I had to get bones for the girls this morning. I'll admit it, they are spoiled about their bones. They each get one a day. It's their big deal and true high point of each day.

I usually go to Mr. Meheehaw's (I think that's his name) in the Gabriel Hoare Marketplace to get their bones. We do this about every two weeks or so. I stop in, have him chop up ten pounds of bones so their a little less than fist sized, and then the girls carry the bones home in their packs. Then, when we get home we bake them and keep them in the fridge till needed.

Our New Favorite Store

Twyla had told me about the meat shop at Rony's (actually at Romero's), behind the Atlantic Bank. Rony's (or Romero's) is a relatively new store. More than that, they're also a totilla factory, making three different flavored tortillas - Habanero, Chipotle, and natural flour tortilla. They make chips too, in the same three flavors. They also make bread - not sure about the flavors there.

Rony's Tortilla Factory occupies the left side of the store (as you face it), and Romero's Meat and Vegetable Center occupies the right (kind of like the Twix factory, in a way). Romero's is a fruiteria (a fruit and vegetable store) with very nice looking stuff. But, wait. There's more! They also have a meat shop. in the back of the fruiteria, they have a shop that I like better than Frank's new place. They'll even grind your meat with a 50/50 mix of pork and beef - or however you want it. The bones I bought today were outstanding. The doggies give them two thumbs-up as well.

The only down-side is the meat shop doesn't open till 7:00AM - long after we've gone for walkies. So, the girl's will miss out on carrying bones home.

Stop in. I think you'll like the place.

Flying Carpets... er, Boats
Seen in our neighborhood was the unlikely sight of Bob Carpenter's motorless boat flying onto the hard.

Clearing Bushes in a Single Bound

Just a photo-op that was hard to pass up. It's now up on blocks being pressure-washed.

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Yesterday, the day after Nelson's foaming episode, I stopped in to see Dr. Sheila about an unrelated matter.

Of course, I asked her about young Nelson and if we had done the right thing. We had. Sheila said the toxins for both cane toads and other poisonous frogs here in Belize easily enters the body through the mucous membranes (the mouth). That's partly why it's so important to rinse out the victim's mouth - to dilute and get rid of the toxins in the mouth. The other thing that water does is helps cool the body, as both cats and dogs have inefficient cooling mechanisms (they pant instead of sweat). In fact, this advice pertains equally to dogs and cats. The toxins cause the victim's heart rate to elevate, among other things, and help raise the body temperature.

This can become critical if the victim encounters the frog or toad, and because of resultant convulsions, etc., they become overly exposed to the sun and heat before you become involved in the situation.

One of the items I read online said to use a hose to rinse out the victim's mouth. That should be OK for a larger animal, but for a cat, it might be overkill. What Sheila recommends is having a bottle about the size of a used dish soap bottle on hand (well cleaned out) and filled with water that you can then rinse out the mouth with a little more gentle flow of water.

In most cases, this is about all the treatment you can do. Again, make sure to keep the victim cool.

Also, Sheila said if they continue to convulse or jump around the way Nelson did initially, you can bring the victim in to her clinic and she can sedate them to try and get them calmed down.

Pretty much, at this stage, they're either going to survive or not. There's not really anything else that can be done. She also said, cats seem to learn after the first episode, that it's a good idea to leave frogs and toads alone - at least not to try and eat them. Some dogs, on the other hand, learn a much harder lesson and repeat time after time.

So, we did the right thing and Nelson helped by calming down and sleeping it off. What a relief.

I guess by way of disclaimer, that this information, I gratuitously termed 'advice' above, should be considered little more than well-intentioned gossip. If you follow it , you do so at your or your dog or cat's peril. Check with your family Vet. Your situation may be completely different. If nothing else, you've got a rough guide to follow till you can reach competent veterinary medical care.

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We're dealing with an interesting situation this evening. Shortly after supper, Nelson wanted to go outside. April was already out and doing her thing. It's not unusual at all for either of them to be outside - sometimes for all night. So, I opened the door and let him out.

A short time later, he meowed to come back in. This also is not an unusual occurrence. In fact, it's so common, it happens three or four times a night. With my normal sleep pattern, it's really not that much of an inconvenience. However, we are seriously thinking about putting in a kitty door from the back porch to the office, so the little people can come and go as they see fit.

