In the Shadows

Almost Over

2012-01-28T10:49:00.002-06:00

This is the last full day in the States. Early (waaaay early) tomorrow morning I board a flight back 'home'. Truth is, the concept of HOME is getting fuzzy for me. I did a post one time I was back about being homeless. It is something that keeps me on edge when I'm back every time. Little things. Trash is a major problem if I'm not tethered to someone else's home. There really are few places to legally put trash if you are just passing through. At least that I've found so far. Also, pressing 'Go Home' on the GPS always by definition now takes me to someone else's home, Mom's at this point. A little thing, but it adds up. Hand laundry and finding wireless internet access are more difficult if I'm not staying in the same place more than one night, as when I was staying at the Casinos. Being able to just sit someplace alone and veg means paying for a hotel room or buying coffee at McDonalds for their 'free' wireless. It is always metered time, based on price.

Another issue I have is that when I'm living in the States, I do my business related stuff and messing with my possessions while at home, then I travel someplace and visit on vacation. Now, I need to do all of the above while I'm on vacation. No time to sleep in, no time to see everyone, no time to really organize my stuff. Ok, less stuff would help that last part.

So, I have mixed feelings about vacations back 'home'. I found myself thinking sometime around Wednesday that I was ready to head back to Honduras. That surprised me, but mostly I'm ready to just be able to sit and relax and not have to socialize. I'm a loner. The pull between taking advantage of precious time to see friends/family and my need to be alone is taking a toll. So, tomorrow I get on a plane and head back to Honduras. Not sure if I'm heading towards home or away from it.

Still in the US

2012-01-25T12:40:00.002-06:00

I'm in Kansas City. Today I'm staying at Harrah's in KC. When I got my mail (forwarded to Mom's) I had coupons for 2 free nights here, and 2 free nights at Argosy casino. So, last night and tonight I'm here, and Thursday and Saturday I'll stay at Argosy. Harrah's has been good to me at the machines, I've been playing with their money since I got here. The room is amazing. I really do like Harrahs. Saturday Mom and I will stay at Argosy since it's a lot closer to the airport than where she lives, and I need to be there between 4am and 5am on Sunday. So, that's the plan.

I haven't been to the storage unit since the 2 teenage boys unloaded the truck into it. They did awesome. After I paid them Mom handed them a bunch of donuts, and I think they were more excited about that than the money. Well, maybe close. I'm postponing getting ready to head out by playing on the computer. I don't do well without a lot of time off to myself. The vacation has been good, but time to just veg by myself hasn't been near enough. So, that is why I'm taking advantage of the free rooms even though I could stay with Mom. I have to do some rearranging of the unit though as it seems that a briefcase that I left here with my older laptop is missing. I think it's in the stuff that was stored in the Jeep storage unit. sigh. Too much stuff to keep up with. However, most of it is now at least in the same zip code.

Progress

2012-01-15T18:44:00.002-06:00

Turtle Lady's husband, Bill, filled their SUV with my (empty) toolboxes and 50LB bag of wheat (think Y2K...). She sill has more stuff to make disappear from the unit for me prior to the big loading of the truck. The house rental is problematic. Seems 'some' of the rent is seen as paying the rent. I wish I could get rid of the house some how. Selling it would be the best option, but that doesn't look promising in the near future. Oh, well.

I have scheduled lunch or dinner with friends for most meals this week. Turtle Lady keeps my schedule written in pencil in her notebook. She is making a run to Super WalMart right now for some hot chocolate mix for me. I had mentioned it, and then decided that I was too tired to go out for it. She is spoiling me.

I wonder when I will get back to Nashville next. I truly don't know. Everyone asks me my plans, and I have none. Pay off debt. That is the plan. Which ever option that presents itself that pays off the debt is what I'll do. Right now that is working in Honduras. Working outside the US means that I have to get all the details of my life in the US consolidated and put on autopilot. That is my plan. When I look up and that train has run out of track I'll find someplace else to work. Other than that I got nothing.

I made it

2012-01-14T18:45:00.002-06:00

Sorry to leave y'all hanging. I'm in Nashville. I got in to the airport around 10pm, picked up the rental car and made it to the motel around 11. It is a no-frills kind of place, inexpensive, clean, but with personality. No bulb in one light, turn the knob a half-turn to turn another one on, no heat till I got in so it was really chilly in the room kind of place. I turned the heat on high, which didn't put a lot of heat out, put on my base layer long johns, put my down sleeping bag that I packed just in case over the covers on the bed and crashed. Woke up an hour later colder than all get out. Turned the fan to low on the heat which seemed to put out more heat, huddled under the sleeping bag and fell asleep until 7 this morning.

Turtle Lady arrived, we went to breakfast at Waffle House. I'm in culture shock so far. I can strike up a conversation with anyone pretty much and they talk back in a language I understand. Sometimes I get strange looks, but they answer me in English. I filled the small coffee pot in the room from the faucet, and I can put the toilet paper actually in the toilet (in Honduras there is a wastebasket for it next to the toilets), I can order a meal and pretty much be assured I'll get what I asked for. I can get in the car and drive (and we have!), I can shop where I want without worrying if it's safe. The car suspension works and the ride is smooth and there aren't potholes in the roads everywhere. I'm not making sense, but believe me, I am feeling like I'm in an alternate universe at times.

We have gone to my storage unit, and I have the beginnings of a plan. I have made an appointment at the optometrist for Monday for an exam so I can order a second set of glasses to be delivered at the WalMart in MO next week. I've made lunch arrangements with a friend for Tuesday, Wednesday Turtle Lady and I will eat lunch at the Indian buffet. In between all the visiting with friends I need to organize all the stuff I'm going to move, and hopefully get rid of some of it.

So, the adventure continues.

'Twas the Night Before...

2012-01-12T16:55:00.003-06:00

I leave tomorrow for 2 weeks in the States. I finished work and my luggage is already back at the office waiting to go to where the buss takes off. I have only my day pack to carry in tomorrow morning, and it has been sanitized of knives and lotions an other bad juju. Pack the netbook tonight, shower, get up and dress and head out. Go to sleep tomorrow night in TN, God willing. They assigned me a good seat on the second leg of the flight, so guess I won't get bumped after all.

My taxi driver gifted me with a bag of fresh roasted and ground coffee as I got out of the taxi this evening. I'm thinking that some coffee, maybe with some Baileys, and just sit my tail in my recliner tonight is a good plan. I had thought I'd do some ironing and such, but the longer I sit here the less I think it needs to be done after all. I may get a burst of energy later. Or not.

So, 15 months into this adventure I'm not as far along on many things as I'd hoped, but I'm a lot further along than I was when I came down here. Debt is going away slowly. The life here is actually pretty easy for me. Few decisions on a day-to-day basis, not a lot of options to worry about. I felt myself slipping into the 'responsible adult' mode a bit as I walked out from work. You know, the one who thinks about where to go, what to eat, where to shop. Or, if you have never lived where there are no options maybe you don't know. There was a Doonesbury awhile back where Ray, the perennial soldier, was told he was being sent home. His response was 'But home is couples counseling and AT&T bills!'. I about fell over laughing, because I knew exactly what he meant. It's actually having to think again. It's being able to just pick up a cell phone and calling anyone in the contacts list. Hell, it's having a contacts list on the phone to call people from.

As I rode home in the taxi from work I was again thinking about how there isn't a lot of fru-fru down here. Life is right out in the open. Mechanics shops and restaurants and houses and places selling used tires all thrown together, people of all ages and all types of transportation from oxen cart to horse to bicycle to bus to fancy cars all together on the roads. Handicapped and crippled folks mingled in with everyone else. Trash and beautiful buildings. It's all right out there together. In a lot of ways I think a lot is lost by hiding the nuts and bolts of life the way it is in 3rd world countries. But, I admit I'm looking forward to McDonald's for breakfast and knowing I can get pretty much whatever I want at the Super WalMart next door, and that it's safe to go there at any time of day or night.

Wow. All that and I haven't even broken open the Baileys yet. :)

odds and ends

2012-01-08T18:38:00.003-06:00

I am getting ready for my trip back to the States. My tickets have been bought and paid for, but one leg still says there are not seats available I bought trip insurance, so if there were no seats and they sold me a ticket anyway, I may come out ok. It is on the way from Houston to Nashville, and I have the time to be bumped if they want to reimburse me for it. I reserved the big moving truck to move my stuff from the storage unit in Nashville to the storage unit in Kansas City. I reserved a motel room for a week in Nashville. Now I just need to reserve a car to drive until I get the truck.

Plans now call for a week in Nashville and a week in Kansas City. Have help lined up on both ends to load and unload the truck. Have the storage unit in Kansas City reserved. I know I'm missing something... I am packing, and planning on taking 2 suitcases and a carry-on as well as my day pack, but only coming back with my day pack. Anything else coming back (not much) will be mailed.

No pictures. Haven't had the patience to load them. I did discover that if I load the pictures onto PhotoBucket first, it apparently re-sizes them so that I can have a header picture. Still playing with it.

Traveling through Tegucigalpa

2012-01-02T09:57:00.003-06:00

The image above was taken when we were already about half way up the side of the mountain. The statue of Jesus (Christo), which is where we are headed, can be seen above the Coca-Cola sign. Zoom in if you need to.

For part of the rest of trip up the mountain I just shot out the window or straight ahead. So, enjoy some street scenes from Tegucigalpa. This is just one small part of the capital city of Honduras.

We were switch-backing so much that I was getting car sick trying to take pictures, so I put the camera away until we got to the top. More pictures later. Which may be tomorrow.

Tweeking

2012-01-02T08:03:00.003-06:00

I have 30 blogs in my blog list. Apparently that is all I'm allowed. There are a few more I'd like to add, but Blogger won't let me. Also, Honduras Gumbo http://www.honduras-gumbo.com/ just won't add correctly. I'm assuming it's because she uses a re-direct. Haven't tackled the banner picture again yet, but I'm thinking I'll break down the pictures from the 2 trips to the Christo statue park into a couple of posts. I'm also doing a picture challenge from http://dailyshoot.com/assignments?page=1 . There are 23 pages of assignments, so I went to the last one and will work my way up. I may post some of the pictures if they are good enough. Change continues.

A New Year, A New Look

2012-01-01T17:15:00.003-06:00

Today is the start of a whole new world. So, I changed my blog template for the first time since starting to write here. Any photos or backgrounds are my own photography. This stuff isn't as easy as I'd like, so I'll be tweeking it as I go. I want to have a picture across the top, but haven't gotten it the way I want yet. I'll be changing my profile picture when I get the one I want to use all cropped and ready.

Other than that, there isn't a lot of change on the surface. Just a change in attitude. Some things are coming together. Not quite together yet, but getting there. I am progressing.

¡Feliz Navidad

2011-12-25T11:42:00.004-06:00

For my birthday a couple of coworkers took me out to dinner. They had the waiters sing to me while I was given the appropriate props. Yes, both glasses in front of me are mine, first was a (very small!) marguerita, and then a larger sangria. I enjoyed myself!

Today is quiet, and I will spend the time catching up on my computer work.
This is the time for tying up loose ends and getting ready to head into the new year ready for new adventures.

I wish you and your a safe and happy Holiday season.

Pictures and Update

2011-12-15T18:34:00.004-06:00

This is a view of the Jesus statue that looks over Tegucigalpa, Honduras. I did go back a couple of weeks aog with my new camera. I have more pictures and I will do a post on the trip. Really. I have the pictures downloaded now.

This is an overlook at the entrance of the park. The park is on the side of the mountain. The new camera is way cool in that you can zoom in and really see some of the city from this picture.

Remember the hammock? This was a couple of weeks ago. I made it half way. I am further than that now, and may even have it finished by the time I head back to the States for 2 weeks in January.

My last appointment for major dental work was yesterday. I may need 1 more appointment to tweek my bite after having 4 crowns installed on one sitting. My mouth was so catywampus after 2 hours that I couldn't reliably tell him if it felt ok or not. Still getting used to it.

One of my favorite former co-workers who left a year ago is now back. I think this will make work a lot more fun. Well, at least a little more fun. It is also slow right now, so I'm getting spoiled with large chunks of time when I don't have to think much during the day.

I'm giving thanks tonight for a librarian in Pendleton, IN back when I was 12. I had read all the books in the young adult section of the small Carnegie library by that point and Mom didn't want to think about keeping me in reading material by herself. She worked a deal with the librarians there (who all knew me cause we stopped there every 2 weeks) where I was allowed to read books from the adult section that they personally picked out for me. One of the first chosen was The Prophet by Kalil Gibran. It became my Bible, and was a rock of sanity during my teenage years. Even now I remember parts of it when certain situations come up. Uniting over a shared experience of that book can make strangers feel like friends. Even when I'm far away in Honduras.

Music

2011-12-04T08:05:00.002-06:00

One of the things I do enjoy down here in Honduras is that my cultural assumptions are constantly challenged. The music I hear on the radio in the taxis as I go about is almost always either 80's American rock mixed in with Central/South American music in sung in Spanish. Alex Campos is always a favorite. I believe he is a Christian music singer, but since I don't know Spanish he could be saying anything. However, the charm of his music leads me to believe his message is uplifting in words as much as the music. It calls me to get one of his CD's with lyrics hopefully enclosed so I can study Spanish I will use.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T18:58:00.001-06:00

Life has changed gears around here lately. Not sure how or why. I'm calmer. I'm getting more accomplished. I feel better. Nothing is quite where I want it to be, but I at least don't feel like I'm just sitting around waiting anymore. No real change in my day to day life other than I'm making small steps in my projects instead of just sitting around feeling overwhelmed. Next week I hope to be half way finished with my hammock. I'll post a picture at that point.

Pictures. Yeah. Well, I decided to admit that I just don't like the camera I've had for a few years. I've been looking around. I bought 2 new ones, a shirt pocket digital point and shoot and a video camera. I say that like the little one is not much, but its a Cannon Elf 300HS. Seems to take good pictures from what little I've played with it so far. No, you don't get the practice pictures here that I've taken of my messy apartment. The video one is a Sony Handycam. A co-worker has one and I like his. I want to play a bit with video, so decided to jump while I'm someplace to take fun videos. Tomorrow after work I'm headed back down to the capital for the weekend and another visit to the garden/park/Jesus statue with working cameras this time.

And, tonight I caught up with laundry. Only clothes not washed are what I have on. I'll see if I can keep up with it this time.

Finite

2011-11-22T18:15:00.001-06:00

Finite is the word of the week here. It is the hope to which I cling. There is a finite length of yarn to be woven into my hammock I'm making and which I need to finish before I can leave. There is a finite amount of laundry I am behind such that soon I can just do the clothes I wore the day before each night and keep up (this is falicy, I know...) There are a finite number of papers I need to scan, shred, send home or otherwise deal with. There is a finite amount of items here in Honduras that I need to relocate back to the US, a finite number of items in the storage unit in Nashville that likewise need to be relocated to Kansas City so that at some point in the future my stuff will all be in the same zip code again. Probably not the one I'm in, but progress. I need to feel that each thing taken care of moves me to the place where the to-do list at least doesn't keep growing faster than I can check things off.

I am getting things done. Other things are slipping. I tell myself that I'm making progress.

Last night I went down to the restaurant here at the hotel for dinner. I usually don't eat at night, but I was hungry and tired of being hungry. The waiter here speaks some amount of English. He likes me and trys to have conversation. It had the usual reasult. He kept saying he had one question for me. He said this for over an hour, in many ways. I'm still not entirely sure if the question was about inviting himself up to my room, or inviting me to church. I do know he was being very heartfelt and sincere about whatever the question was about. At some point a Babtist missionary from Tennessee kept being mentioned, so I decided it was about church. They will be praying for me, the two of them, pretty much without ceasing, this weekend. I'm still not entirely sure about the one question even now. I have educated guesses, and I'm not counting out the original idea. This is how a lot of my conversations with local Hondurans goes. It is always friendly and sincere, but I'm never really sure the two of us are discussing the same subject at any given time. Then again, it's not all that different when I'm talking to someone who shares the same language as I.

