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29 September, 2007

Today Was Sort Of The Day, But Not Really

This morning, I again get to the property bright and early... A little after 7:30AM a worker shows up, and promptly mixes up some mortar and begins finishing the parging of the septic tank.
Starting the Morning's Work
He works on it for a while, but it's apparent to me that nothing is going to happen with the well house, as far as removing the rest of the forms or finishing the hatch.

I had to make a run to get gas from my "contact" and to the airstrip to send some papers to our financial advisor via FedEx.

At the airstrip, I got the papers on their way, but the person working the counter wearing a Tropic Air polo shirt told me it wouldn't go out till Monday, as FedEx doesn't work on Saturdays or Sundays - even though he's doing the FedEx stuff for me. Not a problem. It apparently will get to Olympia on Wednesday or Thursday, so that's fine with me.

I got back to the site in time to catch the final finishing of the septic tank, and mentioned I wanted to meet with Isidoro. "Oh, he was just here, but he had to go get blocks for some of his other guys for another project", he said as he's putting his trowels into his knapsack.
Final Finishing Touches
It's apparent nothing else is getting done today. After all, it's Belize, Mon. I asked him to have Isidoro give me a call when he has a chance.

Shortly before I left the site, Dianna called and told me the "current" was out again. We'd lost water again earlier in the morning, now the current. I knew Dianna had bought a fair bit of food in anticipation of Elsie (our previous house guest) coming back into town this afternoon, and I knew she was worried that it might go bad.

A couple of days before, I had bought a commercial grade generator from National Hardware, and had left it in the box, just storing it in the meat house with the other stuff.
My New 56kW Generator
On the way home, I stopped and asked Cody and Anthony if they could come over in a bit and help me unpack the generator and get it set up. About a half hour later, they showed up and in about another half hour we had it fired up and running. Cody came up with a really long extension cord, which I connected to the fridge and we left the generator running. Loud but running.

Later in the afternoon, Isidoro stopped by and I got the rest of the story... He didn't want to remove the forms until Friday to give the roof plenty of time to dry and set properly. Ok, that made sense. It would have been nice to have known that a few days ago, but I can live with it.

He's also going to give me an estimate on building a fence around the property. We talked about the type of job I expected, other fences he had worked on, etc.

So, it looks like the project will really finish on Friday, now. Till it changes again.

After that, still without power or water, about 2:30PM, Elsie called from the Corozal Bus Terminal - she was back. And about that same time we had gotten power restored, so Dianna wanted to stay home to add the rest of the ingredients to her stew.

I jumped in the Isuzu and went downtown to the bus station and picked up Elsie. As I pulled up and jumped out, I grabbed the camera and snapped a picture of her just as she was coming out of the station.
Welcome Back Elsie
We got back to the house in a few minutes, and relaxed on the porch having a beer and bringing the three of us up on all that had happened since she left in July. Then we went for dinner at Patty's Bistro Restaurant in Corozal.

Finally, we have both water and electricity - for now. All things considered, it's just another normal Saturday here in paradise.

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