Cabin fever

Finally!! A dawn with something other than gray overcast windblown clouds!

After a week of being essentially 'pinned down' by Tropical Storm Noel, we see some blue sky peeking through and the winds have dropped.

Even the dog is excited:

(I didn't say he was awake yet, just that he's excited. He's multitasking.)

I guess what we have been going through the past week is a version of tropical cabin fever. Too rough to boat or dive, too cloudy for good photos, too much rain to enjoy the back roads ( flooding). So, well, we do what we can. We did manage to get some things accomplished.

Yesterday was a time with no reason or rhyme, we had too much to do in the town. Had to visit the cops and make even more stops with a whole lot of running around.

It's a year to the day when we last had to play this mad game of obtaining permits. It's to stay in these isles where we've lived for a while and the hassle is giving us fits. (that's not, by the way, what I wanted to say but it's clean and it rhymes the right bits.)

Providenciales Police Department:

(I do NOT want to see the inside of their holding cells. Nossir.)

Our first stop on this trip was to pick up our slips that the cops had prepared for us here. They say, one more time, we've committed no crimes (that they know of) all during the year.

and for the record, the PD 4x4s are not immune to the roads of Provo, either:

Then we drove through the mud to the place where our blood was examined for bad stuff like AIDS. Got our letters to show that we're both good to go, more receipts to show that we've paid.

Immigration was next, with a handful of text, affadavits and photos and money. We filled out more forms, now becoming the norm, stood in lines for so long it's not funny.

Now on the way home we decided to roam by the beach just to check out this store. Not a whole lot of thrills, but it's down in Blue Hills, we're particularly fond of that shore.

(a smudge on the lens, like a mild case of bends, puts a bubble where it is not wanted. I'm sorry, my friends, I can't make amends, and must now continue undaunted)

It's a neat little place overseen with some grace by a very nice lady named Mary. That's NOT evil eye, Mary's just camera-shy, self-conscious, reclusive and wary.

Now throughout this store they've got baskets galore, and coasters, and platters and mats. These are things all handmade by old folks in the shade who are also past masters at hats.



If you like abstract art these good folks do their part with some things that they find on the beach. They used sea-fans and wood, and some shells where they could and some feathers to color them each:



If you like to see dots, a sea-dragon with spots has a nice corner spot on the floor...



Sea-Dragons and fish and more birds if you wish (if you ask I'll be glad to post more).

And for more active troops they sell dozens of sloops that you're welcome to sail in the races. Middle Caicos, and here, and there's lots of cold beer, and dozens of happy wet faces.

For more practical minds there are conch shells we find make great bowls to serve salads and chili. A conch spoon goes great with this whimsical plate, but a knife and a fork would be silly.

Now out at his digs lives a man, Alton Higgs, who rescues old ropes from the sand. He takes old nylon line, poly pro, and some twine, and makes wonderful rugs all by hand.

Well I'm ending this post cause I fear, as your host, my brain is now turning to squash. But the sky's turning blue, we got fun stuff to do, (does dementia come out in the wash?: