Caribbean Note #42

Happy Holidays, Everyone!  Hope you all had a terrific Thanksgiving.

In spite of the fact that there is very little that Berit can eat at a traditional Thanksgiving dinner prepared by strangers in a restaurant that caters to the tourist diver, she agreed to go with me to Captain Don's restaurant, Rum Runner's, for turkey with all the trimmings.

We were shown to a table for two overlooking the sea with our even smaller islet "Klein Bonaire" as back drop to the schooling tarpon below who have been trained to know that food scraps will be thrown into the clear blue water as soon as guests are seated for dinner.

Even though meat, vegetables and fruit are on the menu for her, it's uncertain where these items came from or especially how and under what conditions they were prepared.  So, it was a very generous moment when she accepted an invitation to accompany me to a dinner where I would eat stuffing and potatoes with gravy and candied yams with marshmallow and "mystery" turkey and ham with chocolate cake and pumpkin and pecan pie for dessert.  She may as well have been watching me shoot heroin.  But was instead gracious and a wonderful dinner companion.

When we come home soon to host the family Christmas dinner, she will be certain that the food we serve (well, most of it -- long live "Onion Dip" and Ruffles) is not only healthy but "uncontaminated" by all the poisons that mass produced foods contain in order to make them more appealing to misguided consumers like me.  Even though I still eat a variety of mystery foods I am off the breakfast cereals and peanut M&Ms.  Mao said "the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

On the subject of food, we've been having a bunch of rib dinners with asparagus, cauliflower, broccoli or brusselsprouts and tossed salad with all the "stuff" in it and the occasional lionfish thrown in.  Berit has ruined Buster's BBQ for me; her ribs are soooooo much better.

The lionfish hunting continues unabated with what proved to be the fattest I've speared yet at 1277 grams.  Nice fat fish.

We spent a couple a couple of weeks hanging out with a group of divers from Oregon who were really into the whole lionfish hunting thing and paid to be certified by one of the local dive operators and speared over a hundred on a couple of dives at Candyland.  It reminded me of Ron and Ashley's visit; that hunting bug really bites hard.

Berit and I did a night dive at the next site north called Tailor Made, hoping to have a similar result but came away with far less fish.  The Oregon group must have wiped out the whole population in that section of the reef!

On a sad note,we spent five days in Aruba visiting our friend Susy Weber who is in the hospital there recovering from a very serious infection in her leg.  In spite of the fact that her doctor here on Bonaire was treating her with good results, the infection suddenly became much worse and rapidly became life threatening.  The hospital here put her in a coma for a medical evacuation flight to the larger hospital on the nearby island and when she arrived in Aruba the doctor there was forced to amputate her leg in order to save her life.

She has been in the hospital for seven weeks and is making good progress in her recovery but it will take a long time for her rehabilitation.  She is a very strong person and has a good attitude about her situation and is optimistic about the possibilities for her future, so Berit and I are optimistic too.
I've been digging in the yard trying to make amends for my failure to properly instruct our gardener as to which trees to cut down.  Berit and I talked at length about taking out the Meme tree and two of our palms, and I explained to the Gardener which trees to remove and while we in Aruba he did the work.

Turns out I was right about two out of the three, but the palm in the middle of the yard was gone and the one crowding the little tree in the corner was still there.  When the steam had stopped coming out of Berit's ears, I suggested that we move the little tree to the place in the middle of the yard where it could flourish and not be crowded by the palm she wanted removed.  Problem solved!?!

Well, with little choice, she agreed.  Now all I had to do was dig the stump of the palm out of the middle of the yard and dig up the tree in the corner and transplant it to the middle of the yard and voila, problem solved.  But yikes!  Digging in this rocky ground is almost impossible!!  It took me (literally) days to dig out the stump and carefully dig up the little tree, but when it was transplanted and everything cleaned up and put away I think it looks great, maybe even better than her original idea?  Anyway, with all the back breaking work and days of digging I think she's forgiven me.  She always tells me I never listen to her and in this case it turns out she was right.

