Again, like the last time I posted, time has gotten away from me and I’m getting emails from friends and family not on Facebook asking if I’m alive, if I’m well, if any of the storms have driven me off in to the bush and the like. I didn’t realize that it’s been a month and a half. But then I said in the beginning I wouldn’t blog to just blog, that hopefully I’d have something of interest for you to read. So, half of the reason for not updating is that life has been a series of quiet weeks with some frenzy thrown in occasionally just to keep things interesting. But, yes, I’m alive and well, some storm damage but nothing I can’t handle, and yes, I’m still in Hopkins.
I did spend about 3 weeks at Sheila’s house in Punta Gorda. It’s really quiet there and the river fishing sucks so I was reading a book every 2 days and we spend the evenings watching tons of TV series episodes that I’ve been downloading, plus watching some pretty old ones, and some pretty darn good movies. A little over a week of the time there was because of a medical issues. Sheila had some kind of stomach problem that the clinic helped a bit with. They did give her some kind of powder to add to water to replace electrolytes that was really disgusting tasting. She drank a couple bottles a day of G2 instead and returned the powder to the clinic. I have an eye infection that I can’t get rid of, and still have for over 2 months now. I visited the Hillside Clinic and got antibiotic drops that did absolutely no good, waited for a week for what I was told would be a traveling American eye clinic at the hospital, which turned out to be a Belizean doctor from Belmopan, and got a stronger antibiotic salve that hasn’t produced results either. The infection isn’t all that bad, just makes it hard to open my eyes in the morning and some pain at night when I’m really tired. So I guess I’ll have to wait until the end of October when the medical team from South Carolina comes back to Dangriga. I was glad to get back to Kismet because I missed Tricia and Conan and the interaction with guests. PG is too quiet for me. While we were on PG Sheila received some disturbing health news about her Mom and packed for a trip back to Ohio if it became necessary.
We got back to Hopkins and my trailer. The day before Conan and Tricia both emailed me that my palapa tipped over in a severe thunderstorm. It wasn’t as bad as I thought. I had visions of it collapsed on my roof and holes though the roof top. Actually it was resting on one corner of the roof and only poked 1 4x2 inch hole near the center of my roof. It was a total loss though. Bad thing was it rained every night and I at least had to temporarily patch it. I did that the day after we got home. It wasn’t good enough though and I had water pouring into my shower from a tropical depression (really a hurricane without the wind).. That doesn’t sound too bad until you remember that I use it as storage and have a computer in a plastic storage bucket almost right under the leak. I put a garbage can under it and that solved most of the problem. I did however have a leak that was running down inside the wall and made my bedroom carpet damp. Not wet, just damp so I wasn’t too concerned. During all that Sheila got more bad news so with 3 days she was back in Ohio with her family. But the rain came, off and on, over the course of a week. I did get a permanent patch on the hole in a few days and that stopped my leak. It didn’t stop the flooding outside my door and in 3 of the Kismet guest rooms, Conan’s included, and the tool room. I had about 6 inches of water under my trailer and Kismet had 4-5 inches under it and in the rooms. Conan woke one night and got up to go to the necessary. When he put his feet on the floor though he knew he was in trouble. What should have been dry floor was a pond instead. So he spent the next while moving things up to stay dry. He eventually moved into one of the upstairs guest rooms and spent a couple of days there. At least all the guests were gone so no one was inconvenienced. We also had a small tornado that hit our friends Oli and Denise’s house (they own Driftwood Bar & Pizza). It happened at 2am. They awoke to what they said was the worst noise they’d ever heard and watched their roof and outer wall disappear. Thank God they weren’t hurt and that they had a spare guest house to move into. They had to close the bar because of flooding as well.
Sheila had an adventure getting home. She’s retired from Continental Airlines so flies free, except for the US$37.50 departure tax. She Called Tropic Air and booked her puddle jumper from Dangriga to belize City and Continental to Houston and Cleveland. We got the Dangriga airport and found that she had missed the last flight that would get her to her international flight. When she called to book Tropic there was a miscommunication about flight times. She was already upset because the last flight to Cleveland leaves before her Houston flight gets in, causing her to have to spend a night in Houston. Now you know when someone close is having problems you want to get there right away, so she was already upset over that. Now to miss the flight to Belize City? That caused her another full day delay. So she rebooked all her reservations and got to Dangriga airport quite early so she didn’t have to go through that upsetment again. So she’s in Ohio taking care of her Mom and her sister. She’s having to move there for an unknown period which is causing her to have to abandon her dream of living in Belize full time until things sort themselves out. So at some point in time she’ll come back for a night to pack up her belongings and turn in the keys to her rental house and move to Ohio just in time for winter. I won’t go into detail on her family’s very serious health issues but will ask for you prayers and good wishes for the 3 of them.
Conan is surviving and is still pouring money into his black hole of a boat. It’s the engine again and he had to order an impeller. It figures that the sea is flat calm now and it could get some heavy use out of it. Once it’s fixed the waves will come back I’m sure. But we’re hoping to get out to Bread&Butter for a few days soon for some serious fishing and snorkeling…
It’s the low season in Belize now and Tricia is busy prettying up Kismet. The entire building has been restained, new thatch on the overhangs in 3 places, and the deck painted. It’s looking really nice. She’s had 2 chicks born recently and 2 chickens killed by dogs as well. You win some, you lose some…
Now that the rain has stopped we are being visited by squadrons of mosquitoes and it ain’t pretty! Walking out my door or back from the beach I have as many as 20 landing on me in an instant. So before heading in the door I have to smack myself all over and wave the door to try and deter thousands from flying in during the few brief moments the door is open. Still quite a few get in and I spend the next 15 minutes or so trying to kill as many as I can. If the winds are clam Tricia and Conan suffer almost as much as I do. I get it the worst because the inn blocks the onshore breezes so there’s nothing to keep the little pests at bay. I’ve look like I have the measles! At least I don’t have any on my face. I’ll really be glad when they finally die down. Or course its still the rainy season so they’ll be back in force again I’m sure…
Fishing has been iffy lately. No picture worthy or even fillet worthy size fish in a really long time. The lagoon fishing has never returned to its former glory since it closed and reopened. The netters aren’t catching like they used to and fish dinners are hard to come by. The restaurants are having to pay premium prices for the fish they do get. Even the people fishing the reef are having a tough go of it. Conan and I have been spending quite a lot of time in my canoe just offshore of Kismet. We’re catching a lot but they are all small. It’s enough to keep him in free food though. Me, I hate the bone hassle so I give mine to him. But its still fun catching fish. Even some of the small ones put up a good fight.
Denise hosted the 1st ever “International Talk Like A Pirate” party at Driftwood Bar & Pizza on Monday September 19th. She’s been involves with it in New Orleans and I believe the Virgin Islands and wanted to continue it here. As far as she could tell, by searching the web, her celebration is the 1st ever in Belize. With Belize’s pirate history you’d have thought ITLAPD would have been celebrated by someone here. So she registered her party on the official ITLAPD website. A great time was had by all, especially me because I followed the treasure map and dug up the buried treasure (with Conan’s help) that turned out to be a quart of Rum. So I shared the bottle with everyone at the party. I also loaned them my DVD of “Pirates Of The Caribbean; At World’s End” for the moving picture show. Denise made some very good pirate food too. So now we’re looking forward to next year’s celebration.
So that’s my story and I’m sticking to it! I’m alive and well and living in Belize!
And so, life goes on for the Fatboy in Belize… As always, stay well, keep happy, and practice peace. I am!!!
