Rusty Body

The other day I was walking from one room to the other when my hip caught on the corner of a dresser, just enough to pull the lower body around while the upper body continued forward. Pain shot across the lower back and made me gasp. The pain was from the twist, not the impact itself - I don't even have a bruise, but my muscles are still trying to get themselves sorted out.

The weather is playing with us. Yesterday was sunny and breezy, a gorgeous day to hang laundry on the line. I did three loads - the first two were still flapping in the breeze when I felt sprinkles - which lasted less than a minute. So the third load went out, but an hour later, just before we headed out for evening errands, the skies had that ominous look about them. Not wanting to take a chance, I brought in all the wet laundry, and we headed out.

I had my purse in a plastic garbage bag, and we were wearing our wind-breakers. The bundle in my hand was a wad of laundry bags - I planned to pick up dirty laundry from one of the houses. We got to the east side and the skies opened up. Stinging rain on our faces, quickly soaking us and Loco. We slogged along to the lottery where it rained harder and harder. While waiting for Miguel I wrapped a laundry bag around my legs, and put another one on his seat to keep it dry. When Miguel came back I moved the bag so he could sit down, and his seat was soaked. As were my legs - the laundry bags were not a bit water-repellent, they tricked me.

Miguel asked if I wanted to wait it out, but by this time I was wet, and Loco was looking like he'd been swimming, so we decided to just get on the road and get home. At least on the drive home we were pointed in the opposite direction and the rain was blowing from behind us.

Miguel parked the cart under the neighbor's overhang. I gathered my purse, the laundry bags, the bag of keys, the can of WD-40, and with Loco's leash still in my hand, I tried to get down from the cart. But my foot caught, and I lurched forward. With both hands full a tumble to the pavement would have been disasterous. I staggered a few steps but somehow stayed on my feet. Not without twisting my back muscles though.

I feel like an old lady. Pulling myself up the stairs by the railing. Leaning on the counter while washing dishes. Hobbling from the bed to the bathroom. Turning onto my knees to get myself out of the tub. During the day my body gradually starts working, and I'm able to clean my house, push furniture around, cook, and basically do most of the things I want to do. But the night tightens me up again - nothing wants to bend by the time I get up in the morning. I feel like the tin man in the Wizard of Oz - movement is the oil for my joints, and repose is the rust. I take glycosamine but I don't think it's helping at all - or maybe I'd be much worse if I didn't take it, who knows? Too bad that WD-40 that we carry around won't help my body.

Hurry up and Wait

It seems like we've been waiting for Hurricane Rina for a long time. Last Sunday was when I really started paying attention to the storm which was not even a tropical depression at that point. Forecasts predicted the storm would reach tropical depression status by Tuesday, and never forecast a hurricane.

Well, 19 hrs later and we had a hurricane, cat 1 - projected to become a cat 3 by the time it would hit us on Thursday. We were right in the path, but as experience dictates, on Monday we didn't do anything to prepare for a hurricane. Too soon because of the unpredictability of these things. We did do a mini-prep at one house where the owners had just left and it had to be closed up anyway...so we took in the outside furniture while we were at it.

Tuesday's forecast was not good - we were still on the direct path for a cat 3 hurricane, and with 8 homes to worry about, it was time to get moving. We also had a check-in at a condo that evening - guests who were not aware of the approaching hurricane, and even worse, no idea what to do (i.e., buy candles and food supplies). So that day four homes were shut up with hurricane shutters or boards, and the check-in guests were given a mini-education on what to expect and how to reach us (or not, and why).

That left the condo, our own two homes, and one other home where the owner was leaving Wednesday morning (on his regularly scheduled flight). The condo management company would deal with the condo units, our homes would be last on the list, so the focus turned to that final home right on the ocean side. We cleared up all possible projectiles (big shells), and put the electronics in a closet inside the home. Later Miguel rounded up a strong helper and they put up some boards - one more house checked off.

By this time yesterday we already knew that the hurricane was downgraded to be a tropical storm by the time it got to us, so preps on our own homes stopped. Even with a tropical storm there will be high winds and water inside the house, and some plants will have damage from the burning winds - but we do not need to worry about boarding up the doors and windows.

I have kept the cats inside for the last couple of days - partly because the furniture they like to rest on out back has been put away, partly because of intermittent drizzle, and partly because I cannot leave the back door open due to mosquitoes. They are getting tired of being inside.

