Dallys

What ever happened to Winnebagos? Are they still around? I've always liked saying Winnebago.

And anomalies. I like saying anomaly too.

Yesterday we had a visit from our neighbor Dallys, pronounced Dallas. She brought us tomatoes. Sometimes she brings coffee. We give her loaves of Ramon's homemade bread. Dallys speaks about as much English as I speak Spanish so we are able to carry on a conversation. She hangs out for the length of a glass of wine and little by little we are getting to know her and she us. We had learned from her oldest son, Aurelio, who is also a frequent visitor, that Dallys had come to see me when I was in the hospital, but I had been sleeping so she didn't wake me. That's very sweet. Dallys has six children all living at home although Aurelio is often away at school in David where he is a third year criminology student. The youngest of her clan is Daisy who, I'm guessing, is about three. Daisy likes to say, "how are you how are you how are you?", the extent of her English vocabulary. No point in answering her though, she will just ask you again. One of the things that happens when you are trying to sustain a cross cultural, mixed language conversation is that odd topics crop up as a result of trying to find common ground and the words to express an idea, any idea. Any thing you can say in the other person's language is something to talk about. Dallys, for instance, told us yesterday that she weighs 150 lbs. No one had asked her, she just volunteered the information because, I think, it was something she knew how to say in English. This led to a revelation of all our weights except mine because when it was my turn I changed the subject. I also weigh 150 and I didn't want to make her feel bad. I chimed in, instead, with cuantos anos tiene usted? how old are you, something I knew how to say in Spanish. Dallys is 46. Ramon is 39, he says, and Woowoo Charly and yo are sesenta y seis or thereabouts. Dallys said we all have young spirits which is true, but we all have old necks.

Blimp is a fun word to say and it's only one syllable.