A DAY IN THE LIFE

Both of us at the same time?  Hmmmmmm  Interesting thought

Just checked on the symptoms and nope...

Today was not a regular day - my any stretch of the imagination!  We went to bed last night not sure of what impact tropical storm Chantal would have on us here in Santo Domingo!  Overnight it was really quiet,  it cooled down quite a bit but it was soooo quiet, not at all what I expected.

I woke this morning to the quiet. No rain. No wind. No traffic noise. Strange........that was at 5 am.  The rain started just after 6am.  At times it was torrential, at times lighter.  I don't think it completely stopped until late evening. 

I had business meetings this morning - the first at 8 am. My driver came  for me and what is normally a 25 minute ride was about 12 - no traffic!  It was raining but not too hard.

My meeting lasted 1.5 hours and when I left I needed hip waders!!!! IT was torrential.  We were going about 10 minutes to my next meeting - it took 40 minutes due to road flooding. And the wind picked up and the rain was going sideways.

I made the next people come to me for the next meeting.  Getting home my driver had to know the streets as many were partly flooded and some impassable.  The danger is not knowing where there are holes in the road or missing manhole covers!!! Hit those when they are flooded and you may have a problem.

Once home I was dry once again. But then the electricity went out.  Came back. Went out. Came back. Went out and stayed out for 6 hours!  Trees came down in our area taking out the lines. we are back to normal now.

It is now a very cool night, I need jammies to go to bed!  It is breezy but not actually raining.  I imagine we are not done with the rain.

Imagine if this had hit us as an actual Tropical Storm? Chantal went further south of us then expected and we only felt a bit of the storm!

Unfortunately many here will be flooded. Probably some lives will be lost. Some families will lose everything. And this was not a bad one.

Glad to hear that the SD area is ok only what sounds like minor flooding.

I am hearing the same from the north coast where they had just over 6 inches or rain and some street flooding as well but no winds to speak of.

We "escaped" another one.

Stay dry

Bob K

the last few days have been full of organizing for my move!!! My original choice fell thru so I went looking for a new option. Found.  Organized. Signed.  Paid.

Now the real work....LOL  EdeSur, check.  Tricom, check. Truck and strong men - almost check.  Packing, check. 

I want to paint, clean, install  air conditioner etc. That will come next week but I am spending time organizing. And of course trying to work through all of this............

Lots going on!!! I updated the thread on moving in SD........

Good luck with the new digs! I hate moving days.

Bob K

Thanks Bob, I also hate moving, but damn I am sooo good at it!!! LOL

Today a Doctor's appointment

Today I went to a lung specialist as I have pneumonia for the second time in less then 4 weeks.  I am on some pretty heavy duty antibiotics and we will see about getting me the vaccine.

But the experience..............

So first you do not need a referral to a specialist. No seeing your GP or anything.  You need a specialist, go visit his or her office.

Don't even bother trying to make an appointment. Nope.  Show up and get your number in line.

I arrived at 7:45 am to find out i was already number 5!!!!  I waited my turn, getting pissed off as people walking in the door were going ahead of me. So, me being me, I asked why.  Oh, they called ahead!!!  Really because I CALLED YESTERDAY!!!

I waited impatiently  and after almost 2 hours was my turn.  Yup I have pneumonia. Right.  So we order an xray,  blood tests etc.  And I can come back when I have the results, meanwhile he continued my antibiotics and added another item.   He is sure I have some scarring on my lungs and it leaves me susceptible to repeat attacks.  Yikes so I am gonna get the vaccine.

Next xrays -  20 minutes done.  they hand me the xrays to take with me....ok.   Next Lab - 20 minutes done.  results to be picked up tomorrow!

Next pharmacy.  We had to go to  5 pharmacies to find this item. Ok.

On the way to and from pharmacies it started to POUR.  It was so torrential we could not see out the windows!!!  Once it abated a bit we started off being very careful of standing water - who knows what holes lurk beneath!!!!! 

And as I write this it is raining again...  and we have a storm off to the south and east of us....... yikes.

Going to the doctor can be an adventure that is for sure...

It's really frustrating when others are permitted to cut the line. But you are the gringo and that's par for the course. I got used to this type of treatment living in the USVI but it really gets to me here for some reason. I guess it's due to needing to see the doctor so you're already uncomfortable anyway.
I hope your meds do the trick and you get better fast.
I'll be praying for you.
Yaimi

Sorry hear about the Pneumonia planner, wishing you a speedy recovery.

Hope you are improving. Doctor visits here can be an adventure for sure.

Bob K

Thanks, I am on the mend and taking it slow for sure!

hi Darlene, this is not the topic under discussion and may not be the place for a message to you but i'm new and haven't figured how to. so, message now to you is about Patricia who owns El Carey in costambar. I saw a picture from some message to her and it sure looked like you. just wondering if you know her

I am going to send you a private message, yes I am the one who messaged her.

