More life in Hopkins

Today is my eldest son Richard’s 31st birthday and I want to wish him a very happy birthday and send him my love. I’ll be calling him later today.

We were surprised to hear there were missionary doctors/nurses from Florence SC in Dangriga the last week of July so we went to visit them. We actually took Tricia to there because the Dangriga Hospital wouldn't give her the cortisone shot for her bursitis. We figured they would help, and they did. I was sitting next to her when the nurse was taking her info and then she asked me if I had any complaints. I said I couldn't get my BP meds in Belize. She asked what I took and when I told her she said, "Oh we have those and we can give you 90 days worth.” Come to find out they come to Dangriga every 90 days. It was the 1st time any of us had heard that. So it looks like we’ll be back there in October and we’ll have a constant supply of the meds we take and for FREE. We all submitted to having our vitals checked. All of our BPs were high, Tricia because of the upsetment at the hospital and Conan because we were in Dangriga. Conan’s only med request was though was for a deworming pill, and he got that. It’s a big problem here, especially in Hopkins, because of the poorly sanitized drinking water. Along with the shot Tricia got a big bag of pain meds and vitamins. So anyway I got into a conversation with Dr. Ed and he asked what I did for a living before retiring. When I told him he said they were breaking ground on a permanent clinic in Dangriga. I jumped on the chance to help them with their electrical and communications wiring and hook up. He said they had to hire some locals but wanted help from someone who actually knew what they were doing. They should be ready for me in the Dec/Jan timeframe…

Conan finally fixed the boat starter motor and we got the boat in the water and spent the night out on Bread&Butter Cayes Wed/Thurs (7/27-28). Didn’t catch much, but the locals said they weren’t either so we didn’t feel too bad. I got a keeper size jack and grunt for the cooler. Conan spent a good bit of time snorkeling and spearing and I tried it too. It was fun but not nearly as much fun as reeling them in on a rod and reel. We did have an adventurous night though. Huge thunderstorm that flooded both of our tents. He couldn’t sleep after waking up wet but I passed right back out. We did have fun though. And we completely ruined a prop by slamming into 3 coral heads on our way back to Bread&Butter from fishing. We were headed west, into the sun, and you couldn’t see anything in the water. Thank God he had a spare prop, although not nearly as good as the one we just ruined. But it got us back to Kismet. Anyway, Conan swapped props by jumping overboard. I was his “surgical nurse”, slapping tools into his hand and corralling washers, nuts, and the like to make sure nothing fell into the water. A day or 2 later he bought a new prop at Uncle Harry’s Paint. He was chartered by a few Kismet guests for a snorkeling trip but within a mile if Kismet he threw that prop. It must have been an older prop that was subject to heat/cold changes and the resin inside, which holds the prop together, cracked out. In the mile or 2 or 3 that he went he used 5 gallons of gas (at US$5.80 a gallon). Harry gave him a full refund for that one. So now the bottomless money pit is back on shore until a new prop can be found. We did get in 2 or 3 offshore bottom fishing trips before putting the boat to bed but only caught small stuff. So it’s back to fishing the lagoon from shore, where we aren’t catching anything of size. Fishing is dismal right now for everyone and the village is having to eat more chicken feet and pigs ears than they normally do.

We had 3 very nice Holland guests, a mom, her 11 year old son, and her boyfriend staying a Kismet for the past week of so and I got to initiate another youngster to fishing. When he heard that I fished everyday his eyes lit up and he asked if he could come. You know me...I want everyone to enjoy what I love. Well he caught 2 small snappers that night and was a very happy Dutchman! Conan and I tool him out in the boat the next morning but he got seasick pretty quickly. He tried to endure it but we ended up bringing him back in. He was one of the nicest, and most intelligent kids we've every encountered. Very wise for his young years. And he's a world traveler, having been to several countries in Asia as well as Central America and Europe. They left today for Honduras.

Sheila came back to Belize on July 31st and I met her down in Punta Gorda (Belize) to help her move into her rental house. We got her car registered and did some minor grocery shopping on Tuesday (8/2). The rest of the week was just lounging about, reading, watching movies, and just generally relaxing. On Friday (8/4) we headed to Hopkins and Kismet for more of the same, only on the beach, and to celebrate her birthday on Saturday. Tricia served a very nice lobster dinner and baked one of her famous chocolate rum cakes. Other than that it’s been a rather quiet visit for Sheila. We did have a dismaying event happen though. One of our Canadian friends, Makayla (she’s in her 60’s), who was staying at another small Hopkins inn, was assaulted in her room at knife point. She was punched on both sides of her face and choked as well. His attempt at rape wasn’t successful though. He stole her laptop but got little else because she refused to give him her purse or lockbox key. We were over there as soon as we heard and took her to the Dangriga Police station and the hospital after their investigation at the inn. She checked out fine and moved into Kismet where she’s been resting. We’re sure it was a crack head and also sure that it is someone familiar with that inn because of the demand for the lockbox key. Not many of the places have one (Kismet does). So we have word out to find out who he is because we don’t hold out much hope for the police solving it. We hate when we hear of crime happening anywhere in the village but, as would you, hate even more when it happens to one of our friends. Hopefully we’ll get to the bottom of it and find the guy.

Prayers, fishing, and a surprise

I’d like to wish my daughter Carrie a very happy birthday! She’s my youngest child and turned 26 on Saturday 7/16. She’s still working toward being a cloistered Nun.

I’d like to ask for prayers for 2 of my family please. One is having health issues and the other needs a job. I won’t mention names but when you say your prayers God will know who you are praying for. Thanks so much! Oh, also for Carrie, that she realize her dream of becoming a Poor Clare.

It’s been so hard for me to wrap my head around sitting down and writing anything, including emails and Facebook posts, so that’s why this post has been so long in coming. I’m still feeling a bit out of sorts due to my new meds and I’m hoping that, as time passes, I’ll get back to normal (well as normal as I get anyway…) and back on track with things I enjoy doing. I even have to force myself to go fishing of you can believe that. But it is getting easier so I know that time will mend me.

I took a trip to resolve a personal issue (I called it a crisis of mind and soul) that I was hoping would put my life back on track and let me move forward but it didn’t work out that way. I’ll just have to keep working on it until I can move past it. I do want to thank everyone for their concern, well wishes, and prayers. They meant quite a lot to me. I’m not sure what my next step(s) should be or if I should do anything at all… I do know that I just need to get back to that place where, when I’m worrying, I ask the questions I do in order to determine whether or not what I’, worrying about is important enough to worry about or just needs some mitigation to move on. Those I love, who have a worry problem, have heard those questions and have benefited from them so I’ll pass them on to you. Whenever you have something eating at you you need to stop and think about its importance in the scheme of things.
1. Will this issue cause physical or mental harm to me or a family member?
2. Will it cause a severe financial hardship (more than the normal day-to-day problems we continually suffer) to any of the above?
3. Will it cause the permanent loss of a friendship that you treasure?
If you can answer NO to those questions then it isn’t worth wasting your time worrying about. You need to find a quick way to resolve or mitigate it and move on. As things popped up I would immediately ask myself those questions to see if it was a valid worry. If not then do what you have to do to rectify it and move on. Life’s too short to waste it worrying about non-essential things. It’s worked for me and taken a lot of stress out of my life. Enough of the serious crap!!!

The lagoon was open again when I got back. Tonic (one of my net throwing friends) said it opened a few days after I left. Conan and Tricia said there were some REALLY torrential downpours the 1st couple of days so that’s what did it. The net boys are catching lots of small snook, with a few bigger ones every once in a while plus lots of 4 inch catfish. I caught 13 cats and a nice size Sheephead the 1st day I fished morning and afternoon. It was lots of fun and I have a couple of meals in my freezer. Conan got a cat and a blue crab too. So now I’m back to fishing once or twice a day as the mood strikes me and trying to figure out the new lagoon cycle. It’s different than it was before it closed in that there doesn’t seem to be the out in the morning, in the evening fish migration of cravelle jack and snook and the bigger snappers haven’t taken up residence yet on their old haunts. The small bait stealing snappers are back so maybe that means things are going to return to normal but only time will tell. We’ve had some pretty rough surf the past 2 weeks so the incoming tide is a lousy time to fish because of the tons of sea grass coming in. So for right now we’re fishing just in the late afternoon. We’ve found that the snook are hanging in the calm water alongside the run out before low tide and we’ve been doing pretty well. Saturday (7/16) evening I caught a total of 13 fish. I got 6 snook (4 keepers, never caught that many at one time before!), 4 small black snapper (2 keeper) and 3 catfish (1 keeper). Conan got a snook too. It’s been a long time since he’s caught one of them. It’s been exciting and we’re looking forward to it getting better as the bigger fish return to the lagoon, as well as calmer water so we can fish the high tide too.

We had a really nice couple come to stay a few days from northern England, Andrew & Julie, and they fit right in. Andrew was a commercial fisherman in his younger days. He has stories of catching sea gulls and painting them like WWII fighter planes and releasing them. One of his stories ends with an Irishman telling friends he’s got to stop drinking because a gull just passed him that looked like an airplane with numbers under the wings. Too funny! He’d make a perfect fit in the Chicken Experimenter’s Group! But, sadly, they left and will end up in southern South America before heading home. Andrew has a story much like mine so we are kindred spirits.

We had some exciting news on Thursday 7/14 but we’re still trying to confirm it. One of our former guests, Dino, (that none of us really liked), a Kenny Chesney wanna be look alike, was arrested in Dangriga by the FBI for a murder in the states, or so the story goes. We’re having trouble confirming it because we aren’t sure what his real name is. It seems he was a story on an episode of “America’s Most Wanted” and someone recognized him. Come to find out that show is a big hit here in Belize. And, he had a US$125K bounty on his head so someone will be living large!
Conan and I packed up our camping gear and our fishing/snorkeling equipment and spent a few days with Dwayne on Bread&Butter.

UPDATE: Conan and I were in the veggie market in Dangriga and who walked up but Dino! Well the real story is that he was arrested for a passport visa violation. He spent 7 days in the Dangriga jail before seeing the magistrate. He was issued a US$1000 fine, US$500 payable immediately or he would spend 3 months in jail and a US$2.50 court cost. So he’s out now and working on getting the other US$500 to pay that off so he can get his passport back. I love how rumors start and then blossom into the final story, or at least final when we hear it. God only knows what the story is since we heard it a few days ago.

Sheila is coming back the last week of July, loaded down with all kinds of personal items to make her new life in Punta Gorda more comfortable, repair parts for Conan’s van and boat, a new external hard drive for me to replace the one that broke, and God only knows what else for others. She said she will be checking 3 bags on her flight down. We spent a few days together in the house she will be renting in Punta Gorda, Belize a couple of weeks ago and had a really good time together. She’s stayed here at Kismet 3 or 4 times over the last year and we enjoyed a few breakfasts of coffee and Bailey’s Irish Cream together. So now to the important part of this paragraph… We’ve become an item and look forward to spending more time together. Time will tell I guess...

And so, life goes on for the Fatboy in Belize… As always, stay well, keep happy, and practice peace. I am!!!

Gee I didn't realize how long it's been!

I didn’t realize how long it’s been since I posted anything. It’s been pretty quiet though. Not a lot of fishing because the lagoon is closed due to dry weather and the net-throwers aren’t getting anything either. Plus there isn’t a lot of work around here. Everyone is poor, poor, poor!