Loco has not enjoyed being out on the front terrace - he can hear thunder off in the distance (or thinks he does). We don't hear anything but Loco hates thunder so if he is outside he crawls into the garden, in a hole by the side wall. He gets himself all tangled in the plants. So he's been inside most of the last few days too - with a lot of time spent under the beds.

Today I took Loco out for a bathroom break. Across the road is where we often toss stale bread, and unwanted leftovers. Today Loco stopped to look at the little pile of plants there, and as I watched, I saw a little mouse picking through the plant debris for bits of food. The mouse was sitting up eating with his front paws, and Loco went right up to it and stuck his nose on its head to see what it was (we joke that Loco needs glasses, he doesn't seem to see really well with objects close up or far away). Surprisingly the mouse was not a bit scared of Loco - it was a Kodak moment, the tiny mouse and the dog with the big black nose pressed against the head of the mouse. Alas, no camera.

The rest of the island is closed up - they would not do that for a tropical storm but until this morning the storm was still a hurricane, so everyone has to be prepared for the worst. Now we no longer expect a hurricane (thank goodness), but we are patiently waiting it out for the winds and blowing rain to hit. The strange part about this particular storm is that it is not going to pass through and be on its way - no, it's going to come over us tonight and tomorrow, and then loop back around and revisit us as a tropical depression. There will be lots of rain over the next few days - tourists will be unhappy with the bad weather, and the islanders will deal with flooded homes and streets. It could have been worse, it could have been a hurricane.

But whatever level of storm it's going to be, I just wish it would get here so we could stop waiting.

Hurricane Rina

 http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/at201118.html

Yup, so we are in the midst of hurricane prep. With eight properties to worry about, it's been a busy day and tomorrow promises more of the same, only with worse weather (high winds and blowing rain). For anyone who has never seen hurricane prep on tv, it's hard to understand how difficult it is once the rain and winds come. Can't use power tools outside, and handling big sheets of plywood with the wind is rather a pain. Now that Miguel is a property manager, we will be forced to go out on the golf cart and check on the houses. We will be getting wet, and so will the floors inside the house and all the other houses. Leaves will plug the drains, we'll need to stick a broom handle in them as we can to keep the water from backing up.

The day started with a flat tire - not what we needed when being on the road is critical. So I got that fixed while Miguel was tending to one of the homes. I also went to the bank and picked up cat food and a few other supplies for us. Filled up the golf cart with gas, and took the little red tank to be filled too. I added credit to all our cell phones and charged the two that were in the house. I have not done anything to prepare the house here, will do that tomorrow, and hopefully, if needed, Miguel will get our boards up, at least on the upstairs patio doors. 

But the good news? They are not going to cut the electricity the way they always have in the past. So we may still have light, tv, and internet during the storm - a first for us, and maybe being boarded up once the curfew hits won't be so bad. Will keep you posted via Facebook, as we are able.

Off to bed, with wishes that this storm turns out of our path. We'll know more tomorrow. Night!

Kyle, the amazing kid

What are little boys made of? Frogs and snails and puppy dog's tails. My grandson Kyle is just a happy, smiling, laughing baby most of the time. And he likes turnip!

Kyle is not yet one year old but he is a little boy. Who wouldn't buy a pumpkin from this kid?

Look, it has a handle

 

and maybe there's something under here?

He is a busy guy when he's up

 Last week he started walking

But like his mom, he is a sleeper and loves his naps, once he gets past the crying to protest it all

I will not see him again for another couple of months, I wonder what he'll be up to by then?

Animal update

The weather has turned a bit which means our animals are snuggling a little closer these days. We had a nasty storm over the weekend, I think the cats were confined indoors for about 4 days straight - so they were eager to get outside as soon as the weather cleared.

I have started opening the kitchen window near the sink, even though it no longer has a screen (thanks to the late Luna, who was always determined to get inside the house one way or the other). With the back door closed due to the rain and mosquitoes, the cats have been using the window as the means to go in and out on the back terrace. Only Smokey tended to stay outside, but finally she caught on and now she lets herself in and out at whim too.

Maya can't keep track of the cats as much as she'd like - she races through the house and up and down the stairs and watches everyone like a hawk, but the other cats have started retaliating to her heavy rule and she is no longer the queen. The other evening Smokey had Maya crouched under the desk, and then she pounced on top of her - even though Smokey was just playing, it made Maya cry and run away. Maya is only a bully when she can get another cat trying to get away from her. When a cat stands strong, Maya backs away. So although there is always at least one cat spat a day, there are fewer than in the past. I figure they will have to work it out, I'm not going to separate them because they can't get along. The house is big enough for everyone, and generally they all have their favorite spots. But the weather changes that, they are tropical cats and they get cold.

