Whaddyado?

This past week I've been reorganizing my pool pump house. By that I mean, when my main pump sprung a leak (the shaft seal was leaking), instead of waiting for it to destroy the front bearing on the motor, like I did last time, I pulled the pump out and promptly ordered a new seal and diffuser and housing o-rings.

While I had the main pump out, I decided this would be an ideal time to reposition the main pump and the waterfall pump, putting both up on concrete blocks so they're not sitting on the floor in potential puddles of water.

I also added a couple of valves that were missing from the original installation - so I could remove the main pump without going through the gyrations I had to do previously to remove it.

The other thing I decided to do was to essentially re-orient the outfall from each pump so that if I disconnect the pump, water in the pipe doesn't run all over the top of the pump. I installed an elbow with a short (4 or 5") length of pipe so the union, when separated drains to the side of the pump.

So far in the process, I've successfully re-done the waterfall pump. Everything with it works fine with no leaks. No problems there at all.

I've redone the main pump as well, with the two additional valves in place. The valves work fine with no leakage either.

Incidentally, I also took the opportunity to fix a couple small leaks at the connections for the filter. Those leaks are stopped now too.

The remaining problem is the main pump outfall union. I've used three different o-rings and the union still leaks.

I am having a problem here with getting o-rings of exactly the right diameter and thickness. But, you work with what you have as much as possible. I've stretched the o-rings so they fit into the groove, tightened up the union, and still have leakage.

I'm pretty sure the surfaces of the union that join together where the o-ring fits, are meeting flat - as flat as any of the other unions I have in the pump house. It's not exact, but you get it as close as you can. With gluing PVC parts together, sometimes 'close' is as good as it gets.

So... I have this leak. This morning, I'm going to try a really thick o-ring. If I can stretch it enough so that it fits in the groove, maybe that'll solve the problem. If it still leaks,

I'm looking for ideas. Anybody have any? I'm willing to consider anything - voodoo, incantations, burning incense, a bigger hammer, better curse words... anything!

Cloaking Device in Action

"Captain, this vessel came into the yards recently, well - not too long ago, alright - some time back, whatever. Since it's been here, it's been steadily disappearing. One can only assume that some new type of cloaking device is in action here, albeit on the slow setting. I mean, what else could it be?"

"Our crack security team recently, yesterday, as a matter of fact, snapped a shot clearly showing the disappearance frame by frame of this vessel."

Yari B Disappearing

"All right, Mr. Data, relax. I think you've been sniffing the circuit contact cleaner spray again."

"This is clearly a local alien craft undergoing a slow destruction by various means. It's apparent there's been fire involved, wood rot, it's back is broken, and some tievery as well for cooking wood."

"You and your cockamamie cloaking device testing. I think you've been lost in space for too long. I'm putting you in for an immediate transfer ashore. I think your control program has misplaced a few ones and zeros."

And the Shelves Came Tumbling Down

With apologies to lovers of traditional music, when Dianna's shelves did just that, I felt like wailing my way through a few choruses.

Joshua fought the battle at Jericho, Jericho, Jericho
Joshua fought the battle at Jericho
And the walls came tumblin' down

- Traditional African-American Spiritual

Turns out it was an easier (although time-consuming) fix than I originally thought. After trying to explain to a couple of folks what I was doing to correct the problem, I made a rather busy diagram to make everything crystal clear. What is they say about a picture being worth?

An Easy Fix

I still have a few shelves - a small one in the laundry room over the deep sink, and a whole bunch out in the pool house utility room, to do, but once I get that done, I'll be all caught up. I just have to remember, that any new shelving that anchors to concrete walls, gets done exactly this same way.

I can pretty much guarantee that all my shelves are now bomb-proof. And if not, there's always 'Plan - C' - whatever that might be.

It's Just One Thing After Another

Wednesday afternoon, as I was off in dreamland getting a massage on the living room floor from Nelson, our erstwhile masseur, it sounded like all hell broke loose downstairs. My first thought was that the upper cabinets in my workshop had pulled away from the wall and collapsed.