Well we finally made it out to the reef on Father’s Day (Sunday 6/19) after 3 days of pretty nasty t-storms and rain. The good thing about the rain is that it will start the lagoon opening up and we’re hoping it’s fishable in a week or so. It will probably take another week for the fish to figure out that it’s open again and that all the newly spawned fingerlings are in there for the taking. Anyway, back to the reef. The weather was still threatening so we brought a few things to make spending the night in the Cayes (we planned on B&B) a bit more comfortable and we didn’t bring anyone with us for just that reason. Ron and Tricia both wanted to come out but we felt it safer without them. No sense in stranding more than he and I. We spent the day more looking at likely fishing spots than actually fishing. I even took time out to spend about an hour snorkeling off Bread&Butter. The water was a bit murky bit we did see that there were very few fish around the coral heads. Not sure if that’s because of all the bad weather or what. We did do some trolling and got a few hit but didn’t catch anything. After tooling around for a couple hours we anchored off B&B to try a little bottom fishing where Conan had seen a couple boats parked during a trip or 2 while I was eating and shopping my way through Orlando. It wasn’t long before both of us were snagged in the coral so Conan donned his snorkel gear and rolled over the side. He unhooked me 1st and then headed for his. In a couple of seconds he popped back up and yelled for me to start reeling because his had a fish on it. It turned out to be a small dog toothed snapper which was the very 1st fish caught in his new boat. So we both got to take half a credit for it which I thought was apropos seeing as how we were semi-partners in his getting the boat.

Our 2nd and 3rd attempts at the reef were spoiled by bad weather and on Tuesday 6/21 we decided we better take the boat out of the water. The marine forecast called for medium/heavy seas and I was leaving on Wednesday so better to get it out while we were both there. Conan’s taken the boat out of the water by himself but it’s still a pretty arduous and time consuming task for just 2 people. We have a method but it’s hard to do in anything but calm water because the boards for under the wheels of the trailer, while you are backing it in/taking it out of the water, tend to float away pretty easily. So we spent the hour huffing and puffing, pulling and pushing, and chasing quickly floating (remember I said this wasn’t calm water?) boards before they reach Mexico (the drift lately has been to the north), or at least too far to chase. So that was the story for Thursday June 21…

My friend Sheila (well she’s Tricia’s and Conan’s friend too), who just retired from Continental Airlines, came down on Wednesday 6/22 and I met her in Punta Gorda airport so I could go with her to the house she’s renting. She’d asked me to come down to look at a used car with her, not that I know what the heck I’m looking at, but I can tell a clunker (by Belize standards) when I see one. She’s renting a REALLY nice house in a conclave called Coxlin Ha and what a nice house it is! Stone front with a nice porch on the back overlooking a river. Two bedrooms, 2 baths, and all tile. A/C in the open kitchen/dining/living room was a plus too. She’s having the porch screened in so she can sit out at night without the mosquitoes, which is a problem there. Anyway, we looked at the car shortly after we got to Punta Gorda, a '99 Isuzu Trooper with no a/c but a good engine, tires, shocks and springs. I test drove it over the local road (stones and potholes) and wasn’t able to drive over 15mph because of that. So I asked to drive it on the highway and, of course, he agreed. So Sheila and I took the Isuzu and he road with Dona (Sheila’s landlord who knew about the car and had brought us to see it). I turned onto Southern Highway, hit the gas, and the car almost chocked to death going up the hill. I flagged them down and we headed for a small repair shop with sadness in our hearts, thinking that the problem was transmission or something else major (my guess but, like I said, I know zip about cars). We dropped the car off and went for a nice lunch, returning about an hour later to find that the problem was the fuel pump. We left with an agreement that the owner would call us when it was fixed. Two days later we were calling him back to see what the outcome was. The fuel pump was replaced and a few other minor things we had pointed out were fixed too. Sheila agreed to pay the…now get this…US$35 repair cost. New pump installed and 3 problems fixed for $35. I wonder what it would have cost in the states??? We had a couple of nice days hanging out, going into Punta Gorda for meals, and generally doing nothing. She did make a list of things to bring down with her in 2 weeks to make life a little more enjoyable. She’s doing her final move to PG the end of July but will still be going back and forth for a while, bringing down more of her things plus a 4000+ book collection that she wants to donate to various libraries around the country. I’m sure that I will end up with a few from my favorite authors too but I’ll swap them with books from my collection that I’ve already read. Anyway, he dropped the car off Sunday morning (6/26) before we left for our homes.

Like I said, I stayed and enjoyed her company until Sunday and had a really good time. It’s the 1st time I’ve been away with a woman in ever so long, well since my cousin Jodi and I toured the southwest visiting relatives almost 3 years ago and she doesn’t really count (well, because she’s my cousin not because she’s any less of a woman…). Women have a different perspective on life than a man does so it’s always interesting to see it through another pair of eyes. Anyway, I took the chicken bus back to Hopkins while she flew off to Belize City and Houston. At the bus stop I dropped my big bag and headed to Gracie’s for a beef burrito to take home with me for dinner. As I walked back up to the bus station I spotted a woman that looked a lot like Ella, who’s company we enjoyed 2ce before at Kismet (over a 3 month period). Sp I called her name and she turned around. Sheila and I had just talked the night before about how small a world it was and how I meet friends everywhere I go. Here again was proof! She told me she was supposed to take a 6am boat from Livingston Guatemala that would have put her on the 10am bus but it was late so here she was. Can you say Kismet?!? She was headed for Cancun for her 7/4 flight back to Australia. I told her to come and visit Kismet again for a couple of days and she agreed. So we enjoyed each other’s company on the 3-1/2 hour chicken bus ride. As we got close to the Hopkins Junction I called Tricia and asked for a ride but didn’t tell her about Ella. We were saving that for a surprise. Ella hid when Conan and Tricia drove up. I told them that I had met a woman in Punta Gorda and she was coming to stay a few days and could she ride with us. Out popped Ella and you could see the happiness in both their faces when they realized who it was. Remember, you come to Kismet as a guest and leave as family. One of our family members had come home to us again. It was like Ella never left. Our next stop was Rainbow Chinese for a fried chicken dinner before heading home.

