Author: Ledfutt

 

 

One year ago I was struggling through the aftermath of knee surgery. My thoughts one year later:

Am I happy I had it done? NO

Do I have less pain while walking? NO

Is my knee prettier? HELL NO

Am I able to do things better since I had the surgery? NO

Can I once again crawl across a wooden gym floor on my knees while in the Lotus position? NO

Am I knee pain free? NO

Do I wish I never had it done? HELL YES!

I hate my new knee and I want my old one back.  And, I still have a flipping alien living in my ankle (that was broken.) A little tidbit they left for me after my surgery.  I’m sure I paid extra for the frigging thing too!  I go to the Orthopedic specialist at the Stem Cell Center on Sept. 2nd to see what he says about my knee and I am hoping he will cut my ankle open and get this damn stitch out once and for all. The alien/stitch thing has been going on since March 31st of 2013!!

**ALIEN update:  I dug it out of my ankle with my hot pink TWEEZERMAN’S. I have been picking at the thing that was poking out of my ankle for a solid week. Before that I picked the hard thing off of it but it (as in not belonging to my body) got another one. It was like a mass of calloused skin. But now I’ve lost it and I wanted to look at it with my camera zoom and a magnifying glass. I want to see what the little shit alien looks like. Now I don’t have to embarrass myself by asking this doc about the Alien. That is unless the little shit decides to move back in. Then it’s war. Right now I have a hole on my ankle where the Alien was living.

The dog days of summer are here. HOLY HANNAH IN HADES it’s HOT. Not our normal warm weather, this shit is hot. I have perpetual sweat running down every crevice of my body. There is a constant rash under my boobs which would probably go away if I could wear a bra for longer than 1 hour. I just can’t stand to put one on, they are so hot, even though they lift the boobs up and help to alleviate the rash, I still can’t handle them.  These are the days I desperately wish I were a 34 A. The glory of not having to wear a bra is something that I haven’t enjoyed for many many years. Granted, back in my hippie days I went without but that was a L O N G time ago when they were still kind of perky and it wasn’t so gross. I’ve been told it’s going to get hotter next month. I can’t freaking wait. This will be my first September here, bring it on. Can you believe in 2 months it will be a year since we moved? How times flies when you’re sweating uncontrollably.

Last Sunday we took the Dude swimming again. This time we decided not to take Luck or Dooce, they’re not interested in swimming, but this boy is.

We have been sort of slow this week, seems like it’s taking longer to do everything. It has to be this oppressive damn heat. Bill has been working on the handrails and I have been bringing the rest of the kitchen stuff up from downstairs and out of boxes. Just trying to find places for “stuff” is exhausting. The other day Bill decided he would hang the curtain rods that we bought 5 months ago, along with the curtains. I got the ironing board out, set it up over the door in the bathroom and ironed FOR ALMOST 3 HOURS. There were six pairs of polyester curtains that the wrinkles seemed to be a part of the fabric. Like they were melted into the cheap material. Disgustingly hard to iron! We got the rods up and I hung the curtains a pair at a time as I was finished ironing them. They look nice, except for the wrinkles (I know Cleo, I look) they break up all the blue, they billow in the breeze AND they keep it much cooler in here. I had a huge mess to clean up because there was concrete dust everywhere from Bill hanging the rods. Concrete house = huge mess. If you are doing ANYTHING with the walls, it’s messy. Love hate relationship.

YAY for finally having curtains. I love the subdued look they add to the room. Kind of nice to have the glaring sun hidden from view. One thing we never considered building this house is the fact that when it  rains we have to close the windows because there is no roof overhang to keep the rain out. None. Zip. Nor is there a roof overhang to cut down on the sun. Because of the lack of any overhangs, all of the sawdust Bill produces is blown around and ultimately ends up on the window screens, then it rains and the sawdust ends up in my window tracks. They are disgusting. I long for the day when Bill is not using the table saw and making dirt. I’m sure he also looks forward to that time!

I made more dog biscuits, this time with a recipe using wheat flour, honey, PNbutter milk and baking powder. I rolled them out and cut them with a glass, baked them and the dogs LOVE them. They are so spoiled, Bill makes dog food to mix in with the dry so they get some vitamins and nutrients from their food and I make them biscuits. Speaking of dogs, last Wednesday I got an email from my friend on Long Island asking if we could take their caretaker and one of their dogs to the vet.  Bill and I went up to get Sebastian and Milagro. Milagro has many cancerous tumors on his belly and my friend doesn’t know if the vet will put him down or not. They said it was up to us to make the decision and that they would respect whatever decision we made. Sebastian lifted Milagro into the bed of the truck and jumped in himself. Since we don’t like to have people in the back of the truck we insisted they (he and dog) got in the back seat. We drove down to the vet and wouldn’t you know it, the vet didn’t come this Wednesday, he had an emergency on the mainland. (This vet comes once a week from La Ceiba.) So, this Wed. it’s back to the vet with Milagro. Pets, it’s so hard.

