Sunday is the Weekend

Sunday, 27 November, 2016. No workers today, and no doggies in their pen.

I cooked chili omelets this morning for breakfast. The eggs were new and fresh, the chili that went in the omelets was leftover from Saturday night's supper.

After breakfast, I decided to whip up some tuna salad for sandwiches - totally forgetting we were going to Jam Rock for bingo later on.

Last night I had read a tip, I think on Reddit, but it could have been Facebook, that if you put ½ teaspoon baking soda in the water as you boil eggs, the shells become very easy to separate from the eggs. By Jove, it worked. Not one hundred percent, but significantly better than the past few times I've done hard-boiled eggs.

The reason I mentioned eggs is that they were part of the ingredients for the tuna salad, four of them, along with half an onion, a dozen dill pickle slices, two sliced stalks of celery, a healthy dose of mustard, two cans of tuna in agua - drained, and, of course Hellman's Mayonnaise. Mix it all together, slap some between two slices of bread, add some chips of your choice, and you've got lunch. We'll have that tomorrow.

Sundays at Casa Winjama is laundry day. So, I fired up the trusty old wringer washer and tubs - Hah! My mom used a Westinghouse wringer washer until I left home to go in the Navy. She wasn't real keen on newer technology. Ok, I loaded the washer and pressed 'Start.'

Mr. Nelson In His Hideaway

 Doing the laundry did get off to a bit of a slow start. Nelson, since I didn't open his weekday hideaway downstairs in the Mennonite house, has, as his alternate hideaway, the laundry baskets when they're stored on the top shelf in the utility room of the new house.

Jam Rock's Proprietor, Rocky

 About 12:30 PM, we loaded up our stuff, including Dianna's go-kart, jumped into the Sport Trac and headed down to Jam Rock.

It's been a while since we've had burgers there, so Dianna and I splurged and each had a bacon cheese burger with fries. Yummers.

Mike Selling Bingo Cards

Bingo is usually at JamRock on Sundays, from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM. Thanks to Rocky for allowing us all to enjoy the afternoon at JamRock playing Bingo.

Here you see Mike, of Mike and Terri, who run the game, selling Bingo cards to JamRock patrons, in this photo, it's members of an Orange Walk motorcycle club.

Cards usually go for three for $5.00 BZD. Three games played and it's time to get new cards. The money from card sales makes up the jackpot for each game, minus a bit for overhead.

Terri Issuing Pencils and HiLighters

Here's Terri, passing out pencils so players can mark their cards during the game. Terri also calls the games. Rocky has a nice sound system that works great for just that purpose.

Incidentally, the game of Bingo can trace its roots to the Arabian Peninsula around the 1500's. It passed on to Europe and eventually to the new world, well the British colonies, I guess.

Around 1929, the game became formalized as Bingo, having been known up to then as Beano and other variations. Several companies began marketing it, along with copies of the rules and it reached the form, more or less, that we know today.

Terri and the Shipley's

Today's game is a special one. the big jackpot, from the final game, is going to the Shipley's, whose restaurant, Shippley's Coffee Lounge Restaurant/Cafe, on Second Street, North, in Corozal, suffered a devastating fire a couple of nights ago. This is an effort to help them get back on their feet and reopen - soon, we hope. There is a Go Fund Me page that has been set up to help them rebuild (https://www.gofundme.com/reopen-shipleys-coffee-lounge). Please help, if you can.

Bingo Game One Getting Started

Bingo is about ready to get started. I had to rush this shot as Terri started calling numbers right after I snapped this. It's too easy to get behind doing other stuff, so I had to hurry.

Colleen and Bruce - Big Win Coming?

Here's our table mates concentrating on the game. This is probably the only photo I have seen of Colleen where she isn't 'on' for the camera. See? There just isn't time to fool around playing Bingo. Serious stuff!

Dianna Enjoying the Game

Even Dianna is hard at work on her cards. We had a great afternoon. It was a lot of fun. She's just enjoying herself way too much and grinning ear to ear.

Two Young Bingo Players

We even had a couple of young boys who got in on the action as well. They played seriously, just like the adults.







And, there you have it. Action-filled Sundays in Corozal. We live life to the fullest!

Monday Rolls Around Again

Monday, 21 November, 2016.

