Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Overdue and Wet Blog
Well it is time for us to update you all. I will start by saying it has been a very busy time, work wise, personally and socially………..
Where do we start – Ok – Dancing Blonde – me – has her cast off. A large collective – Yeah please….. Now, physio – ouch. I am supposed to go 3 to 5 times a week. A couple things got in the way of that. It is a little tough to find the time to get it done. By the time I leave what I am doing, drive there, wait my turn (appointments – are you kidding me???) get my physio, pay and return to whatever I was doing - you are looking at a good 2 hours! The actual physio takes 30 to 40 minutes.
The last time I went this woman HURT me. I think physio should be uncomfortable but it should not hurt. Here is what happened. You all know what a slant board is? It goes up against a wall and you stand on it. The first thing I did was stand on my bad foot (1 footed) and then lean into the wall in front of me to stretch the ankle and calf. It felt very good. You can do a similar thing hanging off a step or ledge and drop your ankle.
Then she tells me to do one footed toe raises. So, on my bad ankle, raise up on my toes bearing all my weight (not it isn’t THAT much weight)! She wanted me to do 10 of these. ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? All of you right now, stand on the flat floor, one footed and do 10 toe raises! Hurry up!!!! Not easy is it. Now try that on a slant board on a bad ankle. NO WAY! I could only do 5 and it HURT. I stopped. My recuperation has been set back a full week by this bozo! She does not get to touch me again.
But I have managed to get a little bit of dancing in………… Double Yeah………
Larimar had her mom and aunt visit her. They are wonderful people and now all of us understand where she gets her sense of humour and idiosyncrasies from! Hurry back both of you.
Of course that kept her busy playing tour guide, hanging out and spending time with family. They had more then one adventure and I am sure we can convince her to post about them.
We have been working very hard too. With anything in this country, there are always issues, concerns, crisis, successes, etc etc. All have been dealt with for now………..LOL But just wait till tomorrow, there will be more.
From some of my work I connected with some tourists from San Francisco. Zain, Susan and Rachel came here to discover the country and do some Latin dancing. We had some plans in place and were ready to go. Friday I did the very girly thing and got my hair done – it looked fabulous. Side note – of the last 6 times I have had my hair done – I have spent 5 of them at home! The universe is conspiring against me – each time there is SOME reason why we can’t or don’t go out. This Friday was no different but certainly the reason was different.
Friday night – in a 2 hour period – we had more rain then I have ever seen in my entire life. Now, I have seen torrential rain for – oh say – 10 or 20 minutes. But never 2 hours…. I left the salon – it was raining. I drove home 1.5 KM or about 1 mile - I could hardly see out my windows. I could not see the holes in the road. I could not see the massive puddles. In fact, the roads now looked like rivers. I followed a big truck, going really slow, hoping he would not stop! IF he stopped my car my have stalled out and been stuck.
By the time I reached home it was unbelievable. I live on a bit of a hill (at the base of Mt. Isabella here) so the street slopes downward. The water running down my street was up to my knees! It carried garbage, rocks, small logs (no kidding) coconuts and anything else in its path downhill. Of course, I was wearing fairly new black suede flats! When I left in the morning it was not raining, the sun was shining.
So, I get to the front gate – put my key in the lock to open it – and get thrown 2 feet by the electrical shock I received. Right on my ass in the disgusting water! And I dropped my keys. To digress one second – I have a running disagreement with the landlord here over the amount of the electrical bill. Seems I was right – there is a power drain from the circuit and it goes into the damn gate and front fence! All that water was a super conductor and I got zapped badly. I am lucky not to have been seriously injured.
I did get into my apartment and had water (only about an inch or so) in half my apartment. Not a big deal compared to many! By the way –I used another gate to get in after I fished my keys out of the yucky cold water.
Okay so, Puerto Plata was a mess!!! The amount of water was incredible, entire neighbourhoods flooded out. Check these links for photos!
http://www.puertoplatadigital.net/noti/noticias/Fotosinundacion2.htm
http://www.puertoplatadigital.net/noti/noticias/Fotosinundacion.htm
It is actually 2 different links so check them both out. Our dancing was curtailed both Friday and Saturday nights needless to say.Our weather has not been very nice since. Not as bad as that but rain every day, sometimes all day. The good news is it is still better then most other places……….
We managed to get out and have some fun on Sunday night and it was nice to see lots of locals out too!!! The government has responded quickly with help for people here. As I find out more I will post about it.
That is probably enough for today. Check out those photos!
