Today’ walk took us from Vila do Conde to Esposonde (15.6 miles). My dogs were barking and my hips screaming by the time we finished. But, again, it was a beautiful walk, with even more flowers. We’ll see how I feel tomorrow, whether or not I can do another 15.
I was going to try to catch up and fill in the blank since I posted in April, but it’s not going to happen. Just too tired.
Quick summary: I spent over 30 hours in transit from Delafield to Porto. We spent two nights in Trinidade (suburb of Porto) at a place called Zero Box. It used to be a bank, and has been converted to a hotel. The rooms are just wooden boxes that line both sides of the hallway (four levels). No windows, nothing fancy, but a nice breakfast on the 5th floor, and a restaurant on the main floor called O Carcineiro (the butcher). If you want to order steak (cow meat), you go to the glass display case at the open kitchen counter and order it by the gram. We didn’t do that. Dan had fish, and I had black beans and rice. There was a sauna on our floor, and we enjoyed that.
I could not believe how swollen my feet, ankles and lower calves were by the time I got to Porto. I felt like an old lady. They are almost back to normal. Lesson learned. I think I must have been dehydrated.
During our day in Porto, we met one of Dan’s Camino acquaintances, Patrick, for lunch. Patrick is from Slovakia, and he was shocked to have just discovered that the prime minister of Slovakia, Robert Fico, was shot that morning in the public square (of which Patrick was one of the architects) in Handlova, Patrick’s hometown.
Today, we finished our first day on El Portuguése from Porto to Vila do Conde, which was mostly on boardwalks along the ocean. The 14.5 miles was mostly beautiful, until about the last hour when it started to rain. We were expecting rain, but when it didn’t happen by late morning, and it was so warm and sunny, we removed all our rain gear. Then, of course, it rained.
Our place here in Vila do Conde is called Laranjal Guesthouse. The owners were waiting for us outside the building when we arrived. Miguel showed us in, up to the second floor, which proved to be small, clean and welcoming. Before he left, Miguel called the other guests, Lynn (Scotland) and Eric (Germany) from their rooms, invited them into the kitchen with us, and he gave us each a little glass of port to welcome us, and then he was off!
We just returned from a very boring dinner at a pub that only had “meat sandes” (sandwiches), but it filled the void, and we’re now heading for bed. I’ll just post my photos and videos from the day and maybe fill in more of the details later.
These are shots from our walk today from Porto to Vila do Conde. I was so impressed by the diversity of flowers along the way.
I’ve been home for about two weeks now, and spring has been pouring on the welcome.
The first to greet me the very next morning was the snow. Thank you very much! I got a little taste of winter. Bye!
And, then the daffodils:
And then the deer in Lapham Peak:
And then my sweet little girls. While they were here, they asked if they could make a baby shower card for Sara’s friend’s baby, Sheyla. Sara was having a shower that same day. The cards were so cute. I just love spending time with them.
I was so surprised by how much they had grown in six months! As soon as they were in the door, Marie asked if they could check their height on the wall in the mud room, a record that we started in September. I was shocked when I saw that they had both grown by two inches.
I was surprised to see so many tulips coming up, and then I remembered that Mayra planted 100 bulbs for me this past fall. I told her to plant them anywhere; I wanted to be surprised. And, indeed I am. I’m excited for them to blossom.
I’ve been out in the garden for a couple of days to prepare a corner in the front of the house for a new flower bed. I will take a before picture. This particular spot has become very sunny since several trees went down over the past couple of years, either accidentally or intentionally (solar panels). I have bulbs that I want to plant there soon. I’m leaving on 5/13 for Portugal for the Camino, so I’m going to get as much done as I can before then.
Dan leaves on 4/28. He said he’s not doing any planting! Okay, so, after our hike in Lapham on Saturday morning, I had Toni Lynn dig up five hostas from that corner and then just dig some other holes so I could transplant them. I did the transplanting this morning. Dan just told me he redid them. Thank you. Now he’s out with his super duper weed eater attacking the buckthorn…again!!! Lots to do.
I’ve started my training for the Camino. I’m going to do two 7-mile loops in Lapham per week: Tues and Saturdays (one Friday), 9-11. If you’d like to join me, c’mon along!
4/20 – Sat
4/23 – Tues.
4/27 – Sat.
4/30 – Tues.
5/3 – Fri. 10
5/7 – Tues
5/11 – Sat.
