Today has been a very rainy day, and good thing, because the island is in a draught. That's not something you would normally expect of an island but desalination plants are costly and inefficient. The school has one in case of emergency, but most of the island just depends on rainfall for their water. A lot of the southern part of the island (where we live) has been experiencing their water being shut off all day. They just turn it on at night and then shut it off again in the morning. Thank goodness since we technically live in a hotel and are on the tourist belt, they don't shut our water off.
A couple weeks ago, Nick's friend, Robby, came and visited us. He stayed for six days and had a great time. Unfortunately I had to study for the majority of his stay because I had exams, but he and Nick had a good time. They went fishing and spear fishing. Nick got a couple lobsters and they were delicious! We took him to the city and he bought some knickknacks and saw a steel drum band. Nick took him hashing, which he didn't really enjoy because it's blazing a trail through the rain forest and is very physically demanding. I still haven't been to a hash, but Nick likes most of them. Nick and Rob also went golfing on the course here. It's a nine hole course and isn't maintained well. There are goats scattered throughout. And it was super expensive. The weren't impressed.
Maverick had a hotspot on his face and neck area. We tried to treat it topically, but it just kept growing. To make them stop festering, you have to shave the affected area, but all we have are Nick's little beard trimmers, and Maverick's hair was way too much for them. Luckily, our friends/neighbors, Mike and Crystal, have heavy duty clippers for Mike's hair and offered to help us. It took all four of us to hold him down and clip him. He cried like we were trying to kill him at first, but after he realized we weren't he laid still pretty well. He was uncomfortable and painful, but he never tried to bite us or anything. He really is a good dog. We were scrubbing his face every day and he hated it, but it just wouldn't get better. So I called the vet and was informed that there weren't any available appointments for over a week. The receptionist advised me, however, that I could take him in as an "emergency" and pay $85 EC. That's about $30 bucks, which is cheaper than most office calls at home! So we took him in emergency and they saw him. Everyone in the hospital was very nice. They knocked him out and shaved him even better and gave us some antibiotics and steroids for his face. He was all groggy and sleepy when he came out to us and had a silly hair cut. But after being on meds, his face cleared up very quickly. being on steroids caused us to take him out a million times a day because the poor dog had to pee so much! He was waking me up at least twice a nice to take him out. For some reason he only wakes me up to take him and he's super creepy when he does it. Occasionally he'll lick me or touch his nose on me, but a lot of times he just stands at the edge of the bed really close and just stares at me. I wake up and see his silly face an inch from mine and go, "WOAH! Oh, man, ok, I'll take you out." Silly dog! His face is completely better now, but we're still waiting for all of his hair to grow back.
The other day we had our fourth, (4th), yes FOURTH, flat tire in three months. Our "car lord" (guy who rents us a car) is such a cheep and sneaky guy and he always puts old retread tires on for our "new" tires. He makes them look "new" by putting six gallons of armor all on them, but the tread is no where near legal in the states. The tires (spelled tyres in this backwards country) look like they were taken off of one of those Power Wheels jeeps that every kid wants when they're four. They may as well be plastic. At least Nick and Mike are getting pretty good at changing tires; they're fast enough that they probably would make the Grenadian pit crew, if Grenada had Nascar. That beings said, we can only imagine that a Grenadian pit team would also be moving on island time because, while they have gotten a little system down, it is still a time consuming operation. Nick found us a nondescript piece of lumbar that appears to be a three by four or some odd measurement that we carry in our car with us since our jack isn't tall enough to lift the car. Unfortunately the wood and jack together are too tall to fit under the car, so one guy has to partially life whatever end of the car we're changing (the shocks are completely shot, so although they're "lifting a car," they're really not lifting a car) while the other guy slides the block-jack combination under. Now, they have to crank up the car, which is a lengthy task considering the lack of quality of said jack. They also have to try to get the tire off and the "new" one on without being completely covered in armor all, which sometimes is completely unavoidable. The entire process usually entails at least a change of clothes, if not a shower. If we're lucky, they'll only have to change one more tire during the next month we're here. Our shiesty car guy called us after the third flat and accused us that it was our fault the tire had gone flat. We saw the tire and there had been a small hole on the inside of the tire. His "theory" was that we had hit a wall!!! Seriously? How the heck could we hit a wall, not do any damage to the car, and yet damage the inside of the tire? He's such a sneaky bastard, we can't wait to be done with him! He's always trying to pin blame on us for something. We drive his car as if it's made out of porcelain, but I know we're going to get another flat. His tires are awful and the roads are full of potholes, try as you might to miss them.
We get to go home exactly a month from today! I'm so excited. I can't wait to see my family and friends and ride my horse and take Maverick to the dog park. Nick's not so excited, but that's because it means he can't be on permanent vacation and play video games and fish all day. He went to a hash the other day that was pirate themed, so I made him a costume with what little supplies we have down here. He looked pretty good. I put eyeliner on him to make him look like "Pirates of the Caribbean," but it just made me giggle. He looked a little silly, but I think it's because I'm not used to it. He thought putting the eyeliner on was bad and then he hated running with it because it ran in his eyes. Guys just don't appreciate the hassle we go through just to look good. When we get home, I'm going back to Raging Waters for the summer to supervise for the aquatics department. It's my second home and I'm looking forward to seeing the new guards. Nick's going to go work for his friend, Rob, who runs a light fixture manufacturing company. We get married in about two months, so everything for that is getting finished up. Then we get to take our Alaskan cruise honeymoon! I'm very excited for this summer. It should be very fun! Until then, I have nine more exams! Back to studying.