No Pictures

2011-11-14T12:30:00.001-06:00

No one who knows me will be surprised to hear that when I pulled my camera out of my backpack the battery was dead and I had not (of course) packed the charger. So, no pictures. The tour of the city was awesome, and I will go back and get pictures. Now that I've been to the areas I'm more inclined to go there in a smaller group. Not alone, but Melinda and I both want to go back and take pictures and visit the gift shop we found.

I am on a more strict diet. I went into the trendy store, inspired to get some new clothes by having the young(er) females around, and largest sizes didn't fit me. Ok, this is Honduras, where the locals are smaller. However, when I no longer fit into anything labeled 'L' it is time to regroup and take care of the issue. It's not just weight, I need to firm up. The new curves are ok in general, but I got a few curves in places that are actually supposed to be flat. So, along with studying for certifications and working on my hammock, I am going to exercise. Really.

I also started antibiotics so that tooth tooth left to work on will numb on Saturday at the dentist. Down here we don't need a presscription to get antibiotics, so I did my due diligence in research, and I'm watching myself for any adverse issues. I've never been alergic to any medicines, so I'm good. I'm drinking lots of water, and I'm staying out of the sun as much as I can. No long sleeves because it's gotten hot here again. I guess if I start burning I'll find some kind of long sleeves, or wear my windbreaker when I'm outside. Sensitivity to sun is the only real symptom I'm concerned about.

More weekend

2011-11-12T09:00:00.001-06:00

I'm a day late for the official day, but I want to thank all the Veterans who have taken time from their lives to serve in the Military. I work with active and retired military people every day. It is amazing to me to see how much of their lives they commit to the service. Thank you.

This weekend has been very different from others I've had down here. Two of the people from post that I work, Louis and Melinda, with came to town yesterday. While we were running around, 2 female Majors who recognized them at the Mall joined up with us. I had wanted to check a different casino, and asked if the original 3 of us could go to that hotel for dinner. We invited the two female soldiers to join us. 5 of us went to the Mayan Hotel for dinner. The food was awesome. The service was not so great. The restaurant here at the hotel would probably have been better for ambiance and service, but it was nice to get out to a new place. The casino at that hotel turned out to be the only place I've seen down here that has on-site table games. The only other ones I'd seen here are video ones. However, I'm not a table game person so I was not impressed with the rest of the options. Louis and Melinda and I went to the Clarion Hotel casino for a short while later, but it was so crowded that we didn't stay long.

While all of us were together we decided to schedule a tour of the city this morning, so I'm in the process of arranging that. I'm good at coming up with things to do and arranging them, but most of the time I'm alone so I don't actually get out and do much. This is working well this weekend because the soldiers aren't in country long enough to really know what there is to do, while I'm enjoying having company to actually do things. I'll take pictures and let you know what we see.

Weekend

2011-11-11T09:32:00.001-06:00

Note to self: DO NOT say to your normally calm, cheerful taxi driver 'RAPIDO' when getting in and thinking about the bus you need to catch soon in town. This makes the start of the weekend particularly exciting...

The trip up on the buss was uneventful. The taxi driver who picked me up seemed to know me, as he kept saying the name of the casino I usually go to. I checked in, and the front desk person, Walter, was falling all over himself even more than usual to let me know how happy he was I'm here. He walked me up to my room, which is considered a perk I guess, to check in while in the room, not standing at the counter. I knew I was getting an upgrade since I had filled out the survey about my last stay. To be honest, I waited until the second time they sent it to me, and then decided that I would mention the two small issues I'd had. I did tell them that it was all handled by the front desk immediately.

So, we get to the top floor, a floor above where I thought I was going and 2 floors above my usual rooms (these things matter when you are at a classy hotel). He proudly opens the door to... the Presidential Suite! I am awestruck! I have 2(!) bathrooms, a living room with TV, a dining room with a table that seats 8, a walk in closet that I've gotten turned around in more than once this morning (before coffee...), a water jet deep tub with 2 steps up to it, a separate shower... wow. I'll get pictures and post them.

The strange thing is, with all this there are some things I'm thinking are, well, not up to par. So much effort spent on the WOW factor, and details are lost. I'm feeling badly wondering if I should mention them, if it will look like I'm angling for another upgrade. The coffee in the room is still just the one packet, and not enough for the full sized pot, even when I only filled it part way. The included breakfast in the private 9th floor dining room was mostly just fruit and scrambled eggs. I was actually hungry, so I wanted some plantains or bacon or something. The guys working there, both last night and this morning, seem to ignore me. Granted I didn't come dressed for 9th floor, but I have had to ask for everything. That is not up to even the service I get downstairs. I watched the waiter here take a cup from one of the (well dressed...) gentlemen as he drank the last of his coffee not even giving him time to set his cup down before refilling it. I had to ask for more.

I'll post more later. Time to get going, the maid is here.

Countdown

2011-11-10T12:42:00.001-06:00

I am at work, waiting until I can leave for my 3 day weekend. As usual, I'm going down to the Capital to the casinos and such. Hopefully some folks from here will join me tomorrow and we can branch out and see a bit more of the city. No promise of pictures, but maybe. I also did a project chart of the basics I want to finish up before leaving here. My timeline shows me ready at the soonest sometime the end of February. sigh. I'm trying to figure out when my next trip home will be. Looks like January. So, I'm getting comfortable with the idea that I may spend the next year or so here. Not my original plan, but the longer I'm here the more comfortable I get. Even Honduras can be a rut it seems.

blogs

2011-11-06T12:30:00.001-06:00

Keeping a blog is a useful exercise on many levels. In particular recently, when I've realized that all I have to write about is my dentist appointments I know that I don't really need to update everyone. It's almost at an end, the dentist thing. End of November or first weekend in December for sure. Also, I have to decide how I feel about my life being so uneventful that I have nothing to write about. I'm ok with it at the moment. It's uneventful because I'm tying up loose ends, getting ready for my next move, whatever that ends up being. Boring stuff, of interest only to me. Mostly trying on new realities in my head to see what seems doable.

So, now I'm off to do some of the things that would be nice to be able to post that I've managed to accomplish around here.

Better and better

2011-10-10T07:33:00.001-06:00

I started waking up a few days ago finally. I went to the dentist yesterday. In the process of working on my next 2 crowns, one of the teeth wouldn't numb. I didn't realize it until later, but that is usually a sign of infection. That is the jaw that had the swollen gland. And the ear that sometimes has twinges of pain. Not enough for me to put it to the tooth, since the tooth itself never really hurt. Well, I'm having so much work done lately that at least I never focused on that particular one. Anyway, I feel a lot better now, the gland is no longer sore and in general I feel like I've rejoined the human race. Not sure what all he did, I lay there with my eyes shut and don't understand the conversation between the doctor and his assistant. I find it easier that way. I know he said he isn't done with that tooth yet, but I have 2 temporary crowns now on that side. I think 3 more crowns after this and I will have my new mouth.

I'm headed to the Capital for just the day today. It's a government holiday so I'm taking the military bus down and back. I'll just hang out, which is something I don't feel comfortable doing here.

I'm also cleaning the apartment. There are a few things that when I'm at that point in cleaning I know I'm making progress. Like disinfecting the wastebaskets, scrubbing the shower floor with bleach, digging even deeper into corners and sorting things to get rid of. I don't know where that moving van in my dream was going, but guess I'd better get ready. Actually, I don't really want to move with the group who was just making fun of me, but when the next adventure shows up I want to be ready!

Sick Day

2011-10-04T08:03:00.001-06:00

I was having a dream where apparently I was moving with some other folks, all about college age and maybe I was, too. We were loading all our stuff in a large moving van. Everyone else had their stuff loaded, but no one wanted to help me load my stuff and there wasn't really much room left anyway. I kept trying to get them to wait for me to get my stuff together, and they just gave me a hard time. Then they started just giving my stuff to random kids, which made me mad. A lot of the stuff I had was old Christmas decorations and furniture and odd bits and pieces and I have no idea where we were moving from or to, just that I couldn't get my stuff loaded on the moving van and the people I wanted to move with were making fun of me and not helping.

Then my watch alarm went off. The one that says I'd better be within 5 minutes of walking out the door to work. I have no memory of turning off my 2 main alarms, but I must have because they go for an hour before turning off automatically. I decided then I need a day off. I've not felt 'well' in days, maybe weeks. Nothing that really manifests as symptoms I can say that I have such and such. Just no energy, no motivation. I have slept any time I'm not at work, including all day Saturday while I was down at Tegucigalpa paying for a room at the Intercontinental Hotel.

Today I will rest, and take care of details. And maybe get rid of some of my stuff, since my unconscious mind seems to think I'm trying to move too much stuff around with me.

Quiet

2011-09-24T08:51:00.000-06:00

One of the results of living where I can't join in with general conversations going on around me because I don't speak the language is that I have gotten quiet. In Real Life, as well as here. Nothing wrong, just not a lot to say, and I'm losing the art of small talk, which I never was very good with anyway. I'm still in Honduras, and still no bites on a new job someplace else. I'm really not trying hard, though. I need to step that part up.

I did spend 10 days back in the US. I got to drive my Jeep, and stay out all nights at the casinos. I need another trip before the end of the year to get some more of my business straightened out, such as where my 'permanent' address really is and re-plate my Jeep. My dentist went on vacation about the time I got back, so my next appointment is sometime next month. We start the whole process on the other side. I need to balance that with wanting to leave the area. This whole living outside the US thing gets complicated.

So, co-workers are leaving for new jobs and new folks are coming in. Not in my immediate area yet, as I'm the most senior, time-wise, there. But, it is difficult to make friends to hang around and do things with as people cycle out about the time we realize we enjoy the same stuff. Other than those things, life here is good. I have an adventure to post about, with pictures even. Maybe later this weekend.

The Dentist

2011-08-20T17:50:00.001-06:00

This morning was another trip to the dentist. This in itself is amazing. I stopped going to dentists about 35 years ago. My last adult venture with dentists got all my cavities fixed. I'd had braces as a teen, and everything was fixed and filled. And, I was done, emotionally and nerve-wise, with dentists. The few times since that I'd gone to a dentist, they just pissed me off. I didn't like the attitude of they 'owned' my teeth, would tell me what they were going to do to them, and my only part was to pay huge amounts of money to them and be so very grateful they had taken their precious time to deal with me at all. I might, just maybe, have some baggage from the years of having so much work done as a kid...

I tried to start the process of getting my teeth back to optimal condition when I was back in Washington State. It went like a lot of things there. Very pleasant female dentist, clean modern office, and more money and extra charges than I could even fathom even with very good insurance. The estimate came to over $30K, after insurance, and oh, in 3 weeks at the end of the year her prices jumped 100 percent. And, can't even start on the simple stuff until I have a full 'scaling' (they really should rename that...), even pulling my one tooth that needed to come out was iffy until then. The receptionist treated my like I was one of the unclean to even suggest that an appointment could be made for anything else before the 'scaling' to bring me up to the level of someone they would work on. That ended badly for them, in that I didn't go back.

Down here I really needed to get some of the work done. I found a good Honduran dentist who speaks very good English. He has an assistant who wears jeans, and a wife who fills in if the assistant isn't there. I feel like I'm a guest in their home since the office is the front part of their house. He is professional, don't get me wrong, but he also is a human. I was so nervous the fist visit that he looked at me when he sat down beside me, and softly explained "I'm a Christian, and if you don't mind I would like to pray before we start". I said "I'll take any and all prayers I can get", so he said a brief prayer that took the tension in the room (mine...) down a notch, and then we began.

So, I now have 2 permanent crowns, a temporary crown over two other molars until next week when the permanent crowns will be in, and today he spent two hours of concentrated work on my top front teeth. He said 14 cavities. In 6 teeth. He basically rebuilt a couple of them. Total cost today, 5,000L, which is $250 more or less. He still has some polishing to do, and some shaping. My two front teeth have outlines that look a bit like a-line skirts and there needs to be some more shaping done on the insides as my teeth don't exactly close all the way. This is my fault. I told him it was fine, since after 2 hours I was, as I say, done. We'll tweek it more when I go in to get the permanent crowns. Which is why I like him. He works with me. What doesn't get done today, we'll do next time.

I usually have the early appointment on Saturday mornings. Which means I'm there while they open up. They pull up the metal shutters over the door an windows, then take bowls of water out and wash the windows and outside sills. They have a guard who watches over the 6-space or so parking area. One morning I watched as he came in and the wife handed him the pistol in the holster he wears while on duty. He strapped on the holster then proceeded to load the pistol with bullets. To guard a 6-space parking area. At a dentist office. And I considered it a good thing. Welcome to Honduras.

Some pictures of My World

2011-08-14T09:04:00.003-06:00

The above is me, and behind me is the valley where I live. I had Carlos, my taxi driver, stop so I could take pictures at this overlook a couple of weeks ago on our way to the dentist.

Another picture of the valley. It's hard to photograph, and is bigger than it looks here.

These are 2 of the 3 almost identical adolescent cats who greet me each morning on my way into post. If they are awake, that is. They sleep on the porch of the hooch I walk past.

This is the same tree that I posted the picture of when it was all orange. At this point it is pretty much all leafed out. So far it still has the leaves. Soon, it will drop them all for awhile, then start the process all over again.

Here I am...

2011-08-13T09:45:00.001-06:00

I'm in Tegus for the weekend. It is a trip just to get away and do some playing and some thinking. And some organizing, mental and physical. While looking for my toothbrush that I was always carrying in my backpack I ended up cleaning out my backpack. I found some fairly important stuff mixed in with trash papers that should have been cleaned out awhile ago. Not sure if I should be worried that the important stuff was there, or the unimportant stuff was since I carry this pack with me pretty much everywhere. What wasn't there was a toothbrush. Oh, well, there is a mall right across the way.

A note to myself: I don't seem to really get my feet stable in a new place for about 10 months. Maybe it was longer in WA, and the time is shortening as I get more used to being mobile. I am just now feeling like I can make inroads into some projects I had intended to do while I was down here 'with nothing to do'.

Oh, I found my knife in the backpack. It's just a cheap pocket knife. However, yesterday while I was watching the guys mow (we have to do that...) the guy weedwhacking got a weed caught in the strings of the whacker and it pulled them way out. His whacker doesn't have the nifty blade to keep the strings cut and they were too long to work. He had a delima, and consulted the guy on the mower (a zero-radius thing I sooo want!). He looked at me (they only speak Spanish, I still don't speak it). I made a motion of a knife cutting, he nodded and said 'no tengo'. I was a bit amazed at that, but later realized that they probably can't bring even a pocket knife on post. With my own knife AWOL, I was forced to ask one of the guys inside for help. He fixed the issue with a HUGE folding knife, then being friendly with me, suggested how I should really carry a knife, the size of the one he has. sigh. I really just needed my pocket knife, I'm not going to be fighting anyone if I can help it, and I really wouldn't pull a knife out if I was. Normally it is in my pocket. At some point I apparently put it in the pack.

I came down here packed minimally. Not entirely just in my daypack. That is a goal. I only have the rollaway with me as luggage. The goal is to be able to travel with just this setup, anywhere, anytime. I'm working on it. At least one of the tops I brought is too tight. In my defense, it was too tight when I bought it. It was an impulse by at REI because it was on the sale rack and I had not yet realized that I am no long a 'small', or even really a loose 'medium'. I guess it should go into the give away pile. For today I'll wear it, and really know that it needs to go away by the end of the day.

