Brian and Sarah in Ecuador

 It is hard to know exactly how to catagorize this post.  I guess it might be helpful to explain first why I am writing it.  Brian and I are classified as migrants, and if anyone is interested (which I doubt) I could explain the legal process that goes into getting temporary visas to live here, and generally what you might need to get a permanent one - although the criteria for these changes frequently.  But I'm not going to do that, unless anyone is truly interested.  The short answer is that it takes a while, but if you have funds and a clean background check, the Ecuadorian government seems happy to have you.  Let's call it green privilege. More interesting, and less straightforward are those entering without this privilege, most notably from Venezuela.  I watch to see how this is handled in South America, in contrast to the Charlie Foxtrot that is our US Southern border.  First of all, I have nothing but empathy for those who flee countries wh...

 The average life span of a Bermese Mountain Dog is just 6-8 years.  The average life span of a Newfoundland is 10 years.  These are the 2 dominent breeds that make up Maya.  So it was not a huge surprise last spring when we noticed Maya slowing down more and losing weight, shortly before her 11th birthday. I agreed to a basic work up, just some lab tests.  Maya's liver and kidneys were slowing down.  Her weight went up a bit, then back down to the underweight catagory, and I was told to increase the protien in her diet, as she was not absorbing nutrients as well.  I had already been increasing the amount with little effect.  Increasing the protient did the trick for a bit, and she rapidly regained.  Knowing her time on this Earth is limited, we nonetheless made plans to bring her to Ecuador.  There was no way in hell I was abandoning my senior dog, who had helped me raise Thomas, the last months or year of her life.  It took 2 mont...

 We returned to Portland for 2 weeks to see our kids over Christmas.  Gabrielle is finishing up nursing school, and will join the ranks of health care workers working either holidays, or the days around them.  Thomas is finishing his engineering training in the Navy in a couple of weeks, and may very well be at sea next year.  We wanted to take advantage of this opportunity. It was great to see them, and we had plenty of quality time.  However, since we don't really have a home base in Portland anymore, and airfare was prohibitively expensive, we didn't really have much money do do much while we were here.  It was a low key Christmas for sure.  And the inclement weather had us shut in a bit - first an ice storm, and then a regular storm that downed a lot of power lines.  Gabrielle took the opportunity to work some shifts at her old pizza joint to earn some cash, since her nursing program is too intense to allow this.  Thomas, Brian, and I all...