Conan has been a busy boy since I left. He’s caught a small boa constrictor and a poisonous (?) unknown snake that stretched about 8 feet. And the weather has changed our plans about the keeping his boat on the Kismet beach. While I was gone 6 feet of beach eroded away leaving the back of the trailer almost hanging in the air. On Monday 6/27 we put the boat in the water and pulled the trailer through the surf to Driftwood pizza where he could drive the van down to the water’s edge and trailer it again. So it looks like the boat will live on the trailer and we’ll be using the boat ramp in Sittee River to launch it. It looks like we may lose the palapa that sat over the boat in the 1st major storm that hits Hopkins this hurricane season. It will probably lead to some pretty good flooding of the property too during a storm. That means immediately moving my trailer to higher ground at the mere threat of a storm rather than watching the path because it won’t take much of a surf during high tide to send water over what little berm is left, flooding the area around me further in front of any storm.

Oliver, from Driftwood Pizza, had a scare while I was in Punta Gorda. It seems he was woken up with 2 guns pointed at his head and a demand for money. He had the night’s receipts, which Denise said wasn’t much because they had just paid a distributor bill, and they took that and did a quick search of the house for whatever else they could find. Thankfully Denise was visiting Tricia here or she would have been involved too. Calls to the police resulted in 2 hang ups at 911 and voicemail of the village cop. So nothing was done until it was long over. Ollie has had some security measures installed since it happened but, had they already had them, they probably wouldn’t have been in use anyway because Denise wasn’t home yet. We’ve been using the wireless burglar alarms around Kismet and people know it and have heard the alarm scream at 100db (or REALLY loud). That, and the threats that we’ve made to local bad boys passing through Kismet about what will happen should we catch someone (such as their body will be feeding the crocs in the lagoon), had kept us safe. Conan and I have become the Kismet Vigilante Unit or KVU.

And so, life goes on for the Fatboy in Belize… As always, stay well, keep happy, and practice peace. I am!!!

More on Orlando and my trip back home to Belize...

Well I’m finally back from almost 3 weeks in Orlando, with a 3 day side trip to Hanceville AL and Atlanta GA and while I loved being in Orlando seeing my kids, visiting with cousins, old friends, old AT&T friends, and eating up a storm it was good to finally get back home to my own bed again. While I love to travel I’ve always longed, at some point in the trip, for my bed, my pillow, and some sense of normalcy to be restored to my life. I had my funny incident on the way up to Cancun for my flights to Orlando and some issues with the flight back to Cancun for that long bus ride back to Hopkins but toward the end I was just too tired to accept that I may have to spend another night in a hotel and another 6 hours on the chicken buses. I gave up and flew from Corozal to Dangriga on the puddle jumpers (man I love flying on them!) just so I COULD get back to my own bed. I found the extra cash (US$130) to turn the hotel and chicken buses into a three 15 minute flights and finished my travels on Tuesday instead of Wednesday. Now here’s the part where you’re supposed to feel sorry for me. I was doing all this traveling with 2 carry-ons and 2 checked bags (until I got to the bus part that is. Then I had to drag it all.) I had a total of 185 pounds of luggage! You know me…I had a shopping list a mile long of things I needed down here, mainly fishing tackle, but also 6 burglar alarms, 20 paperbacks, a new laptop, other assorted other junk, and, of course, a couple of pounds of chocolate that I had to keep from melting. The flight from Orlando was delayed for an hour. We taxied most of the way out to the runway but were notified by the pilot that a cargo door may have popped open. Better on the ground than at 35,000 feet was my take on it. The layover in Miami was an hour longer than my itinerary said so that added another hour. We boarded the flight to Cancun and it started to rain. We got the notice that it was a big t-storm cell over and around the airport. Another hour lost. Finally we pushed away from the gate and then stopped. The captain apologized for this next delay. Air Force One had just landed and the airport was closed until the President was safely off airport property. Another hour lost. So now what should have been a 45 minute flight to Miami, a 1hr 30min layover, and a 90 minute flight to Cancun (3hr 45min) turned into over 6 hours. That plus clearing security in Orlando and Immigration and Customs in Cancun for another 3 hours made for a long day. At least I had the foresight to book a nice hotel in Cancun before I left. An interesting thing happened on the way to the hotel. I was treated to a double waterspout off-shore that lasted almost 30 minutes. Too cool! I hadn’t seen a waterspout since Vietnam 41 years ago and that was a double too. Anyway, I got some much needed sleep and was on the Mexican bus to Chetumal MX at 8am. Three pm though I had had it, even though the Mexican buses are really nice. Clearing Customs in Belize is always an adventure and this time I actually had to pay US$135 for the fishing tackle, 6 wireless burglar alarms, and my new laptop. I did manage to get 70 cigars (I was allowed 25) and a bottle of Jameson Irish Whiskey (not bought in a duty free store) passed them though. That would have been REALLY expensive because the duty on tobacco and liquor is 90%. Anyway, the bus schedule in Belize wasn’t in my favor so I would have had to spend a night in Belize City, after a 3 hour chicken bus ride, and faced 2 more chicken buses, and another 3 hours, on Wednesday to get home. Not going to happen! I hopped a cab at the bus depot and headed for Mayan Island Air in Corozal BZ and was on a plane 15 minutes later. I made Dangriga by 5pm and had an hour to wait for Conan to come get me. He and Tricia finally arrived and I treated them to dinner and hit the bank before heading to Hopkins. I was in my bed and dead to the world by 8:30pm, bags tossed inside my door for unpacking whenever I got up. So now things are back to normal. I had a 6 hour breakfast at Thong’s Café with Conan and Robert (where the heck did the time go???) catching up on all the village news and an hour long nap in a hammock in the afternoon. No fishing but that may come tomorrow with a trip out to the reef if the weather holds. I finally got all of my luggage unpacked by 9pm and finally I finally feel settled in and home.