On Monday we had some guys come up here wanting to do landscape work. Bill told them no twice before, then they called, he said no again so they came up, again. What didn’t they understand about NO? Soon after they left I noticed a lot of smoke coming up the driveway and thought they burned up their brakes going down the road. A little later when the smoke cleared I realized the truck was on it’s side on our driveway. Bill went down to see if everyone was ok, they were. Turns out they tried to go up our neighbor’s drive, something happened and they rolled their truck 6 times.

We had Walter over for dinner on Wednesday night. Bill made home made pizza dough and we cooked it on the grill. It was really good.  Other than working around here constantly we have not done anything fun. On Thursday I moved more boxes downstairs and organized stuff better, killing my back in the process. On Friday we were to go to our friends birthday celebration and we had every intention of going until Friday night came around. I was just taking a shower at 7:15. At that point in the day there was no way I was getting dressed and going anywhere. We ended up on the couch watching a movie and going to bed early. Early to bed, early to rise. The weekend sort of buzzed by. Sunday was a rainy day, it started right after I got back from the dog walk in the morning and it didn’t stop for most of the day. I baked some Amish cinnamon bread  and while it was still warm I took half a loaf down to John. It is yummy and super easy to make. I was having trouble with my oven and have concluded two things: #1. I use an oven thermometer because the oven is C, not F. Oven thermometers don’t work well if they are right against the glass of the door. #2. A ceiling fan directly above the gas oven makes it difficult to get an accurate temperature reading or even get the oven up to temp. I hope to remember these two things the next time. However, this time I lit the oven all alone. Normally I call Bill and make him light it after my gas oven explosion downstairs but I told myself I could do it and not blow up the house. YAY for me.

 

I took the dogs for their morning walk and it was a minefield of Hog Plum fruit. I hate these trees with a passion. They have flowers that cover everything including my screens and all over my porches, then they start to develop fruit and then the fruit falls all over the ground and rots and stinks and it’s squishy and slippery. UGH!!

 

I really planned to drive down to West Bay beach for the day but am even lacking the ambition to do that. I do have the strength to walk the one minute it takes to get to the neighbor’s pool though, and that is where I’m headed!!

That is if I don’t melt first!

 

 

 

Busy as bees here. Well, sort of, or Bill is. Although I did help put the poly on the island and the drawers and cupboards, I still need to poly the insides of the drawers, hopefully this weekend. Everyday something else gets checked off the list.

We have shelves and drawer fronts. I’m a happy girl. Like Gene @ Umbul Umbul said, “Happy wife, happy life.”  At this point I can’t find enough drawer pulls that I like for the kitchen so until I do, we will have none. My kitchen in Everson didn’t have any and it was fine.

 

I decided the boys needed new beds. I wanted them made out of waterproof material but not plastic stuff. We went to a shop called Waldinas AKA Valdinas. I think it’s Waldinas because the email is waldinawonderwoman@….I like this Waldina chick already. We opted for the less costly Guatemalan Sunbrella imposter. It was $30.00 a yard cheaper than the US Sunbrella, which costs Waldina’s $1000.00 / roll. These ARE dog beds and Highway DOES have a tendency to destroy all dog beds, except the heavy ones from Costco. He hasn’t destroyed one of those yet. We ordered them late Wednesday afternoon and she said they would be ready the next day and they would call me. Yeah right. You’ll call me. HAH!! No call on Thursday, which was no surprise. I planned to stop by on Friday when I went out. Friday morning at 9 AM they called, the cushions were ready. I ran to the bank and then grabbed the new beds and came home. I was anxious to give them to the boys. I went up on the back porch and took them out of the bag, threw the first one down on the ground and Highway jumped on it, attacked the bed and grabbed the corner in his teeth and started shaking his head. We were both very quick to stop that particular behavior. When we left yesterday I put the 2 new beds on the table so he wouldn’t eat them. I don’t know what I was thinking buying new dog beds but once I get fixated on something usually nothing can change my direction. You may say I border on the side of obsessive. Maybe. And Bill, I know exactly what is going through your mind at this very moment. Not funny. The point of this whole convo is that my boy dogs have new waterproof orange beds.

