Rockiversary number 3

10/26/2016 WARNING: Only a couple of photos in this blog.

Three years ago today we stepped off the Delta flight at the Roatan airport. It was a Saturday and we had two dogs and a cat in crates, five suitcases and four carry-ons.

A little timeline to put things in perspective.

March 4, 2013 I moved home from my 4 months in Roatan. I had moved there Nov 3rd 2012 with my cat Emmy and rescued Highway while I was there. Bill had to come get me to help with the animals.

March 30, 2013 I was walking Highway who was 4 months old and Dooce, our 90# Malamute Shepherd mix dog on the runway. I was screwing with my camera, not paying attention and they were running and playing. Dooce leveled me. I think I flew in the air because the wind was knocked out of me and the camera that was on a strap around my neck flew off. Bill was in the house and happened to look out the kitchen window. He had no idea why I was laying on the ground so he came out to see. He got the car and drove it over to where I was, we had already confirmed I couldn’t walk. Bill and Trace got me in the car to go to the hospital. They did x-rays and then the Doc came in. Yep, broken fibula, tibia and dislocated ankle. No surgery until tomorrow because I had eaten a big meal. Surgery happened at 3:30 PM the next day and I went home the next morning. I was packing to move out of the country and I COULDN’T WALK FOR TWO MONTHS. After I could walk I had therapy until my knee surgery.

April 18, 2013 Bill’s friend drove him down to Seattle to have his knee replacement replaced. He was down there for 3 days, I was in a wheelchair with 2 dogs to take care of.

Once he semi recovered he began packing the hangar/shop and building crates for our stuff to go in. I was still packing from a wheelchair.

We sold our house to Koreans who were putting in buildings to grow Shitake and Oyster Mushrooms. They said we could stay there for awhile. Define awhile please. Soon deliveries of their materials started coming. At one point there were at least 10 tractor trailers in our yard.

August 13th, 2013 I had my knee replaced. I was in the hospital 2 days, came home the third. I was still packing belongings to move.

September 1, 2013 We were told the guys building the greenhouses were moving in to our house the end of the month. We could stay, they would live there with us, we had 3 other bedrooms. OH NO, this was not happening.

September 30, 2013 We moved to half a double about 3 miles from our house. It was nice and clean but we had sold all of our furniture so we had a blow up air bed and 2 zero gravity chairs.

October 7, 2013 We started looking for flights to Roatan on United in a few months. What we realized was: 1) If we wanted to fly United we could not take our animals, they no longer flew animals to Roatan unless they were in the cabin. The dogs were too big for that. 2) if we wanted to fly Delta or American we had to do it before Nov 1 due to the embargo on flying animals in cargo until the end of March.

We bought tickets leaving Seattle Oct. 25th, arriving RTB Oct 26, 2013

October 7, 2013 While booking flights we realized Bill’s passport was going to expire and not be valid for the required six month period to enter Honduras so he had to rush order another passport.

October 16th, 2013 I began the paperwork to take the 3 animals to their new home. It’s the pet paperwork game. It requires you to do all of your paperwork in the 10 day time frame before you land on the island. Not 9 days or 11 days, TEN. I was familiar with the hoops I had to jump through to accomplish this so that was my job. I had to go to the vets, make sure the animals were up date on everything(they were) then I had to Fed Ex the paperwork to Olympia WA to the USDA so they could verify that my vet was an accredited vet with the state of WA. ( Doesn’t a copy of the vets current license show that?) Then they had to sign each document at an outrageous cost to us and send it all back to me in the prepaid self addressed Fed Ex envelope I sent to them with the paperwork. At that time in history Obama had shut down all federal offices (National Parks issue) but luckily there was a skeleton crew at the USDA. Meaning things moved slower than the extremely slow pace things move in government offices.

October 23, 2013 We had the paperwork in hand for the animals. Now we had to rent a vehicle that would hold all of us and the 2 huge crates for the drive to Seattle.

Time was drawing closer to our anticipated departure of October 25th on a red eye to Atlanta. Honduras was on the horizon.

I was so excited and so nervous, scared, stressed about the move. Leaving the comforts of home for a life on a 36 x4 mile island was indeed crazy. We knew a few people, but not a lot by any means. It was going to be different. Not having an 8-5 everyday is a huge change in a person’s life, all of the routine stuff for so many years and then it stops. It’s like going cold turkey from coffee. (I don’t drink coffee, never have, never tasted it)

October 25th, 2013 We took our youngest son to dinner that night and hung out with him to say good bye. We all cried when we finally got in the car for the drive to Seattle.

