People who know me well know I have no fear of getting dirty when it comes to work and today was one of those days. I spent most of the day working on the fences and it was pretty hot. Unfortunately just about everybody decided today was the day to visit me.
First comes Renaulto. He was pretty early so he got off easy. Then comes Mom & Pop for the morning. Dont worry, it is still early. Around 11 Sabrina comes by with printer trouble. I am getting a bit ripe at this point. I am real short on time today so I promise to go up to the castle around lunch to check out the problem. I warned them I would be coming in field clothes because I will be unable to go home first. Anyway, I am glad the room was well ventilated.
After confirming that the printer was indeed broken and needed a missing password to operate I head straight back to the field and start up on the fences again. Around 2 pm Lynn and Michelle show up on horseback for a visit. By this time I am positively filty. I have been moving poles, grass, brushed down the horse and been jumped on by the dog all day long and soaked in sweat. Needless to say, I did my best to stand downwind.
Mom and Pop got here last night and I forgot how white white people are. There are plenty of white folks down here but most of us have a pretty good tan. No matter what the color, it was real good to see them again. We got them checked into the cute little apartment hotel right on the ocean.
They spent the morning up at the field. I started up the grand tour because Dad hasn't been down since February. Sometimes I forget that six months ago all we had was a weed covered field. Now we have our own little road, a woodshop, a fledgling dairy operation, water holes, and a weed covered field. Dad helped me work on the fence for a while and Mom found a good chair to sit and relax.
The kids are in school all morning and spent all afternoon with grandma and grandpa. Everyone seemed to have a good time painting shirts and little wooden toys with grandma. Dad said he enjoied a good nap listening to the kids playing in the background.
I expected that living in the tropics to be very different from my previous northern life but somethings really took me by surprise. Unless you have airconditioning, the house is left as open as possible to keep the house well ventilated. We have bars on the back and front porch so we never really close up the house at all.
The large insects that fly in sometimes dont bother me much, I even collected a few for my friend Todd. On the otherhand, the termite swarms after a big rain are pretty annoying. The lights have to be turned off or the house will be filled with hundreds of harmless but annoying flying temites. Truth is, I was not too fond of the 7 inch long centiped I found one evening. I am told they have a rather painful bite so I flattened the thing and havent seen one since. Todd, if you want to collect one of those, you will have to catch it yourself.
As I type here now at 1:46 am in the morning, I am visited by a neighbors shy little white cat. While this may seem cute, it isnt very nice when a dog or cat brings in a little baggie of leftover food and makes a mess in the living room. Or pees in your good shoes. It is not that it happens often, but it is surprising.