 

I also decided we (I) needed a sideboard for the house. Dian who owns Umbul Umbul (love that store and Annie’s) just received a shipment from Bali. In fact they were closed WHEN WE DROVE BY ON MONDAY. I think it’s the first I have ever driven by and not stopped. The container was parked across from the store and there was stuff that I wanted to buy sitting everywhere. As we drove by, I wiped the drool from my chin and told myself she had a sideboard I wanted. I just knew it.

Yesterday we had to go to Coxen Hole and Sandy Bay so we stopped at Umbul Umbul. I swear I am there more than anyone else. The first thing I saw was a sideboard. It had my name on it. Well, mentally it did. Bill is very much not interested in the stuff there It’s not that he doesn’t like it,  it all stems from him being a woodworker, these pieces are not made to his likings. But they are so damn cool I don’t care. We looked around and checked out the 2 levels below, Bill had enough and went out to sit in the truck with the air on. The piece I wanted didn’t have a price so Gene went to ask Dian. She had advertised they were overstocked and she was having a sale on the Teak furniture, which is what the piece I wanted was. Gene came in with the price and I went out to talk to Bill. He was like, whatever and came back in to look at it, looked at the broken rail and said easy fix, they loaded it, I paid and we left. We stopped to look at a new used Hyundai Santa Fe for me but they want too much for it, cars are very expensive down here. There is a Mitsubishi Outlander on the mainland, like I drove in the US but 1 year OLDER and they want $7500.00. Mine was in excellent shape and booked for 2 grand. WTH?? We got home, got the furniture off the truck and inside but it was too heavy to carry upstairs. Or so I thought. Amazingly, I allowed it to sit downstairs overnight. Yes, it bothered me, I really wanted to put it where it belonged in the house.

I spent my Friday night drinking wine out of the bottle (there wasn’t enough left to warrant the effort to pour) and watching a stooopid chick flick called The Other Woman. I only watched it because Leslie Mann is in it and I think she is hysterical. After that I watched Mission Blue on Netflix. It’s about the amazing Dr. Sylvia Earle. What a woman! If you are interested in all things related to the ocean check it out.

The rain woke me again last night as it was blowing across the room and onto the bed. It was thundering and lightning so I let Dooce in to go downstairs and hide in her hidey hole, the guest shower. It is a bunker for her. I went back to bed because the porch was still dry so the boys were OK. I couldn’t go back to sleep, after playing Angry Birds and getting, well, ANGRY, I played Yahtzee, Pinterested for awhile and ended up on the porch with the boys. I brought them both inside with me and they followed me into the bedroom. By now Dooce was hiding in a corner of the upstairs closet. Luck went over right away and licked Bill, who was sleeping. Luck ended up sleeping on my side of the floor with his head under the bed, Highway was in the middle of the room and Dooce was tucked away securely in a tiny corner. Bill got up with the boys and made bacon. I was planning to stay in bed and sleep since it was pouring but the bacon was like an elixir, drawing me from the bedroom with that pungent high fat smell that is so delightful. Bacon Bacon Bacon. I bought the bacon mainly so I would have bacon fat to make dog biscuits. Yes, I am Betty Crocker or Martha Stewart without the jail sentence. Cleo makes them and gives them to our dogs, it makes me look bad. I had to gain the respect of the dogs back, so bake I did. This is the recipe I used: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Bacon-Flavored-Dog-Biscuits/Detail.aspx?prop24=etaf. I decided to add some chopped apple to half of them, we’ll see how that turns out. I am not cool like Cleo though, she has a cutter the shape of a dog bone. She is an over achiever. I made mine to look like meatballs, hopefully they will flatten like cookies..First batch out, not flattened so I flattened them and did the second tray before it went in the oven. The biscuits were a licking gobbling success. The dogs loved them!

 

Bill managed to carry the sideboard almost all the way onto the deck alone so I helped and we got it inside with ease. I planned to put my pendulum on it. We bought the pendelum in Lahaina, Maui and had it shipped home. When we got it we noticed it was made in North Carolina. Funny. Something happened to the sand/glass that the pendulum moves in. It’s W E T. I now have it sitting in the sun hoping the moisture will go away. Damn Caribbean air.

 

I recently read the book Roatan Odyssey, written by Anne Jennings Brown. It is supposed to be a “true” story that takes place on Roatan from 1966-1976. I found it quite an enjoyable read. If Anne really did many of the things she says she did, she was a very strong woman. My problem with her story is that she left her young boys in a boarding school in England while she traipsed across the world and settled on Roatan. How do you do that? How do you leave your young children? I never could, never ever..

