February 8,2011 Tuesday

After a warm, still night we awoke to another perfect day in paradise. It was another work day for us. Richard worked hard at the shutters. He received scaffolding from Richard the builder last night. That will definitely help. I worked more on raking the beach and then tackled the front yard. I think that is it for me. I am going to have fun for awhile now. Enough work!

The middle of the afternoon today it suddenly started to rain. It smelled so good! I just ran around in it like a nut. It didn't rain down at Southern Cross. Just our area. We enjoyed it.

I made a meat loaf tonight for dinner. At 6:30 I then headed over to the Blue Lagoon for ladies night. There was nine of us there tonight. We had a fun time. I could have eaten dinner there too but decided just to have a drink and visit.

This should be a good sleeping night tonight. The air is cooler with less humidity. Today I took some photos of the grounds. Tomorrow I will post some updates. I might do some painting tomorrow too. I just remembered that I want to paint the benches in the house. I also still have to paint the base area of the new porch. I'm not sure I can do it as it is so high up. I don't care for ladders very much.

Richard just announced he wants to do some fishing tomorrow, so it sounds like he is ready for some fun too. We think we have decided on a name for our house. Sea Shack was a good one but now we are leaning towards The Gecko Shack. Ah, decisions!

February 7, 2011 Monday

Sunday was Super Bowl Sunday. We had a hearty breakfast after awaking to a beautiful day. We worked on hurricane shutters and made good progress. I have become a painting fool! In the afternoon I decided I didn't like that bush in the middle of my beach. It was hard work but I removed it. What a difference! Then Richard started removing things on the Blue Lagoon side of our property. Now we see tons more of our beach water. It is sure nice. We'll take more photos to remember it when we are all done this year. Some of the bush stuff grew too much along the walkway next to our steps, so I tackled it. Wow, does it look nice now. This took all afternoon. We finally stopped around 4:00. Time to get ready for the Party. Boy, did I have a good time. They showed it on a huge screen, outside. The weather couldn't have been more perfect. Dinner was wonderful, of course. We met Pete and Karen. They built a new house next door to Head o Bay. Really nice place they call Mango Manor. We are thinking of naming our place the Sea Shack. Another couple who stay a week every year at SSC arrived Sunday too. It was nice to see them again.

When the game was over we hopped on our bikes and pedaled on home. It was so nice to have our new lights on our bikes. What a peaceful ride home. We enjoyed it. I did not blog as it was 10:30 when we got home. Off to bed we go.

Monday, it is back to work for us. Not a cloud in the sky all day and 85 degrees again but there we were painting and installing shutters. We do have 12 to construct. Richard is a slave driver! No snorkeling for me again today.

Tonight is leftovers for supper, so that's easy. Maybe I'll squeeze in a kayak ride. But I just heard my hammock calling me. I am going to relax a little before dinner. This easy life is the greatest!

February 5, 2011 Saturday

Another busy day on Little Cayman. Of course, the weather is still so perfect. It is just hard to believe how perfect the weather is. I will forever remember it. Today was a big day. Richard installed my new microwave this morning. It was a ton of work because he had to put a new electric box in. Before I knew it, he had drilled into sheet rock and nothing was covered and the fans were on. Sheet rock dust was everywhere. I've never seen anything like it. I cleaned all morning. I'm including photos of the new micro. It looks very nice we think.

After lunch we started on the shutters. We are trying to mass produce them. Richard constructs and I paint. We got tired so I moved on to raking again on the beach and Richard decided it was time to fish. My kayak called to me and I took off on it. The water was so smooth. Just like glass.

We hung a hammock with the gecko from Emily on the living room wall. A designer said "use what you have", so I did. It looks great but I wonder if it should be a little lower. We also took the shelves down that were in the living room and it looks way better. Now we need a picture on the wall above the sofa. We put the tiny geckos in the bathroom. Cute!

