Walk for Cancer

What a day!!! The alarm went off at 4:30. We were up, dressed and out the door quickly. With Bob walking me to the ball field on the south side of Seine Bight, we managed to wake up a few of the neighbourhood dogs and as the sun was coming up, the birds were chirping and the mosquitoes and sand flies were biting.

We were told this was the largest walk yet, there were 94 of us, and the areas on the peninsula that were represented were from Placencia Village, Seine Bight Village to Coco Plum.

As we gathered at the ball field, we formed a circle, held hands and said a prayer. A prayer for those we knew that we have lost to cancer, a prayer for those who are battling cancer right now, and a prayer for those who are cancer survivors. I thought of the people I have known in my life that are in one of those three categories. People that I haven't thought about in awhile, came flooding back, with memories of all the good times, and the sad times. I was thinking about these people and memories as I walked along.

I was especially thinking about my sister Rachelle, who has already lost half her tongue to cancer and only Wednesday, was in for another biopsy.

When the walk was finished and we were all across the finish line, we lined up on the beach and listened while they played "I Run For Life" by Melissa Etheridge.


I Run for Life
(Melissa Etheridge)

It's been years since they told her about it
The darkness her body possessed
And the scars are still there in the mirror
Everyday that she gets herself dressed
Though the pain is miles and miles behind her
And the fear is now a docile beast
If you ask her why she is still running
She'll tell you it makes her complete

[Chorus:]
I run for hope
I run to feel
I run for the truth
For all that is real
I run for your mother, your sister, your wife
I run for you and me, my friend
I run for life

It's a blur since they told me about it
How the darkness had taken its toll
And they cut into my skin and they cut into my body
But they will never get a piece of my soul
And now I'm still learning the lesson
To awake when I hear the call
And if you ask me why I am still running
I'll tell you I run for us all

[Chorus:]
I run for hope
I run to feel
I run for the truth
For all that is real
I run for your mother your sister your wife
I run for you and me my friend
I run for life

And someday if they tell you about it
If the darkness knocks on your door
Remember her remember me
We will be running as we have before
Running for answers
Running for more

I run for hope
I run to feel
I run for the truth
For all that is real
I run for your mother, your sister, your wife
I run for you and me my friend
I run for hope
I run to feel
I run for the truth
For all that is real
I run for your mother your sister, your daughter, your wife
For you and me my friend
I run for life
Ohohohoh

I run for your mother your sister your wife
I run for you and me my friend
I run for life

Hearing the words only made me more emotional and after the song, we all turned to the water and one by one, took two steps forward and tossed a handful of sand into the waves, giving the name of the person we were dedicating this walk to. As I stepped forward, I said "For my sister, Rachelle Warner, I love you." It was never more true than at that moment.

After our dedications, we all received medals and got to eat breakfast. I am looking forward to the next walk/run and will be challenging friends to come along with me or if they don't want to do it, maybe they would sponsor someone else.

Lobster Fishing?

Ever wonder what happens when you change the settings on your camera for a special shoot, and then forget to change them back? Well I found out yesterday. I was all excited when I saw some men in a boat off our beach as I thought they were fishing for lobster. There was four of them, two in the boat and two in the water, free diving. I started clicking away.... I was coming back into the house when I happened to look at the pictures I had taken. They all looked so weird. What happened? Then it hit me, I had changed the settings on the camera on Sunday when Barnacle and I were taking pictures. Darn, darn, darn!!! Oh well, I changed the settings and went and took some more pictures.



This is with all the settings changed.

This is after I changed the settings, but I think I still need to reset something, just not sure what it is. I'll be playing with the camera for a bit now.

Not to worry, I figured out the setting I had changed... all is back to normal, well, as normal as my camera gets.

Lobster Season Opens

Okay everyone, today is June 15th and we all know what that means...... Lobster Season Opens today!!!!!

I am so looking forward to LobsterFest. I have registered for the "Walk For Cancer" and am looking for walking mates. I am putting out the challenge. Just think, we do the walk and then we can eat lobster and drink. This works for me. Who is up for it? Mrs Barn? You are in, right?

And by the way, is this a young Scurvy?

That water looks so cold!!

It's A Bet!!!

Yesterday we travelled up the road to Maya Beach on the bikes. I made a short stop visiting with Mr. and Mrs. Barn. We did a photo op... I am learning new tricks of the trade (photography), all the time. Sorry Sandy A, I was in a hurry to get to Barnacle's place and it was too dark to take pictures of your place on the way back.