 

It must be baby lizard season because I have seen and rescued several tiny ones. There was one in the house last night that I think was a baby iguana because it had a black and white tail. We saw another larger green iguana in the tree yesterday when we were leaving. Iguanas and Anole lizards are OK, I just don’t like geckos. I don’t like their color, or lack of color, they are too close to flesh/skin color for my liking and I find them ugly as hell and want them to go away. Have I mentioned I’m a little obsessive?

AND, my favorite new band, Walk off the Earth. I seriously love these guys (and girl.) Check them out here and here.

Thanks for reading.

 

 

 

 

08/10/2014   Happy Birthday Sharon Prouty-Hall, we’ll see you soon, I can’t wait!!

Not a lot happening this past week. It’s been scorchingly hot, holy hell. I had a headache for two days, one day I laid in bed all day with the fan on, didn’t feel like doing much else. Bill has been working non stop on finishing stuff around here. Only 3 more drawer fronts to put on and then we’ll seal the wood. He has more to do on the island also, but not much. I still have not thought about tile for the back of the counters, I’m in no hurry, when I see something I like, I’ll buy it.

Famous last words. IT’S GETTING THERE.

On Monday I was meeting Janice at the Police station in Oak Ridge to get the beds made and the kitchen set up. It was a scorcher of a day, OMG! On top of the heat the power was out and the fans hadn’t even been installed. I don’t think I’ve ever sweat so much.

We worked for a few hours on Monday, sweat was pouring off of me and dripping on the floor, so gross. Around 2 we were done, well, as done as we could be with what was there. Junior was putting up the fans, the one guy was doing the emblems on either side of the door, others were trying to figure out what to do since the shower opening was much bigger than any shower curtain rods. Lots of little things yet to do for the dedication ceremony on Wednesday at 10. The crews had worked through the night putting down many yards of gravel, unloading chairs, cleaning up the garbage from left over boxes, putting away tools, it was a community effort for sure. Bill and I got there a little before 10 on Wed., it was another scorcher of a day. A definite sweat producer. They were just starting to set up the big tent.

We were introduced to the man who has the infamous honor of being the head of all of the police in Honduras. My thoughts were, he seemed like such a nice man, I expected him to be a bad ass. He must be in some respect to get to where he is.  There was a panel of important people and they each spoke, some in Spanish so we only got bits and pieces of that conversation. Then Mayor Dilbert got up to speak. He started talking about the people who had made this possible, like Janice and Don. He called them both up front along with a guy from Rotary. Janice gets things done, she knows who to turn to, where to go, she and Don are fantastic advocates for the community. I feel grateful I was asked to help. Well, didn’t the Mayor call me up to the front, Bill too. He really shouldn’t have because I did so little compared to the others. I felt we were up there under false pretenses but, what do you say? “NO, that’s OK, I didn’t do that much!” Bill offered to make clothes pegs for the bathroom so they had somewhere to hang their clothes and towels. He has some of them done, needs to make a few more.

I have been passively looking for bar stools. I bought 2 that I love from John and Lin when they left the island. I need 6 total, 4 up, 2 down. Since we aren’t using the downstairs we brought the 2 stools up. THEN, the other day I was at Umbul Umbul and realized they had stools to match, but they were very expensive despite the fact they had been there a long time. I thought and thought about these stools, the $$ for 2 of them was enough money to buy 2 stools and 2 end tables with money to spare. Decisions. I called the store and found out they were 20% off, that was all the news I needed. I drove down there the other day all set to buy them, but when I got there, ONLY ONE MATCHED, the other had a solid back instead of the woven. Now some people could stand that, 3 with a woven, one solid but I couldn’t. 3/1 with something like that is not a good thing for my OCD brain. I was bummed but thought, I’m buying two stools today and being done with it. They had only 2 others stools that had 2 available. I chose fold up stools and got some cushions that are a woven rattan color, they look fine. I now have 2 woven and 2 with cushions and you know what? I’m fine with it. Which is not normal for me. In my other life I would have put the 2 super nice stools downstairs and bought 4 of the same for upstairs. This is the new me..able to live on the edge.

I stopped at a wood shop on my way home and talked to Antonio. Bill and I had stopped there last week and Bill noticed they had 2 Shop Fox machines and I noticed a Grizzly tool in the back. Bill told Antonio about his previous life as a Grizzly drone and then he noticed another really old Grizzly tool. Small world, so naturally we have to deal with Antonio. He was supposed to call me with prices for 2 night stands and 2 stools. Of course, he never called so we’ll go there again on Monday.