Tomorrow we head to Southern Cross Club for the super bowl game. They are planning to show it on the big outdoor screen. It should be fun. This will give us a chance to try out our new lights on our bikes too. We'll be pedalling home in the pitch black. Look out! Let the good times roll!

February 4, 2011 Friday

Today the weather was perfect again. This is like a broken record. We should have been in the water but work was calling us. Richard got all the ceiling fans installed. We now have new ones everywhere except the bathroom. The fans on the porch are fabulous. Richard the builder came today and we discussed the new bathroom plans. He will build it when we are gone. He does a nice job. He also brought me a few items from his store. Great service. We gave our old fans to the Blue Lagoon as they still work fine and we didn't want to throw them out. Also they have a few that are in pretty bad shape.

We needed a few things from the "hardware" store so off we pedalled on our bikes. It is about 3 miles to the store. Good workout. When we got back I put a pork tenderloin roast on the grill with potatoes. It was very good. Now I have leftovers too. Easy meals ahead.

This was a kind of run of the mill kind of day. I enjoyed the outdoors every chance I got. There has been tons of snow and cold back home so we are fortunate to be here and warm.

February 3, 2011 Thursday

These two photos show Brandon and I at the Wharf Restaurant on the first night on arriving at Grand Cayman on Jan. 26.

Brandon and Richard ate lunch on the "extra day" at The Lighthouse Restaurant at Grand C. The other photo is Brandon at the Blow Holes at G.C.

Here is Brandon getting on the plane to leave Little Cayman. It is a very small plane. I had to say goodby to him here.



This shot is Brandon having a drink at the outdoor rest. at the Marriot. Water in the backgroung.

Thursday I awoke after another night all alone here on the little island. I slept very well again in this fresh warm air. After a quick breakfast and some morning chores I headed to the barge location to pick up our items that we bought at Grand Cayman. There was no one else there so I tried and tried to climb up into the container to no avail. These are the containers just like on a train while waiting at the crossing gate when driving. I was getting my clothes all rust and dirt stained. Finally, Fernando, who works at Southern Cross Club, drove up to get more of their supplies. He was a sweetheart and passed my things down to me. I loaded my vehicle and drove to the new grocery store. It is called the Little Cayman Distributors. They had just received their fresh fruit and veggies on the barge. I bought some nice grapes that cost me $12.42. Yes, that is twelve! Still, I sure had fun buying groceries. I headed back to the house. This car is making life so easy here.

After a nice lunch, I headed to the airport to meet Richard's 1:30 flight. He arrived and we headed home. He got busy installing one of the new ceiling fans in the bedroom as it is very hot at night without it.

At 4:00 we headed back to "town" to return the wonderful vehicle. Perry Mclaughlin (car guy) drove us back to the house. On the way home he took us to see his house. He wanted to show us his mango trees. He has a whole orchard of them. He has a very fruitful hobby! We had to, of course, refill the gas we used in the car. They were completely out of gas so they were expecting new to come in last night. The cost went up 39 cents a gallon CY. so it will be around 45 cents US more. They get the gas here from South America and it is extremely expensive. This is why we will ride the bikes now, I guess. I made supper and then tried to write on my blog but the internet wouldn't work. I had to wait and do it the following morning. That was O.K. as I was ready to sleep anyway. This life of leisure seems to exhaust me.

We got good news that Brandon made it back to the States and is safe in his own apartment again. It is back to work and battling the cold and snow for him. Hopefully, he has some warm and fun memories to get him through. It was sure fun to have him here.

February 2, 2011 Wednesday

It is a hot day here today. I don't want to complain as it is 2 degrees at home with 30 below wind chills. It was 90 degrees in my house today. I had to move slowly. I spent the night alone last night. It was so quiet. I slept good though. Richard called around 7:00 a.m. and let me know that Brandon's flight to Chicago was cancelled. I guess they are getting 24 inches of snow and very high winds. Everything is cancelled back home. Even ISU cancelled. Brandon and Richard are staying another night in Grand Cayman. What a place to be stranded! It is nice Brandon doesn't have to be alone.