PS It is raining right now again.......... ahhhhhhhhhhhhh
Where do we start – Ok – Dancing Blonde – me – has her cast off. A large collective – Yeah please….. Now, physio – ouch. I am supposed to go 3 to 5 times a week. A couple things got in the way of that. It is a little tough to find the time to get it done. By the time I leave what I am doing, drive there, wait my turn (appointments – are you kidding me???) get my physio, pay and return to whatever I was doing - you are looking at a good 2 hours! The actual physio takes 30 to 40 minutes.
The last time I went this woman HURT me. I think physio should be uncomfortable but it should not hurt. Here is what happened. You all know what a slant board is? It goes up against a wall and you stand on it. The first thing I did was stand on my bad foot (1 footed) and then lean into the wall in front of me to stretch the ankle and calf. It felt very good. You can do a similar thing hanging off a step or ledge and drop your ankle.
Then she tells me to do one footed toe raises. So, on my bad ankle, raise up on my toes bearing all my weight (not it isn’t THAT much weight)! She wanted me to do 10 of these. ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? All of you right now, stand on the flat floor, one footed and do 10 toe raises! Hurry up!!!! Not easy is it. Now try that on a slant board on a bad ankle. NO WAY! I could only do 5 and it HURT. I stopped. My recuperation has been set back a full week by this bozo! She does not get to touch me again.
But I have managed to get a little bit of dancing in………… Double Yeah………
Larimar had her mom and aunt visit her. They are wonderful people and now all of us understand where she gets her sense of humour and idiosyncrasies from! Hurry back both of you.
Of course that kept her busy playing tour guide, hanging out and spending time with family. They had more then one adventure and I am sure we can convince her to post about them.
We have been working very hard too. With anything in this country, there are always issues, concerns, crisis, successes, etc etc. All have been dealt with for now………..LOL But just wait till tomorrow, there will be more.
From some of my work I connected with some tourists from San Francisco. Zain, Susan and Rachel came here to discover the country and do some Latin dancing. We had some plans in place and were ready to go. Friday I did the very girly thing and got my hair done – it looked fabulous. Side note – of the last 6 times I have had my hair done – I have spent 5 of them at home! The universe is conspiring against me – each time there is SOME reason why we can’t or don’t go out. This Friday was no different but certainly the reason was different.
Friday night – in a 2 hour period – we had more rain then I have ever seen in my entire life. Now, I have seen torrential rain for – oh say – 10 or 20 minutes. But never 2 hours…. I left the salon – it was raining. I drove home 1.5 KM or about 1 mile - I could hardly see out my windows. I could not see the holes in the road. I could not see the massive puddles. In fact, the roads now looked like rivers. I followed a big truck, going really slow, hoping he would not stop! IF he stopped my car my have stalled out and been stuck.
By the time I reached home it was unbelievable. I live on a bit of a hill (at the base of Mt. Isabella here) so the street slopes downward. The water running down my street was up to my knees! It carried garbage, rocks, small logs (no kidding) coconuts and anything else in its path downhill. Of course, I was wearing fairly new black suede flats! When I left in the morning it was not raining, the sun was shining.
So, I get to the front gate – put my key in the lock to open it – and get thrown 2 feet by the electrical shock I received. Right on my ass in the disgusting water! And I dropped my keys. To digress one second – I have a running disagreement with the landlord here over the amount of the electrical bill. Seems I was right – there is a power drain from the circuit and it goes into the damn gate and front fence! All that water was a super conductor and I got zapped badly. I am lucky not to have been seriously injured.
I did get into my apartment and had water (only about an inch or so) in half my apartment. Not a big deal compared to many! By the way –I used another gate to get in after I fished my keys out of the yucky cold water.
Okay so, Puerto Plata was a mess!!! The amount of water was incredible, entire neighbourhoods flooded out. Check these links for photos!
http://www.puertoplatadigital.net/noti/noticias/Fotosinundacion2.htm
http://www.puertoplatadigital.net/noti/noticias/Fotosinundacion.htm
It is actually 2 different links so check them both out. Our dancing was curtailed both Friday and Saturday nights needless to say.Our weather has not been very nice since. Not as bad as that but rain every day, sometimes all day. The good news is it is still better then most other places……….
We managed to get out and have some fun on Sunday night and it was nice to see lots of locals out too!!! The government has responded quickly with help for people here. As I find out more I will post about it.
That is probably enough for today. Check out those photos!
