Chile Forum

I am showing 5 days of uninterrupted rains. Forecast: http://weather.sg.msn.com/local.aspx?we ... uco%2c+CHL

California South wrote:The comment you quoted was intended to be humorous. Oh well.

No more humorous comments, please. It's seriously raining now.

now listen...
we understand "now" and we understand "is"...
but these merely ascertain some very transitory, scanty scenario.

please - if you tell us "rain" "is" "now"...
isn't there more to tell - please, we seek details?
we require quality~quantity to form some degree of empathy~compassion?

something poetic would be nice...

The day is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
The vine still clings to the mouldering wall,
But at every gust the dead leaves fall,
And the day is dark and dreary.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Rainy Day

Rather than dark and dreary, rain is a pause of expectation, don't you think?
A poem very reminiscent of the Chilean life:

Last night
the rain
spoke to me
slowly, saying,
what joy
to come falling
out of the brisk cloud,
to be happy again
in a new way
on the earth!
That’s what it said
as it dropped,
smelling of iron,
and vanished
like a dream of the ocean
into the branches
and the grass below.
Then it was over.
The sky cleared.
I was standing
under a tree.
The tree was a tree
with happy leaves,
and I was myself,
and there were stars in the sky
that were also themselves
at the moment
at which moment
my right hand
was holding my left hand
which was holding the tree
which was filled with stars
and the soft rain –
imagine! imagine!
the long and wondrous journeys
still to be ours.

author Mary Oliver

greg~judy wrote:something poetic would be nice...

Will classic be suitable? . . . .
"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents — except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in Santiago that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness."

Andres wrote:

greg~judy wrote:something poetic would be nice...

Will classic be suitable? . . . .
"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents — except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in Santiago that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness."

to be true to el~gatito's intention - we must remind you A~...
WAS is not now!
but if you could say - it IS a dark and stormy night...
you will be not only accurate, but deserving of empathy...
(for those who cannot say that "that" is "now")
btw - where g~j are "now" we must say it is NOT raining...
thus, we deserve no empathy (at least for that)?

It's funny how external noises are incorporated into dreams. Hearing high explosive munitions i.e. mortar fire, I was certain I was back in SoCal near the live fire exercises in the Whiskey Zulu impact areas.
Loud enough to wake me up and realize it was a thunderstorm. My first in Santiago. The reverberations off the mountains was quite furious.

The noise level could and would carry in a 50 mi radius, if I'm not mistaken. Since I spent my formative years on military bases, the background sound of ordinances was not a problem. (everything goes back to childhood, so they say). You could drive to a high point in Oceanside or San Clemente and sometimes get a glimpse, depending on the impact area. But in the 2 years prior to our move to Chile, just about anytime we drove I-5 via Pendleton there were exercises galore - helicopters overhead, or Navy vessels, or vehicles amassed, or a combo. Kind of surreal to drive through it, esp w/ the choppers seemingly so close overhead, often w/doors open and we could see the soldiers so clearly.
Now, to keep this on point, it never rains in SoCal.

"I taught a US officer to fire a 40mm blooper there [at the Pendleton ranges] many years ago"
Very interesting for many reasons.

Back to bed. The storm is over.

patagoniax wrote:I taught a US officer to fire a 40mm blooper there [at the Pendleton ranges] many years ago. The last I heard from him, he had been promoted to BG. Good thing his promotions were not contingent upon his grenade-launching skills.

(The M79) is simple in design, having only five parts: a receiver group, a fore-end assembly, a barrel group, a sight assembly, and a stock. The fore-end assembly beds the barrel to the receiver. The stock is made out of wood or fiberglass. A rubber pad affixed to the buttstock absorbs some recoil. The front sight is a fixed blade. The rear sight on the M79 is a folding ladder-style leaf-type sight. When folded, the leaf sight acts as a fixed sight for close range. A grenadier may simply point and shoot with high accuracy.

The M79 is easy to operate. To load, the grenadier pushes the barrel locking latch on the receiver group to the right. Gravity will pull down the barrel, breaking it open, and exposing the breech. The hammer is cocked when the breech is opened. A round then may be loaded. The break action must then be closed manually. Closing the breech will cause the barrel locking latch to return to center. The safety must then be pushed to the forward position in order to ready the weapon for firing.

p~x's tangent~tales~interludes of former "military escapades" might be taken with a grain of salt...
we wonder if he ever had to teach said officer to operate the simplest weapon in the armory...
ok, ok... pulling a pin + throwing a grenade --- might be just a bit easier?
but jeez... a m79 is basically a single-shot breech-loading shotgun!
well, that officer must have either missed basic rotc/otc training or was dumber than a sack of hammers...?
(hmmm... and ultimately became a brigadier-general...?)
...or p~x felt a perverse need (+ opportunity) to be his usual helpful self - to an ignorant (+ wanting) soul?
sadly, this full tale and/or other p~x allusions to some former military career will always be concealed...
(matters of national security, of course...?)


oh - this is rain-related...
we are trying to rain on p~x's on-going parade...
of self-promoting (former/unproven) military fantasies.

yea, it might just be a single shot breach loader on steroids, but you really don't want to shoot yourself in the foot with one.

admin wrote:yea, it might just be a single shot breach loader on steroids, but you really don't want to shoot yourself in the foot with one.

hmmm... some dumb-fcuk officer (in a past-gone war...)
who might endeavor to eliminate his foot+lower leg (+...???) with a 40mm grenade...?
well, ya know, he would simply have been doing the grunts a favor...
(i.e. they wouldn't have to frag him themselves!)

Had no power yesterday, from 6:30 PM till 0:30 AM, or so, anyone else had a blackout? Was it because of the rain, or not? Still raining here.