Another Episode of About Town

I've talked about the parking lot car ballets before. This one took place at the local Caribou Coffee. I believe 2 have opened here now but this one was the first. The lot is very small and they park the cars 3 deep. As customers come and go they must move cars in and out. First 2 cars in front of the red car had to be pulled out. Then the red car exits. Then the two cars are put back in the row. A parking helper guides the attendant who is valet parking the cars.  They repeatedly yell terus at the driver. Terus means continue. It is fun to watch and requires real skill. The parking guys will do this all day long.

I don't know if I've mentioned that this year we've had no dry season. Last year it rained for the last time on June 4 and didn't rain at all again until sometime in October or November. This year we've had pretty consistent rain. We've had a couple of dandy storms recently. What a sky! It's early afternoon in this shot.

This has twice resulted in a little bit of water pooling in the tunnel access to our apartment. There have been some recent flooding issues in a few parts of town.

There are two types of 3 wheeled modes of transportation here. They are called bajaj. The orange ones are like lawn mowers and are heavy polluters. I know I've shared pictures before of the orange bajajs but I'm not sure I've shared a photo of one of the blue ones. Here is one of the new blue bajajs. By the end of 2016, all orange ones are supposed to be replaced with the blue type which use compressed natural gas as fuel and are much cleaner for the environment. It's September now and I am still seeing an awful lot of orange bajajs.

While I was away the country's flag appeared on the side of the bank in view from our apartment. Permanent? Who knows. Ibu Tin said it took them days to install it. It follows every contour of the building. It's not just a banner hanging there. (Note: I delayed publication of this page for a bit and now the flag has been removed. Days to install, days to remove.)

Sometimes folks just don't want to sell! On this toll road the road can't be used in one direction due to the still existing home site. This is a photograph, not an artistic rendering.