January 29, 2022 Saturday

Things have been pretty busy here in paradise.  The weather has been fantastic and we are loving it!  Yesterday the wind speed was 2 mph!!  Today is breezier and it feels great!  I worked on clearing the jungle along our driveway this afternoon.  Richard took my picture.  I dressed in long pants tucked into my BOOTS!  My long sleeve UV protected shirt, gloves, sun glasses and UV wide brimmed hat and of course, my white war paint on my face! The sun and bugs and environment will not touch my body! I love working on our property.  The crew did a great job but there is still plenty for me to tackle.  

Yesterday, the UV Sterilizing equipment arrived.  We picked it up and discovered they only sent a bulb!  Richard called the company and they are going to try again.  So we will continue drinking bottled water. Just amazing!  The airport called and said my Cost U Less order had arrived.  We raced to get it only to discover someone else picked it up.  After driving all over, turns out the airport thought it was mine by mistake.  So I still await my Cost U Less order.  We ordered a new ceiling fan yesterday to be sent on the barge.  I'm anticipating a long wait.  

After supper last night Richard and I went for a nice bike ride.  It was fun to get on a bike again.  This morning I walked again.  Mid morning there was a sailboat in front of our house and it just sat there. As I was watching and wondering, they suddenly fell over!  Not seeing any activity, Richard got in his kayak to offer help.  Thankfully, everyone was fine and eventually got upright and carried on.  For a deserted island, we sure have a lot going on! Luckily, I had time to relax in a hammock this afternoon and do a little reading.  Awesome!  

This afternoon, Richard dressed in his finest Iowa State gear, headed to Iggy's to watch ISU play basketball.  Go ISU!!  

 

January 26, 2022 Wednesday

 We have been so busy enjoying our lovely paradise that I have been remiss in writing.  Richard is busy right now building us a new kayak dock.  The previous one has disappeared!  Hopefully, someone is enjoying it somewhere.  Maybe a big wave carried it off!  

Our friends, visiting the island for the week, are leaving in the morning.  It has been fun catching up!  That week went fast.  Right now it is 81 degrees, 68% humidity, and 71 is the dew point with a wind speed of 6 mph here on our island.  They are not heading back to the bitter cold of Iowa but it will be an adjustment for them, just the same.  

The barbecue held on Saturday evening at the Hungry Iguana was so much fun!  There was a live band that sounded absolutely professional!! They played all my favorite songs!  The band members are all from here on LC.  

I still am trying to get food and supplies sent over from Grand.  Cost-U-Less has had my order for almost two weeks now!  Kirk Market is sending things finally to arrive on the 2:30 flight today.  I'm crossing my fingers!  Richard has talked to the guy from the marina to come service the boat motor.  He said he would arrive last week and we haven't heard a word from him!  Nothing!!  Now we have hired a different guy who used to work for Harbor House Marina on Grand.  He has started his own company.  This is a young guy and he is very good at what he does.  He will show up!  Yes!  It has always been hard to get things done on the island but now it is next to impossible.  Thanks COVID!  We have to be very patient here.  I called Grand to pay our vehicle insurances and it took half an hour.  The girl said she was checking things.  While holding she held "Hello" "Good Morning so and so! How are you?" conversations with several people.  All conversations for me to hear.  I interrupted her and said my battery was running out on my phone and I needed to end the call. Gave her my card number and hung up!  What a riot!!!  

Yesterday, Richard and I played a new game called Qwirkle. Emily and Sheldon introduced us to it over Christmas.  It is great for 2 people or 4.  

I have been in the sun but well protected at all times.  I'm not keen to loosing any more of my body parts!

January 20, 2022 Thursday

 We have been busy here on Little Cayman.  The weather has been glorious and we are so grateful to be here. The new UV Water system arrived and we discovered it was missing half of the parts.  Even the UV bulb was not there!  Crazy!  The company is starting over and sending a new one.  In the meantime, we are using bottled water.  

Today, we tested negative again on our Covid test.  It is day 10 so now we are free at last!  Yay!!  Tomorrow we will go to Southern Cross Club for pasta night.  We are going with two other couples. We are all ready to celebrate!  Then on Saturday we are all going to The Hungry Iguana for their outdoor barbeque.  They will have live music too.  So fun!  

I have been going on a long walk every morning and really enjoying it.  When I get home I do a workout as best I can here with limited equipment.  This morning after my walk, I relaxed on the beach.  Our beach is so lovely.  I'm  hoping to get my bike going here soon.  

The guys are going fishing tomorrow morning!  I'm counting on a big catch.  Could use a nice wahoo or mahi mahi!  The seas are supposed to be calm. 

January 17, 2022 Monday

We had a cloudy day here in paradise today.  Very unusual but also enjoyable.  Last night (evening) we had a big thunderstorm!  Tons of rain and wind!  I had a load of clothes on the line so they had an extra good rinse. Today the humidity and dew point were both 64 and the temp was 79.  Super comfortable conditions.  Did my workout and wasn't overheated!  Just got back from a gorgeous evening walk.  