Unfortunately, one of the down-sides to allowing your pets outside is the possibility of interactions and reactions with local wildlife. The dogs have met with lizards, including geckos, Jesus lizards (basilisk lizards), armadillos, porcupines, snakes (both poisonous and non), various kinds of birds (doves being Secret's favorite snack), ants of assorted types, and stinging insects... So far. God only knows what they'll get into next.

The cats, April and Nelson, have so far gotten into non-poisonous snakes, lizards, including geckos, Jesus lizards (basilisk lizards), various kinds of birds (Nelson brought in a young dove yesterday, which Dianna rescued, minus a few tail feathers), ants of assorted types, and stinging insects... So far. God only knows what they'll get into next. Well, that's not true. I do know.

This evening, in fact, just a few minutes ago, Nelson cried at the door to be let back in, which I did as usual. Then I went back to messing on the computer. I heard him jumping and thrashing around. This also, is not an unusual sound. I assumed he and April were chasing/wrestling with each other as they do often.

Out of the corner of my eye, I happened to see Nelson as he came into the office. I thought I saw lots of white bits of paper. Ah, he's been back into the roll of toilet paper. What fun. But, as I looked closer, I saw it wasn't paper at all, but foamy saliva. He was slinging it all over the house, jumping around, and moving his tongue all around to try and get rid of whatever was causing the foaming.

I hollered for  Dianna (she was in bed reading or playing Friends With Words), saying something like "Nelson's gotten into the frogs now. He's foaming at the mouth." She came in a hurray.

I grabbed Nelson and we both attempted to get his mouth under the bathroom faucet. That was less than successful. I caught a claw between fingers of my right hand. Dianna managed to get some water to his mouth by just sloshing handfuls to his face while we both tried holding him. As usually happens, he became totally unmanageable in short order, so we let him down to run around.

I tried calling Dr. Sheila, but as it was after hours, there was, not unexpectedly, no answer. With a one-person shop, they have to have down time. So, next best thing, I jumped on the Intertubes. The trick is always in how you ask the question of Google. So, not being happy with the first attempt, I made in short order, two or three other attempts, finally getting a straightforward answer.

Not surprisingly, the advice was to use a hose to rinse out the patient's mouth with the outer opening facing down so as to lessen the likelihood of their ingesting more of the bad stuff - whatever it might be. The second bit was to call the Vet. Since we'd already done both of those, there wasn't much point in our going berserk any further.

I seemed to remember, that with the poisonous frogs and cane toads, if the animal ingests enough toxin to foam at the mouth and otherwise act weird, by the time you administer a water rinse, you've done about all that's humanly possible. So, it comes down to whether it's their time or not. Wait and see.

That's pretty much what we did then. Wait and see. As I started to write this posting, Nelson came up and meowed a few times to me and went running off into the living room. I told him he was done going outside for the night and to just relax. He came up to me a couple more times, with his eyes looking glazed and like he might be hallucinating. Well, if he was there wasn't much I could do about it other than pet scratch him.

Right now, he's laying right behind my chair. I just reached down and touched his nose to see if he was still with us. He is. He was sleeping, probably the best thing he could do at this time. He yawned and stretched real big and went back to sleep. It's my considered opinion that he's going to make a full recovery.

Just your usual evening panic session with family members who really can't talk that well to tell you what's going on. Hopefully, he's learned his lesson - at least for a while. The dogs did with the porcupines, so there's hope for the cats... maybe.

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As promised, I said I would include photos of one of the other houses around here that're adding to the changing landscape of the neighborhood.

And, here it is. Well, first, the gate. Featuring the sun and water, it's easily the most artistic gate in the neighborhood and quite striking.

Cool Gate

 The house that goes with it. Mae and Craig built this as a 'spec home'. It's cute with lots of potential and some really well-thought out ideas, besides the gate.

Cool House

For example, it has a crawl space, so piping repairs under the main floor will be a breeze. No need to dig up the concrete and tile floor first. And the roof. Right now it's suited as an observation deck, but can easily be walled in and become a second story for the house.

Ok. Enough of the sales pitch-like stuff.

Here's something entirely different. You may not know it, but satellite dishes here require a license. Our TV dish license from the Belize Public Utility Commission (PUC) costs us about $150.00 BZD annually. Not a big deal as far as such things go.

What is weird - at least for this year is paying for it.  Allow me to explain. We have a savings account with Belize Bank. the PUC has an account with Belize Bank. Ours is with the Corozal Branch, theirs is with the Belize City Branch. Makes sense so far, right?