While sitting on the porch yesterday I saw big areas of Sargassum weed floating by. They are having a problem with it in Flowers Bay, in fact the Muni is cleaning it out and hauling it away. I have read different articles, some say it should be left alone and in the water, other stories say to take it out. Whatever they do I’m sure I won’t be swimming in it. Luckily it is mainly on the south shores so it’s not circling the whole island. It is a vital habitat for sea life though, mixed emotions on this one.

Have I mentioned how much I love having my washer and dryer in the closet? I LOVE IT! Sure, it makes the closet smaller but it’s so easy. I take the clothes out of the dryer, throw them on the bed, fold them and turn around back into the closet and put them away. So stinking convenient! I remember when we lived in Cogan Station in a 3 story house and I had 2 dirty boys. I had to carry the laundry up and down those stairs, that was hateful!! It just makes so much sense! Little things.

After stopping at Antonio’s wood shop I headed to Eldon’s to get some lettuce. Walking across the parking lot I saw a truck with several cops in the back. The cop driving recognized me and motioned me over. I see him all the time on the road at road blocks, he kissed my hand once. I’m super nice to them and they are nice to me. I chatted with him for a minute and then did my shopping. On the way out of the store I heard someone call my name. It was our friend Liz. She dropped a vehicle belonging to one of the rentals she manages off for repair and needed a ride back down island to get her Jeep. I brought her to our house and then Bill took her home because my car won’t go down the Milton Bight road very easily, sits too low. Just as Bill was leaving to take Liz home Cleo and Craig came to drop some stuff off at John’s. They left yesterday to go back to the states for FIVE WEEKS. I’m jonesing already, we will miss them being on island, they are super fun to hang out with, always ready for an adventure.  At least when they return they will be living next door to us which will be great! They were going to Cal’s for dinner and since we haven’t been out to dinner for a few months we said we would join them. We took our neighbor John with us. I hadn’t had anything to drink all week because I was headachey so I grabbed a glass of wine to go for the minute ride to Cal’s. We had a fantastic dinner as always but the place was dead. Not normal for a Friday night at all. We had two bottles of wine between 3, maybe 4 of us and by the time the meal was over, we were dancing! Yes, Cleo, myself, Tami and Marian all danced. Carl was all smiles and didn’t seem to care one way or the other. It was a great evening!! We miss you already Cleo and Craig!

 

It’s 1 PM and we haven’t done squat today, we need to get moving. I’ll leave you with this photo of the airport on Roatan. If you are lucky enough to have a window seat, you’ll get a great view!!

 

And while you’re at it, Just dance.

 

 

 

Whew. It’s been busy these last few days. On Wednesday I met my friend Janice at the Oak Ridge Police station to see how it was coming, Mayor Dilbert was there as well.

They built a separate building for the kitchen. It’s really nice, with screened in walls and a cooking area in the back. After looking the kitchen over we went to the Muni and met with the head of the municipal police about a town celebration on Sunday. They are having pinatas and games with prizes for the kids. I bought a lot of candy to help fill the pinatas. After the meeting we went to BJ’s Backyard and had a drink down on the waterfront. While at BJ’s we met my friend Yanni’s dad. Always some one you know there.

The celebration is in Punta Gorda, which is further east a few miles. We’re going to try to swing by and see what’s going on. This is why we decided not to head to West Bay on Sunday, we needed to stay closer to home and try to make it to Punta Gorda.

Thursday we did some stuff around here, ran some errands and spent the afternoon in John’s pool. When we got down there we were talking to John and I realized that I had black stuff all over my hands. Not a clue what it was so I blamed it on Bill’s truck. John got me a paper towel and I wiped it off as best I could. I noticed I had it on my phone case too. Later when I got out of the pool we noticed my shoulders had black on them, the one worse than the other. WTH?? I figured out it was my swimsuit straps. I had them down when we got to the pool, put them up before I went in. Then noticed the black on my hands.

Yesterday we went on an adventure with our friends to a property called the Ridge Ranch.

Oh my, what a slice of paradise right there. Ridge Ranch is aptly named. This huge 2 part home sits on a ridge running right down to the sea. It’s on Calabash Bight. Stunning. Oh the things you could do with a property like that!! Anyhow, we kind of looked around at it, checked out some of the nooks and crannies. It’s got some quirky stuff inside! The view is spectacular. You can walk right down the path to the dock, jump in your boat, zip through the channel and go to Oak Ridge. Too cool. There was a sweet little puppy there too. Bonus!

