Dies Solis Oriens Carpo Pera (Or something like that)

Thanks to Google Language Services, 'Dies Solis Oriens Carpo Pera' very roughly translates to 'Sunday Morning Grab Bag'. The fact that this is Saturday, now Wednesday, doesn't mean anything. It's just an excuse to clear out the in-box and move on. Well, that, and putting the title up in latin just sounds so official and, umm, pretentious.
So, what is first out of the bag?

Wow! This one is really old. I took this picture of Terence Leslie, small engine repair wizard, on May 31 - just in time for the start of hurricane season. My generator, a DEK 6.5kV gas generator had been on the blink some time ago, so I called Terence to take a look at it.

Terence Leslie At Work

Turns out it was really a minor problem. The spark plug had gone bad. An easy fix.

He's also fixed my gas-powered weed whacker a couple of times, and, here's the really cool thing, he's an absolute wizard with swimming pool pump motors. I burned out the bearings on mine and he was able to find the correct sized bearings, get them pressed on, and now the pump motor really works better than new.

I don't know why it took me so long to get this one posted - well, for that matter, why it takes so long with any of these. Oh, yes. I do too know. We had some sad times to work through for the past little bit. I guess we're past that now, so time for me to get caught up.

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 Early in June, as we were walking the dogs, which we do just about every day, starting at 5:30 AM, to beat the heat (that's the theory, anyway), just as we passed the Social Security building, a large group of bicyclists were getting ready for the start of one of several major road races that are held at various locations around Belize.

This was the first time either Twyla or I had seen the BERT ambulance. That's the Belize Emergency Response Team. Makes a nice acronym. I have no idea where they're from or anything. Like I said, neither of us had heard of them before.

Belize Emergency Response Team Ambulance

 A necessary part of these events always seems to be the need to pass through several dozens of cyclists and officials and other folks gathered for the start of the race. Of course the dogs tend to get a little excited while we're doing that, so we try to shepherd them through without them gnawing on somebody's bare leg.

Twyla Running the Gauntlet

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This photo, while not exactly a prime shot by any means, does show a few inches of water in our parking area shortly after a late June rainfall.

Just a Little Rain

I still have a couple drains that I need to put in to encourage water to make its way to the canal. Still, even with all that water, within about 15 minutes or so, our parking area is pretty much dry.

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Hurricane damage? No, it's the Corozal Town Council in action. After several ;years of decay, the old Corozal Museum is being rehabbed to become the Corozal Visitor's Center. It's nice to see something finally happening with this building.

Corozal Visitor's Center

If you're not familiar with it, it's located right in front of the Thunderbolt pier.

Now, if they just add a Customs booth and build a small visitor's marina to go with the Visitor's Center, I think you'd really begin to see a change in the way downtown Corozal looks.

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So, what's next?

Well, there's this one. A while back, Jim Voris, a published author (http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/voris) and former resident of Corozal, more especially, our neck of the woods, came back to visit and to have some dental work done at Dr. Glenda Major's office, which is just up the road from us.

Jim stayed with us and took frequent advantage of the pool being just outside his door. Here, you can see Jim (on the left), Dianna, myself, and Stan (on the right). Stan's wife, Regina, took the photo. I'm glad she let me use it.

Pool Life and Jim Voris - by Regina Allen

It was nice having Jim here. We've kind of picked up one or two of the things he and Melanie used to do - hosting happy hour and the lady's pool exercise sessions. It almost felt like old times while he was around.

While Jim was here, he was able to take part in another activity that he was instrumental in forming, the Corozal Men's Group. The photo below shows the group in fine form at Charles' house.

Proposing a Toast

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Now, for a bit of a change of pace. Stan, who until today, lived with his wife Regina, just across the street from us. They've now moved to a house in town. Still a short walk or bike ride away.

Stan Fishing On Our Dock

Stan's an ardent fisherman and appreciates fine whiskey. This day he caught a smallish barracuda, which made a nice meal for the two of them.

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And now, the last bit for this edition...

The patio project continues. Carlos, who works for us on Fridays, is doing an excellent job with this project. The seating bench is pretty much done. He's now started on the BBQ area (on the left, where the rebar is sticking up. Fairly soon, now that too will be done and then he'll start on the small palapa in the middle - roughly where the umbrella is now. Then comes pavers in the central area, a foot or so of black dirt in the planting bed, and lots of plants. Then it's done.

Patio Progress

By then, it'll be time for the next project. Hopefully, for a while, just maintenance of the homestead.

Now, you're up to date, except where I'm behind. That'll have to wait for a future posting. Enjoy!

It's The Weekend

Well, it actually started Friday. Isidoro and his crew were not here, as my original fence project had just been finished.

That left Franz and his crew. A few of them worked Friday afternoon, getting the utility room walls up and ready for the final column pours to complete the room corners.

Oh, I should mention that Eugene, who has been working with Isidoro on this project, was still about, working as my watchman, at nights and during the day when none of the other workers are there. Which was the case all day today, Saturday, and will be the case for Sunday as well.

That's ok, as progress has been very good on pouring columns and getting the utility room walls up. We just hope they get at least the bathroom and a bedroom usable on the new house so we can move in and not have to move into another rental for 2-weeks or a month.

So, with it being the weekend and all, here's a few photos to bring you up to speed on whats' going on. The first, is a shot I took from across the canal of our house. This shot makes it look like our house is out in the wilds of the jungle. Kinda cool.

Jungle Livin' At Its Finest

These next shots show some of the progress on getting the foundation together.

