An entry, posted late, requiring every ounce of strength to type

Notable World Cup “tuneup” results:

• Ecuador 1, Morocco 1 (cracker of a game)
• Brazil 1, France 2 (France dominant)
• England 1, Uruguay 1 (tedious)
• Colombia 1, Croatia 2 (dunno)
• South Korea 0, Ivory Coast 4 (look out for the “Elephants”)
• USA 2, Belgium 5 (too soon to gloat, alas)

Tomorrow promises to be grueling; today already was. Lily, Karin’s sister, will be married tomorrow afternoon. It’s the childcare that vexes. Samuel, at least, is accounted for: he’ll bear the rings. He successfully brought the cushion down the aisle during today’s rehearsal.

Abel and Daniel are another matter. The last thing the ceremony needs is a chorus of squawking. I scouted the building today for possible retreating-places. There aren’t many.

Today, before I chased around and, ocassionally, strong-armed Abel and Daniel, I’d already tired myself loading a humungous, old brush pile – which had plagued our backyard since we bought the property in 2021 – into our pastor’s trailer. Pastor Josh and I took the debris to the church and tossed it into the forest next to the parking lot. It’s not every day you get to dump stuff in a forest.

This has been a grueling entry to type, too, because my “shift” key has been sticking.

Events of the weekend

Friday night, we had quite a rainstorm. It was loud and flashy and lasted several hours. Jasper and Ziva hid.

Karin took this video from our living room window:

The next day, when Karin & I went to the zoo, hardly anyone else was around, what with everything so wet. I’m glad we waited until this weekend to use our free tickets.

One of the lions was in fine form:

Tonight, Karin’s dad bought us chicken wings for Karin’s birthday:

The two youngsters in the photo are Julian, Karin’s stepbrother from one of her dad’s previous marriages, and Lily, Karin’s sister.

It seems Karin & I won’t be moving to Muncie. I was notified of my rejection this morning.

Once more to the lake

… that is, once more for Karin, who spent much of her childhood there. For me, it was the first time.

The lake is in the most Amish part of Middlebury, on the eastern edge of Elkhart County. This is some of the prettiest countryside in all of Northern Indiana. Its hills are very steep; its pastures, very green; its cows, horses, and sheep, healthy and frisky.

On the road, we met more buggies and pedestrians than motorcars.

Then we turned down a long, narrow lane with a sign that said “Private Driveway.”

It took us to the gated community of Foxwood Hills, where young and old were driving golf carts and motorized scooters. The streets had names like “4th of July” and “Iraq” and “Common Sense.” Everywhere were U.S. flags, pictures of eagles, and the like.

We encountered Karin’s sister, Lily, who was riding a bicycle. She escorted us to our parking space. All along the streets were trailers and prefabricated houses. This was one of the nicer ones:

Another nice house had a cage out on the front lawn with four young raccoons in it.

Karin’s dad’s generation is the third to own the family’s four lots. But the family’s trailer hasn’t been habitable for many years. Karin’s dad and his relations keep waiting for “Aunt Kimberly” to clean out the trailer; meanwhile, they visit the campsite during holidays and weekends, sleeping in tents and using the toilets in the bathhouse at the top of the hill. They sit in camping chairs around their fire pit; and when they tire of that, they take their chairs down to the lake and sit there for a while; and then they go sit around their fire pit again; and so on. There isn’t much to do at Foxwood Hills.

For the children, there are playgrounds, and one can always bathe. The lake itself isn’t too shabby:

It’s possible, also, to stroll along one of the four trailer-lined canals:

But the adults don’t do a lot of strolling or bathing. Mostly they just sit in their camping chairs. It helps that they also have coolers of picnic food and beer and vodka.

Anyway, it was good that Karin & I went there on Sunday and not on Memorial Day, when t-storms and tornadoes swept through the region.

Karin’s birth week

We’ve celebrated as follows:

Last Saturday, we trudged around and around inside Thistleberry Farms’s Lord of the Rings-themed corn maze. It was none too easy. Toward the end, it became perilous: the sky darkened, and we only reached the exit fifteen minutes before closing time.

It was nearly as tiring as Frodo’s and Sam’s journey with the One Ring.

On Monday, we ate chicken wings with Karin’s dad and his two other children: Lily, Karin’s sister, and Julian, Karin’s stepbrother. It left Karin & me feeling quite poorly.

Wednesday was the birthday itself. We did very little. My parents sent a monetary gift through PayPal. Others sent Facebook greetings. I ordered an Agatha Christie book for myself.

On Thursday, Karin’s mom gave her some cash. Karin & I went to a used-media store and bought seven movies and one video game, Rugrats in Paris, which Karin played the rest of the night.

Yesterday (Friday), we ate Italian food with Mary & Martin and Stephen & Edoarda. When we got home, I ordered this puzzle for Karin:

Then the Mormons came over for a while. After they left, Karin played Rugrats in Paris.

Today, we’re going to buy some sale-priced frozen yogurt.

We aren’t Kardashians, but we’ve still managed to have a nice little week-long party.

Karin & I show appreciation

Just a little more rain has fallen. Some floodwater has receded, though the river is still quite high. Our front street remains impassable. This isn’t a problem for us, however, since we have back streets galore upon which to drive.

Tonight, Karin & I bought dinner for the nice young woman who watched over Jasper and Ziva while we were in Kansas City. About halfway through the meal, it dawned on me that not everybody would consider being taken out to dinner to be an especially pleasant treat. For example, not everyone could comfortably eat the entirety of his or her order in front of other people, in one sitting. (I certainly could, though.)