More Saga

2011-08-11T19:02:00.002-06:00

When I last wrote, L and the racoons has made peace via some wire over the holes that the racoons had been using to get into the house. It has become obvious that she had been feeding them for a very long time and just didn't know it as they came and went as they pleased. L just thought her 2 cats ate a LOT of cat food. A couple of nights ago L decided to leave a door to the screened in porch open as she used to do pre-raccoon saga. She heard a noise in the night and got up and saw a tail sticking out of the large can she uses to store the cat food. She promptly put the lid on the can and put something heavy on top and called her grandson (my age) to come get the raccoon. He said "Granny, it's 3am" to which she replied that no, it was 5am and to get over there (15 min drive). So, he shows up and takes the lid off to give the 3(?) racoons inside some air, tapes it so they can't get out and off the (now 3) racoons go to the country. Being soft-hearted but practical, neither Mom or I have inquired into their fate. So, the next night she hears more noise, and it turns out that at least one more raccoon has pushed out the wire screen over the hole and in again chowing down. She chased it and saw how it got out, so now the large trap has again been baited and set. I'm thinking I'll be hearing raccoon stories (and sharing them here) into the fall. Did I mention that L is late 80's or early 90's in age?

Minor Update

2011-07-24T20:08:00.001-06:00

Talked to Mom tonight. Turns out they are racoons, not opposums. Two very large racoons. The conservation officer said to put chicken wire in all the openings to the outside, so various grandsons came over and did that today. The larger trap set out last night didn't catch them. The food in the trap was gone and the trap wasn't sprung. These are smart racoons. Mom thinks that L. has been feeding these coons for a long time, since she kept saying that the cats sure ate a lot of food. I wondered why cats needed to be fed twice a day when it was first mentioned. So, tonight we find out which side of the chicken wire the coons ended up being trapped on. I didn't ask if anyone has looked for them in the house before blocking all the access points. And, why are there holes in the first place? Seems that when L's husband built the place he decided that was a cheap way to get heat under the house to keep the pipes from freezing. So, there was no floor under the bathtub or something. Sometimes the truth is just to weird to ask for more details. No word on if the rifle is still part of the plan.

Unwelcome guests

2011-07-24T10:16:00.001-06:00

When my Mom and I Skype I keep up with the goings on in the small MO town where she lives. A friend/extended family member went on vacation for the first time in decades, and Mom and my Aunt were in charge of feeding the cats, Mom in the evenings and Aunt in the mornings. The lady has a cat door and apparently other openings to the outside that hadn't been an issue when she was there every day. However, turns out that 2 opposums decided they had found heaven with her gone, and moved in. There were countless messes each day, and her son was called in to help with a trap, which didn't work.

When the lady returned, she cocked her bb gun as far as she can (she's in her late 80's and small but wiry) and when she heard them the first night she was back, she crept down the hall and popped one in the head. Didn't phase it.

Now she's got the rifle out. He great-grandson told her she can't shoot that in the house! She says it's her house, she can if she wants. Family members descended with more traps... I'll keep you updated.

Friday Fragments (on Sunday)

2011-07-10T13:09:00.001-06:00

I sometimes like the cute little ways blogs come up with something to post, like Friday Fragments for ideas that don't flesh out to a full post, or Sundays in My City with pictures from around town on a Sunday. However, those require actually posting on a particular day. So, my fragments are on a Sunday, which doesn't really rhyme.

I went down to breakfast in the restaurant this morning. I had the desayuno typical (my spell check doesn't do Spanish, so I hope that is close...), or typical breakfast here in Honduras. It was really good. It's fried plantains (done right!), refried beans, and egg over easy, something that looked like a slice of fried Spam, some kind of cheese/cream and fresh made tortillas. I prefer the creamy sauce rather than a hard piece of white cheese of some sort that is sometimes included instead. At any rate, the owner of the hotel told them that my breakfast was 'on the house'. I left a 50L tip anyway.

I'm sorting and packing. I'm already probably too late to have my stuff arrive in MO when I'm there in September. I'll set up the storage unit so that all Mom will need to do with the movers is point. The place here is total caos (spell check can't even come close for that word, so just go with it...) as I pull everything out and decide what to send home and what to leave here. It is making me think in detail about what I need to have to feel comfortable. A table is high on the list, it seems. My kitchen table I bought in WA is going back. It is a nice, stable flat surface that is doing duty lately as my ironing board. I'll have to come up with something else. My hammock stand that has done more duty as a temporary place to hang clothes will also go back. It's the little details that make a lifestyle comfortable or not. I'll see how it goes. I may find that it motivates me to do what I need to do in order to leave Honduras even faster. That would include having a job someplace else to go to.

No progress on my hammock this week. I didn't feel good and had no energy. Once I get the stuff packed I'll start working on it again.

I still feel like I'm shooting an arrow towards the future and I don't have any idea what or where the target is. Just aim in a general direction and shoot.

What else I'm doing

2011-07-04T18:47:00.002-06:00

When it comes to studying, I can find all kinds of cool things to do instead. Last week I started weaving a hammock in the hammock shop on post. I'm slow. It will get done, eventually.

First you load the 'needle' that I think is called a shuttle in regular weaving. Specific terms kinda get lost down here. And with me in general. Anyway, this is the needle, and I'm loading it up.

Then you poke, pull and prod the yard through what you have already done. What you see here got unwoven because I made a mistake. I did this part three times, because after I fixed the first mistake and got back to where I'd left off, I found another one lower down.

The gold/red/black hammock behind me I found out that night is being made by the Chaplain. The Universe does have a sense of humor. So far I've only cussed in front of him once. I'm learning to watch my mouth. I guess that is a good thing. He wasn't offended, and may not have actually heard it as I was cussing that it was raining hard just as I was getting ready to leave. Rain on a tin roof is nice, but not so much when there is a half mile walk to the gate.

I'll post progress pictures as I go along. It will be multicolored as I got what yarn was left over from the post's order. I had to buy it myself since I'm a contractor, but I can use the facilities for free. This won't be an ultralight hammock, the yarn weighed 20lbs.

Happy 4th of July

2011-07-04T08:01:00.001-06:00

Yes, they have a 4th of July here in Honduras. It's a normal work day for them. I'm off work, getting things caught up. Mostly I'm taking care of the small things that make me feel out of control of my life on a regular basis. Laundry and ironing are almost finished. Then I can put away the towel that has graced the top of the kitchen table for weeks. Papers are being sorted and scanned and packaged to be sent home. Most of it is being tossed or shredded. Piles of papers are shrinking and disappearing. This is good. I may be sending my big stuff home in a couple of weeks. I need to get the small stuff organized so I know what goes where. The only things left after that should be things small enough to mail home or things that I'll leave here. I'll be living out of 2 suitcases, something I've said I want to do for years. We'll see if that is true or not.

I have no place yet to go to when my contract is up here. I can stay here until I find something. I have not been studying, I have not been working on weaving the hammock I'm making in the shop at work, I have not been working on my resume. I'm still not totally in control. It's a start.

Back Safely

2011-06-19T18:59:00.001-06:00

Home Sweet Hotel Suite. Still seems funny to come home to an empty place, with no animals. With only a couple of month here and there holes I had cats and dogs, usually both, since about 1974. The cats I had adopted a few months prior to moving to WA ended up getting to go back to their original home when I moved down here. They are happy. I'm no so much. Oh, well. Old Fool's videos of his kittens brought this on.

So, tomorrow I'll see when I can reschedule the Microsoft test again, and will head back down to Teguc. Between now and then I will actually sit my tail down and study. The trip home was uneventful. Luckily they seem to be having mechanical issues with the big school buses that the post usually sends on these trips, so we got to ride home in a nice air conditioned van. Everything worked out really well this trip. Except for not passing the test, that is.

Weekend Away

2011-06-18T18:44:00.002-06:00

I am in the capital of Honduras, Tegucigalpa, for the weekend. The theoretical reason is to take a Microsoft test (that I bombed badly), but really it is to give me a break from my usual surroundings. I'm in the InterConental Hotel. They take really good care of me here, mostly know me by name, are across the street from the Multiplaza Mall, and have a special rate that I qualify for. What's not to like?

I took the 'Executive' bus up last night after work. I was worried about getting into Tegucigalpa in an area I'm not familiar with (which includes most of the city), after dark and having to get a taxi in a city where most do not speak English. As I was waiting for the bus to leave 2 of the soldiers in their civilian clothes walked up. We stick out like sore thumbs down here. They were going to a different hotel in the same area as the IC and so I shared a cab with them. I feel fairly safe when I have 2 young male American soldier-types to watch out for me. I was glad to have their company as it was raining besides being dark when we arrived. And so I paid 70L, which is about $3.50 for the bus, and 100L, about $5, (a bit more than my share to repay the kindness of having the protection) for the taxi.

This morning I studied for a couple of hours, but it obviously wasn't enough. I had the doorman tell the taxi driver where I needed to go for the test. I was only about a mile away, all uphill. The people at the test center were nice. I failed the test, then walked downhill to Dennys for breakfast. When I asked the test center guy for directions so I wasn't wandering around the hillside lost, he said he could give me a shortcut, but it was lonely and known for assaults. So I asked for the longer way, and it was less than 5 minutes to Dennys.

No one spoke English at Dennys, but I managed to order, eat and pay for breakfast without incident. I just have to let go of the outcome when I order, but since most of the chain restaurants here have the name of the meal in English, I just can't tweek the basics like I used to do when I shared a common language with the wait staff.

I walked down the main boulevard from Denny's back to the hotel. That took about 10 or 15 minutes. Figured out where the Do It hardware store is that I had been to when Chris was here to drive me around. Walked past the President's house. It said Casa Presidente and I was wondering it it was the actual place when I noticed all walls and fencing and a couple of Honduran soldiers guarding the gates. I think it really was his house.

Got back and decided to check out the Mall. Ended up getting my hair washed and trimmed. One woman knew a few words of English, so I could make her understand what I wanted as we both used hand motions to fill in the gaps. The woman who was going to wash my hair asked me a question and I think the only thing my attempted answer in Spanish told her was that I didn't understand a thing she asked. I walked out with what I wanted, and a 10 minute detailed application of conditioner. I think that happened when I asked her to braid it for me as it had been when I walked in. Oh, well, looks better down anyway.

A nap back at the hotel, some more wandering around the Mall. Every display TV is tuned to a soccer game, and there are crowds cheering intermittently around the TVs. I got a cup of coffee at Dunkin' Donuts and just looked. If you notice that the restaurants are all US chains (or at least we assume they are originally from the US...), well, that's the way it is here. It's the US, only in Spanish, on the richer side of town.

Tomorrow I'll catch the free bus from the post back home. No plans for the evening. I
didn't bring any nicer clothes to go out in, and I have no real need for entertainment
anyway. And, I'll be back soon to retake the test. No pictures this time because
yesterday when I tried to take a picture of the tree with the combination of orange flowers and green leaves that it now has, I found that the battery in the camera was dead, and didn't have time to dig out my charger before I left.

Another good link

2011-06-12T18:06:00.001-06:00

http://www.packitgourmet.com/home.php

I haven't ordered from they yet. However, I found that they have black bean flakes! I used to almost live on those before they got difficult to find. Mix up some black bean flakes with water, heat up some flour tortillas, and sprinkle on some feta cheese. Multi cultural good eatin' from things that would stay fresh for a long time (the cheese in the fridge).

As I go along I'll run back across the links I used to look at a lot. I don't cook, don't keep fresh food around because it just goes bad on me. Here in Honduras I have a microwave, a rice cooker, couple of slow cookers and an electric skillet. The dorm size fridge doesn't hold a lot, but keeps my slim fast shakes cool.

I did make some split pea soup in my small slow cooker today. It turned out good. I miss the thick soups down here. It doesn't get cold, so a lot of the slow cooked comfort foods I like are just not available easily. Wish I'd had some dehydrated carrots and tomato bits to toss in, but it turned out ok anyway with just dehydrated onions, basil and oregano added.

Food

2011-06-12T10:04:00.001-06:00

This post is for tffnguy at http://terlinguabound.blogspot.com/ who is dealing with 100* temps and not refridgeration. I mentioned that the backpacking survival sites have a good selection of dehydrated and freeze-dried foods that don't need special storage or long cooking times. So, here is a partial list done up quickly. As I come across or remember other sites I'll let everyone know.

http://www.harmonyhousefoods.com/

They have stuff in 1 cup bags with a ziplock, a good way to sample to see if you like
things. Good selection of veggies and beans, but I don't like their tofu, and anything
that sounds like meat will have -ish after it to show that it's really flavored tofu. This
is my go-to place to keep veggies on hand.

http://beprepared.com/

This place has pretty much everything. Not particularly the cheapest, but a really good
selection. Not everything is dehydrated/freeze-dried, so watch out with beans and such
that you can buy locally probably cheaper. Make sure you are getting the dried stuff,
which is quicker to cook up with less fuel. I haven't ordered from here, but they have
been around for awhile.

If the above look like just 'ingredients' rather than food try the next site to see how to
cook with this type of food:

http://www.trailcooking.com/

Lots of 'recipies' and good tips on how to eat well while backpacking or camping. Or living off-grid?

Some places with complete meals, again not the cheapest but factoring in storage and
cook fuel and ability to keep on hand they are a bargain for some folks:

http://www.wildernessdining.com/

http://www.hawkvittles.com/

I have ordered from Hawk Vittles. They are really good. Again, not the cheapest but they store for a long time and you can use the freezerbag cooking style to make them. Basically add boiling water and put in a coozie (cook it in a freezer zip lock bag if you want...) for the allotted time.

I mentioned in my comment on his site a free to make soda pop can alcohol stove, and miss spelled the type of fuel usually used. It's denatured alcohol, and its the HEET brand in the yellow bottle.

Pictures Finally

2011-06-05T08:02:00.004-06:00

These trees are amazing to me. The cycle seems to be that they look bare, dead. Then these red/orange flowers bloom. Slowly green leaves start to show, then they are all green. Then they produce long bean-like pods. Then they go bare again. I've watch the cycle a couple of times since I've been here

And here is a closeup of a bunch of the flowers.

And, I promised a picture of the afghan.

A simple shell stitch. Used up 2 colors of yarn from my stash. My next project is going to be knitted slip covers for my netbooks. More to use the yarn than any need I have. Just can't find a useful thing to knit for anyone down here in the tropics.

Still breathing

2011-06-04T09:07:00.001-06:00

I'm moving through the dental work. I got my temporary crown yesterday afternoon. It is a single piece that covers both teeth. From the 'outside' it looks normal, fairly amazing since he fabricated it right there in the office. Not sure if the permanent crown(s) will be the same. Next appointment is a week from now, and he will take impressions for the permanent crown(s) then.

How does my apartment suite get so messy in a 4 day week? Started in with the laundry and will start with the cleaning when I finish this. After reading a few blogs I figured I'd better update this one before I get too sidetracked. I have some pictures I took of the blooming trees here, and I will take the often-promised picture of the afghan I crocheted. But, first, housework.

And...

2011-05-23T07:46:00.001-06:00

I mentioned the tomato that killed 89 to my co-worker when he walked in and he replied "I saw that movie"...

Hmmmm

2011-05-23T07:45:00.001-06:00

I either need more coffee or better bifocals when I read a headline that in MO a tomato killed 89

Not much changed

2011-05-22T14:01:00.001-06:00

I am continuing on with the dental work. Turns out that I had only had half of the root canals on the two teeth. Yesterday morning he did the second half on the back tooth, the one that was originally broken and that started this whole process. Wow. No pain, but I miss my mind-numbing drugs/gas. I mentioned the idea of having a stiff drink beforehand to the dentist, and he laughed. The main reason I'm not is that I'm not sure how it would affect my stomach, and I'm having enough issues as it is. I was concerned about the pain as the novacain wore off, since he had said about the bleaching last time that I'd have 'sensitivities' for a few hours and I ended up with an aching mouth for about 24 hours. However, sometime yesterday afternoon my mouth stopped hurting. I can't explain it well, but it's like something had ached for so long I no longer noticed it and now it no longer hurts. I'm feeling much better about the entire process. I do have another tooth to get through the rough part, and then he and I will need to discuss this root canal idea in depth before I agree to any more. Had I mentioned the bleaching? That is so that the new porcelain will blend in. Had to make a decision and decided to make it all look better while I replace all the bad stuff. I like the looks. It was a painful process, though, and I had no idea going in that it would be that involved. He wants to do a second bleaching, but I'll put that off until more of the other work is done.

