3-11 more pics

thatsa "klowd." They appear in the sky often. I've seen weirder clouds here than back home. I saw one that was shaped like a fourteen pound bowling ball. True story.



This is the water, taken from the lot. That's actually what it looked like. This is not a genetically altered photograph.



One of these photos is a close up of the other.



"Open."


Greetings from Eleuthera.

HOmeless dogs. WHich is almost all of 'em, unfortunately.

3-11 phottos and what not

Make sure you make a mental note of what this looks like. This is your before picture. Frame it. Then hold it up to the magnificent dwelling that will soon be yours to enjoy any time you like.



I never thought I'd give a damn about a sunrise, or have ANYthing nice to say about one, but this one was tolerable.



sun "set"
Greetings from Eleuthera.

3-11 pic lickles

hooverville, modern day



boat that washed up after the crazy windstorm. some were saying it was like fifty mph, or more I forgot. It was frickin' WINDY. I would have gotten out and walked around, but the rain was going sideways with it, and I didn't want to sleep soaking wet. Otherwise, it's kind of exciting. Unless you're on a boat, in which case it's rather nerve wracking. Exhibit A above. Ruth and I got caught in one blow north of here by Harbour Island, and that sucker pulled the anchor free and sent us HUMMIN sideways toward the other rocky shore. We smacked another boat, got our anchor fouled in their anchor line, and it took all our brawn to pry them two boats apart and get us set again safe. Anyway. Don't mess with the wind, kids. THat's a pair of pants hanging out of the side there where it got split in two.


bad omen? (we're on buccaneer road in case you missed that)




sunset schmunset
Greetings from Eleuthera.

3-11 photroes

el troca. she finally arrived, my new home.







this is a close up of "the sun."






Greetings from Eleuthera.

This is a big ball of termites that's bass crazy kickin' it across the road. We had one just like this on our property except it is less tall after the bulldozer ran over it a few times.

Whoops. There was a caption in that last post of a plam tree stump. Or "palm" as they call them here. It's the one with alla them lil ole holes up in dere.

before



kelvin. Guy's a badass. Similar mind to mine, (well, him, Joe, and Nathan too) McGuyveresque. Picture of old boy here with his homemade coconut gathering harness that he invented.












This here is Rachel. I'll just say she is pleasantly neurotic, and leave it at that. Very cool person. Totally nuts and very sweet.
Greetings from Eleuthera.

this was taken from above




that thars a pitcher a tha wind





This tiny kitchen held many awesome conversations with these two over the time they were here. Brothers, two great guys. FUnny how a tiny kitchen, three big mouths and some rum can make some good buddies in a short time. ANd yeah, that's the whole kitchen.





This speaks for itself.




Greetings from Eleuthera.
Does this little boat look familiar? Somebody stole our idea to come over in a macgregor, or something similar. It looks just like the boat Ruth and I lived in for those 6 or so months, parked in the same spot... that girl on there isn't nearly as capable though. Or the man so pretty.

This shadow is my and the truck's silouhette that I was hitchhiking on.



Greetings from Eleuthera.

try this one instead... 3-11-10

Greetings from Eleuthera.

Whoops. Yeah, okay, let me try that again. This photo goes with the caption below...

the exciting part,

Greetings from Eleuthera.

Okay, I think this picture says the most, if I had to pick one. Just in case I get hit by a bus or swept off by a twister, I thought I'd get this one up here so that you guys have SOMEthing to see to understand what's up, in case any one happens to... ya know... read this. (you guys sure are quiet out there, if you are reading).

Anyway. That's my man Zhivago. As in "Dr." He's also known as Rasta, the Physician of Excavation. He's pretty damned good, man, I'll say. One of the teeth fell off the excavator, and he used it to pick through the debris very delicate- like. Like a surgeon. As my friend Benjamin once said (are you reading this, you old fart?) You have to treat it gently, like a woman... but not as gently as you might think.

Anyway, he's pretty good, I ran around pointing at what I wanted done and running up and down the hill scoping it out, marking stuff, etc., and he dug it out, shaped it and flattened it. This took about three days, almost 2 grand, but well worth it. I'm borrowing him again tomorrow, and we're gonna dig the septic field, a flat spot on the bottom of the lot, and clean up some of the debris. The money though, yikes, it be a-flyin out the do.





The floor plan is looking kinda like this now, I don't know if you can see it from these jpegs, but it's 50 wide, 30 deep, kinda. 2 Stories, and the garage is where you drive in from the hill above.