As a side note I met up with quite a few old AT&T colleagues at Jax in Lake Mary FL that I hadn’t seen since I retired and moved to Lucent Technologies in early ’98. We all got together through a new page on Facebook created by Ralph DAlessandro. It was so nice to catch up with everyone again! I also got together with Joe and Alice, whom I hadn’t seen in over 15 years too. Another blessing! And, of course my visit with Cuzin Ed and Debbie and family and my good friend Janet as well. Always love visiting with all of them!

And, so, life goes on for the Fatboy, happily back in Belize… As always, stay well, keep happy, and practice peace. I am!!!

Orlando, Alabama, Orlando again and way too much food!

It’s been a while since I posted last so I figured I had better get to it since so much has happened since I left for Orlando on May 25th.

I arrived in Orlando and immediately started to fulfill my “must eat” list that I have every time I come back to the states. Chicago Dogs, chili cheese dogs, pizza, and the like were all devoured in the 1st couple of days. I also spent about $600 on fishing equipment and other odds and end needed back home in Belize. I bought every wire leader at 3 WalMart stores and lures and hooks at several fishing/sporting good stores. I hit the thrift stores and bought 25 books to add to my collection. Water shoes, flip flops, dry bags (for use in the boat) and other items are already packed in my 2 check in bags. As of this moment I still have a few more things to buy but I have to weigh my luggage 1st to insure that they are still under the 50lb weight limit. We’ll see. Carrie and I renewed acquaintances with my friends Joe and Alice, whom I hadn’t seen in close to 15 years. It was so nice to see them again and swap stories of our lives since we’d parted.

I also made plans to visit my Sister Diana in Floral City FL for 2 nights. One of the days there we spent kayaking the Rainbow River. We spent close to 6 hours exploring nature from a double kayak, eating lunch on the bank and swimming in the 72 degree water. It was a most enjoyable day!

One of my primary reasons for coming was to attend my daughter Carrie’s delayed (by almost 14 years) Catholic confirmation on Sunday May 29th. It was nice to see her finally complete her requirements for her next life. As you know she has made the decision to devote her life to God and is in the process of being accepted to the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration order which is a cloistered contemplative order and is hoping to be cloistered at the Lady of the Angels Monastery in Hanceville AL. So the 2nd part of my trip was dedicated to driving her (she doesn’t drive) from Orlando to Hanceville, a 12 hour journey. Our trip to Alabama was uneventful and we arrived in Hanceville, which is in the middle of nowhere, around 10pm. Before checking into our hotel we drove to the Monastery to have a look. Of course the gate was closed and locked but the grounds were well lit so we had a great view of the church and several outbuildings. While we were standing at the gate looking in a car drove up and a young monk, Brother Juan, got out of the car and asked it we were ok. Of course we told him why we were there and of Carrie’s interview in the morning. He invited us to the 6am Divine Office, which was their morning prayer and chanting followed by a 7am mass being said by a brand new priest who had been ordained the day before. At the conclusion of the mass he personally blessed each of us and we were given one of his ordination cards. What a treat both services were and it was a great way to start our day. The mass and blessing ended at 8:30 which left us with a half hour to tour the church. In the lower church was a shrine to the Shroud of Turin, full size pictures of the cloth housed in France. You can actually see the blood stains of the wounds our Lord suffered during his torture which were horrific. They covered his entire body from head to toe. In the next room was the crypt where Nuns who had gone to their reward were interred. Carrie new of 2 of them, one who had just passed and the other is Mother Angelica’s mother who became a Nun late in life. At 9am we made our appearance at the information desk and were shown where to wait for her interview. Sister Isabella met with us and asked Carrie some very pointed questions as to why she was choosing a contemplative life instead of serving God as a Lay-person and having a family. Carrie’s answers, which I won’t go into, were very positive and told the Sister in no uncertain terms that she was being led to that type of life because it felt right and that having a family, a job, and serving God part time would not satisfy her desires. That brought a huge smile to the Sister. Sister also asked if Carrie had done any reading about cloistered life and Carrie mentioned that she was reading the biography of Mother Angelica. Sister then recommended she read about Saint Therese, whose story goes into great detail of the life Carrie would be living. We had told her how far we’d traveled for a 1 hour meeting and she was impressed that it meant so much to both of us to make the journey. She asked how long we planned to be in town and I told her that we would stay as long as was needed. It was another positive show of Carrie’s desire. She said that it may be up to 3 days before she would be able to see one of the Mothers and Carrie said that was fine. With that Sister said she would try to see how long we might be waiting. She returned with a huge smile on her face and said that she would have her 2nd interview at 10:45 that morning and showed us where the interview would take place, which was in the area just inside the cloister itself. I’m sure our answers as to how long we would stay had something to do with the immediate interview. So we walked over to the book store and bought one of the suggested books while we waited. At the appointed time we went to the meeting room, which is where the cloister Nuns meet with their families during family visits. The Nun is separated from her family by an ornate metal screen. They can touch hands but have no other physical contact. Anyway, Mother (I’m sorry but I’ve forgotten her name) came in and introduced herself and we to her and she asked, “What is in your heart?” To which Carrie told her in great detail. Mother asked her very pointed questions about her personal life from an infant to her 25th year. She was pleased with Carrie’s answers to some of the more important incidents. She was not the Nun who normally did these interviews and that the one who did was having her family visit day. She asked if Carrie had provided her contact information, to which Carrie replied yes, and she said that she would be contacted in the near future to start the intensive interview process, which will include a visit of several days, when Carrie will live with them in the Monastery and Live their daily spiritual and work life to see for herself if it is truly what she wants to do. So now we wait.

