Fall has arrived!

Fall has arrived in Belize and with it came a tropical storm (Matthew), hundreds of dragonflies, cooler weather, a friends’ illness and recovery and a visitor to the lagoon. It’s been an eventful month…

We were supposed to have hosted 60+ people at our housewarming party on 9/26, but Mother Nature had something else in mind. TS Matthew started heading our way on the 22nd and was predicted to be in our backyard on the 26th. We cancelled the party and started preparing for the storm instead. It ended up being much less intense than we had expected, but it’s a good thing we cancelled the party because it would have been a muddy mess if people did come. We’ll be rescheduling after hurricane season and will let you all know when to make your travel plans…lol! We did have a loose battery in the bathroom water heater from all the rain and humidity and had a couple of days without hot showers. Shortly thereafter our well water pump gave out (no water!) and had to be replaced…luckily our builder took care of that for us!

Dee and I had a girls-day-out a couple of weeks ago. We went to Corozal and had our hair done (I had a cut and style for $10 BZE…$5 USD!!!) Afterwards we headed to the free-zone casino for some blackjack and slots. I won $100+ USD!!! The day ended on a low note though. When we returned home we found that Mousey, Ed and Dee’s Chihuahua, was very sick. Turns out she was in renal failure and fought through the weekend only to die late Sunday night. She will be greatly missed.

That same weekend Ed started feeling poorly. By Sunday night he and Mousey were suffering together. Ed and Dee headed to the ER in Orange Walk on Monday morning and Ed was diagnosed with appendicitis. He had surgery later that same day (appendectomy and exploratory which discovered a perforated diverticuli) and insisted on being released from the hospital on Thursday after 4 days of questionable nursing care in the hospital. He and his doctor agreed that he would recuperate better at home as long as he had a nurse to give him antibiotic shots, remove his drain and monitor his incisions (guess who?) Dee took great care of him and Rick and I helped with what we could. He had his surgical follow-up appointment yesterday and all is healing well. The total cost for ER, tests, surgery, all meds, 3 nights in the hospital and follow-up care = $6000 BZE/$3000 USD. Try that in the States!!!

Almost as if on queue, the weather cooled off and the humidity dropped on October 1st. Since then the early morning temperatures are in the 60’s and we’re averaging about 90 for daytime highs. The breezes have shifted and seem to be coming from the north and west instead of the south and east. The grasshoppers are dying off and the dragonflies are taking over…they are much preferred because the grasshoppers were munching on all of our new plants! The parrots like the cool mornings and are waking us up with their song/squawk around sunrise. They’re still really vocal and active around 5p too. We love to watch and listen to them and make up stories about what they’re saying/doing. Last night during our happy hour on the beach we had an unexpected visitor to the lagoon. I spotted a crocodile about 30 feet offshore. We had the binoculars with us, so we both got a great look at him/her. Gracie, Goldie and Diablo came over to us for a visit and the puppies jumped into the lagoon for a quick swim. We saw the crocodile turn and start swimming towards them, but they got out of the water before we had to worry. Took a couple of pictures, but they don’t do him/her justice. Needless to say we will be extra careful when we’re cooling off!!!

Last weekend we went into town for the “horse races” (see photos). Not quite what we’re used to, but interesting none the less. We ran into the guy that installed our home a/c units and chatted for a while. His cousin’s horse won the 3rd race…first race he had ever entered! That was exciting!

The RV coach is still for sale. Rick has been busy getting it all ship shape and we’ve had some inquiries. There is a possibility that someone will be coming to take a look this coming week. We’d like to sell so we can get started on the guest house before a possible visit from Rick’s brother and family over the holidays.

It’s my birthday on Monday and we’re trying to decide how to celebrate. If it’s not too hot we may go visit the Altun Ha Mayan Ruins southeast of here. Word is that the ruins there are what inspired the label on the Belikin beer bottles. If it’s too hot we’ll take a trip to one of the few white sand beaches in northern Belize, not far from here.

That wraps things up for month #8. Ready for visitors if anyone is interested! Just give us the word and we’ll make some plans.