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28 January, 2010

The Great Wall Keeps Growing

It's been a while since I've updated the blog with progress on our canal bulkhead project. If you're a regular reader, you may remember my initial posting about the problem we had with our canal bank caving in. You can go to that posting here: (http://winjama.blogspot.com/2009/11/just-when-you-think-its-smooth-sailing.html).

There's several other postings and plenty of pictures showing the various stages of the project and the progress that's been made since November (Geez, has it really been going on that long?). If you go to the index along the right-hand side, click on it and scroll down to 'bulkheads' or 'canal bulkhead', you'll be able to see the rest of those postings.

This posting will bring you up to where we currently are with this project.
A Lot of Work
As you can see, there's been just a ton of progress. In the shot above, you're looking from the canal into the boat slip, with the guest house just beyond the fence. The tall flag pole-looking thing that's sticking up in the middle of the shot is actually a mooring bollard or pole. It will be trimmed down to six-feet above the concrete walkway that will be cast (you can see the gray line at the bottom of the fence. This marks the level of the walkway when it's cast). The remaining six-foot pole will be filled with rebar and concrete and have a rounded concrete dome on it's top.

The theory is (which I 'borrowed' from Pastor Doug's boat moorage, just up the canal), is that if canal water overtops the banks of the canal, and assuming we have a boat moored there, that the boat will simply ride up the poles and stay relatively safe and in proper position. That's the theory anyway.

Here's a few more pictures that will help give you a good idea of the work that has gone on. The project probably has used around two-thousand bags so far. I don't know how may bags of concrete, rebar, and loads of gravel and sand. A fair bit of all those materials though. I'll try to find what the tally is and post it later on.
North Side of Slip To Channel
From North End Looking South To Slip
Another View of the Slip Area
Showing Elsie's Side of the Slip And South
Elsie's Side South From the Slip
May and Craig and Dianna - Looking At the Project
Mae and Craig came over to drop off a big bag of books for Dianna's lending library (books are like gold down here). They wanted to see how the project as coming along, so I also took the opportunity to snap a few shots. They're also getting ready for an extended absence from the area. They're cashing in some air miles and taking a trip to Australia and Bali - the lucky stiffs. Not that I'm all that stoked on seeing Australia, but Bali has interested me ever since I saw the Balinese paintings by Paul Gauguin when I was eleven or twelve.

Once the guys get the walls done, then they'll let it sit for a month or two, so it has time to settle - both the bulkhead walls and the fill behind the walls. This will be before the beam or chain and the concrete walkways are cast. So, there's still a ways to go before it's finished.

27 January, 2010

Burn, Baby, Burn

Our first wildland fire of this year's dry season.
Racing For the Trees
Yesterday, about 3:30 PM, we were in the house and heard the unmistakable sound of snap, crackle, and pop. No, not the candy-coated cereal, but a hot, fast-moving fire on the bush-covered lot just north of Mae and Craig's lots.

I grabbed my cell-phone and called 9-1-1 to report it. Wildland fires here are treated much differently than they would be up in the Northwest (Oregon/Washington/British Columbia). The 9-1-1 folks were pretty laid back. They took down the location, maybe took down my name, and wanted to know, of course, whether any homes were involved. None were at the current time.

It was obvious that nothing was going to happen as a result of my phone call, so I pushed a little bit, asking them specifically to call the fire department and police. They grudgingly allowed that they might call the "fire house".

After that I went outside with Dianna and we trotted out to the gate to take a look. I immediately was ready to charge the hoses and begin setting a defensive perimeter. But, as we watched, it became obvious that the threat would not be to our place.
Blowing From the East
By now, we were out on the street and were joined by Denis and Vivien, who have the house across the road from us and were under the most immediate threat if the wind shifted.

My phone started to ring and disconnected - not unusual down here. So, I went to my missed call menu and dialed the first number there. It turns out that wasn't who just called, but it was Craig. The same Craig who owns the lots just adjacent to the fire, so I briefed him on what was happending.
Transport Police Arrive
About that time, the Corozal Transport Police arrived and cruised down the road looking things over. And shortly thereafter, Craig also showed up. He had been at the Lumba Yaad purchasing a rosewood board (beautiful too) for his porch, so he had just mounted up and headed over here.
Craig Talking to the Transport Police
A couple of years ago, Craig had a scary experience with his property here. One of his workers lit a fire to burn debris (common practice here) and left for the day. That fire took off and burned, similar to this one. Craig decided there was nothing he could do here and he had workers waiting for the board, so he left.