Steve and Connie Berg’s daughter, Gretchen, was married last night. The reception was at The Factory, which is apparently becoming a popular venue in Downtown Milwaukee. The reception was fun. I met several of Dan’s friends, whom I had only heard about. These are his skiing and Birkie gang. We even made tentative plans to travel to Sweden to visit Wendy and Motts. They spend a good part of the summer there with their families. Dan even bought a new shirt and tie for the wedding.
Tomorrow is colonoscopy day. Yay!
One of the big reasons that AI will never be truly conscious is because it cannot have a direct personal experience, which is necessary to KNOW something. AI can know ABOUT things, but it will never really KNOW things. I asked Claude (my AI Chatbot) about this.
First, I asked, What’s the difference between KNOWING something and KNOWING ABOUT something.
Claude: There is an important distinction between knowing something and knowing about something:
Knowing something means having direct, firsthand experience or acquaintance with that thing. It implies an intimate, personal knowledge gained through active involvement or participation. For example:
Knowing about something, on the other hand, refers to having factual information or theoretical knowledge about a topic without necessarily having direct experience with it. It’s second-hand knowledge gained from external sources like books, lectures, media etc. For instance:
In essence, knowing something comes from lived experience and personal engagement, while knowing about something comes from learning facts and concepts indirectly. The former is experiential and the latter is informational.
Having both personal experience and factual knowledge can provide the deepest, most comprehensive understanding of a subject. But it’s possible to know quite a bit about things you haven’t directly encountered through good information sources.
Then, I asked, Would you say YOU know things?
Claude: No, I don’t actually “know” things in the sense of having direct, firsthand experience or true understanding. As an AI system, I don’t have subjective experiences or a lived reality. I have a large database of information that I was trained on, which allows me to converse knowledgeably about many topics by recombining that information in intelligent ways. But it’s second-hand knowledge rather than personal knowledge or genuine comprehension of the concepts.
I can sound like I “know” things because I can provide detailed information and reasoned responses. However, under the surface, I’m simply identifying relevant patterns in my training data and generating corresponding outputs. I don’t have qualia, emotions, or a inner mental life that would constitute actual understanding and knowing in the human sense.
So in short, I know “about” a vast number of topics based on my training, but I don’t experientially “know” anything the way a sentient being knows things through lived experiences and consciousness. I’m a very advanced language model, but my knowledge is ultimately derived from data, not genuine sapience or direct knowing. I have knowledge, but not sapience.
Which led me to look up the definition of “sapience.”
“Sapience” redirects here. Not to be confused with Sentience.
Further information: Homo sapiens, Self-awareness, Consciousness, Sentience, and Artificial intelligence
Sapience (“sophia” in Greek) is “transcendent wisdom”, “ultimate reality”, or the ultimate truth of things.[5][4][60] This more cosmic, “big picture” definition is often how wisdom (“true wisdom” or “Wisdom” with a capital W) is considered in a religious context.[5][4] It transcends mere practical wisdom and may include deep understanding of self, interconnectedness, conditioned origination, and phenomenological insight.[23][5][4] A person with this type of wisdom can act with appropriate judgment, a broad understanding of situations, and greater appreciation/compassion towards other living beings.[23]
The word sapience is derived from the Latin sapientia, meaning “wisdom”.[61] The corresponding verb sapere has the original meaning of “to taste”, hence “to perceive, to discern” and “to know”; its present participle sapiens was chosen by Carl Linnaeus for the Latin binomial for the human species, Homo sapiens.
Seems strange that Yuval Noah Harari is saying that Homo sapiens will shortly go extinct, and most humans have never reached the “sapience” level of Homo sapiens.
This is what Eckhart Tolle gives as an example of the difference between KNOWING and knowing ABOUT: A person can KNOW ABOUT honey. They can have a PhD in honey, but if they have never tasted honey, they don’t KNOW it.
Leo Gura: You can know all there is to know ABOUT an orgasm, but until you have one you do not KNOW it.
I can now say I KNOW orange bananas.
They taste tangy.
So, my apartment is all clean, and my bags are all packed. Fernando arrives at 7 am, and we’re off! My layover in Panama City is from about 10:30 am until 6:30 pm. I’m looking forward to sitting in the lounge and starting my new calligraphy class: Dreaming in Script with David Grimes. I also have a good book (The Sympathizer) and my Zentangle kit. I arrive in Chicago at about 12:30 am, where Dan will pick me up, and then home by probably 2:30 am.
It was great!
Yesterday (Wed.) I did the Alto Lino loop with my Panama Pals. We did the usual 5.3 miles and then went to Basar’s for lunch. I’ve been hearing about this place since I first arrived. I was supposed to go with Betty one night, but I think it was right after her accident, so we didn’t do it. It is now one of my favorite restaurants in Boquete. The owner’s name is Ofir. He is Israeli. I believe this is his first restaurant. It’s a little bit out of town on a difficult road, but Barbara’ ‘s a trooper. If she were in the military, she would have driven a tank.