Right now Maya is curled up at Miguel's feet on the couch. Smokey is in the camp chair by the tv, a chair that first was favored by Minina and then Cappuchina - now it's Smokey's spot. Minina likes to lie alongside me, and Cappuchina likes to lie on top of me, and when I won't allow it, she finds another place - like the desk chair. And Loco is either lying along the side of the couch or under the bed, depending on whether we have thunder or not. Blacky is over with her other family, otherwise she'd be stealing any piece of cloth left on the front terrace - she likes to make pillows.

We have some new residents: Tigressa - a tiger-striped female who pretty much hangs out on the front terrace but follows us down the road when we take Loco out to the bathroom. Tigressa walks right in my feet, she has tripped me more than once. And she has a voice - she thinks she should be fed as soon as we open the door in the morning, and any time she hears food hitting the dishes in the kitchen. Tigressa isn't fussy about where she sleeps, as long as it's on the front terrace somewhere...

 

Tigressa actually thinks she belongs inside like the other cats, and she is quick to walk in when we open the door if we don't get our feet in her way. Tigressa in the house would cause a riot as the other cats hate her (other than Cappuchina, who doesn't mind any other cats who lurk around). We had someone come to the house a couple of weeks ago, and luckily our cats followed us upstairs when we went up to show them the terraces, because when we came back down, Tigressa had pulled open the front screen door and had tucked herself into the far corner of the sofa bench, snuggled on a blanket. She knew she was wrong though, because when we finally spotted her she tried to duck her head, as if she wasn't there. The other cats were still enjoying exploring the spare bedroom upstairs, so we were able to get Tigressa out before we had a war on our hands.

I think Tigressa was abused with her previous owner because she winces when we try to pat her on the head. She likes being touched in other areas but always closes her eyes and ducks when we get near her head, although she is getting much better so I think she has learned that we are not going to hit her. Makes you wonder what animals endure in their little lives, and we're happy to give her a safe, happy home.

There is a black and white male cat who has also sort of moved to the front terrace, although, unlike Tigressa, he spends part of his time out in the jungle. But he shows up for almost every meal - Tigressa gives it away with her howling at the door, so now he officially has a dish of his own. He will not allow us to touch him, he maintains his distance even though he joins in the howling at the door. And he gobbles down his food and then steals Tigressa's food when she isn't looking, but she doesn't seem to mind. We need to trap him though, and get him neutered.


Finally, there is Rabana (Radish - don't ask why - the name is my misuse of another Spanish word and the name stuck) and her boyfriend/brother/friend (we really don't know the relationship). Rabana showed up as a kitten, she had a sibling that disappeared within days of the first day I saw them. She is a small cat but has already had one litter. I wasn't sure if she would survive delivering kittens, or if the kittens would survive, but she raised two babies to a nice size, and then she went into heat again and the kittens disappeared. Not sure if the males who showed up to court Rabana chased them off or what happened because Rabana was an attentive mom and she liked to play with her babies. The last time we saw her with both her babies they were across the road, and then one baby was gone and a few days later the second one was gone. Hard to know what happens out there - dogs, poison, cars, or the kittens might just have wandered off and gotten lost. But because Rabana was pregnant and then nursing, we started putting some food for her across the street.

Rabana quickly learned the sound of the dogs being fed, and figured out that also meant some canned food was going into the dish, so she got braver and braver and patiently waited on the front entrance steps for me to throw her a small blob of food. She would grab the food and run under the gate and out to eat it up.

Rabana is pregnant again, and she has been here long enough now that she joins in with Tigressa and the black/white cat when they cry to be fed. So now when we open the door in the morning there are three sets of eyes eagerly hoping we have food, and we are greeted with a morning song. We still put food across the street for Rabana, because she has a side-kick - a cat that is probably her sibling, and he has suffered a broken leg so is a little handicapped. She allows him to eat with her, but when she was in heat he did not mate with her although he lurked in the background when her other suitors were around. Now that she is no longer in heat the other males have moved on, but the grey cat is still here, and the other morning, after our weekend of wind and rain, it was such a cute sight to see the two cats snuggled on the front seat of the golf cart.