Afterward, Karin & I hopped over to Fazoli’s, where Karin’s sister, Lily, is employed. We meant to wish her a happy birthday. She’d been called in at the last minute for a five-hour shift. She was the only counter worker, and she was running hither and thither, taking orders and distributing breadsticks.

We bought a cheesecake for ourselves, wished her well, and left.

Father’s Day; Mexico 2, Portugal 2; Chile 2, Cameroon 0; Germany 3, Australia 2

I didn’t watch yesterday’s games. I was in Goshen, Indiana, attending a Father’s Day event. I gave my father-in-law a card, and he gave me a book of Abraham Lincoln’s speeches that he bought during a recent trip to Washington, D.C.

I, Karin, and Karin’s sister, Lily, walked for an hour down a pleasant creekside path in Goshen. I wondered how it would be to live in that city. Where would I work? There are some Mennonite colleges in the area. Could I be a good Mennonite? I doubt it. I have too much feeling for the nations.

These are the games I missed:

Mexico 2, Portugal 2;

Chile 2, Cameroon 0.

One thing made the news: Video Assistant Replay, which is being tested during this Confederations Cup. It led to the annulment of this Portuguese goal (and, I believe, to the validation of a Chilean goal that the referee initially had annulled).

Its use did not seem intrusive. I opposed VAR before this tourney, but now I’m coming to favor it.

Today Germany and Australia played. The Germans got an early goal. The Australians equalized near the end of the first half. The Germans – few of them habitual first-teamers – responded with a flurry of excellent play, quickly scoring two more goals. But not long afterward the Australians punched in another goal, keeping the Germans from leaving them in the dust. All around, it was a good show.

An election and two fairy tales

Yesterday, Ecuador held the second round of its presidential election. Different exit polls showed different winners. At 9:00 p.m. (U.S. Eastern Time) came the official percentages: slightly more than 51% for the ruling party’s candidate, Lenín Moreno; slightly less than 49% for his opponent, Guillermo Lasso.

I looked at social media. Fraude, fraude, some people were fuming at 9:02 (in my opinion, prematurely).

Lasso is asking for a recount. He’s citing how long it took to tally the votes after the first round. Of course, in that round, with more candidates, the ballots must have been harder for the vote-counters to read; and there was a narrower gap between one realistic outcome (Moreno’s outright victory) and the other (the need for a runoff vote). So it isn’t surprising that the first round’s tally was issued more slowly.

But let Lasso have his recount. I’d like the result to be clear.

One antagonist of Lasso’s is Julian Assange, of WikiLeaks, who for some years has been sheltered from criminal prosecution in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Lasso had pledged that if he were to become president, he’d evict Assange after thirty days. Encouraged by the election results, Assange tweeted: “I cordially invite Lasso to leave Ecuador within 30 days (with or without his tax haven millions).” All in good fun. Assange later clarified: “It was a joke to which Mr. Lasso lent himself. All is forgotten and I wish him the best in bringing Ecuador forward” (my translation). He also highlighted this strongly positive U.S. diplomatic cable about Moreno.

In the global press, the dominant story is that this election is ideological: socialism (Moreno) vs. capitalism (Lasso). Moreno’s victory means that the recession of Latin America’s “pink tide” has been interrupted. But a different trend is apparent from the Ecuadorian map: Moreno won all of the coastal provinces; Lasso won all of the “jungle” provinces and nearly all of the mountainous ones (as well as Galápagos). Ecuador’s starkest division is still regional, not ideological. Years ago, the ruling party was much stronger in the “Lasso” provinces; since then, it has alienated them. Whether Moreno will reach out to them remains to be seen. But I doubt whether Lasso, the guayaquileño banker, would have made them happy.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

On Saturday, Karin & I watched two movies. By coincidence, both were about the breaking of an ugliness curse (à la “Frog Prince”).

The first movie was Penelope. It featured Christina Ricci, cursed with a pig’s snout for a nose.

A houseguest brought this movie to us. I’d already seen it. No matter: I’d forgotten how many of its “bit” roles are played by actors I’m fond of. Nigel Havers of Chariots of Fire and Downton Abbey! Richard E. Grant of L.A. Story … and Downton Abbey! From 2005’s Pride and Prejudice: Mr. Bingley! (Our houseguest and Karin were swooning over Mr. Bingley.) Toward the end: Reese Witherspoon! She’s also the movie’s producer! (We watched with one eye on the TV screen and the other on Wikipedia.)

The second movie was the new CGI/live-action Beauty and the Beast. We watched it with Karin’s sister, Lily, at the cinema in Niles, which is distinguished for its cheap tickets and cheap food. I garnished my cheap hot dog with some free and rather painful jalapeñoes.

Again, it was amusing to learn who the actors were. After the spell upon the Beast’s castle had been broken, we realized we’d been watching … Emma Thompson! Sir Ian McKellen! Ewan McGregor!

As for the Beast –

– he was none other than Cousin Matthew! Of Downton Abbey!

This new Beauty and the Beast has one huge flaw. Unlike its predecessor, it doesn’t visually convey the humanity of the Beast’s servants: the Teapot, the Clock, the Candlestick, etc.

Consider Lumière, the Candlestick. Though he’s rendered in exquisite (sculptural) detail, the viewer must strain to catch glimpses of personality in his eyes. (Let me stress: I’m not complaining about how Lumière moves or speaks.)

To compare: When we watch 2001: A Space Odyssey, it’s much easier to read the “eye” of the HAL computer.

And in the cartoon Beauty and the Beast, Lumière is no sculptural masterpiece; yet his personality is written all over his face.