Mega Paca – Mermaid on a Raft

Feeling like the weak link in the midst of pack mentality

02/07/2018 It seems like the rainy season may be slowing down. We had an insane 94″ since October, that’s a LOT of rain. I used to be a pluviophile but I no longer am. I’m sooo over this dampness and rain. Everything in my house has mold and mildew growing on it. Everywhere. Bill will have been gone 3 weeks on the 5th and I have drained the pool 5 times, 3 times I drained out quite a bit. Once it was ready to overflow, which wouldn’t really hurt anything but it would be a PITA. (pain in the a$$)

My neighbor called again to ask me what day it was. This is the second time. Poor guy, I think whoever set his clock or whatever set it on PM, not AM because he said it indicated it was Monday. I worry about him being alone.

Things had been going really well with Bill gone. I muscled up a big 5 gallon water bottle and got it in the stand, hoisted a big bag of dog food and dumped it in the container. I’m a big girl, or so I thought.

I attended the inauguration party for the new mayor of Oak Ridge. I was meeting my friends Diane and Andy there and ended up sitting with them and other friends Don and Janice and another lady who has lived here for 20 years. On my way in I saw Alexi who was there with the Bomberos (Fire Department). When I parked my car I backed in alongside a telephone pole. I was on the left of the pole, the fire truck was on the right. I figured easy peasy, I can pull right out when I want to leave. Totally forgetting where I live.

Our Mayor, Carson Dilbert and his wife at the inauguration.

They had a stage and podium and music and were planning to feed everyone there.

One of Bill’s best friends, Sterling Lucas, he was elected as a council member.

When I went to leave (before meal was served) someone had parked in front of me and the car next to me. Seriously???

A cop went and got the driver of the Bomberos truck to move it so I could get out. Island intelligence at it’s finest. The Bomberos guys were super nice about it.

Friday night I was meeting friends at Cal’s for dinner. I got down my driveway to find a truck stuck sideways. Normally I could have gone around it but the ground is so wet and muddy, I waited. They finally were able to lift the truck back onto the concrete and move the stupid thing.

On Monday Miguel and the kids came up and we went to the Vice Mayor of Santos Guardiola’s store in Oak Ridge and bought all 3 kids new school uniforms. I already gave them some Tom’s shoes that were leftover from last year. We will be delivering new shoes to their school again this year. We got a backpack for Naeli, the other two are OK for now. (Miguel said they don’t need new packs, that they will need them when the ones they have are worn out). In other words, they’re not getting them until they need them and I can respect that. He’s doing an amazing job being a Dad. This is the first he’s been with his kids in 2.5 years. He’s doing everything possible to make them grow up as responsible people and he wants them to be bilingual and get an education. He had to quit school at a young age to help pay for his 2 older brothers to go to college. They are both college graduates, Miguel is not. He could have been but was not given the opportunity.

Naeli, Michelle and Miguelito. Bill just told me the two girls are not really Miguel’s kids but he has supported them for years. The oldest, Naeli wants to change her last name to Miguel’s but it’s 10,000L (almost $500.00) to do it.

After Miguel and I got finished buying their school things I ran into the muni and paid our property taxes, $150.00 a year, then we walked down to my friend Gretta’s house to see Bailey. Bailey is one of the dogs Bill found and Miguel was raising. Gretta and her family adopted her and are in love with this dog. She’s grown quite a bit and is extremely happy in her new home.

I also took the kids to buy some school books, crayons, colored pencils and reading books. I also bought a Spanish/English dictionary to help Miguel teach them English. We got them helmets because they ride to school on their Dad’s motorcycle. Unfortunately no DOT approved helmets here. The soccer shoes were donated by my friends John and Lizeth. They brought sandals, a pair of soccer shoes and tons of notebooks for the school kids.

He is such a cute kid. The school they go to has their own soccer uniforms (donated by Dave and Trish a few years ago) and Miguelito loves to play soccer.

These are the 3 boys who live down in the village below us. One is the boy who fell out of the tree with a sharp machete in his hand. Bill had to take him to the emergency room to get it sewn up, he has quite a bad scar. They wanted to see if I had any notebooks for them for school. And I did, thanks to John and Lizeth. I also had some shoes left over so I was able to fit the two younger ones. Their names are Milton, David and Lester.

As they started down the hill I heard, “Thank you Miss Deb.”

The dogs are still misbehaving when I leave, it’s actually getting worse, not better as they mature. The other day Max took books off the shelf and chewed them up, along with a Fed Ex folder with Bill’s papers in it. The next day I kept Barrio in with Highway instead of Max and he got a tightly closed bottle of Turmeric pills off my computer desk, OPENED THE BOTTLE, TOOK THE COTTON OUT, SPILLED THE CONTENTS THEN ATE 1, MAYBE 2 OF THEM. They taste awful, thankfully, or he may have OD’d on Turmeric.

And Barrio’s mess, he also got a bag of brown sugar off the shelf and had it all over.

On Tuesday morning it was raining, the back porch was wet slippery concrete. There were some stray dogs in our driveway and Highway saw them and totally lost it. He actually becomes possessed when he sees a dog in the driveway. He cries, howls, barks, whimpers and makes the most high pitched ear splitting noise you can imagine. Since he is Alpha he whips the rest of the pack into a frenzy, barking and howling relentlessly. I got Highway in a kennel and closed the door. He continued to howl and cry, I thought my ears were going to bleed from the noise. Just about then Barrio and Max went after each other under the steps where it’s hard for me to get to. I got them separated and was putting Max in a kennel when Barrio walked by. I don’t know who started what but in a split second there was a vicious dog fight. I was trying to get them separated, pulled Barrios collar off and then fell on the porch. By that time Lola and Gringo had joined in on the fight. Max had Barrio’s face in his mouth, right over his eye, I thought for sure he was going to rip Barrio’s eye out. I tried to pry his mouth off of Barrio’s face, no luck. I got bitten twice, no idea by who. I was on the floor in the middle of 4 frenzied dogs, Highway still in the kennel going completely apeshit. If he had been out he would have been in on it too. Somehow I got Barrio away and crawled to the back door and threw him in the house and got Max in a kennel. I then sat down and sobbed. I had blood all over me, it was the most horrifying experience of my life. I went into check on Barrio, luckily he wasn’t too bad. He has a big gash on his forehead between his eyes and another one that starts at the corner of his eye on his face, that ones not deep. Max was in the kennel holding his paw up. I put Barrio in the bedroom and brought Max in. He had a bad wound on his R leg, his L paw was all swollen and he had several more bites on his back legs. I had a puncture wound on my arm and another on my knuckle. I was beyond stressed out. I called Bill, who was in Oregon and told him what happened. He assured me dogs don’t hold grudges and that they would be fine. Later that night I let them all inside together and there were no problems. I am hoping that the reason this happened is because Highway had them whipped to a frenzied state, they had nothing to do with their excitement so they turned on each other. I’m very thankful they did not turn on me during all the insanity.

Wednesday morning I took Max to Doc Calderon at 6:45 AM. Max’s one wound was so bad he knocked Max out and cleaned the wound, got the blood out from around it and put in 8 stitches. He checked my bites and put Max, Barrio (who I didn’t take to the vet) and I on Cephalexin. Then I started thinking I should have taken Barrio in. I called my friend Pam who is a nurse and asked if she was going to town to please stop by and look at Barrio for me. She came on Thursday and Highway went apeshit again. I put him in the kennel, again, he continued to howl and cry. Max was inside with a cone on his head because when Pam came I was in the middle of trying to change his bandage. He refused to let me so he got the cone. I brought Barrio in to have Pam look at him and he walked past Max and they went after each other AGAIN. I threw Max in the bedroom. Pam felt Barrio was OK and said he would heal but have a scar because he didn’t get stitches.

From that point on I was terrified to have them together again. My emotional state was not able to go through that again. I kind of shut down emotionally and mentally. The dogs sensed my stress too and did not like being separated. Max didn’t want to eat because he wasn’t eating with the pack. It was not a fun time for me, I love all of these dogs and the thought of them not being able to be together and play together was breaking my heart.

Bill was going to stay in Oregon for 2 more weeks and had it not been for this episode, I was totally fine. When he realized how much this had affected me he got a plane ticket and came home. The dogs were super excited to see him.

This is my sweet friend Lizeth. I met her through my blog, she’s the one who said to me (when I was volunteering at the airport) you’re Mermaid on a Raft aren’t you? We’ve been friends ever since. They own a beautiful piece of land here and will be building sometime in the (we hope near) future. She and John and her sister, brother and sister’s boyfriend came to visit. We went to Cal’s for lunch and then came back here for a bit. This pic was taken on our roof.

The parrots were back but the sun was right behind them, crappy photo.

So this is a ReMax magazine that I picked up somewhere when I was with Carmen. I always like to look through them and see who’s selling what. I laid it on the new counter top, meaning to recycle it.

It stuck to the counters and I was freaking out. I laid a hot dish cloth on it repeatedly until I could rub all the stuck on paper off. It didn’t even leave a mark. WHEW.

I think I forgot to mention that Bill won a 40″ TV from our internet provider. We didn’t even know it until Trish messaged me about it. Funny, 3 other people I know won one also, including Trish who told us to begin with.

A photo of the house. The paint is fading so badly, this sun is so hard on stuff, paint, stain on wood, you name it.

This photo is of Highway, totally comfy on the stool. The pillow behind him is brand new, found it at Mega Paca, it says Sea, Sand and Sunshine, $3.00 Deal..

This is one of the new TSA approved locks I sent to Bill while in Oregon. Yes, the idiot TSA cut the lock to get in the bag and thoughtfully taped the pieces to their inspection sheet. I emailed TSA and they were worthless so I emailed the place on Amazon that I bought them. They said unfortunately TSA sometimes does not take the time to try and open them, they just cut them because they can. They are sending me brand new ones. Excellent customer service.

My latest favorite movies are Wonder and Lady Bird. Both really good movies, and while Bill was gone (3 weeks) I cleaned up 307 piles of dog poop. Yes I made a spread sheet and kept track.

Signing off on this rainy, windy Wednesday. I’m totally hoping there is some normalcy returned to my life.

Earthquakes, Dementia and other stuff

01/24/2018 Home alone and left to her own thoughts. Will she go stir crazy or not? Answer is, NOT. I’ve kept myself busy, getting some things done that I’ve wanted to do but was too lazy and reveling in the fact that my kitchen and house can stay clean for days on end. It’s amazing. You’re wondering why I have a clean house?? Bill is in the states, he’s been there a week so far and isn’t sure when he’s returning. He’s going to help a friend with a project, but first, he got to spend some time with Trace in Seattle. They went to Everson, where we moved here from, and Bill visited a friend and also went to see our 3 legged dog that Teri adopted. Frito didn’t remember Bill and he was sort of hurt by that. I get it, but I’ll take it to mean she’s happy in her new life and has forgotten the miserable life she had until I found her and had her leg removed. Not really as gruesome as it sounds, if she hadn’t had the surgery, she would have died and the 7 pups she was carrying would have died too. Then I wouldn’t have the dog loves of my life, Barrio, Gringo and Max.

Speaking of dogs, they know Bill is gone and are overly attentive to me. They wait for me to come upstairs when it’s night time, they lay outside the door when I go in the bedroom. They are tuned in. Pretty amazing creatures.

The day after Bill left, the hot water heater stopped making hot water. I am so not a cold shower girl. I went to ACE and bought new batteries for it and changed them but I could not get the door that holds the batteries in to latch. I had to have Kevin come over and do that for me. After several tries I finally got the igniter to light and voilá, hot water! Later that day I dropped my favorite sweeper in my whole life and broke it. It still works but doesn’t stay together. I used some green masking tape but that didn’t hold for crap so Bill said to get some GORILLA tape. That shit works. I think I can live with my McGyver fix.

Other than a few outings, I’ve been at home. The day I took Bill to the airport I stopped at Mega Paca and bought 2 new mattresses for Miguel’s kids. You should have seen the guy and I getting them in my car, hysterical.

Miguel came to get them on Tuesday, on his motorcycle. It was windy out, not just a breeze. WINDY. He tied the mattresses (that were wrapped in plastic so they were slippery) together and wore them home like a back pack. Now, this is not a normal feat accomplished by anyone.

Never saw anyone wear two mattresses as a back pack.

He had to go down our steep drive, get on the main highway for a short distance, then go down a 2 mile mud/dirt road that we can’t get down because we don’t have a huge 4X4. He called once he got the mattresses unloaded.

You have to be a “badass’ as my friend Sue said. And he is, but in the nicest way. We both feel very lucky knowing Miguel, he’s a good man.

He already built his kids bunk beds for the mattresses. The kids were thrilled and so was Miguel, he didn’t have to sleep on a lounge chair any longer. We are waiting for him to get their school records so we can get them enrolled in Marlon’s school, Froylan Turcios. It’s one of the more productive schools I’ve been to. Marlon, the principal and soccer coach is a good guy. He tries and he cares, that’s a pretty big deal. You’ll see pics of Miguel’s kids when the weather clears and I can get down there and go snorkeling with them. Kimberly, Michelle and Miguelito. We’re beyond excited he got to have them for a few months, it’s been years, they are really happy with him, spending every nice day on the beach and in the water. (those nice days have been very few, it’s still ugly here)

So, earthquakes. Yep, on Tues Jan 9th, at 8:53 PM I posted on FB, Umm, Earthquake?? We were all in the living room, Bill on his chair, me on the couch. The boys were all sleeping, Lola was pacing. I leaned over my laptop to do something and all of a sudden everything was undulating. Weird freaking juju..the cool thing is, it lasted so long we were talking about it while it was “quaking.” I had quite a long response to that post as the island felt it but had no damage. The quake itself was very shallow, which is what saved us because it was a 7.8, which is a pretty good shaker. Lucky this time.

I know I’ve spoken about the increasing difficulties my poor sister and brother-in-law are dealing with keeping an eye on my parents. In less than a month my Dad will be 97 and he still dresses as sharp as he did 40 years ago, always a well dressed man. His mind is failing him and he is aware of it and it bothers and angers him mercilessly. Mom on the other hand is 92, 93 this summer, and she is not a picture of health, she has lung issues and a bad knee and certainly not a candidate for surgery, a live with it kind of pain. Her mental acuity is failing also. Not a real capable pair. I was worried about my dad and him not being the man he wants to be. I can’t imagine how he must feel, he was always such a proud but quiet man, this is a terrible thing for him to be going through, and for my sister and Mark.

I recently started watching a show on YouTube called A Mother and Son’s Journey with Dementia. It’s so good, I binged 53 episodes of it. The woman in the show, Molly, is younger than I am and she is way way worse than my Father. He is 30 years older than her. I have been pounding that into my head consistently because I worry so much about them, me being here, them in MD but then I realize, holy shit, he’s almost 97. He can be crotchety and nasty if he wants to. Still doesn’t make me feel any better about my sister and Mark having to do so much for them. After seeing that show though, it really put things into perspective for me. If anyone is dealing with dementia check out the videos, they are very well done.

While Bill is gone I have been watching movies. I was without internet all day one day so I watched a few. I have seen, The Florida Project, The Greatest Showman, Lady Bird, Call Me by Your Name, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and Hacksaw Ridge. I’ve also watched Little Big Lies twice. I’m almost caught up on Modern Family and This is Us, the only other TV I watch besides HGTV HHI, and Netflix. I enjoyed all the movies except Call Me by Your Name, it was confusing to me.

Bill took this pic of the pack, L to R Gringo, Highway, Max, Barrio and Lola. What a crew.

Gringo hovering on the corner, Max zzzz’d out.

Chance took this photo of my parents on January 4th, he had such a good visit with them. It meant a lot.

We finished the counter tops in the kitchen. I am in love with the sink, turned out really well. We want to do our bathroom and the kitchen downstairs. Maybe the back porch too.

My camera takes crappy indoor photos. We had everything covered, or so we thought.

Doing to the L of the stove. First some black and white

Never sure what it will look like. I’m sure with practice and developing a technique, you could somewhat get what you want.

Then you torch it. After it’s torched then you can start spraying 90% alcohol mixed with different powders. Then after you do that you can torch it again. The alcohol makes all the strange effects. It also makes air bubbles, not cool.

We had no clue how to do the sink but wanted it to look like a whirlpool sort of. It turned out awesome.

In the process of doing the sink, drain and garbage disposal were pulled. Bill thought he had enough covered area under the drain hole. Not so much, epoxy resin everywhere under the sink.

My favorite part of the kitchen is the sink.

We took the boys swimming early one morning to a beach nearby. They had a blast.

We need to take them swimming more often, not so much to swim but to run. Once the road to Miguel’s is fixed we’ll be going down there with them.

There is a new recycling initiative on the island. Many restaurants have stopped selling single use water bottles and plastic straws are becoming a thing of the past. I cut up 6 yogurt containers and stuffed them all into one bottle along with a big plastic bag and 3 laundry detergent bags. Bill made the stuffing stick for me, helps to really cram the bottles full.

A lot of single use plastic can be stuffed in to a bottle. The SOL Foundation is building a wall with the stuffed bottles.

With these well stuffed bottles and some concrete they are building walls, flower beds and other things. They also are cutting wine bottles and using the bottoms in concrete to make a wall. The tops are then broken up and used as colorful drain catchers at the bottom of drainpipes.

So my 4 year old Google Nexus tablet died a slow death. It won’t recharge. Sad because it was almost an appendage on me. I broke down and bought a BIG 9.6″ Samsung tablet, I love it but hate the cover I got for it and have ordered a different one. Bill bought a new battery for the dead tablet, if it fixes it we’ll either hang on to it or sell it.

When we still lived in PA the boys and I spent a lot of time on the Loyalsock Creek. Almost every day (before we got a pool) was spent there. On my high school class page they posted a contest to vote for the favorite creek. Loyalsock creek won, but it wasn’t for the best creek in PA, it was for the BEST RIVER. How can a creek win the best river contest? So insane. Only in PA.

I’m planning to call my parents this morning. Every single time I call and Mom answers she hangs up on me, usually 2 or 3 times before we actually connect. She says the on off button is on the side of the phone but I don’t think it is. Kind of funny. My neighbor Mr John called me on Friday and wanted to know what time it was. I told him, then he asked what day it was. Then he asked me to call him at 9 AM the next morning so he would know when to go somewhere. Obviously he only has a watch for a clock and the battery must have died. Poor guy.

There are political marches on the mainland as the President prepares to take office. He is hated by many and loved by many. I just wish they would get their crap together and quit fighting so I could go to the mainland and get tile for the kitchen back splash. I’m hoping the madness will soon be over.

Just an FYI for those of you who get email notices for my blog. GMAIL has changed their sorting of mail and it may go in your promotions tab. Part of the new algorithm they are using. Why can’t they leave well enough alone?

It’s a sunny day which is a rarity here, I’m going to head outside and read for awhile. I’ll leave you with a few pics of the bed with all 5 dogs on it. It rained really hard one night so I kept them all inside.

L to R, counterclockwise. Barrio’s ear, Max, Highway, Lola and Gringo. The cat jumped up, looked around, hissed, said OH HELL NO, and left.

Off to hang by the pool, have a fabulous day wherever you may be.

2500 PSI versus toes

11/26/2017 First of all, I apologize for being MIA. My laptop died soon after my last post and we have been waiting ever since for the new fan. It finally arrived on Wed and Bill installed it a few days later and it works. He also put in a new laptop keyboard but the space bar isn’t working. Damn. Bill just discovered the space bar only works if you hit it right in the middle, either end doesn’t work. Nice..And a lot of the letters don’t work. I sent Amazon a bitchmail telling them it was defective and it would cost me $50.00 to return it and they credited me the money. Bill bought me a keyboard at Technos for 170 L, about $7.00. It’s kind of psychedelic.

I was sick when I returned from my class reunion but once I saw the ENT @ Clinica Esperanza and got the right meds, I was better in two days. I felt great for about a week and then the rains began here. It rained so much and for so long that I became a hermit and didn’t go anywhere unless I absolutely had to. One night I woke in the middle of the night, all stuffed up, figured it was an allergy. After a few nights of that and Benadryl not working I got some Zyrtec, thinking that would do the trick. Nope, didn’t work either. I started on Nyquil before bed and again when I woke at 2 AM unable to breathe. Nyquil works but only for a few hours. I was going through boxes of Kleenex like an alcoholic goes through cheap gin. I dealt with this for 5 weeks, I kept thinking I was getting better, only to feel worse the next day. I ended up going back to the same ENT as the last time. He said it was definitely allergies, probably to mold and mildew. Gee, I live in the jungle, it’s rained for 6 weeks and there is mold on my tshirts and my pocketbook straps. Nothing is sacred here. I bought 2 Damp Rids for the bedroom and in less than 10 days they are filled with water. Dampness is everywhere. Jungle life is not for everyone. The ENT Doc gave me the names of some nasal sprays, I bought 2 of them and some Claritin for about $40.00 and felt better immediately after using the nasal spray. It’s a flipping miracle. I am finally off the Nyquil and sleeping fabulously again.

We were without power for 12 hours one weekend. Our friend had a generator he wanted to sell so we decided to buy it. Bill and Miguel went to pick it up and brought it home to hook it up in the outside bodega. Bill got it all hooked up (by now we were with no power 15 hours, I was going stir crazy, enough that I played Yahtzee alone for a few hours and read a book in a day) and threw the switch. I was sitting on the front porch and the lights came on. Then they went off. I went into the foyer and smelled something electrical burning. I assumed it was just the generator getting started but the smell got stronger. Bill was back in the bodega and Miguel was out front with me. I told him I smelled something and he said lets go look. We came upstairs and the smell was awful, instant headache awful and there was smoke. I knew right away what it was. The surge protector under the island had caught fire.