I'm gonna post this and take a look...

3-11-10 aarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggghhh. ahem.

Greetings from Eleuthera.


I'm just writing to say I'm sorry I'm not blogging more, or writing more, but I'm not really in the spirit for it. You know how I get when I'm in the middle of something. I don't feel like talking. I feel like figuring it out and getting it done.

I'm working really hard, I'm pushing really hard to accomplish things and get people to help me accomplish things, but just like back home, there's always a maze of shit to wade through, jsut here it's moreso. On top of that, there's things like deadlines to apply, reviews that have to occur, "you have to talk to this person and he's off island" etc. I'm half working hard/half wheel spinning all the while grinding my teeth and holding my breath. I'm fairly anxious about all this. There's a few LARGE obstacles here to getting a temporary building up.

The grade. Steep. Must be worked around.
Earth movement due to steep grade. Don't want to pour a footing and have it move.
applications that must be made before footings occur.
Budget tight/overrun/not going to be sufficient, possibly.
Delays due to communication problems, dialect barriers, etc.
No water yet. "Next week." Right.
No electricity yet. We'll see.
Palms bagged up and waiting to plant. Dying.
Materials not on island.
ETc.
Need blueprints. Can't print blueprints. Keep changing blueprints. Blueprints need to be reviewed by this city next wednesday, individuals there before then, and approved by Rainbow bay before that. Tough when they change daily due to the grade taking shape.

I'll write more next week. Promise. Till then I'm busy

3-6-10

Greetings from Eleuthera.

Count Blogulus, 3-6-10

Another interesting day here. Started out with a flat tire, and as luck would have it, the tools and jack are in the trailer, which were supposed to come with the truck, since they were shipped at the same time, but that didn't happen. The shipping on the trailer was a grand, and the duty was 60 percent of that, so considering it was a 400 dollar trailer, we regretted that it got shipped, but we were already in Ft. Lauderdale, with it, and just said fuck it. So, supposedly it shipped. Ruth and I complained to each other, but to no one else of note. Just someone here and there. I went to pick up the truck, and asked about the trailer, and they said they didn't ship it because they heard we didn't want it sent because it cost too much. I have NO idea how that made it's way through the grapevine and back to Fort Lauderdale, but it did. That's the Bahamas for ya.

So, anyway, the trailer weighed about fourteen trillion tons, give or take a coupla pounds, so I had to use a jack to get it on and off the trucks. So it made sense to keep the jack with the truck right? Wrongo. I woke up to find the flat, and tried the fix a flat that I brought. No dice. Besides, I could hear it leaking. My neighbor who gave me the coffee was kind enough to loan me her jack. I could lift it, but that was it. So I hitchhiked to the nearest place that fixes tires (it took two rides to get there), borrowed a wrench, hitched back, took the tire off, hitched back to the gas station, the guy fixed it, and I hitched back with the fixed tire, and then drove down to drop the wrench off. All in under 2 hours. People remain FRICKIN' COOL here.

After that, I went to the beach and ran around in the waves for the first time today. Amazingly, my skin is not going insane from the salt. I even played with a couple stray dogs for a while first, and then jumped in. The waves were about 3-4 feet, so it was a lot of fun. A bit chilly after, but very nice. It's still cooler than normal here, maybe 10 degrees. 10 degrees cooler that is, not 10 degrees out. It was nice, the dogs put up with me even before i had my bath.

My neighbor Barbara (with the jack and the coffee and the house with not one right angle in it) keeps telling me I'm insane if I want to move a palm tree, until I finally pointed out that I'm going to need to if I'm going to build a house. She seemed skeptical, but stopped talking about it. Anyway, the royal palms are a really big deal I guess, and it's sacrilege to cut one down and they run just around a zillion dollars apiece or so, and we have about 20 of em in the way of where we need to build. So I've been fussing around trying to get water, scheming this way and that, cajoling, begging, pleading, swearing oaths, bribing, threatening, stomping, and both hollering and whispering trying to find a way to get some water so I can move these stinking abominations of the flora world. I drive ALL the way to Rock Sound to go buy a pickaxe,and 45 dollars later, I happen to be driving by "the Farm" which is a fruitstand and nursery, and I holler to the lady back there and ask what those things cost. Around $12-$18 apiece she says. I'm not even gonna get this pickaxe dirty. I'm gonna bulldoze right over those suckers, and then jump up and down on the remains.

