Pandora Only Partly Sucks

Well, you know we were all pumped up about Pandora and the fact that we could set up what is essentially a personalized radio station with songs/artists, etc., that meant something to us and our Belizean experience.

That's true. We did that - it's Winjama Radio, which you can find in the right-hand margin. What sucks is this next bit.

Richard forwarded me the following message:

Dear Pandora Visitor,

We are deeply, deeply sorry to say that due to licensing constraints, we can no longer allow access to Pandora for listeners located outside of the U.S. We will continue to work diligently to realize the vision of a truly global Pandora, but for the time being we are required to restrict its use. We are very sad to have to do this, but there is no other alternative.

We believe that you are in Belize (your IP address appears to be 200.32.xxx.xx). If you believe we have made a mistake, we apologize and ask that you please contact us at pandora-support@pandora.com

If you are a paid subscriber, please contact us at pandora-support@pandora.com and we will issue a pro-rated refund to the credit card you used to sign up. If you have been using Pandora, we will keep a record of your existing stations and bookmarked artists and songs, so that when we are able to launch in your country, they will be waiting for you.

We will be notifying listeners as licensing agreements are established in individual countries. If you would like to be notified by email when Pandora is available in your country, please enter your email address below. The pace of global licensing is hard to predict, but we have the ultimate goal of being able to offer our service everywhere.

We share your disappointment and greatly appreciate your understanding.

Sincerely,
Tim Westergen

Tim Westergren
Founder

P.S. For more information, please see our Frequently Asked Questions on the topic.

Now, that sucks... big time! I can't help but smell RIAA all over that. What possible difference could it make if someone listening to Pandora is in Belize or Kokomo, Indiana, or heaven forbid - Timbuktu?

If your ISP is in Belize, you have my apologies. You'll probably get a similar or the same letter. I probably will too - eventually.

At least Pandora is willing to refund money if someone paid for a subscription. That's something. Damn little, but something.

Or You Can Listen To Winjama Radio

First, there was "Browse wi Winjama's Vibes." This was from iLike.com (http://www.ilike.com) and was kinda cool. It allowed you to play a few songs I had selected that seemed to express our experience here in Belize - more or less, as much as any list could.

Well, now there's a link in the sidebar for Winjama Radio. This is from Pandora (http://www.pandora.com) and is just so much better to my thinking. Instead of a few songs, Pandora allows you to choose genra's and artists. Not only that, Pandora allows you to do thumbs up/down on individual songs and will tailor a playlist accordingly.

I think it's really the way to go for Internet radio. I used to listen to live365.com (http://live365.com) for years. It was pretty cool, but with this flowing ability to choose and mold your listening experience, I think Pandora is just way cool!

Give Winjama Radio a listen and see what you think. If you don't like it (or even if you do), you can create your own radio station and share it for others to listen to.

Update on Guest House

Well, I wish I could say that the guest house is moving right along. It's not. I could lay the blame on the economy - that's certainly an issue, but honestly, it hasn't been enough of an issue to affect us to such a degree.

What did happen was we ran into some tax problems with the IRS. We had made early withdrawal of a couple of IRAs. Of course, being the financial wizards that we are, we miscalculated the attendant taxes and penalties. And, of course, Uncle Sam wants his as soon as possible.

So, we've regrouped, and slowed the construction in order to pay the extra penalties. Sometime after July we should be more or less back on track. We are looking forward to getting the guest house finished this year anyway (sound of fingers crossing).

With this slow-down, we'll be right in keeping with construction techniques here in Belize - unfinished buildings. This is just one more, except, we can use ours.

Dianna Enjoying the Guest House

Dave Doing the Same

As you can see, we're using the guest house, right now, as a palapa for the pool. Better than nothing. Plus, it gets us into it more often (every day) to visualize the interior finishing of the place. And, as you can tell, the view of the pool is simply beyond compare. BTW, we're in the pool every day now - several times a day too. The pool temperature is staying pretty constant. 90° - 93° (f) without the solar cover at night, and 94° - 96° (f) with it in place. If there's no breeze, it's getting hard to tell when you've actually gotten into the water, well, sorta anyway.

So, to sum it all up... We've slowed down on the construction, but things will move ahead sooner or later (hopefully sooner). We're more than happy with the progress we've made so far, and this is really the last major bit of the whole project. Much better to slow down now than at the beginning!

We're happy, we're healthy, we're not broke or bankrupt - just cautiously optimistic now, and moving slowly toward completion.

