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
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