Guess What? It's Sunday

Of course, that means it's time for another Sunday Morning Grab Bag.

Long-time readers will know that that means there's a pile of stuff that's gathered that just isn't long enough for a full posting, or that it's just a snippet I've found that I thought you might find interesting, like this one.

One of the things I had the most trouble adusting to down here in Paradise, is the tendancy for Belizeans to not form line. There is no line etiquette. They tend to just barge up to the counter and start talking to the person behind it as if no one else is there. There's also a very different concept of the personal space bubble. They kind of go hand-in-hand.

I'd never really thought about it as such, but being of primarily English and Scottish stock, waiting in line, or queuing up, as they say is so very English. As Dan Pardo, an Englishman with the BBC, said "I like a good queue - well formed, orderly, no doubting who's in front of you and who's behind."
Dan wrote an article about queuing up in Venesuela, of all places (The Surreal World of Venezuela's Queues, Daniel Pardo, 20 April, 2015, BBC). He said, "There are many countries that don't respect these fine, ancient traditions, and prefer the first-past-the-post system - involving pushing, shoving and grunting." This fits Belize to a T.

A Chinatown Conversation

or

Form an Orderly Queue to the Left

Here's an aside for you. 'Fit to a T.' A lot of folks think the 'T' should be 'Tee' as in golf. Being the inveterate dictionary reader that I am, I looked it up. It's a saying that's been around since at least the 1600's, so 'T' is correct.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming. It took me quite a while to learn to swallow my English-based sense of propriety and just crowd in and hold my ground. Screw the personal space. I also found a voice to let people know I was there first and that I wasn't letting them crowd in front of me as if I wasn't even there.

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Just a quick heads-up. There might just be a cure no, that's not right. How about a treatment, that sounds right, for Doctor Flies. It involves 'blue balls'. No, not what you're thinking - blue beach balls, and sticky glue. Wilma, of the blog, South Englishtown Gazette, one of the blogs we follow, has a much larger Dr. Fly problem than we do (try 1,300 of 'em in a week) has come up with a novel way to stymie the little bastards. I'll be doing a posting on that very thing. I've ordered the glue and the balls. Stay tuned. Well, read Wilma's posting on blue balls too, and look around her blog. You'll like it.

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We might be having some papaya sometime. We have a couple of volunteer papaya starts growing in the yard. Actually, they just sprang up in a pile of black dire we had delivered some time back.

Our New Papaya Trees

I think they're keepers too. The flowers look like they're small (to me anyway), and according to our caretaker, Carlos, if they're small, we keep them, if they're large, we yank 'em out. I'm not sure what the difference is. I forgot to ask. I'll see if I can remember to do that.

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I thought I had written a post on this before, but checking the postings, I guess not. We had inherited some cushion foam from Vivien and Denis. I hung onto it for a bit, then took it down to Alec the Tailor for him to cut it and cover the resultant three pieces with fabric, thereby making three beds for the doggies. That would be much better than their raggedy blankets and bath towels they had used forever.

Bela and Chanel Check Out One of the New Mattresses

Here's a shot of the goods after I picked them up from Alec. They look really nice. Of course, there was the obligatory communications gap when I first went to pick them up. I had thought I was fairly clear that I wanted a fabric box for the foam matress to fit into, with a lid that folds over and is fastened with either Velcro or a zipper. Hmmm...

What Alec had done was make a box for the foam to fit in, with Velcro holding it together, but no lid, or bottom as he saw it. I had him attach the lid/bottom and everything is more or less copacetic.

But not according to Bela. The first night she promptly uncovered the mattress and proceeded to tear little chunks out of the mattress foam. I thought that after my severely scolding her, that shredding the foam would stop. Uh... no.

Almost every night since, there's been additional bits of foam all over the porch. So far, her modifications have been restricted to just the one mattress. But, we'll soon reach the point of no return with that, and she'll no doubt, start attacking the other two mattresses.

I'm thinking of possibly getting some more of the Naugahyde-like stuff I bought several years ago at Cinty's (that we use as a cover for the pool-cover reel) and having Kent Cattouse, the upholsterer, make new coverings for the three mattresses. That way, I'm pretty sure, she wouldn't be able to whittle those down to crumbs. At least for a while.

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Last little bit. There's a lot of photos, I've either taken or collected that some of you would probably like to see (like the one below). I think I mentioned before that I'm working on a photo gallery for the blog.

You Only Thought You Knew Everything That Was Used - Taken by an Anonymous Coastie

That's true. I am. Just as soon as I solve the font issue. To try to move that along, I've asked Steve Kelly to help with the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Maybe we'll get it done. Steve, and his wife, Jane, are new arrivees to Corozal. You'll probably meet them sooner or later.