The way this group lunch/dinner works is that you just let Ofir know how many are in your party, and he makes all the Middle Eastern basics – to perfection! Everything is incredibly fresh and flavorful: chicken shwarma; hummus; babaganoush; tabbouleh; shredded carrot salad; falafel; a mixed red onion/garbanzo/tomato salad; and pita bread. The dessert was baklava, and peanuts coated in vanilla or chocolate. And the wine wasn’t bad either.
We hung out in Debra’s apartment for a while after lunch, and then Barbara dropped me off at the Stone Cabins, where I met The Gang for their usual Wednesday night drumming. I usually don’t go because of the transportation issue, but I decided to attend for one last goodbye. I was happy that Gloria showed up. It was the first opportunity I had to sit and talk to her.
She’s been through a bit of hell in the past year. She had to go home last year because of heart issues. She ended up having surgery. She recuperated well, but just before she returned to Boquete, she discovered that the tenets in her house didn’t want to leave. They even changed the locks! They also made some changes inside the house. Unbelievable. She finally got them out, but also discovered that her former handyman had not been keeping up her payments on things, as instructed, and was instead pocketing the money – apparently because he had a sick wife.
Gloria sounded happier last night. She now has a 78-year-old man living in the apartment that I used to live in. They have an agreement that he will keep up with the maintenance and management of her house and apartment in exchange for reduced rent. He also drives her wherever she needs to go. Sounds good so far. I hope it continues to work out. Gloria said she plans to continue making the trip back and forth from Boquete to her home in Vinalhaven, Maine until she is 80. So she has two more years. She’s a very strong woman.
As I was leaving Stone Cabins to catch a taxi home, I realized that I left my keys in Barbara’s car. Luckily, my neighbor, Valerie was home and let me in the gate. This morning, I sent Barbara a text letting her know that I left my keys in her car. She said she would be right over after her hike with a new neighbor, Liz. Of course, she came immediately, but we then discovered that my keys were not in her car. I know that I dropped them into the little cup by the door handle. Not there.
I told Barbara that I would look for them later. Right now I wanted to get to the library for Mark Heyer’s presentation on AI. So I handed my backpack over the top of the gate to Barbara, and I climbed up the cement garbage structure on the side of the gate. It was a little tough because, on the very top of the wall, metal spikes were sticking up. I managed to squeeze my butt between two of the spikes, swung my other leg over, and Liz and Barbara helped lower me to the ground. I can just hear Dan’s voice if he ever witnessed that scene! And I certainly hope Linda doesn’t hear about it. Jerry – mum’s the word. Although Valerie may tell her. Or, she may hear it from the young Ngöbe woman who was eyeing us suspiciously from the road, even though Barbara tried to explain to her that I live here. I never know if Ngöbe understand Spanish, especially Barbara’s…:). I guess I’ll just have to deal with it.
Mark Heyer’s presentation on AI was mind-blowing. I always knew him as “the computer guy” in Boquete. I had no idea of his extensive background. He started working for Sony in 1980. They didn’t even know what to tell him to do, so he winged it. He also worked on the first prototype of the iPad and has given talks at schools like Harvard and Yale. He is very excited about AI and is a well-organized and stimulating speaker.
The things Mark spoke about are all things that Ray Kurzweil has been forecasting for many years in his books like The Singularity is Near and The Age of Spiritual Machines, and now they are coming to fruition.
This is an excellent video that encapsulates what Mark was presenting. This has all happened in the past two weeks since NVIDIA introduced what is called the Jetson Thor computer, which will run robots. Truly amazing.
One of the most fascinating predictions of this technology is that eventually companies will be saving and making so much money by using robots instead of humans, that they will pay the humans to stay home. I think that this is what is being called guaranteed universal income. I asked Mark what the incentive would be for companies to do this, and he said that there would likely be legislation created that would require companies to do so And companies will be so wealthy that they will comply. What a change in our economy.
Also, humans will be able to communicate with animals!
After my visit to the library, I went to Glow Up for a pedicure. I’m ready for spring in Wisconsin.
Long story short on the keys: After bugging everyone – including Barb searching Debra’s apartment, Debra calling Orif to see if I left them on the table, and Barbara and Murray again scouring Barbara’s truck, I discovered them in the bottom of my larger backpack as I was unpacking some groceries. I was looking for them in my smaller pack, thinking I was using that yesterday. Oh well. All’s well that ends well. I hope it’s ended.