So, I thought, well, I'll just transfer $150.00 from our account to theirs. Done deal.

Whoa, not so fast there, cowboy. It seems that I have to have the PUC's permission to deposit money into their account automatically. Since I did the transaction online without the intervention of a teller, they had to do it manually for me. Which meant debiting our account for the $150, transferring it to the PUC account and crediting their account $150.00. I'm assuming without PUC's permission.

With me so far? Ok. For that service, Belize Bank had to charge me $10.00 - which they did also without advising me or asking me beforehand.

When I went down to the Corozal Branch to find out why the extra withdrawal from our account, all that above was explained to me. I asked, "Even though it's with the same bank?" "Yes," was the reply.

For next year, I can avoid the fee by having PUC fill out a form that the bank gave me. I also have to fill out part of it and return it to my branch bank. What this form does (it's called a Online Transference Registration form), is the PUC, by filling out their portion, authorizes me to deposit money to their account, thereby avoiding the direct intervention (assistance?) of Belize Bank and their charging me the $10.00 fee.

Isn't that just the most convenient process you ever heard of? Goes without saying that there will probably be some rubber stamping required on the form as well. I wish I had a rubber stamp. It would make it seem so official.

I'm just wondering if it's worth the effort to get PUC to complete the form, or if I should opt to go down to my branch next year, stand in line and manually transfer the money to PUC's account and avoid the extra fee by doing so? I'll have to think about it.

Cheers,

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'Well, my mind's been going through them changes'

- Them Changes, Buddy Miles, 1970

You know, beyond my mind, our neighborhood has been going through some changes. Changes that I haven't written about lately.

Things in the neighborhood are changing, and, actually have been changing, but I haven't written about some of them.

For instance, next door to us, is a new house that is being built out of wire mesh and Styrofoam. It'll be coated with roughly two inches of concrete (probably sprayed and troweled) on both sides, including the roof.

Dr. Mike and Shelly's House

This is relatively new stuff, at least here in Corozal. It's made by a Mexican company, Qualypanel, (http://www.covintec.com/). Their website has several videos that show aspects of the construction process.

The initial bit of construction, such as the walls, went really fast. I'm not sure what has slowed things down now, but it does seem to be taking an inordinately long period of time to finish.

Dr. Mike Parrish is a Chiropractor from the US, and has set up his practice here in Corozal (http://www.doctorparrish.com/). I haven't visited his office yet, but my neck is saying that maybe I should. I run into Shelly, his wife, now and then while we're walking dogs. Seem like nice folks.

We're watching the construction of their place with interest. If it works out, we might want to put an upstairs on our pool house and that would be ideal - saving weight and, hopefully, time as well. We'll keep you tuned in on that bit.

The other new house around here is another Mennonite house. This one is going up just south of the Northern Highway (which has been renamed the Phillip P. Goldson Highway - although no one calls it that) on what we call Scruffy Road. No idea what the actual name of the road is.

Keith and Sheena's House

I stopped by the other morning while walking the doggies and checked with a couple of the workers there. The place is owned by Keith and Sheena. I haven't met them yet, but I'm sure that will happen soon.

Of course, the other new one, almost across the street from us is the house that Mae and Craig built. It's a nice concrete place  with lots of potential. It's for sale too. It also has a really cool gate. I'll see if I can remember to get a photo of the house and gate tomorrow.

Let's see, what else? Doggies are fine. We're still walking 4 miles a day, and sweating up a storm with that as well. Cats are fine. Nelson is becoming a fine young man. In fact, he delights in helping around the house.

Nelson Helping Make the Bed

We've got to install a kitty door. He's driving us nuts wanting in or out at night. He's discovered that he can get up on the back of a chair on the front porch and meow at us to be let back in. Of course, that puts him about two inches away from our ears when we're in bed. Hard to ignore him then.

And the other thing we've got happening is our compost bin, which is going great guns. As you can see below, it produces some great compost and so quick too. Inside of two weeks from first adding it to the pile on the left. Watering and turning for a couple of days or so, then toss it over the wall to the next bin. More watering and turning, then finally over the next wall, where it's turned a couple more times.

Our Compost Bin In Action

Then it's run through the sieve (the wood and wire screen thing above) into the wheelbarrow and then out to the various planter beds. The plants just love it.

Speaking of plants, I'll get a few shots of Dianna's garden and include later on. Stuff is growing very well in the planter boxes. We'll be eating good soon.

