Life Down Under the Sun

I have to tell you, I've been so caught up with work lately I haven't really had time to enjoy this summer.

This is the same mistake I made last summer where I virtually missed the entire thing and only put my head up from work once the days were getting much shorter and colder.

...let's face it, entrepreneurism isn't all it's cracked up to be. And the Uruguayos seem to have figured this out. I have yet to meet one that is willing to work through the summer, and virtually all of them abandon the city wholesale during the summer and flee to the beaches for extended vacations -- euro style.

I can't say that I blame them, because summer is really the most pleasant and interesting time of the year -- by FAR. Winters down here are brutal in that there really is NO saving grace. The north american winters are broken up with holidays (thanksgiving, christmas, new years) football (superbowl), a full primetime t.v. schedule to keep you docile and stupid.

Meanwhile, the winters in South America are just a thankless three month slog.

I'll grant you that the winters down here are nowhere near as harsh as most of North America, but by the dreary, frownlines burrowed deep into the scowls of all the locals, you wouldn't know it.

An interesting exercise we do every spring is to walk around town and see if we can spot the tourists. In fact, the tourists are easy to spot, because they are the people walking on the street with a smile on their face. Sad but true.

So, time to put away the PC and plan a roadtrip to the beach.