This first one shows a good-sized pile of blocks, which, by the way, have already been mortared into position.

But, it shows the view of the well house. BTW, the town garbage collectors finally came on Friday (was supposed to have been Thursday, but you can't be too particular about some things. It also shows that things have dried out enough that I can comfortably ride my scooter again.

Things Have Dried Enough To Ride the Scooter Again

Let's see, what else?... Oh, yes. You'll love this. I've gone up to BEL (Belize Electricity, Ltd.) to see about getting a street light installed. It seems that here, that's a political decision that must be made by the proper government minister. BEL told me that I needed to see Minister Vildo Marin at the Peoples United Party (PUP) office on College Street. I went there only to find a huge crowd of folks in the waiting room. I left and took care of some other business for a couple of hours, then returned. The crowd had gone down slightly. I waited politely and patiently (well, for a Gringo, anyway), until I caught the eye of one of the staff folks. I explained what I wanted. They told me to come back at 4:30PM, and I could meet with the minister.

I came back at the appointed time and let the staffer know I had returned. He informed me this was the wrong place, that I needed to see Minister Florencio Marin (no idea if they're related) who works at the Lands Department building down on the waterfront.

I jumped on my scooter and went down there. The receptionist/cashier told me he would be in at 7:30AM Thursday morning, so I left for the day.

Thursday morning at 7:15AM, I was there and was joined by 15 or so other local folk waiting to see him or conduct other Lands Department business. Two hours later... That's with a "2", I finally got to talk to his secretary, who was in a back office doing a cross-word puzzle.

"Oh, he isn't in today, and probably won't be in till late next week". Biting my tongue, I asked for her phone number so I could call before coming down and spinning my wheels again.

Any way, back at the work site, my crew told me Florencio is the wrong minister - he takes care of Ranchito, you now live in Corozal and that's handled by Vildo. So, Monday, it's back to Vildo's office and explain to the staff again that I live in Corozal, not Ranchito.

All the minister does, apparently, is say yes, you can fill out an application. His staff is supposed to have that form. Once he signs it, it's sent to BEL, which instructs them to install the street light. The electric bill for it is paid by government, but the cost of the light itself may or may not be directed to me.

Anyway, that's the theory of getting a street light so far. Subject to Change.

These two shots show Franz'es crew prepping the foundation for the utility room. Which is up and the walls almost finished. I'll try to get some newer photos to show you. The problem has been that lately, the Internet connection has been so spotty, that it's almost impossible to get this done with any reasonable speed.

Prepping the Foundation

Looks Like a Jumble

These shots show the walls beginning to go up. The first course of blocks are in place and they're tamping fill in to build up the floor to pour the floor and move the walls on up.

That Tamper Is Good Exercise!

Forty Pounds, Up and Down

I've taken a design for the front gate and the back (canalside) fence down to Vasco Doors and Windows. I should get an estimate from them on Monday. They're the same guys that built my well house door and trash door.

Checking around for who sells the controls for electric gates, I was eventually directed to Capital Metals, up on the highway to Chetumal. Sure enough, they do. Complete with two remote controls for the vehicles. The price is reasonable too (about $1,400B Z, complete)

I need to check back with them as to who they recommend to actually install the gate motor, etc.

Gate Motor, Bits and Bobs

Somewhere along the line, about Friday of last week, my right arm puffed up and the skin was tight as a drum. I don't know what bit or stung me. I never felt anything at all. But the way it was going, I could see my arm skin splitting wide open.

Naturally, I made this decision after everything had closed in town. So Dianna and I hot-footed it up to the Corozal Hospital on Santa Rita Hill (by Bowen and Bowen, the beer distributor).

Finding the hospital was a bit tricky. No street signs, that we saw. Finally asked a couple walking along where it was. They pointed us in the right direction.

Once we got to the hospital, just finding the right door to go in was a challenge, as it was once we got inside the place. Eventually, I found a nurse, who looked at my are and promptly wrote out a prescription and directed my around to another nurse's station. This nurse read the prescription and started preparing an injection with a huge (2 to 3") needle.

I thought it was a large need to use for a shot in the arm... until she tapped my on the butt and said "drop 'em".

What?!?! A shot in my ass? I haven't had a shot there since my Navy days and getting either the plague or some other exotic shot back there. Anyway, I dropped em, and she shot me. The shot didn't hurt too bad, but my ass was sore for three days. I have no idea what they gave me. But it did knock the swelling down. I also got prescriptions for ibuprofen and some other allergy medication.

All this, no waiting, and NO CHARGE! I was impressed. National health at work folks. I love it.

To be honest, when I went there the other day to shoot a couple of pictures of the hospital in daylight, they do have a snazzy emergency entrance under construction, so it will, in short order seem mo-betta soon.

Here's the entrance to the hospital. No extra charge for the horse grazing on the grounds. Present emergency entrance is sort of behind that little building in the center foreground.

Corozal Hospital / Not Sure if the Horse is a Patient

Here's a nice one. I just took this shot from our back porch into the canal. I saw this "dolphin-fish" as the locals call it (not a dolphin as we know them). He's about 3-feet long and was lasily swimming and letting me takes lots of photos of him.

I took this one just as he began to turn. To get him to stand out in the algae water of the canal, I manipulated the shot a bit. He isn't brilliant blue like that, more of a dark gray. But, the way it turned out, and with a bit of cropping to get rid of extraneous stuff, I ended up with a very nice photo.

He Really Is About 3-Feet Long - Gorgeous Shot