July 2009 During the majority of this month I was south of the border. In Costa Rica I made my first visit to John Pilskog & Sally Dolak in their adoptive country, and made the pilgrimage to Dos Rios, the property that Perrey Reeves and Jeff Gossett are developing into a yoga retreat center, where I found construction proceeding apace. Steep slopes and friable tendencies in the soil led the architect to propose a system, now being implemented, where each structure?s weight is distributed over massive steel "umbrellas" whose "handles" terminate in concrete pillars (each two to three meters long) that are themselves cemented into place with concrete. No earthquakes shall agitate the peace of the residents of these buildings!

From CR I proceeded to Argentina, into the snout of the swine flu ? before disembarking from the plane flight attendants were obliged to pass out face masks, which we were obliged to wear in order to pass through customs and immigration. Once on the street I jettisoned mine, and Dr. Carmen sped me into the city for my first look at her darling baby daughter Ambar. I spent the next two weeks with Carmen & Ambar & her partner Cristian and our friend Sarada, getting to know the baby and exploring parts of Baires (as the city is known to the cognoscenti) that were new to me, including the Rosedal, the large rose garden complete with fountains, duck pond, baobab-like trees, and an enclave ornamented with the busts of notable poets (including among many others Borges and Shakespeare), the products of multiple sculptors. While in Argentina Cristian poured excellent wines (his brother is a noted oenophile and dealer), and he & I stayed up late one night to watch the delightful August Rush.

By month's end I had made it back to South Texas, where July set a number of records for high temperatures and lack of rain. In such a climate it becomes difficult (or impossible) to do anything in a hurry, which made it easy for me to follow the advice contained within the motto on the napkin of Buenos Aires' Café Martinez: Comé, bebé, amá, despacio, muy despacio, hacé que tu vida dure más!

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