The Bugs....they are everywhere!!

The sun came out today (for the fourth time since I've been here). So, like the last few times the sun streamed through the office windows, I cut out early. Home for a quick change into tennis shoes and off for a walk in the glorious sunshine. You miss it SO much when it's not there! The Limenos must have Vitamin D deficiency. I'm surprised they remain so cheerful! They say a lack of sunshine can contribute to symptoms of depression. Not here. These people are quite chipper despite the occasional "Hay demasiado frio!" I'm not going to argue with them there.



On the way out the door, I absent-mindedly grabbed my camera. I thought I might get some sunny shots of the ruins next to my house. I knew the battery was almost dead, but I only wanted a few pictures.



Next to the ruins was a older model, sky blue Volkswagen Beetle. After taking a few pictures of it, I noticed a red one a block away. I thought, You know I must see at least one of these everyday. Laura Jr., my senora's daughter, has a turqouise Bug and a yellow one is parked near my office most of time. My inner monologue continued as I walked a few blocks and came upon a more worn black Bug. Two hours until it gets dark... Let's hunt some Bugs. So, I invented "Shoot the Bug" game in which I tried to find and "shoot" as many Bugs as I could in the next 120 minutes.



I became pretty competitive with myself after a while. Trying to find one more, then one more, then another. Blocks after blocks chasing run away Bugs, trying to get more than one Bug in a frame, getting shots from underneath the front bumper, seeing if I could get pictures without the driver noticing, playing frogger with traffic to catch the Bug across the street... I got so good that I could see those little domed roofs from three or four blocks away. By the time it started getting too dark to take photos, I was so exhausted that I was hoping not to see another puttering down a side street so I wouldn't have to detour from my path home.

I made it home victorous with 43 sightings (New High Score) in two hours (all within a ten by ten block range from my house).



Check out all 43 Bugs "shot" today...click on the photo below to see the whole Picasa web album. The "shots" are in chronological order. From the little blue one that inspired the game to Laura Jr.'s turquoise number (shot before going into my house to eat dinner).