We explored a little more and then went back to Oak Ridge to BJ’s Backyard. We saw some people we knew, ran into Marcia and Dennis, who I always enjoy talking to and saw Mitch, the computer guy. We listened to the band for awhile, finished our drinks and headed back here.

On Saturday we had to run to Carniagro (like Agway and Cenex, but not really, well, maybe Roatan style) and then to the grocery store. It was another crazy hot day. The weather said it was 88 but that it felt like 99. So humid. Like my friend Liz said, “A stand still and melt kind of day.” I have been feeling sorry for the dogs, I think they’re bored and that makes me sad. I wanted to take them swimming but didn’t know where to go w/out people because Highway is an idiot. We thought we would try Parrot Tree. It’s close and there is a beach with no people. We got all 3 dogs in the backseat of the truck. That was fun. Dooce and Luck jumped right in, Highway, we have to lift up his back end.

 

We brought the dogs home, hosed them off, put on suits and went back down to the pool at John’s. I floated for quite awhile, it felt so good. It has been weirdly still. Down at the pool it was utter silence. No birds, no chickens, no dogs barking. Maybe it’s the heat and humidity but whatever it was the silence was awesome.

We have more guests arriving in March. My friends Cicily and Cheryl, from Williamsport are coming to visit. Cicily and I used to work together and hang out together a long time ago. I’m really looking forward to their visit, haven’t seen either of them since the 1990’s! Cheryl has a killer voice, I would love to take her to Karaoke or BJ’s and let her belt out some tunes!!

I also finally talked to my high school friend Richard. We were chatting on a regular basis but then he sold his house before the new one he is building was done so he has been hard to get in touch with. He’s planning to come down over the winter as it’s a less busy time and easier for him to travel. Winter here is not really “winter” just a slight bit cooler and wetter.

This morning, before 6:30 AfreakingM, a truck pulled in our driveway, right under the bedroom window. I WAS SLEEPING. HELLO??? The dogs were barking their heads off, Bill was outside talking to the men. It was loud, way too loud for the time of day that it was. I was pissed. To top it off, right before the truck came Emmy jumped from the bed onto my back. It was like, “OOPS, could you get up and feed me?” I shoved her away and rolled over and then the noise happened. It was some guys related to some other guy who owns some land somewhere and they were supposed to spray the weeds by the power lines. And they had a dog with them. Cue Highway and Lucky. Dooce doesn’t care. She has Minions to do her work. I was up. and grouchy.

Because there were guys here working w/ a dog Bill went with me for the morning walk with the dogs. It was over an hour later than I usually go and it was morbidly hot. WHY AM I NOT sweating off the inches? It’s not fair. I’m going to start to wear saran wrap dresses under my clothes so I get skinny.

Our friends Mr. A and Ms. B came over around 11 today and we were off to Havana Beach Club, AKA Palm Beach. It’s less than 10 minutes away. It’s a nice, wide, pretty beach but it’s not my favorite. There is a lot of grass in the water, I prefer a sandy bottom and the bugs there are ghastly! When I got out of the water I sprayed myself good because I was getting bitten while floating. It seemed like the insect repellent was an attractant, not a repellent. It wasn’t fun being lunch for kazillions of no-see-ums! They swarmed our heads while we were eating.

 

Tonight I was supposed to go to a big celebration in Punta Gorda but I had to take 2 Benadryl when I got home I was itching so badly. Now all I want to do is lay down and go to sleep.

Up and at ’em tomorrow morning. I have to meet a friend at Ace when they open because the bezel fell off of my watch in their pool and they are bringing it to me before they head back to Toronto; then I have to be at the Police Station @ noon to help get it set up before the head of Police and the General come to see it.

 

 

07/29/2014 I was beginning to feel like I was back in the Pacific Northwest with all the rain; however the crazy thunder boomers and constant lightning made sure I knew where I was. I was/am on a small speck of land in the Caribbean Sea, in a concrete and METAL home. We’re just one big lightning rod. Now that I know this, I won’t rest until we do something about it. We had storms in Pennsylvania all summer long but it was a rarity to have a good thunderstorm in WA. This past week I don’t think we had one night that we didn’t get up to the sounds of rumblings and booms and cracks coming from the sky. We had to bring the dogs inside it was so bad. Dooce was a shivering drooling puddle of fur. I put her Thundershirt on her during one bad storm and just left it on her but Bill takes it off because he thinks it upsets her. So I guess she just shivers and drools and pants without it. The other night we had some serious booms where the noise and the flash were mere seconds apart. A little too close for comfort! Today, Tuesday is a nice overcast day, pretty muggy outside.