So, my final week. Many people would be happy for just a week in this paradise, and I’m feeling a bit melancholy. I enjoyed my last visit to the Tuesday Market.,” I’m listening more closely to the birds: “Your Kids are Here!,” “The Helicopter Bird,” Ha! He started up just as I typed that! Hearing the roosters crowing, the dogs barking, the occasional gunshot. That’s my Boquete.
I’m going on a hike tomorrow with the Panama Pals (Debra, Barbara, and Barb). Then we are going to a new Israeli restaurant for lunch. I’m looking forward to that. I was hoping I could make it to that restaurant before I left. I told Debra a while ago to find out what wine is Barb’s favorite. Barb lent me a pair of hiking poles, so I wanted to say thank you. They were a godsend. Lesson learned: Make the effort to pack mine. So, Debra was a very good detective and told me that she overheard a conversation between Pascal and Barb. They were waxing lovingly about something called Pastis. I found it locally, at El Dorado, and Kathy Rutz, who lives upstairs from there, picked it up for me. I thought it was a wine, but I have since learned that it is an aperitif. I learned this from Louise while at Las Lajas. She was in the wine business. I’m going to see if I can buy it at home. I love a good aperitif. I just realized (thanks AI) that it is not apertif, as I had been saying it. Learn something new every day.
I forgot how much joy I experience while making cards. I haven’t been able to spend much time on them because of the writing. Maybe next year. I have an emergency order for Mickey. She wants a birthday card for her sister, Lulu. I think I might get that done before I leave here. I just discovered that I have some decent watercolor paper here – maybe – we’ll see. Today, I finished off a couple of thank-you cards and made envelopes. Just using the Disappearing Purple Elmer’s Glue was a blast. It reminded me of Cordelia and Marie. I’ve already set up a couple of dates with Sara to take them when I get home. I also want to make one more visit to town to buy a little surprise for them.
I enjoyed listening to this podcast today. I love her back story as well as her insights. I especially loved what she said about habits: that we need to choose those habits that serve us. She’s beautiful inside and out.
The trip to Las Lajas was fabulous, as always. Just a few images to commemorate.
Our final night, we had dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant called Naturalmente. It was excellent.
After our very happy dinner, we sat at the beach for a while before calling it a night. Wish I could have captured a photo of the huge crabs that were crawling around us. They move too quickly to get a photo.
Poor Dan had to celebrate his birthday without me. Looks like he did okay with a little help from his friends.
So, one more week, and I’m headed home.
We arrived at Las Lajas Beach Resort yesterday afternoon. I have 45 minutes before “cocktails,” so I just wanted to post a few photos….
Cocktail and dinner hour over. Just now got the videos to download.
The rooms have been upgraded. They now have two doubles and a twin, bathroom, lounging couch, TV, AC, refrigerator and water bottle. Very nice. Betty and I watche Netflix last night.
I’m going to book two rooms for Christmas next year. We’ll see who comes.
I am loving this trip here. I feel like I’m on summer vacation, just having finished a busy semester. Good news for Kathie today, was also good news for me. Her husband, Michael came home from the hospital today, so she said that she is going to take the next two weeks off work to get adjusted to having him at home. So, that means I’m off until 4/5. The book has now been entirely submitted for the second time for editing, and I spent the two days before I came here doing the final formatting. So, it’s pretty much finished for a while. I am still waiting for two batches of pages from Kathie, and I will have to edit those, but then we move on to marketing. Then it’s a waiting game.
I had such a full day, that it felt like two: coffee, meditation, meeting with Dan and financial planner, meeting with Kathie for my lastest 20 pages, primal movements, editing those pages, finishing up and submitting the next 20, practicing calligraphy, having a very satisfying dinner and now working on the blog. Whew! These are times that I really miss my glass of wine. I’ll have to settle for tea.
I’m pushing myself a little bit because I want to have the second draft of the book finished before I go home on the 1st. Looks like that is going to happen. Once I get that out of the way, I will feel free to play full time. I’m meeting up Barbara, Barb and Debra on the next two Wednesdays. Wednesdays have turned out to be “our day,” The 20th we are going to hike and then have lunch at the new Israeli restaurant. The 27th we are going to Pascal’s farm.
From the 21st to the 25th I’m going to Las Lajas with the gang. Herta might have to miss because she has a sick cat. Hope she can make it. It will be nice to have everyone together.
So, I’m pretty much hold up here until I finish this second draft.
