by Judy Handley | Feb 16, 2017 | 2017 Life Logs |
2017 Life Logs, Day 47: View from the Front Porch
Date: Thursday, February 16, 2017
Weather: Sunny Day; Daytime 80’s, Nighttime 70’s F
Location: At Home with JJZ&C, Finca Maravilla, Aguada, PR
Today was supposed to be a trip to San Juan to IKEA, but that plan was abandoned and instead it was a laid-back day. Jo had to take dogs to the vet and Justin had to work, so after Ziggy left for school, I played with Coco and continued the never-ending loads of laundry from the old house. I now have six large plastic bags of washed and dried clothes that need to go to the laundromat for a high heat dry to make sure no trace of ticks make it into this house. But there are still more loads of laundry to be done. Not sure I’m going to get it all done, but I have certainly made a dent in the task. Coco decided she wanted to wash her doll house furniture and dollies, so I helped her with that task. We were washer women with a mission. After lunch, we decided to head to the beach, but before that happened I spent some time just sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch admiring the view. And it is absolutely amazing what you can see from Justin and Jo’s front porch. Directly in front is a very tall cananga tree (Cananga odorata), more commonly called ylang-ylang.
Today there was a huge iguana climbing to the top of the tree and that led to the view of the flowers of the tree that are known the world over for their wonderful smell.
It is actually the flowers that are properly referred to as ylang-ylang (EE-lang EE-lang), but as the tree spread from Indonesia around the world, people just started calling the tree by that name as well. Turning to the left from the ylang-ylang tree, you see breadfruit trees (Artocarpus altilis). This is a tree in the mulberry and jackfruit family (Moraceae) originating in the South Pacific and brought to the Caribbean islands in the late 1700’s. The leaves of the breadfruit tree are ginormous
and as I looked carefully today, I saw a flower . . . soon to be breadfruit.
Now, turn to the right and you are looking at banana trees. The one immediately to the right of the porch is hanging heavy with a bunch of green bananas with the inflorescence hanging below.
Inflorescence is simply the flower of the tree. And I know if I looked further, there would be many other varieties of trees that can be seen just from the front porch. In addition, Coco has discovered a huge flower pot under these trees that is home to a whole family of coqui, Puerto Rico’s adorable little frogs. Fabulous.
Coco and I headed to Marina Beach but it was high tide with huge waves rolling in . . . making it a bit too rough for our taste. We spent some time in the water, but then decided to just play in the sand. We drove to Steps Beach just a little further down the road, but it was also too rough for going in the water. But we had a great time playing on the beach and just sitting together looking at the powerful waves rolling ashore.
We then went to pick up Ziggy and a group decision was made to return home instead of continuing to fight the rough beach conditions. Shortly after we got home, Jo arrived with a new purchase. She found a used sofa on Facebook. It is in perfect condition and makes a nice addition to the living room.
Tomorrow is a school day for Jo, Ziggy, and Coco, so I’ll do a little work at the old house in the morning. But due to parent-teacher conferences, everyone will come home at noon. We don’t have a plan, but I’m sure one will emerge.
by Judy Handley | Feb 15, 2017 | 2017 Life Logs |
2017 Life Logs, Day 46: El Galeón
Date: Wednesday, February 15, 2017
Weather: Another Sunny Day; Daytime 80’s, Nighttime 70’s F
Location: At Home with JJZ&C, Finca Maravilla, Aguada, PR
We had a change in plans today. Jo, Ziggy, and Coco were supposed to go to school and I was supposed to be cleaning out the old house and doing laundry. But none of those things happened. Jo got word that El Galeón, an authentic 170 foot wooden replica of El Galeon Andalucia arrived in Mayaguez during the night.
This ship was part of Spain’s West Indies fleet in the 16th century A friend that lives in Mayaguez suggested that we drive down and all go to tour the ship together. So that became the new plan for the day. We drove to Jo’s friend’s house and then drove as a caravan to the harbor where the ship was docked. The ship was there and we were given a school pass because we had school-aged children with us. But the gate attendant told us that there were four school groups ahead of us and that we should return at 12 noon for our tour. Jo, Ziggy, and Coco went back to Missy’s house which was only a mile away, and I headed to Home Depot. I wanted to get good quality water hose to get water down the hill to the animals and I wanted to buy a steel cart to help get the 50 pound bags of feed to the animals as well. I did my shopping and made a stop at a Pep Boys to buy rubbing compound to get rid of some lovely paint left on my rental car where someone side-swiped it while it was parked at FreshMart last week. The young man who helped me decided that he would like to take a look at the scrape before selling me the rubbing compound. And he actually ended up removing the paint scrapes for me. I tried to pay him but he said he could take no money. He just did it as a favor because he loves his work. How wonderful! I then returned to Missy’s and we all returned to see the ship. When we arrived, all four groups ahead of us were on the ship or in process of getting off the ship, so we basically had the ship to ourselves. This is the second time El Galeon has visited Mayaguez and two years ago, when it was here, Missy took her three children and found it to be so crowded that you couldn’t really enjoy it. But today was delightful. As we approached the ship, I kept having flash backs of seeing this ship somewhere in the past. As we were walking up the gang plank to get onboard, I suddenly remembered that Mark and I had seen it at the dock in St. Augustine in January two years ago. But we didn’t pay to tour it. The mayor of Mayaguez pays for everyone to tour the ship for free when it is here, so today was a special treat.