About this time, Denis and Vivien invited us over to their place to have a few beers and watch the fire from the shady comfort of their palapa. Well, that sounded like a grand thing to do, so we did.

Dianna and I ran back across the road, grabbed a small cooler of beer ourselves, told Cody, our caretaker, where we were going, and headed back across to Denis and Vivien's place.

We all got set up under the palapa, opened some ice-cold Belikins and proceeded to watch the surrounding countryside burn up. The fire was still not crossing Craigs vacant lots so we felt pretty safe doing that, and the wind was holding steady, blowing out of the ENE.

Fire and beer. Isn't that one of those combinations they warn against? Ahh, what do 'they' know anyway?

About 15 minutes later, the Corozal fire brigade showed up with their nice shiny fire truck.
Fire Department Arriving
They turned around just south of our place and then stopped to watch the fire as well.
Shiny, Shiny
We went over to talk to them and told them what we knew of any houses in the area. There was one place to the northwest of the fire and the rest was just bush till it got to the highway and the other little villages along it.

They finally decided they would drive over to Ranchito and cruise the perimeter over there. As they left, we headed back to the palapa. Besides our beer was empty and we needed new ones.

About 5:00 PM, the fire more or less became ho-hum. We all decided we'd pack it in for the day, sure that we'd be hearing crackling most of the night. It'll be interesting to see what the burn area looks like today. I'll take pictures if anything looks interesting.

It turns out, the most exciting thing about the fire was that it disturbed a whole flock of egrets and white herons from the swamp near there. They all left in a huge cloud of white.

Just like when Craig called in his fire a couple years ago, the agencies responded, I'm sure, because the Gringos got excited... and they were right. Even though it burnt vigorously for a while, it pretty much self-contained, and became a non-issue. This time.

20 January, 2010

Kitty and Orlando

This is sort of a love story. I say that because I'm only getting one side of it - and then only sporadically.

Two little love birds
Sitting in a tree.
First comes love
Then comes marriage
Then comes Orlando with a baby carriage

A little over a month ago, I started getting text messages on my cell phone from Kitty. At first, I just deleted them as I thought they were some new-fangled spam method to get me to respond to some enticing chica and run up my phone bill through some surreptitious back-billing scheme or something.

I'd get a new message at first about once a week, always from Kitty. Then she burst my bubble when she mentioned some dude named Orlando. Apparently Orlando was her squeeze. She had the hots for him and was trying to get him to text back to her.

Then, it wasn't only texting, she said she had sent him some pictures of herself. I immediately went to my 'downloaded pictures' area on my phone - nothing. Well, that was a let-down.

Along about that time, I did tell my wife that I was being cyber-enticed by Kitty, but that she was interested in Orlando. I wondered how long the romance would continue if she kept sending her love messages to me instead of Orlando.

Dianna, always being the practical one, suggested I text Kitty back and tell her she's not getting through to Orlando. There was a novel idea. I hadn't thought of that. I had been living vicariously, snooping through messages meant for someone else.

I supposed that would be the right thing to do. I'm sure Kitty doesn't have a boat-load of money to keep texting all over the neighborhood. So the next message that came in (they come a little more frequently now, two or three times a week) I tried to answer her, telling her that "Orlando isn't at this number."

Apparently there must be a glitch somewhere, because after trying about three different times, each time I got "Phone number does not exist. Check your number and re-dial." as an answer.

Well, I'm still getting messages from Kitty for Orlando. Sometimes they're in Spanish, sometimes in English. I'm now getting to the point where I wish I could text her and say "Kitty, I don't like you. Leave me alone. - Orlando," just to get the messages to stop.

Well, either that, or Kitty needs to make them steamier...

16 January, 2010

My Forte

Unsuccessful repairs. Oh, sure, I'm successful at repairing most things I come across, being reasonably handy. But, once in a while, when it absolutely, positively, has to be successful... Guess what?

Case in point. My swimming pool has a Hayward pump for it's main pump. It's a two-horsepower job. Well, it's had a leak for a while.
My Hayward Pump Motor (Rear Cover Off)
I was unable to stop the leak, so just let it continue. Finally, the leak got bad enough that every time it ran, huge amounts of water would be all over the floor of the pump house. Not that the pump house is large, mind you, it's about 30 square feet, or less.

So, I was forced into action. First, I disconnected the pump and had Joe, my electrician, install a seal kit which a friend of mine was kind enough to bring back from the States. That stopped the leak, but made it apparent that the motor bearings were on their way out.