Burned wood. I realized the following week when I was cleaning the shelves that it burned the lower shelf too.

It also fried our good Belkin surge protector. We don’t know why it did this, it may have been the plug on the generator or something else. It had previously been worked on by an islander and not saying it’s their fault but many times they really don’t know what they are doing but they won’t ever tell you that. We’ve decided against that generator and are going to get one but something smaller. We don’t need one that big, just enough for the fridge, the computers and a few lights.

We did get blessed with an awesome rainbow right after the near fire. The next day Bill bought a fire extinguisher.

All of the dogs are healthy, Gringos tail healed perfectly. They were thrilled when the sun came out and they could swim. I get so much enjoyment watching them have fun in the pool.

Gringo and Barrio in the pool, Highway and Max on the edge, looking for something to bark at.

I have not done very much these past 6 weeks, Carmen and I did some shopping one day. A trip to Mega Paca and then Ace and Eldon’s grocery store. I picked Chuck and Nancy up when they came back to the island and the other day I had lunch with Jeanie and Nancy at Cal’s, he’s finally open! Yummy garlic laden caesar salad, I could eat it every day. Except, my breath, OMG. I could start campfires with it.

I started watching Stranger Things on Netflix a few months ago but kind of forgot about it. I saw all of my friends posting about it so I decided to start over and watch both seasons. I was hooked and totally binge watched it. Shortly after it was over I wanted Eggos, really bad, like craving them. I forgot them when I went to get groceries with Carmen. I asked Bill to get them, he either forgot or thought I was kidding and didn’t get them for me. I finally remembered to get them the next time I went to the store. I stared at the selection and ended up getting the plain ones. When I grabbed the box it felt damp. I knew right then they were going to be crap and they were. Disappointing Eggos, frozen and thawed so many times on their journey to Roatan. There was no softness to it, nor was there a crispness on the outside. It was like eating a cardboard plate with butter and syrup on it. I even tried to thaw them before I toasted them. Cardboard still. How disappointing. I frisbeed them over the bank into the jungle figuring some animal would love them. Next time I’ll try the local brand. UPDATE: I tried the local ones (ShurFine) and they are edible.

This past Friday I wanted to pressure wash. It’s one of my favorite things to do. Bill brought the pressure washer up on the concrete pool deck and I got to work. I love the way it cleans everything. The mold and mildew from all of the rain had turned the deck brown and green. The pressure washer returned it to it’s normal color. It’s just the coolest thing, until you hit you two little toes with it. It took the skin right off, nail polish too. It sort of bled but not a lot. I decided to finish where I was washing, then go dry it and stop the bleeding. I wiped the dirt out of it and went back out and pressure washed some more. Bill was not thrilled that I was doing it in flip flops to begin with nor did he see any intelligence in the fact that after I hurt myself I continued to use it in flip flops. At that point there was no way I could put a shoe on anyhow, my foot was too sore. 2500 PSI can do a number on your skin. I had no idea. I didn’t really clean it out, just rinsed it off in the shower before we went out to eat. I did smear some triple antibiotic cream on it.

That was the night we finally got our $hit together and made it out to dinner with the mid island gang. Thank you Yvonne for not giving up on us. We all met at Cal’s, along with some friends I met awhile ago after a FB friendship. There were 12 of us, it was a gorgeous night and the food was superb, as always. Nice to have a mix of people from our part of the island and a few from a bit further away.

The next day my foot was throbbing so I googled pressure washer injuries and read that if the pressure washer was over 100 PSI (mine was 2500 PSI) to seek medical help. At that point I thought maybe some hydrogen peroxide would be a good idea. That stung like crazy. I then put some antibiotic creme and a bandage on it to keep it clean and started taking cephalexin in case it got infected. Then I talked to a friend who said to soak it in warm water, dry and bandage it, which I did. And another friend who is a nurse said to stop the ceph and only take it if it starts to look infected. I kept it covered for a week and it is fine, still very sore and bruised but not oozing any longer. My biggest issue was the dogs stepping on it, which happened two times before I learned to pick my foot up and stand on one leg while letting them in or out.

Healing, with a piece of dog hair stuck in it

Bill always likes to have Thanksgiving at home so this year I invited Sam and Chelsie Arch and Daniel Johnson and his woman, Steph. Chelsie and Steph went to college together in the states and Sam and Daniel are cousins. I love these 4 so much. Sam’s family has the iguana farm and Daniel has the sloth and monkey hangout. I cooked a big turkey with filling, mashed potatoes and gravy and a variety of other stuff along with desserts. Unfortunately Sam has the flu and couldn’t make it which was really a bummer, he was missed. We had a good meal and stuffed ourselves. I didn’t even have room for dessert.

Bill and Marcos were at our friend Susan’s house doing some work and caught two more baby iguanas. They took them down to Arch’s Iguana farm. We have rescued lot of them this year. There was a big one in the tree, the dogs spotted it. I came in to get my camera but idiot Highway and his barking scared it away.

On Saturday we had other friends over for pizza. Kevin and Claire live close to us and have one of our pups, Tank. We had dinner at their house last so it was our turn. I think we could sit and chat with these two for days on end, especially if there is wine! I had a headache this morning, I rarely drink more than a glass of wine at a time and I had 2 last night. Woke with a pounding headache this morning.

Remember the sign my friends husband made for me that said Warning Mermaids? Well, he made this awesome sign for me too. I’m going to hang them inside because I like them so much and don’t want them to get ruined by the weather. Thank you Gary!!

My messy kitchen. Bill is doing the concrete counters in an acrylic epoxy, hopefully he will get started this week.

Today is a pivotal day for the country of Honduras and for the island. It’s election day. The President of Honduras is a very evil corrupt man. It is against the constitution for him to be running again but he changed the rules so he could. I pray he does not win. The island of Roatan is divided into 2 parts, each with their own mayor. We live in Santos Guardiola and our Mayor is a good man. He really tries his best to help the island, he has done work on schools, roads, many things to help the communities that make up SG. The other end of the island is run by a megalomaniac. He has wasted so much money traveling with his bunch of sheep to various places in the world looking for alternate energy sources. Our power company is owned and run by an extremely wealthy Texan. The idiot mayor from the west end has done everything in his power to harass the power company, instead of being smart and working with them. The mayor lost the election in his party so he has moved to a different party and is running again. He has done nothing for the schools, the roads on his end of the island are deplorable, the garbage is not picked up, the crime is bad and he is doing everything in his measly amount of power to ruin the island for tourism. He can not be re-elected. If the current president wins and the ridiculous excuse for a mayor is re-elected, we will really need to evaluate some things.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, except for missing the boys and our families, ours was great.

Planes, boats and fins

04/30/2017 First of all, I apologize to those of you who received an email yesterday saying that a new blog was published, only to have me take it down. Somehow the post got published and wordpress wouldn’t allow me to get it back to a draft so I had to trash it and do a shabby copy and paste into a new blog. Our internet has been shit so that may account for it.

Saturday afternoon was the first I stopped and relaxed in a solid week. Remember, I’m O L D. Very old. Don’t misunderstand me, I had a blast entertaining Jillian and Justin this past week. Jillian is my great niece (well, Bill’s really, but I claim her as mine) and Justin is her boyfriend. It was Jillian’s second visit and Justin’s first. In fact he had to get a passport to come visit. We’re happy that he made it to Roatan. So are the dogs, especially Lola, she really liked Justin.

I picked them up at the airport on Saturday. I’m a weirdo who loves to go to the airport to pick up friends. I see so many people I know that it’s like a big party, this Saturday was no different.

Once Jill and Justin got through the insane immigration lines, we headed east, stopping at Eldon’s for them to get some food. After getting settled we all retreated to the pool, it has been so flipping hot that being in the water is all you can do.

Sunday we made the routine Mega Paca shopping trip then came home and got ready to go to the Reef House on Oak Ridge Key. We parked the car and went by boat for the short ride there. I was excited to see my dive friend Caroline there, haven’t seen her for months. We spent some time in the water then I got out and wandered around talking to friends. Tim Blanton, who lives on Roatan and is an exceptional photographer was there with his drone. He made a short video of the Oak Ridge area and hovered over the porch where we all were posing. Check it out HERE. Beautiful video of the area.

Monday we went to Daniel Johnson’s Monkey and Sloth Hangout. I didn’t know until Justin and Jill got here that Justin’s favorite animal was the sloth. It was a no brainer that we would go there first. When we got to the farm Preston was waiting to give us one of his exceptional tours.

One of my favorite animals is the Coati. They are a part of the raccoon family. Two of them live here.

The first cage we got to go in was the monkey cage. The white faced Capuchin’s are named after the cast of The Jersey Shore, AKA, Snookie, Vinny, JWow, Pauly D etc. These monkeys are very friendly and love to interact with people.

They were particularly fond of Justin’s curly hair.

They are like kamikaze monkeys. They vanish and then out of nowhere come flying onto your shoulders. They were so much fun.

Next we looked at the spider monkeys but they are not very friendly so guests don’t interact with them.

When we were ready to leave Justin walked over to look at the water again and the monkey grabbed his sunglasses. He finally managed to get them back, all in 1 piece.

Next stop was the parrots, the Red and Green Macaws. These birds are so stunning. There is only 1 green one, Fiona, from Shrek. Her colors are so intense that she doesn’t seem real.

I think the red macaw is named Rose from the Titanic and the other is Fiona.

We saved the best for last, the sloths. These are all 3 toed sloths and are all rescues.

Jillian and Olivia the sloth. The sloth is adorable but Jillian is gorgeous! Love this young lady!

The sloths mostly live in the trees and venture down to the ground once a week to poop and pee. Their only defense is camouflage, they do not use their claws except to climb and grab leaves.

Just an FYI: Daniel does not buy animals, every animal he has is a rescue and they are treated very well.

After we saw all the animals and were getting ready to leave, Daniel arrived. He invited us to go on his maiden snorkel trip on his new snorkel barge later in the week. We said sure, something else fun to look forward to.

We went straight to the Iguana Farm, critters to critters. It was a hot sunny day and there were iguanas all over the place. Jillian and Justin fed them, Jill wasn’t ready to get up close with them though.

This is a black spiny tailed iguana, indigenous to Roatan. This one is molting, shedding it’s skin. Black spiny-tailed iguanas.

This dude just chased another male out of his tree. Sam (Arch) said they are very territorial, especially during mating season.

Look how long the spines are on this guy’s back!