Island life is still wonderful.  We explore and scout new dive sites and spend quiet mornings watching the birds and lizards, and quite evenings watching old seasons of The West Wing (thanks Geoff and Amber; great show) or current episodes of survivor.  The power still goes off at the most inconvenient times and the weather is cooling and the rain and cruise ships have returned but I wouldn't trade our island for anywhere else I've ever been.

We're very much looking forward to seeing you during our little "vacation" back in Oregon.  Our flight gets in on the 23rd and we'll be "home" for two weeks

Hope all is well with you!

Love,
Dad

Caribbean Note #41

Hey Everyone,

Hope all is well with you on this balmy Halloween morning.

We have been watching the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy and feel bad for the people in New Jersey and on Long Island.  It's like watching our own vacation island get wiped out, but if that were to happen at least we could return to Oregon.  We're sad to see there are a whole bunch of people in a whole lot of trouble there. I'll take our volcano over their hurricane any day of the week.

Happy Birthday(s) go to Garrett and (soon) Mr. Matt with Jacob on deck before we arrive home at Christmas.  We'll have to have Birthday cake along with our ham for Christmas dinner!

Soon the election will be over and we'll have to wait (that's right, never enough) for the next cycle to begin.  And then we'll have both parties battling it out in the primaries.  I wonder if Hillary will run?  I'm already looking forward to 2016!

Life on the island is as easy and laid back as ever. Our business with the government office, like taxes and residency renewal, has moved along at a glacial pace and when we checked last week (again) on Berit's new bike (ordered for her birthday last March) we were told it was still not here but would arrive soon from Holland. We hope to have it by her next birthday.


The new neighborhood "watchdog" -- Tequila!
She lives next door and is a sweetie.

Our garden continues to be a great joy and we have so many named iguanas coming for their daily ration of papaya that we're starting to feel overrun.  Rexx doesn't even chase them anymore.  The lizards stand their ground and Rexx trots by with hardly a glance while on his way to see if they left any scraps of food for him.

  

A pot full of zucchini.  Hope to have some by Thanksgiving!

We volunteered again this year for the big (82 kilometer) mountain bike race and feel like we're getting to know more and more of the regular folks (instead of mostly divers) and still enjoy the island very much.  Regatta week has also come and gone with the influx of "cruisers" and sailboats of all description.

DuoExtreme 2012 Mountain Bike Race
Photo by Henk Piek

There is a group of divers here from Oregon (including Bobby) for two weeks, staying at one of the dive resorts and we've taken them to a couple of our favorite spots to dive.  They are (as we once were) trying to squeeze four and five dives a day into their vacation, so we mostly stay with our own more casual routine. We are taking advantage of the favorable winds to dive the East Coast sites and collecting more and more information about the wrecks and little known sites on the island.

We had an opportunity to join a group diving from an inflatable rubber boat off the very rough East Coast Site where an old lighthouse still stands. There is an inlet about two kilometers north by the same name, but Spelonk Lighthouse is where it is because the coastline there is probably the roughest on Bonaire. Anyway, Berit and I did two dives from the RIB on the wrecks there and along the beautiful reef and were certain to have been two of the very few to have ever dived the site. One of the other divers took video of Berit spearing lionfish and posted it on YouTube, so now she is an internet star!!  Three hunters - two dives - 100 less lionfish on the reef!  

We're still regularly spearfishing and have passed the 1000 mark with lionfish now commonly in the 40 cm (16") range.  More and more restaurants are serving lionfish and the tourists are asking for them, so a bit of a competition has started among the hunters to provide fish to the restaurants.

Berit has had a difficult time getting the supplements she needs through the mail, so it was fortunate she could have Bobby bring a package for her when he came last week.  He also brought (as visitors are asked to do) some items for me, a mask and a hard to find book I'd ordered, and even a frying pan for Robert.

Speaking of health issues, it's been more than ninety days since my heart surgery and I've been off all medication now for more than thirty days with zero incidents of A-Fib, so it's time to pronounce me cured of my heart condition.  Too bad this treatment protocol wasn't available to help Aunt Zada, and at sixty thousand dollars it was fortunate I was (mostly) covered by health insurance, but at least, going forward, the country will have access to health care in spite of the efforts of "He who shall not be named".