When we returned home, I took Ziggy and Coco to Marina Beach for some late afternoon water fun and when we got home, I made salmon cakes for dinner. While I did that, I enjoyed listening to Justin giving Ziggy a guitar lesson.
When we came to the table, Ziggy swore he doesn’t like ‘fish’ cakes, but he and Coco finished off the entire batch. It was a full day of fun and after dinner we were full of food and ready for bed. Everyone else is asleep now and I keep falling asleep while writing this log. So if it makes no sense, forgive me. It is definitely time for me to head to bed.
by Judy Handley | Feb 14, 2017 | 2017 Life Logs |
2017 Life Logs, Day 45: Happy Valentine’s Day
Date: Tuesday, February 14, 2017
Weather: Sunny with Blue Skies; Daytime 80’s, Nighttime 70’s F
Location: At Home with JJZ&C, Finca Maravilla, Aguada, PR
Happy Valentine’s Day from sunny Puerto Rico.
Today was a gorgeous day here. The temperature doesn’t fluctuate much, but most of the days since I arrived have been a mix of sun and clouds with a few sprinkles here and there. Today it was just the way I like it–pure sunshine. And then there was a beautiful sunset.
Unfortunately, I didn’t take advantage of the beautiful day by going to the beach. Instead, I ticked a few more jobs off the ‘to do’ list. I needed to go shopping for some food essentials and for some supplies for Ziggy to make some bug habitats. I offered to take Ziggy to school since Tuesday is an at-home day for Jo and Coco and then go shopping. There is a big supermarket in Rincon not too far from Ziggy’s school, but unfortunately it doesn’t carry most of the things I needed to get. This meant dropping Ziggy off in Rincon which is about four miles down the mountain and then driving back north to downtown Aguada to shop. Most of the supplies I needed for the bug habitats I found at the hardware store, pet store, dollar-type store, and school supply store. Town was busy today and traffic was heavy. After getting the habitat supplies, I had to drive another few miles to different part of Aguada to go to Walgreen’s and FreshMart. Buying organic, gluten-free, and dairy-free products is a challenge here, but with enough time and persistence you can find most things you need if you are willing to pay the price. The problem is with my day is that doing the little bit of shopping I did took three hours! It was noon by the time I got home and Coco was having a playdate with her friend Naula.
We all had lunch together which gave me a chance to check in with Justin. He was feeling pretty rough today, but that was anticipated for this first day off pain meds. We are just hoping that tomorrow will be a better day for him.
After lunch, I hung up more clothes from the old house to dry and then Justin and I drove to Rincon to watch part of Ziggy’s afternoon skate board class. It is pretty awesome to have a skate boarding class as part of your school day and I wanted to see this in action. Justin was feeling terrible, so we didn’t stay for the whole hour, but at least we got to see Ziggy in action.
When we got home, Justin had an afternoon nap and I drove to the old house to gather up all the remaining clothes. That filled a box, a huge black plastic bag I could hardly carry, and a very large suitcase full of clothes. Lots more to wash, hang out to dry, and add to the bags that will go to the laundromat for a final drying to assure we don’t transfer ticks to this house. Justin and Jo started the move to this house on Christmas Eve as closing was late in the day on December 23. And as I remember, Justin spent the entire first day scrubbing the tile floors before moving anything in. That is no easy job as the living room alone is at least 40 feet by 15 feet, and then there is the kitchen, four bedrooms, two bathrooms, an entry alcove, a front porch, and a back deck—all tile. He cleaned, they moved some essentials, enjoyed Christmas Day, spent the next day moving as much as they could, and then Justin got the umbilical hernia and could not move anything else. So the old house, which they have until May 1, is still sitting there full of stuff. Thankfully there is no furniture to move, and I have now moved the remainder of the clothes, but tomorrow I will spend part of my day trying to get as many of the other things out of the house as I can and will continue the laundering of the clothes from there. My days are running short as I think Jo, Coco, and I are going to IKEA on Thursday and on Friday and Saturday we are hoping to do some touristy things. That leaves only Sunday as I fly home during the wee hours of Monday morning. I’ll get as much done as I can and hope that it helps. I know Justin is terribly frustrated by not being able to do any lifting or strenuous activities for the next ten weeks, so I want to do as much as I can to help him while I am here. Jo has to do all the animal chores now which entails carrying water a very long way down the hill to the three goats, rabbits, and chicken, and she has to milk the momma goat every morning. I am proposing that we purchase hose to deliver water to the animals. I haven’t measured the distance, but I know it is more than 300 feet. They want a more permanent system, but in the meantime, I think the hose will do just fine. Maybe Jo and I can get the hose when we drive to San Juan to IKEA.