Some Cool Links - Gone - Not Cool

My apologies to those of you following Blogs or other Websites through my list of "Some Cool Links." It disappeared. I thought I had a backup (really, honest, I did do a backup), because I had been experimenting with a possible template change. But that backup was only partial. It didn't list the contents of some of my addons - and Cool Links was one of those addons.

I've learned my lesson. I'll do a weekly full backup, so those sorts of issues shouldn't cause but momentary panic with the Winjama IT staff (that's me, BTW).

I did manage to retrieve two links that I had been following on my own. So, there's at least a start. If any of you just happen to have a list you might have printed or saved of the Cool Links, I'd appreciate it if you'd send it my way, or even if you can describe one of the sites that was in Cool Links, that'd help.

Oh Myyy Gawd!!!

Now, here's something you don't see every day. This is a big bug. Certainly not the biggest, but still, BIG.

The past few days we've noticed some pencil-diameter holes (about 3 or 4) appearing in our porch railing woodwork. We didn't have a clue what was causing it.

In any case, I took my trusty spray can of Baygone (or Begone, as we call it) and attached a thin plastic tube, much like you'd do with a can of WD-40 that comes with the thin red tube for precision applications, and stuck it into the holes. Gently pressing the button, I'd get a small cloud of powdered wood dust, then I'd fill the hole with Begone, let it dry, then patch the hole with Plastic Wood, since we will be painting the railing anyway in a couple of weeks.

I assumed it was either a termite or some wood-boring bug. Bug was right. Beyond my wildest expectations.

This afternoon, after Dianna and I got done with our obligatory dip in the pool for a couple of hours, as we were coming back up the stairs to the porch, I noticed a couple of new holes, which I began looking at closely. One of them looked like there was something still inside it. So, being the manly man that I am, I grabbed my trusty pen knife and jabbed gently into the hole. All of a sudden something started moving in there. It looked like an arm or leg or something was wiggling. i really expected it to be a small worm or beetle. But, all of a sudden, out comes this thing.

One Big-Ass Wood-Eating Bug

As he started coming out, I expected maybe even a small spider. This guy, once he started coming out, kept coming, and coming, and coming. He's dusty gray in color, about an inch long, and with feelers easily two-inches long.

Wow! Surprised the sh** right out of me. Of course he fell down between the wall and the stairs, so I had to run downstairs to try to locate him on the ground. I hollared for Dianna to find some sort of jar for me to capture him in, which she did.

I promptly took a couple of pictures of him. I have no idea what he is. Anyone that does, I'd appreciate it if you'd comment on this posting and let all of us know what he is - or what you think he is.

Another View Without the Thumb for Scale

As Dianna said, "That is one ugly bug!" And big too!

Internet Explorer Problems?

Apparently Internet Explorer (IE) has a problem with Google's Blogger and add-ons (such as the menu widget for the labels, the movie add-on, the pictures add-on, the music add-on, etc., etc., etc.

Microsoft Internet Explorer Logo

I knew there was a reason I started using Firefox! If you are one of those folks using IE and you get an error message essentially like this:

Internet Explorer cannot open the Internet site
http://winjama.blogspot.com.
Operation aborted

Don't worry, I'm working on it. A friend of mine, Scott, whom I met when he and his dad, Mack, visited us here in Corozal, gave me a temporary fix as well as some links to info on rearranging my code so the problem goes away.

Scott said, "Microsoft is notorious for providing error messages that mean nothing but I think I’ve figured it out anyway. It appears IE has a specific problem parsing the page when add-on’s are enabled."

"A temporary solution to this issue is to ask the affected users (in Internet Explorer) to:

Go to Tools->Manage Add-Ons, and disable the Windows Messenger addon."

That should be the short-term fix. Longer term is going to require me to move some of my code around so IE thinks that everything is ok. That may take a few days as I try to squeeze it in between swimming, the odd Belikin, walking the dogs, and 3-hour breakfasts, etc.

I appologize for any problems this all may have caused any of you who use IE. I'd like to recommend switching to Firefox - but, I won't do that.

Have you considered switching to Firefox?...

I'll make another post when I think I've got the problem solved.

On another note, from what I've been reading today, IE8, when it comes out for mass consumption, may solve the problem by itself, as in it will deal with the problem the way other browsers deal with it by allowing the code to display as it wants to. We'll see. I'm going to work on changing the code just in case.

Cheers,
Dave

New Furniture and Hot Peppers

The other day, I talked about our new furniture and included a picture of the clothes storage thingie. Well, here's the matching nightstands all properly arranged to go along with it.

