about a week now.

Here's a new translation we just ran across: to pet an animal is "fazer festas a", literally "to make parties at".  What a sweet image!  Both the owner and the pet, having little parties.

Gerrit decided he wanted to drain some of the pool, because too much salt had been added.  He did some math to determine how low we needed to bring the water line to achieve the desired ppm of salt, strung together some dryer hose for a drain pipe, disassembled part of the plumbing in the pool equipment room, and several hours later had drained the water level down to the target.  Then for several more hours he added  fresh water, enough to bring the pool level up again, and the salt level was now exactly right.  (See?  He's obsessed.  Please send help.)

On Sunday July 6 we decided to take a break from pressure washing and gardening (it was getting roasting hot) so we headed to the coastal city of Viana do Castelo and then north a bit till we found a coastal seafood restaurant.  We really want some more of those Portuguese grilled sardines while the season is still high.  But guess what they didn't have on the menu?  Oh well, clams and octopus will have to do.  Both delicious and a nice way to beat the heat in the ocean breezes.

Picture postcard scene near the restaurant	Clams and octopus, half eaten before we remembered to take a picture
Seafood makes Gerrit happy	Atlantic view from the restaurant

And Pat has had her first conversation with a stranger in Portuguese.  She was in line at a Chinese store (one of the popular variety stores, actually called "Chinese stores") and chatted with the woman behind her, who spoke only Portuguese.  They commented on the weather (hot), their purchases, how we lived in Portugal now and how the woman was so pleased about that, how delighted she was that we were from the US (instead of the UK, which is more commonplace) and other friendly talk.  Pat reports that it was natural and low-stress.  And a milestone!  Not only that, but it was her first solo drive on the exciting roads here.

Gerrit has found the chlorinator which our pool system uses at a distributor near Lisbon, and has ordered two of them.  The water chemistry measures in the acceptable range now, so we are just about to dive in for the first time.  The chlorine level is okay as it is now, so we don't need to wait for the new chlorinator.

Gerrit also completed the engineering drawings for the granite risers we need in order to support the upcoming pool cover mechanism and bench.  There are granite suppliers just on the other side of the valley here (who provided the granite for this house, by the way), so we headed there.  Gerrit was rehearsing the Portuguese he'd need to explain it all, but the very helpful employee spoke English quite well and they completed the order to Gerrit's satisfaction.  Total cost for granite and custom cutting was under $100, and it should be ready in a week or two.

(As usual, you can click on any photo to enlarge it, scroll through them all, and click outside a photo when you're done.  Also, you can click on the bold underlined phrases to play the audio.)

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