When Ziggy got home from school, we worked on building some bug habitats with the supplies I bought and he and Coco went out with the purchased habitats I gave them for Valentine’s Day. Coco found a coqui (very tiny Puerto Rican frog)
and Ziggy found a creepy crawly.
But we had to cut the bug hunting short as it was time to get ready to go out to dinner. My Valentine’s treat for the family was to take everyone to The Pool Bar for dinner. This is a little outdoor restaurant that features a sushi menu and has a swimming pool to entertain the kids. Great place and great evening.
by Judy Handley | Feb 13, 2017 | 2017 Life Logs |
2017 Life Logs, Day 44: Sand, Not Snow
Date: Monday, February 13, 2017
Weather: Mostly Sunny with Occasional Sprinkles; Daytime 80’s, Nighttime 70’s F
Location: At Home with JJZ&C, Finca Maravilla, Aguada, PR
I share this glorious tropical day with sand, not snow like back home, with other good friends. Bruce and Jane Woodin are on a Caribbean cruise and are in St. Lucia soaking up the sun. Lee and Lynda Kaufman made it to the Bahamas last week and today Windbird arrived in the Bahamas. Sam and Dawn left Fort Lauderdale yesterday and arrived in the Bahamas today with Sam’s brother as crew.
And just before they left Fort Lauderdale, I received an electronic airline ticket from them to Georgetown in the Exumas in mid-April. So in two months I’ll be joining them and be back aboard Windbird once again. How good does life get! We sold a boat and inherited a new family. Thank you, Sam and Dawn.
Today was a work day for Jo, school day for Ziggy and Coco, and an at-home workday for me and for Justin. Justin is feeling better every day, but tomorrow will be the real test. He runs out of pain meds tomorrow and we’ll hope he is ready for just Ibuprofen. My job today was to start doing loads of laundry from the old house. I think I have explained that Justin and Jo have the old house until May 1st and there is still a lot of stuff there that needs to be moved here. Loads of clothes have been moved, but there is still more. And the ‘clothes move’ includes washing the clothes and taking them to a laundromat to be dried at a high heat before being brought into this house. There was a tick infestation in the old house and no one wants to bring those little creatures here. So I did loads of laundry today and hung them on the lines to dry. There are many loads to go, however, and when they are all done, I’ll haul the lot to the laundromat for a quick high heat dry. That process will continue tomorrow along with a trip to the old house to get the remainder of the clothes and to start the cleaning out process. This new house has a big, open shed just across the drive-way and there are clothes lines all around the perimeter. That way things can be hung out to dry even when it rains. No need for a dryer at home in this climate.
Jo and I went to pick Ziggy and Coco up from school and took them to the El Faro Lighthouse that looms above the beach.
The kids wanted to ride on their scooters around the lighthouse and Jo planned a snack picnic for them overlooking the beach.
It is hard to see in the photos, the water below was spotted with surfers. After hearing all the winter weather news from up north, all I could think was “Sand, Not Snow.”
by Judy Handley | Feb 11, 2017 | 2017 Life Logs |
2017 Life Logs, Day 42: Chicken Killer Blues
Date: Saturday, February 11, 2017
Weather: Mostly Sunny; Daytime 80’s, Nighttime 70’s F
Location: At Home with JJZ&C, Finca Maravilla, Aguada, PR
When I got up this morning, I walked out of the guest room and saw Justin and Ziggy. I said good morning to them, but Ziggy came right back with, “This is not a good morning.” By this time I could see he was crying and then I got the whole story. This was a day for the chicken killer blues. During the night, the dogs killed most of the laying hens. This is certainly not the first time these dogs have killed chickens, but Justin and Jo decided that it will be the last. Or at least they hope so. Barney and Yaya are a mother and son combination and Jo took them to the pound today. They will try to adopt them out, but if not, they will be put down. But they have tried everything and lost chickens, quail, and ducks to these guys over and over. It was time to make the hard decision. Losing the chickens was hard and making the decision to put down the dogs tough for both children and adults. So it was not the happiest of days around here.