Well, I might try to move a couple of 'em tomorrow. We'll see. I feel like Robinson Crusoe over here, counting my wealth: now I have a pickaxe, and three buckets more than I had a few days ago. I found one bucket in the garbage, and two my friends Kelvin, Joe, Stevie and Nathan gave me, who left today. (Joe has a plane. How fat is that?) Anyway, I don't need a plane. Three buckets makes me feel like a rich man. I use one for a crapper, one to wash dishes in, and clothes, and one to mix cement in. I have to try to remember which is which.

Tomorrow I plant the temporary electrical pole, but it won't be temporary if I have my way. I have a pickaxe, and 94 pounds of cement, so considering that's 1/6 of what's needed to make concrete, I can make 600 pounds with what I have, and what's laying around these roads, like sand and gravel. I might also make a boat mooring while I have it laying around (what else is it gonna do?).

I think I mentioned, screamingly, that the water department lost my application. As luck would have it, I saved the confirmation of the fax of my original application. I never do that. And then, guess what? A few days ago, my notebook was about 6 inches thick, so I "cleaned it out" by removing around 3 pieces of paper. GUess what one of 'em was? And anyway, as my good luck would have it, there's no where to throw garbage usually, so guess what? I just ran across it. So I'm going to take it to the water department after wrapping a large rock in it and throw it at the supervisor's head. That oughta get that water on in two shakes.

What else? I think I mentioned, toothgrindingly, that the boat trailer now looks pretzelesque. That's supposedly getting welded right now. We'll see how it looks when it comes out the other side. It can't be welded with that boat on there. The welder wants to lift the boat up, tipping it back on the trailer, and then do the job.We'll see how that goes. I have my camp set up better than ever, with the card table set up now, the tarp up higher so I can sit without it resting on my skull, and the stove on the table, the food is sorted, and all that good stuff. Unfortunately, I hate cooking for myself as much as I ever did, so even though I buy fresh food, it sits there staring into my guilty soul while I eat another can of cold soup. Ain't it the life though?

I'm excited to start grading this lot. I'm also afraid of the fact that it costs $200 an hour for the machine to come out here. I'm worried I'll run out of loot. Unfortunately, because our permanent foundation, or a large part of it anyway, is being made for our temporary building, that kind of puts a gun to my head to know where the permanent building will be. Also unfortunately, people are wanting finished plan approval so I can put up the temporary building. I tell them that's a problem, since there's absolutely no way that can occur, unless I just throw a plan together. I want to make a finished plan once the site work is done, grading and what have you. And it's been those pointy stinking palm trees that have been clogging up the works. Them palms, they gots ta die.

I guess that's it for now. It's ten, past my usual bedtime these days. Today, I started the day with milk leftover fromlast night and a banana, then chicken from the local barbeque $4, dried fruit brought from home, and a can of campbells chunky chicken choker for dinner. I bought a casava, i think it is, onions and potatoes, got a plantain and a green pepper from Kelvin,et al., and they gave me more potatoes when they left. I'm swimming in potatoes. I'm never gonna eat all these things. If I had a giant rubber band I could fire 'em at the palm trees. Stinking rotten palm trees.

That's it. Stop reading. Time to go home. Nothing to see here, folks. Move it along, ya rubberneckers.

Oh yeah. That reminds me. How do you keep a bunch of weirdos in suspense?

more silly business

Greetings from Eleuthera.

Okay, found the camera charger. That was a huge relief. It was in my bag, where I looked for it no less than 5 times, including totally emptying it out. It must have been in a shoe or something.

I keep revising the house plan to fit the land better, so I totally started over the other day. The architect who is the building inspector is pretty cool, and he looked at it with me, he's saying he'll help me with my structural drawings. I did the blueprint part, but I still need to produce column detail, electrical and plumbing risers,and stuff like that. It's funny, looking around here, you'd think there was no building code at all, yet it's actually way stricter than the states in some ways. Apparently there's some issue with "hurricanes" or something. Those are a pretty good drink, but I can't imagine them bothering a whole building, unless you drank about four of 'em and the whole thing started spinning around.

I'm in work mode and am not into blogging when I'm making progress and have stuff to do, but I realize it's been a while, so I'll give ya the latest in my foibles.

The boat came. THe trailer is all twisted, it looks like someone had it hooked up to a vehicle and tried to pull it around a corner and didn't go wide enough. It's really screwed up royally. This guy at G and G apparently felt bad enough that he's having a local welder try to repair it. Very cool of him, since it wasn't his fault.