Dianna, who had been gaming on her laptop and I, accompanied by Nelson, jumped up and ran downstairs to see what had self-destructed. As we opened the downstairs door, we saw that it wasn't my workshop that had suffered a cataclysm, but Dianna's. One of her shelving units that had been mounted to an exterior concrete wall had pulled away from the wall, bringing the little plastic anchors (or shields as they call them here) with it.

The damage wasn't really all that bad. Most of the things (a lot of parts and miscellany for working on miniatures) that she had on that shelf were in containers and they stayed sealed during their journey to the floor. Only two things, some glass bottles with stoppers like you find on Grolsch Beer had gotten destroyed, but that was about all.

I decided instead of just putting it back up, to seek some expert advice from Andy at National Hardware. Since it was too late to do it that day (after all we had to swim), I decided to head into town the following day.

That evening, we got an email from Mae saying she was heading down to Belize City to meet with her Ophthalmologist (not Dr. Hoy) for a torn retina problem. I answered her, telling her of my recent escapade with eye surgery.

The next email I got from her the following morning was that the problem was worse than initially thought and that she was booked on an afternoon flight back to the states to get surgery there as the doctor decided it was beyond the scope of what could be done at the hospital.

So, since things always seem to work in threes... who's next for eye problems?

Now, it's the following day and I went to National Hardware to see if Andy could advise me on how to resurrect Dianna's shelving. When I described the problem, he said that he knew exactly what I was talking about as he had put up some shelves for his wife in their laundry room and had the same thing happen.

What it turns out to be is that because the shelving standard (the vertical bit) is about a half-inch deep, when you drive in the screw and it bites into the plastic anchor it tends to want to pull out the anchor a bit. Even if it doesn't pull it out, because of the half-inch stand-off, there's not enough of the screw that has gone into the anchor to make a really secure connection in the concrete wall and it will tend to pull out.

What Andy recommended was to get some epoxy (which I did) coat each anchor with it and reinsert them into the holes and let them set. He also recommended getting some sort of material (I decided on narrow strips of wood) that will fit inside the standard. Those strips will be pre-drilled so the screws go through them into the anchors. The strips keep the anchor from pulling out.

I just finished cleaning all the concrete dust out of the holes with my compressor, and then mixing epoxy and coating each anchor with the mix and reinserting them into the holes in the wall. I'll let them set up over night as I have to visit my friendly cabinet shop to have some wood ripped thin enough to fit in the standards. Then I'll be ready to re-assemble the shelving and hopefully, this time, it will be bomb-proof.

I dismantled Dianna's other shelf and did the same thing to it, so hopefully that prevents another catastrophic fall. I'll be doing the same thing to a set of shelves in my workshop and also in the tool room where I have probably 50 or 60 partially filled gallon cans of paint and varnish and such. That needs to be done before we have a really catastrophic separation of shelving units from the wall.

And now, another thing... Not related to eye problems or shelving. This goes back to my weather station. You may recall I've had problems with it, saying we've had over 200" of rain in a month or so... and also, just failing to receive data from the outside unit itself. I've solved that issue.

I was rooting around in my laptop's start-up folder (as you do, if you're adventurous and foolish) the other day, when I noticed two instances of Cumulus, my weather station software. "Hmm," I thought. "That's not right." So, I rooted around some more and found the older of the two and moved it to the desktop - not deleting it just in case it was needed.

Then I moved to the system registry file (as you do, if you're really adventurous and foolish crazy). I made sure there was only one reference to Cumulus there and got out of the registry file toot-sweet.

I have no idea how I had two instances of the software running. Anyway, I think that caused most of the problems as since then, things seem to be working the way you would expect them to - finally.

I haven't heard anything more of anyone with new eye problems (other than Vivien buying some very expensive glasses up in Canada). I guess that would count. So, you can probably breath easier. The three-fold rule has been fulfilled.