Ok. I spent a couple of days researching the pump motor on the Intertubes, and was able to amass a small pile of information, including directions on disassembling the motor.

Yesterday, I decided to give it a go. I digress. It was necessary for me to disassemble the motor as that is the only way you can see the motor bearings and read the numbers for the front and rear bearings. You need the numbers to be able to order the correct replacement bearings.

So, I leapt in and started disassembling the motor. It went reasonably well to a point. First, I had to find out how to remove this and that - mostly that. It took lots of consulting the diagrams and instructions and user manual and stuff like that.
Motor Showing Wrench Placement
The wrench was needed to stop the shaft from turning to be able to loosen the impeller - the thing that slings the water with gusto down whatever pipe you connect to the pump. I was able to get the impeller off successfully.
This Piece Goes Just Behind the Impeller
Same with the next two or three pieces behind the impeller. Then suddenly, you're just left with the motor.
Last Piece and the Motor
So, now, you still have to open up the motor so that you can slide the shaft out and look at the bearings. Not only look at them, but read the numbers on them. Front and back bearings may be different, there's no way to tell without actually looking at them.
Where Are the Through Bolts?
To open the motor, you have to remove four 'through bolts'. these run the entire length of the motor. I was expecting bolts. You know, something fairly thick, that looked like a bolt. Not so here. What there was, was four tiny (¼" diameter) heads with a body of about an eighth of an inch. No slots for a screwdriver and barely enough room to get a ¼" socket head on them.

The first two came off with no undue problem. The third was reluctant. So reluctant, in fact, that it broke just after the threads at the front end. The last one wasn't much better. the head stripped. That is, its head became rounded so the socket head merely spun.

Well, that effectively ended my repair of the pump motor. A nice afternoon project up in smoke.

What to do, what to do? For now, the only thing to do was to carefully put everything back together. I was able to do that successfully, with no left over parts (other than the broken through bolt, which I didn't reinstall).

I took it back down to the pump house and hooked it back up. Thankfully, I was able to get it running. In fact, it seems to run a little smoother than it has for quite a while.

And then, this morning. I checked several pool supply websites and finally ordered a replacement motor along with another seal kit. Now, I can do all the work myself. I just hope the current motor holds up till the replacement arrives.

I'm also trying to locate some spare through bolts so I can continue to try and rehab the current motor (maybe just knock the rounded head off and then remove the shaft to get the numbers, and maybe remove the remainder of the broken bolt). It would be nice to have a backup motor, just in case.

It's just like remodeling a house - nothing ever goes quite according to the plan.

Like I always say, "If it was easy, it wouldn't be any fun!" Fun, fun, fun, fun, fun!

09 January, 2010

I Don't Think It's Big Enough

This morning, I went out to accomplish several things, not necessarily in the order listed.

1) To score some snacks for the Men's Group Meeting today - necessary while we debate and solve all the world's major problems, such as this link that I sent to Jim yesterday:
(http://www.examiner.com/x-2383-Honolulu-Exopolitics-Examiner~y2009m12d28-US-military-is-liaising-with-extraterrestrial-life-according-to-independent-sources). Now, if that's true, or even if it isn't, it'd at least make a dynamite TV series, or a whole slate of block-buster movies, 3-D or not; and

2) Get a couple pounds of 1" and 1½" drywall screws. Not that I need them for hanging drywall, but they're just handy for fastening all manner of stuff to other stuff; and

3) Pay for our bi-monthly dog food co-op shipment. Unfortunately, I was early on that one, so I'll have to try a bit later; and

4) To cruise by Billy and Pam's place and snap a photo or two for them of the tree on their place that decided to give up the ghost. Here's a shot of the tree:
If No One Was Around, Did It Make A Sound?
Returning from that mission, I took a shortcut (as you do) to D's Super Market, and naturally got a mite confused. Not that I was lost - I knew I was in the general area. Anyway, while cruising around, I happened to see something I had seen almost a year ago, and had been looking for it, more or less, ever since. Seeing as how I had my camera handy, I pulled over and snapped a few shots of the most bodacious gate I've ever seen in Corozal.
Hence the Posting Title
This thing is monstrous. It's so big it just overwhelms the rest of the fence and the three houses in the compound. I'm pretty sure it wasn't made by the welding shop down at the Texaco station in Corozal. My guess is it was imported from China. I wonder what the duty on something like that would be?

After that, I did find D's and got the necessary snacks for the meeting. On leaving D's, I stopped at Lano's Supply for the screws. As luck would have it, they were out of 1" and 1½" drywall screws (as happens here in the 3rd world. they did have some 1¼" drywall screws, so that's what I got.