Following our stop at the Monastery We drove to Birmingham to tour the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), which was started by Mother Angelica in the early 80’s. That was pretty interesting. We were able to go into the studio where the shows are either broadcast live or are taped for later broadcast, the radio station, the production booths, and other areas all dedicated to bringing the word of God to the world. We also heard about their brush with the recent tornados and saw damaged apartments, homes and businesses in the surrounding area. We were finally on our way back home by 5pm. Earlier in the day I had hoped to make Orlando by late evening but not having but 3 hours of sleep the night before changes our plans. We spent the night in Atlanta and got on the road by 1pm and made it home by 11:30pm.

Now it was time for more of my “must eat” plans. On Tuesday it was lunch with my son Matt at 4 Rivers BBQ, which was excellent as always, and dinner with my son Rich at The Ravenous Pig in Winter Park. We ate like the name implies! We tried several menu items:

Lobster Tacos - cilantro, avocado, pickled jalapeño, cabbage slaw

Steak Tartare - house-made potato chips, truffle aioli, pickled ramps, roasted mushrooms, coddled egg yolk

House-made Charcuterie and Artisan Cheese – served with marinated olives and grain mustard
- toscano
- chicken liver mousse
- country ham
- lardo toast
- pepperoni
- robiola bosina cow and sheep’s milk
- bresaola
- reypenaer vsop 2 yr aged gouda
- brown sugar fennel

Rich’s dinner: Sheep’s Milk Ricotta Gnudi - oregon black morel mushrooms, zellwood corn, italian summer truffles

My dinner: Niman Ranch Lamb Leg - potato torta, eggplant caponata, charlie’s sunshine squash and vidalia onion purée

Rich’s dessert: Cheesecake - goat cheesecake, cherry compote, graham crust, cherry granite

Mine: Crisp - peach-blackberry crisp, almond streusel, toffee ice cream

Needless to say we left groaning and walking slowly back to the car… But we weren't finished yet! We went to a weekly "food truck" event in downtown Orlando. It consists of 8-10 gourmet food vendors. We meant only to look at what was being offered but Rich and I ended up sharing a Chimoo sandwich: Ribeye steak, chicken, coleslaw and sweet tater fries all on a soft hoggie roll. Now we're in pain!!! We may put off eating for the next couple of days.

Friday, June 10th is a get-to-gather with some 40+ friends that I worked with in AT&T in both NJ and FL before I retired in ’98. I’m really looking forward to that! So that’s where I’ll be at 6pm.

And, so, life goes on for the Fatboy in Orlando… And, as always, stay well, keep happy, and practice peace. I am!!!

Roasted nuts, breasts, and Cancun..

Everything started out normally at 5:45 when I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock bidding me good morning and announcing that it was the start of my travel day. I can’t say that it went downhill from there but I should have known something unexpected was going to happen.

I got myself ready and walked out to the beach. The camping family wasn’t up yet and I had bus information for the next part of their trip. They were all safe and sound in their camping hammocks under the sea grape trees. Their plans are pretty fluid and included stops in Placencia and Punta Gorda (PG), both south of Hopkins and Kismet. They would be up soon enough, packing, and I’d pass my info to them. We did have plans to walk to the 7am Hopkins bus stop, just 3 lanes down from Kismet. They aren’t more than a footnote here though.

Tricia had the kitchen open so I went up to see what was going on. The table was set for breakfast and the pot of coffee was sitting on the table. She regally swept in and we exchanged morning pleasantries As always she was a whirling dervish of energy, cleaning, moving things, etc. In seconds she had the coffee pot turned on it’s side, draining into one of the empty breakfast plates. Back on it base in seconds and the area cleaned in seconds.

Robert moseyed in, yep he’s a mossier, Matt next, and then Conan, who’s been acting rather oddly lately, was almost right behind him. The past couple of days has seem Conan waking up much earlier than he has almost since he arrive in late November. It could be that he wants his baby back into the water and underway, it may be something else. No matter. He did say he was going to be up to see me off, and he was. Again, pleasantries all around. Out of the corner of my eye I saw one of the camper girls walking toward the kitchen steps so I met her half way. Her sister came from the direction of the shower too so I told them the info on the bus and about going to Placencia by boat from Independence, the town on the way to PG. I also asked if they were feeling better after having spent the previous day trying for news of family and friends back in tornado revenged Joplin, MO. (Thankfully they learned everyone was fine.) and they said a good night’s sleep is what they needed and got. So, off to my final packing. Six-thirty came and I said my goodbyes to goodbyes to everyone, got plenty of hugs, and headed for the parking lot to start walking to the bus stop. Robert offered us a ride and we were saved from a much longer walk because of it. He got us to the stop just as the bus was backing out into the street. If we’d have walked we’d have missed it and had to walk the much longer distance to the middle of the village. I mentioned that it was hot already at 7am so we would have been sweat drenched by the time we got there, having dragged all of out luggage. The ride through Hopkins and out to the 2 junctions was normal. The campers got off at the Hopkins Road junction and we waved a final goodbye. I got off at the Southern Hwy and Hummingbird Highways for my trip west and north. The bus came. I got on, and that was the start of my adventure.