 Matching Nightstands

If you're wondering about the mosquito netting - it's not for mosquitoes. We have very few of those (knock on wood), but it does serve a dual purpose. 1) It keeps the cats off the bed, so they have to find someplace else to lounge during the day, and 2) It keeps gecko poop off the bed. Yes, we have geckos and they have the run of the house. They work diligently to keep the bug population down in the house (including mosquitoes). But you know the old saw about what goes in, comes out. They must eat a lot of bugs... There are people down here who try to fight the geckos to keep them out of their houses, but it's a losing battle. Let 'em do their thing. It's a mutually beneficial arrangement. Cleaning up little gecko poopies is a minor thing. Besides, geckos are quite entertaining too.

Our pepper crop is growing like gang-busters. We always said these things looked like miniature Christmas trees. Little did we know, that's what they're called - Christmas Peppers (Capsicum Anniuum). And, are they hot! Even though they're called Christmas Peppers, they seem to grow peppers for most of the year. They just make little multi-colored peppers that look like ornaments on a Christmas tree.

I've been thinking about trying to make a batch of "Winjama Salsa." I've found a nice recipe on the World Wide Intertubes that I thought I'd give a try and see how it comes out. I'll let you know. It'll be me trying it out as Dianna, being the good German that she is, doesn't go for even the hint of anything hot.

Christmas Peppers

Neither Rain nor Sleet... yadda, yadda, yadda

William Kendall borrowed from Herodotus to come up with the motto for the US Post Office. Here's Herodotus' bit:

"It is said that as many days as there are in the whole journey, so many are the men and horses that stand along the road, each horse and man at the interval of a day's journey. These are stopped neither by snow nor rain nor heat nor darkness from accomplishing their appointed course with all speed."

- Herodotus, 500 BCE

And then, William Kendall's Take:

"Neither rain nor hail nor sleet nor snow nor heat of day nor dark of night shall keep this carrier from the swift completion of his appointed rounds."

- William Kendall, 1876

I don't know about the late 1800's or the mid 500's, but our mail is better traveled than we are. We used to worry about the mail service in a third world country being somewhat unreliable. Boy, were we wrong! It's not the third world mail services, in this case, the Belize Mail Service, it's the good old US Postal Service.

The mail that has gone awry has been plainly addressed to us:

David (and/or Dianna) Rider
P.O. Box 254
1008 Ferry Road
Corozal, Belize Central America

It don't git no plainer than that. Of course, we don't have a zip or other postal code. That could be what's screwing up the postal authorities up north (maybe it's the cold weather).

So far, we've had mail go to Brazil. That's in South America (in case any of you work for the USPS. But it's the east coast of the continent. They probably didn't have to fly near Belize to get it there. Now, we're willing to give a little slack on this one - Brazil... Belize... the names are close, so maybe the envelope got tossed into the Brazil bin by mistake when they were shooting for the Belize bin.

Next, we had mail go to Angola. That's a stretch. Across the Atlantic and in sub-Saharan Africa. Whew!

And now, the latest. This morning we got our savings and checking statements from our bank (two separate envelopes), sent back to us from Ecuador! Come on. That's on the west coast in South America. They had to fly or drive right past us to deliver it there. Ben Franklin is probably turning over in his grave.

The Belize Post Office didn't send these pieces to these far-off lands, the US Postal Service did. At least, to the credit of the Brazilian, Angolan, and Ecuadorian postal authorities, they could at least read the address and get it sent to the correct location. And the Belize Postal Office actually got it to our post box.

And they call this the third world!

New Stuff On the Blog

These are some new things I've added to the blog Let me know if you like them, or not. If you don't like an item, let me know what is causing the problem for you.

A Directory - Hey, are you looking for something we may have written about in the past? I used to have a list of "labels" or topics in the right-hand column, but it got to be too long to be usable. So, what to do? Well, I found a widget that I could modify and works as a drop-down menu. Look down the right-hand column to the end of the list for "Looking For A Previous Topic?" Click on it and you can scroll down to find the topic you're interested in.

A Bunch of Photos - The Flickr Collection allows you to access all of the photos we've posted on the blog. Simply click on the (admittedly small) thumbnail image that you might be interested in and it should take to directly to the full-sized photo.

Some Tunes - This one isn't real new, but I thought it might be fun. Some folks click on a song and the widget cycles through all the songs while they surf the blog. Kind of a neat feature.

Lotsa Flags - A modification of the usual counter. This lets you know where folks visiting the blog are from. Kinda cool.