Ok, I guess that's enough for now. Time for a cuppa.

Cheers,

Sunday Afternoon Grab Bag

Sunday Morning Grab Bag - Just the usual accumulation (I can't even call it a collection) of detritus and debris that's moved and taken up residence from the last time I did one of these. It's always amazing how stuff just gets in there (my PC) and waits for something to happen, either relevant to the shot, in the case of photos, or some other magic chemistry in the case of text. Anyway, here's the latest selection of stuff that's been accumulating.

Another day another bunch of words spit out from the typewriter (well, the PC actually. I do use typewriter sounds most of the time to come close. It's a nostalgia thing). Sometimes it just seems to go so easily.

Well, we'll find out soon enough. I've got to finish outlining the story, and do some more work on characcters. That's mostly a process of discovery, wherever it lead me is where I go, sort of thing.

If this rain keeps up I'm going to have to be re-trained in use of the pool. Not that I'm complaining or anything. I know things could be worse. Just look down to Monkey River here in Belize. Check out Wilma's website the South Englishtown Gazette (http://southenglishtown.blogspot.com/). I tried posting the URL yesterday on our blog, but for some unknown reason, it didn't take. I got up there today. They've had like seven feet of rain in their village. That makes our one foot or so seem kinda paltry by comparison. Of course, then you can look over at the Philippines. Wow! A million or more homeless, maybe ten thousand or more dead? And, I used to do disasters for a living. Glad it's not my watch. Where would you even begin?

So, back to our patch here. From about 2:30 AM till now at 10:20 AM, it's done nothing but rain. It's either drizzling or coming down in buckets. Of course my weather station has picked now to go off-line. Well, one thing's for sure, I'm not climbing up on the roof of the pool house in this stuff to check it out. There's only so much that could have gone wrong with it. What I'm willing to bet on is that the rechargeable batteries in it haven't been able to be recharged by the solar cell charger on the unit. No freakin' sun to do the deed.

I've looked at the receiving unit on my desk and it looks like it's pulling in the data, so maybe the batteries out there aren't the problem. Maybe my USB hub that the receiver plugs into is on the fritz. I have been having problems with it lately. It might be time to think about a replacement hub. It is about five or six years old. Down here, I think that makes it about nine or ten in electronics parts years. Humidity and heat tend to kill anything in short order that runs electrons through itself.

You know what? I just realized this is Sunday. I've got the laundry in the washing machine, breakfast is done, dishes done and put away... I'm at loose ends. It's time for another Sunday Morning Grab Bag. By the time I kick this out the door, it'll be a Sunday Afternoon Grab Bag. That's why I don't wear a watch, isn't it?

Having said that, I feel much better about this posting. It felt disjointed from the beginning, so that's perfect for a grab bag.

I wonder what I've got for photos to put up? I just took a couple of minutes to peruse some that I've accumulated on the new PC. A lot of old ones that weren't categorized or otherwise filed, got lost in the shuffle of moving to a new machine. That's what happens sometimes.

This one just below was taken on walkies with the girls, as we do most mornings when it's not raining and the road is dry enough to get through. I like the photo, but it just doesn't do justice to the real McCoy. It was real and it was spectacular, to steal a phrase from Seinfeld.

Sunrise on Corozal Bay

At the intersection we used to call Cannon Corners, now it's just the intersection by Prosser's, there's a family right beside the little creek there who raise geese. The geese have had several hatchings in the time they've been there. Here's the latest. Mama (or Mother Goose?) has brought the little ones down to the creek's edge and getting them to swim.

Taking the Kids For A Swim

Shooting the pelicans is always one of my favorites. Maybe because even in flight, they move so slow. Anyway, I thought this one was just right. Not bad for just a point and shoot kinda photographer.

 Fisherman's Landing

Here's something I think should be done more in the US. Remembrance Day, Veteran's Day, whatever you want to call it, wearing a poppy is a simple reminder of the sacrifice of many for what we hold dear. It's seldom seen in the States, or Belize, for that matter.

I Wish This Was More Respected in the States

And here's something that shouldn't be seen here or anywhere. Last I thought I knew, the law required effluvia emanating from a septic tank to be sent to a drain field. This restaurant has apparently taken the short route by just sending it to the adjacent storm drainage ditch, which incidentally empties into Corozal Bay right beside the swimming area of the restaurant's day resort. Yummy!

Septic Drain

And, last but not least, I saw this posted on Reddit.com. I didn't even know there was such a thing.

A Fitting Name

OK. That's it for this edition of the Grab Bag.

Cheers

And Not A Moment Too Soon

It's time for another 'grab-bag Sunday.' And... Whatever I was going to write has just gone up in smoke.