I boarded the chicken bus to Belize City and it was standing room only. The buses used for intra-Belize travel are Bluebird school buses. They hold about 50 kids and haven’t been modified for larger adults so foot and knee space is at a premium. There were probably 20 people standing in the aisle. Since I was the last on from the 6 Mile junction I chose to stay right near the door. The buses are not air conditioned and at 8am it was already near 90. The windows and front entry door are always left open to allow for the 55mph airflow to make the heat more tolerable. I chose to sit on the plastic engine cover right next to the driver and toll taker, who stands in the door. At least I had a seat of sorts. Now here’s where things get interesting! The plastic engine cover was pretty slippery so I was holding onto anything I could hook my fingers on. And to make matters worse it got hot. After about 45 minutes my butt and boy parts had been slow roasted. I started formulating a plan to boycott Planters Peanut because now I know what happens when they slow roast their nuts. I don’t ever want to hear of a nut having to be put through that because it burns (if you get my drift)! But I endured it and was pleasantly rewarded for my tribulation. After passing through the Mayan Mountains the driver came up on a stalled truck rather suddenly and had to slam on the brakes. I was rewarded, although it was a rescue attempt, by a dark haired American girl who was thrown forward onto me, and I grabbed her to keep her from slamming into the windshield, straddling my thighs with her hers, which landed her left breast right smack into my face. Well actually both of them were there but I had a better feel for the left one at first. Her continued slid actually dragged both of them across my face until she finally came to rest. I was a bit surprised but being a guy…I was in heaven. I haven’t been that friendly with a woman in some time! It took her a bit to get herself half way off of me and she started apologizing. I certainly didn’t need an apology, and barely heard it anyway because I was staring at a very nice set of…well, you know what! And I certainly needed/wanted more of what just happened. I told her not to worry about it, that it was the best thing that’s happened to me in a very long time. She chuckled and then…her headlights came on! She noticed it right away and man did she turn red! That did it for me! I was way past heaven now and she was still straddling me. She finally was able to stand up but gave me a kiss on the lips and a thank you for keeping her from getting hurt. The God’s are kind to the Fatboy every once in a while… At that point I found out that the conductor, who was standing in the open door, was slammed forward into the door and ejected out of the bus. Lucky for him the ground he landed on was soft and all he got was a few scrapes and bruises. Me, I got face breasted so I was the lucky of us. Anyway, her name is Callie and she is from NJ and was headed for San Ignacio for a week. We talked for the rest of the ride and she apologized again and I said that I was happy for “the way she ended up”. More laughs. The bus makes a stop in Belmopan and because it’s against the law for the bus to have passengers standing they stopped 2 blocks short of the terminal and asked everyone who was getting out in Belmopan to get off and walk in. Luckily no one was burdened with a lot of luggage. The bus pulled in, added more passengers, then headed for Belize City.

I got out at the Belize City bus stop and into a cab for the Caye Caulker Water Taxi where I was going to buy my ADO (Mexican) bus ticket to Cancun. Now I’d seen on their website that the bus left from there but that was old info. Now you take the chicken bus to Chetumal MX and get on the 1st class bus from there. So I buys me ticket and gets back into the cab. I told the driver what happened and he offered to drive me across the border into Mexico for $75 Belize ($37.50 US) and said he’d make it in under 2 hours. SOLD!!! Off we went. After that the trip turned normal. We crossed the border. I had absolutely no trouble with either crossing. I got on a local shuttle for at the border that took me to the ADO terminal for 10 Pesos (about 90 cents). Thirty minutes later I was on the air conditioned 1st class bus and headed north. With the 1 hour time advance in MX we arrived at around 9pm in downtown Cancun. The only bad thing about that ride was that I left my computer mouse in the seat and the bus pulled right out and headed somewhere else. (I’m using a mouse the hotel clerk lent me.) I told a taxi driver I wanted a cheap but nice hotel near the airport so I am safely in bed in a really nice Comfort Inn (with full breakfast and free airport shuttle) for US$60. I asked the desk clerk about something to eat and she pointed me toward the 7-11 and a Burger King because everything else was closed. I made the Burger King by 5 minutes. Any later and I’d have been dining on chips or something.

So that’s the 1st part of my travel tale. Hopefully the rest of my trip will be quiet. By the way, Matt and Angie left today too and are probably safely home in Chattanooga TN by now. They were flying out of Dangriga to Belize International and then Delta to Atlanta and Chattanooga. They had a great time while they were at Kismet and promised to come back again.

Good news...and bad news...

The good news:

Matt and Angie came back to us on Friday 5/6. They were here last November and enjoyed it so much they just had to return as soon as possible. (And we love that!) This time they brought their eldest daughter Shanee, a pretty little blonde to try the place out as well. She was an immediate hit with me because almost the 1st words out of her mouth were that she wanted to go fishing. A girl after my own heart! We didn’t make the nightly lagoon run but the next morning around 9am Matt, Shanee, and I grabbed fishing poles and Angie came along to sightsee. We didn’t catch anything but it was a nice way to start off their trip. Shanee, well Matt too, is excited about getting out to the reef for the big ones and we’ll do that as soon as Conan and I get the boat ship shape. On the way back to Kismet Shanee looked out over the sea and said she was impressed by the number of people out in the water and how far out they were. I guess she must need glasses because it was 2 large flocks of pelicans sitting in the water waiting for their breakfast to swim by. We had a good laugh over it. They did the zipline excursion yesterday and loved it. Matt taught repelling in the Army so he’s cool with it but Shanee was scares stiff. But she jumped off on each of the 6 different zipline and ended up loving the whole thing. Angie loved it too. They couldn’t stop talking about how much they enjoyed it. A couple of us here keep threatening to do that and the cave tubing too but for some reason we never get around to it. One day… Shanee left us today to return to her hubby and 3 year old daughter but she swears she’ll return. Matt and Angie would like to get the entire family down to enjoy Belize because they are hoping to retire here in 5 years or so.

