Grinding up forks

 

 

It’s been a crazy work filled week. We are really wrapping up around here. Not that we are “done” because I don’t think that will ever apply, we are almost fully functioning

The eating part of the island is done, concrete wise, now it needs stained. The sink is working and I finally have, TA  DA!! A garbage disposal! (happy happy girl) And I already ground up the handle on a fork. YAY for me, another piece of cutlery that has the distinctive marks of the garbage disposal blade on it! If I keep it up they will all match!

I won’t even list the little things we have to do because there are a lot. Yesterday, Monday the 14th is the first work day (non holiday) that we haven’t had workers since November. That’s a long time. Since March when we moved in downstairs the guys were here at our house every day at 7. Now they’re not and that means I don’t have to put on a bra right away and not wearing a bra is heaven to me! It also means I don’t have to get dressed as soon as I get up, I can spend the whole day in whatever garment I slept in the night before. It’s nice and it’s been a long time, little things!

On Thursday I was running errands w/ Miguel, one of our workers. We were in Ace Hardware 2 times in 15 minutes, I am in there a lot. Walking into the store they have some funky shit sitting there, yard fountain, plastic dogs for your yard, etc. When Miguel and I were walking out the other day some guy threw himself on the floor, grabbed a plastic dog and pretended it was biting him in the neck. It was hysterical, I was almost crying!! Reminded me of my friend Kevin.

Friday was a no good very bad day. I woke at 3:59 dreaming that the army/cleaner ants were on me and not the walls. Then realized it was raining so I brought the dogs in and took them downstairs. Then I had a hard time going back to sleep. Fun.

I got up at 6:30, the guys came and started work and the power went out. Then it came on. Then it went out. No Internet and the data on my phone is expired. I had to renew it today. {I have to go in to the store and renew because they only sell monthly plans if you don’t buy a phone. Pain.} I left early because I once again had no gas. It’s an aversion of mine to have to stop for gas, just as is stopping to pee. Forget it. I’ll explode first. Soon after I left the house a light came on my dash that said “CHECK.” Check what? The seatbelt? The tires? The fluids? WHAT DO I NEED TO CHECK, TELL ME DAMMIT. I called Bill and he said go to Nelson and have him look at it. I stopped to get gas on the way and because the power on the island went off and on and off their pumps didn’t work. There is only one more gas station that is close enough before I run out. If they don’t have gas I’m screwed. I stopped at Nelson’s, still out of gas with the light on that says check. Nelson said he would check it for me. He spent about 15 minutes, checked belts and fluids and it was all good. He said that maybe the light shorted on. Great. He did tell me the one on the other side meant I needed gas. Uhhh. D U H. Off to get gas. The next station had working pumps.

I had an appointment with a gal to do our US taxes (we filed an extension) at 10. I get there and she said she sent me an email that she couldn’t meet me today and that she had to leave. I never got her message, no internet. THEN she says she doesn’t do US taxes, which is specifically what I told her we needed. So, it really didn’t matter if she was leaving or not, she can’t do our taxes. I still need to find someone to do them, or it will be us. So I left there at ten but had an apt in the same mall to get my hair chopped at 11:30. I decided to go to the chamber at AKR to see if Dr Raphael was in, hoping he would cut open my ankle and get this damn frigging alien out. Yes, my ankle is bad again. It’s still the case of the stitch from surgery on 3/31/13 that never dissolved and is infected. It has been cut open 3 times, I’ve been on enough antibiotics to give all of the women in First Bight a damn good yeast infection. I must have a resistance to the benefits and side effects of the drugs. My ankle? It’s still bugging me. A lot.

I digress, Dr Raphael was not in.

So I called my hair gal to see if she could take me early. She was booked so I said oh well, I’ll see you at 11:30. She said, you have an apt?? I said yep, wondering, why did she ask me that? So I had time to kill, 70 minutes. I drove into Coxen Hole to the electrical supply store. I walked in the door and heard Tanya say good morning Miss Debra. I went over and told her I was there to get the twenty receptacle covers she was getting for me. She was still short eight. Really? An electrical supply store, no receptacle covers? I bought a ceiling light and twelve covers and drove back to get my hair cut. I got to the salon a few minutes early but went in thinking I would look at magazines. I got in and sat down and she said my apt. was at 10:30, I said no 11:30. I was scheduled to have a tax apt. at 10 and figured at least an hour for that. 11:30. She was very nice it was her fault, and then she cut my hair off. Six inches. I love it! And because she felt bad for the confusion she gave me enough for 2 Keratin treatments for my hair. OH BUT WAIT. When I got to the salon there was a guy getting color. I didn’t really think anything about it until I had to switch chairs with him. They took the towel off his shoulders and he was shirtless. As in, no shirt at all. WTH? Really? YCMTSU.