A Video - Down at the bottom of the blog - The latest video from the Belize Tourism Board. This lets you know why we're here. Our house doesn't have a beach, but we're within a 17-minute plane flight from San Pedro or a 25-minute flight to Placencia and other southern locations all in Belize. We do have palm trees, parrots, and tons of other birds, etc., etc.

Is It Any Wonder Why We Live Here?

To see an answer to that question, simply click on your right-hand scroll button and drag it all the way down to the bottom - as far as you can. There you will see the latest promotional video about Belize "Be One With Belize" from the Belize Tourism Board (BTB). You'll see a picture of jungle where you can click on the white, right pointing arrow in the middle of the picture to play the video. It's a Flash movie link.

New Clothes Storage Thingie

Today was a nice day. We took delivery of a nice, custom made clothes storage item. Neither Dianna nor I could figure out exactly what it would be called - clothes shelves, armoir (of some sort), or...).

Anyway, we had this made along with a matching set of nightstands for the bed by Guillermo Magaña (the New Millenium Furniture Shop, Ranchito Village, 422-2552 or 624-3039), a noted cabinet maker here in Corozal. It's all made out of cedar, which, by the way, is way different than cedar that we knew up in the Northwest. We had the louvers spaced wider than usual to help with air circulation.

Armoir Showing the Inside

Showing the Outside

The upper center door with the mirror has no shelves and will probably be used for knick-knacks, etc. The lower center door also has no shelf. It will be our clothes hamper.

We each get two junk drawers. There's a center drawer that we'll probably have to fight over at some point. The unit itself is 6' wide by 6'6" tall by 1'2" deep.

The night stands have a slight problem... They're just a touch too tall (2'10"). I'd love to blame that on Mr. Magaña, but, no. It was my own doing. We checked the computer for the drawing I provided him. Funny, two-foot ten didn't look that tall in the drawing. We went ahead and left them alone as they'll probably give us a better light angle for reading in bed. I'll include some pictures of the night stands when we get them in place.

Total cost for the three pieces was $2850.00 BZD.

Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker

We had an interesting walk this morning. First, there were so many other folks out walking, not just "Snowflakes" (Snowflakes refers to tourists generally - white ones at that. They are so white it almost hurts your eyes), but Belizeans as well, were out walking. Only one other person had their dogs out - a guy exercising his well-behaved pit bulls in the park by the seawall. It was just so unusual to see that many people out. Kind of nice. Maybe it's a trend.

I needed to go to the butcher this morning. There's another butcher in the market (down at the north end) that I was going to go to, to see if he had an pork roast meat for sale. I don't know what prompted us to walk by Frank's Meat Products to see if anyone was there. We've never done that before - just assumed that no one was there till like around 8:00 AM or so. This is with many months of daily walking behind us. One of those things. Whatever it was that prompted us to walk past Frank's this morning was providential. They were open for business and have been Tuesday through Friday all along (our loss).

Frank's is our favorite butcher shop, and it's almost right on the walking route, so cool, we'll not only get bones for the girls, but meat for us people as well.

Frank's Meat Products

I picked up a huge (4-5" thick) pork roast and two pounds of hamburger, which the girls got to carry back to Casa Winjama. Dianna's going to dump the roast along with veggies into the crock pot and let it do the cooking. Certainly keeps the kitchen cooler than trying to use the stove or oven.

Well, I guess that's it for now. Time for a shower and to get to work (so-called) for the day.

Cheers,
Dave

Speed Bumps For Sale?

I see in one of the ads on this blog, that some enterprising soul is selling speed bumps.

Speed Bumps Direct
UK's Cheapest, "Mega Deals"
Heavy Duty, Fast Free
Delivery!
www.SpeedBumpsDirect.co.uk

What will they think of next? Hmmm, now that I think about it, Belize should have gone into this business years ago. Both the raised speed bumps (which here come in two varieties, smallish macadam bumps, and the (usually) concrete jaw busters which would do serious damage to you and your vehicle if you hit it at speed), and the sunken ones we call potholes, which work just as well.

By God, if we could figure out how to export these things, Belize would have the best roads, at least in Central America if not the whole western hemisphere. I can't speak about Europe cause, you know,

"...The Germans - They always make great stuff!"

Vince, the Shamwow Guy

High-centered on speedbumps,
Dave

Stay... Stay... Come

Just a short one here. Each morning when the girls and I go for a walk, when we come back, the routine has become, as we approach the gate, they have to sit and stay. Then I open the gate and walk in, going the length of the house. Usually, I take the time to unlock the downstairs as well.

