It’s been a long time since I’ve done a rambling, thoughts off the top of my head column, but there are so many little ideas wigging inside my brain that I can’t quite scratch away, that I just have to let them out.

Let me start with the election here, because it really is the most important thing going on in Ecuador. It now appears (though Perez still has one last chance with the TCE) that the April 11th, run-off Presidential election, will be between Andres Arauz and Guillermo Lasso. And what becomes more obvious every day is that Perez is not going to go calmly into the night admitting defeat (sound familiar?), so I honestly can’t see him supporting Lasso before the run-off.

Which means that in all likelihood, Arauz wins, Correa comes back, and blah, blah, blah…. Yeah, that’s what I said. Because when I’ve tried to rationally explain why that is a bad thing for the country, I’ve had several people tell me, kindly, that they think I’m wrong about Arauz. So, I’ll stop going on about it. Time will tell who is right on this.

This talk of elections brings me full circle, back to US politics (since I keep a toe dipped in each country, and have property in each, I have to follow the politics in both). Let’s talk CPAC.

Let me start with this: A Golden Idol? Really, you let some idiots make a gold statue of Trump and then let all those other idiots stand next to it and take photos of themselves? That’s what the Republican party has become? And then, you let the leader of Trumpism (yes, that’s Trump approved) get up and start his bullshit about winning the election all over again? Did you not see how that worked out on January 6th? Oh, wait, lots of you don’t believe he had anything to do with January 6th. Okay…..

Now, let’s talk local now. This past week I started to feel like a farmer sitting at the counter of the local diner, who is asking everyone that comes by, “How about that rain, huh?”  Because I have to tell you, it has been raining here like it is time to build an ark. I mean it, out here in the country rivers are not just overflowing, they are washing away bridges and causing road closures all over the sector. And frankly, while I like a green yard, I’ve had enough! I’m ready for some more of that road dust that blows into the pool during the dry season!

Those are really the main things that are bouncing around in my head, but I’ve got some space left so I’m going to talk about how just the littlest thing can make me feel more grounded here in Ecuador. We’ve had our place in the Yunguilla valley for going on 6 years and we have used satellite internet all that time. And frankly, it has sucked. Not only has the signal sucked, so has the service. More times than I can count on one hand, we’ve had the internet go down for an entire day. And when we called about it, we got a ‘snarky’ attitude about it.

And all that changed this week. Because we had cable internet installed. A company (based out of Giron) finally started offering this in our area this month and we jumped on it. And let me tell you, my world changed overnight! I’m so happy with my new service that I could cry tears of joy! And oh yeah, the service we have had from this company has already been amazing. They worked with us on getting the lines to a faraway spot on our property (versus where their poles ran) and they sent three people to do the install. And they constantly asked us how we wanted things done.

Anyway, I bring this all up because this tiny thing made me feel like a little bit more of civilization had entered my world. And it made me happier to be here. And perhaps most of all, it was not because of the incredible internet connection I have, but rather because I experienced real customer service out here in the Yunguilla valley.

That’s a big deal out here. Big enough deal to make me care a little less about the possibility of Arauz winning that April run-off…

I’m just sayin.’