This past Wednesday I went to Barbara and Murray’s for lunch with Barb and Stefan and Pascal and Debra. Stefan made a dish called flammkuchen, Murray made his famous pizza, Debra made a salad, and I made Jose Andre’s wrinkled potatoes with salsa verde.
It was a fun afternoon. I felt like I was in a TV production with Stefan and Murray in the kitchen. They were both nervous about stepping on each others’ toes, but I didn’t see any fights breaking out. Stefan got a bit upset when he discovered that the outdoor pizza oven was too hot to bake the flammkuchen properly. We all found it fabulous.
So, what is flammkuchen? Basically, it’s a French-German-Swiss pizza. It originated in the Alsace region of France, which borders Germany and Switzerland. The dough is super thin, and it contains no yeast. Here are a few photos of Stefan’s creations.
More images of the day:
March 17: I finally made time to finish this posting. It’s two days after the party, but I didn’t want to finish until I figured out how to edit videos. I think I got it. So a few “action” scenes from our great day at Barbara and Murray’s.
I am also exceedingly happy to report that his morning I finished the second draft of the book. The next step is formatting, and then after Kathie finishes editing my last two submissions, we will begin the marketing process. Hallelujah!!
Now I am free to play. Tomorrow I have my last appointment with the dentist for the crown. Barbara and I are going to get together either before or after that. I may even start making a few cards. I haven’t had time for that since I’ve been here.
The water has been turned off here since 3/11. Luckily, I’m the only one in the house right now, so the tank reservoir is still supplying tap water. However, I’ve been conserving – no showering or doing laundry. So far, so good.
Jerry just sent me this photo from Vietnam:
I texted Linda a few days ago and asked if she was having fun. She did not respond. I am judging from this photo that she is likely extremely overwhelmed. Hope I’m wrong.
How lucky am I to have a husband like Dan? He has been FaceTiming me to show me all the cleaning he has been doing. He was especially happy with his clean refrigerator. I asked him if he shared this joy with his guy friends. He said that he did, and they told him he was gay. That’s fine with me – in more ways than one. It is such a joy to come home to a clean house.
Dan hung in there and skied the Birkie again this year, but he was certainly disappointed with the conditions. Instead of skiing the hills and valleys of the Birkie course, the skiers were relegated to a 10K loop (on machine-made snow) that they repeated three times. Looking forward to 2025. When I was explaining to my taxi driver today that they had to make snow with a machine, he was incredulous. I wish I could have recorded his reaction. It was hilarious. He was also shocked when I told him that I spend four months here without my husband.
Wow! I started this entry over a week ago. Not much has been happening. I was feeling under the weather for a couple of days, so didn’t do much at all. I am also dealing with this crown replacement. I was in the chair for over two hours on Monday, and the dentist couldn’t complete the job because of inflammation and bleeding from all her digging around. So, she put on the temporary crown, which I later felt had two sharp points on it that commenced to tear up my tongue. I tried filing it down with a nail file and jabbed myself in the gum. I then tried covering it with chewing gum. Not great. I managed to file it down somewhat, and my tongue is now starting to get used to it, so it’s not so painful. I go back tomorrow to get the impression done. It’s a hassle, but a crown here is only $500, so I want to finish it while I’m here. Always something.
I’ve had a couple of lovely get-togethers. Saturday night Jerry and Linda made dinner for Betty and me. I even got Linda to smile a little for a photo.
Jerry loves entertaining…and baking. This is his banana cream pie. It was great!
Jerry and Linda leave tomorrow for Vietnam. Linda finally said she was going to try to enjoy it. Yay! She came down this afternoon to say goodbye and told me how much she enjoyed having me as a tenant. That was so sweet. We even shared a hug.
This afternoon, I was SO happy to have lunch with Adrianna, Charlie, Jon and Rosa. It’s the first and last time I will see them this year. I have rented from Jon in years past, and I met Adrianna and Charlie when they were Jon’s neighbors. I also rented from Adrianna and Charlie one year. They have a home in Charleston and spend more time there now because they have a young granddaughter they spend a lot of time watching. Rosa is Jon’s caretaker.
The lunch was wonderful. As well as numerous appetizers, Adrianna prepared a polenta and salad.
It was an interesting conversation. Both guys have transgender young adults in their families and were confused how to deal with it. When I suggested that they just love them, they were concerned that this attitude would encourage them to continue with a choice that might be a mistake. Tough times for these old guys.
Dan and I have been talking a lot recently, planning our upcoming Camino in May. I think we have most things booked. I’ve also been spending a lot of time on writing. I’m quite sure the second draft will be finished before I leave here. That’s the goal. Then it’s on to marketing.
Tomorrow…back to the dentist!