October 26, 2013 WELCOME TO FREAKING ROATAN, where nothing is what it seems but it’s all good and you’ll love it here.

We were met at the airport by Liz, Bill K and Miguel. Miguel had kept my car, the POS I bought in Nov of 2012 from him so I would have wheels while I was here alone for 4 months. We got the dogs loaded, {Emmy shit in the baggage area of the airport when I pulled her out of her cage, just a few turds, got them with a Kleenex and tossed them in the trash}, the luggage in the car and went to get my wheels. Highway peed for 5 minutes straight. Neither he nor Dooce went in their crates. Once that was done we moved into a house just a hill and a driveway away from our property. I was having a hard time in the house with all the steps and my knee.

Nov 2, 2013 We moved to a single level rental at the foot of our driveway. It made it so much easier for Bill to be up at the house watching the construction and it had a fenced yard for the dogs. This was the 3rd move in 6 weeks.

March 14, 2014 We moved into the lower level of our house! YAY!! We still had stuff we were bringing up from the other place but we had the necessities and if I couldn’t find what I needed I went down to the other place and looked for it. Pain in the butt, not a real big deal in the grand scheme of things.

June 10, 2014 We were moving upstairs. Finally. We didn’t have everything hooked up but we moved anyhow.

We have been working on the house ever since.

Jan 5, 2016 We started the fence out front and the shop.

May 20, 2016 We started the pool

June 10, 2016 Pool is completed

October 26, 2016  Shop is almost done, fence is complete except for paint.

This is just an FYI in case you wondered what we’ve been doing for the last 3 years. I volunteer as much as I can (when I can walk) and I’m also the partier in this family. I’ll never turn down a beach day or a dive day with anyone.

Foot update and then I am outta here:

I was told I “should” be able to walk this past Sunday. Well, I could but with pain so I didn’t push it. Monday I laid low and hung in the pool and on the porch with Carmen who came to visit me. Any day spent with Carmen is a great day. On Tuesday I decided to call the doctor for a check up. I was walking with crutches but putting some weight on my foot, not a lot but some. Let me say: I am not a pain woosie or a whiner and I hate not being able to do things myself so this has been grueling for me. I know, there are a lot of people who have it much worse than I do, and I feel for them. However, it’s me and my mental state I am dealing with. The hospital said to come in at 4 to see Dr Izaguirre. At 5:20, still no Doc, he wasn’t there so we told her we were leaving. As we got off the elevator, there was the Doctor. He had driven all the way from Woods Clinic in Coxen Hole just for my appointment. He left Woods and then was called back due to a situation with a patient. We went up to his office, he examined me, gave me 2 scrips and his cell #. He wants to see me in 2 weeks and wants me to call him in 1 week. He also wants me to start Physical Therapy with someone 2x’s a week. Luckily there is a guy who was trained in the US and he comes to your house. We went to pay for the Dr. visit and they said no fee. WTH? Bill went and got the one scrip, it was for a shot and they were giving it to me in the ER. He brought the med back and the nurse got the needle ready. I said, arm, she smiled and said no. Oh, OK BUTT! Great. The shot was a cortisone/anti-inflammatory shot. He said if I wasn’t better in 2 weeks when I came back to bring that medicine with me again (scrips are good forever here, the pharmacy doesn’t take them once they fill them) and he would give me shots in my foot in the tendons. He said it’s very painful, sounds interesting. Pain intrigues me. I got my shot and came home and by later that evening my foot felt better. I had wine and Oreos for dinner.

My foot feels a lot better today and I am walking on it a little even though he said not to. I know, I throw my cast away on day 3, walk when I’m not supposed to and suck taking meds. I’m just a lousy patient. I also found out I can not dive until I’m 100% better because nitrogen accumulates in damaged tissue and makes you more likely to get the bends, which is something no diver ever wants to experience. I just got DAN insurance. If I had it when I hurt my foot it would have paid for everything. Stupid of me to not have it.

Three years down, many more to come. It’s been raining like crazy, last night I had the window over our bed open and woke at 2:40 ish because I was getting wet. Bill slept right through it, well I woke him worrying about the dogs on the porch but they were nice and dry. I did not go back to sleep and quite honestly, I think it’s o-nap-thirty. Bill is at the dentist with Alexi and the dogs are all crashed out in various spots of the house. Quiet afternoon with more rain to come. Perfect siesta weather.