I worked around the house and in the yard today. The beach is starting to look pretty good. I don't have a camera right now, so I can't publish new photos. We are going to take pics of the grounds and house when we get some touch ups done.

Today the barge came in. I went to get our stuff but I was a little early so then I stopped at the new grocery store that Richard M. (the builder) started up. He is giving the other tiny store some competition. It has helped bring prices down some. He was there and offered to get my stuff if Richard doesn't get back in time. This is a nice favor as I have to climb way up into the box car from the barge to get our stuff off of a pallet. I got up in the other one that was still there from last week as there were a few things in it. At first I thought I got there late. But no!, I was early.

Today my little gecko friend from last year finally came out to see me again. Right at the bottom of the steps. Same place as last year. Is he really the same one? Hello gecko! It is only 8:30 here but I am going to bed. This perfect life is wearing me out.

We had a beautiful sunset tonight. It was so peaceful and the water was so smooth. I thought about going snorkeling out front of the house today but thought I better save my sunburned legs. They are pretty bad. I stopped at Southern Cross Club today pretty much just to talk to someone. Plus it felt pretty good to get in the car and use the air conditioner.

February 1,2011 Tuesday

Brandon and I getting ready to snorkle.

Brandon and I snorkling.

Brandon with one of his nice catches.

Just a note: I am having trouble with posting photos this year.

This blog is including Jan. 31 and Feb 1 as I got kicked off the internet last night and it destroyed my blog. We had totally beautiful weather here yesterday. Richard went to the store here and picked up a few things and bought valves for the washing machine. Suddenly my washer was leaking terrible. He turned off the water but forgot the hot and flooded the whole bathroom. That floor is nice and clean now. Still, I am very gratefull he is a "jack of all trades"

We had an early lunch and then Richard and Brandon went fishing. They were able to walk on out on the reef and as Brandon was walking suddenly there was a giant 2 foot lobster coming right at him. It was real red with a little yellow on it. The feelers were almost 2 ft long too. He put his paddle out in front and the thing start poking it. What an adventure. He also caught 4 nice fish and 2 barracuda that escaped. It sure was fun to hear him tell the story.

In the afternoon I raked the beach side of the yard. Then I had the hard job of holding down my wonderful teak beach chair and read a fun book. After a dinner of roast beef and potato salad and broccoli the glorious day was complete. This was the day our friends, the Arthurs, headed to Mexico for a week of warm weather. Perfect timing as Ames is getting a bunch of snow and cold temps. this week. Boy are we glad to miss it.

Today, our camera broke. Brandon is leaving his with us to use. What a great son. Thank you Brandon.

February 1, Tuesday

Today was cloudy when we woke up but it cleared up nicely when the sun woke up. This is Brandons last day with us. It sure was fun to have him along. We ate breakfast, did some chores and about 10:30 headed to Bloody Bay on the North Side. Boy did we snorkle. We saw the best of everything. Brandon really loved it. He said he liked it better than Point of Sands.

Unbeknowanced (is that a word) to me, I forgot to put sun block on the back of my legs. I have third degree burns all over the back of my legs. Good heavens! They are on fire. I was out there 3-4 hours! I had the most fun ever though. We had a good hearty lunch after that workout and got clean up. Brandon packed his bag. We took a few photos and a little later headed to the airport. Of course, we went to the Hungry Iguana and each had a fun drink. We sat outside by the water and waited for the plane to arrive.

Richard went along to Grand Cayman with Brandon. He will shop for a new pump tomorrow before coming back to LC. So Brandon will head to Chicago at 8:00 a.m. and hope he doesn't get stuck in the airport. Chicago is getting 24 inches of snow. It is a pretty bad storm. But all one can do is go to get your flight and see if the plane takes off. I just want him to be safe.

So, I am here all alone at the house for the first time. It is super quiet as I have no TV or radio. A tiny island just doesn't have any noise. Good thing I am good at talking to myself. There won't even be any snoring noise in the background tonight.