December 29, 2010

In the morning I wanted to do an extra backup of our photos. I got out the 1TB disk where I keep a copy of all the data from our home computer and which I also use to do secondary backups. I don´t have enough space on the MacBook for all photos, so after a while they only exist on two external disks.

The disk didn´t mount! What the… I had bought the disk in an Apple store in Washingtn DC and now it was already broken.

Two broken disks in 3 weeks was a bit too much. I checked the only remaining working external disk I have left and to my horror discovered that there was a hole in my elaborate double backup scheme. The photos from October 9 to October 21 had only been on the now broken disk. I swore to myself that I will never again brag on the blog that I am normally very good with backups.

All photos from the Pinnacles National Momument, the national parks in Utah and Arizona and up to and including the entire stay in New York had probably gone to the great WOM (write-only memory) in the sky.

There was only one thing I could try. If, by a miracle, only the electronics were broken I could salvage the data using the emergency cable adater I bought in Salta. The casing had no screws, so I had to bend it open and ruin it. On the inside was another Samsung SATA disk.

I connected it all:

Only remaining working disk to the left. The other broken one up to the right.

The disk mounted using the adapter! I created some space on the MacBook by moving some kid´s movies to the external disk and quickly copied all the photos both to the MacBook and to the other external hard-disk. I could now tell Helene that we hadn´t lost the photos after all.

It seems fishy that two disk interfaces should break so shortly after each other. I really hope it isn´t the MacBook which is frying them.

It´s amasing how small the interfaces are these days. Here are the contents when the disk and the plastic have been removed, This is a full-blown SATA to USB interface:

Once I had managed to clear my soul of the emotional impact of a near-data-loss experience we went into town to buy a fishing license. Jorge and Carmen wanted to bring us to a lake not too far away. A 24 hour license cost 100 pesos, or USD 25. If I had been an Argentinian or living in a country with a common border with Argentina it would have been much cheaper.

Our excpetionally talented driver, Helene, once again brought us safely to our destination:

And what a destination it was. We walked over a meadow

and were met by this view:

We went swimming (the water held 17 C (63 F))

and sunbathing

There was a fallen tree on the beach:

Jorge had brought his new inflatable dinghy. Unfortunately we didn´t have a champagne bottle to baptize her. Jorge and I went fishing:

It was good to have time alone with Jorge. We got the opportunity to discuss many issues. My Spanish has steadily improved during our stay here and I felt I was getting at least closer to how it was 15 years ago. We discussed things that happened when we were in Argentina 15 years ago and also had some laughs over the time he was in Oslo and I brought him fishing and camping in the woods. The tent was small and the ground a bit slanted.

Fishing trips are in general great arenas for male bonding. I once took my French brother-in-law fishing in Norway. We didn´t catch any fish but he taught me the basics of French swearing, something Helene and my French courses had never done. What a relief to be able to swear correctly. It is an essential part of a language if you want to really be on the inside. It is also very difficult to master and gives you important clues about the culture of a country. Yet most language courses leave you in the dark or tell you about useless expressions like “zut” (roughly equivalent to “oh my”).

Traditional Norwegian swearing is mostly related to religion and the devil, although modern Norwegian swearing also has been inspired by English swearing. English swearing is mostly based on genitals and activities related to these. The French, on the other hand, seem obsessed with the anus and its functions. There are all sorts of expressions related to excrements and who puts their droppings on whom.

On a slightly unrelated note the cow also has a very special place in French culture. Any joke containing a cow is instantly more funny then one which does not. Once I discovered this I recycled all my old cow jokes and tested them with success in a French environment. There is actually a reference to this cultural trait in the Monty Python movie “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” where the French in the castle launch cows at the British knights.

Ooops, sorry.

After two hours and a very nice trout, we were heading back again when dark clouds and a wall of rain started drifting towards us. Helene took this photo from the beach:

A strong wind developed and huge waves came our way. I was at the oars and had a very hard time making us advance at all in the strong counter-wind. The cold rain was hammering us and I was glad I was rowing, which kept me warm. By the time we were back all the others were in the cars. Jorge and I were soaked to the bone.

There was a slight lull after a while and we could show everyone the fish Jorge caught:

1.7 kilo (almost 4 pounds) lake trout. Not bad.

The rain soon came back in full force. I wanted to help Jorge deflate the dinghy but soon had to give up since I was too cold. I hurried into the car to get some warmth. I had forgotten the most basic rule for staying alive: Don´t get wet. If you do get wet, take off the wet clothes and put on dry ones and add a waterproof layer on top. We hadn´t event thought about bringing rain gear today, the weather seemed so nice this morning.

We wanted to follow the road a bit further, but soon had to stop. There was a line of cars. We got out and could see that a large part of the road had been pushed into the lake by running water.

We were very happy we were not on the other side. Jorge told us we would have had to make a 100km (60 miles) detour on rough gravel roads to get back to their home.

On our way back the sunset was spectacular and set the sky (and a lake) on fire:

Eirik

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