Saturday Afternoon Grab Bag

Just the usual collection of stuff that isn't necessarliy connected to anything else, or anything in particular.
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For those folks who live partially or fully in the bush... Have you ever noticed that as a vehicle comes down the road, before it ever becomes visible, all the squeaks, and rattles long precede the sound of the engine? And, that it's kind of musical too. Sort of like someone banging a rhythm on the cymbals and triangles way before they hit the tom or bass drums?
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I'm still trying to find how to get my custom font installed for the blog banner. One of the days it'll be successful. I'm also working (slowly, to be sure) on figuring out the DNS scheme, so that I can get that corrected as well.
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Something new... I had a lower molar pulled yesterday. Remember a while back, I had gone to Belize City with Carlos, and Sara, and Jeff? This is the result. Dr. Sinai, in BC was planning to mredo the root canal, but the bone damage was too great. Only thing left was for Dr. Cima, here in Corozal, to do the deed.

Next comes getting a bridge made and installed (Is that the right word)? I have three stiches. The extraction was done on Monday. It's now Friday. Things seem to have healed up quite well. I'm pretty much back on normal food now, instead of soft and mushy. I have an appointment with Dr. Cima on Monday to see what the next step is. I'm assuming that it's to begin the bridge fitting process. I hope so anyway.
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Has anyone run into the two-step authentication process that seems to be taking over the intertubes? If all I had was one machine it'd probably be fine. Having a PC, an iPod, iPad and a so-called 'smart phone,' it becomes infinitely more complex and confusing. I still don't have it sorted out.

Same goes for setting up e-print to use with our HP printer fun, fun, fun. Oh, and don't get me started on Google's Drive, and gMail, etc., etc., etc. Ahh, the simple life that technology has delivered to us. Uh-huh.
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Our Roomba, Carson, is currently terrorizing all three doggies. They're all inside right now because the weather is blowing and raining, or it was anyway. Deohgee and Secret don't like Carson at all.

Bela thinks she's got Carson all figured out. She can lay in the mmiddle of the room and Carson will bump into her, but then he just normally turns away and happily goes off in another direction. Not this morning. He ran over her tail and I think she though he was going to eat it. She scooted right out of his way, and has been somewhat gun-shy since.
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So far, with the wind and rain this morning, it's not looking real conducive for a pleasant pool party this afternoon. The forecast said only a 50% chance of rain, and the temperature was supposed to be 88 or 89 degrees (f). Without the wind and rain, that would have pretty much guaranteed that we'd be in the pool most of the afternoon. It may be one of those days that gets cancelled. Bummer. Well, we'll see. There's still time before we have to make a decision.
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Hey, how about those Mets, eh? Er, I mean, those Jaguars. The Belize National Football Team. Real football, not that American version where fifteen minutes of action is crammed into three hours of commercials. They just defeated the Dominican Republic 2-1. I'm amazed that they're staying alive in the World Cup qualifyings. Woo-hoo! Big ups to the team!
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This is the second day that the girls and I haven't been able to go for walkies. Our road just becomes too slick and mucky. Marl, the stuff that makes up our road, is a combination of clay and limestone, which, when wet, has the surface feel of ice, and the consistency of yogurt. Not frozen yogurt, just plain old yogurt.

In fact, yesterday, there was a front-end loader from the Dept. of Works up by the trees where the Chinese lots are. It was shoving the muck off of the road to the side and expanding the side a bit. Of course, that does nothing to improve roadside drainage - there's nowhere for the water to go, except on the roadway, which makes the roadway marl that much muckier.

So far this morning, it has done nothing but rain, so you can see where this story is going. Thankfully, the area from about Sara's house to the aforementioned trees is staying together. I should they finally put over sixty dumptruck loads of large rock in the roadbed there after we wallowed in about three feet of mud for most of the rainy season two years ago. It'll be interesting to see how long it holds up, or whether it will sink into the netherworld and become a quagmire again.

Of course, it's still too early to guesstimate how much rain we're likely to get this season. Anyway, day two of no walkies, and the doggies are already looking at me as if I'm mean and cruel. Deohgee and Secret probably (or not) remember from other rainy seasons, the days on end of no walkies. Bela has no knowledge of that as this is her first rainy season, so for her, I just a meanie depriving her of a fun activity. She'll learn.
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This morning, I've got to go into town, by vehicle, to the pharmacy for drugs and such, and a stop by Balthazar Vasques' place, to see about getting a sheet of the perforated galvanized steel, like they used on the screen doors. I need it to be painted black like the doors, and cut into five-inch strips across the narrow end. I've got to replace the metal we used on the porches up at the eves to plug the gaps up there.

The old stuff is completely rusted out. In fact, it's falling out in small chunks. To its credit, it did last six or seven years. But now that it's falling apart, the bugs, mostly mosquitos, are finding it no problem to get into the porches. As the rainy season progresses, this will become much more a necessity to have fixed. Better to do it now.

I stopped and saw Balthazar. He'll get a piece and cut it to my specs (I hope). He's also going to prime it and paint it black - after everything is cut. So, with all that prep work, it might even last longer than six or seven years.
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A quick note on the pool. I checked the temp this afternoon. at about 2:45 PM. It was 84 (f). Wow. Better than I expected. If it doesn't rain too awful much, it might just be a pool day tomorrow.
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The weather just isn't going to cooperate this afternoon. We went ahead and cancelled the pool party. Water in the pool was probably too cold anyway.
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Where Do I Begin?

The last week and a half has been interesting, to say the least. Let me bring you up to speed on all that has happened.