I'm doing nothing else at home while I go through all the dental work. Today I finally started 2 weeks of laundry in my small pail washer, and I"m catching up 3 weeks of ironing. The ironing is required now because the spinner works so well at spinning the water out that it leaves the clothes very wrinkled. I'm working on figuring out a method that is less labor intensive. I may decide that I have the time to just let things drip dry, they don't have to be spun so that they dry in a couple of hours.

I was reminded as I was cleaning today (told you I felt better than I have for awhile) that I realized a few years ago that all of housework (at least mine...) is just getting rid of trash. Laundry, washing dishes, sweeping, shredding papers, all of what I do as housework is just getting the stuff I no longer want out of the door and thrown away in a responsible manner. One would think that by shrinking my living space to the size of one room of my former house and continuing to get rid of things over the past 5 years or so that the time spent getting rid of trash and dirt would get less, but somehow it seems I always have things I 'should' clean, sweep, launder. However, if there ever was motivation for me to continue the good fight to downsize, it is the fact that I don't like housework.

Tears of Homesickness

2011-05-15T18:07:00.001-06:00

I still consider Nashville home. Even though I haven't lived there in over 2 years. My friend Turtle Lady sent me pictures of my house there that she took on her way home from a hiking get together. She also had sent me a couple of pictures of friends at the get together. I am reminded that I have friends. I have a house/home. I have a sense of place. It is very far from where I am now, in time and geography. I am homesick. I had just made the decision to sell the house for whatever I can get for it and break at least even, which is more than many can do with houses these days. I bought it as a foreclosure, so I don't owe as much as some. Seeing it in the pictures, I want to go back and move back into it. I had come to the conclusion in looking back that buying that house was one huge mistake. Tonight, I want to hold it close and say "MINE!!!". I'm mixed up. A mess. I feel good about getting the dental work done, and paying down debt. The next thought is how the heck have I gotten so far away from everything that means so much to me????

Dental work

2011-05-14T15:34:00.001-06:00

I keep waiting until I have the mental energy to write a really good post about what's going on. That doesn't seem to be happening. So, the short story is that this morning I had a second root canal. The first one was Wednesday evening after work. One of the local Honduran women at work was translating for me to make my appointment in the capital (thanks, Ben...), and she started telling me about her dentist in the next town over. The selling point was that most of her mouth has been reworked, and he did the work. It looks natural. So, next day I asked her to make me an appointment with her dentist and cancel the other one and that evening after work I was sitting in his chair. This morning he did the tooth next to that one, and on Wednesday I go back. Guess I'll be doing this Wednesday/Saturday thing for a few weeks. It's time. No real pain, and most of the trauma is mental. He got some pills for me to take this time. Next time I'll take 2 instead of one. It helped, but I need to be further away from reality while he works. Again, no pain, just my dislike of anything dental related. Which is why I need so much work now.

I haven't forgotten the picture of the afghan. It will happen soon.

Bobbing back up

2011-05-08T15:03:00.001-06:00

Nothing bad is happening. Sometimes it just seems like my desired future is fading into the mists faster than I can make progress in that direction. This week has felt that way. I went to the dentist here yesterday. I need a root canal, and they didn't want to try it in the local office. I have a name and number of a 'specialist' in the capital to make an appointment with. No idea if she speaks any English. Ongoing adventure. I'm studying for my next certification, test to be taken also in the capitol (is it 'al' or 'ol'...?) and maybe I can combine the trips. Or maybe that is a recipe for disaster? Oh, well. I'm trying to clean up the apartment. I don't seem to be able to even keep up with a 2 room hotel suite (all furniture and such is mine), and I don't seem to be sending things back as fast as I'd like. I just run out of energy to do everything. Laundry is getting caught up, but ironing isn't yet. Floors need a good sweeping, and I need to finish packing the next Gorilla Box to send home. That's just tonight. But, life goes on. I'll try to get a picture of the afghan put up, it may be tomorrow before it hits the top of the on-going list.

Overwhelmed

2011-05-03T18:37:00.001-06:00

I'm feeling overwhelmed with my current life. This happens every once in awhile. Usually when I'm on the cusp of major change again. Simple things on the to do list tie my stomach in knots. I feel like I'm moving through molasses. I don't know if it is that I"ve committed to going to the dentist in town on Saturday (arrive at 8am and take a number, no appointments...) or if I have daydreamed about life after I leave Honduras too much lately. I may dip below the horizon again for a few days, but I"ll be back. This isn't unusual for me, and I just have to ride it out.

My world

2011-05-02T18:44:00.003-06:00

This picture was taken a couple of weeks ago to capture what I was doing at the time. The yarn for the afghan I was making was wound around the cables to my computer. I was Skpying with Turtle Lady. My exercise mat was out and papers I was sorting through were under all the other stuff. I finished the afghan and put away the mat, but life is still pretty much like that picture.

Ben asked why I'm still here if I don't like it down in Honduras. Well, I am primarily here for one reason, to pay off debt. Working outside of the US has tax benefits, in that I don't have to pay income tax on my earnings. That money all goes to paying off credit cards. If I was someplace I was having fun while paying off debt, that would be great. I don't hate it here, I'm just bored.

Another person wondered if comments made on older posts get noticed. Yes, I get an email with each comment when it's made, no matter what post it's made on. Someone else mentioned that they were reading all my posts from the beginning. That prompted me to do the same. It was kind of interesting to me to have the past few years of my life telescoped into a couple of evenings' reading. That is actually the primary reason for keeping this blog, to give myself a record of what goes on, and second to let any of my friends who are interested in keeping up with me a way to do it. I am glad that I have also gotten to know other bloggers who stop by here, but it is icing on the cake.

I'm trying to think if there were other things I wanted to mention that aren't worth their own post. Can't think of any more.

Parade Pictures

2011-05-01T09:58:00.002-06:00

Here are the pictures of the 1st of May Worker's Parade:

First was the Honduran flag carried by the two in front, then the band.

I tried to get some pictures of the banners they carried in case anyone can translate.

At least while they were forming the parade they still shared the road with the buses. The 'school bus' is a typical local bus. Some are painted up really nicely.

The lone picture of Che.

The only person on horseback.

And away they go, loudspeakers blaring.

Update

2011-05-01T09:14:00.001-06:00

Apparently the shopping center parking lot behind my hotel was a staging area for the 1st of May Worker's Day parade. They finally just filed past on the main boulevard and I stood up on the top balcony and took pictures. I didn't understand a word of the very loud and many loudspeakers ramblings nor did I understand any words on the carried signs. I was impressed with the number of people walking in the parade, seemed like most of the town. I did see one poster of Che Guevara, and I am surprised that I didn't see more of them. Probably just as well that I kept my Yankee a$$ up on the balcony.

Pictures later, really.

Still here

2011-05-01T07:47:00.001-06:00

There is not a lot going on, so not a lot of things to write about. Sorry for the 2 week lapse. I'm also having some carpel tunnel pain in my right wrist, because I've been playing a silly computer game for hours and hours this week. The reason I'm playing it is because I have these videos online that I need to be watching so that I can pass a certification test so that I can get a job after I leave here, which I really want to do. So, since I have these videos I need to watch I have started being hooked on this silly gave that really has no redeeming value. If you don't understand my logic, then welcome to my world. This would explain why at my age I am working in Honduras.

For some reason someone is either setting off firewords at 6 to 7am, or there is a small war going on out there. I'm betting fireworks since I haven't heard any sirens, and even here that many guns would attract official attention. It is interesting to live in a place where silly things like noise ordinances, litter laws, driver training before getting a license and such are unheard of. Luckily on the noise issue there really isn't much going on, if anything, after about 10pm, and a lot of the homes outside of the town don't even have electricity, so everything pretty much gets quiet.

I've been here 7 months now. In 5 more I can leave if I have a job to go to. My thoughts are much more on life after Honduras than in worrying much about what goes on here. It shows at work. I just don't care, which ironically is actually helping with team morale. So, I guess I should get to watching those videos. http://www.professormesser.com/ if you are in need of good videos for basic IT certs. Free is a cost that even I can afford to study them. If I just would, instead of doing everything but studying...

26

2011-04-16T08:02:00.003-06:00

That's how many pair of shoes I have. I'm fairly certain that I have all of my shoes with me. At least right now. As I pack the Gorilla boxes to send back I'm going through things and attempting to empty containers so that I don't ship back things I don't need to spend that money shipping. Did that sentence make sense? I have things that made the trip here because they might be difficult to obtain in Honduras that I can easily replace once I get back to the States. I am attempting to purge and get rid of those things that I don't plan on shipping back, and that I'm not using now. Last weekend it was belts. That is still on-going. I haven't counted those, but I'm guessing I have at least 40-50. Not changing sizes for 40 years (from age 12 to 50-something) meant that I had no reason to get rid of clothes and such. In the past 4 years I have, ummm, changed sizes. I'm working on getting back down to a middle ground. When I tried several of my belts, they didn't meet in the middle by several inches. Even the stretchy ones. So, I am slowly making my way through the belts to get rid of the majority of them. It's depressing to me. So, to cheer myself up on this journey, I pulled out all of my shoes. Yeah...

I have a couple of pair of shoes I wear to work and a pair of tennis shoes and a pair of water sandals I wear on the weekends. Mostly I wear these shoes to work because I can here. It was a major issue in a previous job that I never seemed to meet the dress code no matter how hard I tried, especially with shoes. Finding ones that met my boss's approval that I could actually walk in was not in the cards. That's one reason I have so many. It wasn't for lack of trying. So, here the boss is just happy when I show up in clothes that cover important parts of my body and aren't ripped up (some folks can't do this much) that he really doesn't care about my shoes. So, hiking boots it's been. Today I looked at my 26 pairs of shoes and thought about how I really do have some nice ones I want to start wearing. I'll weed out the ones that don't fit as I go along. Who knew that when one gains weight their shoe size changes too?

The co-worker who was accosted is now in the catch-22 of worrying about the guy he tackled (and who is now out of jail) coming after him with his amigos for backup. There have been talks among the guys about weaponry. We are not allowed firearms unless we have a residency card (I do, but have no plans to get any guns) and register them, which tells the locals what gringos have what guns.. It's all a lot of drama I really don't choose to participate in.

Weather is dry and hazy and hot. Not sure if the haze is a weather inversion, dust, or smoke. I can't see the mountains on either side of the valley a lot of the time because of it. Since I live and work in air conditioning I'm not feeling the heat as much. It does put any plans to walk/run/workout at the post on hold since the gym there is not air conditioned. Always an excuse.

It happened again

2011-04-07T17:54:00.001-06:00

One of my co-workers was robbed/assaulted at 5:30 pm in the main park square last night. He is ok. In fact, after having a knife waved in his face (he was sitting on a bench with his local Honduran girlfriend) and tossing his wallet at the guy, he followed him and tackled him and held him down till the police got there. There are a more than a few things wrong with this. One, he was bitten. Chances of getting a blood test done on the guy are basically nil. This guy will not be happy when he gets out of jail, which he will if he's not out already. This is why I don't go out. You remember the pictures I posted of a park when I first got here? That's where it happened. At least this coworker wasn't sliced with a machete as the previous one was. That assault happened at 10:30 am on a Sunday. That person left the contract for someplace safer (the Philippines),

I go to work, I come home. The taxi drivers I use are mostly the same ones. Tonight one of the guys from work gave me a ride home. He has been here for a year and a half. He said everyone who has been here over a year has been robbed, and usually it happens at least once a year. He himself was robbed while waiting for the free bus to work. That is why I don't take a bus to work. He also said his Honduran girlfriend has been robbed twice in the past 2 years.

Mostly its the town where I live. I feel safe other places here. And the majority of the local people are wonderful, friendly folks. It's the random violence that I just don't want to deal with, so I don't go out.

Debt

2011-04-06T19:06:00.001-06:00

Some quotes:

From Walden by Henry David Thoreau
" It is very evident what mean and sneaking lives many of you live, for my sight has been whetted by experience; always on the limits, trying to get into business and trying to get out of debt, a very ancient slough, called by the Latins æs alienum, another's brass, for some of their coins were made of brass; still living, and dying, and buried by this other's brass; always promising to pay, promising to pay, tomorrow, and dying today, insolvent;"

From Joe Diffie:
"They say debt is a bottomless pit where the devil likes to play.
I'd sell my soul to get out of this hole, but there'd be hell to pay."

From Queen:
"Another one bites the dust
Another one bites the dust
Another one gone, and another one gone
Another one bites the dust
Hey, I'm gonna get you too
Another one bites the dust
Another one bites the dust"

Paid off the second credit card. Two down, two to go.

Old Habits and Old Clocks

2011-04-04T05:22:00.002-06:00

>Down here we don't observe Daylight Savings Time. So, I had to un-set all my automatic clocks (mostly on my computers) when everyone else up in the US went to DST a few weeks ago. I have one old alarm clock that I really like, have had it for 20 years, and the only issue with it is that it is hard programmed for the old DST weekends. It's made me late for work a couple of years when I wasn't expecting it to change and it did.

Well, I'm ready for work an hour early today because it got me again. I didn't look at another clock until I wondered why my 6 am alarm on my watch to warn me I'm running out of time in the morning hadn't gone off at it's regular place in my routine. Guess I should start working on my excuse for the other end of this fiasco when it makes me late an hour. How many years has it been since they changed the dates? And for no good reason... And I don't even live where we observe DST anymore!!!

Plastic Bottle Houses

2011-04-03T07:59:00.003-06:00

-
Yeah, I've been not writing much. Saw this house on Lloyd's blog - http://lloydkahn-ongoing.blogspot.com/ - and really liked the link. The entire article is at http://inspirationgreen.com/plastic-bottle-homes.html?sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4d938f04f74efcac%2C0 . At the link are pictures of green houses, sheds, cisterns and houses built using plastic bottles much the same way that used tires are used in Earthship houses.

I saw my first bottle wall while watching Anmar build one of his cabins back in Indiana about 20 years ago. Later when I was reading all about PaperCrete I saw that they used a lot of bottle walls for decoration. Those were all made from glass wine bottles to add light and color as a part of the design plan. The houses in the link above use plastic bottles, some filled with sand, to make the body of the wall. If nothing else it keeps the bottles out of the waste stream. And, Lord knows we have plenty of plastic bottles floating around down here in Honduras.

Now that I've broken my silence maybe I'll start posting more regularly again.

Three suitcases and a box...

2011-03-19T14:08:00.001-06:00

This was the title of one of the posts on the Simple Living Network forums that really got me thinking along lines that have me ending up here in Honduras. The original post was by a guy named Jim who lived in Mexico. He was originally from Canada, and the three suitcases were how many it took to hold everything he owned, except for a box of important papers in a family member's attic back in Canada. I'm getting closer to a single box of papers (closer, not really close yet), but as for the rest I'm more a two 10'X20' storage unit person than 3 suitcases.

This weekend I have made a dent in some of the scanning and tossing of papers. I need to get moving on some of the things I need to accomplish while I'm down here if I want to be ready to head Some Place Else in 6 months. I am under 200 days left on my contract. In talking with Turtle Lady this morning on Skype I verbalized some of the things that I need to have resolution on by next September. It's a lot. So, I'm motivated now.

The tenants are moving out of my house. They didn't pay rent this month because, duh, they will be moving. Ummmm. You still owe for this month. It's in the hands of my real estate agent. She was headed over there today to talk to them. Also, she will give me an opinion on whether I should sell or rent it out from here on in. I prefer to sell if I can get much of anything for it. Insurance is one of the things that renews (or not) in September.