After a cold beer and some picture taking on the double wide, I headed to Maya Breeze to meet up with Bob. We spent some time catching up with Jake, our favourite Breeze bartender and met some new friends from Belgium, staying at the Green Parrot.

I told them to make sure they went to TuttiFrutti for the best of the best ice cream. That is when we heard a rumour that you can now get TuttiFrutti ice cream in Maya Beach. Now we have to just find out where. Maybe someone could/would comment on that.

I had just one single solitary drink at the Breeze, because I had already had one beer and knew we still had to stop at Mango's. Both Steve and AnneMarie are back.....

So we get to Mango's and get our hugs, even from Gary, talked to Brian and Brian and had two drinks, that was it. Got to talking with Gary about the road. He wanted to make a bet that the road would be paved all the way to Maya Beach Hotel by August 1st, 2009. I took that bet and one of us will be collecting August 1st. It is not the amount of the bet, it is the principle of it. Man, am I going to enjoy that drink. Thanks Gary!!

We made it home before the storm started and we really have to get lights for the bikes, it was pitch black. Luckily for us, there was the odd bit of traffic to light our way.

Here are a few of the photos taken at Barnacle's yesterday.

A serious look?

He smiles.

Who me? Yes you.

Who's number one?

My serious side.

She smiles.

Smiling and number one!!

Road Update II?

The Word Is Out!!!! The road has been paved to Cocoplum.

They said a week and by golly, they were right. Pictures to follow.

We Are Fine, Really We Are!!!

Here's the scoop.

It was 0520 Wednesday and I was heading out to go for my walk/jog/run when I noticed that wires were hanging down in the yard. The lights still worked, so we had electricity and I figured it was either cablevision or internet. Guess what??? It was internet.

Here we see the wires are down across the road.

Here is another shot of the wires crossing the road.

It might have been that they moved a house in the night and caught the wire or maybe one of the dump trucks with the box up went under.

In either case, it has been repaired and all those who were concerned, thanks for thinking of us, we are just fine.

Dangriga

Yesterday we headed off early to Dangriga to update the passports, do some shopping and banking.

We cover a lot of ground when we hit Dangriga, between Immigration, banking and shopping. Yesterday, we had too much to do to hit the 11:00 am bus, so we spread it out, did the Immigration thing, the bank thing, had lunch at Comedor Edith's (stewed beef with white rice, stewed beans, coleslaw and plantains). Two orders and two drinks came to $20. You really can't beat that, there was so much I couldn't eat it all.

Then working our way back south through town, we hit every single chinese store looking for food containers. Why do they sell sets where the first one (largest) is exactly what you are looking for and the next 6 get progressively smaller until they are useless? We were almost at the mall (market) and gave up. The next stop was the Price Is Right store where we usually run into people we know, and yesterday was no different.

Then it was time to head to Bibi's. Good news for those that frequent Bibi's, yesterday was a flurry of activity. They were building a new room adjoining the bar. It is going to be a kitchen. Now you will be able to eat as well as drink. They were also redoing the washrooms. When we were there, it was set up so that you could go in the men's room door, walk through the wall they had removed and use the ladies' room. They are replacing the toilets, I guess they needed more room to work. I declined although Bibi told me there would be no problem, after all it still had a roof over it.

Anyone going through Kendal and over the bridge will notice that they seem to be doing some clean up of the old bridge. Looked like they were taking away all the old beams. There seems to be a lot of debris building up in the water at that point, let's hope they clear that up as well. We all remember that is how the original bridge was lost.

The Moon In June

Yesterday afternoon, we got on the bicycles and headed into Seine Bight on the nice new road. Went to Merna's (actually David's but he is never there anymore) and then to Elvis' to pick up a couple of things.

We stopped at Cree's and it sure is nice to have a drink and not be choking on the dust. We never really noticed before, but Cree's is more than just the little roadside stand with two benches. There is a whole other area on the south side of the bar, it looks like it might be some kind of nightclub. Anyways, while we were there, the video on was a taped session of some bands in Las Vegas doing 'punta'. Lots of audience participation. I was talking to some of the guys and one of them is a local punta dancer. He is willing to teach us the dance if anyone is interested. We just need to find a place to set up.

Later in the evening, I was playing with the camera and took some pictures of the moon.

Reflection on the water.

