The Bonairegonian: Caribbean Note #49

Hey Kids and Kidlets,

Well, we've been away from Oregon for a month and for the first three weeks Berit and I walked along the waterfront every morning and hiked in the mundi on Saturday and biked along the coast road on Sunday and stuck to our regular workout routine after returning from our early morning adventures before enjoying a leisurely breakfast in our garden. We were back in our little island paradise doing all the things we love after our cold, icy stay in the Pacific Northwest.

We managed to fit in a bunch of nice long dives during those weeks and then, in light surf on entry at Playa Frans, I stepped wrong on the coral rubble bottom and broke my foot.

The trials and tribulations of getting from that moment to this one;

were all handled with very competent and patient resolve by Nurse Berit who performed as ambulance driver and admittance clerk and personal assistant who took care of recording the doctors instructions and obtaining the crutches you see and making me comfortable etc. ad infinitum. Many thanks for this and all the years she’s chosen to put up with me. I know it’s been a lot of work.

The doctor said the foot was broken and I was given a temporary cast and after ten days hobbling around, I was to return to the hospital for evaluation and would know my fate. There was to be either a good result and I would get a walking cast to wear for the following five weeks, or surgery would be required to pin the broken bone back where it belonged and then later the walking cast.

This was a very, very long ten days; and after new X-rays were evaluated the result was better than I could have ever hoped. The doctor cut the cast off my foot and told me there was no further treatment required and I was free to go.

This is my left foot. You see that little round broken bone fragment that sits isolated to the left of the large bones in my ankle?

That kind of looks like Klein Bonaire?

Well the doctor doesn't think it needs to be connected to anything, including where it broke from, so I’m released from my cast and free to walk on my foot as long as it doesn't hurt too much.

Which is very good news if my foot eventually stops hurting too much. For those of you who are old enough to remember, I’m getting around these days like Chester on the old Gunsmoke TV Show. “Mr. Dillon! Mr. Dillon!!”

During this time we've been entertaining our visiting guests Bob and Noelle, along with their son Matt. So while I was holding down the fort at home with Titan, they (Berit, Bob, Noelle and Matt) were out diving, during which time Bob took 650+/- pictures like this one of a Green Moray:

Bob and Noelle spent their non diving time taking care of projects around the house like figuring out and labeling the fuses in the electrical box, moving furniture around, sewing new curtains to replace the poorly functioning closet doors and were very helpful and fun to have around, especially while I was limping here and there on crutches. Matt was an interesting guest too; a physics professor at MIT when he’s not on Bonaire diving. We talked about gravity wave detection and the existential angst felt by those silly string theory guys. You know, small talk and chit chat.

Our guests have gone and things are getting back to normal. Berit’s birthday was a bit traumatic for her. She prefers to be confused about her age but this time it’s pretty easy to remember since both numbers are now the same.

She managed to get an additional 28 Lionfish while I was laid up and Bob took a bunch of shots of killer Berit too: