Sometimes Good Things Happen

Back on February 9, 2011 Belize Channel 7 News broke a major scandal regarding the outright theft from everyone in Belize by the butane companies (http://www.7newsbelize.com/sstory.php?nid=18908&frmsrch=1). Channel 7 followed up with more detailed reports over the next few days and exposed just how corrupt the butane vending system had become - country-wide.

It was particularly onerous as this theft, which apparently had become virtually institutionalized, stole not only from the rich, but equally from the poorest of the poor and everyone in between. Everyone, in every social strata, uses butane, and from what Channel 7 unearthed, all were being systematically ripped off. At least the thieves didn't discriminate or pick on one segment of Belizean society. They hit everyone.

Well, the powers that be, from the Prime Minister on down to the concerned department Ministers, quickly jumped on the band wagon and rules were soon implemented that required vendors to sell butane by the pound and not to meter it by the gallon. The only hitch was that the scales which were necessary were in extremely short supply and also had to be calibrated and certified by the Government of Belize. It was estimated that it would be months before enough scales could be put in place to begin correcting the problem, if it was done at all. There was a lot of grumbling from the butane industry that they weren't crooks, blah, blah, blah. It seemed to everyone who read the news or saw it on local TV, well, Channel 7, anyway, that the industry planned to stonewall it for as long as it took to repeal the new rules.

I had filled a 100-pound butane tank in January, before the scandal hit. Just the other day, my tank ran out. I have an identical tank for the pool house, so I just swapped tanks. Today, I called Smith Butane to see if they could come fill my empty tank. They said they were coming 'right now', and sure enough just as I was hauling the empty tank on my hand-cart up to the gate, here they came with their old rusty, beat-up tanker truck.

I was planning on giving them somewhat of a hard time about using a meter on their truck and not using a scale. I said 'somewhat' as the couple that is Smith Butane, are both elderly and live in the part of Ranchito Village that's close to us and is called 'Alien Town' (Apparently there were a lot of aliens who settled there after the caste wars of the late 1800's). They are very nice and have been the only butane dealers who actually come when they say they will. In fact, they're so prompt, I always imagine them hiding just around the corner and saying "I know he's going to call for butane soon, I just know it." So, when I do call, bing, bang, boom - there they are - just like today when I called.

Anyway, here's what I found when they arrived. I wheeled the hand-cart around to the far side of their truck and saw the meter, disconnected and laying on a sort of shelf above the valving. Mrs. Smith was busy unloading a brand new, certified digital scale, which she promptly set up and then Mr. Smith put my tank up on the scale.

Mrs. Smith Setting Up The Scale

A big part of the operation involved watching the digital readout on the scale, especially after they placed the tank on the scale bed. It took quite some time for the scale to settle down and provide an accurate reading because of the sloshing of the remaining butane in the tank. It was for this reason that they both said they didn't like the new scale - it was too sensitive. I tend to agree with them after watching the readout go from 30 pounds to 37 or 38 pounds and back and forth, back and forth, for minutes.

Waiting for the Scale to Settle Down

Here's a view of the scale readout. The Smith's, even though they dislike the sensitivity of the scale, were very proud of it and took pains to show me the certification sticker on the neck of the scale and the lead tamper-resistant seal on the back of the scale readout.

Detail of the Scale Readout

It's not a cheap piece of equipment either. Mr. Smith said the scale cost them over $1,000.00 BZD. A considerable sum here in Belize and for the Smiths.

I don't for a minute think the Smiths purposely scammed anyone with their butane business. With the decrepit truck and equipment they are using, if they were making 'extra' money, I don't know what happened to it because they sure didn't get any of it. Like I said, they're very nice people and are also extremely proud of their new digital scale.

And I was very, very surprised and pleased to see the scale, certified, secured and in use. If the Smith's can acquire a scale and get it certified, then every other vendor in the country should be able to do the same thing with absolutely no excuses!

Looking Down the Barrel

I would have posted this last night, but the Intertubes were really slow, slow, slow.

I'm talking about Tropical Storm Richard. He's just sitting out there teasing and taunting everyone. Do we put everything away? Do we leave stuff as it is? What do we do and how much time will we have to do it? Arrgh! I hate the waiting.

Anyway, yesterday I went with Doug to Belmopan as he needed to get a couple of things from Builder's Hardware. I went along mostly to keep him company (awake) on the trek. I did buy a rubber chew toy for Deohgee, since she loves to chew Crocs and other things. I also picked up a really stiff scrubbing brush with a long handle to use in the pool.