We had a great visit at the iguana farm, especially because we got to see Sam. Sam and Daniel (sloth farm) are 2 amazing young islander men (and cousins) who work very hard and are quite successful. I am blessed to have them as good friends.When we left the iguana farm I called my friend Marcia to see if we could come kayak and snorkel and she said sure. The 3 of us went home, changed, ate and left for Carib Bight and Marcia’s house.

An extra bonus of going to Marcia and Dennis’s home is I get to see one of my puppies, Duke and their other 2 dogs, Shay and the new rottie, Luna. Puppy breath is the best.

Justin, Jillian and I went down to the water and got the kayaks down and set off for the mangroves. It was a little later in the day so there wasn’t much boat traffic. We kayaked all the way through the tunnels and back.

We then tied the kayaks up to the broken down dock and snorkeled out to the reef. For some reason it was extremely murky and stirred up and the visibility was not very good. And, my camera battery died. bummer.

Once I got more puppy kisses we came home, all got showered and went to Cal’s for dinner. We had an excellent meal, as usual. It was a busy day and we were all tired so it was early to bed that night.

The view from Cal’s and my friend Linda’s house.

The next morning we stopped at Jessica’s school to see why she was absent Monday. The teacher said her mother’s lame assed boyfriend kept her home from school because they all overslept. I’d like to lynch him.

From there we drove through Punta Gorda to hand out some of the toys that Liza and Mike brought down for the kids. Once again, it got crazy. The kids were grabbing out of my car, the ones I gave toys to hid them and said they didn’t get any. It became bedlam so I did what I had to do; I closed the trunk and left, no more for them. We passed out a few more along the way, choosing wisely where we stopped.

Jillian wanted to go to La Sirena in Camp Bay, it’s pretty much a must see spot. We all had onion rings and rum punches. My friends Don and Janice were there so we sat near them and chatted for awhile while watching the wind surfers. {side note, I bought a new camera, a Nikon CoolPix B 500 with a 40X zoom lens on it} I am still learning to use the camera and did not have it on the correct setting so these photos aren’t the best.

It must be so amazing to be wind surfing at Camp Bay, it’s one of the more pristine spots on the whole island.

Jillian and Justin at my favorite beach on the moon.

Alligator Nose, just seeing it makes me miss the Duchess of Camp Bay and her husband.

Almost every day when we came home from our activities we jumped in the pool to cool off, rinse off the salt water and visit with the dogs. On Wednesday I thought we could go to The Buccaneer in French Harbor for something different. If I had known they charged $5.00PP entrance fee I would have stayed home in my own pool.

It’s a nice place but it isn’t worth the entrance fee.

They have an area roped off from the sea and pretty much protected from the waves. There are huge decks, swings in and out of the water, hammocks, floats. It’s just not the beach to me.

Floating their hectic career/school lives away

Unicorns, flamingos, swans and penguin floats. I can’t imagine what it looks like with all of them floating around,

Very colorful and somewhat tropical. I liked the ceiling at first but then I didn’t. It’s trying too hard.

I did like the hand painting on the wood deck

I think the painting would have been enough without having fake flowers and dried up leaves on the ceiling.

Not sure where these are going but I liked them.

Jillian was interested in seeing Cattleya school so I made arrangements with Connie to go there after lunch. When we arrived the students were with Kamille learning ASL. Afterwards they split into groups and did various projects.

Cattleya is a school for physically emotionally and mentally handicapped children. It’s an amazing school.

We watched the 3 different teachers conduct their classes and learned what each one was doing. The little girls flip-flops on the floor in the photo are some of the ones I donated to Cattleya, thank you Kelly. I’m still passing them out. I also donated the 3 games that Kelly brought to Cattleya.

The remainder of the afternoon was spent in our pool at home. We had big salads for dinner and drank some wine on the roof.

Thursday morning we hung around the house, in and out of the pool, waiting to hear from Stephanie and Daniel. We were going snorkeling with them this afternoon. As soon as they called we went over to the sloth farm. I sat and chatted with Daniel’s Mother until they arrived. Stephanie’s parents were here visiting and they had been touring the mangroves, zip-lining and then going snorkeling. We were fortunate to be invited and very excited to go. Daniel just built a new snorkel barge with The Steelers (as in Pittsburgh) and Big Ben stenciled on the sides. Nice boat with an easy access ladder.

We went out in front of CocoView and snorkeled there. It was beautiful.

Daniel had my camera for a few minutes and snapped a pic of me.

Four eyed butterfly fish, Daniel may have taken this photo.

These are amazing Spaghetti worms (click on the name for a fascinating video on the worms). They are alive and move along the sand getting food to take back to their hole.

This was the biggest Porcupine fish I had ever seen.

They can puff themselves up to 3 times their normal size by drawing water into their abdomens. Once inflated their spines stick out and they are quite long and very sharp. They do this to protect themselves from being eaten by other fish. Then we moved to a different spot to snorkel, looking for lobsters.

Juvenile French Angelfish, Daniel took this

A school of grunts and Daniel took this too

Love to hate, hate to love. The Lion Fish. Beautiful but poisonous if you get stung by them and they are decimating the reef by eating all the small fish. They are the only fish you are allowed to spearfish (with a permit). Kill them all.

A conch slowly trucking along. I swam past him on the way out and on the way back he had barely progressed.

Daniel and Dustin (red shirt) wrestling underwater trying to pull each other’s mask off.

Beautiful day with our heads underwater with friends, can’t beat that.

I dropped Jillian and Justin off at Cal’s at 6 so they could have a nice dinner together, then Bill went down to get them when they were finished. They were done in less than 45 minutes, I thought something was wrong but they said it was all good, he just wasn’t busy.

The next morning we left here at 8:45. We stopped and got Ann then took Jillian and Justin to zip-line at South Shore. Ann and I sat and watched them zipping along under the canopy of trees.

Justin seeing the trees from a different angle

As soon as they were done we went to West Bay Beach, grabbed some chairs at Bananarama and waited in the water for Sean (my friend from Canada) to meet us. Soon as he arrived we walked down to Infinity to snorkel.

I think this is a longspine squirrelfish

I love when I see an opening out into the deeper water. Really feel like a mermaid then.

I was swimming around in the shallows looking at little things and hoping to find this big Parrot fish. I swam around a coral chunk and there he was in all of his magnificent glory. I was lucky enough to be able to swim with him for several minutes, watching him do his thing.

Mr. giant Parrotfish, I was looking for you.

You really can’t tell the size from this photo but this guy was almost as big as my dogs.

He had several fish following him as he gnawed on the coral so he could then poop sand. I know the best facts!

Such a beautiful beach. After snorkeling we ate at Bananarama then floated our cares away.

Ann walked up to a restaurant called Nice and Spicy to get her husband some dinner so we ran Sean over the hill to the place he is staying, then went back and got Ann and took her home. We went inside so I could meet her new kittens and I wanted Jill and Justin to see her place and her view. After that we made the long drive home. As soon as we opened the gate to come in the driveway the power went off.

Wonderfreakingful. Bill was making pizza. He got the dough rolled out and partially cooked on the grill before it got dark. Then we put the stuff on the pizza with the LED’s for the lightsource. It was so windy that Bill had to cover the pizza with another cookie sheet just to carry it out to the grill.

Nothing says romantic better than glaring LED’s. I lit candles several times, only to have them blown out by the wind.

Miraculously, the power came back on just as it was time to eat. We ate and cleaned up the kitchen and all ran to take showers while we had water pressure. Not long after that, the power went out again. It wasn’t only us, it was island wide. Just a 36 mile strand of darkness in the Caribbean. It really wasn’t a big deal because there was a very strong wind blowing through the house, keeping temps cool.

We hung out here the next morning, watching Flightstats to see what was going on with Jillian and Justin’s delayed flight. Once we saw it was airborn we went to the airport and got them checked in. The line for departures was long so I took them for a tour of Coxen Hole, the “downtown” center of the island. We drove all along the waterfront and stopped to take a photo of the new sign by Petro Sun. I dropped them off at the airport with time to spare before their flight. We enjoyed having Jillian and Justin and look forward to them returning.

I started talking to them about diving. I suggested they do the course work at home, then get their certs with my friends @ Blue Island Divers when they get here. I need to get Jillian’s sister to do this also, she will be here the end of June.

It’s been unusually HOT. 90 degrees with 85% humidity. Despite the insane temps the wind has been blowing hard and steady, keeping the air moving and keeping it cool inside. If there were no breeze we would either have to remain in the pool 24/7 or melt. The wonderful wild and crazy wind is blowing so much dust and dirt around that my screens are filthy and everything is covered in an inch of dust. Lola is sneezing and Barrio has goobers in his eyes, I think it’s allergies for both of them. Tomorrow is Max’s last day of meds, keeping my fingers crossed.

I have a busy few weeks coming up. A friend is coming for a few days to sign the papers on the land she is buying, another friend is coming to stay with us for 2 weeks while she sorts things out with her house building project. I am helping at a fundraiser for Cattleya for Mother’s Day and am also helping Nidia with a Mother’s Day luncheon on the 13th. TOMS shoe delivery will start in June, super late start this year due to some customs snafu.

Off to find something to watch on the computer. I hope everyone had a great weekend, it’s kind of quiet around here. Jillian and Justin, maybe you should come back.

Coming into the Holidaze

weird

12/07/2016 It was a dark and pissy 2 months ago yesterday that I fell and hurt my foot and today is also my granddaughter’s 14th birthday, Happy Birthday Alexah!

I am walking but it’s painful, standing, well, forget it. I think my issue is tendinitis but I’m not a Doc so I’m guessing, and being optimistic that there isn’t a fracture. I have not done any diving or snorkeling yet because I enjoy being able to walk and the pain is enough to still be a deterrent to any new aggravation.

Our company arrived on a semi sunny Saturday, Nov 19th. Early that morning we took Gringo to the vets from Tegus who come to Roatan monthly to find out what was going on with his skin. Dr. Diana did a skin scraping and took some blood from him. The skin scraping showed a bacterial infection and I was positive it was fungal. So much for my veterinary degree. After 2 weeks of new meds he is 95% better and we are thrilled with that. We still bathe him often and have decided to keep him on meds for another 2 weeks. Keeping our fingers crossed.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Mr. Handsome Gringo was not happy about being at the vets

We took Gringo home and I drove back into the airport to pick up Julie and Robby. Unfortunately 3 planes landed at the same time and it took them FOREVER to get through immigration. They were happy to be here and hungry, it was probably a bad choice to take them to the grocery store after they landed.

On Sunday morning Julie came with me to Mega Paca. We stayed as long as I was still able to stand. Afterwards we met Bill and Robby @ GiLei’s for coffee and food. Not that I drink coffee, nor does Julie and Robby isn’t a huge fan, but Bill is a coffee guy and the food we had was excellent, we’ll be back for sure.

The weather kind of sucked the first week Robby and Julie were here. It’s been an incredibly rainy winter so far. There’s been so much rain it killed some of my flowers that are in pots. Obviously I’m not keeping a very good eye on them either.

