Carnival's Comin' To Town

Guess what we saw this morning on the daily "pack-walk"? A carnival trailer. This is the first one I've seen since we've been living here.

Early Morning Carny Sighting

I really have no idea if it's planning to set up here in Corozal, or if they're just passing through. But still, pretty cool to see it on your walk early in the morning.

It'd be nice to see a carnival here. I haven't seen one here in the little more than a year that we've been living here.

I can't say that the girls (Cindy and Secret) got very excited about it. As I took the picture, they both - like the good doggies they are, sat then lay down as I fumbled around with the phone camera again. This picture is the result. My big problem with using it, is that I have been leaving my glasses at home, in favor of wearing my shades. Of course, the phone screen is too small for me to read anything on it without my glasses. I guess I'm going to have to start bringing them as well as my little pocket Nikon and use the phone camera just for those situations when I don't have a better camera with me. Which means I'm going to have to start wearing my fanny-pack (or bum-bag for those of you of the British persuasion).

Pretty soon, it'll be a full-fledged back pack, cause I'll have to drag along water for me and water for the girls, and Lord only knows what else.

Oh, yes. It was a good walk today. About three miles and a bit of a new route. I took a left as we came to the Mirador Hotel and we went up to 5th Avenue and back through downtown. Lot's of new dogs to bark at us. Big German Shepards too.

We ran into Doug at Cannon Corners (well, it used to be called that before remodeling occurred). He was on his way into town for something (breakfast?). We later ran into him and Twyla at their new place as we were heading back to our hacienda.

It was a nice walk. The girls were completely tuckered out when we finally crossed the gate into our place.

Totally unrelated, but Isaiel and his helper came by today. He's installing doors and burglar bars for Doug's place. His generator wasn't big enough to handle Isaiel's welding machine, so Doug asked if Isaiel could come down here to do his welding. Not a problem.

Then the next visitor showed up about an hour later. A Belize Electricity worker there to cut off our current for being a deadbeat. I had screwed up the date on the Scotiabank automatic payment from our account. I used the Belizean-style date (9/8/2008 instead of the US-style - 8/9/2008). Which meant the computer wasn't going to pay till next month. I knew about it because I had gotten another bill with arrears showing. Once I checked it out, I realized what had happened. I was going to pay it when I paid the upcoming month's payment, but no. I had to hotfoot it into Courts Furniture and pay my "arrears" this morning. Whew! No cutoff.

Then came John Harris, a Brit contractor, to talk to us about our pool plans. I had mentioned to him we wanted to see about him doing a pool for us sometime as we liked Gail and Earl's pool that he's building. So, we sat and talked with him and gave him a drawing of a pool that we liked. He's going to work up an estimate and get back to us in a few days. The earliest he could start construction is the end of September. Fine with us. I gave up on being my own GC for the pool - just a little too technical for me. Maybe next time, after I see John do this one.

That was all the excitement for the day. It's hot. We're jumping into the round pool this afternoon. Don't try to stop us either. We're going to ride our floaties and nurse a cold beer or three.

Cheers

Elusive B.E. L. and Others Finally Located

Ah, the wonders of modern navigation and correct directions... It never ceases to amaze me. Finally, after several days searching for the local Corozal Town office of Belize Electric, Ltd. (BEL), I found it - and re-found the local Belikin distributor - Bowen and Bowen, and the local armory? camp? compound? of the Belize Defense Forces (BDF). I say re-found, because when we first arrived here, Greg of Belize North Real Estate, took me up there to get a case of beer. I hadn't been able to find it since.

BEL was a bit more difficult. I didn't notice it on my first trip through there. And this morning, it wasn't any easier. Finally, I stopped adjacent to a really faded sign anging on a fence across from the Belikin bottler. If you really squinted you could almost make out that years ago, it may have said Belize Electric, Ltd.

I needed to find BEL to restart the process of getting a transformer installed near our property so we can actually have juice at the new house. I had a response letter from BEL to Craig and Mae, the previous owners, but it was over a year old, so the prices were out of date. I now have to wait for a Mr. Rosado to rework the numbers and get back to me so we can get that ball re-rolling.

I was also interested in confirming where the Belikin bottler was because we've been saving bottle caps from Coke in the assumption that a program they had some time back either is in effect or might be for the Christmas holidays. That is, for every 6 bottle caps for Coke you turn in along with $1.00BZ, you get a nice heavy Coke glass. We've got enough bottle caps for about a case of glasses. Not that we drink Coke that much, but our grounds keeper, Cody, goes through two or three a day. It mounts up.

I wanted to find the Belize Defense Forces base because eventually, I want to see if I can acquire a BDF t-shirt. I think that'd be cool. I'm also going to try to find one for the British Army Training Support Unit Belize (BATSUB) (http://www.army.mod.uk/batsub/index.html), located down at Price Barracks in Ladyville, just outside of Belize City. That'd be cool, too.

Finally, Our Certificate!

This morning, about 9:30 AM, Anthony Watson, Licensed Electrician, showed up and we inspected Paul's and My handiwork from the day before. I explained the story of the fire to him and showed him what BEL still wanted done.

Then, since this is Sunday with many stores closed all day, there are a few however, that stay open till 10:00 AM or maybe even noon. Villa's supply being one that closes at 10, we jumped into his pickup and headed into town.

Of course, it's never easy. The People's United Party (PUP), the in-power political party here in Belize, was having a nationwide rally at the sports complex in Corozal, with Prime Minister Said Musa attending. People were being bused in from all over the country. Guess who got stuck in the ensuing traffic jam?

Realizing we'd never make it to Villa's by 10, Anthony took a shortcut to another hardware store nearby, Landy's Hardware. Thankfully, they had all the parts we needed to ensure a proper and complete job.

Taking another shortcut, we stopped at his house to pick up his hack saw. His cute teen-aged daughter, who was hoovering the house, waved out to us. We got back to the house and proceeded to fix up the repairs better than before the fire.

Shipshape and Bristol Fashion

Anthony kept the two 40 amp breakers Paul and I had installed - one for the house/wash house, and one for the meat house and added the 60 amp over all. He cleaned up the exposed wiring, adding several bits to the PVC conduit they use for everything here. I siliconed the top and sides to help lessen water penetration.

During the work, Anthony and I talked. he said he also had a teen-aged son who was an electrician and worked for him along with four other men. In fact, he often leaves his son to supervise the other workers while Anthony heads off to take care of other jobs.

I asked if he had ever done any solar work. He said yes, that he had done the electrical for Bill and Jenni's resort, and about 4 other places out on Cerros. In fact, he was working on a new solar setup out there this coming week.

What a find. I had been impressed with the work done out at Bills, so this was great. I asked if he'd be interested in doing the electrics for our house. He said he would, and, if we needed a good plumber who does excellent work, he could recommend one to us. Perfect.

The end result - $63.80BZ for parts and supplies and $70BZ for an hour and a half of Anthony's labor. Talk about costs in Belize. Sunday morning, calling an electrician - let's see, that'd be triple time and two hours flat rate. You're probably talking the better part of $5-600US, right?

Plus, plus... I almost forgot. We got the certificate, signed by a licensed electrician! It's not a "fusee" certificate, but a PUC certificate - a Public Utilities Commission certificate.

The electrics for this place are now in better shape than when it was new, and we got strong leads on an electrician and plumber for our new house.

It just don't git no better!