The kitchen island is done, well, the counter top is. Bill is working on the cupboards and the back of the island. We ran errands yesterday looking for a new mattress and some door handles for the kitchen. I need 15 and I saw 1, one handle, uno, ein. ONE that I liked. Ace hardware has a huge display but they have only a few of each. They are the most poorly stocked store I have ever been in. Amazon here I come. It’s the little things. We also can’t find the small yellow fluorescent bulbs that fit in our porch lights. Until we do we can’t put the covers on them. Yes, it’s frustrating but it’s not a deal breaker by any means!

 

On Saturday we were invited to our friends house to hang out in the pool for the afternoon. It was a gorgeous sunny day, not a rain cloud to be seen. Trish and Dave live down in Sandy Bay way up on a hill. Needless to say they have amazing views!

I haven’t been driving my car very much lately. It makes me nervous that the CHECK light is still on. The last time I drove it there was a noise coming from the front wheel but I knew what it was so I kept driving. Sure enough, the underside of the car was dragging on the ground. Bill has since fixed that but the CHECK light is still on. Scarlett is such a tramp.

The other morning I saw some bugs on the screen and went to check them out. I realized they were inside and one was H U G E and scary looking.

This is a stock photo from the web, these people obviously know how to pose the Beetles for photos..something I have no intention of mastering.

So now you know about Rhinoceros Beetles.

Last night I felt like making chicken with pot pie noodles. Of course, I didn’t have all the ingredients and of course it was 5:30 when I considered making it. Bill went to the store to get what we needed because he obviously was hungry.  I’ll eat a bag of popcorn for dinner and call it good. I’m totally happy with that, I don’t need much more. Him, he likes food. So I made the dough, rolled it out, cut the noodles and made dinner. I think it was 7 PM when we finally ate.

It was pretty good and just what we needed on a blustery, cool (83) Monday!

I’ve wanted a shelf unit for the living room so I would have somewhere to put my little amount of stuff. I saw one at a store that I really liked but Bill didn’t, he thought it was overpriced for the quality of it. I decided to give up on that piece, despite the fact I have looked at it at least 4 times. Sunday we went to the grocery store but before that we stopped at Lady Lee’s looking at mattresses. While there I saw a funky corner shelf. Bill looked at it and liked the way it was made, it was really heavy and unusual. Although it doesn’t have all the space I need, at least my things are out and not in a box..

Bill is working on the kitchen cupboards right now and I am trying to hammer out this blog before Jurgen starts bugging me..I’m not doing too well, it’s 1 PM, been at it since 8 ish.

Tomorrow we are taking our friends dog to the vet. They are in Long Island for the summer, the dogs are looked after by their watchie but he doesn’t have transportation. Later on in the day I am meeting my friend at the new police station in Oak Ridge. She is meeting with the police chief about a kids program so I am going to tag along and hopefully get involved.

This coming Sunday we are headed to West Bay Beach to meet our friends Trish and Dave and spend the day in the water. It’s a much needed beach day for me and the last we’ll see them until they return @ Christmas..

Speaking of Christmas, I saw these online and think they are fabulous

I am outta here, we just got company so it’s a good reason to post this and be done with it.

 

 

07/21/2014 I forget last week. It’s like I blinked and it was over. I don’t think anything memorable happened, nor did we do anything memorable. Meet Mr. and Mrs. Boring. Actually, Bill worked on the kitchen every day last week and it’s getting there. I now have drawers, no drawer fronts yet, but soon.

The boy dogs have been barking relentlessly at the vultures, again. They also do this very annoying loud yap whine bark gig when we come home or someone comes. I’m tired of the routine. I was yelling at them constantly, NO. NO. NO. STOP BARKING!! NO. NO. It didn’t work and I was sick of yelling. I got so mad at Highway when he was down in the yard barking because there was a vulture or two in the trees I picked up their bowl of water and threw it on him. He stopped immediately. Next time he barked at the birds I did it again. He stopped. I threw water on the 2 boy dogs about 4 or 5 times. Now they rarely bark at the birds. I don’t yell if they bark when there is someone coming; however I do not allow them to go berserk when someone comes or when Bill comes home. It is overboard and so not necessary. Highway starts and nips at Lucky who reluctantly chimes in and yaps. Luck has a real high pitched snappy bark, Highways is deep and gruff and Dooce, she just makes a grunt bark noise once or twice for effect.