A NEW update: 

Yes I am still recovering from my SECOND bout of pneumonia in less then a month. I am taking it slow but slow is not easy for me. I am a high energy, type A driven person...... 

Imagine my shock when I found out my kitchen was INFESTED WITH WEEVILS.  AHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh   

NOT FUN,  dealing with an infestation of weevils when you are recovering from pneumonia.  When I moved into this house, I agreed to store some things for a friend who was moving back to the USA.  Included in that was all the food still in his kitchen.

A good friend organized my kitchen during the move.  Background info - Dominicans do not store food, they buy what is needed for right now. they buy it and use it.  That would apply to about 75% of the population I think. There is neither extra money nor appropriate storage to buy more then is needed. My good friend looked at some of  these kitchen items and didn't even know what some of these things were!  She would not know to check for expiry dates or bugs.

I think my friend  brought all this  with him when he moved here,over 18 months ago, and  it was infested with weevils which spread to everything.  It was crawling in his rice, flour, anything grain, lentil or flour based I guess but they crawl all over everything and into everything. 

IF you can believe it, they were all inside the wax paper, boxes of zip lock baggies,  I had to wash them all. 

A little Rant:

Why does anyone need 6 cake mixes that expired in 2011?  Why on earth does someone need 5 kinds of boxed bread mixes that also expired in 2011?  OMG I have thrown away hundreds of dollars worth of food yesterday and today!!!! The good news - those bags of garbage disappeared way before the garbage truck arrived.
There was 2 or 3 large container of flour alone crawling with bugs......... eeeeeeeyuckkkkkkkkk.

So to set the record straight, I researched weevils.  they arrive in rice, flour etc.  Items need to be used quickly or stored properly.  Flour etc - store in freezer 4 to 5 days to kill everything.  Store in zip lock baggies. Everything else the little bastards can get into. 

In ten years in this country (almost) I  have NEVER had weevils and never seen them.  Let me tell you I murdered thousands of the little bastards!!!!!!

I have had to clean my cupboards,  spray with bug spray,  spray with bleach and water.  I have had to clean and wash every single god blessed item from my cupboards!!!! Now they are all over the counters, the floor etc.  I have to wait a full day or two before I put things away.

The good news is I now have a lot more room in my cabinets and will stick to storing canned goods!!!!!

So, this is how I have spent the last 2 days.  And still not done!!!!!

Now I am back to coughing again!  I was making such good progress.  I will rest this afternoon and tomorrow rebuild the kitchen.

So sorry to hear about your illness. But those weevils ain't so bad. Why don't you get some fishes? You'd enjoy feeding those little bastards to your fishes.

LOL feed em  to the fish!!!!

Well, I got an aquarium with some goldfish and I feed them the larvae from some flies that infected my worm bin. It sure feels good! If not therapeutic.

LOL  oh my goodness, that is funny!!!! Yes it would be therapeutic,  I had to make do with murdering thousands of them!!!!!  Kitchen  is now put back together.  The good news is I now have a lot more space in them!!! Yikes.

My day Yesterday!

My Sunday started out really nice, woke to nice cool temperatures, made some unbelievably awesome Dominican coffee and checked my emails, watched the news etc.

At 10 am my friend Steven picked me up to go to breakfast.  I am still celebrating my 10 year anniversary here.  So off we went to.............IHOP......yes.  good old American breakfast with lots of disgusting extra calories... I had eggs, hash browns, bacon and cream cheese stuffed french toast.  I was FULL.......... It is good but it is not inexpensive and yesterday I did not care.......lol   Interesting to note that IHOP was FULL yesterday,  yes there are people who can afford this in Santo Domingo....

Home to the house for a while.  Jack (my dog) and I chilled for a bit then I prepared some food for later in the day.

Then the electricity went out!!!!  Yup of course.  It was down about 40 minutes.

My friend Lisa and her main squeeze Joel came over to help me do some things in the house!!!! Recovering from pneumonia still,  there are some things I just cannot do on my own. Part way thru this process the electricity came on which meant fans.... wooo hooo.

After about 1.5 hours of work it was time to chill. I made us Margaritas!!!! My first drinks in my new house with company. Then world famous burgers and potato salad.......... 

My friends left and it was time to relax, again.

So, of couse, the electricity went AGAIN.  By this time it was dark and i could not for the life of me remember where I put the damn flashlight.......LOL  Ok, now I know where it is,  won't happen again.......

I called our electrical distributor to be told there was a problem with the jumpers......hmmmm I wonder what the heck that is.  About an hour later the electricity came back, the cable and internet also came back and the cable surge blew something in my TV!!!! Yup,  tv is needing to be repaired now.  And no wasn't the electrical,  everything is on surge protectors for that.