As always, you can Skype us (mpement) here if you email first and designate a time for us to meet you online. We love and miss you all and would be glad to hear from you anytime (thanks Sidney and Jesse!!) to catch up on the news.

Talk to you soon.

Love,
Dad

Caribbean Note #40

Dear Kids & Kidlets,

Bon Dia!  Tur kos ta bon?  Esta bon aki!

We miss you all and hope all is well with you too.  We know you all have busy lives and days filled with work and family and myriad problems to solve and plans to make and dreams to make happen; we don't get the chance often enough to tell you how proud we are of each of you and that we will always be here for you.

We arrived on the first of September to find all in order and our world here waiting patiently for our return.  We had soon delivered our gifts and the suitcase full of hard to find items for our friends, and were reacquainted with our garden critters.  Rexx seemed happy to be back and within the first hour we were paid a visit by our favorite iguanas Darcelle and Splitty McForkson.


Darcelle visits with Michael in the morning

Darcelle and Splitty begging for their papaya

Our plants behave in two ways while we're gone.  Either they grow like crazy or they don't grow at all!?  So we paid a visit to Capt. Don and Janet at their nursery and picked out a couple of new additions for the garden in hopes of filling in the "bare" spots in front of one of our garden lamp posts.

Robert and Monica are well and adjusting to life without their grandchild Joshua at home, since Farah and her husband moved with him to Holland.  It's been a tough transition for "Opa" but having kids move away is part of life too.  We had a nice lamb stew lunch together the other day, with Robert coming over around 8:00am to start the meat at our house and "instruct" Berit on the proper way to prepare it.  And once it was cooking on the stove he left with strict instructions to never lift the lid on the pot!  Robert's theory on cooking is that men have an innate talent for cooking while women need clear instruction and step by step supervision in order to properly prepare a meal.  We like Robert a lot.

Back in March I had ordered a nice new bicycle for Berit for her birthday from Frank at De Freewieler bike shop and guess what?  In spite of the fact that it would only take a few weeks or so (back in March) to get the bike from Holland, we're still waiting!!  When we arrived four weeks ago Frank told us it would be just "two more weeks" but the new bike has never arrived.  I can't understand how Frank's bike shop stays in business.  I just hope Berit will have her new bike in time for her next birthday in March.  Island life MAKES you slow down and be patient but, yikes!!

We were looking forward to the September wind reversal and calm conditions on the East coast, but that has not happened yet, so all our diving has been at the always calm and beautiful West coast sites.  We've had a month of revisiting our favorites and, of course, catching a bunch of lionfish.  By the way, I'm now the record holder for the biggest lionfish caught on Bonaire at 45.5cm as recorded by our lab CIEE.  Nice!

Berit is diving a new gear configuration with backplate and wing and is much more streamlined in the water but is still working out her trim.  We're both carrying the new fish containers I built when we arrived which replace the old catch bags we carried previously.  The lionfish were able to "sting" us both with their venomous spines able to penetrate the bags, but now the fish are shoved into 6" PVC containers and the spear pulled back out through the funnel shaped opening with no need to get your bare hands anywhere close to the spines.  These "zoo keepers" work great; we're close to 100 fish for our September total and have passed the 800 mark all together.  We've had our share of fish dinners with most of the catch going to Robert and his family.


A couple of monsters

Right away when we arrived we had an appointment at the government office to renew our residency for another year and all went smoothly.  Of course, we won't know anything for eight weeks, but that's what we expected so we'll know by Thanksgiving if we're still "island residents".  We don't expect any surprises.

Speaking of government issues, Robert and I marched in a protest rally in support of addressing the issue of run away price increases for food here and island services like power and water.  Since the new political change on 10-10-10, gas and food, etc. has been taxed at a rate double what was previously charged at great hardship to the local people, many of whom (like Robert and Monica) are old age pensioners on fixed incomes.