Oh yes - the wind and rain - it was pretty bad, but Loco, who hates thunder and water, insisted on making rounds with us. Luckily, he has a raincoat - in fact, it's better than the ponchos that Miguel and I use. Here we are on our way to check on the houses after the storm...

Miguel's foot, Loco, Sue's foot

Eating like kings

In this very low of low seasons, with rentals almost non-existent and not enough income to cover expenses, we are eating at home. Which is not a bad thing at all, in fact, it would be fine if we did it all the time - except some days I'm just too beat to cook. If I lived alone it would be fine to open a can of beans or slap together some peanut butter and jam, but Miguel needs something with a little more nutrition than that. So to prevent boredom with eating the same old things, I have been preparing some different meals - mostly successful, but still the odd dud.

Good meals: roasted chicken w/fixings, lasagna (ground my own beef), submarine sandwiches, chicken/vegetable soup, chicken parmesan w/spaghetti (homemade sauce). I've made several loaves of bread, and a couple of batches of bruschetta bread with the day-old bread. Yesterday our neighbor brought us a container of arroz con leche (a great cool-weather drink). For breakfast we've made chilaquilles, Mexican style eggs w/tortillas and bacon, and enjoyed some things bought from Juan - tamales and chili rellenos. For a snack Miguel fried leftover corn tortillas and made some red and green chili sauces, which we ate with the fried tortillas. Yum!

To prepare the delicious meals, I can buy almost everything at various stores here. One tiny pasta we love in the soups I make cannot be found here, so for that I look forward to the Chedraui they are quickly building over on Devil's Curve (by the ball park). I also look forward to buying monterey jack jalapeno cheese, cheddar cheese, sweet pickles, and other things I can't remember right now. But as nice as it will be to have a store here that carries the things I use in cooking, I'm afraid of what it will do to so many of the small stores that people run out of the front of their homes. Not my call, I can only watch the fall-out. I know I'll still be running around the corner at least once a day for the little things we need. And the local market will probably always be a daily stop for fruit and veggies, and fresh chicken.

Now for the duds I've prepared in the last few weeks...

Egg bread - dry as can be with little flavor. Not sure what happened as usually the breads I make taste great. The only thing I did that I've never done is I tried to help the machine pull in all the flour rather than let it work on its own. Used that bread tonight to make salami sandwiches - bleh, good thing the soup was yummy.

Moroccan chicken - too much lime! It called for lemon juice, so I put the same amount of lime juice. It was edible, so I used the leftover pieces in the soup I made a couple of days later. Ewww...we ate it just because we were hungry, but I finally threw the rest out - overwhelming lime taste. Much prefer the soup I usually make.

Plain breaded chicken fingers - no flavor, I should have stuck with my breading for chicken parm.

Potato and macaroni salads - usually something I do well. They were just horrible - maybe it was the mayonnaise. I missed the sweet pickle taste in the potato salad, but I'm not sure that would have helped anyway - the potatoes just didn't have a good taste.

We have been invited to share several meals with friends lately - Bastos, Ballyhoo, and one meal in the home of our friends which was best of all (baked ziti, garlic bread, salad - yum yum). On the recommendation of one of our friends, we tried the crispy chicken up on the boulevard in La Gloria - wow, just like KFC crispy battered chicken, served with very generous helpings of fries and Chinese fried rice. For 35 pesos? Don't know how they do it.

So many meals we have at home are made with very little cost. If we spend more than 200 pesos for both of us on a meal out, we almost always wish we'd just stayed home and cooked. We both grew up learning from great cooks in the family so it's hard to really impress us - but there are a few things we don't prepare at home that we love to order when we eat out: crepes, omelettes, pollo asado, ke-bobs, fish (Miguel), chicken a la Veracruzana, flautas, pizza. But until we hit high season again, we'll be eating most meals at home, and not complaining - it's nutrition at its finest (don't pay attention to the fact it's fried - it tastes great!).

Wow, a post two days in a row!

It would have been a lovely day except for the sanding and other noise from the boat yard neighbor. They worked until 10 pm last night and I was hopeful they would take today off, but no - Sunday apparently isn't important as a day of rest to my neighbor (religious or non-religious, I still believe that Sunday should be a day for families to enjoy spending time together). I was busy enough with my own tasks that it didn't really bug me until around 1 pm, when I was ready for a shift in the hammock after washing down all the terraces, scrubbing the pool, and washing the downstairs floors. So I ate some soup, gave Loco a bath and then took my own bath, which lately calls for a wrap in my beach towel and a doze in the hammock by the pool afterwards. Due to the noise I did not fall asleep, but I did rest for a while, and then I was hungry.

