Moving on up...

We apologize for the space between blog posts here. Life has gotten pretty busy this week. Son Jon is extending his stay another week to help us move, and activities at the new house have been ongoing. We have been making a couple round-trips a day to the site, spending hours at it. Although we have been to the marina during the week, we haven't taken the boat out since the last Turtle Cove trip.

We were at the house last night at sundown, installing our first curtain rod. We were pretty happy to see the electricity up and running, and got a feel for what the patio area looks like with the outside lamps lit.



(photo is a little grainy. As usual, we run up against the limitation of the little Olympus 770SW in low-light conditions)

The place has been crawling with electricians, plumbers, masons, and cabinet people in addition to the builder's people. Our buddy Romeo put down his paintbrush and took up heavy equipment to smooth the driveway out a bit more:



It's still a bit daunting to sit at the top of the driveway contemplating the downhill run into the garage. We are glad we have chosen to drive the vehicles we own here, both of them 4x4's. But hey, at least we don't have to deal with ice and snow in the foreseeable future:



Looking on the bright side, the landscaping possibilities are myriad.

We have also been involved in some activities this past week that did not lend themselves to photographs. Although I am sure they had some interest potential.

For example, a couple days ago La Gringa pitched an absolute gem of a micro-fit in the new house. She raised her voice. She explained that we were going to be moving into the house this week whether it was finished or not. She pointed out fairly dramatically that she expected electricity, water, and plumbing to work when she did so. Here was this room full of big strong construction workers and one Norwegian architect nodding their heads and saying things like "Yes m'am! Yes m'am! We understand, m'am! Okay, m'am..." I was keeping my own head pretty low during this, I have seen her at this point before a few times, and, well, it can go either way. I stayed close to the door. I did not whip out the camera. But I have to admit, the pace did pick up noticeably. Starting immediately after she stomped from the room in a cloud of sudden silence. It's always a relief when one of these squalls moves on and you realize you have survived the elemental fury. It makes you want to avoid the next one just a little bit harder.

Did I mention we also have some spectacular electrical storms here?

Jon and I took a trip out to the Provo dump, which is not for the faint-of-heart, either. ( although emotionally safer than experiencing one of La Gringa's full gale tirades) The dump is not one of the more scenic areas of Provo. In fact, it's more like a scene cut from a Mad Max film but with smell and a billion flies added for realism. Imagine a hundred acres of unregulated landfill, with fires smoking over a barren landscape of raw garbage, discarded appliances, rotting produce, blowing dust, smoke from burning rubber, and flies. The stench is enough to test your ability to hold your breath. It makes you honestly consider momentarily blacking out to draw your next breath. And that next breath would certainly awaken you as surely as an ammonia capsule held beneath your nose. But without the pleasantness of that stimulating fragrance.



The sun beats down on you, and dust and other particles you would rather not think too deeply about cling to your hair and clothes. Well, in my case, beard and clothes.

We were there to look for some stackable milk crates, but struck out this trip. Which means another trip in a few days. We did spot a nice stainless steel stand up refrigerator that we might canibalize for a workshop application I have in mind. But we could only take the atmosphere for about a half an hour, so we did not search in any detail. It was ugly.



The other incident this week we don't have images of was Jon's night out with the boys. Well, I have images, all right, but nothing in a digital format. Preacher, Dwayne, Duran, and Jon went out on the town. All I know for sure is that the four of them started the evening around 5:30, and Dwayne and Jon finished it up sometimes around 03:00 the next morning. I do know that they included a trip to a birthday party celebration held outside in the Lower Bight area of Provo. I hear there were several hundreds of people there, and Jon the Caucasian was a definite minority for a change. Something new to him. I personally don't know the musicians performing at the party, but some of our younger readers might recognize the names. A hip-hop band named "OneRepublic" was on the makeshift stage. And a reggae performer named Marka Diamond was there, and tried to get "that sexy white boy" up on stage to dance by coming into the audience and grabbing him by the hand.



This is basically about all I have heard, but suspect that as a father, that's enough. Preacher did call the next afternoon to see if Jon made it home okay. At the job site, one of the electricians recognized Jon from the night before and seemed surprised that he speaks some Spanish. In any case, he got to see a side of the TCI that neither Beaches nor Club Med is likely to highlight in their brochures.

So, as mentioned, last night we were at the new house at sunset. We have posted a lot of photos here of the ocean views from the house, and many of the salina and sunsets. The sunsets just keep coming, and vary in color and intensity from day to day. Every one of them different, and I suspect we will have quite a collection of them over the coming months. Last night's was no exception.



The distant view of Providenciales is part of it all. Those bright lights to the right are one of the sports areas, where soccer ( football) games are held. (This is also pretty much the view we have in mind for the web cam that some people have asked for.)

Now, we really need to be coming up with a name for the house. La Gringa has been working on the options we have come up with so far, and has generated a poll for people to vote or add comments or suggestions. We would really appreciate any feedback.

Please take a look at: 2 Gringos House Poll and help us come up with a good name for this very special place in our lives.

And yes, it WILL be 'carved in stone'.