A DAY IN THE LIFE

Ok so maybe he isnt 187 quite yet, but this little old man who works unbelievably hard.....

No worries honey, i am not dling most of the hard work. I am mostly in charge of the water hose......LOL

If i knew how hard this would be, i would have painted the crap out of it too!!! Lesson learned.

Wow, now how did I take that literally!! the 187 yr old thing lol.

Better get my mind examined rather than my eyes lol

Ok summer is here and it is already hotter than hell.   Today temp in the shade on the terrace was 93 and when I moved it into the sun (yes know not all that accurate) it was 118. So actual temp was probably pushing 100.  Oh and about 90% humidity.
The heck with the electric bill tonight time for some AC

Bob K

And we finally got some much needed rain this morning.... hoping for more later. Its not quite so hot here today!!!

Patio Project

yesterday my friend came over with his nephew.  Nephew is about  18 years old.  Proceeds to take off his shoes and socks, roll up his pant legs and shimmy up a giant coconut palm!   The coconuts and large branches fall and they are dangerous at times.

So he climbs the first one,  giant machete tied to him and spends maybe 10 minutes up there while everything crashes to the ground around him. 

He shimmies down.  then up the second tree,  more cutting crashing and mess!!!  Down he comes 10 minutes later mas o menos......

We drink water and coffee and look at the mess.  Took all 3 of us about 20 minutes to haul all the branches etc to the front yard where a truck will pick them up.  we piled up the coconuts for later use! 

Next we clean the walls and commence painting.  My patio is about  19 feet wide by 28 feet deep and is enclosed by a concrete block wall almost 9 feet tall.  Soon this is getting painted!

MY HEALTH

Cast is off, foot is pretty good. Almost (but not quite )  ready to go dancing.

My doctor has ruled out everything else so my diagnosis is viral arthritis. Good news this will go away.  It was "triggered" by dengue and made worse by Chikungunya.  SO now we treat symptoms while waiting for it to slowly leave my system.......  that is what I have been told.

So there is a light at the end of that tunnel!

Sounds like things are looking  up.

The good news is that the light at the end of the tunnel is not a train.

Bob K

Yeah ! Good news all around.

Or a motoconcho.....oh right they don't have lights......LOL

And thanks Bob things are looking up finally. It has been a brutal few months that is for sure.

Thanks Jan!

"they don't have lights"... now that is funny. Too bad it is so true.

Bob K

:

Planner,

So good to know you are feeling better.. That's a lot to deal with as you've related over the last month or so!! Here's to hoping that you just got everything at one time so you can cross them off the list of "weird things to happen",, and not ever deal with them again!

Thanks, i hope so too. I have eay too much i want to do......lol.

So, you got your patio almost done and your foots almost done too jaja.  Good 2 hear dear. I know by the time you 100% you going to dance like NEVER before lol

Glad to hear your feeling better Planner...
Keep up the wonderful attitude! Your an inspiration to the rest of us!

Thanks honey!!!!!  Today is a work day -  working at the computer for a few hours, then I am tackling the  patio again - as long as we don't get any rain I will get more work done......   

But I am torn - we really need rain here on the south coast!  We are close to drought conditions again!

We have had no rain now in almost two weeks.  The lawn is brown and brittle.

Bob K

Is this rain issue normal for this time of year? You don't think of the tropics having a "drought"....also what is the normal winter season there and if you don't mind what are the highs and lows? Also how about the summer...Seems it may be different there from Hawaii...Sure that Puerto Rico is similar to DR but again don't remember droughts...Maybe memory is off?

Normally we have rain year long. Not every day but showers are not uncommon in the afternoon. This year much less. We still have had about  45 inches of rain here on the north coast this year but lots of it came at one time.

If we do not have some rain every 10 days or so the gardens start to brown up.  Our water reserves are also a bit low here on the north coast but much worse in the Santo Domingo area.

Our "rainy season" usually is Nove-March.  But not rain every day.  During this time of year we may actually have a couple of days of rain instead of the more usual showers.

Bob K

Interesting to note that parts of this country are almost dessert! Others are fully tropical.  It can be pouring rain in one area and 2 km away nothing at all.

We have a lot of microclimate areas.

Our temps dont move all that much. What changes is the range from day to night. In "winter"  we are easantly hot in day and cool at night. In summer we are hot in the day and hot at night. Then throw in humidity......and it feels hot hot hot.

Our hot time is normally mid July to mid October. This year the heat rolled in by end of May! Its already damn hot with high humidity.

94F currently in the shade of the terrace and not a cloud in sight.

Bob K

We are about the same, clouds ran away but its very humid!!!

GOT IT!  Thanks guys...sounds familiar, the hot and humid...dripping but its not the shower.  Do remember taking like 2 weeks to acclimate to Puerto Rico when I first got there. Texas remember lying in bed and sweating in the summer. We didn't have air condition and it was hot and VERY humid in summer.  Just wondered now its pretty clear. But you did raise yet another question, Does the water supply there come from rain only? Surely not.  They must have some kind of water filtration system there with all the bottled water everyone uses.

I read just a couple of days ago either on Pathfinder or IL that some foreign investors are looking into building a large concrete facility there in order to start making concrete roads. Has anyone heard of this yet? Again just wondering. They commented it would boost economy and they thought they could make better roads with it.

Bottled water here is done in purification plants.  The tap water all over the country is great for washing cars and watering gardens. There is no filtration system to speak of on the street water

Yes they are gong to start using cement for the roads.  I just hope they know what they are doing or it will turn into another Dominican boondoggle.  In fact the new road to start next week from the new cruise port in Mamion to Lupron will be in cement.

Only 86f now at 8:45 in the morning.

