Fooling with Mother Nature

Sometimes I am amazed at the wonderful inventions that so many people have developed over the years. The light bulb, the TV, satellite television and the internet. None of these things compare to God’s ability to wipe them all out with a storm. Yes, my TV is out, my internet/wifi is out all because of a rain and wind storm that is going thru town. Things had better get back to normal soon, so that I can chat with Carol before she runs off to school. Of all days, here it is my day off and I have signed myself up for an AIA continuing education online class to get some more CEUs for my AIA and state license requirement.

Maybe God is saying, “Tony go take a nap and I will get things back to normal soon.”

So if I get this blog posted sometime today, then you will know that God came thru for me.

BTW…..some of you know this, but others may not. Next week the job site will be shut down for five days. This year the Eid al Adha celebration will take place. No businesses will be open. So I have decided to check out Cairo, Egypt for a few days. I fly over on Monday and come back late Thursday. That will give me Friday to rest up. I have scheduled an all day tour of the Pyramids and the Sphinx on Tuesday. Don’t worry I will post comments and photos on the blog by Friday of next week. I am excited about seeing all of the great stuff there. My hotel is suppose to be within walking distance of the Giza Pyramids.

Bachelor party

Another new experience today.....a brother of our electrical engineer at our office is getting married soon. So our engineer invited me to go to lunch with him, along with my boss and another guy. He did not say it was a bachelor party luncheon. Now mind you, there is no drinking in Libya and women are covered up so what does one expect to see at a Libyan bachelor party? FOOD of course and lots of guys sitting around in this huge catering hall. There must have been 200 guys at this place. They were all having a great time and we had a sit down luncheon.
We had roasted lamb and cashew rice and fruit juice and a potato pancake that was stuffed with a thin layer of hamburger. We had our after dinner coffee and it was back to work we went.
I was stuffed and ready for a nap when I got back to the job site.
I felt bad for being a wedding crasher, but as they say in Libya, "No Problem...."

Genius Driver

One of the perks that I have in Libya is that I have my own chauffeur that takes me to work each morning and takes me home. He is the one that found my great apartment for me. His name is Ali. He is a genius behind the wheel. I mentioned before how most of the people in Benghazi are a little crazy when it comes to merging into lanes here and there, well, Ali knows their every move and some how our car does not have a scratch on it.

He has been picking me up at my apartment for over three weeks now. I have always wondered why he stays about two car lengths back from the intersection at the traffic light. Today I found out why......he knew that at that time of day a school bus comes around the corner and needs extra room so we were able to give them just the right amount of turning space. He knows where every bumpy expansion joint is on the bridges and knows where to go to get the least amount of bump on the speed bumps.

I will put my driver up against anyone in the city.
BTW.....I have another food story for you..........I stopped into one of my local restaurants to get a pizza the other day. I noticed that they have a number of types of sandwiches listed.....
one was called "Mixy Cana".....I might have to order that one to see what it is....I am guessing that they take a number of canned vegetables and mix them together and put it in a pita pocket. Or it could be their way of creating a Mexican dish that Don Pablo's might start offering in the USA.

Too much TV

I had a rather quiet evening Friday. Went to the grocery got a few things and then picked up my dry cleaning and then headed over to one of the nicer restaurants on this side of town. Had chicken fettucini alfredo. Not bad, but I think someone got the cheese containers mixed up, so instead of mozzarella cheese it tasted like a very mild cheddar.

It was not bad, but it was like cheese and macaroni with chunks of chicken in it.

In Arab countries you have to ask for the check, because they think it is rude to bother you and appear that they are rushing you to leave the restaurant. I could have left about 15 minutes earlier than I did but the entire waiter staff was glued to the TV in the restaurant. It is like they have never seen “WaterWorld” before. I waved my hands a number of times, before a different waiter had to motion to my waiter that I needed the

check.

American movies have a big audience in Libya. This particular channel plays nothing but movies all day long. I saw Mission Impossible and Pirates of the Caribbean just recently.

Still cannot find a resource to get some good old fashioned NFL football yet. I will let you know what I get worked out.

New sounds in the house

Friday is here and some free time to add another blog to the collection. Today I was able to sleep in a little longer than usual. I stayed up late last night to chat with Carol. When Indiana changes there clocks then I will be seven hours different. I might have to learn to live on five hours sleep soon. So I enjoyed my extra shut-eye this morning.
Usually I hear the morning chant of the local mosque.....today it was different. I was awakened by my twelve year old neighbor practicing the tuba. I can tell you from past experience, that he is a very early beginner. I am thankful that he did not start his lessons at 8 a.m.
Today is the Holy Day around here. So nothing is open until after 4 p.m. This gives me time to check my Facebook and LinkedIN connections.
I had dinner last night with my new American friends across the street. They invited me over to meet the head of the Anglican Church of Tripoli. He is performing memorial services in a number of places in Libya to remember the fallen soldiers during World War II. Northern Africa was the sight for a number of major battles. In fact someone told me that most of Benghazi was wiped out from the bombings during WWII.
So most of the buildings in town have only been around since the war was over.
My neighbors gave me a care package of leftovers and chocolate brownies on the way home.
They really made my weekend......talk to you soon.

INDOT should listen up

It appears that the white line on the roads in Libya just means that someone has a job to paint them on the street. It does not mean stay in your lane. Maybe this is the way INDOT could save money and just educate people that they can get three or four cars side by side on a two lane highway. After all they get three cars in a row side by side on the 500 track.

I have also been thinking about setting up a franchise for Church Brothers over here. The amount of damaged sheet metal on nearly every car around here would make me a very wealthy man.

Speaking of wealth......it looks like nearly all of the stores in Benghazi are dollar stores.

I do not know how many things I have bought while here that every item is usually one dinar. My shirts at the laundry were one dinar each to clean and press. My jeans were one dinar. You can actually get two Cokes for one dinar. Libya is pretty much an all cash society. Very few places take credit cards. Maybe that is a good thing in the long run.

I see the elections are over now in the USA.....maybe things will pick up in the architectural design world. Maybe everyone was waiting to see how the elections panned out. Just have to wait and see what happens now........

Neck and neck

I just had to share this with you....this morning I had a few extra minutes to eat my cereal and watch the news a little bit before heading off to work. I was flipping thru the channels and saw a channel called Dubai Racing. I thought, great, maybe they will have some car racing that I can catch up on......no, it was camel racing.

They have an oval track and about 30 camels lined up behind a screen. They have robot jockeys sitting on the back section of the camel. The owner of the camel is sitting in his Mercedes four wheel drive waiting for the start of the race. As soon as the camels take off the owners drive their cars around the track on the outside of the camel track. It is a dirt track. The cars are equipped with radio controlled devices to tell the jockey when to strike the hind quarter of the camel. These camels are flying down the track the owners are swerving their cars around on the other track and the little robot is flipping a little whip up and down on the camel.

It was quite the sight. When a camel wins in a neck and neck race it has a whole new meaning.