I headed to Tigo, recharged my phone, had them put the voice mail in English and turn off all the ridiculous text messages they send every 11.5 minutes. Voicemail OK, text messages, NOT. Still getting 20 a freaking day!!

I was finally headed home! Today was also a no good very sad day.We said good bye to our remaining crew of 2. They will be back in a month to finish some things. They knew we were coming to the end of work for them soon and they have an opportunity to work for a month for Miguel’s Uncle who will only be here 30 days (he lives in Miami) building his house. That’s all the longer the guys will be gone for. It’s going to be so weird not having Miguel and Rambo (Miguel #2) here at 7 AM every morning. I felt like my kids were leaving home again. Then I thought, wait a minute, I’ve been there, done that with Chance and Trace. Not again. We really do like these guys. Bill took them to Eldon’s for lunch and they each got 4 servings. They all came back to the house and ate and Bill said they ate it all. I made them a peanut butter pie with crushed candy bars on top. When I got home just after lunch all 3 were on the porch BLOACHING OUT. Thank you Lee L Cohen for that term. Miguel said Mr. Bill fed them too much food, they couldn’t move. When they left tonight I hugged both of them, with tears in my eyes. Bill and I are so lucky to have met these guys and have them in our lives. We’ll stay friends, I’m sure. It was sad saying good bye, although they’re not far away, they won’t be here everyday like they have been for 8 months..The one guy, Miguel (Rambo) never missed a day of work. That’s pretty impressive for a young island guy with no transportation. The other Miguel, Malaria Miguel. He may very well have had malaria, our other workers wife has it too. He had some issues going on at home and he was allowing it to affect his job. Bill talked to him very calmly and told him how it made him look and how it made us feel when he blew us off. Miguel said it wouldn’t happen again, it hasn’t. We want him to do the right things in his life, not for our benefit, but for his.  There really are some guys who want to learn and want to work and we have two of them. So lucky.

Saturday I putzed around here in the morning then at 3 I picked my friend Trish up (who is from Toronto) at the airport and gave her a ride to their home in Sandy Bay. After I dropped her off I stopped and got some wine and some Fresca for our adventure on Sunday.

Saturday night we had a craaaazzyy loud and close electrical storm. No rain, just thunder and lightning. I actually could feel the electricity and hear it crackle. It was so fierce that I took all 3 dogs downstairs for the night. Dooce was panicked and she even had on her Thundershirt. I woke up several times that night, closed some windows, checked on the dogs, kind of a fitful nights sleep. When we got up on Sunday it was pouring. Fantastic, a filled cistern!! I was hoping the rain wouldn’t dampen our plans for the day. Cleo and Craig were coming out at 10:30 and we were going to Jeanie and Roger’s home in Camp Bay. We decided to go no matter what, it’s an adventure. We were out of here before 11 and off to the other end of the island. We got to their place with no problems. Oh my, what a home they have. The views are breathtaking and best of all, you can HEAR the waves crashing on the shore. Magnificent. What a piece of paradise, I love their home, it’s so perfect!! We hung out there for a bit and then went to Camp Bay Adventure Lodge for lunch. The food was OK but they were out of everything, no lettuce, nothing but fish and chicken fingers and fries. NO BEER. Seriously, how do you run out of beer?? It’s pretty obvious to me that they really don’t care because if they did, they would have been more stocked. They even knew we were coming!

 

After there we went to La Sirena for a rum punch. Back in July of  2012, Bill, Olivia and Teri and I went to La Sirena and I took a photo of Bill holding a cute little puppy. After we got Highway and saw that photo again we were surprised how much they looked alike. Well, this year the same dog was there, full grown. He’s bigger than Highway now.

After planking La Sirena and having too many rum punches we went back to Roger and Jeanies home, got our coolers and headed back to our house. It rained when we were leaving La Sirena and pretty much kept on raining until after we were home for about an hour.

We put the dogs downstairs again last night because of the weather which means Emmy can’t get at her litter box. I figured that wasn’t a big deal, or so I thought. At 4 AM she woke me up meowing. She never meows, she only hisses and bites. I thought maybe she had to go to the bathroom so I chased the damn cat around the house until I caught her and took her downstairs. I was greeted at the door by the boy dogs who thought it was time to get up. No way boys..back to bed for me, except I was wide awake. I was cold, it got down to 75 last night. Bill slept with a shirt on and the blanket up and I wore socks. 75 degrees and we were cold.

Those of you who have been reading my blog know how much I hate Google Blogger. I decided to try another blog program, this is my first attempt. It seems much more user friendly except I can’t figure out how to make the text larger. If it’s too small when you are reading it just hit the control and the plus key at the same time until it’s big enough.

 

I’ll end with a favorite new video. It’s the song Chandelier by Sia, the young girl dancing is Maddie Ziegler of Dance Moms. It’s fantastic, click HERE.