Bob K

Spoke too soon on the  great electric service here at our villa.  Power just went out.  Thank goodness for the generator.

Bob K

36 C or 96 F at 9:20 this morning on my back patio which faces east.  THIS is a good day to go to those air conditioned malls and kill some time. Good grief it is the end of  June, this is normal for the end of August.

Hope the power comes back on Bob.  Ours was out  3 times yesterday but only about an hour each time.

Yep back on about 15 min ago.  Now 91 in the shade of the terrace.  Who know how hot in the sun.  I am not going to check

Bob K

Nope me neither, staying the hell out of the sun today!!!!

Well we are winding down. I did not want to post this as it might make Planner jealous.  But we are coming to the end of a 5 week project, and it could not have gone better.

We hired two local painters/repair folks on a trusted neighbor's recommendation.  We had the entire outside of the villa, garage, small drive way wall (large circular drive), multiple rooms inside (4) and pool gazebo painted.  All the iron work of the front gates (two very large gates), multiple doors, two balconies, various applications on wood doors scraped, sanded and painted,  Multiple doors (inside and out),and outside cabinets sanded, and re stained. Outside light fixtures painted and some replaced,  Some outdoor furniture scraped and re stained.

They are down to their last room to paint (our office) and some finish up work to do and they should be done by tomorrow.  They did all of this in 1.5 weeks less then originally estimated.

These guys were so professional.  Showed up EVERY day at a quarter to seven in the morning.  Took 1 hour for lunch (we provided this) and then worked till 3:30 every afternoon.  Never asked for anything extra.  They  bought all the materials and gave us receipts that we then paid + some gas money.

The job was perfect. Nothing missing, nothing broken, nothing not done that they said they could do.   I am in awe and would recommend them to anyone on the north coast needing a some major painting (they won't just do a room or two  done.

Truly NOT a Dominican experience

Bob K

Sounds like its HOT there...hope ya'll don't melt like butter...But in my mind its still better than zero degrees and ice, snow and all the trappings that go with that...August here is my favorite month...I like hot but not like in the desert though.  Thank you all for sharing all this detail info about the weather, might seem nit picky to to you but not to those of us who aren't there yet.

Woooo hoooooo Bob, congratulations!!!!! So nice to hear! I am truly envious.

Today i painted my back patio walls, the back of the house and a few other small things. Patio is 28 feet deep by 19 feet wide and wals are 8 1/2 feet high. Yes i had a guy help me. We started just after 9 and completely done by 11:30. We also took out 7 shrubs. They are being moved!

It was too bloody hot today, but it needed to be done.  Now i will decide what to do with 2 foot boarder around patio floor. Either dirt and sod OR ehites stone with pots and plants!!!

Happy Canada Day to Planner....

Hey, thanks......  I guess this means I should take the day  off work. Man the boss will be pissed......

Well I thought we would have been done with the painters yesterday but........

My wife and our house keeper came up with two additional rooms, one hallway and 4 or 5 pieces of furniture to do.  So now shooting for Thursday.

Still a great job well done!

Bob K

Ok painters are gone and I would recommend them to anyone. A truly professional job and under budget....so Dominican (not).
Now Pat has started on drapes, and wall coverings....will it ever end????

Bob K

Today is a BIG day for our house keeper.  It is graduation day for both of her daughters. One from eighth grade and one from high school.  We have supported both kids at a private school for the last 7 years. Education is the only way "out" for today's kids here and we feel good about changing at least two lives here.

This graduation is like going to the Queen's wedding.  Lots of $$ for dresses, caps and gowns, pictures, venue, paying for a speaker and so on.  I am the "patron" of the older girl and will have to "walk her down the aisle to get her diploma.  Kind of nice but I have to ware a shirt and tie and long pants.  Shirt and pants I have but I had to borrow a tie from a friend as I brought no ties, jackets or suits with me here.

It should be a good day.

Bob K

Wow congrats to all!!!! And good for you for supporting their education.

wow, Bob K, you have me in tears.  I know that there are some negative things, especially here in Punta Cana said about the Dominican People but I happen to feel they are wonderful people and as in the US, where there is education, there is better quality of life (or in the US, where people take advantage of the FREE education, they will have a better quality of life).... I read that in DR, many don't make it past primary school, if that much due to the fact that they have to pay for their own books, uniforms, all materials, etc., and even if not extra tuition, they can't afford the books, etc.  There are a few charities I have found that ask people to bring an extra book, pencils. etc. in their -suitcase when coming to an all-inclusive but that will never fully educate all that need it.  What you are doing is really the right way..

I won't and dont' need to know how much it cost to "sponsor" a child through their high school graduation but applaud you.. I know people don't want to be called heroes feeling as if their contribution was small, yet if there were many Bob K type hero's out there, a whole country could be educated.. then perhaps they wouldn't have to rely on other governments to come in and get rich in their country (all the while providing minimal jobs to Dominicans and Haitians) ... I have learned much since being here and my goal was to help in some way. This is an inspiration to me.
Thanks for sharing.
Leslie

Thank you both. We feel it is the least we can do to "give back" to the country we enjoy and call home.

Bob K

Now on another note and I will write more on it tomorrow as too frustrated and upset right now but on the way to graduation with a car overloaded with "family"  (8 people in a 5 or 6 max person car) we were hit by a moto traveling at about 120KM an hour totally out of control.  He is ok and refused to go to the hospital.  We watched him fly over the car. But are car (as well as his moto) are trashed.  My front end is basically destroyed.
  But like I said more on this tomorrow.  IN the mean time we made it to graduation with time to spare and both of our girls got certificates of merit for outstanding work and grades. Why to go

Bob K