The cool kids on the plane.

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9/1/2017 OMG, my little blog. I forgot all about you, until someone (Gary M) messaged me and said, “I love your blog.” Oh shit. And hello September!

It’s been a quiet time for me as I struggle with all that encompasses a visit to my parents and then my trip to my 50th class reunion. Honest, I’m not really struggling yet, because it hasn’t quite sunk in that it’s soon and the week before I leave we will have company for the week. Our company leaves the same day I do. And I have a children’s day party on September 9th with Nidia. So much to do, so little time.

I had to go to the mainland to see an Endodontist. I’ve been having trouble with a tooth and the dentist here said the root canal was calcified. The endo drilled the roots clean, packed them with meds and said come back in two weeks. Damn, back to Ceiba again. While there I did get in an awesome shopping trip to Mega Paca, woohoo. Two floors of endless clothes. I got a new Trina Turk dress for less than $1.50.

I chose to take the ferry over and back, having done it twice before and survived both times unscathed. This time was the LAST TIME EVER for the afternoon Vomit Comet. I did not puke but I was sick for 24 hours after that ride. I vowed to never ride the afternoon ferry again.

I went back to the dentist in 2 weeks, she took the meds out and packed the canals with cement. It had been feeling quite good. She said at the root of the tooth I had an abscess, that’s why it was so painful. For 3 total hours with an endodontist with the newest greatest equipment, lots of x-rays, and all of the drilling, meds, use of the fancy microscope, it was $260.00. TOTAL.

I flew home the second trip, 15 minutes of absolute desert type heat in an airplane. I would have crawled out on the wing if I could have opened the windows. I was dripping wet when I stepped off the plane and in the time it took to walk to the entrance door, the breeze had blown me dry. It was hell. I couldn’t leave the airport until I got some water. I came home, showered and laid down, the heat on the flight did me in.

Nidia and I went to the Friday ceremony for the microenterprise that the principal at the Froylan school started. It was interesting that the students were so involved and excited to be a part of this and I give all of the credit to Marlon, the principal. He is making leaders out of these kids, giving them responsibilities. I think it’s excellent that he is doing this.

It was a fun afternoon, although I only understood about half of it because it was in Spanish.

That night Bill and I went with our group of friends to dinner at Cal’s. It was fabulous as always. I love this group of people, so easy to be around.

The next day I was picking up some ‘hood newbies at the airport. They were coming back with 2 new puppies. Recently they bought a house very close to us and plan to live here full time. I got to the airport early (I was buying the return ticket for my trip from Ceiba) and then hung out and talked with friends, all the time watching for the people I was picking up. I realized after a good wait that they should have been out by now and told Orlando, a friend who works at the airport who I was looking for. At that exact moment, my friend that I was picking up approached me, they had been waiting outside. I felt AWFUL, I should have told them I would be between the bar and the doors. My bad, really felt lame that I did that to them. I got them and all of their luggage and 2 pups in my car and we set off for home. The pups are Cavapoos, King Charles Cavalier and poodle, so stinking cute, Barkley and Lexi. They also have 2 island dogs that came with the house.

The next day we had my friend Aida and her husband and 3 kids up for chicken fajitas and some pool time. The kids had a great time and we got to visit with David and Aida for the afternoon.

David said every time the kids go outside now, they look up at our house. They have 3 very nice, extremely polite, well behaved children, and cute? Oh my, can’t stand the cuteness. Wish I had taken photos.

The week I was scheduled to do several things with new friends didn’t go as planned, as often happens on the island.  I was to pick up two ladies; one I met through my blog and was introduced to by Chrissann, the creator of Women Who Live on Rocks, and the other other was her friend. They were due to arrive at 11 on Monday and I was meeting them at the cruise ship and giving them a tour of the east end of Roatan, with a stop at La Sirena and Monday’s Don’t Suck. Their boat was detoured to the Cayman’s because of the approaching hurricane. Bummer, I missed Carol and Brenda. And Harvey missed us and destroyed Texas. The devastation is unbelievable. Heart breaking.

On Wednesday I met two new friends at Cal’s for lunch. They know a guy I went to high school with (Larry Vognet for all of you Loyalsock people) and he asked if I would meet with them when they were here. I’m so happy I did, they are awesome people and would make a nice addition to the expat group on the island. We had a nice lunch at Cal’s Cantina and then sat and chatted for awhile. I’m hoping they decide to buy land or a home here.