I changed my mind about what I was going to eat - I really wanted spaghetti but was too lazy to cook, so I took Miguel's hammock to the laundromat. I just discovered that our laundromat does hammocks - I am anxious to see how it comes out as my method of soaking and then washing in the bathtub just doesn't quite get it clean enough (Blacky likes to run her back on it and it is quite soiled where she rubs, and it is a little smelly too). If Miguel's hammock comes out nice, I will take mine in to get freshened up - Tigressa figured out a way to curl up in it when it was folded up and hanging by the window - I have a picture but it's on the camera that went to Oaxaca with Miguel. We love to spend time in the hammocks after breakfast, it is breezy and cool out on that front terrace. Nice, clean hammocks will be a treat.

I decided to take a drive over to the crispy fried chicken take-out place that I learned about last week. It was open! They were waiting for a new pan of rice and some breasts - 10 minutes, they said. So I paid and took a short drive along the coast to kill time. When I got back the woman apologized because she'd given my breast away - a frequent customer had come in and wanted a whole chicken, but she wanted four breasts, one of which was mine. So I had to wait another five minutes, but no big deal - I said to the woman that I didn't think four breasts made a whole chicken, and she laughed and said - it was "un pollo extraordinario" - an extraordinary chicken.

35 pesos bought a large crispy fried breast with wing, fries, and a very generous helping of Chinese fried rice that I absolutely love. It reminds me of KFC chicken, with Burger King fries - not sure how the rice comes in there but I'm glad it does, it somehow makes the meal feel a little more wholesome. They do a booming business with the locals - I really don't know how they do it for that price.

Since eating I have been wasting time doing nothing much, just this and that on the computer. I seem to be stalling on coding the new website, must be because I still don't have it all laid out yet in my head. Time for pen and paper to draw it out, I've learned that as eager as I am to start coding to see the site come to life, I need to start at the drawing board so I have a clear idea of what will go where (not that it doesn't change once I get into it, but since I'm the programmer as well as the customer, I can have as much scope creep as I like).

And yes, the boat guys are still at it - talking, hammering, banging around - and I am so glad we have closed the B&B so I don't have to worry about new guests being disturbed. The boat is almost done, and it's beautiful, but I'm sure another one will come in to take its place once it leaves - that has been the pattern, unfortunately. It's a shame, this used to be a very peaceful street.

Oh, THAT Mirtita's

Today was one of those days that should have gone perfectly smoothly - it was all organized. Only one rental property to worry about as two of the others are owner-occupied right now, and two others are empty. I should have been home by 11 am wondering what to do with my day.

The carpenter said he would be here at 8 am - he's made a new set of feet for a corner shelf unit. Termites ate the first ones, and I am still in the process of treating the wall behind the unit to stop the critters from coming back. We are in a fight to the death - as soon as I see a new trail starting out of one of the four holes they made in the concrete wall, I scrape it down, stick the edge of the scraper in the hole to loosen it up, and give it a squirt of high-power Raid. I really hate using this stuff as I fear for our health, but there's nothing else to do if I want to keep that piece of furniture. The corner unit has been living on the back terrace all week, waiting for new feet and a coat of poison to ruin the taste of the wood (and hopefully kill any termites who dare try to eat it).

Knowing that toxic fumes might be flying around, I closed all the cats off from the downstairs, and left Loco out on the front terrace. At 8:30 I heard "Buenos" outside the gate, meaning the carpenter had arrived. Of course the first thing he asked for was a saw, which Miguel has but not here at this house - who knows where he's left it, probably at the last place he did some work that required a saw. For this reason I have hidden my own screwdriver set and tape measure - two items I am always looking for and can never find, even though Miguel probably has 50 screwdrivers and who knows how many tape measures. Unfortunately I cannot hide a ladder - so I cannot clean the downstairs fans because the ladder I need is never here - it's probably tucked into a shed at one of the houses he manages, whichever one he worked at last. I finally bought a short one (2 steps), just high enough that I can reach the ceiling fans upstairs. Can't believe Miguel had the nerve to suggest borrowing that ladder to take over to the studio apartment so guests could use it (to reach the dvd player he put up way too high, where nobody can reach it to play a dvd...sigh). I put my foot down and refused - told him to lower the dvd player, the way it used to be in the first place. My ladder and tools stay with me or I'll never see them again.