Stay

Only then do they get to move and come in at my command. They do really well at this too - even if there's traffic or pedestrians going by. Pretty cool. They learned it really quickly too.

Come

After they come up to where I am, that's when I divest them of their leashes and packs. They're then free to run around like crazy. It's now playtime.

Slow Down, You Move Too Fast

I just wanted to write about our road - good old "A" Street, South, the Ferry Road (no one seems to be really sure of its actual name.

Slow down, you move too fast.

You got to make the morning last.
Just kicking down the cobble stones.
Looking for fun and feelin' groovy.

Simon and Garfunkel - 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)

Right around the time of the last national election here in Belize, we had attention lavished on our road out here. At first we thought it was residual repairs because of Hurricane Dean or possibly even Tropical Storm Arthur. The best and most logical rumors we heard was that the minister responsible for this area lived in either Sarteneja or Progresso and had to travel a couple times a week to Corozal. So, naturally, the road would get repaired for that.

All our ditches, potholes, bumps, etc., got smoothed out. I mean with the hard marl, it was almost like the road was paved. Of course, right away, the downside to all this improvement became all to apparent. People heading to and from the ferry (across the New River, heading to Copper Bank, etc.) just flew past our place. No speed bumps, straight and smooth... Step on it! And they did.

It got so bad, we even had some conversations (only partly in jest) with Mae and Craig, who own property across the road from us, about approaching the Corozal Town Board to put in a couple of speed bumps sort of equi-distant from each of our places to try to get some slowing of the traffic.

I guess if it was just cars and pickups that wouldn't be so bad. What is the problem is the large dump trucks hauling marl either to new construction sites for fill, or for more distant road repairs, must be on a short fuse. They go like Hell, shaking everything as they fly by. And the dust they stir up (since we are in the dry season) is sometimes unimaginable.

We even had a neighborhood watch association meeting at our house some time back. Attending was the senior sergeant and the new District Superintendent. We asked them what the speed limit was on this road inside the town limits. We were amazed to hear their answer - "Twenty-five miles per hour". I think hardly anyone goes under thirty past here.

But lately, there's been some solace. We have a series of potholes that have developed right in front of Casa de Winjama, and after enough vehicles have bounced through them, a significant number, including the dump trucks, are actually slowing down through the area we wanted to put speed bumps.

Natural Traffic Calming Devices

Yeah! That is so cool. Please Mr. Minister, don't have our pothols repaired (God, I thought I'd never say that, ever!). These potholes work as "traffic calming devices" as such things would be called in the politically correct verbiage of the US northwest (Washington State). I love my potholes. Traffic really does seem to be a bit more sane passing by our little patch. Let's hope it stays that way.

Of course now, we're two months and change away from the rainy season... Those potholes will start manufacturing muck and mud, much of it the consistency of loose pancake batter (you thought I was going to say loose bowels, didn't you?). It's really cool when it gets to be about a foot or even a foot-and-a-half deep. Splashes almost seem to be in slo-mo. And slick? I'm convinced it's even slicker than ice.

The mud and muck will do its part to keep speeds down too. So, I'm not sure which one I like better. I'll go for dry. The wet muck really interferes with my daily walks with my girls. I can't stand the pitiful glances they give me on the days when we can't walk. And to think it's soon coming up that the road takes four or even five days to dry out. Such guilt!

I'll probably have to start driving them up to the Northern Highway, so we can still get in our walkies.

Care to join us?

Friday

After a hard day's swimming in the pool, for at least three hours in 94 (f) water - Glorious!! Elsie had been over helping move the water around in the pool and none of us felt like cooking. So, as the dinner hour crept up, we played around with ideas of where to dine. Pattie's Bistro won out.

A good choice it was too. Each of us had something different. Dianna had pork chops with oriental sauce, Elsie had coconut shrimp, and I had curried snapper. Wow! All three items were absolutely delicious. Of course, we washed it all down with Belikin - tasty as usual.

And it was all ably orchestrated and served by Pattie's maitre d, Ivan. Wow! Doesn't that just sound so up-scale?

Our Host at Patty's - Ivan

One of the more different things about dining here in Corozal is the audio entertainment in each restaurant. The Chinese joints usually have the TV on, set to one of the Chinese cable or satellite channels. It's pretty much a given that the volume will be blasting away. Most of the others don't always have the TV on, but almost always have a stereo going strong, usually with the local mix from the radio stations. Again, set pretty close to 11 on the volume.

