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31 December, 2009

St. Nick Takes Time

Good old St. Nicholas, Father Christmas, Santa, or whatever, took time from a well-deserved vacation in paradise, to have a mini-Christmas for one little boy.
Joshua (1-yr) Opening his Present
Our Godson, Isaiel, his wife, Amarilly, and their son (our great-Godson?) Joshua, came to visit this morning from Guinea Grass. We had a present for Joshua to open, which he did with gusto.
Rip It Open
Joshua is 1-year and 2 months old. I guess in the State, you would commonly say, he's 14 months old. They don't do that here. Anyway, last time we saw him - two months ago, on his birthday, he was almost walking. He could stand up and hang onto things. That's all changed. Now, he totters around without hanging on to anything. Oh sure, he still falls now and then, but the change is amazing. Next time we see him, I have no doubt he'll be talking, and probably reading too.
It's a Little Talking/Singing Piggy
See? All Mine
So, do we sound like doting grand parents? How weird. We've gone our whole lives without kids and now we have this little urchin we can spoil (within reason) and do all that sort of 'grand parent stuff'. Just seems bizarre.
Dianna Doing A Little Doting
This wasn't the only reason they came up to Corozal. They had a gift for us - a nice bottle of white Caribbean rum, and Isaiel had five hose holders I had asked him to fabricate for us. These things are so cool. They turned out much better and fancier than I dreamed we'd see.
Isaiel Finishing the Hose Hangers
Amarilly and Joshua Supervising Dad
We have five plastic hose hangers around the place now. Of course, with the sunlight we have here, the hangers lifespan is nearing the endpoint, so we had to do something. I found a picture a while back on the Intertubes, printed it and asked Isaiel if he could come up with something similar. These turned out much better.
 Four of the Five Drying
I can't wait to get them bolted up in place. I'll take a couple of pictures after they're installed so you can see them 'in action'. Well, as much action as a hose hanger will get, anyway.

We had a nice visit with them. It takes a while, culturally, I think, to become really comfortable and at ease with folks. Both directions. You don't want to say anything that will offend, etc., sometimes, you're not sure what they mean when they say something. So it does take a while to get that relaxed and comfortable feeling. I think we're there now.

There was also more work going on with the bulkhead today. The way they work is, a couple guys run the 'machine', filling up about a hundred and ten bags with dry-mix concrete.
Having Too Much Fun
That'sa Lotta Bags!
Then they wheelbarrow a couple filled bags at a time, dump them in the water, and one or two guys manhandle them into position, adding rebar and drain pipes as needed.
Lowering Bags into the Water
At the place in the canal (boat slip area) where they're working, it takes a lot of bags. The water is anywhere from 10 to 12 feet deep, so at 6" high (roughly), that's a few layers of bags just to get up to the surface of the canal.
Here's One Just About to Splash In
They are making good progress, although Emir says it's taking about double the amount of concrete that they estimated.

Later this afternoon (in about an hour), we'll be heading over to Sherry's new house to help her break it in, on New Year's Eve, yet. Then, this evening, we are all heading over to Tony's Inn & Beach Resort, for a sit-down dinner and some drinks. Then it's home. We'll be back home easily by 9:00 PM. That's late for Corozal.

Have a great, safe and peaceful New Years everyone. Cheers.

1 comment:

Wilma said...

Great looking hose hangers! He is very talented. Glad to see your year is off to a good start.

cheers,
Wilma