Anyway...the carpenter made do with a chisel and hammer, so it was noisy around here but in the end the new feet look great. We decided to leave the unit outside for the rest of the day, I wanted to make sure it wouldn't cause any harm should the cats decide to check it out - something they always do when something is different in the house. While he was here I had him measure a poster I had printed - I want him to make me a frame. And we had a couple of other houses to visit so he could measure for new screen doors.

Shortly after 10 I was done with the carpenter but then had to go to the condo unit that had a check-out/check-in - I had some supplies for the cleaning lady. I got there about 10:30, the guests were still there, so we chatted a bit. They informed me that the next guest had come to the condo the evening before and asked for a key for today. What?! Why would a guest do that and why would the other guests comply? There are procedures for guests to get the key - from security - when they check-in. So the system failed.

Ok, so the cleaning lady was there, she had what she needed, the new guests were out there somewhere with a key, and the old guests were all set to leave. I took the empty bottle of water and planned to go back later to pick up the laundry. No sooner did I get to the bank when my phone rang - it was the security guard asking me to come back as the new guests had arrived and were asking about a golf cart key (that I knew nothing about). So back I went, and after much confusion (yes, there is a shared golf cart but nobody left a key and nobody said anything about these guests having permission to use the cart), I was handed a key from the office with instructions to tell the guests to return the key before noon tomorrow. But when I got back to the golf cart, there was no sign of the new guests - they'd headed back to their hotel to prepare for check-out there. Nothing to do but go over and try to find them, and I got lucky as they were heading just inside the gate when I got there. They hopped back on the cart, I took them back to the condo, and headed home for breakfast (although it was now noon, so not sure I can really call it that).

Much as I wanted a bath and nap after I ate, I had to go back into town to buy water and a pump and drop it off at the condo. As I was parked in front of Mirtita's grocery store, I got a call from the a/c repair guy whom I'd called earlier to go out to one of the other homes to check out an a/c problem. I became the go-between as the owners don't speak Spanish and he doesn't speak English. He said he needed to put gas into the a/c, so I asked if he needed money to buy the gas (knowing the answer would be 'yes'). He said he was in centro, so since I was there too, rather than have him go all the way to the other end of the island for money, I said I would give him the money and would later collect from the owners. We agreed he would meet me at Mirtita's - he was very close, he said.

I sat and waited for about 10 minutes, feeling uncomfortable because I was not parked in a legal parking spot. No sign of Julio, so I called him again - he still said he was close, to wait for him. I gave him a few more minutes and decided to leave for the condo, and of course he called just seconds after I'd given up my illegal parking spot. I told him where I was going and he said he would meet me there.

Well, I did what I had to do and Julio was not there so I called and said I was leaving and again asked where he was. He said he was waiting for me at Mirtita's. Lucky for him - just as I was about to turn left onto the street leading to Mirtita's, I spotted Julio standing by the curb at the ferry. Hmmm...not exactly Mirtita's to me, lucky I knew what he looked like. So I gave him the money and he said he would call me later so I could translate what he'd done and the cost. It was only as I was driving away and wondering why he was standing there that I realized - he thought I was talking about Mirtita's BAR, and he had been there waiting for me all along while I was sitting and waiting for him around the corner at Mirtitia's STORE. Never the twain would meet except for the cell phone.

When the carpenter came in the morning I was dressed in old clothes, so when we went out I changed into one of Miguel's tshirts sitting in the clothes basket - I was too lazy to run upstairs for my own shirt. I didn't really think anyone was going to see me in that shirt, I thought I was making a quick trip into town and then back home - turns out the whole island saw me as I must have driven through town at least 5 times today. Lucky it was clean and sort of fit me. 

I finally got my bath at 3 pm, and a short nap in the hammock upstairs. Then I made my special soup and ate it with a salami sandwich. At 5 I took Loco for his golf cart tour, dropped off some soup for one of the homeowners, and looked for the carpenter to pay him for today (he wasn't home). I decided to drop Loco back home and go to the supermarket for dog food, and then fill up the gas tank and try the carpenter one more time. I got lucky - the gas tank was almost empty, and the carpenter was home. Now I'm home, it's 7:30, and after I publish this blog I'm going to make some coffee and start coding a new website. I hope nobody else calls or has issues, and tomorrow is Sunday - I might actually get something more done around here.