Last night, Ivan was tasked with entertaining his granddaughter, so we were treated to TV and cartoons (Lord only knows what). At least Ivan is concerned with his patrons, as he kept turning the volume down, and down, and down. Eventually, after the granddaughter left, Ivan cranked up the stereo, but kept the TV on, mercifully with the sound muted. At least he plays good music - most of the time.

What would have set the meal off in spectacular fashion was to have flan for desert. Flan, in case you don't know, is a rich caramel custard dessert with a layer of soft caramel on top, not to be confused with crème brûlée, which is a custard with a hard caramel topping. As is usual for Pattie's, no flan, no lemon meringue pie - in fact, no dessert at all. But, it's no big deal at Pattie's. In fact, we would have been moderately surprised if Ivan had told us he had something for dessert. That's Pattie's. It was enough that the meals were as good as they were.

Lot's of tourists eat at Pattie's. You can even autograph the walls there. We've been going for two years and have yet to take pen in hand. We always wonder what will happen when they have to paint.

TGIF... Again

Well, we made it to another Friday... Almost time for the weekend. Of course, when every day seems like a Saturday, it's kind of hard to get whipped into a frenzy about the weekend.

Today is one of those days when I actually have to do real work. Since we have an employee (our caretaker, Cody) I have to pay Social Security each month. Today's the day for that as the payment is due on the 14th of each month.

While I'm down at the Social Security office, I'll take the opportunity to find out how I go about getting a Belize Social Security card. Yesterday, I was down at the Corozal Transport office, transferring the title to the big truck to Bob. I asked the Transport guys what I needed to do to get a Belize driving license. He told me the first thing is to get a Social Security card. I don't know if that's a new requirement or just new enforcement of an existing rule or possibly, he was off base. Anyway, I'll ask and see what's entailed. It might be that we have to wait till we get our residency to get the card, which would make sense. I'll let you know what I find out.

Our other task for today is to wrap up a mattress and box spring we bought from Andrew and Janice, so that bugs or other critters don't get into it before we can set it up in the guest house.

One of the true joys of being in Corozal is the morning walks. Part of that is walking along the seafront, especially at sunrise.

Most mornings, we see a gentleman, (I'm assuming he's homeless, but I don't know for sure). He's dressed reasonably well - not in rags or anything, and he's usually going through the trash bins lining the waterfront, collecting bottles, etc., for the deposit value. Whenever we see him, we exchange greetings. Nearly always, his greeting is "Good morning, my brother". There's never a request for money or anything else, just that simple "Good morning, my brother". It is such a heart-warming and humbling experience each time.

This simple act provides, for me, all the good that Belize has to offer. Regardless of the crime we hear about in the big city, or the obvious hard times some folks have. That simple "Good morning, my brother" is such an inclusive thing to have happen over and over.

Tie that together along with views like this:

Sunrise At Anchor

or this for a slightly different view, and remember, we see this virtually every day.

Sunrise From This Angle

Is it any wonder why we love this place? (An aside - BonBon, if you don't walk early mornings along the waterfront, you're missing one of life's treasures, really! No almost about it.).

The Corozal Bay Inn has a smallish construction project underway. I think it's going to be a new sign right beside their driveway. What is cool is the inclusion of the two gargoyles. These two guys have been sitting atop the old fence since we moved here (I have a picture of them here: http://winjama.blogspot.com/search/label/Gargoyles). It looks like they're going to thatch the top of the sign too and it appears that there will be a planter at the bottom. Should be nice.

Corozal Bay Inn Signage

And, finally, lest we forget what's really important...

Miss Blue enjoys sunrises, as long as she can sit in the path of the rays, and when that activity is done, why, it's nap time.

Blue's First Nap of the Morning

It's a Beautiful Morning

It is a beautiful morning. It's always a beautiful morning here in paradise. I even figured out how to record some of the bird sounds we hear every morning.

It's a beautiful mornin', Ahhh,

I think I'll go outside a while,
An jus' smile.
Just take in some clean fresh air, boy!
Ain't no sense in stayin' inside
If the weather's fine an' you got the time.
It's your chance to wake up and plan another brand new day.
Either way,
It's a beautiful mornin', Ahhh,
Each bird keeps singin' his own song.

The Rascals - A Beautiful Morning

 I've got them posted so you can download and play. Just check out the "Some Cool Links" in the right-hand column. Look for "Sounds From Our Back Porch". We have to put up with this noise (and worse) every morning. We did have the Yucatan Jays again this morning, and they are amazingly noisy, but by the time I got set up and figured out how to do the recording, they were gone. So, what you're hearing is the grackles and some other smaller black birds. I'll do it again and get some other sounds posted for you.

