July

This week we started a new exercise program offered thru the municipality of Quebradillas. On Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays we do aerobics; Tuesday and Thursdays we do exercises and stretches. There are two other male participants other than me and a lot of middle age women, some older women and a quite a few younger women, but nothing to really get excited over. One of the men turned out to be the long lost Louis Morales that I had met at the beach back in November, and had lost contact with after trying the phone number he gave that was answered by a lady who said there was no one there by that name. Turns out he is now gearing up to run for mayor of Quebradillas in 2008. He came over for a visit the other day and brought his wife and his grandson from New York State. Eventually we are to get together to go fishing.

I discovered another "only in Puerto Rico" just the other day before the forth of July: when driving up the road to our home I noticed some nearby neighbors out in their yard setting off some sparkler/roman candle type fireworks. You might think that this is not that unusual, but it was not night yet! It was unusual to see fireworks in the day time. It is definitely different!

I am waiting to buy a block large enough to enter the competition in Aguada in September. I think I have a chance since there is a category for out of town carvers. Everybody loves my set of three kings, but they take too long to make to sell to anyone other than a rich collector. I won't become an official Puerto Rican artisan until August so I can't really sell anything until then anyway. I find myself designing and thinking of new ways to carve the Three Kings. Other than that we enjoy watching movies. I gave Freyda a five disk set "I, Claudius" for her birthday. Thirteen hours of the BBC series from 1976. We watched the whole thing within two days after her birthday. Since then we have watched it a second time! We just picked up the Lord of the Rings from her brother the other day. Our next purchase will be the historic series "Sharpe's Company" which has fourteen DVDs total. That should last us at least a week perhaps.

July 12

Today was to be the fourth day of our exercise routine. We had been told that we would be walking to the plaza where a health fair was going on and we could have certain tests done for free. It soon became obvious that the routine had been broken and we found ourselves sitting around at the place we normally do exercises just waiting to be led over to the plaza. I think we waited at least a half hour inside before we were told to go outside - to where I thought we would set out for the fair. Not a chance! We ended up out in the sun standing around waiting again. I decided to take up a seat on the ground in a shady spot thirty yards or more away from the rest of the crowd. Wait and wait…. Finally they gathered everyone and we were off - probably over an hour after our normal routine would have had us start. We had received free tee shirts the day before and everyone was to wear them at the event. It became obvious that the day was an advertisement for the sponsors as we marched up the road toward the plaza led by a pickup with a loudspeaker array mounted on the back blasting tunes and someone's voice talking about the fair intermixed with the jingle for the insurance company that we now represented. I told Freyda that this had become one of those irritable annoyances for anyone who happened to be driving thru the town at this time since the roads were blocked as we passed by strung out for some two to three blocks. On the square they had set up several tents where various products and services were being hawked; however, most of the test were done for free. I found no need to discover if I had some medical problem so I refrained from taking any of the tests. I also did not want to stand in the long lines that did not move hardly at all. I noticed that Luis had been in one spot for what must have been at least 45 minutes. I did partake in the fresh fruit and cold water that was being handed out. To keep up our strength and to replenish nutrients they provided oranges, bananas, and grapes. I chose to not drink any of the sodas offered - after all it was a health fair. It always amazes me what the general public will grab and take with them if it is offered free of charge. Stupid little three and a half inch Frisbees that are good for nothing, key chains and that sort of thing. Things that you know you will never use people grab. Then after the majority of our group had been thru the medical tests they decided to start doing aerobics in an area of the plaza that was in full sun! The instructor tried to get me out there, but I faked him out as though I were going and then found a seat in the shade. Sorry, but I do not do anything in direct sunlight except maybe swim in the ocean. The program did not start as early as it should have to avoid the heat of the day. Plenty of the others did. When the event finally came to an end I walked back to the car and drove to pick up Freyda. I told her to wait at a certain spot for me. When I arrived she told me to find a place to park since she wanted to visit a store that had been going out of business for a few months and appeared now as though they were actually having a last day the following day. So I parked and went in with Freyda and ended up rooting thru a table of women's underwear for Freyda's size. We found some twenty pair that she intended to buy for 25¢ each. What a find! She wanted to look at other stuff in the store. I decided to find a spot to sit and began to veg out and almost fall asleep. Freyda told me later that afternoon that the people working at the store were keeping an eye on me because they thought that I was perhaps stuffing underwear into Freyda's purse, which I had been carrying for her while she browsed. I guess they don't trust us Americans to be able to afford 25¢ per pair underwear. They did not ask to look inside the purse when we checked out and bought the twenty pair. It did not matter any way because we had to open the purse to get the money out to pay. We thought this was humorous.