That comprises my work project for the day. Now, all I have to do is prep for the meeting. Make sure I have the proper regalia (shorts and t-shirt) and all my supporting paraphernalia (beer and the snacks). Yup, I'm good to go.

08 January, 2010

Early Morning Concert

Each morning, just before sunrise in downtown Corozal's Central Park, there's a free concert put on by, oh, about 400 to 500 amateur singers.

Central Park Concert
(Please Note: Although this is a large file, you should
be able to play it ok as it's been converted to a Flash file)


Oh, didn't I mention the singers are most, if not all of the grackles (black birds) who live in and around Corozal? It seems that Central Park is their favorite roost and everybody who's anybody just has to be there and take part in the morning chorus.

This morning, while walking the girls, we traversed Central Park as we do most mornings. Today, we were a few minutes early, so had most of the birds still in the trees, just getting ready for the day's work.

The video really doesn't let you see just how many birds there are roosted in the trees of Central Park. The sound gives a pretty fair approximation of what it sounds like. Crank your volume to get the full effect. It's not unusual to hear the concert from several blocks away (Maybe that's where Hailey's learned about noisy music).

You can also hear some human-type music mixed in. That's the ladies who clean the park benches and walkways from all the grackle detritus each morning... They've got their reggae cranked as well.

Whenever you're in Corozal, you really owe it to yourself to get out of bed well before sunrise and hotfoot it down to Central Park to take advantage of this extraordinary event that takes place every day.

06 January, 2010

Practicing for Saturday

It's been cool the past couple of weeks. In fact, the pool hasn't been warm enough to even think of getting into it. Lately, however, it's been downright cold. In fact, the past two mornings, I've worn gloves and a jacket while walking the dogs. We've even resorted to a second blanket on the bed.

I really can't stay
Baby it's cold outside
I've got to go away
Baby, it's cold outside
- Louis Armstrong, from the album, The Greatest by The Greatest

During the day, if you're not doing something to burn calories (work of some sort) the house is pretty chilly.
Dianna Staying Warm This Morning
And, even if you are doing some work - I was out on the back porch cutting and installing trim pieces to finish up our porch screening project. There was a slight breeze which managed to keep me with goose bumps pretty much the whole time.

Now it's the afternoon, and my one project for the day is finished, I'm just about ready to put on my lounging pants, socks, and sweatshirt.

We've been joking about installing a fireplace. It is definitely something to think about. I did find a little candle-powered space heater that I really want to try. It used three terra cotta clay pots and an oil candle. (http:www.heatstick.com). Something to play around with anyway.
________________________________
Here's a quick update on the canal bulkhead project. The guys are making good progress. With the weather being cold, the wind comes out of the north, so that pulls the water out of the bay and the canal, lowering the water level, which makes it much easier for them to place the initial bags for each segment. Especially in the boat slip area where they're working now since that is quite a bit deeper than the canal itself.
Rounding the Bend On Elsie's Side
As you can see above, quite a bit of progress has been made. The pipes you see there, the larger, nearer pipe will have a small extension added and will be run through the bulkhead. The smaller, pipe further back, was a temporary pipe added just to drain off some rainfall that kept accumulating. We'll be filling that area with some leftover marl and that problem will go away.
Lowering a Bag Into Place
The whole project takes time. First they mix a dry mix of cement, gravel, and sand, as normal except no water. then it's poured into the bags so that each bag lays with about six inches in height. As each bag is lowered into the canal, it's dunked into the water and gently sloshed around to wet all the concrete mix. Then it's positioned on the wall. As necessary, rebar is added to help strengthen the whole thing. A little walking on it helps settle it into position, and, voila, we have a wall. The crew can mix, fill, and position about 110 bags a day.

________________________________
I received an interesting email the other day. It came from our old landlady, Linda. Well, not that she's 'old', I guess I should say, our 'previous' landlady. That's better. In it she said, her daughter, who's now living in the apartment, received a latter for me from the Washington State Department of Revenue. I thought immediately taxes.  But, Washington doesn't have any income tax, so that couldn't be it. She asked what I wanted her to do - open it and email me about the contents, send it to me, or pass it on to our friends who kind of 'manage our affairs' while were down here. That sounds so hoity-toity (What they do is send stuff to us that we buy online and can't get the vendor to ship it to us directly, send us some junk mail, take care of other stuff that is extremely awkward to try and do from out of the country, and keep us tuned in on the neighborhood since we left) Thanks, Owen and Sandy. We owe them so many Belikins by now...