My friend Don sent me the following picture. It's a shot through the window where my old cubicle used to be - back when I w-w-worked.

It's a cheery sight I don't miss at all. The snow draped majestically over the trees, radio towers, and the security rocks (in case a crazed terrorist tries to drive through and crash into the building.) I used to work at the Washington State Emergency Operations Center (EOC). It's so nice not to have to be in that mindset anymore.

My Old Cubicle Window

Thanks, Don. It just reaffirms why we're down here.

Daylight "Savings" Time

I don't know where the savings is in that activity, but I'm just so glad we don't practice that down here. Looks like this Sunday most of the folks up north play the game and readjust all their clocks - internal and external.

Remember, "Spring forward... Fall Back"

Oh, it's so nice to not have to do anything about it other than consider it a mental gymnastics-type of exercise. Mainly trying to remember what time it is where you are at up north. It gets to be so confusing.

Life is so much simpler when you don't have to gyrate to some artificial machination about time.

On to real things... The doggies and I had a great walk this morning, our usual routes with a change up by D's Super Market and over to Dr. Sheila's. It was time for Secret and Cindy to get their 3-year Rabies and four other innoculations rolled into two shots apiece. Visiting Sheila made a nice interlude on the walk.

It was Secret's homecoming in a way. Before moving in with us, she lived at Sheila's for about two months. So, after the initial jitters, she just calmed down like no big deal. So did Cindy. I don't think there's much that rattles her. She maintains a calm air no matter what.

Today, I host the twice-monthly Corozal Men's Group meeting. So, I have to make sure to have some dip, chips and ice on hand. I think the pool will be ready for swimming. I've been fighting algae for a while. I think I'm finally getting the upper hand on it. So, even if it's slightly cloudy, I plan to go for a dip during the meeting.

Just before the meeting, I'll take Dianna downtown to Marisol's hair place. She has an appointment for a perm, so there won't be any women-folk at our meeting.

Well, I've got stuff to do, places to go, and people to see, so I'll catch you later.

Every Day's A Parade

Just about every morning while we're walking the dogs, we're treated to the tractor parade. They're always headed north toward the papaya fields. I never see them return in the afternoon. From the equipment they're hauling, it looks like they're intended to fog insecticide or something similar on the papaya crop.

Papaya must take a huge amount of spraying because these guys go past every morning almost without fail.

The Morning Fruita Bomba Tractor Parade

One wonders with the problems the sugar cane growers are facing regarding quality (or the lack of it) if they couldn't learn something from the papaya growers. Cane growers, from my perspective, seem to be of the "plant it and forget it" school of agronomy. Maybe the key would be to pay more attention to the crop and do more fertilizing, pest management, etc., etc. Whatever it would take to build up the quality of the crop.

But, what do I know? Not being a farmer, I'm certainly in no position to criticize. It just seems like there could be something to take from the papaya growers that might just pay dividends for the cane growers. Or not.

Did I Say It Was Cold?

Yesterday morning was, in a word, cold.

56 or 57 degrees (f), depending on who's thermometer you perused. I know, all you folks up North snicker and in one or two cases probably guffaw at our concept of cold down here...

But, when you guys get cold in your house, what do you do? Why head over to the handy furnace thermostat and kick it up a notch or two. Failing that, you might toss another log or two on the fire.

We can't do that down here. No one has this thing called a furnace, much less a thermostat. So, when it gets to 56 degrees inside your house, it's bloody cold. And if your supply of blankets, quilts, throws, etc., is limited, it can get quite uncomfortable.

Not to mention your supply of warm clothes, becomes very limited down here. All the critters that live in your house with you (the uninvited ones that is - geckos, roaches, etc.) all seem to like using bits of your clothing for nests, food, or whatever. So stuff like clothing disappears over time. Then when it gets chilly, you reach for your nice wool sweater and find it has been decimated. Brrrr.

And before I forget, the longer you stay down here, the more you acclimatize. That slight drop in temperature in the evening is noticeable every day. When you have a significant drop, your body not only notices it, but it absolutely freaks out. Goose bumps pop out in places you don't ever remember getting goose bumps before, shivering so bad, you almost slosh your morning coffee. Why, it was so cold yesterday, I had to use my insulated cup to keep my coffee warm. Too warm it turns out - I burned my upper lip (turns out, I have one, not having seen it in many a year, having had a mustache since I was eighteen).

