The Fixin' Begins

This afternoon Dianna and I were out and about. We started off at Corozo Blue's (http://corozoblues.com/) for pizza and beer with Doug and Twyla, to thank them for looking after the house and girls while we were on vacation. As usual, the pizza was delicious and done to a turn in their wood-fired pizza oven. Yummers!

From there, we did a couple of other minor chores, sending off a letter at the post office, checking a sewing project at Alek the Tailor's (I know it's spelled with an 'x' in the index. Trust me, the 'k's' right - d), trying to find the new Chiropractor in town (no luck there), and finally, stopping at Corozal International Airstrip just as the 3:20 PM Tropic Air flight from San Pedro touched down.

I went in the terminal building (what's the term for just up from a shed?) and after a couple of minutes, here come's my package in from Island Pool Supplies.

What Just Flew In From San Pedro

I know what my morning project will be tomorrow. Get that thing fixed so Huey can do his thing and we can get in the water!

That's about it for today. I have to make my rounds and secure everything.

Cheers

Tailoring A House Call

Well, well, well. Just when you think you've got the weekend off, more stuff to do. This morning, I picked up Alex the tailor (who always reminds me of Motel Kamzoil, the tailor in the Fiddler on the Roof), as Dianna needed him to take measurements for several projects she wants to get done in the pool house. Those projects being, a cover for the futon; a bed skirt; a duvet cover, also for the bed; curtain tiebacks; and a shower curtain.

Alex and His Son Measuring The Futon

Since this was Sunday, you might think he was closed, but no. Being Seventh Day Adventist, his Sabbath was on Saturday, so he sometimes opens his shop on Sundays. This was one of those sometimes.

Dianna and Alex Measuring For The Bed Skirt

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On another note, Doug and Twyla found a new upholstery shop in town. It's RX Upholstery. Jose Kelly is the owner. His shop is located up on Santa Rita Hill  on the Northern Highway (48 Santa Elena Rd), just in front of Mei's Market. He worked for several years as a boat upholsterer in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. He does quite excellent work. I found lots of heavy vinyl fabric (like Naugahide) at Cinty's in white, black, burgundy, and grey.

We had him first make a new cover of the white vinyl for our pool cover reel, as the old blue fabric cover had virtually disintegrated. That turned out super. We had one more project immediately in mind - a headboard, complete with buttons in the same white vinyl.

Yesterday, I had picked up the new headboard, also for the bed in the pool house. I had forgotten to paint the exposed wood, so after picking it up from the upholstery shop, this morning I laid it out and put two coats of the navy blue inside paint on it - after properly masking it of course.

Tomorrow, I'll bolt it to the box spring of the bed and, just like that - done.

Pool House New Headboard

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 Oh, I almost forgot - some other things we've been doing - wouldn't want you to think we've been slacking entirely - shelving in the pool house utility room and downstairs in the main house utility room.

I got tired of trying to find free-standing metal shelving, the cheap crap, not the Gorilla Shelves-type things. Most of the hardware stores here have the wall standards and brackets, so that's what I went with. Turned out pretty good.

Pool House Utility Room Shelving

For once, the pool house utility room is way organized. Not only that, but I pulled all the stuff out the pool pump house, so now the only things in there are the pumps, filter and valves - the way it should be.

Friday and Saturday I worked on the shelving for the tool room (for lack of a better name) downstairs. It too turned out really nice. I should have done this a long time ago. It's amazing how disorganized you can get with stuff just piled on the floor. As an example, we found out that we have four one-gallon cans of white latex primer. There was some needless spending.

Downstairs Shelving

Dianna's been busy as well, in addition to keeping Alex gainfully employed. She painted a couple of cool palm trees in the bedroom. They've turned out quite nice. Silver colored and make it kind of a moon-lit night image. Very relaxing.

Dianna's Palms

Trying to Whup Cabin Fever

Well, the doggies have told us they're tired of confinement. I had just come back from getting a loaf of 'Dirty Olive' bread from 'Breadman' Charles' place a little after 6:30 AM, so we could have it for breakfast. Toasted with a little Happy Cow cheese spread on a slice, yummers!

Anyway, as I got out of the car, Secret and Deohgee were busily attacking Cindy. I mean, really attacking her. She's lucky to be alive right now. The attack started just as I turned into our driveway. I handed Dianna the loaf as she came down the stairs from the house. Then I waded into the middle of the melee. Of course, there's always danger in doing that of receiving a bite, but the alternative would have been a dead dog, so you do what you have to do.

After I got Cindy away from them I had both Secret and Deohgee by the collars and got them leashed up. Then, they started going after each other. I put the bite (Cesar's way) on them both, wrestled them to the ground and increased pressure, waiting till they both relaxed and gave in. At this stage, I was going to chain them up together, but realized that would have be somewhat counter-productive. So, I sternly told them they were bad dogs and let them loose.

By this time everyone has calmed down and the fight was over. I was breathing like a mad bull and was pumped full of adrenalin, so it took me a while to relax after that. We humans don't seem to be able to relax nearly as fast as do dogs.

But, what better way to relax than to have a hot cup of Belizean coffee (I think Gallon Jug coffee with a spoonful of cinnamon in the grounds is way fine) and the aforementioned slice of bread.

After breakfast and getting ourselves calmed down, it was time to shower and see what we were going to do for the day.