I was like a kid in a candy store the 1st 2 days Matt and Angie arrived. I’d asked Matt to head to the store and resupply me with weights, swivel snaps, and wire leaders because I was about out. He did better than that, adding in some hooks and a couple lures too. I’m fully resupplied now. Another request I had was for a bottle of Bailey’s Irish Cream for my coffee and a bottle if Irish sipping whiskey. I got those the next day! He brought a bottle of Jameson, one of my very favorites. I shared shots with Conan and Chris (more on him later) in the kitchen and brought the bottle over to the Driftwood to share a bit with my Irish friend Oliver. He was in heaven too because you can’t get Irish whiskey here in Belize and I’m always teasing him about his joint being a pretty bad Irish pub because I can’t get any there. Bad me I wasn’t able to share a shot or 2 with Matt (it’s one of his favorites whiskeys too) and Angie until Monday night because they are always on the run. He wouldn’t take money for any of it but I’ll make up for it in other ways. It’s also just nice to see the 2 of them again. He and I still hold the total fish caught on a reef trip and I’m hoping we can better our total and keep he and I number 1.

Chris came back through Kismet on his way back to the sates and his job, on Saturday 5/7. It was a grand surprise because we didn’t know when to expect him. Conan and I were sitting in the kitchen yakking when he walked up and yelled to us. He’d grown his hair out and shaved (said it was for the ladies he met on his C.A. travels) so it took a second to realize who he was. So he got quickly back into the swing of Kismet life. Sad part is he only stayed until Wednesday 5/11 when he had to head to Belize City for his flight. Hopefully he’ll return next year!

Tuesday May 10th was our 1st reef diving/snorkeling/fishing trip out to the keys. Matt, Angie, Shanee, Conan, and I were the crew. They all snorkeled and I fished. I didn’t catch anything and I won’t tell you about the big cuda I lost after it jumped twice (ok I guess I just did) but Dwayne’s (owner of Bread&Butter Caye) 2 workman caught a nice cuda and a small jack. My compatriots had a great time with Conan and Dwayne’s Hawaiian sling spearing fish. We were given the 2 fish, actually we were given a much bigger cuda for taking them out and I gifted them each a lure, so we ate well that night and even fed 5 other guests. So, all in all, it was a great day!

And now the bad news:

Well it happened again! I was showing a flick up in the kitchen on Mother’s Day and while we were fully committed to watching “Paul” (which was pretty funny by the way) someone stole my newest rod/reel and Matt’s brand new rod/reel that he brought from the states from outside my trailer. We knew of 2 locals who passed through the property that night and promptly went to one of them and he was ruled out immediately. The other one, we have no idea where he lives. So it’s time to set up a sting and salt the area and wait in ambush with hard sticks and machetes. Conan and I were told by 2 separate cops that it’s legal to stab a thief in the butt or leg to “slow him down and make it easier to catch and identify (because of the wound) the thief. We hope to catch someone red handed and make an example of him by giving him a permanent limp that will remind other potential thieves that we’re tired of it and ain’t gonna take it anymore! News updates as they happen! Anyway, Matt and I visited Uncle Harry’s and replaced out missing gear. As I walked in I ask Harry if it was alright that I called in a Dangriga cop. He asked why and I told him about out latest misfortune. I said, “Who knew we had new fishing tackle and who would benefit most from it going missing?” We had a good chuckle over that and picked out our stuff.

We’ve had a heck of a time getting the boat out of the water and up on the beach. It took 6 of us and a big come-a-long strap the 1st time and 5 guys and a come-a-long the 2nd , and we didn’t succeed that time. We have two 6” PVC rollers and a couple of boards too nit we just can’t figure our how to get it up the double slope of the shore line in front of Kismet. We bought a heavy duty hand winch, an 8X8 railroad tie, and a bag of cement trying to make it easier but each idea fails. We’ve sunk the darn thing at least 5 times now. The post is now cemented into the sand under the palapa and today (Monday 5/10) and mounted the winch on Wednesday. When we attempted to pull the boat out we found that, even with the post cemented 2 feet into the sand, it wasn’t stable enough to pull the boat. The boat did move a few feet until the post started pulling forward, at which time we stopped. So we bailed as much water out of it as we could, all the while waves were refilling it, and finally were able to get it floated. So we pulled it out about 100 feet into waist deep water, set the anchor, and hooked up the battery to get the bilge pump working. No luck! There was just too much sand in the pump hole. Someone, and I won’t mention any names to protect all of us because we’ve all had some pretty strange ideas, determined that we should face the bow (front of the boat) toward the beach. VERY WRONG MOVE!!! Several large waves poured over the transom (the wall at the back of the boat that the engine is connected to) and down she went. So we swam off heavy hearted and took a much needed break, We’d been at this more or less from 2am on, trying to use high and low tide to solve some of our problems. We figured that high tide would help us get the boat up the slope. We thought that waiting until low tide we could get most of the water out and it would be easier to pull it up. Twice we’ve used Robert’s (another long term resident) 2 wheel drive pickup truck to winch it up the darn slope. We’ve now beached it half way up the slope but it isn’t high enough and high tide refills the boat with water and floating seaweed. We are all pretty sore from all the work we’ve done to save the boat. Matt is a weight-lifter kind of guy and even he’s suffering. I guess it’s because we aren’t used to working in moving water, being pounded by big waves, pushing/pulling the boat with shifting sand around our feet, and bailing like madmen for extended periods of time. It uses different muscles that we don’t normally use in those ways. So, nothing has worked and we’re all very frustrated but we have to keep trying because we want to save the boat. Today is another day and we’ll start all over again. And another thing…we’re getting rashes in delicate places from spending so much time in the water. I guess it’s time to pray to the patron saints of lost causes, boaters, the sea gods and goddesses, and anyone else we can think of to save us poor miserable boat people. We just can’t win…

And, so, life goes on for the Fatboy in Belize… And, as always, stay well, keep happy, and practice peace. I am!!!