I'm not sure how this is going to go... I just lost everything I had written - several paragraphs and all the photos. Gone in an instant. Technology allows you to destroy stuff quicker than the blink of an eye. In fact, damn near instantaneously. It's so quick, you just sit there staring at your blank screen for a few seconds, thinking "Now, that didn't really just happen, did it?" Then, your brain springs into action, trying to come up with some really pertinent medieval profanity, with the intent being to, one, equalize the pressure between your ears and, two, that somehow, uttering a string of favorite cuss words will instantly restore the now missing words to the screen. Of course, it never does.

The scene shifts slightly, going forward in time several hours, about 24 of them in fact. I wasn't relishing trying to resurrect what I had already written, and the satellite Intertubes decided that I couldn't load even one web page without waiting for hours to pass. So, I gave up till this morning. It always seems to magically ease up download and upload capability during the 'free time', from 2 to 7 AM, Eastern Standard Time. Thanks HughesNet. You're really great.

Nothing I like better than trying to recreate something that was almost done, and yes, I had hit the 'Save' button... several times. Arrrgh! I had gone into the inner workings of the blog to adjust the HTML and [blip] everything disappeared and there was no way to resurrect it.

Oh, well. Take a deep breath, have a cup of coffee and start over. Reload the photos and try to remember the witty narrative I had carefully constructed. Not a problem. So, after having trashed everything I had written yesterday morning, let's see how far I get on re-writing it.

A while back, like in June I think, the Citizens Coalition for a Better Corozal had donated several items to the Corozal Police Department. Handcuffs, batons and five brand new bicycles. All with the idea that this would help combat the growing crime rates in our town. I kept a watchful eye every day for the new bikes. I had heard of folks who actually saw them on patrol, but I never had. And I was in town usually at least once a day, either for walkies or a run to the grocery or hardware stores.

This one morning in September was to be different. As we were walking along the waterfront by Miami Beach, I saw two of the fabled bikes propped up against one of the beach palapas. I just had to take a photo. As we approached, the two officers, who were lounging under the palapa, immediately jumped up to pose with their bikes, as you can see below. "We're doing early morning beach patrol," one said to me.

New Bikes On Patrol

We talked for a couple of minutes about the weather, the new bikes and how slow an early morning beach patrol was, and then it was time for us to continue with walkies. I had finally seen a couple of the new police cruisers in action... sort of.

This next photo might look a little strange. It's up on our back porch. Dianna has a rack for starting seeds. In its former life, the rack was one of those racks that fit over the toilet tank in the bathroom. We had never really cared that much for it, but hated to just pitch it, so here it is serving as her seed nursery.

What you see here is some of the bits I'm using to put together a watering wand setup for Dianna, so she can take care of the little plants easily.

My Stuff Ready To Build Watering Station

Here's a shot of some of the seedlings. Apparently parsley starts very quickly, and, true to form, ours does too. She also has cilantro, basil, lemon basil, chives, thyme, and probably a couple others as well.

It's Alive, It's Alive

I mentioned the watering wand. Here it is. It has a reel to hold the wand tubing. The reel turns to make rolling up the tubing very easy. The wand also has a trigger device, so you can easily start and stop the water flow.

All Done

I tapped into the kitchen cold water supply from downstairs, ran it through a couple of joists and through the wall into the west breezeway where it then went up through the floor of the porch. Once mounted to the wall, I attached a plastic valve and the wand/reel assembly. It's right next to the seedling rack for convenience.

As you can see in the next photo, convenience doesn't get much more convenient than this. I scored a couple of brownie-points with this little project as Dianna is very happy with it. Incidentally, she's been hauling this wand thing around for about ten or eleven years and finally gets to use it.

Here's the Big Picture

This was a day for water projects. If you remember from an earlier post, I had stubbed out a water line to the far side of the compost bin, intending to put my last fancy hose hanger in place there. Well it's been done now and works like a charm.

Last Hanger Hung

Here's the result. Hanger, hose, and faucet, all hooked up and ready to go. I do have to paint the outside of the compost bin, but that's for another day.

Hose, Hanger, and Faucet

Now, this project, the broken pool pump house door, has been hanging around (no pun intended) for months. For starters, we had lived with one then two broken hinges on our pool pump house door for some time. Oh sure, I had intended to call Vasco Doors and Windows, who built and installed the door in the first place, but you know how is, some other project always has a claim on the work priorities.