Today was supposed to be the day we got our new eyeglasses. I checked with Doug and Twyla to see if they wanted to go. No. Twyla was out and Doug was playing house guard, so we took off by ourselves to the hospital and the Methodist Eye Clinic.

We walked into the clinic, which had about three people sitting there and no one staffing the desk. Not a good sign. We waited about 15-20 minutes (see, we've adjusted well) we decided to call the number Elia had given us. She had been at the desk when we ordered the glasses. Whoever answered, said yes, we could get our glasses today. So, we waited some more.

Other folks came in, waited a while and left. One girl asked us if we had talked to anyone working there. 'Uh, not yet,' was our response. So, this time Dianna called the number again and talked to the same girl. She had more information. Elia was sick today, and besides our glasses weren't ready. The recent bad weather (Karl with a K and Matthew) had hampered eyeglass production, so they wouldn't be ready till next Tuesday. Well, that was nice and relaxing. Good thing we still had a couple of other items on our shopping list.

We left from clinic to go to Cinty's so Dianna could buy about 20 yards of fabric and about 30 yards of ribbon for trim for curtains in the guesthouse. We took all that to Alex the tailor, who added everything up and and had a good laugh as he said that we were way short on the ribbon, and it was too narrow for what Dianna wanted to do. So back to Cinty's. I remembered I had my camera just in time to snap Dianna shopping in Corozal's premier fabric store.

Here, she's looking for some 3/8ths- to 1/2-inch wide blue ribbon. Note the well organized and spacious shelves.

Shopping for Ribbon At Cinty's

Actually, to us, the place (and there's three locations (Cinty's 1 - the original, run by Phillip Batty, Jr. - Junior to everyone, Cinty's 2, the middle one on the corner, run by one of his sisters, and Cinty's 3, around the corner and a couple doors up the block, run by Junior's younger brother) looks totally disorganized, with years of stuff piled haphazardly on top of other stuff. All three stores use the same stocking system.

I Think That's It Up There

A while back I was at Cinty's 1, Junior was very vexed, as they say. It seems the girls who work there (all relations of his) had started to clean and reorganize the store. He couldn't find anything and had just told them to knock off the reorganization.

If you come to Corozal for a visit, you owe it to yourself to go shopping at Cinty's 1, 2, and 3. Don't miss any of them. It's like no other place you've ever shopped at. Guaranteed!

Anyway, Dianna got her fabric and the 70 yards of blue ribbon and we got it delivered to Alex.

I Only Need 70 Yards

Alex, who I've written about before, is a slight built Hindu, who's shop is barely a cupboard. He has two ancient (but powerful) sewing machines and he has an assistant. He can sew virtually anything and is very good and very affordable. All the shorts I have now are made by him as all my store-bought ones wore out long ago. All my shirts (other than tshirts) are also made by him, some with another shirt to use as a pattern, some made from scratch with no pattern. Everything fits great.

It's now evening. Rain is coming down again. I may have to take Cindy (not to be confused with Cinty's) to Dr. Sheila. She's limping pretty good. The rain is due to Tropical Depression 16, soon I'm sure, to be named Tropical Storm Nicole, heading for Cuba and south Florida. I hope it lets up this evening sometime. I just have to take the dogs for walkies. I'd rather not walk through a few inches of mud at the start to do it.

Might Be A Busy Week

This could just be a busy, busy week. First, I should be getting the Isuzu back from Rick, the mechanic. I had it in for an engine rebuild. Some bad rattling going on before I took it in. Also, I hope he fixes the A/C condensation leak problem. The passenger floor area has been sopping for so long.

Let's see, I should also be getting a couple pair of shorts and a couple of shirts from Alex. I'm looking forward to that. Doug just had Alex make about 5 or 6 pair of shirts for him too. We all keep the tailor busy!

Congrats Mr. President

A new day has dawned on the U.S. of A. We have an articulate, thinking man as our new leader. I wish him well.

We watched the inauguration on BBC Canada in order to get somewhat of a different slant on things. Not that much different I suspect, but still different. For example, Aretha Franklin sang 'My Country 'Tis of Thee', which the Beeb announcer called the US national anthem.

Watching with us was our Godson, Isaiel, his wife, Amarily and their son Joshua. They had come for a brief visit and so that Isaiel could take some measurements for burglar bars for the guest house.

Shortly after the swearing in of Mr. Obama, Isaiel asked "What happens to the old President now?" We chuckled and answered, "He's unemployed". As good an answer as any I guess.

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On with other things.

Yesterday, I took Cindy's new pack and tried it out on her. Of course, it was much to big for her. We knew this from the first pack we got that Secret wears now. If we loaded veggies and fruit in it with Cindy wearing it, the bags just about dragged on the ground.

Anyway, I fitted it to Cindy as well as I could, then took it downtown to Alek, the young tailor who is a wizard at making things. I took in an old pair of shorts and asked if he could make new ones. Of course, his answer was yes, along with it an apology that it would take three days to make the shorts. Which by the way, turned out excellent.

Here's Alek hard at work in his shop. That's the extent of his equipment, an old sewing machine.

Alek the Tailor

This morning on our walk past the waterfront, the usual birds were hanging out. I snapped this one of the resident pelican on his perch.

Mr. Pelican

And about 20 yards further on, saw this great blue heron, hunkered down like it was freezing.

Mr. Heron

Naturally, right after I snapped this shot, he lifted his wings and flew away into the sun. It would have made a beautiful picture, but I was slow, getting the camera out of my bag. as happens now and then. Maybe next time.