Got approval for the temporary building from Rainbow Bay, but still waiting onthe City to give me their thumbs up. They don't meet for two weeks, but I'm bugging them to give me a thumbs up sooner. THe neighbors would probably appreciate that, because it looks like a hobo shantytown over there right now. My stuff is everywhere.

The water department lost my application. Yes. I'm trying to not explode as I write this. I've called them at LEAST ten times, they said they'd call me back that many, they FINALLY sent someone out to look at the lot ("I think I'm here. Is yours the one with the barbells and the card table on it?" Actual quote). SO now that they "have received" my application, they say it'll be 10-14 days to get it hooked up. You'd think they might have realized that they lost my application on one of these many, many, many phone conversations. ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH.

I can't do ANYTHING till I get water. I can't excavate, because there's a bunch of nice palms in the way, and you can't move 'em without a bunch of water. I asked my neighbor if I could have some water, and run a hose over if I pay 'em, but they use cistern water and don't want to part with any of it. I understand that Jewish people are known for being generous, but they just shook their heads. They did give me a cup of coffee though, which was delicious.

They have a pretty awesome house. There's not one right angle in it. Must have cost a fortune to build, but very cool. Makes me want to redraw everything I planned again. Very nice people though, and this lady has an amazing garden. He's running for the board here and they asked me to vote for him. I can't imagine why anyone would come here, and be on a board of anything.

SO anyway, no water.

It's unreal the amount of red tape there is to get
water
electric service
a bank account

They all want endless documentation. Kinda like the movie Brazil, except with better weather.

I dug a hole for my temporary electric pole and i have to tell ya, it's unreal how hard it is to even do that. The whole thing was mostly rocks, so it literally took about 45 minutest to dig a hole 18 inches deep. Glad I'm gonna get machines to do the excavating.

These two Haitian guys Nelson and Citizen helped me clear the lot, and when I have water, I'll start to burn all this brush they cleared. For some reason I had this horrible image of Haitian people, heard how dangerous it is, how they'll kill you over a nickel,etc. I've met maybe 6 Haitians since I've been here, and every single one was incredibly polite, kind, and positive. They were super hardworking, and only asked for $50 a day to swing the machete and clear everything. I gave 'em some extra.

I just ate grouper in a restaurant for lunch, and there were four surfer americans sitting in the place, being really rude to the waitress. It made me embarrassed, once again, for our typical collective arrogance. These people should be grateful this woman brought them this great meal, is asking "May I get you anything else?" and they're laughing with each other and ignoring her, just enjoying making her stand there. Assholes. I told the waitress I was embarrassed for the way they acted, and she sure knew what I was talking about, she said "it's fine. IT's not important." Pretty mature for a 15 year old or so. She should be teaching classes in graciousness to these guys.

I got a skype headset the other day. I might try it soon, but I hate talking on phones, so I might just leave it the box and tell you all I miss you on here. Especially you, Ruth. SOmebody go give that girl a hug for me. WIthout her, this, and me being here, would absolutely NOT be possible. She's back there making things happen that I could not do from here. No way, no how.

Four days ago was Ruth's birthday. SOmeone please give her another hug from me for that.

YEsterday was David's birthday. Someone please slug him in the arm and buy him a beer from me.

I guess I'll get going. Miss and love you all, but especially you in particular.

Huh?gs,
Jack

Big wavage

Greetings from Eleuthera.

I hate to say it, but the charger for the camera is... gone. I'm cameraless. I'm gonna try to find another charger. Wish me big luck.

I just heard some people talking about the storm the other night: the winds were in the FIFTIES. Yup, on the Beaufort scale, they describe this as STRONG GALE- shingle blowing off weather, trees uprooting, waves 23-41 feet high (depending on low fifties to high fifties- I think this must have been on the low side. No wonder the damn truck was shaking. THat was the best- I mean craziest, storm I've ever seen. I think it's 90 mph where they say you can lean into the wind and actually touch the ground without bending your knees or back.
A hurricane is anything over 73.

I better not use that straw to build the place like I was planning. Maybe sticks'll be better. Okay, gotta go play my fiddle.
-J

3-1 10 update shmupdate- it's BIRTHDAY TIME!

Greetings from Eleuthera. Yo yo yo yo. Ah, where to begin? Well, let's just start with: IT"S THE BEST 3 days of the year, Ruth's birthday today!!And Mary Lee's two days ago!!!! So how about that? Everything else pales in comparison, except for one event: Ruth felt Jackson move yesterday! Hot dog and attaboy. I was at the side of the road helping some people who broke down and I got the text. I had to excuse myself and do a couple cartwheels. So, as they kinda say in Footloose: let's hear it for the girl. Yeah, I saw it. Leave me alone. Besides, the book was better. Above is a picture of the birthday girls. Make sure you girls don't let that thing eat my baby!!


So, I moved off the extra bed of Kelvin and his mates, into the truck when it came in last friday. Getting a bank account is a trick and a half, so I can only use atm money, so I had to go every day to take out the max, watch my pennies, and then when I got the pallet that all the stuff that was in the truck was on (they make you separate it when you ship) I had 8 bucks left.

First I got the truck, and slept in that for a few days, but with no heat, it was pretty chilly, and I had to sleep sitting up in the driver's seat cuz the back was too hard and cold. Then the pallet came (and my blankets!) and that improved life considerably. It's hard to overestimate the need for a generator, a water jug (priceless), and a gas can are. ANd now I have a toolbox, a propane stove, a frying pan, and Cash's food dish which, since they turned the ole boy away at the airport and wouldn't let him keep me company, has made a splendid water pot. I made pasta last night, threw in a can of tuna, oil, seasoning, and I had me a regular hobo stew. I met a guy this morning that used to live in these caves around here, and I might go check those out still, but as of this moment, I"ve cleared a spot on the lot to camp on, set up my folding chair, and my little radio, and I'm bumping Ruth's tunes for everyone's benefit. Unfortunately, it's not NEARLY loud enough. Ah, island life.


I cleared a path from the foot of the lot to the water, which was a trick, since it's all prickers and palms and poisonwood. I got scratched up purty good, but not poisonwooded. I was purty careful. It goes out to the water, on some craggly ol' volcanic rock (prolly with lots a critters init) and then there's about a ten foot drop to the water. I don't know the depth yet, it looks deep, but as Greg Louganis can tell you, it's best to measure the depth before you jump. So the lot is further to the SOuth than I thought, according to the surveyor, but we found old markers in the brush that match his, so I reckon he's not making it up. He spray painted and orange dot on the neighbor's lot (it's a wall made out of rock) and she got all bent up about it. Didn't exactly have a conniption fit, but maybe about a third of that.

Dozers are 200 an hour, so I'm trying to plan really carefully before i get them involved. The lot is steeper than I remembered at the top, but about what I remembered on the rest, and then another drop off at the bottom. The setbacks are: no building within 15 feet of the top and bottom of the lot, but there's some contention that there's no building within 15 feet of the MARKER that's 15 feet from the lot edge. Big difference when you're on a steep hill. That would mean that to get the thing at the height we wanted, levele with the top of the property line, it would be hanging out in the air, about 30 feet high. I consider that unacceptable. I have to redraw this whole thing too, because for one thing, there's no way what I drew and put up here would work, cuz it's too long and would hang way out in the air, and two, people are saying about 150 bucks a square foot to build, and that place is way too big for anyone but that Nelson Rocker feller.


I'm scaling it down, and trying to keep all the brilliance of the original plan ina smaller space. We'll see. THe other issue I'm having is whether they'll allow the temporary buiding up before the final plans are approved. Those have to be reviewed by Governor's Harbour board, who only meet once a month. A, predicament. In the meantime, there's two guys with machetes over there clearing right now. It's getting better all the time. I'm going to look around these ruins around here to try to find some two by fours to nail together to make a right angle sticking out into the air so I can measure the rise and run of this hill in the different places. It's either that or a topographical survey ($950). I'll get my hammer. Then I can make a new plan.


There wasa wicked storm two nights ago, it was so strong that it kept trying to blow the back truck hatch up, and I had to tie it down. A 28ish foot boat washed up on the shore at James Cistern a few miles south, trashed. Mast broken, sails ripped, hull split open, there's even a pair of pants that got stuck halfway out the split. Anyway, it was blowing the water in the cracks of the back of the truck and uphill every which way, and my stuff got a bit wet. It was quite exciting. Okay, gotta go talk to the GH (governor's harbour) magistrates and find out what's what. Talk to you soon.