So a nice quiet night at home.......LOL   TV goes out tomorrow morning to be repaired. SO I have to tell you, it is about 12 years old, 30"  heavy bloody thing. But I won't replace it till it is dead. Why should I, its just for the bedroom.  Last time it had to be fixed, cost me US40 including parts.  We will baby this thing along for a little while more.......

I know that you are going to get a generator and/or inverter with batteries sooner or later. I'm definitely up for the details on that one.

You got it honey, I am likely to get an inversor and 4 batteries. Details to follow SOON!

Dominican Time

My topic for today and let me tell you we can write a lot about Dominican time. First lets say it is not on time - ever. 

Earlier today I was contacted by someone who needs to drop something off for me. Ok. I am home, they will be here "early afternoon".  Right. So I made myself available. And I waited. And waited.

Test message:

Me: um early afternoon came and went!  when are you coming over?

Them:  On our way.

Now I wait until after 5pm.

Me:  Hello its been over an hour! Where are you?

Them: Oh my dad is dropping it off, he will be there shortly.

Me: ok, define shortly?

Them:  HAHAHAHA

Another 45 minutes goes by

Me: Hey, I am STILL WAITING!!!!

Them:  he is on his way, will be there in 20 minutes.

Me: HEY, another 40 minutes has gone by is he crawling here???

NO ANSWER

This is typical!!! Dominicans have absolutely no sense of time, being on time, getting it done in a timely manner, or time keeping!!!!!

They show up when it suits them and not before with NO respect for anyone else's needs!!! 

yup  just a bit frustrated!!! The good news - while I was waiting I painted the kitchen!  Ha..........

I can relate to that post, I think it is just a Cribbean thing, have experienced the same thing in Jamica :-) I guess Islanders just don't have the same time etiquette as the rest of the world, that is why they are not stressed out. Things will get done when they get done. LoL.

Yup I am sure it is similar on other islands.....

That's great I found you guys today. Thanks to all for sharing very interesting information. I will move to Santo Domingo next month. Hope to see you guys!

Welcome to the forum and let us know if you have questions.

You might want to put a small post on the "Introduce yourself" thread here in the Dominican Republic Forum

Bob K

Welcome to the forums!!!!  Yes please post an introduction about yourself so we know a bit more. Read read read what you can and then come back with any questions you have!!!

OMG a FIND...........

Now that I am feeling better I have started to get some things done.  Thursday I went out and bought paint supplies!!!! I am painting the downstairs of my house. Some things I have learned:

1. Spend a bit more to buy good quality paint, not the cheap crap.
2. Buy good rollers and brushes - in the long run it makes a big difference.
3. Watch in amazement when Dominicans see you painting your own house......LOL

I  picked out a very light color as my living room / dining room area is a bit dark. I also only paint in semi gloss -  it is easy to clean that way.  Dominicans love cheap flat paint in whatever color. I hate flat paint - wash it and the paint comes off.

I bought 3 gallons - more then I think I need as these walls suck up the paint.  1 gallon of decent quality semi gloss -  795 RD or just under US $20.

I moved furniture and curtains, prepped the living room walls, cleaned, dusted and scraped where necessary and on went the first coat. Its a bit tougher as you use so much more paint but the walls seem to suck it up.  It dries fairly quickly here and the second coat was on in no time.  One thing to note - it is a bit harder to roll on  as the walls are NEVER flat, never square never normal......LOL  Just go with the flow.

So by the time the second coat was going on I had a group of neighborhood boys - age about 5 to 12 watching me.  They had asked permission to come into the yard - granted - and they were on my patio watching me paint.  So then the questions started:

Them - hey why are you painting?
Me - because it needs painting.

Them - don't you have a man?
Me - no, why?

Them - because women don't paint, that's what men do.
Me - really!!!

Them - don't you have any money?
Me - yes but I don't want to pay someone else to paint.

Them -  my mom says you might be a crazy gringa.
Me - laughing my ass off,  yes honey I am a crazy gringa but not bad crazy, good crazy. Where I come from women do what they want to do.

Them- ok  can we go there with you?
Me - no.  LOL

To put this in perspective,  it would be normal for me to hire one or two local men to paint my house.  It might cost me US 50 for the whole downstairs to be painted.  It would be done "their way" regardless of what I wanted,  they would tell me I spent way too much money on paint as they could have bought it cheaper and there would be paint all over the  place - which they always claim they will clean up when done but somehow they always run out of time.

By Thursday night that was done and so was I.

Friday I woke early and the electricity went out.  Hmmm a call to the electricity company and the lovely young lady informed me the electricity was NOT OUT.  Really I said, cause you should come to my neighborhood where we are ALL OUT!!!!!  Bloody hell.