The next day I was to meet a lady at West Bay and take her snorkeling. She messaged me Thursday morning that she had a terrible earache and didn’t know what to do. I sent her to Anthony’s Key clinic, they have good doctors and deal with a ton of ear issues with all the divers @ AKR.  She messaged me later on saying she got excellent care and was grateful for me steering her in the right decision. Swimmer’s ear is not fun.

On Friday night we met our dinner group at Aroma, an Indian restaurant in the mall, of all places. The owners could not possibly be nicer and their food is yummy. It was a great meal, I ate every speck of food.

The last several days have been hot and sunny so I have been poolside with a book and a scattering of dogs. And quite honestly, I really enjoy the days I’m home and can hang with the boys and Lola, the showgirl.

My friend Trish messaged me that she had rescued an iguana from some kids who probably would have killed it. She asked me what she should do with it. I called Gale Carter, she’s an Arch and she runs Arch’s Iguana farm. She said take it to the farm and put it in the pen with the other under 2 year old iguanas. They need to be protected until they are big enough to not be easy prey. I met Trish and Fred there with the captive iguana. We took him down to the cage and the guy put him inside, after telling us he was only a few days old.

The other day I spotted another (may be the same) iguana in the papaya tree. Oh how I love these things.

Alexi came to visit the other day and Bill noticed a baby iguana on the fence. We had Alexi grab it and they took it to the iguana farm and put it in the cage.

Alexi is an islander, he used to hunt iguanas until we had a serious talk with him about it. While at the iguana farm he was actually afraid to walk into a group of the big iguanas laying on the ground. He’s 18, lived here his whole life and it was the first time he ever went there.  I find that fascinating, especially since I have been there 50 times in 4 years and have learned to allow them to crawl and lay on my sandaled feet.

On Sunday there was a Reef House party. I have not been for awhile and knew all of my friends would be there. I needed to go. We all met at Jessie’s dock, there were 17 of us. I called Keith to let him know there was a big group so he sent a big boat. My friend Joel was playing that day. I met Joel when I lived here alone in 2012, nice guy and he has a great voice.

The day after I came back from my last dental appointment I started having pain in my cheek. I whatsapp’d the Doctor and she said she wanted to see me again. Another trip to the mainland. Just about that time my friend Kelly messaged me to say she was coming to the island. I told her I had to go to Ceiba and she asked if she could go with me, I said sure. I ran into the airport and bought 2 return tickets and we met Tuesday at the ferry dock at 6:30 AM. {I have to say that living on this island for 4 years has made me very aware of how much I detest alarm clocks. I am always up by 6, 6:30 but I had to be OUT OF THE HOUSE by 6. UGH.} Usually the night before I can’t sleep, worrying that I won’t get up in time.

The 90 minute ferry ride was calm the whole way. Pablo met us at the ferry terminal and dropped us off at Diunsa. We wandered through a really nice grocery store, and then went into Diunsa when they opened at 9. After that I went to the dentist. The dentist said to give my tooth time, it needs to heal. She took an x-ray, said it looked ok, no charge. Kelly and I had a lot of time to spare so we had our driver take us to the mall. We had lunch there, rode the escalators, wandered around looking at all the polyester clothes and high heeled shoes. Then we spent an hour (way too long) in WalMart. It’s nothing like the one in the US. After that we had Pablo take us to the airport for our flight home.

During Kelly’s and my messages I told her about the insane heat on the airplane so she ordered us each one of these.

Tuesday night I went to bed at 8 PM and woke at 6:30 the next morning, finally a nice long sleep.

Today Bill and I are meeting Kelly along with a builder, then this evening Bill and I are going to Cal’s with some people we met there several months ago. They just purchased land near where Kelly did and they want to pick our brains. Tomorrow eve we are going to Cal’s again with Kelly. She wants to go to the sloth farm earlier in the day so we’ll do that when my cleaning lady is done and then we’ll go eat.

It looks like there is another tropical storm/hurricane forming in the eastern Caribbean, here’s hoping it gets disorganized and flitters off into nothing.

Just a few random shots before I take a cup of tea down to the pool with the dogs.

Life is just zooming by us, not matter what we do. I’ve decided to enjoy the time I have left as much as I can, you never know when it’s going to be over.