Love to all you cool peoples. Jack

view from el lotto




this is why you don't drive explorers. They're making such a stink about Toyota right now over floormats (are you fucking kidding me?) when Ford knew, and everyone else knew, that these vehicles rolled over easy, were top heavy, lose their grip, etc. and are crazy dangerous, yet they kept selling 'em for years. But a recall? Hell no. Why the double standard, America? And don't even mention the Pinto... another car that was not recalled no matter how throrougly their peligrosity (yup, I just made that up) was proven. So anyway, this here's the car my new friends almost died in the other day.

Buy Toyota.



The latest:

I went to check and see if the lot's still there yesterday. It was farther from town than I remembered, like 15 miles. HItched there and back. I'm sharin the fun with ya here:

This is Nathan. I call him Lefty.



Picture these guys took from Joe's plane on the way here. Joe is one of the people I'm crashing with.







the sign shop. With advertising like that, how can you miss?



The view from the library, where I am.

comment

Aww, we miss you too! Your two other sons are veeerry aware you are missing. They are curled up at the end of our bed.
I remember the Takeaway! Mmmm
Glad Eleuthera is still beautiful.
(Just a reminder the truck was initially 3500) Guess the Bahamas is still as expensive...


-I know it was really that much. But still, from a number of 400 they're working from, that's 400% in duties and shipping. Yikesouch!

How come you guys never post anything about what's going on with you...?

I made it here. Time to get to work!

Got to Eleuthera last night. At the library now,looking out at the bluest water they make. 25 bucks for a cab to town, raining, looking for some ruins to sleep in, and got to G and G in the nick of time to ask if the truck was here yet. "what truck?" was the reply.

Ah, Bahamas.

Good thing they turned away Cash at the airport. It was a royal bitch lugging all my stuff around last night , but if I had a big dog and a cage, it mighta been harder, unless i strapped him to a pallet and had him pull me around. But if I said "Chow, Cash!" Or "Mush!" He'd probably thinkit was dinner time and eat me and the pallet thinking it was mush. Luckily, he doesn't care for cereals.

So, the "what truck?" guy offers me a ride to a "cheap hotel for 50 or 60 bucks", after I told him I was going to sleep under one of the semi trailers on Cupid's key,and when I got there it was full. The lady, Jean, calls the Cigatoo inn (120 but she can get me a room for 80). THe guy next to me offers to put me up in his extra bed, Jean gets pissed (the other hotel belonged to her sister)and I leave with him. Turns out later, he was here on a boat when we were, I think I met him and his buddy in the library here. THey had just gotten back from rolling a ford explorer picking up their friend from the airport. The vehicle was totalled, they hadn't dressed their gaping wounds yet, and he was putting me up.

Ah, Bahamas.

I bought them some groceries, and went to the bar to try to get them some rum, but ended up just buying myself 2 beers and some chicken wings. Stopped by Larry and Dan's, but they're not home.



I walked to G and G today to ask again, found out the truck was sent today, gets here tomorrow, and I can get it THursday. The truck was 400 to buy, the shipping is 600, and the 60percent duty on the truck, (a surprise to me) is on the truck AND the shipping. SO it's not 240, it's 600.

AH Bahamas.

I walk back to the library to buy some internet time, and literally half a block away, guys in a pickup flag me down and offer a ride. I tell 'em where I'm going and they still insist. I ride half a block. SHortest hitchhike EVER.

Ah Bahamas.

I spent my last $3 on a sandwich at the takeaway, and after finding out I can't opena bank account here without a letter of reference from my own bank, I was terrifed that my atm card wouldnt' work, as they often are seized because the banks think it's fraud when they appear over seas. Luckily, i got some loot from the atm.

I'm 2 days from the truck. The pallet of tools is here. The trailer is missing. (can't blame the Bahamians, it's a florida company) and I didn't even bother asking about the boat. Met some cheap cement workers already, and am going to be introduced to a local builder who might have some good ideas for me. I might hitchhike up to the lot (15 miles) to bask in the glory till I can start being productive. I might stop by the hardware and buy a hundred feet of string so I can measure where exactly it is. It's 474 feet and some change from the corner. WIsh me luck.

Sleeping outside on the beach, most likely tonight, since the rain appears to be over. There's tiki huts on the beach on Rainbow bay as i recall, so no biggie anyway. The sun is shining, the smell of the beach is blowing in, the bouganvillea are in full bloom,and people are already using my name on the street when I walk by.

I miss my people, my wife, my little boy.
Yes, this place is as beautiful as I remember.