To show just how you acclimate and dress for cold weather, in the foto below is Twyla, our neighbor, on our walk to the market yesterday and she's dressed for the occasion. She's got her fleece top on, long pants and socks on under her Crocs. If Twyla had gloves, she probably would have had them on too.

What she's doing is loading up Lola's packs with veggies. The market vendors love to see us load up the doggies packs. They get a real kick out of it.

Twyla Loading Up Lola

The same morning, I just had to take another shot of the pelicans. Sometimes, you just can't resist, y'know?

They're Probably Shivering Too

Just Your Typical Morning in Paradise

It was another ho-hum morning here in Corozal. We had to walk the dogs by the waterfront again. I just don't know how much more of this we can stand.

Waiting For Him to Tie Up

Every day it's the same thing... calm water, glorious sunrise, market vendors with the freshest fruit and veggies you could want, usually warm weather (except when it's down to 56 (f) like this morning and bloody cold) - so cold that I almost had to put on long pants. Imagine that.

And then, as we walk by the fisherman's pier, to see all of the pelicans waiting patiently for the returning boat to tie up with the morning's catch. And such a sunrise, where it's still shielded by the offshore fog bank, but still giving a hint of what's to come.

We walk through Central Park in Corozal, saying good morning to each of the ladies who scrub the bird poop (from the roosting grackles) off of the park walls and benches each weekday morning so that all of us can enjoy the park throughout the day. And we do. The park is generally full of people every day, all day.

At the market, we usually stop at several vendors now. We've become familiar to them and they to us. They love to watch us load up the dog packs. We tell them the dogs have to earn their keep, so they have to carry the fruit and veggies and about once a week, the 6 or 8 pounds of bones for themselves. No, they're not spoiled - too much anyway.

We stop at the post office everyday to check for whatever has shown up. I have a key for our box. Doug and Twyla, who walk with me, also have a box, but in good Belizean fashion, no key. They've been waiting over a year for their key. So they have to return later in the day to ask at the desk just as if they only got general delivery for their mail.

Then we turn for home. We alternate our route each day. One time up the Northern highway to the market and home beside the waterfront. The next up alongside the waterfront (like this morning) catching the sunrise and the chance for pictures, and home via the highway. Sometimes, we alter the route and take what we call the back road into town, sort of a rural area, just on the edge of town.

It makes a nice walk each day, no matter what route we take. It's about three and a half miles total, so if we load up the doggies, they definitely get a good workout, as do we.

It never gets boring, it's always interesting, and once in a while, it even becomes exciting.

Like I said at the beginning, I just don't know how much more of this we can stand. Maybe with luck, we'll have to do this for the rest of our lives...
One can only hope!

Wonder of Wonders

Wonder of Wonders, Miracle of Miracles... Ok, so maybe it's not quite that spectacular. In fact, I know it isn't. But, Google has updated our Satellite imagery on Google Earth!

Ok, so the resolution isn't so hot - you can't zoom down as close as you'd like, and

Ok, it's just a little dated already with the image being a year old - no shot of the swimming pool or guest house.

But, at least you can tell that we've done some stuff on the property, as have people all around us. It is an improvement even with the problems above.

See? We're the Ones Waving

Thank you Google Earth! Let's try to be a little more punctual next time. Six years is just a tad too long to wait for satellite imagery to be updated. But, thanks all the same. We appreciate it.

Another Day, Another Party

Sometimes, it seems like it's party, party, party. Tuesday was the bash across the street at the house Mae and Craig just finished - celebrating Mae's birthday. Friday, we partied at Jim's place, celebrating his birthday.

And in between Mack Frost and his son, Scott (both of whom we met via this blog) came to Corozal to visit. They also attended today's party, just to get a flavor or life here in northern Belize, I'm sure.

Earl Gettin' Down With It

Good Conversation

Wendy Under the Palapa

Checking out Snacks

Talk, Talk, Talk

More Talk, Talk, Talk

More Talking and Drinking

Birthday Boy Jim Talking To Roger and Roger

Roger and Earl

Roger and Dick

Nigel, Judy and Roger

Me

                                                                                                                                                                  

Mack and Scott Prepping Fresh Pineapple and Watermelon

Mack and Loreta

Lynn and Nigel

Judy and Visiting Friend

Dianna and Jenni

Gail and Diver Tim

Judy and Deema

Craig and Bill

Christina, Gail and Tim

Carlos Running the Machine

Brad and Scott

Brad and Christina

Barb and Wendy