That's it for now. I've got to add some chlorine tabs to the pool and get stuff ready for happy hour this afternoon.

Cheers,

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Ok. That was enough time just sitting on my duff.

Over the past month or so, I dabbled a bit with helping dig up at the Santa Rita ruins,

Ready To Break In A New Pair of Gloves

playing like Indiana Jones - only without the whip and other excitement. Fun, but not really my cup of tea more than occasionally, not like Colleen - she's bucking for a promotion. We did it three days. Colleen has probably missed three days;

Watching Belize Water Service

BWS Dig, Digging and More

install a 6" main up our road, all the way  to Mr. Quinto's house. Not that we have any intention of jumping on the metered water band wagon. Our well is plenty adequate, thank you very much. But, as they say, it will help if we ever decide to sell. You know,"we have access to 'town water' as a selling point, I guess;

and watching the BDF train

BDF Training in Corozal  Bay

with US special ops folks for some anti-drug smuggling activities.

Let's see what else?

 Books that I've been reading...

• The Revisionists by Thomas Mullen. Interesting take on time travel. There's a war between those who want to revise history and those who want to leave it as it was.
• The Filter Bubble by Eli Pariser. About those personalized adverts and the personalized web experience. It ain't all it's cracked up to be.
• The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson. An alternate history - one of my favorite genres when done right. History, religion and society centered on the Black Death if it had been more severe. I'm only into it by eight or so pages.

The Isuzu's spare money detector has been functioning more than perfectly. I'd like to whack it with a hammer if I could find it. The car's been in the shop twice now - within a month to get the head reground from warping because of overheating. First it was the radiator that went kerflooy and resulted in the marathon towing exercise. Then it was the bottom radiator hose (I think) that let it piss all over the ground. I managed to get it within 20 feet of Rick's shop so we were able to push it in so he could work on it.

About the personalized adverts on the web. I shop fairly regularly at  places like Inyo.com, a pool supply place. It's weird. Every time I go to a web site and have a personalized ad for Inyo.com, I feel like never patronizing them again, because it feels really intrusive. Except, having read the Filter Bubble, I understand what's going on and can get past it. It still pisses me off, but I have more of a handle now on the game that is being played. It's only going to get worse, so we may as well get used to it. And figure out a way to play it back, somehow. Mess up their statistics.

That's it for now.

Cheers,

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You don't mind if I start at the present and work my way back, do you? Ah, good. I didn't think you would.

So, let's get started.

Have you ever read one of those mystery novels that maybe take place in a seaside New England village? It's the end of the tourist season, and the only folks left are a few quirky locals who are all above suspicion.

Suspicion. Well, what happened? Oh, didn't I mention there had been a murder? Well, there had been. A typically neat and tidy one too. Not much in the way of clues. Sure, there's other weirdness too.

The colorful New England hardwood trees are beginning to lose their leaves, and as they do so, they simultaneously begin to morph into various types of palms. The brisk and slightly salty fall air, typical of seaside New England villages, also begins to morph, as things do in dreams... What? I forgot to mention that this is a dream too? Where's my head nowadays? Anyway, it is a dream... I think. Only, it's beginning to look a lot like here. Here being Corozal.

The weather's weird. One day, in fact just a couple of days ago, the temperature was in the upper nineties with the humidity to match. And that evening, it morphs into a cooling... a bit lower... a brisk and chilly night. The next day, it's still chilly, but then begins to swing the other way. By mid afternoon, it's positively hot.

And it continues on into the evening, when the breeze kicks in and suddenly sucks the heat out of everything, enough that we've thrown a blanket onto the bed just before we go to sleep. This is the reality part here, not the dream. Isn't it? I'm not so sure anymore.

Well, to be sure, lots of folks have departed for the season. Some just this morning, some tomorrow morning. Soon, we'll be back to only filling one or two tables at the Friendship Luncheon instead of an SRO crowd at the Purple Toucan.

If this was a actual tourist town, we'd see the beer prices drop back down to, say, two-fifty a Belikin. Alright, I can settle for three- or three-fifty.

Nelson Enjoying A Cool One

Thanks for the photo, Colleen. It turned out perfect. I bet you were wondering how I was going to fit it into the story. Now you know.

Now that I've had this brainstorm, I'll publish it and get to bed. I've got doggies to walk in the morning, and lots more to tell you about and a few pictures along the way.

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