So, life goes on down here. Weather is lovely. Not too hot. I keep cutting deeper into my long sleeved clothes and sending them back. I truly don't need layers or long sleeves or more than a light rain jacket It's a constant surprise to me just how little I need. I do miss wearing my heavier clothes. Not enough to move back where it snows, though. The second Gorilla box of stuff got to Mom without incident, so I'm packing another one to send. My goal, if I have one, is to send 10 of them so as to cut down on stuff here. I should get rid of most of this stuff. But, some of it I just can't let go of yet. The cost of shipping and storage is buying me time. Yes, buying the time to sort and let go of stuff is expensive. Apparently it's a price I'm willing to pay.

slump

2011-03-13T08:50:00.001-06:00

I seem to go from slump to slump. That's one reason I don't blog much for long periods of time. I learned from going back and reading diaries of mine over the years that they all sounded the same, trying to get housework one, trying to find a job, being low on energy. So, I quit writing about most of that kind of stuff. I do still live it, though. Just fill in the blanks with that stuff when I don't write here.

I am having some strange feelings of having done something right. My old job in WA is going (ummm, can't really use the term I was about to type in a family-friendly blog...), it's going away. It will most likely re-emerge after the President signs a new budget, but under a new company. My old company lost the contract. So, all my friends on the old contract are lost in limbo. Meanwhile, I am... working. Still pulling a paycheck. This is backwards. I'm the one who is always scrambling to fill the gaps between paychecks and jobs. This is where I feel badly that knowing that leaving the US (even though I work for a US company on a US installation) was the best thing I could have done. I'm still amazed that I actually did it. Not like me at all. I am thankful that I will have my next paycheck (I'm assuming that the budget crisis doesn't affect us... guess I should check) and that it will pay off the second credit card, leaving me with 2 to go.

No electricity here yesterday, which was strange. One of the reasons I stay here in the hotel is that they have backup electricity. The air conditioning may not work when the town electricity goes off, but everything else does. I had to use my backpacking stove to make my second cup of coffee. I found some things in the camping gear I had been looking for, and was amazed at how much I stumbled while using the stove. Way out of practice. So that part was all good. It wasn't too hot, and if I'd needed to get online (which I finally did to talk to Mom on skype) I had 3 laptops charged up and a Tigo stick (usb cell network) and really had no issues. Electricity came back on right after I ordered a delivery pizza. So all went well.

Today I can finally get to the scanning that I tried to do a week ago. Drivers now downloaded, electricity on (for the printer/scanner). Time to get moving on that stuff that I keep putting off.

Do as I say, not as I do

2011-03-05T19:03:00.001-06:00

I work in IT. I give advice on a daily basis. A lot of it about how to not lose data. I have 4 computers here with me. I have been thinking, a lot before and now after my trip away, that I should pull new images of all of them. One never knows what might happen down here. Things get stolen. Things break. I thought about it. But, that's all I did. I have been scanning documents lately in a vain attempt to go 'paperless'. I think (hope) that most of what I scanned I also copied to an external drive attached to the computer that I used to scan. I left that computer on for a few days last week. I also use it to play games on sometimes. It's a laptop, which isn't really made to be left on, but it went into hibernation so I wasn't worried. I finally turned it off a couple of days ago. Today I turned it on to do some more scanning. It wouldn't boot. sigh.

I tried several ways to get into the drive to copy off the files. A quick check showed that my latest image was a little over 3 months old. Not too bad. Luckily my end of year guilt is stronger than the 'I'm going on a trip' guilt. I had made that backup. So, the computer is now reset to 3 months ago. Tomorrow when I'm more fresh I'll update the virus software and reinstall anything that is missing. And, I'll rescan anything that didn't make it to the external drive. And I'll image the rest of the computers and copy the contents of the external drive to a second drive. I have the equipment, I have the software, I have the knowledge. I just need to do it.

The question of how often should a computer be backed up is answered with 'how much data do you not care if you lose?'

Revival

2011-03-03T19:21:00.001-06:00

The field across the street was used by a noisy circus, and a then a few weeks later less noisy circus. This week it has had a very loud revival going on. Lots of music (electrically amplified). Some yelling. Last night the speaker spoke English that was translated into Spanish by a female speaker. He would say a phrase, she would translate, he would speak, she would speak. I finally fell asleep. I did think it would be a tad difficult to get the momentum up that one (well, that I...) expects of an Evangelist in full steam when every phrase had to be translated inbetween. I didn't stay awake to see if that happened. I found that, unlike the music played upstairs here at the hotel that vibrates through the walls, the speaker could be blocked with ear plugs. Unfortunately, last night I couldn't find where I'd put them when I took them out the night before. The pillow worked. They finish around 10pm, so it's not too bad.

Subject goes here

2011-02-27T15:52:00.001-06:00

Can't come up with a subject. This isn't the second part of the trip, unless I wander into a story or two from it. While I was at Mom's I tried out her mini washer. It's something called a Wonder Washer http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B000BTDNEK/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new (forgive the ugly links, I'm not high speed with it like Ben is). It looks like something just to sell on TV (that's the 'brand') but for someone who only has a few things to wash it has it's advantages. It will do a day's laundry for me or Mom. Then she also had a spinner to spin the water out http://www.amazon.com/Mini-Countertop-Dryer-Clothes-Portable/dp/B002HT0958/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_1 , and this is what makes the deal work. By spinning all the water out the clothes take very little time to dry hanging on a drying rack. Even a pair of my heavy jeans dried just fine overnight. So, I ordered a set today. I have to have them shipped to Mom's, then she will have to ship them to me. If they make it though Honduran customs without being stolen, I'll be able to do my laundry here in the apartment without going up and down 3 steep flights of steps. There are other, more automatic versions of this, but weight and ability to pick them up and move them around are some of the key points this setup gives. For Mom, being able to move them easily is key since she doesn't have any place in her small apartment to let them sit out, so they live in her closet between uses. For me, being able to ship them around to wherever I am will be the big plus.

I'm slowly waking up. I didn't sleep a lot while at Mom's. I've paid for it since I've been back. That and the fact that I napped on the plane and bus trip home had my back and legs sore from being curled up so much. I am inspired to clean here, and to sort and get rid of/send back as much as I can to get mobile. I'll see how much of that gets put into practice in the next few weeks.

Trip, part 1

2011-02-27T09:15:00.001-06:00

It's Saturday morining early, and I'm finally going to type up the blog entry about my trip. I have a large mug of coffee brewing. I use a single cup coffee maker that is set up to make 2 mugs at a time if I want. I just make one, but the water resevoir is big enough to get a nice large mug made. The coffee maker is made by Black & Decker, and I haven't seen any since I bought this one 5 or more years ago. Why is it that suddenly no one makes a nice single cup coffee maker anymore?
My trip: I bought my ticket to fly out of San Pedro Sulu instead of the capital of Tegucigalpa for some reason that made sense to me at the time. The issue with this was that while I had a free military shuttle to the airport in Teguc, I had to find my own way to SPS. A quote on a Taxi was $265. Yes, dollars. That includes both trips, and it's a 2-3 hour drive. Reasonable on one level, but more than I wanted to pay. While researching cheaper taxis, someone pointed me to one of the Government guys (civilians who live on post) who had taken a bus previously. I talked to him, and he said the fare was $7 each way. More to my budget. He isn't some kind of daredevil, but is cautious, and he traveled alone. So, I asked my local Honduran friends about the Rivera bus, and it got good reviews. The Hotel staff said they would take me to the bus terminal at 5:30 am on the day I left.
The morning of the trip I was all packed, dressed except shoes and doing 'one last thing' around the apartment and thought I had 5 minutes. There was a knock at the door, and the front desk guy motioned that my ride was waiting. He grabbed my carryone suitcase while I scrambled for my shoes. It was still very dark and there wasn't much traffic at that time of morning. We pulled into the 'terminal' which was a place that on my own I'd never go near even in the daytime, being behind a wall and crammed full of large busses down in the middle of town. It wasn't a passenger terminal, it was a 'bus' terminal! There were a very few folks waiting in the dark lighted by one light, and a guard cradeling his shotgun. Seemed quiet enough, and so I told my ride I'd be fine. At 6 we loaded up and drove out to the road. Since my Spanish is not good I was glad the bus turned north at the highway, towards San Pedro Sula.
Note: It is now Sunday morning, and Charlie has expressed a definite lack of faith that I'll ever post about my trip. I'M WORKING ON IT!! :)
The bus trip was amazingly uneventful. However, as they kept stopping and picking up folks, and then stopping and letting folks off as we went through the mountains I was concerned. I finally asked as the ticket guy wandered by getting payments and while my Spanish was totally not up to the task he finally convinced me that the trip took 3 hours total. We were 2 hours into it at that point, or really 2.5, but I had been warned that the 6 am buss took off when it had 'enough' passengers or 7 am which ever came first. We left around 6:30. By 10 we rolled into the terminal in San Pedro Sula and I walked into the bus terminal.
I have learned that the best method of getting to where I want is to just look lost. Some enterprising person, usually a kid or young man, will grill me about where I need to go. This time was no exception. When he finally understood 'airport' he said taxi, and motioned me to an older guy who was a taxi driver. We negotiated on the price, which basically meant that the kid agreed with the driver that the highish price was indeed correct. I shrugged and said ok, and with the driver pulling my rollng carryon we headed down the hall. Soon another driver ran over and was angrily talking to my driver and kept trying to get the bag away from him. My driver didn't say anything, just kept walking and dodging this guy's attempts to grab my bag. I really didn't want to go with an angry driver, no matter how 'right' he might have been. We walked past a policeman who was keeping peace at the taxi stand and the angry driver appealed to him. The officer looked at me, I said 'airport?' again, and he motioned me to go with my original driver. We got loaded into the taxi while the other driver was still yelling at the police officer.
It was a bit of a driver to the airport, which is outside of SPS a ways. The $15 fare was actually reasonable by US standards, and since I'd paid less than $5 for the bus ride I was feeling good about it all in general. I got to the airport in time to check in (no checked bags), eat breakfast and head to the gate. I skyped with Turtle Lady awhile, but felt conspicuous since I didn't bring a headset and so our conversation was out in the open. The flight started loading an hour before takeoff. If you fly international with Continental, get there early! They also looked through everyone's bags again, actually opening them and doing a visual check. The rock I was taking to my aunt and the small piece of a branch of guava wood that I was taking to my uncle made it past the inspections.
The flight went well, and I got to Kansas City on time, found Mom and my aunt, and headed to the storage unit where my Jeep is housed. Mom gave me the copy key that she had made and I unlocked the door to the unit and got into the Jeep and turned the key. It turned over but didn't catch. Several attempts later, with no luck in starting the Jeep, I'm getting comments from my peanut gallery about how I must have forgotten how to drive my Jeep! We called my uncle who has been driving it every month for me. We go over all the possible interlock issues - brake, clutch, etc. I have juice, it just won't start. sigh. I get back into Mom's car and my uncle says he'll come out the next morning and bring it to me.
This is enough for this post. I'll cover the return trip next.

Back home again

2011-02-22T19:31:00.001-06:00

Home in this instance is back in Honduras. I enjoyed my time back up in the States. I'll post more later. Really.

Vacation

2011-02-20T09:03:00.001-06:00

I'm at Mom's in Kansas City. I've done lots of driving, visiting, and going to the casinos. I got in on Thursday evening, and I go back on Tuesday. I'll write more details later. I took a Honduran bus from the town where I live to the city the airport is in, a 3 hour ride. But, it was $3.50 one way rather than the $265 for both trips that a taxi would cost. Both Mom and the casinos are happy I'm here. I did discover that a regular copy of a key won't start my Jeep, I need one of the original ones. My uncle had to go back and get it from storage the next morning and drive it to Mom's since when we stopped on the way from the airport the night I got in I just couldn't start it. Durn modern electronic things. My Uncle had the only original key to the Jeep that I currently know where it is. I'm thinking I took the other one to Honduras and forgot to bring it back. Oh, well.

Back from hibernation

2011-02-06T08:32:00.002-06:00

I've been quiet lately. I still write blog posts in my head during the day, I just haven't written any of them down. I was sick for a week with a cold. When I got well I could feel the 'well-ness' as a new reality, as concrete a feeling as the sickness had been. I had a lot of catching up to do. Especially at work. Now, I'm caught up more or less.

There have been small shifts in my mental state and I guess I've needed time and space to incorporate the change. Nothing large. I've been down here 4 months now. Seems so much more mature than being newly arrived 3 months ago. I'm sorting and repacking my huge piles of stuff that I have here and wondering how the heck I'll get a lot of it back to the States. I sent a 'Gorilla Box' (brand name) foot locker of stuff back a couple of weeks ago and just got an email from my Mom that it arrived. I'll take inventory of the condition of it's contents, and start sending more stuff back. I am getting rid of some things. I've found most of the things that I thought hadn't made it down here. It's just a matter of time till I do have something not show up at the other end. A friend ordered a new Blackberry phone, and the package came in as 'damaged' and when he opened it there was no phone in the box. The place he ordered it from is sending a replacement. We'll see if it gets here. Luckily, most of my stuff isn't anything that would sell on the thieves market.

I've had a few 'what the heck is this middle-aged hippie geek from Nashville doing down here in Honduras' moments. Sitting in a conference room waiting for a meeting to start and listening to the local Honduran admins chatting in Spanish that is still gibberish to me, I had one of the moments. I think that going back to the States I will feel it as a concrete PLACE in a way that I wouldn't have been able to before. I'm headed back to visit Mom in a few weeks. I'll only be there for 4 days. I'm a bit afraid that if I was to stay longer I wouldn't come back down here. It's not that I'm unhappy, it's just so different. I've told friends that I want to go back and drive my Jeep wherever I want, take a walk down a town street at night, alone, go to the casinos, and, oh, yeah, see my Mom. That is pretty much the truth.

Continuity

2011-01-25T19:57:00.001-06:00

I read Froggi Donna's blog where she explained how to back up a Blogger blog. One of my blogs is there (you are probably reading the blog there...) and both blogs are the same, so I took her advice. I do go back and re-read my older entries to see where my mind and body were and to try to figure out just how I ended up where I am at times. After making sure I had secured my blog's past, I started down my list of blogs I read. I hadn't been online last night, so I had a couple of days' worth of writing to catch up on. On Madcap's blog I first read that a blogger friend of hers died this weekend from a fall. I went and read that person's blog, and the entry that explained what happened. Then I went back to Madcap's blog and the entry from the day before that told that the blogger that had lead me to Madcap's blog has also died. Jim's politics were a bit extreme for me, but I thought often that I'd like to see his place in California, and maybe share a glass of wine with him and his wife Peggy while petting Dallas their dog. Again, family members are writing about the blogger, but in this case I don't see what happened to cause his death.

I am now thinking that while I've managed to assure that my blog won't be lost to the ozone if Blogger would happen do disappear, I haven't really done much to make sure that people who only know me through my blog would know if 'something happened' to me to cause me to disappear. Turtle Lady would know to comment, but I need to get her my passwords. I tend to play Murphy against himself. What I am prepared to have happen tends to not happen. It's the things I don't take precautions for that catch me off guard. That's why I made up my will before I moved down here. Ok, I actually got it drawn up and signed just days before, but that counts.

And those of you whose blogs I follow - be careful out there. I don't like logging on and reading bad news like that.

Fowl Play

2011-01-22T18:42:00.003-06:00

The white ones are obviously geese. I'm told now that the black and white ones are ducks. Not like any duck I've seen before.

They are pets of the local Post Commander. Mostly they are tame. I said in a previous post that one seemed to almost want to interact with me while I was playing with one of the cats that also have the run of the Post.

I'm back

2011-01-16T08:20:00.001-06:00

The surest way for me to get blocked when I try to blog is to announce that I'm going to blog every day. It always happens. I should stop saying that. After a few days I figure that a really good post with pictures will make up for my lapse. But, I never sit down with enough time to make it happen. So, this is just a short post to hop back in. I'll post more. Sometime. Soon. Hopefully.