Monday Robby wanted to help Bill who’s helping out a friend and I have no clue what Julie and I did. It may have been a decent day and we may have laid in the sun.

The sun made an appearance on Tuesday so I took R&J down to BJ’s where they got a boat over to the Reef House to do some diving. They only did 1 dive and were waiting for me when I got there to pick them up. They said the viz was mediocre at best. Tuesday eve we went to Cal’s for dinner, excellent as always.

On Wednesday we all started prepping for Thanksgiving dinner. Julie and I baked, peeled and chopped most of Wednesday, even Robby was cooking. Carmen and Brett and Jeanie and Roger, and my friend and Divemaster Guru Eric all joined Robby and Julie and Bill and I for dinner. We had way too much food. I had enough damn mashed potatoes for everyone in this valley. Really I did. I suck at estimating how much food. I was worried a 22# turkey wouldn’t be enough. HA freaking HA! Eric stuck around and we chatted about diving for awhile. I sent him home with a box of food (his wife and kids are in the states and due to his dive business here, he had to miss out on family time). If you plan to learn to dive on Roatan, I can highly recommend Blue Island Divers. Do your SSI course work in the comfort of your own home and then go see Eric and do your water certification. Diving done right.

I tried to do the dishes that night and partially succeeded. Friday was another day.

It rained like hell off and on Friday, just gloomy as crap. Sam and Chelsie and Daniel and Stephanie were coming for dinner. When they got here it wasn’t raining but it was absolutely pouring when they left. It’s the first Stephanie and Daniel have been around the dogs. She and I were out on the porch and they were all excited and barking. Daniel asked if the dogs all had their teeth. Umm, yes they do. Sam’s family owns the Iguana farm and Daniel owns the sloth sanctuary, and they are cousins, and Sam’s wife and Daniel’s girlfriend have been friends for 10 years, Chelsie got Stephanie to move down to Roatan, they are both teachers at the Nuna Academy. We had a really nice evening with all of them, Robby and Julie enjoyed seeing Sam and Chelsie again and well, we always enjoy them and just love Daniel and Stephanie.

Saturday it was semi sunny so we hung out around the pool. Our other friends from Oregon arrived yesterday so they came down today to say hello. I was hoping to be able to dive with Robby and Julie and Liza and Mike but not this trip. Next one for sure.

Sam Arch was in a Wahoo fishing tournament over the weekend at Barefoot Cay. On Sunday they were having a BBQ and the prizes were being awarded. I wanted Robby and Julie to see Barefoot so we went down there around 2. As luck would have it, Sam won the Grand Prize for the largest Wahoo and the first place prize for the most amount of fish caught, weight wise. Everyone except me ate lunch/dinner there and had a few beers. Beautiful day by the water and really happy that Sam won.

Monday was a gorgeous day and that only means one thing, MONDAYS DON’T SUCK at the best private beach on the moon. (It’s a secret and I get shit if I mention where it is) FED Duchess. We packed up some chairs, some food and some booze, a few rafts and headed to the moon. What an incredible place filled with friends all looking for the same thing, an uncomplicated day, minus all stress and hassles of life spent with good friends on our little island paradise on the moon.

Since the weather was co-operating on Tuesday, I offered to take Robby and Julie to Blue Island Divers for some diving. Eric wasn’t their DM that day because he was flying home the next day so they dove with Cole. Cole is awesome, I dove with him a few times, he’s a fun Dive Master. While they were diving I went to Nadia and got my hair colored then went and hung out with Ann until it was time to pick them up. The plan that day was to have Alexi and his sisters, brother and nephew come over and swim and have lunch. Bill picked them up and we ran in the store on the way home and got what we needed. When we got home the kids were in the front yard playing with Bill and Alexi. They came inside and went out to the pool and before you knew it, the young boys were in their undies and in the pool.

img_20161129_163559 — Juliana and Jessica hanging out the window

Bill made his famous infamous pizza on Wednesday night for dinner, it was yummy as usual. Maybe he should open a pizza joint here.

Thursday I took Julie and Robby back to Blue Island for some more diving. While they were diving I ran and got Gringo more meds then went back and sat at the dive shop and talked to Maria and Elton and the new Dive Master teacher from Greece. When they got done diving we went to the Salty Mango and had lunch, then ran down to see my puppies at Lisa’s house. I haven’t seen Bandit and Sable for several months but they remembered me for sure. Man, I love these puppies.

Robby and Julie and I headed back east after visiting with Lisa and the pups. Little did I know, Julie had chicken and dumplings cooking in the crock pot, nice surprise and another great meal.

On Friday we all went down to the Buccaneer, a place that recently reopened. There are a few small retail shops in there and they are hoping to get more. They said a restaurant and bar will be opening soon, you can have parties there, meetings or go hang out by the water. Bill and Robby had coffee there and they both thought it was excellent and cheap. Me, I don’t give a rip about coffee, now if it had been wine I would have been all over it.

Friday night we went to Cal’s to eat. He was so busy we hurried and got our orders in before the 2 big tables did. When we got home we sat out front and talked and let the dogs play and tire themselves out. Hah, like that ever happens.

Robby and Julie’s flight was scheduled to leave at 1:30 on Saturday but it got delayed, then delayed more and delayed again. I don’t think they actually got out of RTB until close to 3. Since we had so much time to kill we ran to Blue Island Divers so they could buy shirts. Then it was off for a sweets run to Fresh Bakery. I had the banana chocolate chip cake and ohmygosh it was excellent. I decided to take 2 pieces back to Maria and Elton at the dive shop. We then made our way to RTB. The day I was there to pick them up the line for security leaving was all the way through the airport, this day, not so much. I saw Roger and Jeanie, Liza and Mike and a hundred other people I knew while waiting with them. Once they were in the security line and almost through, I left for home. After a quick stoop at the grocery store I came home and jumped on a raft and floated for awhile.

Of course, Sunday morning was Mega Paca day. I meandered through there for what seemed like hours, then ran to Eldon’s to get peanut butter, which I forgot the day before. I was invited by Milesse to Barefoot Cay to meet the new general managers wife Trisha. Milesse served an excellent lunch along with bottomless mimosas. Very nice afternoon and I met some new friends to boot.

I’ve had a quiet week so far, spent most of it hanging with the dogs, floating in the pool and reading. Today we are going to Brett and Carmen’s so Bill can help Brett with some plumbing {ended up unable to reach the pipes to replace the faucets and showerhead without a demo job}. Tomorrow it’s back to Barefoot Cay for a get together for the airport greeters, should be a fun time, I’m going with Cindy and Cathey.

Pretty soon we will be having the Because We Care Christmas parties, there will be at least 4 of them, probably more, depends on how many toys we get donated. Stay tuned for us spreading holiday cheer on this gorgeous rock we call home.

Smells like dead lizard

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02/17/2016 Today I went to my local bank to withdraw $$ from the ATM but it was down, AGAIN. So I used the blank check in my wallet to get money out of the account. I made the check out to myself and signed the back of it. It was for Tres Mil, 3000LPS or about $150.00. I handed the teller my Honduran resident card and my debit card for this account. He started filling out paperwork and on the back of my check he wrote my account number. Then he flipped the check over, looked at it, at the back of the check, then at me again and said DEPOSIT? OMG, NO. Why would I deposit a check drawn on my only account into the account it is written on?? This was after waiting 35 minutes..seriously??

I haven’t been in a blogging mood lately, sorry about that. I’m depressed. My house in the US was always clean, windows, floors, curtains, clean. I am physically unable to keep this house on the hill clean no matter what I do. I dust and the next day it looks like I invited the Sahara desert over for a freaking windstorm. I shit you not. You can write your name on any and every piece of my furniture. My window tracks are disgustingly gross, filled with dead critters and mud. I just cleaned them again yesterday and as soon as it rains they will be muddy again. Does it rain dirt on this island? Cleaning my window tracks is an all day job, I have 16 windows on the second floor that open. They are filthy all the time. Add to that a husband who is not Mr. Clean and 5 dogs and a cat and it’s a lose lose situation.

Last week a few nights in a row when I crawled into bed I smelled dead animal. I was convinced there was a dead lizard somewhere under the bed. Bill looked all over for it but didn’t see anything. We pulled the mattress up and looked under it, nada. I opened my nightstand drawer and found a pile of stuff that smelled like dead something. Whatever it was it was disintegrated into a mound of pulp in the drawer. I took the drawer in the bathroom, emptied the contents, scrubbed it out and put it back. Then I went back in the bathroom to clean up the mess and was assaulted by the SAME DAMN SMELL. I finally realized it was the bag of cat treats still setting on the counter that smelled like dead lizard. That’s what the mound of stuff was in the drawer that smelled.

Last Sunday we had no power due to the rain and winds. So, what do we do when the power is off, go to Mega Paca and shop. Marilyn, Carmen and Carmen’s parents picked me up on their way to town. First thing I scored was a Kate Spade wallet. It was $1.50.

We all had a blast shopping except it was hot in there with no A/C (power was out island wide). We made a few stops before they brought me home. I think power came on later in the day but it was off for a loooong time.

Monday was another beach day. I picked up Carmen and Brett and Karon and Ron (Carmen’s parents) and we drove out to Camp Bay beach. We had a pretty good turnout, we floated, played volleyball and had a few drinks.

Then the 5 of us went to La Sirena for rum punches, well I didn’t drink any because I was driving and they are STRONG. I just devoured my onion rings, so yummy!

We had an epic Tuesday, really we did. Marilyn, Carmen and Karon picked me up and we went to Coxen Hole to get Nidia. We were on our way to see Doña Maria. I had sheets and a blanket, shampoo and conditioner and 2 bags of coffee for her. Marilyn had a new pillow, more sheets and a roll of chicken wire that a friend of hers donated. After we got Nidia and the chickens that Daine gave us we went to the grocery store where Carmen and Karon bought Doña Maria all kinds of things, cereal, milk, oil, salt, sugar and coca cola. Then we went looking for feed for the chickens (that were in a pillow case in a box in the back of the car), got that at the 2nd store. We then drove around some more looking for a corn grinder for her. Marilyn had gotten one before but turns out it was a meat grinder. After looking several places, we had one more place to look. That was the golden ticket, Nidia found a beautiful grinder there for Doña Maria.

We headed back to the path that treks through the jungle and started walking up to her house. When we got there we were disappointed because she wasn’t home. ~~Martha Stewart~~ Marilyn, in her pink Polo wellies, started building a chicken coop for the new chickens.