The only other thing I can think of is that Dianna and I missed the second anniversary of Art In The Park last night. Totally forgot about it. I had even bought new batteries for my camera so I could maybe take some video of three steel pan bands that they were going to have playing. Dang it! They probably even had CDs for sale too. Next year for sure.

Ok, that's it for now. Oh, yes. One other thing. The dogs have been going bat-sh** with cabin-fever. It's been days since we've been able to walk. The puddle in the road, has grown exponentially and is a couple feet deep, covering the whole width of the road. Not good for walkies.

We were going to go the opposite direction this morning and head down by Mike and Mary's house to the south. Just about the time we were going to leave, the heavens opened up... again. This is all just local rain stuff. We have no storms coming toward us or anything.

Ok. Now I'm really done.

Cheers

I Can See Clearly Now

This last Wednesday, I went with Doug and Twyla over to Orange Walk Town. It was a three-fold mission. We wanted to visit the Boundary Store - you never know what treasures you might find there. We also wanted to have lunch at Nahil Mayab - I had an outstanding fish burger and fries. And then, our main reason for going, Doug and I both had appointments with Dr. David Hoy of Hoy Eye Center. He and his wife, also an MD, have six clinics throughout Belize.

...Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
It's gonna be a bright, bright

Sun-Shiny day.

                                                                                                              -- Written by: Johnny Nash

Doug needed to get new glasses and I needed advice on cataract surgery as my right eye was speedily becoming a definite liability.

To give you an example of how bad things had become with my right eye, take a look at the photo below. Left eye, right eye. I think you can tell the difference. Thankfully, both eyes weren't matching. I'd have been functionally blind.

My Left and Right Eyes

We left Corozal about 7:00 AM, Thursday morning, and arrived in Bellize City about 9:20 AM for a 10:00 appointment. Good thing too as the out-bound lanes of a major roundabout were blocked by a reviewing stand and a whole lot of chairs - not to mention the crowd. They were there to introduce the babes who were in the running for Carnival Queen. Carnival in Belize is held in September to coincide with the 'September Celebrations', The Battle for St. Georges Caye Day (now blandly called 'National Day') on September 10, and Independence Day, September 21.


So, anyway, we got to Hoy Eye Center (http://www.hoyeyecenter.bz/) with plenty of time to spare. You can see Doug in the waiting area below. They started me off with eye drops fairly soon after we arrived and things progressed from there.

Patiently Waiting In The Waiting Area

Here's a glimpse of the main lobby of the Hoy Eye Center. Quite nice with a good selection of frames.

Hoy Eye Center Lobby

Just off the lobby area is a window where you can see the various machines they use for grinding lenses - with 24-hour turn-around service. Doug got examined on Wednesday in Orange Walk and picked up his glasses in Belize City on Thursday morning. Not bad service.

Lens Grinding Equipment

 Here's a picture I took of Dr. Hoy amongst some of the equipment in his center. He's very personable and caring. I just can't speak highly enough of him and his staff. Very professional all the way around.

Dr. David Hoy, MD Opthamalogist

 Here's a shot I took of the computer screen that shows what the laser took of the inside of my eyeball and the cataract. This gave him the information he needed on where to make the incision to remove the original lens and to insert the replacement.

In conjunction with some other computers, it also gave him the information on how to correct my retinal tearing - the other issue I had going one. Luckily, everything took place in the same eyeball.

My Eyeball According to the Computer

Here's a shot of some of the other equipment in the center. I think this is the one he was looking through for the actual surgery - but, don't quote me on that.

One of the Machines Used On Me

 And yet more computer equipment in the room.

Another of the Machines

Here I am, taking a nap. Not really. I was awake throughout the whole procedure. Although, I will admit, the Valium they had me chew just prior to the operation (the aftertaste of which, reminded me of a martini) did make me a tad more relaxed than I actually thought I was.

Yours Truly Full of Anticipation

After the operation, and paying for it (Would you believe, total cost was $1,900 BZD?), we left immediately, with Doug driving, for the Riverside Tavern, which I've written about extensively here before. And, it was a really, really good thing he was driving too. My vision was much improved in one way, the fog of the cataract was gone, but the medication Dr. Hoy had administered to lock my eyeball wasn't going to fade away for about six more hours. Here's an approximation of what I was seeing with both eyes open.

My Improved and Way Off-Kilter Vision

It didn't matter if I was walking, driving or what, I couldn't do it with both eyes open. Going up and down stairs was a really weird experience.

So, anyway, we got to the Riverside without incident and had a very enjoyable lunch and a few beers. When we left, Doug discovered he didn't have the keys to the Isuzu. Oops. Looking inside, there they were in the ignition.

What to do? Doug trotted inside and asked our waiter if they had a locksmith they could call. The waiter came out and zoomed off on his bicycle returning about three minutes later, saying a mechanic would be along 'right now', as they say.

Sure enough about five minutes later, here comes the mechanic pedaling up on his bike. Using a screwdriver and a short length of wire, after struggling mightily with the door for, oh, about seven seconds, he had the door open. Doug gave him $30.00 BZD and we once again were on our way.

This time to get to the Best Western Biltmore Plaza Hotel (http://www.belizebiltmore.com/), on the Northern Highway, just across from Brodies.

They have a gorgeous central area, full of local tropical trees and shrubbery, a pool, a nice tiled bar area and an aviary with parakeets.

BW Biltmore Plaza Pool

First thing we did after checking into our room was to take a nap - at least I did. I think Doug went out exploring the hotel. It's surprising how something like eye surgery, no matter how calm you think you're approaching it, jumps up and lets you know you were a lot more keyed up than you thought. So I slept for about three hours.

Their Parakeet Aviary

 After that, we retired to the bar area for a few Belikins and then migrated to the dining room for supper. We both ordered pizza of  all things - which turns out, was some of the best pizza either of us have had in Belize.

Then it was back up to the room and by 8:00 PM, both of us were conked out till the morning.

BW Biltmore Plaza Pool Bar

Oh yes. We stayed overnight in Belize City because Dr. Hoy wanted to see me at 8:00 AM the following day to check out his handiwork and make sure I was doing ok.

Another View of the Pool Bar

By morning, my vision had returned to almost normal. No tilt-o-matic, no foggy business, no floaters either. What a relief and no discomfort at all.

Another View of Their Pool

My eyes were in good enough shape that I felt comfortable driving from the hotel to the center. We didn't even have any incidents.

We got over to the Eye Center about a quarter to eight, just as they were raising the roll-up doors. Doug went over to the ATM at Atlantic Bank and I went on in. By the time he got back, I was all done and ready to roll.

On the way back to Corozal, I asked Doug if he would drive as Dr. Hoy didn't want me to watch TV, read or do any computing (don't tell him about this, alright?) for a few days to lessen the strain on the iris and surrounding area. I even bought an eye patch at Brodies to ensure I rested the eye as much as possible.

Dr. Hoy also gave me three sets of drops which I've been taking religiously several times a day. I have to go back to Orange Walk on Wednesday to see him at the clinic for a follow-up appointment.

Again, I have to say, the whole experience was excellent. I have nothing but praise for Dr. Hoy and his whole team. It was a fun experience, which I'll get to repeat in three or four years as he found a small cataract in my left eye. Hey, something to look forward to, right?

One cool thing, besides getting my vision back again (as if that wasn't cool enough), was the fact that included in the price was a DVD that Dr. Hoy shot through the microscope he was viewing the operaton. I've tried to edit it down, but it wasn't that easy to do. So, what I did was capture a few shots of key points during the procedure for your viewing pleasure.

If you're squeamish, you may want to stop here. If not, or if you're being particularly brave today, head on and scroll down. Don't forget to read the warning message however. Oh, also, the photos may appear upside down... That's because Dr. Hoy was sitting at the top of my head, looking toward my feet, so that's the orientation of the photos. Enjoy.

Read the Warning Statement

Ready to Start

Ready to Make the Incision

Removing the Lens, Cataract and Floaters

More on Removing the Lens, Etc.