From Builder's, we went to the Ultimate Herbal Health Food Store so Doug could get some molasses for Twyla's baked beans and from there we went to Reimer's Feed Mill where we bought new dog collars - nice heavy-duty ones.

After finishing all that, we decided we'd stop for lunch at Cheers, on the Western Highway, a little south of Belmopan. Last time we did this, we stopped first at the Restaurant and Hotel Supply store and went over to Amigo's for lunch, confusing that for Cheers. It was ok, but we'd heard raves about Cheers, and just didn't see what was so spectacular about it.

Cheers - With A Tropical Twist

Well, this time we did make it to the correct place - Cheers (Mile 31 1/4 on the Western Highway). Nice place. Great service - fast. Beer was cold. Food arrived at the table together. That's a key point for those of you unfamiliar with Belize. It is not unusual at all to go in a restaurant, order food and have the meals come out one at a time with 10 to 15 minutes in between deliveries.

I ordered a gut-bomb (mushroom cheese burger and fries), Doug had pasta. We both agreed they were quite good.

My Order

Cheers has a nice atmosphere. It's obviously a place the British Army likes to hang out at when they're doing their jungle warfare training activities. Lots of signs and tshirts hanging in the rafters. They even have a website: (http://www.cheersrestaurant.bz/).

Hanging Around

Maybe the burger isn't quite up to the Riverside Tavern in Belize City, but it's definitely worth a stop anytime you have to truck over to Belmopan to conduct business. Very nice place to eat, drink and relax.

Late-breaking news on Cheers - If the parking lot is full of buses, more than likely it's 'cruise ship day'... Avoid it and go to Amigo's.

From there, we cruised back down the Western Highway to Belize City. Doug needed to stop at Brothers Habet Hardware, which I guess is different from Habet and Habet Hardware - same family, different companies and different locations in Belize City.

Brothers Habet is supposedly located at 115 Barrack Road. Well, we cruised up and down but couldn't find it. A lack of street signs, something Belize City is supposed to be addressing, hamper any effective navigation. We finally found it at the intersection of Barrack Road and Freetown Road. Like I always say, 'If if was easy, it wouldn't be any fun'.

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I did a real bone-head stunt the other day. I had shut off a couple valves in the pool pump house so I could open the pump and clean out the leaf basket inside. Naturally, when I was done, I forgot to open those valves. This wasn't a problem till the next morning when the pump started automatically on its scheduled time.

With nowhere to go, the water simply took the expedient action of blowing the outfall from the pump right off the threaded fitting, spewing huge amounts of water everywhere. I had come out of the house and standing on the front porch, noticed the pool looked a little low - like about half low. Holy Sh**, Batman!

I ran downstairs toward the pump house (well, as fast as an old fart runs). As I crossed the pool deck, I saw a lot of water running along the walkway, going through the gate and spilling from the boat slip deck into the canal.

I opened the pump house door and loosed a torrent of water that had backed up inside. Standing on the curbing outside, I reached in and shut the power off to the pump, stopping the deluge. That's when I noticed cause and effect.

Not only that, but water had also gone through a fitting and exacerbated a small cave-in partly under the pump house. Noticing that, I immediately got Cody working on that before the pump house tilted over and made matters catastrophically worse.

Finishing Filling the Cave-in

It was a big enough project that I had Cody hire his unemployed brother-in-law, Rufino, for the day to help dig it out (to firm marl), pack the hole with rocks and concrete under the pump house especially and with mostly rocks in the rest of the hole to within a couple inches of the top, then filling the rest with marl.

Smoothing It Out

It seems that we're getting to be quite good with dealing with cave-ins. Hopefully, this will be the last one for a while. Thankfullly, I have good supply of rock on hand that was intended for the bulkhead project, but a diversion was necessary.

In the meantime, I spent the next couple days figuring out how to repair the rest of the damage. I re-taped the fittings, put everything back together and got the pump working (after opening the valves). Unfortunately, the bearings on the motor are now making a godawful high-pitched yowl. Not screaming - yet (sounds awfully familiar for those of you who have followed this blog for a while, doesn't it?).

I consulted yesterday with Doug to help me chase down an air leak on the system that developed after all this. Every time I turned on the pump, air bubbles showed in the inlets to the pool. Bubbles would not normally be happening there. Something was wrong. After much considered head and butt scratching we concluded the problem had to be in the pump. Which it was. I finally found the inlet fitting for the pump had come loose. So, I re-taped that and re-installed it. Now, everything works fine, except for the noise of the bearings.