Rather than leave and not get to see Doña Maria we decided to hang around until she came home. We wandered around checking things out, waiting for her when all of a sudden she comes walking up the path with a cardboard box balanced on her head. In the box were scraps of wood for her fire that is always burning. She had walked all the way into Coxen Hole carrying a hand of bananas to sell. Doña Maria weighs all of 75# soaking wet and she carried the bananas down the path, walked along the highway into town, they must have weighed 30# at least. She found a buyer for her bananas, the lady took them and then said she didn’t have the $$ to pay her. All of that for nothing, she came home banana-less. Doña Maria was so excited to see us. We made her close her eyes and then Nidia walked her to the chicken coop, she was thrilled that we got her chickens. Nidia showed her the gorgeous corn grinder that Marilyn bought for her, I know it’s something she will really use a lot. We gave her all the things we bought for her, I think it may have been overwhelming. Carmen had a padlock with a key for her door and a variety of food stuff. Doña Maria showed us her sugar came press that her son made for her.

12736830_1253824311298179_1618025403_o — Nidia climbed up the hill where they planted corn and took this pic. There is a chicken coop behind Carmen and I, but the chickens belong to someone else.

12716165_233243630343690_6008552429899569101_o — Carmen, me, Karon and Nidia

She wants to get her hair done again so Nidia will follow up on that. After I posted some photos on FB I had a friend here on the island who wants to pay for and build her a table and bench to use as a kitchen table. I’ll probably get her a few plastic chairs too. We are also inquiring about building her a better home. She doesn’t own the land so we have to get permission from the landowner.

After we said our good byes to Doña Maria we dropped Nidia off in Coxen Hole and headed home, sort of. We got diverted and went to Romeo’s in French Harbor for lunch and wine.

I don’t recall what I did the next few days, one of them I tried, again, to pay my friends property tax, only to be told this time I needed copies of their RTN’s. They did not say I needed them the last time I tried to pay, each time I go there, it’s something different. You would think that they would make it easy to pay your taxes, especially since the many on the island don’t pay theirs. UGH!

Friday was BJ’s and on the way there, I paid our taxes. The last 2 times I tried to pay them I couldn’t wait any longer because of Spanish class. This time I was in and out in less than 10 minutes. Then I was off to BJ’s with the crew. It was anther rainy shitty day but we still had a good group of people.

And the rains continued. When I got up Saturday morning and looked out the windows, first the south shore and then the north shore, I realized I couldn’t see either. We were socked in with no visibility and a very low cloud cover. The tower at the airport is not equipped to do IFR landings so unless the pilots can see the runway (Visual landing as opposed to instrument) they can’t land.

I got to the airport at 11:15 and we were told it was closed. No flights coming in or leaving. Really? We had 2 AA, 2 UAL and a Delta flight coming in and an airport full of stranded delayed passengers. I got the PAX counts and ETA’s from the desks and we waited to see what was going to happen. The first flight was due in at 12:30 but it was “late.” We stood outside the back of the airport facing the runways and watched the Delta and the 1st United circle overhead. Then we heard that the United diverted to San Pedro Sula. Soon after that, out of seemingly nowhere, the Delta plane landed. The runway at RTB is right smack next to the water and we could barely see the water. As the PAX were de-planing and I was welcoming them at the immigration door I saw the American jet come in, almost land and abort at the last minute. OMG, the passengers were probably freaking out. It went to Belize instead. We were told the other American also went to San Pedro Sula. After waiting around the American from San Pedro and the United finally came over from the mainland and landed. The 2nd United flight was cancelled and we heard the American wasn’t coming. I went into the office and signed out and was getting ready to leave when the airport guys said the American that went to Belize was due in at 6 PM (only 5 hours late). I signed back in and 4 of us went to wait for the plane to come in. The runway lights were on, waiting for the flight from BZE @ 6 but at 6:10 PM it was cancelled, still in Belize. As it turns out, there was no room in Belize for the plane so they refueled and took those poor passengers back to Miami and they were bringing them the next day.

12728856_10153595817543533_912436818591423482_n — It’s rare that a plane lands at night in Roatan, as it turned out, one didn’t land this night either.

It was an exhausting 7 hour day at the airport, the only good thing I can say about it is, I love meeting the new people coming to the island and I love the ladies I work with.

A few shots of random stuff before I wrap this up and go read.

This is the ARK they are building in Politilly. It is going to be a nightclub??? I’ll snap some more pics on Friday when I go to BJ’s, they have done a lot of work on it. I don’t remember who took this photo but I did not. 12671619_1697270283861936_4166679552789434544_o

12657378_1743377865892901_1440531157699557451_o — This is my niece Devon, my brother PJ’s daughter. She is at the Night to Shine event at a church in Montoursville, PA. This is an event sponsored by the Tim Tebow foundation and it is worldwide..Devon had a blast at the party, I so wish I could have been a fly on the wall.

12249983_10153599895213533_5794753807831936733_n — Dog origami, on the roof.

12087973_1091100230899989_8939742309565076685_o — Trace took this pic of his sweet girlfriend Maureen. I love it! We are anxiously awaiting for them to come visit us soon. (Hint hint Maureen)

12694718_10204944700128691_2210976706250918842_o — My friends Jill and Rick Jackson own Las Cabanas de Loreto ( a fabulous vacation spot) in Baja, Mexico. Rick, as you can see, is a professional photographer. He snapped this photo while they were camping in Baja on Valentines Day. To see more of Rick’s work go to http://www.soulcatchingimages.com

Yes, we have bananas, lots of apple bananas. The dogs are still enjoying them every morning with peanut butter, I’m eating them and Bill makes a smoothie every night. Sure hope we have some when our guests arrive in March.

And that my friends is a wrap. I’m off to the couch. If any of you have any hints or tips for my house cleaning woes, I’m ready..

Signed:

Disgusted with the dirt in Paradise

Misfits and Mayhem

pirate2 02/06/2016 The front of the house is finally fenced in; however the fence was not yet concreted to the cinder block base and we are still waiting on the metal sliding gate to be finished. Bill made a temporary fence gate to keep the dogs in. The other day the pups were outside running around playing and next thing I hear is Bill yelling, “the pups got out!” They pushed the fence away at the bottom where it wasn’t finished and escaped like greased pigs. Luckily they ran down through the woods and not down towards the main road. Alexi went chasing after them and I ran down the driveway (well, fast walked, I can’t really run) and they were all running back up to me. Highway was the only one who didn’t escape, well, he and Frito, who was inside. Bill finished the fence the next day so they can no longer escape through the bottom. That was a little excitement that I didn’t need, I would freak if anything happened to any of them.

Brett and Carmen rode with me to Mondays Don’t Suck. I’m so glad they came because it was an awesome day on the beach. We had a huge group of people enjoying MDS. The Duchess of Camp Bay’s friend (and my friend) Skip arrived on Saturday and was there for the day along with so many other people, some I didn’t even know. We played volleyball, swam and floated AND we did a conga line on the beach. I think it was going on 5 PM by the time I got home. I was exhausted from all the fun.

079 — Game 1, Carmen displaying her perfect form. I too played a round of volleyball but, for some damn reason, I couldn’t stand still, I had to dance. There was music playing and it was dancing music..Once I start I have a hard time stopping. Dancing that is, not playing volleyball. While looking at this photo, please imagine that I have the same ultra perfect form that Carmen does. I’m sure I do. Really.

So many fun people, it was an awesomely amazeballs day.

There are 2 videos of the conga line..I was going to post one of them but then decided that nobody really wants or needs to see my boobs almost popping out of my suit. So, you’re welcome, I saved you from the retina burner. Skip, thanks for the TIME and People magazines w/ Bowie on them. Prized possessions..I still owe you a drink or 3.

Tuesday I went to Mega Paca to get some bedding stuff for Doña Maria. We are planning to go see her on Sunday, weather permitting. I got her a few nice things then went to the store and got her some staples like coffee and shampoo and conditioner. The group from Live Again Ministries are on the island and paid her a visit last week, they are building a bench for her. More on that in the next blog..On the way home from shopping I stopped at the Stihl chain saw place to get a new wiper and ended up sitting there pulling ticks off their puppies eye and out of her ears. {I bought some worm medicine and stopped the next day to worm her.}

I came home and did some laundry and was sitting here at the computer reading something when I heard a loud rumble. I thought it was a severe wind gust. Then the whole damn house shuddered, TWICE. The dogs freaked out, Barrio cried, and it was over. Earthquake!! At first they said it was 4.7 and upgraded to 4.9. It was so weird to hear the rumble, thinking it’s something else but then realizing just what the hell it was. No injuries or damage reported on the island. I have a big art piece that needs realigned, but that’s it.

I don’t work at the airports on Wednesday, but I was there. I went to meet a new friend who is active in animal rescue and was coming to the island for vacation. She brought along a donation of many collars and leashes for the upcoming vet clinic and I offered to meet her at the airport to get them. Thank you Brenda, I know they will be appreciated! I also got to meet Carmen’s parents who arrived the same day. I spent most of the afternoon Wednesday trying to decide on a costume for the Pirate party. I’m not much for costumes but having gone to the party last year and seeing the way people were dressed, I had to give it a shot. I tried on so many damn black dresses, red bra on top of tank tops (looked like a poor hooker), swimsuit cover-up (fat), skirts, back to dresses, started feeling like a nitwit and thought maybe I should just go to the party and not worry about a costume. I decided to make rum balls and have a drink instead.

Thursday morning I got up and all I could think about was a pirate wench costume. I somehow managed to go from pirate girl to wench overnight, funny how that shit happens. All of a sudden I had an epiphany. My boots, I still had my boots. Never forget that a good pair of boots can make you into a slutty pirate in no time. These boots took me months to decide on, the boots that I may have bought 9 or 10 different pairs, only to return them all. The boots that I finally had to special order. It became a joke with my friends back in the states, especially Teri B who happened to be with me for many of the search, buy and return scenarios.

I’ll admit it. I used to have a very serious addiction. To black shoes and boots. Truth be told, moving to the island was the only way for me to escape the chains of my addiction and get on with my life. I only brought 2 pair of black boots and probably a dozen pair of black shoes, 10 pair which I have not worn since I’ve been here.

Anyhow, so I have these kick ass black knee-high, heeled boots. They’re not a spike heel so they can go dressy or slutty..I chose the latter. By 10AM I had my outfit chosen and I was feeling pretty good. Only issue was MY FEET. They thought they were dying in properly enclosed shoes, it’s been a few years since they have seen anything like boots. I sucked it up and pulled those suckers on, zipped them up, grabbed a Stronghold headband, my wine and wineglass and we were good to go. Oh yes, I also had on a pirate shirt and my tutu, of course. All slutty pirate wenches wear tutus.

For all of you curious souls, no Bill did not wear a costume, but he did go with me. Alexi, our helper was here and when he saw me he got this big shit eaten grin on his face and said, “you look cool.” I knew I did something right. We got to BJ’s around 10 to noon and were picked up by boat to get to the party. I believe we may have been the first guests to arrive. Francie was already a gorgeous slutty pirate wench but Franklin wasn’t in his Johnny Deppish clothes yet.

