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.
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| 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.
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| 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