On Wednesday evening a taxi came up our drive with the music blasting. I stood at the window, hands on my hips, waiting to see who and why this car was here. It turned around, backed up towards the house and turned the lights off. I was getting pissed; until I recognized Miguel and Rambo. They stopped by to say hello on their way to party in French Harbor. It was nice to see them, it’s been quiet here without workers on the premises.

Over the weekend I tore into some storage boxes and emptied and tried to find a place for stuff. Oh the things I found!! Aside from the lizards that are on the wall, another thing that reminds me of WA. is my Phinney pottery. These are my favorite pieces and the only pottery that made the trip to Roatan! The pieces were gifts when I left Williamsport in 1995 and moved to Washington.

I love this pottery, it makes me think of Cathy (O) Hurvitz and Kelly McGarvey. Love those girls.

I started cleaning out the kitchen downstairs, getting the pans and dishes out that will be for downstairs and moving more stuff upstairs, even though I don’t have room for it. What I need to do soon is move ALL of the remaining storage tubs into one room and do a final repack and list of everything. Despite the fact this is about the 8th time I’ve redone the tubs and made new spreadsheets, it still is a huge time saver. Considering there were 28 boxes and 26 tubs and I’m down to 10 tubs and 4 of those are full of scrap booking stuff, 3 are kitchen things and two are Christmas. Not bad. I’ve graduated from a junk drawer in WA. to a junk storage tub.

On Saturday afternoon we worked really hard in the house. The sweat was cascading down my chest like a river, I could feel grit on my moist back. I felt like a crustacean, so we made drinks and headed down to John’s pool with rafts. We thought maybe John was sleeping so we were quiet, he wasn’t sleeping though and came out and chatted with us for awhile. He wishes we would use the pool more and I’m going to try to. It instantly lowers my body temperature. So nice..and his view is great and the foliage is just lovely around his pool. He sure does have a nice spot. Come September this neighborhood will get a lot more interesting..

Bill gave Dooce a bath on Saturday, man, did she ever stink! Now she smells nice and clean and I’m sure it will last for all of 5 days. She doesn’t seem to mind the bath, at least she doesn’t try to get away.

I am still walking the dogs every morning. They are so funny they know my routine. They wait until I’ve eaten my breakfast then they sit at the door watching for me to pick up my sunglasses. Once they are in my hand, all 3 tear down to the back door. I hook the boys on leashes and Dooce is on the loose and we are off. First stop, my car tire. It has so much dog urine on it that it could win a contest. If there ever were a contest for most dog urine on a tire. Then it’s over to the electric meter. That’s right take a leak on the high energy costs we all endure on this island. (approx. $.50/KW including fuel adjustment) Then Dooce is down by John’s turn-around chasing all the lizards onto the other side of the fence. She trots down the driveway, sneering at the boys because she is loose and they are in my care. Or am I in theirs. The whole trip, coming and going, I am trying to remain untangled and upright.I keep  H and L separate, I have a leash in each hand, then they come up behind me on opposite sides of my body, quick, uncross leashes. Then H cuts in front and goes behind me, quick, spin around, keeping L untangled. Many times I trip on the sole of my Havaianas, it gets bent underneath from all the frolicking and cavorting I end up doing. I know I have to be careful with the boys because I don’t need to trip and fall on the drive, ours is so steep I’ll roll down to the main road. Hopefully that will not happen. I’ve thought about walking them bare footed but there are so many ants on the driveway and I do not want to step in fire ants, so flip flops it is..

Bill had part of a tooth break off the other day. He made an appointment for yesterday afternoon, figuring he would need a crown. The dentist went to school in the states and practiced there for 10 years before coming to Roatan. He has a very good reputation on the island. Bill went in yesterday and came home with only a temporary crown. The dentist said if it’s not hurting lets do a crown. Since it takes some time to get the final crown they would have that much time to determine what he really needs. After Bill told me all of this he said he had to go back today @ 8:30. I asked what for. He said to fix the air compressor at the dentist office. Obviously the dentist mentioned he was having trouble with it and Mr. Fixit said he could take care of it for him.

Bill just put the third coat of stain on the counter tops. If that makes it a color we like we’ll go ahead and seal it and be done with the counter tops!!

Currently I am baking a recipe I found on Pinterest and modifying it my way. The first attempt at the brownie cups did not turn out well. Attempt #2 is in the oven. If I can get it to work I’ll post pics. Guaranteed to NOT be fat free..

 

 

 

 

 

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.