Rusted and Busted

It's not like this was a new problem. A couple of years ago, a hinge had broken on the door. Vasco had come then and fixed it. Then, a year or so ago, the bottom hinge broke again (quality welding and materials). Back they came and welded that as well, and added a third hinge for safety's sake. Then a couple of months ago, the bottom hinge went again. Then before I could call them, the middle hinge went. I still had some other priorities (something about a 'squeaky wheel getting the grease' comes to mind).

What brought it to a head, was about a week and a half ago, I went out to the pump house to reset the mechanical timer after one of our power failures. As I opened the door with its one hinge... Crash! The door came at me in a hurry. Thanks to some fancy dance steps, I was able to avert disaster, get my body out-of-the-way and rather gently lay the door down without busting my head or anything else on the patio. That definitely gets the adrenalin flowing.

I managed to get the door back into an upright position and propped it in place in the jamb to protect the pump from any rain that might come our way. And believe me, it's been coming our way quite often lately.

All right. I realized that the door had raised its priority level by several notches. I then had to call Vasco, or rather stop by to talk to them as they respond less well to telephone conversations. They said they could come out two days from then.

Dianna and I had everything in readiness for them to come Thursday morning and fix the door. But, having had experience dealing with them, I knew that timeliness was not their strong suit. And, to be totally honest, depending on who did the actual welding, quality may not be quite up to snuff either.

With that in mind, we were not real surprised when they didn't show up at the appointed time or day. A couple of days later (things do tend to get laid back here) I stopped in to see if they were planning to come some time. All right. They were going to come tomorrow, Saturday. I stressed that I now wanted heavy-duty hinges, and I wanted four of them on the door and I wanted their main welder (I still don't know his name). Not a problem. They'd be there at 9:30 AM.

Of course, 9:30 came and went. About 11:00 AM, they finally showed up. They got the welding machine set up, connected to a series of extension cord bits and pieces and some Romex cable as it's about 250 feet from the work site to our power panel out by the street.

We never got any further that day, as they brought out the new hinges – the same size as before. Wrong. The head welder jumped into his pickup, and went back to the shop to get the large hinges. About 45-minutes later, he returned. They didn't have the hinges. They had to get them and would be here first thing Monday morning. After winding up the cable bits and putting all the tools back in the truck they left.

That afternoon I had a Men's Group meeting out at Craig's house. I remember telling them that Saturday morning was alright, but not the afternoon as I wouldn't be there. Dianna told be that evening that of course, they had come back with the right parts. Dianna told them they'd have to come as scheduled on Monday as I wasn't there. So they left.

I thought maybe that would be the kiss of death for the Monday appointment. But no, they showed up about an hour later and things began to get serious.

After a short discussion about hinge sizes,work did actually get going. My concept of a larger hinge was something larger than two inches in height. More on the order of four inches or so. The concept they were dealing with was a hinge that was the same height, but had a beefier central pin. Realizing I was bound to lose if I stuck to my guns about hinge sizes, I said they could go ahead with those hinges as long as they put four of them in place.

So, now here we are, and as you can see below, actual work is occurring. First off, removing and grinding off the rusty stumps of the broken hinges

Grinding Off Old Weld Scar

Then, it's back with the bits and pieces of wire to the power main. Totally bypassing breakers, so their welding machine is at the mercy of the gods of current. Standard operating procedure.

Quick and Dirty Hookup

Here's a glimpse of the welding machine. You can see the head welder twisting the heavy cables together connecting the electrode holder to the machine. You can see the Romex power cord behind it.

Hooking Up The Electrode Holder Cable

In case you were wondering, this used to be a Lincoln arc welder. And, I assume, once upon a time it looked something like this: You can see a couple vestiges of red paint on their machine.

Dreams of A Lincoln Arc Welder

This machine reminds me of my Godson Isaiel's old welding machine. It was so decrepit, that his assistant had to literally stand with one foot in the machine to keep the coil from bouncing around while Isaiel did the welding. Now that I think about it, maybe this machine isn't so bad. But, I digress.

Here, you can see them actually welding the hinges to the door and jamb.

Welding On New Hinges

Surprisingly, the assistant actually got to do a couple bits of minor welding on the back side of the door under the close watchful eye of the master, of course.

The Apprentice Gets To Do Some Welding

Eventually, the job got done. It now works smoother than it ever has. I have high hopes that it will last for years to come – at least one or two.

As a parting gift for having read this far, here's a shot of an unknown flower growing in our patio garden. It's gorgeous.

A Pretty Pink Flower On Our Patio

We have two examples of this plant. One came from the other, so they should both be the same. But they're not. One's flowers start off looking somewhat like a rose, then they open in the morning, pink like this one. But by afternoon, they have become white as snow (whatever that is). The plant from the one above doesn't close up at night and its pink flowers don't change to white. Yet they come from the same plant. Explain that one, Gregor Mendel.