First, a week ago Tuesday (August 19), I had Balthazar Vasquez and his son/helper come to take a look at a couple of steel screen doors we have on the Mennonite house. Upper and lower on the same end of the house. We were talking about pulling the doors and frames out and them working on the doors to refine the fit and to replace heavy metal screening in the doors themselves. I wanted them to replace the welds holding the screen in place with screws so the screening would be relatively easy to paint/replace on down the road.

We started off looking at the upstairs (front) door. Actually, the first thing I did was to tie up the dogs to prevent any undue familiarity with them and workers. A security measure of sorts. That went fine at first. When it came time to inspect the lower door, which was where I had the girls tied up, I had to move them so that Balthazar could check out the door.

Not even giving it a thought, I disconnected their main chain (they each had a short length of chain to their collars, which in turn were joined to the main chain) planning on moving them all together to the parking palapa.

Big mistake on my part. The dogs, already excited because of Balthazar being there, and now I was trying to move them as a group. Well too much excitement led to a big fight with the three of them. Poor Cindy Lu, being the smallest took the brunt of it. It probably only lasted a few seconds. I managed to get them separated and secured.

Then I told Balthazar that we could start this project on Wednesday morning and eased them out of the property. During all that, Dianna had checked out Cindy Lu, She had sustained a couple pretty good bites but nothing real severe. I bundled her on her leash into the Isuzu and took her to Dr. Sheila, just to make sure.

After getting some pills for antibiotics and such, we returned home. As I was letting her out of the car, things went to hell in a hurry. I had thought in the half-hour Cindy Lu and I were gone, that the other two dogs would have calmed down and returned to normal. No. They immediately jumped on Cindy Lu and a really terrible fight ensued.

I was trying to get the dogs separated, pounding on Deeohgee and Secret, which did no good at all, and then tugging on Cindy Lu's collar, which slipped off her and sent me flying airborne, landing flat on my back across a concrete curb. As I landed, I heard a loud and distinct 'crack'.

My first thought was that I had broken my back. I managed to get up. It didn't feel too bad right then and I helped corral the two big dogs. Cindy Lu had gone over to the other side of the palapa and was lying down. Dianna went over to check her out.

At that point things began to get a little foggy for me. I began to realize that I was probably hurt more seriously than I initially thought.

Dianna said Cindy Lu was bleeding quite a lot if she moved her. I knew I was not going to be able to drive. We called David and Elizabeth and they came over quickly. Dianna and David carried Cindy lu to his car and they took Cindy Lu back to Dr. Sheila's. Sheila immediately began triaging Cindy Lu's wounds. She said we could probably pick her up at five PM.

After they got back from that trip, we (I think) were talking about if I needed to go to the doctor. I opted for the hospital to get an x-ray of my back, assuming that would be the first thing my doctor asked for. Just then, the phone rang. It was Dr. Sheila with the very bad news that poor Cindy Lu didn't make it. Sheila just could not stop the bleeding. Both her femoral artery and vein had been badly damaged in the fight.

Our Beloved Cindy Lu in Happier Times

We just didn't have time right then to start any sort of grieving process. I know for me, the rest of the afternoon was quite surreal. I know I haven't yet acknowledging her loss. It's weird how things can just become so compartmentalized.

David loaded me into their Isuzu and took me up to the hospital. Elizabeth stayed at our place with Dianna.

When we got to the hospital, I was amazed at how fast I actually got in to see a doctor. He asked a couple of questions and looked briefly at my back. I ended up getting an injection in the butt and a prescription for some pills. Altogether, I was in the hospital about 10 minutes. I had completely forgotten to ask for an x-ray and the doctor didn't mention it either.

So, back to the house. By this time, it's apparent to everyone (not necessarily me) that I can barely move. Immediately, we set up camp in the pool house, as climbing the stairs up to our Mennonite house would be almost an impossibility. And this is where we've been living ever since. Except for today, which is the first time I've been back upstairs so I could do this blog bit and some other things.

Early on, we made contact with Dr. Marc Nadreau, a Chiropractor who also is an acupuncturist. I met with him Wednesday, the day after my fall and I've had three or four sessions with him since. I think that's why I seem to be making quite substantial progress toward recovery.

Yesterday, I also visited with Doctors Natasha and Kishor Punjabi, who run the Five Rivers Medical Clinic just north of Courts. They put me on some pain killers and muscle relaxants. Great doctors and great people. Very easy to talk to, and very knowledgeable.

After four sessions with Dr. Marc, my back this afternoon is finally feeling almost normal. I certainly didn't think I would be feeling like this so soon after the fall.

We're thinking that maybe tomorrow we can begin moving back into the Mennonite house. Of course, if the tropical wave coming towards us develops into something, we may be back down to the pool house as our hurricane shelter. Maybe we'll be slow about moving out. Besides, I don't want to jeopardize my back and the progress that's been made with it.

Back to the dogs for a bit. On the one hand, it was a very bad scene with the fight, and with Cindy Lu dying. It would be easy to say, "That's it, they're gone and get rid of Secret and Deeohgee too". But, they're still lovable. There was no malice in what occurred. It's just one of those things that happens in the dog world. If I'd been more like Cesar and had stronger instincts about dog behavior, I would have probably moved them one at a time and maybe avoided the problem, or when we came back from the Vets, I wouldn't have brought Cindy out with them around. But, I didn't and it happened. We still love them and have them around us day and night - even more so, staying down at the pool house.

It's easy to think of relationships with dogs as being so simple, but at the same time, they seem to be some of the most complicated relationships we have to deal with. Some of the recent research seems to bear that out, with the findings of areas of our human brain responding directly to dog activities. I think we're a lot closer to them than we realize. At least with ours, there was never a thought that we would get rid of them - wring their necks, for sure, but not getting rid of them. they're a part of the family.

And I know, Cindy Lu would want it that way too.