Twilight

2011-01-03T18:51:00.002-06:00

This was taken a couple of weeks ago when the circus was still here. The light was really neat in the way it reflected and highlighted the white building against the darker hill. The point and shoot camera didn't capture it well. I also need to go up at least one floor to take a good picture without the hotel banner in the way. If nothing else, the need to take pictures to post will make me want a better camera and be more aware of my angle when I'm shooting.

Time to take the camera with me again since I'm now officially out of new pictures. I'm doing laundry tonight, which means that I'm going up and down 3 steep flights of stairs multiple times. The machines are in the basement, and I live on the 3rd floor, with no elevator here. I also started my official workout routine after work tonight, so my poor legs are going to let me know by tomorrow I'm sure. Also, the beginning Spanish class starts again tomorrow night, so it will be late when I get home. I do at least have an idea of what I want to take a picture of for tomorrow. I do wish I'd had the camera on my walk this evening as one of the cats that wander the post came up and was friendly. While I was giving the cat some lovin' one of the local fowl, which I'm not sure if it's a large duck or goose, wandered close like it wanted some petting, too. It didn't get within touching distance, but was definitly wanting to participate in some manner. So, I was sitting in the middle of the sidewalk, petting and scratching a wiggling cat while talking to a large fowl. Guess I should get a picture of it, too.

Valley of the Angel

2011-01-02T08:22:00.004-06:00

I will admit that I have forgotten how to write it in Spanish. So, you get the English name. It's a small town the other side of Teguc, which meant that it was a longish van ride. I went on a trip with the folks on Post a few weeks ago and am just now getting around to posting the pictures.

It's a tourist town, small and basically friendly. It is what I would like to think most of Honduras is like, but probably represents the country about as well as Gatlinburg does Tennessee. There are small shops in most of the brightly painted buildings with hammocks and such hanging around the doors. The chickens are on a patio that when the shop is open I'm told you can walk out to where they are. It was closed when we were there.

When you walk in the door under the chickens, this is what you see. There are small shops off this main hall and upstairs.

This is looking on up the hill to a residential area. If you look closely you can see the small red 3 wheel motorized taxi There are several of these in town to haul your tourist tail up and down the steep hills. We didn't use one so I don't know how much they cost, but our conversations were about how cool it would be to have one on Post.

A lot of the buildings are painted bright colors, as I mentioned. The other thing In noticed about this restaurant is that the sign is mostly in English. We were also pegged immediately by shopkeepers as being from the Army Post. They always started spouting about 'specials' for soldiers. Prices are negotiated by using a calculator to show how many dollars are offered/asked. Dollars are universally accepted wherever I've been in Honduras.

This is another mall, just off the central park. We didn't go in there. We did eat at a restaurant just behind me, and just before leaving stopped for coffee at the coffee shop next door.

The park is really nice here. I would go again just to hang around the park for an afternoon. It is a nice,quiet town where I felt safe. I did have 2 nice male soldier escorts for the day, but I think I would have felt safe alone. Then again, the soldiers are so rigged into the idea of staying together that as long as I'm on one of their trips I'm not sure I would be able to get off by myself. One of the other soldiers did separate from his 'battle buddy' for a few minutes and immediately acquired a shadow, a local male half his size who acted very protective and tried to act like he was guiding him. Of course the guide expected money for keeping him safe. He didn't get any. As I said, he was half the guy's size, and all he was doing was walking down the main street.

So, not a terribly exciting trip report. I'll do better when I go back.

A challenge

2011-01-01T10:19:00.003-06:00

One of the women who's blog I follow just stated the intention to blog every day in January. Seems like a good catalyst for me to do the same. And, just for Ben, I'll also put pictures in.

There seems to be a misconception that there are oodles of interesting things all around me, and I'm just not posting about them. Sorry. It's not that interesting down here. That has been a bit of a surprise to me,too. The good and the bad is that it really isn't all that different than up in the States as far as basic geography goes. There is more dust, fewer paved roads and streets. It's a bit like living in East LA from what I'm told as far as the danger level goes. Never have lived in LA I'll go with that analogy anyway.

There are pyramids, but they are a 5 or 6 hour drive from here. I'm told I should also take along another $300 besides the cost of travel and lodging to pay to do other interesting things there like horse back riding since the ruins take maybe a half day. The beach is also a drive or short flight away at Roatan. I do plan on heading there, but money is an issue with these trips. I'm also wanting to head back to the States for a long weekend, and I need to budget for each of these trips.

So, enjoy the pictures of what I have. Travel channel? No. Just life. These pictures are from the shop on Post. Interestingly, they have as good a selection, and better prices, of any place else I've seen so far. Handmade hammocks and hammock chairs. I got a hammock chair at Valley of the Angels like the 2 on the left in the middle picture. It's not as comfortable as I'd hoped. I'm still playing with it.

And so, the New Year is started. Happy 1-1-11.

Celebrate!

2010-12-24T18:59:00.001-06:00

Merry Christmas

2010-12-24T11:31:00.002-06:00

I wish everyone a safe and happy Holiday season.

This is what 50-something looks like

2010-12-24T10:23:00.002-06:00

I went down to breakfast. When the hostess seated me next to the window I asked her to take my picture. I explained it was my birthday. She took a couple, and this is the best one. The buffet had good stuff, including fried plantains (plantanos fritos), fruit and a good selection of sweet breads. I took several of the sweets, figuring that it is my birthday and the diet would start tomorrow. Christmas carols played softly in the background with the lyrics sung in a mixture of sometimes English, sometimes Spanish. It sounds a bit odd at first to hear familiar tunes sung with words I don't understand.

As I was almost finished with everything and got coffee to finish eating the sweet treats I got, I realized that the tune in the background was the Happy Birthday song, sung in Spanish. I looked up and the waiter presented me with this. I took a couple of bites before it occurred to me to take a picture. Sorry. Anyway, I almost teared up as the hostess popped up and wished me a Happy Birthday. I finished this off, then finished off the plate of sweet rolls I had originally gotten. I was stuffed.

They Say It's (My) Birthday!

2010-12-23T08:19:00.001-06:00

(I'm) gonna have a good time! For those of you not into Rock and Roll that's a quote. Sort of.

Slept in, drinking my first cup of coffee. I have breakfast included in my room rate so I'll head down for the buffet after a shower. Yesterday I got in here around 11am. The drive up in the military shuttle wasn't bad. We passed by a recently happened wreck, and drove on by even though it was a shuttle full of medics. I'm pretty sure the guy was already gone. Traffic was just driving by. I am still pondering that in my mind. Got to the airport, and it wasn't the jungle of humanity that it seemed to me when I arrived a couple of months ago. That made me feel better. I walked out to get a cab rather than wait an hour for the hotel shuttle. A woman who spoke English was just getting out of a cab, so I asked her if I could use her cab. I told her where I needed to go and she talked to the driver and 70 lemps was the fare, less than I had expected. I got in, and since I don't speak Spanish well, I just spent my tiime looking at the city. We started off in the right direction near as I could tell, but nothing looked familiar after a bit. I've never gone to the hotel from the airport, so I just hoped that the Bible on the console was a good sign. He started to pull up to a building that sounded like Intercontinental, but was no place near my hotel. I tried to tell him where I really wanted to go, but he gave me a blank puzzled look. I pulled out a keyfob I have with the hotel name on it. He put the flashers on, grabbed his cell phone, and walked across the street to other cab drivers standing around. He came back, we turned around and in a few minutes I recognized the hotel/mall area. I gave him 100 lemps ($5) which was almost a 50 % tip, and he was happy. All's well that ends well, and I saw more of the city. I also realized just how much I need to memorize landmarks in Tegus.

Lots of napping and internet surfing yesterday. No swimming yet. After breakfast maybe. Guess I needed the naps because even with 2 long naps during the day I slept well last night. I think the hotel must have Skype blocked because I have internet but can't log into Skype. So, it lights a fire under me to go get a Tigo stick - cell based internet - to cover for these times when my main internet source doesn't cut it. You can buy the internet in increments of days, such as a week or even a day at a time. I need to see if a week's worth of internet is 7 different days, or if it's consecutive. I will use 3 days here, and would have 4 'in the bank' if it's based on 24hrs per use. Things like that are different down here. I also want to get my cell phone down here able to call the States. There are just times I want to call and not Skype.

I hear that shower calling. And breakfast. I'll take my camera over to the mall later and get some pictures for you.

Vacation

2010-12-21T18:43:00.001-06:00

I'm on vacation till next Monday. My birthday is Thrursday, Christmas is Saturday. I'm going to a luxury hotel and just chill by the pool. Actually, chill isn't the right word, I'm going to laze in the warm sun and let handsome Hispanic men cater to my needs for drink, food, etc. That's the plan I'm playing in my head. Of course, I need to go pack my carry-on and backpack. I'm taking computers and hard drives to catch up on some stuff, DVD's with computer certification things to study, DVD's of Spanish lessons. And 3 swim suits. A simple pull on dress, and some shorts and jeans and tshirts. Should be enough. I'll catch my usual 7am cab, have breakfast at the DFAC, but instead of heading to work I'll head to the airport shuttle. From the airport I'll catch the hotel shuttle. Once in my room it's swimsuit time.

Nightly W(h)ine

2010-12-20T21:20:00.001-06:00

When I was at Valley of Angels a couple of weeks ago I bought a total of 4 bottles of liquor. 2 of them are bottles of blackberry wine. I had some motivation in getting the second in that 2 attractive males mentioned they would like to taste it. I figured that I had little to lose. Well, they neither one came by for the glass of wine, so I finally opened one of the bottles tonight. I don't know how you mess up making blackberry wine, but this wine is not very good. Then again, maybe I just don't like wine anymore. Everything tastes so dry. I thought it was just left coast wine, but apparently Honduran wine is also very dry. sigh. It is potent, though. One glass and I'm feeling the effects. I'm thinking the second bottle will be a gift to someone. Not sure yet just who.

Faster Internet!

2010-12-20T18:29:00.003-06:00

I got my faster internet. It is really nice. So, I was able to upload a few pictures, and I will start taking more pictures, I promise. This first one is just some buildings along the road on the way to work. As I looked at the pictures I took a couple of weeks ago, I decided I want to get better ones.

This is an overpass where the new bypass around town will come back in. I don't hold my breath that it will be completed anytime while I'm here, but it should be nice eventually not to have all of the truck and buss traffic going right past my hotel. You can see part of the hills that surround the valley, and some of the cloud formations that make the view really neat. I want to attempt to get some of the cloud formation pictures, but getting a good angle for a picture is difficult.

Tonight I start packing for my 4 days in Tegus back at the InterContinental. I'm looking forward to laying by the pool. It is difficult to fell like it really is Christmas with it being like summer here.

Nope

2010-12-17T19:44:00.001-06:00

No cable modem in my room yet. The room next door is now empty. I hope they don't rent it out until my cable modem/router setup is moved over here. I had to have Carlos reset the cable modem for me tonight. I'm thinking that just maybe someone is using it during the day directly connected since Chris changed the password on the wireless before he left. Whatever. I was once told that manana doesn't so much mean 'tomorrow' as 'not today'. When it comes to getting things done I believe it.

Internet

2010-12-14T17:55:00.001-06:00

My internet connection is degrading more each day. When Mom and I Skype we can't have the video on anymore. On Friday they move the cable modem into my room, so I should have good internet then. I'm not sure if that is why, but Photobucket won't upload my pictures. So, unless something happens, the picture situation should be all better by the weekend. Then again, this is Honduras, so I will actually be really surprised (happy, but surprised) if they actually show up and get it moved on Friday.

Drive to work, part 1

2010-12-12T10:35:00.002-06:00

A few weeks ago I was complaining about the loudspeaker from the circus across the street. A few days later they did pack up their tents and move on. Then, a week or so later a different circus showed up and set up in the same exact location. This one doesn't broadcast the recorded carney voice emphatically saying something in Spanish. They are much better neighbors, although during the shows I can still hear something over the loudspeakers. One morning last week I decided to take my camera out while driving to work in the taxi. This is the first picture I took. Yes, those are camels. This is December in Central America, so I'm assuming they are doing some kind of nativity scene. I could be wrong...

Mixed bag week

2010-12-12T09:52:00.001-06:00

Last week was a mixed bag of good and bad. I am stressed by work, and will be until they get me more help. I went to Valley of the Angels yesterday on a MWR trip, and had fun. I was sick 2 days of last week. I got a hammock chair at Valley of the Angels. Oh, and I have enough pictures to post pictures every day for awhile. Where is the picture now? When attempting to upload the pictures early last week (yes, I had good intentions before I got sick) my internet connection wasn't cooperating. If it does cooperate later today, I'll start posting pictures from my drive in to work as well as my trip yesterday. And, as a bonus, while I was gone yesterday the carpenter came in and finished my kitchen sink cabinet. It is really pretty. I have had a bit of a mess to clean up, but now that the work is done I can start really cleaning and unpacking.

One Down

2010-12-03T16:35:00.001-06:00

I just paid off the first of my credit cards. There are 3 more to go, and they have much more owed on each. But, it's a first step in the right direction. Happy Dance!

Flowers

2010-11-30T19:10:00.002-06:00

Not long after I got here I mentioned that I had expected to see more flowers than I was seeing. Turns out that they just hadn't bloomed yet. I took some pictures of the flowers I get to see on a daily basis.

I had never seen a poinsettia actually growing as an outside plant before. I really liked this one, and it was the inspiration for me taking my camera in and actually getting pictures.

Views like this are all over the place down here right now. I'm thinking that I may need this reminder as time goes on. Maybe it is this beautiful most of the year, but I'm not placing any major bets on it.

These bushes are all over the place at work. I enjoy taking walks around and just looking at the blooms.

So that is a flip side of living down here. It was pretty hot today for the first time. However, walking to the gate after work the weather is perfect, warm and breezy as the light is just starting to fade and the shadows get deeper on the hills (mountains?) that surround the area. I'll try to get some more pictures as time goes on.

Catching up with Pictures

2010-11-28T14:16:00.001-06:00

Here are some pictures from trip a few weeks ago. I lost my camera for a few days, put it someplace 'safe' and forgot where that was. Finally found it today. So, first picture is of a street in the town just north of here.

Second is a pavilion in the park in that town.

Third is me participating in the silliness in the pavilion. Guys set these props up and charge to take your picture. Us Gringos just barged in and started taking pictures since no one seemed to be around. Later a couple of the guys found the photographer and made it up to him with money he should have made for the use of the props.

With talk among the bloggers of computer issues, I am currently pulling a backup image of my main laptop. I'm typing this on my netbook. I like the netbook, but here at the apartment it seems to not do Skype with the same clarity as the Dell. The image just stopped due to a bad sector, so now I do some troubleshooting, and kick myself for not making the backup sooner. At least I won't be off line if that computer breaks.

The following pictures are of my water filter. I was feeling badly when I was first down here about all the trash that drinking bottled water was creating. Drinking the water straight from the tap is not recommended. Finally, when my stuff got here I was able to start using my backpacking water filter, which is a Platypus gravity flow model. I'm thinking about getting an actual water purifyer. First Need water purification system isn't gravity flow, but pump, but takes everything out and also makes the water taste better, which the filter doesn't do. It's $112 at REI, and is on my list of things to get.

The Platypus system uses 2 4L water bags, one for 'dirty' water and one for 'clean' (filtered) water. I don't use the clean bag except to hold the clean end of the tubing. I fill the dirty water bag from the tap and hang it from a hanger in the bathroom and unscrew the top from the clean bag and drop it into a jug sitting on the floor. In a few minutes the water has dropped through the filter to the jug below. I have a separate silt filter to put inline with the main filter, but since I'm filtering tap water I haven't used it yet. this is much better than constantly buying and toting the bottles of water.