So channeling that energy, I painted the dining room and the small downstairs hallway.  Done in no time, so I used up the paint in my tray and started the stairs to the second floor. Now you know what I am doing this weekend!!!!

So my FIND........this is for BOB.

I went to Bravo on Thursday to get some supplies. And what did I find Bob -  YAMS!!!!! First time in 10 years I have found them. The clerk in Bravo told me they get them once in a while and that they are called "Papas Americana"  LOL  I told him the real name and he laughed at me.... go figure.

OMG I microwaved my first one last night and IT WAS SOOOOOO GOOD!!!!! 

There you go, I wonder if I will let one sprout roots and plant it???? Hmmmmmm I intend to work on my garden next week........ 

Bob let me know how easy they are to grow......

You found Yams, good job!  We grow sweet potatoes in our garden. it takes about 3 months to grow and they are so good. Sadly we have not learned to rotate the crop so when they are ready we have 100 or more.  So our neighbors and friends all enjoy them

Bob K

Bob will you have any in October??? Will be there in 3 weeks, I will de willing to buy a few off you if possible. I will  be staying in Cabarete, or better yet if you have any slips I could plant, that would be great, we can have a cold one at Oshays on Cabarete Beach :-) will write to you when I'm in town.

Bob I ate one and it was amazing.........

massagewiz I am not sure if I will have some or not. Currently out of the country for the summer and I have no idea what our gardener is doing with the potatoes.  I will find out in 4 weeks.
Let me know when you are in town.

Bob K

Planner, Yes they are so good.  I do hope we have some when we get home.
This summer I have been enjoying a few things we don't find back in the DR.  We have had lots of delicious peaches, asparagus, and berries.  We also found MANGOS from the DR but at 3 Euros ($4US) a piece we passed

Bob K

Thanks Bob will do, I thought about sneaking in one and then trying to grow the slips there, but I know they are somewhat thorough at PP airport.  Hopefully I can get one while there and grow some slips then plant.

If I have any when you are here I would be glad to give you some to get started.

Bob K

Thanks Bob, will write to you when I hit Cabarete, I will PM you.

Ok, See you soon

Bob K

Typical day update: 

What a typical morning (sort of)  may look like.....

Wow what a morning already. A  little history first,  I have a dog name Jack.  He is a great dog, a rescue dog from the streets of Santo Domingo. I got him when he was about 10 weeks old. He is the smartest bestest dog I ever had.  Ok, so yes he is the only dog I've ever had.  I am now a dog person....  My friend went on vacation yesterday for 2 weeks and guess what, I have her 3 dogs......yup a house full of 4 dogs....

So today I woke early - silly dogs think because it is light out you getup......   I let them out and  went to make coffee - yikes no water left!!!  Who did that??? Oh right, that was me....I called the colmado (corner store) the kid delivered a 5 gallon bottle - cost US 1.50 including tip!!!! And I am using the best coffee in the world - at 7 am any coffee will be excellent but seriously I love Dominican coffee - US 4 a pound. 

Then I started the laundry,  turned on the water pump,  filled the machine etc.  We use an old fashioned washer spin drier, you remember those from years ago????   Yup that is what we use.  And damn if they don't work just fine.   I've had mine for a few years and am used to using it.  Tip - if you are going to buy one buy a good one and the biggest you can get!!!!!  Doing little bitty loads is a pain!!!!! 

When I do laundry I also turn on my water pump to make sure the tinaco stays topped up.  Tinaco is a big plastic water storage thingy on the roof.  A cisterna (I don't have one) is a big concrete storage location in the ground. Normally street water fills the cisterna and you pump to the tinaco. that way if and when the electricity goes you have water from the tinaco.  As I have no cisterna here the street water is pumped to my tinaco. Works like a hot damn. 

Once washed, rinsed and spun dry, then laundry here is hung out on lines.  In this heat it doesn't take long to dry.  During the rainy times,  it takes forever to get it dry (have to hang it in the house) 

While this is going on the dogs are running from the front yard, thru the house, to the back yard,  and back again.........  All the neighbor kids come to visit us when they are not in school. Then the dogs just go nuts having fun.  One thing I love here, neighbor kids kind of belong to everyone.  If they are at your house, they are good. If they are on the street, everyone is looking out for them. People look out for each other.

I am already known as the crazy gringa.....  one of the kids told me that his mom thinks I am a bit crazy - I live all by myself and now I have 4 dogs at the house....  I told him it is true I am the crazy gringa - but good crazy not bad crazy. The kids thought that was hysterical......  I am sure it is all over the neighborhood by now.

SO now it is time for coffee - fresh mango - fresh melon and read the news!!!!

hi darlene, i often read your daily life stories, a bit lengthy but you always include some very good info that newbies should apppreciate. i spent 4 months in puerta plata so i know about a lot of the problems, not all of course. keep writing about anything you can think of