Sunday Morning Grab-Bag - A Little Late

Ok, so I didn't quite make it for Sunday morning's Grab-Bag opportunity.

First, Big-Ups to Corozal Community College - They took the victory in the 2010 Bandfest this past weekend in Corozal over the four-time consecutive champions Succotz Festival Band.

According to some of the news reports I saw, and my own experience driving in town Saturday morning, there were over 10,000 people in attendance for the parade and the competition at the Civic Center. Considering Corozal's 2009 estimated population is about 9,200, that's quite the crowd.

We even had some heavy-hitters presenting prizes, like Governor General Sir Colville Young along with a slew of local politicians.

It's surprising, since Bandfest is an annual commercial shindig (held in different locations each year), sponsored and run by Belize's largest radio station, Love-FM, that going to their website (http://www.lovefm.com/), that still says "Bandfest 2010 - Coming Soon". Looks like a lowly blog run by a ROF scooped them on their own activity! We weren't the only one either. I know of a couple other blogs that got the news out. It must be because the blog is a labor of love... or something.

Hey, I saw something interesting the other morning on the basketball court in front of the Thunderbolt landing - a full-fledged, honest-to-goodness aerobics class in full stride.

Jump To the Left, Now Jump To the Right

The gentleman leading was calling the routines just like on TV. It was quite impressive to watch. Of course, with the doggies on their walk, we had to move on directly.

Screen doors... Well, after about two and-a-half years, we finally have them in. He, it's Belize, Mon. Things happen when they're supposed to and not a minute sooner. We also have doggie doors installed. The one for the back door is actually in the screen door, with the front one being in a panel beside the screen door.

Back Screen Door

Of course, that was the easy part. Now comes the bit of convincing the girls that they can go through the doggie doors anytime they want to. Cindy's done it a couple of times on her own - sort of. Secret, on the other hand, acts like it's going to attack her. I can tell she clearly wants to go through, but is just really reluctant to put her nose in jeopardy by pushing on the door. I think they'll come around... eventually.

Flash! Latest news on the guesthouse - no workers today. Surprise, surprise. My guess is that we won't have any workers till after the Easter holiday. At least that'll give Cody and myself time to get the electric wiring run to the guesthouse. Actually, that tube will contain, 220V wiring, doorbell wire for the gate, switch controller wire also for the gate, and cable TV wire (not that we have access to cable, I'm just looking ahead).

Speaking of the gate, we've had problems getting the remotes to work well, lately. Like, it was hard to get them to work 15 - 20 feet from the gate motor and then sporadically. I thought maybe it was because I took a couple of them swimming with me at different times, but that turned out not to be the case. I went to talk to an electrician who has done several gates in the area. He showed me his setup and advised I add to my gate antenna wire and get it at least 18" above any metal - even if the metal was behind the antenna. He said metal would tend to reflect the RF (sorry, Radio Frequency) signal and at least partially cancel it out.

Man, was he ever right. I soldered on a length of wire and taped it to a piece of PVC to try it out. Now the remotes work clear back by the guest house and virtually all over our property. What an amazing difference.

Temporary Gate Antenna

I'll admit it's not very stylish, but what a ton of improvement in coverage and service.

The last bit, I alluded to already - the electrics for the guesthouse. Here's a shot of the PVC tubing that will encase all of it sometime this week.

PVC Tubing for Guesthouse

That's 240 feet of tubing there folks. It'll take a while to thread all the wires through the entire length. I'm thinking about setting up some sort of loom so we can funnel all of them simultaneously through. Shouldn't be too hard to rig up.

Well, that's about it for now. More later.

Cheers,
Dave