Sunday, laundry day, started off breezy and cool. We kept the house pretty well buttoned up to keep what heat we had inside until the sun could warm things up enough so that we could fling open the doors and windows with abandon... Well, maybe not that exuberantly.

Laundry went off without a hitch. I do the washing and drying (whether with the gas dryer or on the line, which we haven't used since construction started - too much dust, etc.), and Dianna does the folding. A system that's worked well for us for years.

I had totally forgotten that we were supposed to be going to JamRock with Bruce and Colleen to eat lunch and play bingo, except Bruce had a meeting and would be missing lunch.

Leaving for JamRock was kind of significant for us. This was Dianna's first official use of the accessibility ramp to the parking area. She still had to use the brakes on her rolling walker, but she made it down and into the truck with a lot less effort than going down the front steps.

Meeting up at JamRock, we were pleasantly surprised that Bruce was able to make it for lunch. I think all four of us had baked chicken, which was fine.

After a short wait, bingo got underway. That was fun, and the first time we stayed for all the games. I won six bucks, and Dianna won twenty-five. I came within one number (I-31) of winning the big final jackpot of $114.00 BZD. Just as well. If I had won, there were about five or six other folks waiting for the same number so they could yell BINGO along with me. Altogether a fun afternoon.

We came home and lounged around for a bit. Dianna wasn't hungry, so I warmed up a bit of left-over spaghetti. We tried watching TV but decided we were too pooped and went to bed and read for a while before lights out.

So, now we're actually ready for Monday. Time for a cup of tea, then brew some coffee, walk the doggies, and pick up breakfast from the fry-jack shop in the market. Slather on some sour cream and Sriracha hot sauce (absolutely addictive stuff), and we're good to go for the morning.

Shade Fabric on Frame

Finally, after a long time, our old awning shade cloth is being put to a new use as wall screen material for the pool. It's amazing how well it has held up for the seven or so years that it was in use covering the pool.

For those who remember, it ran on guy wires stretch between steel beams at either end of the pool. Carabiners held the fabric to the wires, with each end of the fabric held to the beams with half-inch white nylon line.

Endher Stapling Shade Cloth

I had kept the awning when we took it down for the last time in hopes that we might be able to use it in this project and not be stuck with tons of shade cloth that we just couldn't get rid of.

So Tight You Can Bounce A Shilling

I think we'll get at least another five or six years use out this material, if not more. It just shows no signs of solar or other degradation.

A little play on words. We know it as 'So tight you can bounce a quarter.' Well down here in Belize, the twenty-five cent piece is called a 'shilling' not a 'quarter.' So, it's 'so tight you can bounce a shilling.'

Cutting Out Old Crack Patches

One of the last things they have worked on is, naturally, one of the first things we had happen. Cracks in the pool. Several over the years.

Here Daniel is cleaning old patching material out that we had left slightly mounded in place over a crack. None of the cracks have leaked since the project started, they're going to re-work the patches so that the pool bottom is nice and smooth.

Prepping to Re-Patch

Daniel is widening out the patch area getting ready for new hydraulic cement. Then the whole pool will get a new coat of Diamond Brite.

Arrest-A-Pest Spraying

The other thing that happened Monday, that was supposed to happen on Saturday, but didn't, was Tulio Rodriguez' Arrest-A-Pest spraying the Mennonite house upstairs and downstairs.

Tulio got hung up over in Chetumal trying to get back. The border crush apparently worked both ways, so he didn't make it for the appointment.

Talking to him on Sunday, we rescheduled for Monday morning. That happened and the bugs are taken care of for quite some months now.

The other part of this is that Nelson, our boy kitty, loves to nap all day long down in the basement of the Mennonite house. We kept him out for Saturday, because of the spraying that was to take place. That upset him. Then Sunday, as we weren't having any workers, there was no need to lock up doggies or open the basement for Nelson. So, that pissed him off further. So, here comes Monday, with another spray appointment. Nelson was again denied access to his favorite hidey-hole. This really pissed him off, He moped around and slept on the bed and in the closet.

Poor Mr. Nelson

Here he is, asleep on the bed. Poor feller. I really felt sorry for him with two out of the three days he was looking forward to a good long nap.