I arrived in São Paulo this morning after an uneventful but long (9-1/2 hour) flight from Houston.

My driver was there to pick me up when I exited Immigration, so that made the lengthy drive to the Renaissance Hotel downtown bearable. He talked the entire time and then thanked me for the “papo” (chatter) as he drove off. I didn’t have to say much more than agree with him about politics, road construction, governmental corruption, square kilometrage of Brasil compared to other countries, etc.

He was well-read (or more likely, well-televisioned).

Now I sit here at 6:00 p.m. and the sun has set. We are in deep winter, in spite of 70-degree temps and blue skies earlier today.

Tomorrow I fly down to Blumenau once again. My hopes are more realistic this time, I think. It took a few months to finally realize that 30 years of changes can be more than intellectually-challenging, they can shock one emotionally as well. I think I am ready to face this city in my history once again, but with reset expectations.

So I leave tomorrow for Brazil again. I’m planning on working from home today so I can do loads of laundry and other needed tasks between meetings, calls, etc. Quite the balancing act.

I checked the 10-day forecast and it looks like 70s-80s and sunny with a daily 10% chance of rain. Beautiful winter weather.

Conversely, Blumenau — where I will go on Friday and Saturday — shows solid rain on both days (and only those days).

I guess I can’t have everything.

It feels like summer has finally arrived. Last night was a toss-and-turn and kick-off-the-covers sort of night as it felt too warm to sleep comfortably — even with the windows open.

For the most part, it appears our weeks of daily rain is over and the temps are now forecasted to be in the 80s and 90s going forward. Back to the “high desert”.

The big family reunion is this weekend in Thermopolis, Wyoming. We look forward to this even every year as an opportunity to catch up with the extended family.

For those interested, here is the mockup of the t-shirt I designed for this year’s event: