Dos meses (two months) in paradise!

A week ago Sunday we put up our “instant screen” for the front door. The dogs love it – they can go in and out and Sierra particularly likes to sit on the front porch and be a watch dog. With the iron work around that area, we can now leave the front door open and get the breeze through the house – without the mosquitoes and other flying critters coming in. It’s great and sure does help keep the house cooler!

We had a nice dinner with Glenda & Al and another couple from the States, Bill and Allison from Vermont. Glenda has asked if we’d come up an hour or so early to help her with the prep, since they were going to be out for the afternoon and wouldn’t be able to do it until last minute. Of course we were happy to be the “sous chefs” – especially since they have invited us to meals and plied us with desserts and treats ever since we got here!

Monday started off with a not-so-nice surprise. We have an air bed (like a Sleep Number bed – but the brand is Comfortaire), which needs to be reinflated every once and a while, so I decided to do that while I was making the bed for the day. It’s not tough – merely a touch of a button to start the pump. I got Steve’s side started – and all was good. Then I went to my side and once his was done, pressed the button on my remote. The pump started making a HORRID grinding sound, so I ran over and quickly unplugged it. We checked the filter, we unhooked & unplugged, rehooked and replugged and tried it again – same problem. So I pulled out the warranty paperwork and found that it was still under warranty…but we couldn’t be 100% certain it hadn’t been damaged in the move – although it had worked when we set up the bed and one other “refresh” time since then.

I sent an email to the company’s customer service department – and settled back to wait (for up to 48 hours). Imagine my surprise when less than 3 hours later I had a response – and a good one at that. They had verified we were still under warranty and once we confirmed our model # and address, they would ship out a replacement at no charge! So I quickly responded and our new pump is on its way! Now that’s what I call great customer service!!!

Casita update: the forms from the interior of the roof were stripped. Luis left, alone, in the early afternoon – which is somewhat unusual – especially since he provides the transportation for both he and Raphael!

That evening, we had a potluck barbeque with the neighbors at Al & Glenda’s house. Al grilled burgers and each family brought a side dish or dessert. Earlier in the day, I had put together a draft response for the group to review & give feedback, so we spent a few minutes discussing, then we put it aside so we could visit about more interesting topics! The group dynamics are interesting: Al & Glenda are Canadian, Yannick & Martine are French, Tony & Linda are English and of course there is us. So depending on who is talking to whom, there are conversations in French, Spanish or English…or a combo of all! It was a fun evening.

Tuesday Raphael returned with a different helper, Johnny. We aren’t sure if he and Luis had a falling out, or if Luis had another job to go to. I was going to ask Raphael where Luis was, but then realized that I probably wouldn’t understand his answer anyway! Although we had rain on and off through the day, it didn’t interrupt the work since Raphael is now doing the pañete inside of the casita.

Wednesday: We’ve discovered we have a thief living in the neighborhood! Ok, it’s not as bad as it sounds…it’s Bamboo, the neighbor dog. I stopped by Yannick & Martine’s house and noticed two dog toys on their table that looked exactly like toys our dogs have. I thought “wow, how ironic that they would have the same toys for Bamboo as we do for Sierra and Dusty.” I came home and Bamboo followed me. As is typical, he came into the house to see our dogs and when I turned around, he was dragging one of their toys toward the door! Then it clicked – those toys at his house were our dog’s toys and had been in our backyard!! That little stinker must have dragged them out through the open gate and over to his house. And one of the toys is almost as big as him!

Now the dilemma is how to broach the subject of the stolen toys with Bamboo’s parents?? Or, do we just look the other way – given our dogs have plenty more toys and probably will never miss those two? We’ll likely do the latter, but will keep a closer eye on Mr. Bamboo when he comes to visit!

We went into town to run a couple of errands and stopped at the cigar shop. When we were house hunting, Steve had bought some cigars for a friend in Kansas there & we had met one of the owners, Kira, who is from California. She and her husband, Rod, moved to the DR about a year and a half ago & bought this little coffee/cigar shop. Pam & Dennis told us when we moved down that Kira & Rod had been in a motorcycle accident, with Kira getting the worst of it – a terrible head/face injury as well as her leg. Rod had several bumps and bruises. We had stopped by shortly after we moved down & met Rod, but hadn’t seen Kira since the first time we met her.

They were both at the shop – and Kira is doing well, although she still has a pretty good shiner under her right eye and her ankle is still wrapped – and it’s been almost 8 weeks since the accident! We visited with them for a while, and met a friend of theirs, Albert, who, it turns out, lives just up the road from us. Nice guy. We told them we’d come back when we could stay longer – and maybe we can get together for dinner in the near future. They are one of a very few couples here who are close to our ages…most everyone else is at least 10 years or more older (not that that is a bad thing!).

Thursday: Our reprieve from the hot, humid days is over…today started out sunny and bright – definitely the harbinger of a toasty day. Shortly after 8, I heard a moto outside and here was Johnny, Raphael’s new helper, with two grande bags of cemento…and no Raphael! He put them down in front of the house and took off – bringing 3 bags the next time, then off again to return with Raphael. It still amazes me how they can even ride with a load like that – and nothing holding it on!! They’ve made good progress on the casita, but found it was a little tough to clean up at the end of the day when we had no electricity – which means the water pump doesn’t run either! So buckets of pool water had to suffice.

They worked quite late today – leaving close to 7 p.m. – and missed their opportunity to get home before the rain. Raphael was feeling quite smug when he pulled the rain gear we lent him out of his bag and suited up…leaving Johnny to don a lovely trash bag poncho!
And to top off the outfits for both of them…a lovely bright yellow LaSirena plastic bag for a hat. Guess since it was getting dark, their hats could serve a dual purpose – keep their heads dry and for safety!


Friday: Those DR gods…guess we couldn’t expect them to keep smiling on us forever! First – our printer/copier/scanner decided that black ink wasn’t really necessary – and of course, it’s not under warranty any longer. Steve and I will mess with it a little to see if we can get it to work…heck, what’s the worst that can happen? It won’t work any worse than it does today!

Raphael & Johnny showed up early again today (7:30) and wrapped up around 5. We miss Luis. He was very conscientious about how he left the work area at the end of the day and even though he and Raphael talked a lot throughout the day, they worked while they were talking. For some reason, Raphael seems to be less focused when Johnny is around – and Johnny’s not nearly as particular in how he leaves our yard at the end of the day. Friday night he left the hose unrolled – and left the water on with the pressure nozzle still on the hose, but closed. When Steve noticed it on Saturday morning, it had a big bulge where the pressure had built up. Fortunately it hadn’t burst the hose and drained our cistern (water storage) tank overnight! But now our hose is in need of repair, and according to Al, we may not be able to get a repair end for it – which means we will have to buy a new hose. Not a huge deal, but frustrating that it could have been prevented. Oh well, what do you do??

Friday evening Raphael told us they wouldn’t be working on Saturday – since Sunday is Dominican mother’s day (more on that in a minute). Apparently they celebrate all weekend and honestly, we weren’t too disappointed as it gave us a day that we could enjoy our house, yard and pool without having workers here – oh, and to sleep in a little bit!!

The other interesting event of Friday night was the visit from a gentleman (term used loosely here) representing the security company. He is a colonel with the military here and was dressed in full fatigues. He also owns the security company that is used at our development. He went door to door to let us know that Century 21/Perdomo, who is the management company for our development, had told him that there would be no security guards on site beginning Tuesday. We are pretty certain this is in response to our letter to them telling them that we would not pay the excessive amount they requested for a maintenance fee – when there are a number of things in our development that have been neglected & need to be taken care of first. This visit spurred another neighborhood meeting on Saturday.

So Saturday morning we did sleep in a bit and then spent some time cleaning up the construction debris around the casita and getting the yard back into a little better shape. After we got it cleaned up, Dusty spent some time checking it out.

We got in a swim as did the dogs (Sierra took 3 small laps and almost a full lap in the pool; Dusty went just half a pool length and that was under duress!). We visited with Pam & Dennis who stopped by, then left for the neighborhood meeting at Al & Glenda’s. A plan was devised for Monday. (Monday isn’t a holiday here - Memorial Day in the States). We’ll see how that goes!

Oh – and an update on Bamboo, the toy thief. I had told Glenda about seeing the toys at Jannick’s house. She asked if I had told Jannick that Bamboo had heisted them. I hadn’t, but she suggested that I should, that he would get a kick out of it. So I shared the story with him and Martine and we all got a good laugh again. Later on Sunday, Jannick brought both toys back over – after they had been washed and dried!

The cantaloupe plants are doing incredibly well. Check out how big they are after only 7 days!!

It’s amazing to us that two months has already gone by. In many ways it feels like we just got here – and in others, it seems like we’ve been here much longer – but in a good way. Hopefully everyone back home had a good Memorial Day weekend! Take care and check back again soon for more updates.

S&K