P2040138 — Big Rock (If this looks familiar, it’s is the same place that we had spa day recently)

12647133_10153548374248318_6623269172240513909_n — Photo by Rosalie Dickson Boileau. Rosalie took this photo of her husband Bob (L) me and Joe.

Funny thing, at the semi end of the party they announced the winners for best costume and Bob won for the men and I won for the women. We each got a Pirate shot glass. Francie said I won b/c of my boots, Bob won b/c he had cute red lips..

This was seriously the best party I’ve been to since ever..the food was spectacular, as is the location, superb hosts and an amazing cast of fellow pirate friends..an epic pirate party!

12669556_1040716325993933_1289815722642409963_n — Rosalie posted this on FB the day after the party. It’s so perfect.

Brenda, who I met at the airport (collars and leashes) on Wed. messaged me Friday morning to see if I was going to BJ’s. I was debating because I didn’t have the energy. I knew that excuse would not cut it with Jeanie so I fed the dogs a late breakfast, showered and dressed for the day. I got to BJ’s a little after 1 and there were only a handful of people there but soon the place began to fill up. Francie and Franklin came so I ran to my car to call Bill to see if he was on his way. He made an enclosed bulletin board for Kat’s Rise Up Roatan center and he was going to help Franklin hang it.

12645172_515655785273920_3241999190790290240_n

This is the building where our Spanish classes were held, coincidentally, it’s right across the road from BJ’s parking lot..

I hung out at BJ’s, got involved (sort of) in a meeting with PIER (Partners In Education Roatan) and some friends, then went back to BJs. Brenda and her friends were there, Jeanie, Roger and Skip had arrived, the place was packed. I got an order of fries, finished my wine and went home. Before I left I told Brenda about Cal’s Cantina. We were going there for dinner with Jeanie, Roger and Skip. We got to Cal’s around 5, a perfect time because there was already a table of friends, more came in, then another table, then Brenda and her friends, then our neighbor John came, before long, the place was crowded. We had a good meal, as always, and then came back here for Skip to meet Frito and we did sips of Damiana.

I woke this morning to a chilly cloudy rainy day. My mind went to the people coming in for vacation, on a dark, damp, cool dismal day. You know most of the people just left somewhere very cold and were hoping to arrive on a bright sunny island. Not happening. I didn’t realize just how bad the weather was until I got to the airport and heard it was closed due to a low ceiling. Avianca going to the mainland sat there, fully boarded for over 90 minutes waiting to take off. AA from Miami was late due to mechanical issues, United arrived first, after circling for 15 minutes. Soon after that 3 more planes landed, (one of which aborted their first landing here and went around again), at the same damn time almost. It was a long day but I did get a guy to sing to me and then he kissed me, all to get in the express lane..Some people will do anything…and I’m just the girl to make them.

TV tip, just watched Twinsters on Netflix, I really enjoyed it. True story about twins separated at birth who find each other 25 years later. Great story and the real twins are the stars..

It’s past my bedtime, stay tuned..I’m hoping we don’t get blown off this hilltop, it’s pretty damn windy out there.

P.S. I was going to post this blog this morning but I woke at 5 AM to no power. It just came back on around 4:30 this afternoon. Island wide outage, always happens when a Norther rolls in..

The Planking Sisterhood

bruises

01/31/2016 Saturdays have become a blur to me. This past one was no exception. The weather on the eastern side of the US was causing a major upheavel to the flights arriving from and departing to the US. Many passengers did not make it off the island on Sat., therefore missing all of their connections in the US.. That’s just the way it goes when you travel, Mother Nature is the Ultimate Bitchacha. She wins all the time.

Monday Bob and Rosalie and Marilyn picked me up for our Mondays Don’t Suck days in Camp Bay. We had a great turnout because Franklin and Francie’s kids were here. (3 of them were to leave but couldn’t due to weather) We played some volleyball with the young ones putting us to shame. We forget they can run and we’re old. Well, I should speak for myself, I can NOT run, not even if Channing Tatum was at the finish line. But believe me, I can crawl really fast.

After Volleyball we all cooled off in the angry sea. The waves were pretty high and there was a strong current pushing us westward, it still felt marvelous. We had food, drinks and music. At one point I began a congo line and the women joined in. We danced down around the volleyball net and back up the beach. We plan to do a synchronized version tomorrow that will be filmed.

Wednesday I went to Coxen Hole muni to attempt to pay the property taxes for my friends. The place was packed. Nidia followed up on it and we need more info than I had because it’s their first time paying. We’ll get this figured out yet.. After that I went to my hair gal Nadia to get my roots corrected.

Thursday Carmen and I had a day of fun in the sun planned, however, there was no sun. We went to Mega Paca looking for accessories for the upcoming Pirate party and actually scored some cool stuff. After that we went to Arch’s Iguana Farm and ran into Mr. Arch himself. I also got to meet my friend Gale’s (Sam Arch’s sister) daughter, Derricka. Oh my, what a doll she is. After that I gave Carmen a tour of Parrot Tree, we checked on my friends home for her and then went to Cal’s for garlic bread and wine. It was a wonderful day spent with a good friend! While taking Carmen home we saw an unusual sight and I was fortunate enough to catch up to the guy.

Friday was the last Spanish class for awhile. After that, it was off to BJs with my newest Mega Paca score, a brand new Woozie (wine glass koozie).

Bill wasn’t working at the house so he planned to come to BJ’s also. When I got out of class Roger said Bill called and there was a dog fight and he got bitten separating the dogs. I didn’t have my phone so I used Rogers to call him back. Apparently Frito got loose and went right for Lola’s throat, for no reason other than hate. In the process of breaking it up, Lola bit him pretty hard on his thumb. I convinced him a beer would make it feel better so he came over for a little while. Frito just hates Lola’s guts because the puppies (Frito’s pups) adore Lola.

When I got home around 3:30 I was so tired I laid down on the couch and slept until 8:30. I woke up, ate yogurt and went to bed. In the morning I was kind of surprised to see my leggings where they were. Oh well, it is what it is.

Saturday I was at the airport until 4:30. The Delta flight was 2 hours late leaving Hotlanta (Atlanta) because the galley oven wouldn’t turn on. What a shame, without it the 5 first class passengers would just have to go without their reheated previously cooked bland nasty food.

Sunday we took the boys swimming @ Parrot Tree again. My new friend from Canada, Diane and her husband Andy are staying there so they walked over to the lagoon and met us. The boys played for about an hour while we chatted. They slowly started to get tired and once they reached the point of groveling in the sand, it was time to leave.

We came home and I bathed all 3 of the dogs, did some laundry and we all napped for awhile. At 4 we had to meet our friend Miguel in Oak Ridge. We found another bag of soccer jerseys buried in the spare room so we ran them over to him. This is the progress on the Ark disco/casino/nightclub. It’s going to be quite the place.

Last, but certainly not least, my poor 90 year old Mom fell and broke her wrist. She was at the computer, the desk chair is armless w/ wheels and they have a mat under it so it rolls easily. Obviously it rolls too easily and got out from under her. She went down on her wrist and broke it in 2 places. They don’t want to operate so they put her in traction and set and cast it. She’s in a lot of pain right now and her knee is bothering her too. I imagine she wrenched that when she fell. So thankful for my sister who got down there as soon as she could safely drive. Hoping things get better and her wrist heals up quickly.

Next week is action packed; hopefully I am not too tired to blog about it. Being retired and having this much fun every day is hard work..I’m trying like hell not to be boring.

With visions of whale sharks

weird

1/16/2016 My 3 legged dog licks rocks. I’m not lying, she does. She loves it, I’m not overly enthusiastic about the whole thing. For some reason this satisfies a particularly intense need that she has. She drools when she does it, maybe she has a deficiency? Yes, this is the same insane dog who ate between 40 and 50 heart worm pills at once. I still don’t know how she got them out of the suitcase. They smelled like beef, that’s all that mattered: they were hers. We gave her a bottle of liquid charcoal by the syringeful to make her puke. She never vomited but she quickly developed a taste for Charcoal. She did shit pure black the next day, but puke? Nope..

We have had dog collar issues this past week. I was given some dog collars so I changed the boys collars for sturdier ones. The next day Barrio brought me Gringo’s collar, chewed in half. WTH? I put another older used collar on Gring and found it in pieces on the porch later the same day. I put his older collar on and IT WAS CHEWED OFF TOO. I ended up putting the thin cheap Wal Mart collar back on him, it’s been 2 days and all is well. The pleasures of raising 3 male pups can’t ever be put into words. It’s mystifying to say the least.

I have watched again for the billionth # of times a show on Netflix called Iris. Go out of your way to watch this movie, it’s about an amazing woman. She makes me think of the times when I worked at Lynn Hayes in Williamsport, just a young 18 year old girl working in the fanciest, most expensive clothing store in town. I fell in love with fashion. I didn’t follow the norm though, I always wanted to be different. That was my deal. Ladies, do yourself a favor and find the show Iris and watch it, she is an upscale, bohemian fashion icon.

I moped around here on Monday, depressed about Bowie’s death. I think I moved everything and cleaned off the shelves, listening to Bowie. Later on I ran to the store to get stuff to make something to take to the 2nd Annual Port Royal Bash and am glad I went with options in mind because Eldon’s had nothing, again. I was reduced to broccoli salad, which turned out yummy. I ran to Mega Paca and saw 3 friends there, it’s really my favorite store, ever. I can find Banana Republic plain colored t-shirts for around $1.00, dresses for $3.00. I get my shopping fix, spending under $10.00 and come home w/ a bag of stuff. I saw an ugly but large cooler bag there on Monday, didn’t buy it b/c it was orange and green. After I got home it’s all I could think about. This is the story of my life. This is what I did buy though.

I got up early Tuesday and ran to Mega Paca and bought the damn cooler bag. It’s ugly and I love it, it says Tropicana on it. Bob and Rosalie picked me up Tuesday morning around 11, we were meeting other people at BJ’s at noon to get a ride to the party on the Islander . I believe there were about 40 people on the boat on the way over, most with chairs and coolers. It was the usual crowd, most everyone was there and the ones that weren’t, like Bill and my un-named girlfriend, well, we decided they all had hemorrhoids.

Mel and John have recently started building on their gorgeous piece of land on the water in Port Royal. They are doing it building by building, all the while living on their big boat docked right there. It’s really beautiful and serene out there. The easiest way to get there is by boat and it takes close to 30 minutes from Oak Ridge. There is a road but I guess it’s pretty long and not in great shape.

1404705_10154426952147646_4516811767580189175_o — Thanks Keri for the pic of Jeanie and I, although curious why you named it Double Trouble???

Wednesday I cleaned again, this time I moved all the furniture and sucked up 736 pounds of dog hair. No lie. It took forever and then I let the dogs back inside so they could shed some more. I’m a sick sick person.