Changing topics, I am in the process of sorting my yarn stash and putting it into 2 gallon ziplock bags. These bags are big enough to hold several skeins of yarn, keeping them together and protected. I did not do this before the move. When the truck of my stuff showed up finally that night, after dark, and they opened the doors, all I saw was my yarn and needles all strewn all over the back of the truck. The plastic crates I'd used to store my yarn and knitting/crocheting supplies had been crushed in shipment, and popped open. I was almost hysterical, thinking that all my stuff was equally tossed about and, most likely, lost. So far, only the yarn totes seem to have had that fate. However, I'm remembering some of the other plastic totes that may not have been repacked into cardboard boxes (I really don't remember at this point...) that may have just plain not made it. That rambling paragraph brings me to two requests. First, if any of you see 2 GALLON Zip Lock bags, please pick them up for me and I'll reimburse you for the bags and shipping in a Priority rate envelope to my APO address. Second, for the knitters: I have a lot of partial skeins of yarn, different colors and mostly acrylic. I have no idea what to use these for. If you want them, or have ideas of what I can make and donate, please let me know. At some point I may post pictures of what I want to get rid of.

I think that's it for today.

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T07:24:00.001-06:00

Be sure to listen to Alice's Restaurant sometime today. A Thanksgiving tradition. You Tube has it if you don't have it on CD yourself.

Weekend Continued

2010-11-21T18:33:00.001-06:00

I'm still here in the IC in Teguc. Yes, that is short for Tegucigalpa. I looked up the full spelling on a receipt just now, and I still wouldn't bet folding money I got it right. So, as I said, I'm still in Teguc. Catching up more from yesterday, the car wash was very much a 'we aren't in Kansas anymore' thing. They pulled the Jeep over to the area near a stock tank looking thing and had bucket of soapy water, a hose, and what looked like cut off antifreeze bottles with the top open and the handle still there. They dipped the modified antifreeze containers into the stock tank and tossed water all over the jeep, used the sprayer on the hose that put out soap like a regular car wash sparingly, and hand washed with rags and the buckets of soapy water, then rinsed with the cut off plastic containers of water tossed over it again. I swear they went over that Jeep 4 or 5 times. They took out the mats and hand scrubbed them. Then they drove back under the large covered carport area and hand dried it, wiping down the windows, opening the doors and drying the edges. We were kinda in a hurry, and when they started wiping it down a second time we said it was fine and got in. I swear they were still trying to wipe it down as we drove off. Definitely the best $4 car wash I've ever seen.

I bought a new HP netbook in the PX on Friday. I am still going to send back my Asus EeePC to be repaired under warranty, but I want a machine to be out on the internet with while use my good laptop to do some scanning and things I'd rather not be on my machine that's on the net. So, I spent pretty much all of the rest of yesterday setting it up, downloading the AVG Anti-Virus (free), and Firefox, and Skype and getting it all working together. And uninstalling the crap, err, extra value software they send these out with now. When I'm downloading software, the primary technical knowledge I need is on how to uncheck all that extra cr... extra value stuff they want to add to it. No, I don't want your 'security/search/NY Times Reader/Tool Bar. So far I liked my Asus better than this HP, but I only paid $250 for it. I walked the mall a bit yesterday, and I went into the HP store there. I saw basically this netbook for 8,600 limps. I used my calculator when I got back and divided by 19 (there are roughtly 18 or 19 limps/dollar) and it is over $450.00 here. Guess I'll be doing the mail order thing if I want much of anything. I'll go try to find a 'cheap' flat screen monitor later, but I'm thinking that if I really want one I will order it online.

It's time to go take a nice long shower, and use some of these fancy shampoo and soap and such that they gave me here. I got my complimentary fruit plate and bottled water yesterday. Oh, I also went down and had the breakfast buffet here and it was nice, but crowded. Same basic price, $16 and change. So far I'm happy with this as a get away.

... Ok, that was at 11. The internet died at that point, since I'd been there 24 hrs. I didn't want to pay, so I just turned off the computer. I had my nice shower, and then went grocery shopping. I got some things I'm not sure what they are, and some things I had planned on, and some things I didn't get because it was too much to carry all the way back. I'll try to take a picture of it all tomorrow. I'm back home now. It was an... interesting... drive home. I'm going to put away my things and try to get organized for tomorrow.

Weekend Getaway

2010-11-20T17:55:00.001-06:00

Today I am in Teguc at the InterContinental Hotel. This is a trial run to see if it will be one of my get away places. So far so good. The drive up was eventful. Three of us in a Jeep Liberty followed C down the road. I've mentioned the condition of the road to here before, and that the driving is like being a passenger in a Nascar event. It turns out the C is used to driving in the Middle East, and drives that way. This fits well with the drivers here, he beats them at their own game. Trying to keep up with him was even more exciting. The guy driving the Jeep I was riding in wasn't about to be left behind.

The occasion for them was the fact that everyone but me is leaving in the next 2 months, and the couple I was riding with are trying to sell the Jeep before they leave. After dropping off a Dell contractor who was riding with C at the airport so he could fly home, we did a sudden stop at a guy who was working around a car and C asked directions to someplace. Turns out that C knew the folks wanted to wash the car before showing it to prospective buyers, so he was asking a local where to find a car wash. When C needs to stop, a parking spot is considered a waste of time and he just scooches over in the general direction of the curb. As cars leaving the airport squeezed our two trucks there was much waving of hands and comments, and finally a friendly handshake and off C zoomed with us close behind. Once out of the airport we cut around side streets until C stopped near an alley cutoff and pointed down it. Looking closely there was a hand lettered sign that said some version of Car Wash. C parked his truck in the street and got out to investigate while we blocked for him in our truck. Finally he gestured us down the alley, and we pulled into a back courtyard with cars and local Honduran young guys running around. After negotiations, it was settled on $4.00 for the wash and we got out. C retrieved his truck from the street and we watched while a couple of the guys hand washed the Jeep.

On the road again, we stopped at a place to show the Jeep to a reseller. I had S take a picture of the engines lined up. I guess if you buy a car you get your choice of custom sized engines? There were at least 10 of them neatly lined up on the pavement in the covered area. Then I asked to be let off at the IC before they went off to do more trading and selling. C pulled into the Marriott. We decided he knew i needed a bathroom, but I couldn't understand why he stopped there when the IC was within sight. Turns out that the Marriott has a really nice breakfast buffet and we got there in time. So, after frantic driving and fighting traffic (we won...) we sat down at a luxury buffet and ate. For $15 it was really nice. I was dropped off after the meal, and the others drove off.

More later. Oh, I forgot my camera. If S actually emails me the pictures she takes I'll post them.

Commets

2010-11-15T18:33:00.001-06:00

Comments on blogs are strange things in a way. I never had many comments here until I started commenting on others' blogs. Well, I never had many readers till then, either. At any rate, I find that I feel a need to explain when I comment on a new blog that I live in Honduras. Mostly because that colors my comments lately. I feel a bit self conscious as it seems to be bragging, or holding up that I have one of those unusual lives. In fact, I'm still a bit aghast that this girl who grew up in the cornfields of Central Indiana is somehow in this odd place. And on other levels, it doesn't feel all that odd to me anymore. I kind of bounce around with these emotions while I comment. I do know that somehow I feel like I can hold my head up a bit higher. Like I actually have joined the cool kids group. And, I'm not so sure that feeling is justified just because I managed to snag a job down here that pays enough to pay off my debt that I should have know better than to acquire in the first place. It's all so confusing.

misc

2010-11-14T11:12:00.001-06:00

I had the Typical Breakfast. I feel good that I am starting to communicate somewhat with the Spanish-only speaking woman who now runs the restaurant. I got what I ordered. Not to say it wasn't a bit of a surprise. The typical breakfast is a small cup of refried beans, 1 egg over easy, fried plantains, 2 small hot dogs (not sausage, hot dogs) a helping of 'cream' that I can't quite figure out, and 2 tortillas. The cream is somewhat runny, and seems to have a base of sour cream with something else added. I'll ask C and see if he knows. I love the plantains, and the beans and tortillas are starting to be a breakfast thing for me. The hot dogs were different for me for breakfast. However, I'm now full. This is what I mean about getting unusual things when ordering here in Honduras.

There were a couple of the military guys having breakfast at the same time. It was unusual for me to hear English, spoken with no discernible Spanish accent. We talked for a few minutes.

The circus is still across the street. I'm wondering if this is their winter home, although since there really isn't a winter here that doesn't make much sense. No one I've asked seems to know how long they will be here, and seem confused as to why I would ask. The loudspeaker with the recorded carney hawking the show in Spanish is now only on weekends, and stops at a reasonable hour. I am getting tired of the recording, and do wish them well as I hope they go someplace else. No signs of that so far.

The hotel does my laundry for free, I just have to take it down to them. I started doing hand laundry of the things I wanted not put in the dryer. I also do my socks, as I don't like them turned into one cuff which stretches that cuff and that is how they do it. The majority of the things I hand launder dry in a little over a day. The socks take 3 days as they are heavier. I'm about to see if my ability to communicate gets far enough to just ask them to not 'fold' my socks. I'm getting brave. :)

The beginning Spanish class starts the 22nd. Now both of my bosses are talking about signing up. This means a more certain ride home at night. The class will go until 8pm, and that is late by my standards for taking a cab. I'm hoping for the best.

As I unpack my stuff I find that most of it is the little things. I have several dozen buttons in little envelopes that come with slacks and blouses. I'm taking those out of the little envelopes and putting like size and color together to put in with my sewing (when I find that stuff...). I also have A LOT of hair thingys, ties and small barrettes and combs and whatnot. I should never have to purchase those things again. I hate to get rid of them because I do use them. I'm also going through my pens and tossing those that don't work anymore. I have a bunch of pencils, and I almost never use pencils. Those will go into work, I think. Or, given to a local at work who works with one of the missions here. Some things I want to get rid of make no sense to give away here, such as winter gloves and such. It never gets cold enough here to use gloves. It's the small stuff that takes time to sort through, and is easy to put off because no one thing takes up much room. It has added up and was one of the big boxes of things shipped.

One advantage of having lived for a month with less stuff is that I really know I don't need to buy much at all this year. No clothes, no hair ties, no kitchen stuff. I'm working my way through the 3 large cosmetic bags of face/skin/hair toiletries, so it should be a while until I need to buy that stuff. Other than food, not a lot else to buy. It is an odd feeling when I hear Mom talk about going to yard sales and such. I can't even think of what I'd want. This is a good thing for me. Less stuff to move.

Next step

2010-11-14T09:43:00.001-06:00

As usual I've spent a lot of the weekend reading blogs. I am starting to want to make my space here more of a sanctuary. I just read a blogger who used that word and explored the meaning for her. The word resonated with me. At this point I'm not so much talking about a sanctuary from the violence and chance of robbery here. I have that pretty much under control, as much as I can while living in a 3rd world country. I'll explore that issue more later. I have unpacked enough of my things that I'm wanting to have my apartment be more than just a temporary hotel room. Looking ahead, my lifestyle for the next few years looks to be mobile, if not country to country then at least city to city. I want to find year to year contracts in different places. So the 'temporary hotel room' is the canvas I have to work with. I never have been the type to put art on the walls. Just ask Turtle Lady, who as my resident artist has hung most of the art for me. I do enjoy color and texture and 'homey' type environments. So, my project is to create a homey, colorful, textured, comfortable sanctuary that is minimalist and mobile.

One of the first issues I need to deal with is food. During the week it's not too much effort to get food, I just eat on post. On the weekends I have limited myself to the chicken place next door, the restaurant downstairs, or getting a delivery from Pizza Hut across the street. All of those are getting old. Pizza Hut and the chicken place are too processed. The restaurant downstairs is better, but has the issue of lack of communication. They try to give me what they think I want, which can have a new and exciting combination show up on my plate. I'm working on my Spanish... I am putting together a list of foods to get while in Tegus next weekend. I need my comfort foods. Luckily I'm going with C who knows Tegus, and who also knows the types of foods I like having lived in the Middle East and knows where to get those foods down here. Things like humus, lentils, dates. This part will get better. But, I have to hurry to find these places as he leaves in a month.

The rest of the sanctuary will be a work in process as I sift through my things. The hotel is installing a kitchen style sink for me tomorrow. This is part of attempting to get hot water to the sink in the bathroom. They really are trying to give me what I want. The flip side of that is that I don't want to pull much out until that is finished so I won't have people in the apartment. Also, I think Friday they must have had a bit of a flood while working on the water lines. I had everything up off the floor when I left for work (habit from camping, in case of rain), so no damage done,just a really clean floor and a single damp paper. I already have a pile of things to send back, and a pile of things to get rid of. Small piles, but a start. What stuff I have here now doesn't fall under the definition of 'mobile'.

My thoughts are starting to scatter. It's time to head down for some breakfast. Then I think I'll look into ordering some foods online from the backpacking sites. It's a start.

Reposting

2010-11-10T19:46:00.001-06:00

I tried to post this last night, but lost internet as I hit send. I'll try again:

Nope. Not the trip report. I have a picture coming that I want to include. At least that's the current excuse. Basically, now that I have my things here I spend my time either in my recliner or unpacking, not writing. Also, some things have happened here that I wanted to think about before I write about them. The guy who arrived a couple of days behind me at work was attacked and robbed this weekend. He's injured, although I don't have a good idea of how badly. He's still here in Honduras, and I've already told all involved at work that if I'm hurt they better be working on getting my a$$ to the States because I don't care how good the care it here, I want to go home if I'm hurt. I'll know more if he comes back to work in a month or so. Yes, he's hurt that badly, machete's aren't nice things to be sliced with. He was doing something I wouldn't have tended to do, which is walk downtown alone. Now I won't be going downtown at all. I'll head to Tegus to shop. This happened at noon on Sunday. I am not particularly worried about my own safety, as I draw my lines pretty conservatively. That's why I'm not out doing more sightseeing. I am being even more careful now. We've been told that from now until Christmas the bad guys are even more desperate for money, so be more watchful. No problem. There won't be any trips with the folks on post for awhile as they are now on lock down. Warm fuzzy (not) that soldiers aren't allowed out in the town I live in because it's too dangerous. Situational awareness isn't just a buzz phrase down here, it's an essential skill. So, if my life seems boring while I'm here, this is why. I'm a home body anyway, so I'm not feeling inconvenienced in any real way.

I found out about a cheap airline, Spirit Airlines, that flys from Honduras to Ft. Lauderdale, FL for well under $100 each way. Coupled with a Southwest cheap fare to either Kansas City to see Mom or to Nashville to see friends, I can see flying up for a 4 day weekend every few months. That helps with the closed in feeling. Also, weekends at luxury hotels in Tegus help break up the monotony. All in all I'm still feeling ok about staying here for the year.

Back to today. I have tomorrow off for Veteran's Day. Early in the morning several of us are getting our Honduran driver's license. I'm hoping there isn't a test. I may not drive while down here, but I'll still feel better having some 'local' ID. No other plans other than to continue unpacking and sorting. Friday should be slow at work since the soldiers have it as a holiday to make a 4 day weekend. I did buy a bottle of Bailey's so I'll have a nice cup of coffee later with the only creamer I use. I gave away what liquor I had in WA before I left. This is the start of my new liquor cabinet. Of course, when I leave here I'll give away whatever I have left at that point, so I'll have to start fresh yet again. Life's tough when I travel around so much. :)

All's right in the world

2010-11-06T07:59:00.001-06:00

I'm sitting in my recliner drinking coffee and surfing the net on a Saturday morning. Life is good. I have a 'free' (included in the price of rent) breakfast waiting on me downstairs whenever I decide to head down, my stuff in boxes waiting for me to go exploring, and a weekend with no issues pressing for my attention. Oh, and a day this next week for Veteran's Day to go exploring around town if I so choose. Life is good.