Go Slow

Seeing as the road has moved beyond us, this will be (probably be, might be, may be) my last post regarding the road building. Who are we kidding???

This picture is of the road just after the last strip of tar was laid and covered with rock. I have to give these guys credit, the only time I saw traffic stopped was when the truck with rock got into position. The rest of the time, business as usual.

The problem with the new road (we are never happy are we?) is that everyone now thinks it is the Daytona 500. Slow down guys, the road needs to get settled.

And on that note, meet Richard and MacKenzie, who are posted outside our yard today trying to keep the traffic slower than a speedway.

They thought I could get a job taking pictures of the licence plates of speeders.

I got the scoop from them about the next steps of the road. This next week, they will be finishing the section up to the radio station at CocoPlum. Then the road crews will be heading back to finish the stretch of the road on this (the north) side of the airstrip and meet up with the existing road on the south side of the airstrip. Once that part is finished, then they will be heading back to start on Maya Beach. Because Maya Beach is a swamp (not my words), it will take a lot of fill and that part of the road probably won't get done until August (2009?).

Barnacle, I pass the responsibility of the road updates to you.

We Have Road!!!!

Wednesday afternoon, I was told by Raoul that the road would be finished in front of our place on Thursday. Now I kind of thought he would know what he was talking about.

Raoul

Thursday came and I was all excited thinking, "Today is the day!" NOT!!!!

However, as of Friday June 5th, we have road. And a damn fine road it is too. Below are some time lapsed shots of tarring the road.

Crew setting up machines first thing in the morning, they started about 7 am.

About 7:30, the road crew shows up, sweepers, flag people, cone movers.

Here we have Lewis adding some weight to the big sweeper.

Gravel truck in reverse dropping gravel into the fresh laid tar.

Roller smoothing out the gravel.

The 'Three Amigos' sweeping.

The guy in the top of the truck has a broom to help lift the wires off the top of the truck as they go down the road.

Spreading the tar.

Well at the end of the day, about 4:30, we have road. I will add more pictures of the finished road later.

Road? What Road????

This morning I got up and went for my jog. I saw the most awesome sunrise (no I don't take the camera on my jogs) and the road was flat, smooth and ready for paving. We heard them working outside until about seven o'clock last night. BTW, when the roller goes by and the house shakes, it is just like the earthquake last week, only gentler.

Does this not look like it is ready for paving? It was great and it goes all the way past the big blue house north.

At eight o'clock this morning, the guys were heading north (see the blue house) with their shovels, picking up little bits here and there and tossing them to the side. When you see the guys with brooms and shovels, you know it is ready for paving.

Then the tar truck turned up and headed towards the Bad Dog house. I gave it twenty minutes and took the camera for close up shots.

Looking south towards Seine Bight. As we can see, there is no tar truck AGAIN. What they have done is to dump more rock and dirt and now I can hear the roller out on the road rolling it smooth again. I guess we needed more height.

Looking north towards blue house, CocoPlum and Maya Beach. It's going to be a long day.

No Shutting Down For The Rainy Season....UPDATED

Today, they are working on our part of the road. As soon as I heard the machinery start up, I headed out with the camera.

They are starting at what I call the "Bad Dog" house. Yeah, yeah, where the dog bit me. Anyways, they are starting there and working north.

When the brooms and shovels come out, you know it is getting close.

I had a chat with this guy and he says we can expect our portion of the road done by the end of this week. I didn't tell him that is what the other guy told me two weeks ago, but I am not holding my breath. I also asked him if they would be shutting down for the rainy season. His answer was that if it rained they could not work, if it didn't rain, they would be out in full force.

UPDATE:
Since I downloaded the pictures and started this post, the tar truck has arrived. We are not sure if they are redoing the part between Bahia Laguna and Bad Dog house, or going to actually start on the next portion (ours)!!! More updates as they happen.

UPDATE2:
I went out to check on the progress of the tar truck. It was gone, who knows where, but not working here today.

As we can all plainly see, they have added another layer of gravel and dirt. Now they are in the process of rolling it flat.

Louis says that it will definately be done by the end of the week. I didn't ask him which week. He made me promise to put his picture on our wall to make Bob jealous. What do you think?

A New Season

Well, it appears that the "Rainy Season" has started on time. What a great light show we had last night. The lightning was awesome. It started about 3:00 this morning and was still going strong at 8:00. No pictures, this time.

Nothing seems to be happening with the work on the road today, but the birds are sure happy and singing.