Another week goes by....

Well I managed to make it thru doing three loads of laundry, making simple curtains for two windows in the SCORE orphanage, along with sweeping, dusting and dishes before the smoke drove me crazy!!!! or crazier, as the case may be.
Dominicans are always burning something. Seeing smoke or flames is very rarely a cause for concern. Instead of clearing a field, burn it! About 50 feet away from the front gate of our apartment, someone decided to burn some trees and brush in two different lots today. I could hear the crackling in the laundry room (which is on the backside of our apartment). When I went to look, the flames were quite tall and the smoke very thick. That started about 11AM. While I could smell the smoke, it wasn't too bad. That is until the wind shifted! When I go back, my house may smell of smoke..but, oh well.
Had a crazy end of the week. Thursday the landlord, Joe, and Pabo, the caretaker, decided they were going to fix the ceilings in our apartment. Last year we had a problem for a short time with leaks in the ceiling. During one particularly bad storm, I had 9 pots out collecting drips (BIG drips!) Pabo took care of the problem, but this is a cement bldg with a cement roof. When he sealed the leaks, it trapped the moisture in. As the moisture evaporated slowly over time, I guess it affected the paint in the ceilings as it began to bubble and eventually turn to powder and fall off. The worst was my sewing room. I had a circle of bare cement three feet out from the ceiling fan and spreading! There were spots all over that room that were flaking. I couldn't even use the room to work in any more (with all the paint dust, burn soot that makes it in along with dirt it was really getting annoying!)
Anyway, they had to scrape ceilings in all but one room (Bob's tiny study has a perfect looking ceiling---most people's bathrooms are bigger then his study). So, besides the sewing room they scraped and painted the kitchen/living room, bedroom and the bathroom.
They used drop cloths. But it would have been more helpful had they folded them up and shook them out before moving them to the next room, but that's just my personal opinion : }
At the same time they were *fixing* the toilet. Bob and I got quite a chuckle out of this one. They spent literally 4 hours *fixing* the toilet. It wouldn't stop running, wouldn't always flush, occasionally had water running out of the back. They tried working with the current parts, they bought new parts, they tried jerry-rigging those parts, they re-installed the old parts. Finally at 5:00 Joe declared they were done. All of the ceilings looked great! I went in a few minutes later to flush the toilet----it didn't flush! Bob came in, I told him and in less than 5 minutes he fixed it---shortened the chain and bent the bar. ~~sheesh~~
Friday was a delightful day! Bob and I spent the day at Guavaberry. That's the wonderful beach less than 5 minutes from out apartment. We walked the beach several times; sat on lounge chairs and read, drank diet Coke, ate lunch in the outdoor restaurant (our burgers were 5" tall with the lettuce and tomato---alot of two-handed squishing required). There was a really strong breeze that day and no clouds. We sat under the shade trees and relaxed. I read outloud several chapters of "End of the Spear" by Steve Saint. Then quietly enjoyed my James A. Michener book, *Texas* --I think I only have about 250-300 pages left in that book.
Saturday Bob had to work on realigning both of our vehicles with Wilkins help. Then the cupboard in my laundry room needed some reinforcing. They finally realized they would have to remove it from the wall, reconstruct it, make new reinforcements and remount it. Three hours later I had the room back to reassemble! But I no longer fear my cupboard falling off the wall if I put another can of soup in it. This cupboard is about 8 feet long.
Yesterday I woke up with a stomach bug...let's just say I am very glad the toilet was fixed and working properly. Bob went to church, I stayed home drinking many cups of ginger ale...no Vernor's here though!
Right now we don't have any groups here so this is when we take care of the *normal* things of living. So, how's your life?