I'm back - in the groove...

Haven’t posted here for a week, in large part because I had a stomach bug that knocked me down this past week right after my birthday. Had to stay close to a bathroom, not much fun, but I’m recovered, and will try to make it up to those of you who have been following this, and been disappointed by the lack of posts.

I’ll start with today, and go backwards in time or ..... Got up this morning at 4:40 AM to get ready to join my fellow Rotarians and others at 6 at the airstrip, to walk from there to Placencia point to raise money for Rotary’s effort to eradicate polio from the planet. The decision was to start at 6 to avoid the heat of the day, and because many people are up by then. I’m usually awake by 6, but still in bed. I’m not usually awake, and certainly not out of bed at 4:40.

Speaking of my Rotary club, the fabulous online raffle for the two week, all expense paid trip to Belize is still going on. Originally they/we planned to sell 1000 tickets @ $50 ea. At this point they have sold less than 200, which is the break even point, and I know they won’t try for 1000. That means your chance of winning is greatly enhanced! Check it out at www.rotaryclubofplacencia.org!

But I digress…the goal was to raise $1000, and all the Rotary clubs in our district, which includes Belize, Guatemala and Honduras, were also walking to raise that minimum today as well. Our sponsor, the Turtle Inn, donated $1000, because it’s owner, the director Francis Ford Coppola, is a polio survivor. Here’s a photo of the entrance:



I, and other members, didn’t think the publicity was very good, so weren’t expecting many more than our dozen or so members. We were wrong – there were nearly 70 people, out for a walk at 6 AM! I walked with a fellow Rotarian (Bob) I recently sold a MagicJack to, and since there was a sign at the entrance, I asked him about the village cemetery that Rotary had cleaned up. Here’s a picture:



And another:














It looks much better than it used to, but is no Evergreen Cemetery! Bob told me he had helped bury two people there in the 5 years he has lived here. They were sub-surface burials in wooden coffins, which presented problems. They bury folks 4 feet deep, it really isn’t possible to go deeper because the water table is at two feet, and because the soil is sand, they have to use plywood to keep the sides from caving in. Then the coffins float, so they pile sand on them until they sink and they can fill in the holes. That’s why some folks are in above ground concrete coffins. And as you can see, there’s no problem with mowing!

Yesterday, Carlos, Bradley’s highly skilled foreman, came by the house to do some minor projects, since Placencia Properties is between jobs.

He installed the boards above the windows in my bedroom so I can mount the curtains Patti sent down with me. As much as I want to, I’m going hold off until the road out front is paved. Otherwise they will be embedded with a fine brown dust. The good news is that paving in the road project is getting closer and closer, and we may be paved within the next 10 days. He also drilled holes in the concrete walls so I could hang pictures. At any rate, he said I could scrounge their waste pile of wood (which is primarily mahogany!) for material to support my weather monitoring system. Don’t know if I’ve written about it here before, but here is a photo, with the village of Seine Bight in the background.

This rig measures:
Wind speed – 11.2 knots
Wind direction - ENE
Barometric pressure - 30.10 and falling
Temperature (indoor & outdoor) – 83.1 F & 81.1 F
Relative humidity indoors – 72%
Relative Humidity outdoors– 80%
Dew point – 74.4
Wind chill – 78.1
24 hr rain - .04 in.
1 hr rain – 0.00 in.
total rain – 2.01 in.

It’ll also tell me maximums and minimums, and has an alarm function. I had to reinforce it because the other night the wind was so strong it blew it over. There is a steady wind from the east of 10 to 15 knots most of the time, but one night it got much stronger when a front passed through. Right now it just reports all that stuff on a device here on my desk, but in time I’ll get it hooked up to my old laptop, and the internet, so you can see what the weather is here, and perhaps will be encouraged to enter that Rotary raffle mentioned above!

When I headed up to the roof to work on it, I startled an iguana by my back door, and she startled me as well. She took off into the vine, and after watching for a minute or two, I resumed climbing the stairs, only to be startled by another, larger one at the upper stair level. She leaped into the tree, which caused two others in the tree to scurry down. So now I know there are at least four, and I don’t think I’ll be quite as casual about leaving my back door open as I have been. At least they’re herbivores, but I wish they didn’t prefer the stair landings as their bathrooms!

In addition to selling my first MagicJack, I also sold my first photos last weekend. In this case it was photos of a building that Bradley (actually Carlos) built, and the owner wanted good photos to take to the bank to show what they had done, and to get a line of credit extended. Here’s one of the photos:


See more about this place at www.palmettobayresort.com. If you click this link, then click “palmetto bay”, and then click “resort”, it is the central building (#6), but the view from the road instead of the beach.

The owner, Carlton, who is a former stunt man (his specialty was falling out of buildings), as well as many other things, is from Vancouver, and is in Edmonton, Alberta, where he is sharing a booth with Bradley (Century 21) at a consumer Recreational Facilty Show. There are lots of Canadians here, and lots from Edmonton area. We’re hoping the trip generates good leads.


I was going to include in this post a description of the local cable TV offerings, and my other video entertainment, but I think I’ll save it for another post.