I read online that whale sharks were spotted in the waters in front of our house so I contacted the dive shop and begged them to call me because I can be there in 10 minutes. Thursday I got up, dressed in my swimsuit and a skirt, had my snorkel bag all packed and they didn’t call. I decided around 1 I had to go to the bank, not a lempira in my pocket, so I reluctantly got dressed and left. I got a call from Holly at the dive shop saying the whale sharks were still in the area and maybe tomorrow. Maybe just became a HUGE word.

Thursday night we went to Chuck and Nancy’s for dinner and were home late and had 6 hungry dogs. I got the dogs fed, watched Modern Family and went to bed. I had visions of whale sharks in my head. Friends, this is at the top of my bucket list, it’s something I REALLY want to do. My dream is of me slipping into the water next to one of these giants and hoping I don’t die from a heart attack due to uncontrollable excitement.

I awoke Friday morning, whale sharks still on the brain. I dressed in my swimsuit again and had all my gear ready to go, but no call and it was time for Español escuela so I had get myself ready. I showered and got my stuff around for class.

On my way to Spanish classes (which is always followed by wine at BJ’s) I encountered the following: a young boy thrusting a live chicken, held by the legs, at me as I drove by. Like I’m actually going to stop, grab the chicken, give the boy a few lempiras, strap the sucker into the front seat belt and go on about my day. What reasons could he possibly have come up with in his mind that I was going to stop and take a live chicken from him? Do I look like a chicken lady? Isn’t there a law about dangling a live chicken in front of car windshields while the car is moving?

Then around another corner were 2 Brahman bulls standing in the middle of the road. These things are BIG evil looking cows. Shortly after the cows I came upon a TukTuk, a 3 wheeled vehicle like they use in Indonesia. It was filled to maximum capacity with what looked like a bunch of candy and it had a maximum speed of 7 MPH. What I could see through the back window was all colorful foil packets. Maybe they were all condoms and not candy but seeing all of the pregnant ~~women~~ girls on the island I’m placing my $$ on candy.

Power went out a few times last night, not for very long though, thankful we have battery back up for the WiFi! It reminded me that power was out a week or two ago on the West end of the island because someone shot the lines with a bullet. I don’t make this shit up, I don’t need to.

I was asked to be in charge of Saturdays at the airport, making the schedules, finding subs if someone can’t make it. Last Saturday night I was making spread sheets again, good for my brain. Thank you Amanda B.

My friend Amanda Walkins, who is a blogger and also writes for several well known publications, Huffington Post, International Living to name a few, has her own blog.

In her most recent post, she talks about leaving the island and now living in Scotland. She also gives mention of my little blog. Thank you Amanda!!

From Amanda’s blog: Mermaid on a Raft: Debbie retired to Roatan and has been documenting all of her island shenanigans over the last several years. Her humor is hysterical, and her life will make you jealous if you’re still plugging away waiting to retire. She posts tons of photos from snorkeling adventures, her regular social outings with other expats, and the many volunteer activities she does all around the island. She’s incredibly helpful if you’re thinking of retiring to Roatan – be sure to reach out!

Also, Amanda’s handsome Irish Colombian boyfriend said the grape looking things I saw underwater are indeed Sea Grapes..who knew?

I hustled my butt at the airport today. It was a zoo again. Maybe I’ll only mention it when it’s slow because I’m sure everyone says why does she do it if shes going to whine about it. I’m not whining though, just remarking how freaking busy we were. I love mass pandemonium and chaos for short periods of time; therefore, the airport gig is well suited for my personality type. I love it. I worked with my friend Caroline again, we make a great team! I really enjoy meeting the new people, having them look at me with wonderment when I tell them my story of how we ended up here.

As soon as we got home, I had my daily crack.

While at the grocery store I saw Woudsin (my friend from Helene). I gave him a big hug and a kiss. Then some gringo came up and asked me if I lived here and I said sure do. He said we just bought a place, I asked where, he said Helene. He then asked if I knew Perry or Rick and I said yes, that I knew both of them but have known Perry most of my life. I put two and two together, and realized he was w/ Woudsin. He then said to me, did you spend the night at Perry’s and do you blog? I said I sure do and my overnight at Perry and Kay’s blog was called Serene Helene. He said, I read your blog and have the photos you took at Perry’s on my phone. Small island and I’m always happy to meet people with the weirdest connections to me. I told Woudsin to show them where I lived on their way up island and told them to come visit. Welcome Terry and Cal to Helene, Roatan.

The extended dog fence is moving along slowly. As expected. EVERYTHING moves slowly here except taxi’s and $$. The fence they ordered and delivered was 8′, ours is 6′. Damn. Just got the estimate for the gate and windows for the shop and plan to get them started ASAP.

When I finished my yogurt after work (airport) we grabbed a suitcase and a bag, both full of soccer jerseys and shorts and socks. We met our friend Miguel (who just came for dinner last week) with several guys from 2 different teams in Oak Ridge and Pandytown. They were very excited to be getting soccer stuff. The leader is a coach and a minister and his mission is to get the kids off of the street and playing basketball, soccer and volleyball. Our friends, Trish and Dave, from Toronto were given these uniforms by a league back in Toronto. Many thanks to the donating league and to Trish and Dave for carrying all the extra luggage down here. they made so many people (kids and adults) so happy! I will get more photos when the season begins again mid February.

It was fun to see the guys smiling and excited about having jerseys that matched. I gave the teams 2 of the soccer balls Trish and Dave brought also. I feel really good that the uniforms were given to men who still play soccer and who encourage the kids to play as well.

When I finally returned after being gone most of the day the boys were extremely happy to see me. Funny how much I miss them as well.

I still am dealing with the bruised/broken, disintegrated rib from 2 weeks ago. It hurts. I always thought my Mom was exaggerating {when she fell in the big huge green garbage bin trying to retrieve something she threw away by accident} about her ribs but I understand now that she wasn’t. Lesson learned the hard way, again.

Hasta Luego..whale sharks still on the brain.

Tickalicious

dignity

11/09/2015 I know why I missed my left knee when I shaved. The thing is NUMB. No feeling. I either skim over top of the knee hair or slice a divet in my knee, no feeling. Well, except for the blood, that would be a give away that something was screwed up. So yeah, maybe I need to shave with Nair.. Ugh, leg hair, when does it go away?

This past week didn’t turn out to be as busy as I thought it would be. Nidia had her weeks mixed up. Renee came Saturday and is leaving this Wednesday. She is here working on the sewing machine project. I offered to help on Sunday but they are not doing anything until Monday and I have plans Monday and Tuesday, so I am no help at all. This past Monday I went to West Bay beach, despite the fact that everyone else went to Barbon (Camp Bay) beach. I had a nice day on deserted West Bay with Lauren. It was D E A D. and stunningly gorgeous.

Lauren and I were in the water most of the 4 hours we were at West Bay and I have peeling skin on my forehead to prove it. I saw my friends Celeste and Milos, they own West Bay Lodge, while we were there. We stayed @ WBL the first 2 times we visited Roatan in 2007 & 2008, in fact, we were sitting on the front porch of their office waiting for our realtor to come. When he got there he shared the news that our offer was accepted and we were going to be property owners!! First visit ever to the island and we bought land. Yeah, I know, insane.

Lauren and I had lunch at Bananarama and then floated some more. As Lauren and I walked back to my car I recognized Shawn Jackson, a local photographer and his wife Maggie and their son. I stopped him and introduced myself (we have been FB friends for over a year but never met). I was so giddy after meeting them, it was like meeting royalty. Check out his work in the link on his name, he is phenomenal!!It was 2:15 when we left West Bay. I took Lauren home and went in and saw her apartment (the cat scratch post Bill made was sitting front and center), she’s pretty nestled in the jungle. When I left there and walked down to my car my phone was ringing, it was Lisa, Sable and Bandit’s mother. She wanted me to stop by and see the pups so I jumped on that opportunity. Sable is doing great, she looks good, her eyes are nice and clear and bright and she is all spunky again. Lisa said Bandit was beyond excited to have his sister back. I love these 2 puppies so much and I think they love me too.

We are still picking ticks off of our dogs. I gave the boys Heartgard (with the advice of a vet ) 10 days after I used the Frontline Plus, which clearly did not work. De-ticking since last Friday. Fun shit.

On Tuesday morning we picked up Nidia (Because We Care) at the entrance to Mud Hole Rd. From there we went to the school in Corazol. Our friend Linda and her daughter Brittany were being filmed by House Hunters International and Nidia wanted us to go with her to help out. Linda brought school supplies for the kids and supply bags for all of the teachers, along with 4 new swings for the school. Bill came along too and helped with removing the old swings and hanging the new.

It was super hot and humid that day, I would have killed to jump in a crystal clear blue body of water. We hustled home, took care of the dogs, I took a nap and at 3:30 we were at our friends home. We were introducing some friends who recently bought a home in Politilly, very close to our friends who just returned from the states for 3 months. We were there until after dark. We came home to barking (of course) hungry (double of course) dogs.

Wednesday we planned to get the remaining 2 dogs neutered but I just didn’t have the energy. Instead I went to Mega Paca and ~~wandered~~ shopped for a few hours and found some great deals. Having this store to shop in is the best thing ever, I’ll need to be heavily medicated if they ever close. On Thursday I drove to French Harbor to get Bethany. She is our vet’s assistant and she and I have become good friends. She came out and hung out with the dogs and I. She hasn’t seen any of them except Max when he was so sick.

Friday morning we took the pups swimming again at Big Bight.

There was a dead bird in the sand but they didn’t even drop and roll on it.

They had a good time there but I got really nervous because something kept blowing bubble circles in the water and the clarity is worse than murky there (decayed mangrove). I got all freaked out and thought it was a crocodile so we left. The pups were tired anyhow, 15 minutes of swimming and running non stop will do that. We brought them home, all 3 got showers, a huge brunch and they passed out.

Friday afternoon we went to BJ’s, of course. Rosalie and Bob are back on the island, it was so great to see them! I had 2 glasses of wine and some downright delicious french fries (addicted after one order) before we came home. Saturday I was back at the airport. They changed things up there and it went so much faster for the guests coming in, however Daine and I were discussing the fact that the new way doesn’t allow us as much time to visit and chat with the people. What a difference a small change can make though, they whizzed through everyone, the wait was minimal. Many of our friends returned today so I am really looking forward to catching up with everyone.

Nelson, our mechanic, came for pizza brunch. He is the one who gave me Lola, I’m not sure how she will react when she sees him, she is such a space case, it’s hard to tell. Sometimes she barks at Bill or me when we come upstairs. She acts like she has no idea who we are, weird. Maybe that fall she took off the roof as a puppy made her brain come loose in her head, maybe she never had a brain. She’s a beauty but dumb as a stump.. Oh well, can’t have beauty and brains..

Here it is, Monday again and I’m headed to Camp Bay beach (Barbon) with the Mondays Don’t Suck gang. Looking forward to visiting and floating in the sea. Just another day in Paradise!