Regardless, we made the best of things. While Jo was dealing with the dead chickens and a badly wounded rooster, Justin made blueberry pancakes with the kids. We had breakfast and then I drove to the pharmacy in Rincon to get a medication for Justin and antiseptic spray and gauze to wrap the rooster’s wound. No one thinks he will survive, but you have to try. And late this evening, that rooster actually started drinking water. If he makes it through the night, then he might have a shot at survival. He was wounded eight days ago by the dogs and he survived that ordeal. So we’re hoping he can do that again. While in Rincon, I also went to two different grocery stores for things. One store has organic grapes that the kids love and the other has Boars Head deli meats that they love. I was moving as fast as possible because I had promised Ziggy and Coco I would take them to the beach. When I got home, we had a little lunch and then took off for a beach called Steps. A set of concrete steps sits on the beach there, thus the name.
We got off to a rocky start, literally. We had to walk across the inner coral and rock shelf to get to the water. And we no sooner got into the water than the waves started hitting us with a force too great for Coco. She was being swept back on to the rock shelf. I grabbed her bathing suit strap and held on for dear life, but the waves were too strong for me as well. I fell down, but still held on. We averted crashing on the rocks by skin of our teeth and made our way back to the beach before another wave could hit us. Ziggy was fine, but he didn’t put up a fuss about getting out of the water. We walked down the beach in the opposite direction to a place where their inner reef provides a protective barrier where there are shallow pools.
This was totally calm and we spent our afternoon there exploring the tide pools and playing on the beach. And we stopped at the snack shack afterwards to have a coconut drink. It was delightful.
Ziggy, Coco, and I have decided we will try to visit every beach in Rincon this week, so after the Sunday Farmer’s Market, we’ll head out for another beach experience. This sunshine and warm weather is glorious. And the update on Justin is that he is doing okay. Today was not quite as good as yesterday, but he is hanging in there. A major problem is that he is much too much like his mother and just won’t rest!
by Judy Handley | Feb 10, 2017 | 2017 Life Logs |
2017 Life Logs, Day 41: Soooooo Much Better
Date: Friday, February 10, 2017
Weather: Mix of Clouds and Sunshine; Daytime 80’s, Nighttime 70’s F
Location: At Home with JJZ&C, Finca Maravilla, Aguada, PR
Justin is soooooo much better today. He can now get into and out of bed on his own and that is a major improvement over last night. Hopefully each day will be just a little better than the last. The challenge now is to make sure Ziggy, Coco, and the exuberant six dogs respect the “no jumping on daddy” rule.
I spent my day helping out around here and made another shopping run in the afternoon. Most of the people who work in the stores here speak limited English which makes buying the simplest things a challenge. Yesterday it was a ½ inch dowel. People in the hardware store had never heard the term ‘dowel’. They took me into the lumber yard to try and figure out what I was talking about and when I saw stacks of rebar, I said that a dowel looks like that, only wood. That worked. Today it was hydrogen peroxide at Walgreen’s. Jo had asked me to get a bottle to replenish their supply. When I couldn’t find it, I asked for help, but the woman had never heard of it. She did know the word ‘antispetic’, so she took me to the section with alcohol. And as is usually the case, the hydrogen peroxide was in the same area. Unfortunately, hydrogen peroxide was on sale and there was only one small spray bottle on the shelf. So at least I didn’t go home empty handed.
I fixed tacos for dinner and then Jo, Ziggy, and Coco headed out to a work-related beach party. At his invitation, I pulled a chair into Justin’s bedroom and we talked about my aspirations to write a book. He really wants me to get a little more serious about this and gave me some great suggestions. He then took a little rest while I cleaned up the dinner dishes. When Jo and kids got home, Justin came out to talk to them. Coco immediately shared with her dad that she ten marshmallows at the beach. He reminded her that her mama had told her before they left that she could have only three. Coco looked him directly in the eye and said, “I know that, but I don’t listen.” Then she marched toward the bedroom muttering, “I don’t listen to anyone.” Ouch. I dread to think ahead to the teenage years! Then Ziggy shared that he not had any marshmallows. When Justin started to congratulate him on his good choice, he went on to share that he had not had any marshmallows. Just when Justin was getting ready to congratulate him, he shared that he had not had any marshmallows but had ten miniature Snicker’s bars since momma had not put a limit on those. Of course, Jo had no idea they had Snicker’s bars. It’s hard to stay a couple of steps of these little ones!
The weekend should be a quiet one, but I am hoping to slip away with the kids for a couple of hours at the beach each day. I’m loving the warmth and sunshine, especially when I check the weather back home and see that it is cold and snowy. I think I picked a perfect time for a little tropical escape.