I also consulted yesterday during happy hour at Jim's house (every Friday from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM). Jim also has a pool. But, he also had a solution. His caretaker, Carlos knows a guy in Orange Walk town who rebuilds pump motors and has replaced bearings in his old motor several times. I've asked Jim to have Carlos give me a visit so I can talk to him about getting my pump bearings fixed.

So, it that works, problem solved. You know, it seems to me, that this pump/motor design is somewhat crappy, to turn a phrase. Why isn't the pump motor waterproofed or something, so that when unauthorized water does interfere, the bearings and other bits don't automatically become rusted bits? Like Jim said, they then wouldn't be able to sell as many pumps. Ahhhh. Makes sense, I guess.

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Lastly, totally unrelated to the above story, I finally got a butane tank for the guesthouse and got it hooked up and working. We now have a functioning stove, hot water at the kitchen sink and in the bathroom at the sink and in the shower - which I have used already. Turns out, the shower is quite roomy. We had out doubts about that, but not to worry. It functions nicely.

Guesthouse Butane Tank

Lest you think the tank is just standing there in an unsafe mode, it is chained and padlocked to an anchor in the concrete wall, so it can't fall and become a missile. I still have to paint the flex tubing that encased the gas lines. First things first.

Latest update so far this morning on T/S Richard. The latest NOAA map shows it going further south from us - which is good news. Sure, we'll probably get a good dowsing, but that should be about it. Hopefully, Richard will be the last event for the season. Hey, we can hope, can't we?

Can't Get Much Closer!

Well, let's see... Where to start, where to start?
Hmmm, Oh, I know. We got our new refrigerador (Spanish again) this morning. The reason we wanted a different one was this had an ice maker. I probably should have looked a tad closer to see what that meant.

In Belizean terms a device named "Easy Ice" is something of a modern convenience of the first order. What that means is, there's two small icecube trays set in a fancy rotating plastic frame with a bin to collect icecubes directly below.

All you have to do to get delicious ice cubes is pull out the contraption holding the two trays, hold it under the water faucet of your choice, fill both trays with water, and return the contraption to its holder in the freezer. Then, when the water has frozen into ice, you simply turn the handles to dump the newly minted cubes into the bin below and repeat the process as often as desired.

Yessiree! The twentieth century is speedily catching up here. Dang, and I thought we'd have to make icecubes the old fashioned way. Just goes to show what a little dose of technology will do for you. It is a pretty gray.

Fridge With "Easy Ice" Maker in the Freeze

So, just in case you missed it, here's a shot of the poop-chute. I know it's something everyone is just dying to see. Well, that's why I shot it. A lot of work went into putting it together to make sure it worked correctly, so just appreciate it for what it is - a shit-pipe.

Fresh From the Commode

Entering the Septic Tank

On a lighter note, we now turn our attention to the parking area just adjacent to the sewage treatment facility. In fact, you can see the overhead pipe run in this picture too.

It just seems so strange to be able to park in the shade. Something I could get used to in short order.

The Parking Area of Casa Rider

I spent about three hours or so this morning sorting out the reverse osmosis system. Pancho, the plombero for Franz and Jose's company, wasn't real skookum on reading English - as in directions. Still, all in all, he came close. I just had to read the manual and reposition about half of the tubing. Then it was working fine.

And it does too. it'll make and hold about 14 gallons of clean, pure, drinking water. It takes about 3 hours to make the 14 gallons which are stored in a pressure tank under the RO filter. Our system also has a UV light to zap the microbes still in the water.

Reverse Osmosis At Wor

Just a quick note - we still don't have the water softener hooked up. I haven't had the time to peruse the manual to figure out what it needs.

Next up, the on-demand water heater. As far as we know, it works fine. Of course, the only thing we've done with it so far is to turn on the shower and stick our finger under the stream till it gets warm, then turn it off. I guess the real test will come when we jump into the shower.

On Demand Water heater

Next up is our Butane gas tank. I think it's a 20 gallon job. We bought it at Cinty's - completely filled with butane. I also bought the regulator, hose, and clamps there.

Trusty Butane Bottle, Always On The Job

And last but not least is another shot of our gate area and gate lights. This afternoon, I bought a gate motor (made in China) from Capital Steel, up north of Corozal on the Northern Highway. If the gate gets delivered tomorrow, it might just be a short piece of work to get that installed. It even comes with a couple of easy-to-use remote controllers.

Gate Minus the Gate

Oh, and as far as getting closer, we're going to start by moving the big truck, our sectional, and probably just about everything else. So, I guess tomorrow's the big day.