Anyway, I asked Linda to open the envelope and tell me what it said. Which is what she did. Of course, I was hoping it was my long lost uncle who died, leaving me with millions of simolians, a castle in Scotland, and a hereditary title that made me the 19th Duke of something or other.

Linda said she hated to burst my bubble, but no uncle. Turns out it really was from the WA Department of Revenue, Lost Property Division. They said they had some money for me from a radiologist I had visited some time back. Apparently I over paid them. They couldn't find me, and turned it over to Revenue to try to find me. A whopping pile of money (less than $200.00 US, by the way). She gave me the reference number, their URL, and some other particulars so I could check it out myself.

It was fairly easy to get logged in, prove I was who I said I was and now, all I have to do is wait and they'll send me a check (or, warrant, as it's called in State government lingo).

Thanks Linda. That was almost like winning Lotto - except without so many of those pesky zeros in the number. Much easier to deal with.

So, pretty soon, we'll be able to buy that fireplace and maybe some wood to go in it! Next, matches!

02 January, 2010

Trash Metal Has Come To Corozal

Even though I've written some about Hailey's Beach Bar just up the road from us, and lauded their hamburgers and the fact that they're the only bar in town serving draft Belikin beer, I really hate to write about them again as it's a disappointing reason to write about.

They seem to have gone out of their way the past couple of months to royally piss off all of their neighbors and the surrounding area (we live over 1/2 mile away, as the crow flies) with the excessive noise coming from their establishment.

Not only is the noise (I'm not calling it music, because at this distance, all we usually get is the thump of the bass) extremely loud, but it frequently goes on well past 2:00 AM. In fact a couple of weeks or so ago, it went till about 4:15 AM, and just after Christmas, the racket was going strong till about 5:15 AM.

This evening seems to be the corker. I don't know if this is their last gasp - maybe they've lost their lease (one can only hope). They've brought in a band that sounds like they'd like to be able to play heavy metal, of the variety commonly called 'thrash metal'. That's what it would be called if they could only play.

Oh, they have the volume and we're getting the benefit of the hoarse, deep-throated roars that pass for vocals, and the hard-driven drums. It probably wouldn't sound too bad if there was some talent there. Lord knows, I used to really get off on Black Sabbath (the early days, before Ozzie became a known quantity) and a few others, Deep Purple, Led Zep, and even threw in some Judas Priest, etc.

Now, as much as a good heavy bass riff should feature in metal music, that's pretty much all I don't hear, so even that experience is wasted. Of course, it's only 9:30 PM, so there's probably plenty of time for something to develop.

There's been a campaign in the neighborhood to get Hailey's to tone it down a bit at night. Like following the town ordinance for noise (midnight is the cutoff). During the day, they generally play a stereo at a volume that you can even carry on a conversation while sitting close by. But, at night, it's a different situation.

The campaign has encouraged folks to send complaint letters to the Corozal Police Department, the local Liquor Licensing Board, and the Town Mayor. The folks at Hailey's have decided that the neighborhood is out to shut them down, which is not the case. We just want them to un-crank the volume knob.

Our guess is that their business probably won't suffer too much as a result even with the volume down. A friend of ours went up their one morning at 1:30 AM, after enduring a sleepless night, to talk to them about the noise. She reported back that the bank of speakers from the DJ were aimed out to the water. No one was sitting outside anywhere near the speakers. the six customers Hailey's had at the time were all sitting inside. She asked them why they didn't bring the speakers inside to control the noise. Their answer was that it would be too loud for them!?

Like I said, their burgers have been good, the draft beer has been good also, but there are things to be said for a reasonable night's sleep. I can put up with a DJ's music till midnight, although I think, since we live over 1/2 mile away, that it seems reasonable to think their music is just a tad louder than it needs to be. I just wish, with the metal tonight that there was some talent and not so much 'trash'.

Since there is a 'hotel zone' right there, with Tony's Inn and Beach Resort, Corozal Bay Resort, and Hotel Paradise Bay Villas - all in close proximity to Hailey's. There's at least a couple others further away from Hailey's, Copa Banana Guest House and Almond Tree Resort. Keep in mind though that they're closer than my place. I can't believe any of them are happy with this current noise fest.

I'd hate to see Hailey's go away. They do have good burgers, and other food too along with the good beer and a great location... But, if the noise situation keeps going the way it has, and with tonight, I'd have to say, it's getting worse, perhaps going away would be the best thing. At least we'd get some sleep.