I'm sure most everyone is tired of politics by now, but I'm still all about it and can't wait for the debates next week.  I do believe we're going to wiiiinnnn!  I just hope our cable and internet holds out.  It's been sketchy at best with days of internet blackouts lately.

As far as security is concerned, we finally had our first "break-in" since buying the house three years ago.  Break-in is in quotes because our security bars were not damaged.  While Berit and I were off diving (with Rexx on guard at the house) someone reached through the bars and opened the unlocked screen door and "fished" with a tree branch and broom handle my wallet and watch off the kitchen counter from about 10 feet away.  Luckily they only took money and the watch, so I still have my ID and debit card, while they have the wallet and insurance cards, etc.  So, now we lock the door too, in addition to the security bars.

We are feeling fine.  Berit is receiving her delivery of supplements by post from her doctor in Oregon and I'm being weened off my heart medications after my A-Fib surgery in July.  In two weeks I'll stop the last of my pills and be back to just a daily aspirin again.  Still no recurrence of my A-Fib episodes but I can't be sure I'm cured until some time has passed without medication.  So If I make it to the end of October without incident, I'm probably in the clear.  Plus, the knees feel great again after my OrthoVisc injections over the summer so, I'm almost a new man again!!

Sorry for such a long note, but it's nice to share the news with you.  Please feel free to let us know how life is treating you.  Don't forget you can (as long as the Internet is working) Skype us.

Love, Dad



Caribbean Note #39

Hey Y’all,

It seems like it’s been 58 days since we’ve seen you all – no wait . . . it has been 58 days since we’ve seen you; with another 34 days to go ‘till we’re back the first weekend in June.  We’ve just passed by Danica’s Birthday and will pass by Carrie and Amber’s Birthdays next month so --Happy Birthday-- to everyone, and we’ll celebrate mo’ better when we get back.

We’ve managed to acclimate to island life pretty well this trip and have slowed down into an easy going pace where each day includes birds, birds, birds mixed together most days with fish, fish, fish.

Berit has been birding with Jerry and her new friend Eileen and we’re still killing lionfish on the reef and giving away more than we eat.  (We’re at 612 and counting.)  The garden is alive with critters and our favorite iguana Splitty McForkson still visits every day for his papaya handout, along with Darcelle and the new iguana kids trying to horn in on Splitty’s action.

There’s a new ground dove baby that’s been flapping around in our back cactus fence.  A couple days ago his brother fell prey to some local predator.  Chick number one is learning to fly with Mom and Dad; chick number two is mostly eaten with the ants finishing off what’s left of his skeletal remains.  The iguana world was dealt a blow when the neighbor cut down their home tree, but at least there are still plenty of nice places around to move into.

Berit and I have been diving new sites and will be heading out before sun-up in the morning for a transition dive.  We’ll get in the water in darkness and during the dive the night critters will be replaced by the waking daytime critters.  We’ve done this kind of dive before and find it’s like ringing a wake-up bell on the reef.  It all happens at once; one minute you’re seeing eels and lobsters and the next parrot fish and turtles.

We’re still hanging out with friends and neighbors (Robert asks about Geoff and Jacob) and we’re taking Eileen to Dia di Rincon tomorrow evening for the annual festival in this five hundred year old town.  The event recognizes the importance of the village to the local people; kind of like a combination founders day and freedom rally.  Rincon is inextricably tied to historic Bonaire in all its glory and especially its horrific embrace of slavery and the hardships and celebrations of plantation life.

And speaking of celebrations we just had our own “Taste of Bonaire”.  Not quite the same event as other places like “Taste of Chicago” or even “The Bite” in Portland but food and fun and music and a chance to see people.

Berit and I have been drafted by our friend Michael G. to help survey local businesses as to their “handicap accessibility” in order to help raise awareness and remove barriers.  It’s kind of strange ‘cause the roads and sidewalks are so bad that cars have trouble getting around let alone wheelchairs.