A quick link from The Last Straw ( http://www.bryantholsenbeck.com/blog/ ): The link I like is from treehugger.com, a site I used to follow every day a few years ago. I smile when other bloggers put in a link about something cool they found there. Treehugger is a neat site about alternative ways to deal with energy and trash and other issues. This link is a Buddhist temple made from beer bottles, and it's beautiful: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/10/temple-built-from-beer-bottles.php

My buddy Phil has managed to forward our Skype connection to his cell phone, where it comes in to him as a regular phone call. This is cool in that we used to talk mostly while he drives home from work and now can do so again. Obviously we don't have the video component since he's driving, and to call an actual phone costs (him) money, although I'm not sure how much. I am truly appreciative of the technology that allows me to be almost in as much contact with friends up in the US as when I lived up there, even though I'm in Honduras.

Just read a blog on procrastination. Putting things off until the future. I look around the (messy) apartment. I feel my stomach wanting breakfast. I remember I need to write about the trip last weekend, and some about the unloading of my stuff on Thursday evening. Guess I should get up, put on shoes and get some breakfast. It's chilly here. I went down in jeans, tshirt and bare feet to get some bottled water to make coffee earlier and it was chilly (the floors here are all tile). I came back up and turned off the air conditioners, that's how chilly it is. Ok, they are on thermostats and probably hadn't been on all night, but still... So, I may need to actually put on socks. Nah, I'll just grab my sandals. That's my 'it's the weekend' footwear.

Still Here

2010-11-05T08:18:00.001-06:00

Just a quick note before Ben calls out the Calvary. On Sunday night, starting about 10pm, there was a loud pary with DJ in the party room 2 floors above me. At 11pm I went down and asked how late it would go and got blank looks from the Hotel people. It went till 3:30am. On a work night. Later I was assured that is a once a year thing. I said 'next time it happens on a work night, put me in a different room'. Monday and Tuesday after work were spent catching up on sleep. Wednesday I didn't have internet access, some kind of DNS issue. Last night my shipment arrived, and I spent the evening having a nervous breakdown while some very strong guys from the hotel carried all my stuff up 2 flights of stairs. There is no elevator in this hotel. The hotel staff does try very hard to take care of me, which is why I'm going to live here.

More details, and a post about last weekend's trip, later. Really.

Way Cool Link

2010-10-31T17:12:00.001-06:00

I talk about how I am online reading blogs a lot. I read a varied list on many subjects. Sometimes I run across a gem that a blogger has found useful and posts about it. Today I found another gem.

http://www.khanacademy.org/

Folks who watch TV may have heard of this guy already. He has an exhaustive list of lectures on math, 10 minutes per lecture, from how to add to way deeper subject matter than I'll ever have time to understand. Hundreds of video lectures. Way back near when I started the blogs I came across Heather who was home schooled and tended to just go do things she wanted to learn about. She built her own cabin on her Mom's land (since sold), rebuilt her van inside and out, went out and got a job as a carpenter, etc. When she was of the age to head to University, she decided to home school herself in University, too. I liked that idea, and wrote a post on what my own personal University might look like. As with many things, I never really followed through with it. The site above really leaves me no excuse not to go back and fill in the blanks on math. I can't even imagine where I'd be if I'd had a resource like this in school. I made a lot of early decisions based on my insecurity with math, such as going to Tech school rather than Engineering or Computer Science. I've been hindered in what I enjoy doing professionally ever since.

Ok, I'm energized. I'm going to go study some Spanish first. I also have a blog post to write about my trip today to the caves.

I got moved

2010-10-30T19:02:00.002-06:00

So, here is the new apartment, which isn't really an apartment.

This is the living room/kitchen (when I get my microwave and kitchen table delivered)

From the other end.

It looks empty now, but when all my stuff arrives it will be pretty full. There are two bedrooms off this room, and neither one has a closet.

It feels strange to have more than one room after living in the small single hotel room for a month. As time goes on I adapt and get things more settled.

Big Clarification

2010-10-30T18:07:00.001-06:00

Kiva is not a money-making scheme. It is for a lot of us a way to give money directly to poor people in 3rd world countries to give them a hand up, not a hand out. There is the possibility, maybe even probability in time, that some of the money won't be repaid. The idea, for me, was to loan some capital out to help people who could use the $25 (put together into $500-$2000 loans) to add inventory to their shops or buy better equipment or something, and repay it as they can. Then I would loan that money out again. I don't get any interest, and figure that I would 'lose' the money as time went on from people who couldn't pay it back. I saw it more as a charitable contribution that any money making scheme. That's why I am upset at the interest rates charged the individuals who borrow the money. I also was giving money with each donation, an extra $3.50 per $25, to help with overhead costs. I know it takes money to run the organization. I'm enough of a liberal hippy that I hate the idea of interest. I REALLY hate the idea of +35% interest being charged to people who are in poor countries. My money that I'm giving the use of free is making some bank there a lot of these folks hard earned profits into their own profits. I'll leave the $100. I'm just not feeling so warm and fuzzy about it, and I'll not add to it right now. This puts the burden on me to actually make some effort to do research and find a way to help.

I don't talk politics or religion or anything near it much. However, I do feel that, for me, the way to help that gives the most positive effect is to help those on the bottom rise up from there. The only charity that I've ever given any direct money that amounts to much is a downtown mission that takes homeless folks in and teaches them life skills as well as giving them '3 hots and a cot' as they say. I'm sure they get religion tossed at them along with it, which I'm not sure is fair considering it's a kind of captive audience. But, it was the best game in town for that kind of thing, from what I could tell. I had hoped that I had found another avenue to give similar help on a more global scale. Truth is, it was easy to just go there and give and feel good. I'm not saying that Kiva is a scam. I need to do more research. And, that is where I fell down. I didn't take the responsibility to do my due diligence to make sure they were really doing work that was in alignment with what I want to support with my money. They may be. They may not be. I need to care enough to look closely.

It's not all black and white

2010-10-30T16:32:00.001-06:00

I'm killing time today, waiting on the apartment to be ready. So, since I was on the Kiva site I wandered around some more, and read, and learned, and ended up with more troubling questions than I found answers. The terms 'interest free loans' and 'field partners' when used with 'microfinance' are warm fuzzy sounding words. But, looking deeper, the interest free loans are to local loan institutions who charge 36 to 57 PERCENT INTEREST to the local population they make the loans to. And all this 'you are funding a loan to ____' stuff? No, you are loaning money to a bank, assuming all the risk yourself, and giving them money to lend to who they choose at whatever interest rate they want. I am conflicted now. There are some cases made each direction in comments on the articles that try to say the high interest is necessary for the 'field partners' to be 'self sustaining'. Ummmm, I'm wanting the individuals to be self-sustaining, not the local bank to make more money because of access to my capital on a no-interest, I assume all risk basis. I'm going to ponder this more, and do some more reading. Didn't help that it turns out that the 'field partner' for the Honduras loans is, or was anyway, owned by a company in Boston. Sigh. If it looks too good to be true, it just might be. At this point I'm only in $100.

The apartment is almost ready. It's clean, and all they need to do is hang some curtains in one window and move in a fridge in order to give me the key. I gave them the rent money. It will take about 5 minutes to carry my stuff up the flight of stairs to the room. I call it an apartment, but it's a hotel suite with one large room that would normally have couches, and 2 bedrooms off that. No kitchen. No closets, even. Until my stuff gets here with my clothes rack my clothes will just be put on the floor. A nice bathroom with a tiled shower. Guess I'll head up and see how far along they are.

Waiting

2010-10-30T14:12:00.001-06:00

I tried and tried to go ahead and pay for my apartment ahead of time. They said no. Today was the day. Well, they haven't started getting it ready. They said tomorrow. I'm going to be gone tomorrow on the MWR trip. So, as a compromise, at 6 pm I am to move. We'll see. I understand Honduran time. I tried to give them enough notice to still move when I was ready. No luck. So, I wait. I'm trying to decide if I want to run out to post to the PX or into town. Both involve a cab ride.

I got paid for the first time here. I made a budget, which consisted of basically adding up my bills. It feels good to have enough to actually pay bills instead of just figuring out which ones would go on the credit card. I made my first lump sum payment to my smallest card. If I'm really lucky, and my budget is right, I may be able to pay it off next month. It is a lot smaller than the other 3, but it's a start.

In my quest to pay off debt I still feel an obligation to give something to those less fortunate. I have found Kiva (kiva.org) to be my personal avenue. They make micro-loans to individuals in poor countries. The money comes back, and I'll have the option to lend it out again or take it back. You can make loans in increments of $25. I have 4 loans out now, and I'm concentrating my loans in Honduras. Not only is it one of the poorest of the countries, but I have a front seat view of the poverty. I would like to encourage each of you who can spare $25/mo to go to Kiva.org and set up a portfolio. It's at least a start.

I took a picture of my stuff piled up ready to be moved. I was going to take another picture this morning of my new place. I'll try for that tonight. My stuff is closer. An optimistic guess was that it will be here Wednesday. A pragmatic guess was 2 weeks.

Maintaining

2010-10-28T19:08:00.001-06:00

The self improvements are just maintaining, not gaining momentum. I'm watching what I eat, and taking a walk the past few nights around the post. Last night was a social for the folks in the company I work for to meet with the owners who were down for a few days. It was the first time I'd met them. Nice guys. First boss I've ever said in the first few minutes of conversation 'what's a girl gotta do around here to get a beer?' It was appropriate in the setting. And, I only had one. However, I didn't work out after work because I didn't want to get sweaty and such before meeting the bosses. Then today I forgot to take clothes to work to change into. The gym won't let me work out in street clothes, even if it is only for 4 minutes. So, both nights I walked around post and then waited for F. to make the sprint up to the gate and catch a cab.

Tomorrow marks my 1 month milestone, and the end of my relocation money paying for my hotel room. All 3 of the guys (owner and 2 sons) were at the desk at the lobby waiting for me when I came in. The son who speaks English and I talked business, and I move into my apartment Saturday morning. My stuff has made it to this country, but now has to make it through customs. I'm told it will probably be another 2 weeks. So, I'm borrowing a bed until the hammock stand gets here.

I have signed up to take a tour of some commercial caves with the post outing group on Sunday. The write-up of the caves is funny, given that I used to be a caver. Says it goes in for 12K and is still going. Also says to take flashlights as the lights in the cave only go part way. Should be fun in a klitzy kinda of way. It's about 45 minutes away by bus, so I'll see how well I can handle the bus the post uses, and if I want to take any longer trips later.

Two's a trend

2010-10-26T18:57:00.001-06:00

I did my walk after work again tonight. Actually, I did 3 walks. I did the 4 minutes on the elliptical machine, which hurt. My lower back above my hips hurts most, and that is what I need to strengthen so I must be doing the right thing. Then I walked back to the office to wait for F. to get off work. He got a call to go fix a pc so I walked with him to that building, which was a lot longer walk than I realized I was getting into. Did I mention F. walks fast? I got to sit for a few minute while he worked, then we started towards the gate, which was the length of that walk plus the normal one. A nice soldier on one of the motorized carts gave us a ride about half way, then we walked the rest of the way. I am feeling the exercise, but I'm not totally paralyzed with the pain, so I guess this is a good pace. Tomorrow night is a work social, so I probably won't go work out. I'll wait for F. so that we can share a cab to get to it so that I don't have to find a bar (even with a cab) by myself and walk into a strange place alone.

Diet wise I did ok, but not great. I didn't eat grains at breakfast or lunch, but one of the guys gave me a cookie and I ate it without even thinking that it contained grains and was therefore not on my diet. Again, I had coke, and a Gatorade which proves that this isn't a calorie cutting diet. The only vegetable was mashed potatoes with gravy along with my pork chop at lunch. The other option was a beef stew kind of thing, and I didn't really want that today. I wanted some chips or pretzels or something in the middle of the afternoon, but couldn't think of a snack that didn't have grain. Just now thought I should have walked over to the PX and gotten some yogurt, but didn't think of it at the time. It's going to take the 60 day trial period just to remember to cut out the things with grains that I normally eat without thinking about.

I should study the new Spanish lesson CD that one of the guys gave me. I'm tired, but I should at least make a start.

One day better

2010-10-25T19:54:00.001-06:00

I did ok on my self-improvement plan today. I walked a bit after lunch. The only grains I ate were the breading on the Chicken Cordon Bleu that I had for lunch, and I did get mixed vegetables with it. I even ate the lima beans in the vegetable mix, and normally I really don't like lima beans. The fact that they even tasted ok shows me I really needed veggies. I'm sitting here wondering why lima beans and green peas are vegetables and not beans (legumes). Someone enlighten me. I did have Coke with it since they were out of chocolate milk. Cutting out sugar will have to wait. Then I went to the gym after work. I made it 4 minutes on the elliptical trainer. I have to start where I am, and 4 minutes was it. I went back to the office to wait on F. to get off work at 6, and we walked to the gate in the dark together and then shared a cab. I had a difficult time keeping up with him because I had bought a gallon of water at the PX and the off center weight of carrying it hurt my back when I tried to walk fast. He finally took the water from me and then I could walk as fast as he was. He said that walk is his exercise, and he's lost 10 lbs in the year he's been here. So, all in all I'll consider today a success in the diet and exercise department.

A start

2010-10-24T13:03:00.001-06:00

A start, and an immediate falling down. Yesterday I started reading a new blog. One on self-improvement, of course. One post there made a reasonable case for gluten intolerance being a source of ill health that is many times undocumented. As a suggestion it said to give up grains for 30-60 days to just see if it makes a difference. Fair enough. My birthday will be in 2 months to the day (yesterday), Christmas Eve 2 months from today. Easy to track when the trial period ends and to take a reading. Down here my passion for sweat pastries hasn't found an outlet, something I was moaning to myself about just this week. In fact, mostly what I'm eating is meat. Not a lot of vegetables, and not a lot of bread or pasta. So, at this point it will be easier for me to cut the carbs/grains. I don't believe in jumping feet first into anything, as that sets me up for failure the first time I slip. This is a good thing. This morning I went down and only ordered eggs and bacon. They had no bacon, only ham. That was fine. I specified no pancakes, something I had started ordering fairly often. So far so good. As an afterthought, he brought me 2 pieces of toast. This is special for me, in that it took them awhile to figure out what I wanted with 'toast'. I am a believer that it is better to go with the flow if it will make someone feel like they screwed up if I say something. So, I ate the bread. I'll go with cutting down on grain, and attempt to the best of my ability to not eat grains the rest of the day. Tomorrow, and all next week, I'll eat at the DFac and will choose personally what goes on my plate. At that point the responsibility is mine. I also need to make more of an effort to find vegetable to eat. In general I think I'm eating more healthy down here than I did up in the US, I just need to tweak it. Right after I finish the 2L bottle of Pepsi in the fridge...

I find that there are things in my shipment that I am getting a bit impatient to have with me. My paper shredder is one. I'm getting a pile of papers that I don't want to just put in the trash without shredding first. I'm not sure where the nearest shredder is at work, guess I could ask. In the grand scheme of things it's not that much paper yet, so no one would probably be upset about letting me use a shredder there. Which brings me to the fact that in many cases I just need to open my eyes. There are indeed recycling containers in several locations at work. No need to hang on to my plastic bottles in some miss-guided effort to not add needlessly to the trash here. Also, while whining on the blog The Last Straw about 'needing' to drink from the horrid plastic bottles (trash-wise, they are horrid), I was reminded that when she (I think it's a she... could be a he) was in Guatemala last year she used a steri-pen to make the water drinkable. duh. I have 2 water filters at Mom's that didn't make the cut to go in the suitcase because of room/weight considerations. So, I asked Mom to find my filters and mail them to me. I can filter 4L at a time with that filter. If I get more paranoid I can add micro-pur tablets, or buy a 3rd world filter, they do make them. I hate it when my problems are due to my own myopic eyes and/or brain that only sees what I lack and not the solutions that are right in front of me.

Some other things I wish were here are my knitting (to give me something to do other than wander the internet at night) and my slow-cooker so I can cook some soups. In a week or so I'll move up to the apartment and at some time (hopefully soon!) after that my stuff will arrive and I'll be swimming in too much stuff. Then I'll have to find something else to complain about.