PS It is raining right now again.......... ahhhhhhhhhhhhh
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Wayyyyyyyyy tooooo longgggggggggg
Hi everyone. Sorry we have not blogged in so long. We will really really try to blog more often. I know some people miss us when we don't blog.
What's going on? Hmmmm where to start. Okay, dancing blonde, me, has a broken ankle. NOT dancing, not having a good time at all. But I have slowed down a bit which is most likely why I broke the damn thing. I can't drive, can't go out in the rain ........... and everything takes longer to do. But I am resting (sort of) and spending more time at home.
Larimar - had 2 friends visit for one week and enjoyed playing tour guide. Now her mom and her aunt are here and they arrived with her precious cat with them. She is a happy girl. Tomorrow she is off on a jeep safari with them.
The weather here has been stunning. In 3 weeks of having a cast we have only had 3 days with any rain at all and only 1 bad day. So, not too bad.
Our friend CRASH is back with his dad for 2 weeks as well. Nice people. Today we all went to Field of Dreams for breakfast together along with W & M from Canada. There were 9 of us in total for breakfast and a bit of time by the pool. No pool time for me, the heat is bad for the ankle while it is in the cast. Only 5 more days folks.
So remember the Larimar Blonde and the AMET officer??? If you don't remember you have to go to a previous blog to find that story. The bottom line - Dancing Blonde flirted outrageously and sweet talked her way out of the problem. But, I promised the AMET officer a date. Several days before I broke the ankle, I went on that date. First of all he was really easy on the eyes, oh baby. We had a nice evening and maybe in a different time it might have worked out but he is just too young........... Oh well. At least Larimar didn't have any more problems and I had a nice evening......
This past week we did recognize International Woman's Day here. Larimar went a little further then most. She had to go to the hotel where her mom is staying. The head concierge informed her she was not allowed to park her car where she left it. She smiled nicely and asked if he knew it was " la dia de mujeres?" or the day of women... Well of course he said and of course you can park your car there, you are a woman.........LOL I am pretty sure that was not the intent of womans day but what the heck.....
Today North America went on daylight savings time. Yeah. We never change our time. So, when you go off daylight savings time our TV schedule gets all messed up. We catch news from both New York and Chicago on our cable. It is hard to wait till midnight to watch the late news. And I like watching Regis and Kelly............ now it is on at 9 am again ............ Double yeah.
That is it for today. We will post some photos and more stories soon.
What's going on? Hmmmm where to start. Okay, dancing blonde, me, has a broken ankle. NOT dancing, not having a good time at all. But I have slowed down a bit which is most likely why I broke the damn thing. I can't drive, can't go out in the rain ........... and everything takes longer to do. But I am resting (sort of) and spending more time at home.
Larimar - had 2 friends visit for one week and enjoyed playing tour guide. Now her mom and her aunt are here and they arrived with her precious cat with them. She is a happy girl. Tomorrow she is off on a jeep safari with them.
The weather here has been stunning. In 3 weeks of having a cast we have only had 3 days with any rain at all and only 1 bad day. So, not too bad.
Our friend CRASH is back with his dad for 2 weeks as well. Nice people. Today we all went to Field of Dreams for breakfast together along with W & M from Canada. There were 9 of us in total for breakfast and a bit of time by the pool. No pool time for me, the heat is bad for the ankle while it is in the cast. Only 5 more days folks.
So remember the Larimar Blonde and the AMET officer??? If you don't remember you have to go to a previous blog to find that story. The bottom line - Dancing Blonde flirted outrageously and sweet talked her way out of the problem. But, I promised the AMET officer a date. Several days before I broke the ankle, I went on that date. First of all he was really easy on the eyes, oh baby. We had a nice evening and maybe in a different time it might have worked out but he is just too young........... Oh well. At least Larimar didn't have any more problems and I had a nice evening......
This past week we did recognize International Woman's Day here. Larimar went a little further then most. She had to go to the hotel where her mom is staying. The head concierge informed her she was not allowed to park her car where she left it. She smiled nicely and asked if he knew it was " la dia de mujeres?" or the day of women... Well of course he said and of course you can park your car there, you are a woman.........LOL I am pretty sure that was not the intent of womans day but what the heck.....
Today North America went on daylight savings time. Yeah. We never change our time. So, when you go off daylight savings time our TV schedule gets all messed up. We catch news from both New York and Chicago on our cable. It is hard to wait till midnight to watch the late news. And I like watching Regis and Kelly............ now it is on at 9 am again ............ Double yeah.
That is it for today. We will post some photos and more stories soon.