Every year since I bought my rebreather I’ve replaced the electronics and they have failed yet again.  This time (luckily) it’s only my deco side unit that’s gone wanky and I do have an off-board backup I can use for deco.  But Damn!!  I always replace the failed gear with the newest and bestest and most foolproof new thing around that always cost more (but is oh so much better) only to have it fail one year later like clockwork.  So remember, when you all buy your rebreathers, factor in an ongoing expense to keep them in good repair!!

Berit is still learning about nutrition and putting what she has learned into practice (on me) and I’m still losing weight and we’re still working out every day and getting stronger, which helps with some of the nasty sites we’ve been diving, humping our gear up and down goat and donkey trials to get onto coral rubble beaches where I’m sure we’re the only ones to go diving.

So, as you can tell, life here goes on as it should for two retired people in paradise.  I’m glad I have the where-with-all to live here, but even more thankful that I have Berit to share it with.

Bobby and Tina will be coming down soon for a couple of weeks, and I confess I’m looking forward to playing cards and hanging out with some folks from back home.  That'll give us a chance to catch up on the local news.

Remember that you’re all invited to visit us here any time you can.  After the summer weddings we’ll return in September and this time we’ve purchased one-way tickets.  Anyone want to spend Christmas on Bonaire?

Hope all is well with you and the people you love.

Dad

Caribbean Note #38

Hey Everybody,

Wow!  I can’t believe we’ve been here on Bonaire for a month all ready!?!

It seems only last week we were opening the house and sweeping up the omnipresent red dust, and soon it will be time to get together in Hood River for Sidney and Jesse’s wedding.

It was nice to hear that Garrett was accepted at Oregon State and that Sidney will be going to law school.  Some of you may have heard that Mom’s house in Independence was sold after being on the market for more than two years.  Keep us posted on these things!  We love to get news from home!!

Island life is going along as always.  When we get in a hurry the island forces us to slow back down.  We’ve made several trips to the government office to pay our property tax (not yet done) and file our taxes (not yet done).  Anyway the forms we filled out are being replaced by other forms we will receive later on.  I hurt my foot and went to the hospital for an x-ray but the island medical insurance would not cover the cost because while we had spent weeks getting our residency status and island ID cards, we had not gone to the government medical office to “activate” our coverage.  This meant more trips to get and fill-out and file the proper forms (in Dutch – thank you Google translate) to be reimbursed for our hospital bill.  The bill here for emergency room nurse, doctor, compression bandage, pain pills and x-ray:  $243.56.  In the states, can you even walk into the Hospital’s Emergency Room for that?

Berit’s birthday was last week and we went to the bike shop to buy a nice bike for her, and Frank (the owner) said he had just the right bike (a touring bike the proper size for her) and it would be here in five weeks.  Nothing on this island happens right away; you just have to relax and go slow.

We’ve been working in the garden, and birding with our friend Jerry, and watching Modern Family (Season 2) and Survivor on TV.  (SPOILER ALERT! We think Colton’s karma caught up with him and his appendicitis attack was payback for being such a mean little bitch!!)

The weather has been cooler and the cruise ships abundant, but the diving has been spectacular, as usual, and in addition to our own fish frys, we’ve given away buckets full of lionfish; our kill count in now 542.

We had our friends Bob and Noelle come to dive for two weeks and enjoyed their visit very much.  Bob is able to repair all things electric/electronic and Noelle made breakfast every morning, so it was easy to enjoy their company.

Berit and I have been doing a video workout every morning called Insanity (like P90X) and between that and our Sunday 20 mile bike rides we’ve stayed with it for the past eleven days.  I’m not sure how much we’re improving but I do know how many buckets of sweat we’ve lost.  We’re trying to last for 60 consecutive days.  Hope we do . . .

The other big news is we’re taking a break from drinking and like all the other over-doers out there I can tell you it’s been 54 days and counting.

Rexx is fine and sleeps in the sun every day.  It’s nice to see him warm and happy.

We saw Tiger win a couple of weeks ago and we’re looking forward to the Master’s starting tomorrow, and would love to see the “old” Tiger in action again.  We hope he wins!!

That’s all for now from the Caribbean; we hope all is well with you and the people you love!

Love,

Dad