Progress

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

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...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.