Richard is at "Man Monday".  All the guys get together to gossip in reply to "Ladies Night" on Tuesday evenings.  What a riot!  

We are enjoying our time here so far.  I am already relaxing.  It's been a whole week here now.  That went fast!  Cutie Pie showed up in the driveway this morning.  He looks very mature now.  I'm sure its him!  Or one of his offspring?  

Richard is finally rounding the corner from his big virus.  It was a doozy!   

January 13, 2022 Thursday

I slept very good last night here in paradise!  This morning the wind had switched and picked up a little.  It made for very good walking weather.  So enjoyable!  We are slowly getting settled here.  Brought the outside table and chairs from the storage room today.  

Richard is still under the weather so we are taking it easy.  There is no rush!  We got our vehicle licensing done today.  We finally have an island phone so I tried to order some food from Grand.  I was unsuccessful.  People just aren't working much on Grand.  I'll try again tomorrow.  I'm trying to get used to how quiet it is here.  Much more quiet than normal.  

That's about it, oh!  I did laundry and of course hung it outside.   

January 12, 2022 Wednesday

Slept last night with all the windows open.  What a joy!  It is super quiet here.  After breakfast I went on a long walk and it was dead quiet.  Almost hurt your ears it was so quiet! Crazy!  

Good news!  Richard and I both tested negative on our Covid tests again today.  I was so worried as Richard has a very bad cold!  He was coughing all night again.  Hard to get any sleep when coughing and I didn't sleep either!  It is fine though, as I am in paradise!  

Yesterday our UV bulb went out on our water purification system.  We have extra bulbs, but the casing holding the bulb and seal is plastic.  It disintegrated when opening it.  Today we ordered a new system.  Costs a fortune but luckily, money grows on trees!  The new system will be here the end of the month.  I bought a jug of water and will boil water.  We have a rope filter so there is no sediment.  Every year we have some issue to deal with.  The surprise is discovering what it is on arrival!  Our island phone didn't work either.  Flow said if you don't use it for a year they keep all your "top up" money and take your number away.  We had no notice this is how it works!  $120.00 flushed down the tank!!  So we had to buy a new Sim card and get a new number.  We will have to have a plane in place for when we leave.  Maybe we will leave our phone with someone and have them use it every once in awhile when we are in the USA. 

We visited with friends today for a bit.  They are leaving in the morning.  We will get together with others when Richard is feeling better.  The water is super flat right now as there is almost no breeze at all.  The sky is gorgeous.  I am so lucky to be here and see it all.   Tomorrow we will get our vehicles licensed again and Richard needs to renew his Cayman drivers license.  I'm hoping to get my bicycle moving again.  I feel like a good ride around the island is what I need.  

Tonight, I cooked.  We ate out last night so we were ready for a home cooked meal.  My grill still works so we had New York Strip Steaks (brought from home), baked potatoes and broccoli.  All prepared on the grill!  Easy peasy!  

   

January 11, 2022 Tuesday

 Hello Little Cayman!  Richard and I arrived yesterday around 3:00 Cayman time.  We actually left Ames on Sunday and flew to Charlotte, N.C. and then on to Miami.  We overnighted there so we could take a Cayman Airways flight to Grand Cayman.  Cayman is only accepting Cayman Airways flights to the island.  The pandemic rages on!  It was eerie landing on Grand.  We were the only plane and only a few of us on it.  The airports in the US are bustling!  Cayman is still shut down to tourists so the place is deserted  Very sad!  

The weather is spectacular!  The sky is so pretty here.  We headed to the Georgetown Yacht Club to enjoy lunch on Grand.  Grand is like a ghost town. 

We flew on to Little Cayman, got in our truck and arrived at the house.  Everything looked beautiful!  Marc and the crew had cleaned up the property and did a spectacular job!  I'm impressed!  They power washed the whole outside of our house too!  My windows are shiny clean and everything is spotless!  I love it!  Turns out I love things super clean!!!  Who knew!

I got everything unpacked last night.  Seems I can't stop until it's finished.  I slept good eventually but it took me awhile to adjust to the humidity and temp.  What a difference from Iowa!  It is so great to be here.  I am missing that the kids won't be coming though.  

There is hardly anyone on the island.  It is so strange.  It's like we are here alone.  Tomorrow we get tested for Covid again.  Hopefully, we will still be negative.  Our friends Marcia and Mark are leaving island tomorrow.  They planned to stay longer but duty calls.  We will miss them.  Gayle and Ian are still here.  Thank heavens!  The tiny resorts are empty.  Even Beach Resort has only 8 guests!  

Prices at the tiny grocery store here have gone up immensely!  I'm going to call places on Grand to find some better prices and have things flown over.  Hopefully, even with flight charges it will save some money.  

It sure is great to be back, even if things are a little quiet.