Ready to Insert the New Lens

Suturing The Incision

All Done - You Can Barely See the Suture

So, there you have it. Congratulations on making it all the way through. Can you see me smiling now? I'm a happy camper!

Ahhh, To Relax, Perchance To Lounge

Man, it seems like this past week was go, go, go - all week long.

We had the ladies swim/exercise group on Tuesday; Otilia, our new housekeeper came on Wednesday (she's still learning how Dianna wants things done). Friday, Carlos came and worked on the patio project and we hosted happy hour; and Saturday, Carlos returned to cast the counter top at the BBQ area of the patio project.

The photos below detail some of the patio project. The first one, Carlos has cut and positioned some plywood to act as the form bottom for a work surface counter top between the two columns. The space underneath will have one or two shelves for storage of stuff.

Putting Up the Form

This shot shows Carlos setting up the sides of the form.

Almost Ready To Cast

This one, he's almost ready to make the pour. He had to take off early on Friday as he had a guy coming over to see about buying his pickup truck.

Carlos Finishing the Form

Saturday morning, Carlos was back to make the pour, which is done in the photo below.

The Pour Done

 Here Carlos is troweling it out so it's smooth. No 'brooming' texture up here, as it's a work surface, not a seating area.

Carlos Troweling The Concrete

Finally, we had the men's group here, also on Saturday.

And now, today, Sunday... The only things we have lined up to do: Our usual weekly laundry and a little cleanup of the pool house from the men's group meeting. The rest of the day is ours for lounging around in the pool. Yea!

I'll tell you, this being retired is hard work!

One, Two, Three or Four Shower Days

You know, I used to think those were somewhat in the past, what with us having a pool now to jump into whenever we want. Was I ever wrong. When it's rainy season, and that means lots of thunder and lightning all around us for most of the day, every day lately it seems, then jumping into the pool just doesn't seem to be so attractive.

So, there you sit, your tee-shirt stuck to your back, even with the sweat still dripping down your back, your arms feeling sweaty and gritty from dust blowing around (even when it rains), and your hair constantly in a state of dampness. Yes, I know mine's a bit longer than most, but even Dianna's sticks to her neck.

What do you do? Well, today, I started out after meeting the Coke delivery guys at 5:15 AM, to get a case of the local pink-colored tonic water, and after swapping out the butane tanks (the 100 lb. jobs) so I could cook breakfast. Luckily my pancake batter waited for me to do that. Then, I took shower No. 1.

I spent part of the morning surfing the Intertubes, as you do, then at 11:30 AM, I had an appointment with Lourdes Saldivar to get a bit of a trim on the pony tail and for her to lawn mower my beard. After that, I had to do some of the daily shopping amongst the frequent rain squalls.

Shortly after getting back, I noticed that I had become sweaty... again, and itchy as well. Some of my beard hair had managed to lodge itself in my tee-shirt. Time for Shower No. 2. Ahhh, what a relief. Not as good as the pool, mind you, but refreshing all the same.

Now, it's a little after 3:00 PM, and the sky is once again darkening, and booming and we're not in the pool. We almost went for it, but thunder and lightning flashes has a way of deterring those thoughts.
It'll be supper in a couple of hours - too late then for pooling. Besides, then the mosquitoes come out for their half-hour rampage. I forgot to mention I put on bug-juice to meet the Coke guys this morning. I'm sure they're attracted by the smell of 'eau de deet'.

Then, about 8:30 or so (a couple hours after sunset here) it's time for beddy-bye. Ah, but with fans only to cool us in the rack, what do you do? Of course! Take another shower. Shower No. 3 coming up. And the Cubs aren't even on TV this evening.

So, you see. Having a pool lends a false sense of fewer showers in one's life. Only during certain seasons - like winter and the dry season.

There you have it. My daily schedule, more or less. And, I dare say, it's probably a familiar and similar one to most Gringos (lumping all Norte Americanos, Europeans, etc., into that category) living here.

See you in the pool... or the shower.
Cheers,