Freyda has been suffering from ear infections this week and at the fair she bought an old Chinese remedy that someone had told her about. It was, as I would describe as a wax coated, enlarged funnel straw that we inserted the small end into the ear and lit the other end and let it burn slowly. It reminded me of the pirate in the movie "Yellowbeard" that had smoking tufts of hair in his beard whenever they raided another ship. This burning tube was supposed to draw out any moisture, etc. from the ear as it burned. Upon opening the end of the straw when it had burned down as far as we could comfortably let it burn we found some strange residue inside that perhaps had been drawn out, or perhaps it was all a scam. I don't know, but we are going to the doctor's office tomorrow anyway to have her ears checked out since her antibiotics run out today and she is still having problems.

Tonight we are watching Iwo Jima, the movie by Clint Eastwood that is seen from the Japanese perspective opposite the other movie from the American perspective called Flags of our Fathers. We had watched it about a week or two ago. Freyda was falling asleep from too much activity in the sun, so now I have put the movie on hold.

July 17, 2007

I thought I would let you all know that on the carving progress page I have added images of the finished products for you to look at. Even as I say those images are up, I have completed other projects, but cannot put the pictures up yet. These include a wedding present (can't be shown until after July 28th) and the start of a set of three kings in the form of penguins (will be shown upon completion of the second and third penguin that I will start on the 21st of July). I also hope to get a picture of the frozen foods isle at the Grande Supermarket soon since I have never seen anything like this before.... there is fog three and a half feet thick all along the isle! We have always dreaded walking down that isle since it seemed like we would freeze to death before we reached the other end, and now atmospheric conditions are just right such that for the last few times we have been in there the fog virtually conceals your lower body!

July 29, 07

Well, my niece is married now, so I guess they have opened their presents already, so I am including an image of the carving that I sent them. It is a set of Los Tres Reyes that stands only 1.25 inches tall and all three fit in the palm of your hand! They also match the full size set that I made in carving class. I just finished carving another set of three kings that are a little bigger, and one of them I refer to as the "Willie Nelson king" since he kind of looks like Willie with his long braid down his back and the beard and eyes and all. I have not painted them or taken pictures of those yet. I also have started a set of three kings in the form of Penguins - also no images yet - only one is painted but two are carved. I seem to be getting a little faster at the art of carving and now perhaps I can sell my craft at the wopping rate of about $5 per hour if I am lucky enough to sell any. Once I get famous I will hopefully be able to up the price considerably. Hopefully that will not happen only after my death as it does for many other artists.

Other images of interest lately include the blooming of a group of orchids in the back yard. Here is one with Freyda standing next to the whole bush of orchids.

Last week our exercise class occurred only on Monday and Tuesday since Wednesday and Friday were holidays here. That actually worked out pretty good since I seemed to have injured my heal or instep of my right foot during the session on Tuesday. Unfortunately, exercising on Monday will be a killer after five days off.

We did manage to go on a caving expedition a week ago to a cave in the Guajataca Forest. It is an interesting cave, a cave that you don't get a tour guide with but is fairly large and has some impressive formations. There is a set of steps leading down into the cave at the foot of a large tree. The roots of the tree run into the cave and on the last visit we noticed a branch of root that had grown several hundred yards into the cave. I did not find the root this time, perhaps it was covered with mud. I did notice a section at one point where a root was present so maybe that theory is true. There is a colony of bats living inthe cave as well, but not that many. We came across the strangest thing in one part: a freshwater crab about 8 or 9 inches in size. Big enough to eat, but we just pestered it for a while taking pictures (I did not take any, but have photos of the group and a cave formation). Rain fell for the majority of the hike back from the cave, approximately two miles or so.

I took photos of some of the plants blooming at this time of year around the house as well. Here they are: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and my favorite that looks prettier than the roses but is not a rose 6.