So I have not been posting much here lately. I find that given the very limited amount of time that I have, I can do a lot more with Facebook in terms of output to time ratio. So there it is, if you want to see anything regular and more recent. Look me up on facebook. Is the blog dead? Nah. Just learning to play with some new toys.
So my presence on the blog has been much diminished in recent months. There are several reasons for this.
1. My new job has consumed almost all of my time and frankly I am just too damn tired most of the time.
2. I haven't had an internet connection at home since May.
3. With the house mostly finished, I have been searching for a new topic to blog about.
4. The Election has been taking a great deal of my mental energy and I have been reading rather that writing in my free time.
5. I rarely blog about politics despite being intensely interested and opinionated.
So today I managed to set up my 3G phone as an internet modem that can be plugged into the USB port of my computer(s). So essentially I now have internet at home again. Nokia is pretty smart to come up with this feature. Hopefully I'll be a little more active in the coming months. Until my next post..... keep on keepin' on.
Hiya all,
My long time bud Scott Novota is having one of his online contests again. The are fun, easy to enter and man the prizes are awesome. Check out his post at: http://new2glass.blogspot.com/2008/10/contest-time.html
Check out the rules. (They are pretty simple)
Enter your name into the contest by leaving a comment on his contest page. Please don't forget to put my name down as the person who referred you to the contest. That's all!
The Prizes:
In order. J.P putting on the ugly face. J. P. looking very serious. Finally, a shot from the terrace upstairs.
It has been a very busy few weeks since my last post. I went straight back to work and tried to prepare for the incoming students and the new responsibilities this year. Nadia is happy about being in Grade 1 with Miss Jenny. She is a funky American who moonlights as one of the talented "Las Ibus".
Jackson started play group at the co-op this week and will be there 2 days a week for some socializing with other little people. We finally hired a driver to shuttle all of us from place to place now that we are all finished with holidays. I really don't mind driving, but with Nia working sometimes and Jackson in playgroup, the only other option is another car. That isn't going to happen anytime soon.
On the topic of the house, we have finished out the downstairs half bathroom. Just need to install the toilet to make it operational. I am building (not really, more like supervising) a big retaining wall in the middle of the property to secure the earth on the top level. This will also be used when we add the phase two structure to the upper level.
Not much in the way of photos lately....I'll try to do better.
Nia and I both got new cellphones last week. Both of ours were 5 years old and had certainly outlived their life expectancies.
His and hers.
Nadia and I teamed up with my friend Brett and his son for a spur of the moment trip to Batu Karas last Thursday. I drove the car and took my old 9 foot Hobie longboard. It was the board's first trip to Batu Karas. After all the waves I have caught on that board I decided that it was time for it to visit its final resting place. A wave custom made for longboards, B.K. is a point break right hander that rolls for about 300 yards into a protected cove. You can literally catch the wave out in front of the peak and ride it for 60 seconds until you step off at the beach and rocks at the far end of the cove. Just perfect. It sometimes gets well overhead there, but headish high is the norm. Being on the board that i have had for some 22 years felt like being reunited with an old long lost soulmate. The first wave or two was a little shaky, but after a few more it was like, "oh, hi there old friend...we haven't missed a beat after all these years." Controlled bottom turns and relaxed cutbacks gave way to tail digging roundhouses spraying the locals and hand dragging, nose riding barrels that ended in a gravity defying floater. I was in my element and wave after wave I stepped out on the beach and walked to the point. I think I only paddled back out after a wave a few times. What's more I didn't have a leg rope, not that it mattered...I didn't fall....all weekend.
So we made it down and I surfed, the kids played, and we ate tons of fried shrimp for lunch, dinner and breakfast.
The only hiccup was that the car broke down just as we were getting ready to leave Green canyon and head back to Bandung. The alternator was acting up and it stranded me for another two nights at the beach in Pangandaran. What a tragedy? (smirk)
Here are the kids playing with a view of the Batu Karas cove.
Taken from the rock at the point on a smallish afternoon session.
The Green Canyon boat ride.
It has not rained in three months. Everything is baking. The ground has these massive cracks in it that could almost swallow my kids. I have been spending some time working on preparing the channels for rainwater once it does start raining again. I figure all that needs to be in place before things get really wet in September of October. Money permitting I want to build a 2500 gallon underground tank to store rainwater for the upcoming dry season. Mostly it will be a backup for watering the yard or if there is a disturbance in the water service. Supposedly we are getting piped water into the village this year. Yeah...we don't have that. All our water is sucked up the hill from wells down in valley. The Latter Day Saints / Mormons have provided an enormous amount of material and money to the project to pipe water into much of the surrounding area. Let's hope that their good deeds don'tget screwed up by our corrupt local government.
I also installed a valve to that can divert all our gray water back into the yard and garden during the dry season. I was fuming knowing that all that perfectly good water from washing dishes, showers and washing clothes was going into our absorption well when it could be used on the surface. During the wet season, of course, the valve will be opened so the water goes into the well.
I have been making lots of homebrew and now have about 80 220z bottles for my summer stock. They are all light ales, perfect for enjoying a hot summer afternoon.
It has been a nice relaxing week. Nadia and I took a walk on the other side of the hill into the national park. It doesn't take much walking to leave the farms behind and get into some tall pines and thick underbrush. There are also some large troupes of grayish javan monkeys. We walked all the way down to the Dutch and Japanese caves that were used as ammo depots in the wars.
I have been laying tile, sanding and varnishing, and a host of other little projects at home. The kids are in Majalengka but we are going to pick them up this weekend. Hopefully we will bring Wilson back to live with us. (Wilson is our dog. 100 lb Golden Retriever)
Still no internet at home so my posts may be a little infrequent until then.
In other news my neighbor, spotted a 6 foot cobra in his yard. It was investigating his aviary in hopes of a free lunch. He got some great pics and video. I'll see if I can get a few to post. Scary stuff though.
EDIT: Now they say it wasn't a cobra. The consensus is that it was an 'ular sapi' Translation: Cow Snake. How disappointing!
With the the end of the school year and the move and the ensuing arrival of a good portion of Nia's family, life has been pretty full on. I finished work on the 25 of June and have worked my tail off at the house over the last week.
Nia and the kids went to Majalengka so I could fill, sand, seal and clear coat all the teak on the stairs and in the kitchen. I go most of it done. Mang Ajang and I laid tile on the upstairs and downstairs patios during the week. My body is aching. I am at work now so I can get some rest and catch up on the internet goings on. BTW I don't currently have an internet connection at home, (mostly because I didn't pay my bill) and probably won't until August. All of this means I will be posting less during this period due to the inconvenience.
I have a lot of projects both home related and work related this summer, but we are going to try and get down to the beach next week for some R & R.
We spent the night at the new crib on Saturday night. Everything went smooth and Nia has been furiously working to make it feel like home. She has been very successful. There are the little kinks and issues to fend with, but all in all we are pretty settled in already. The air is clean, the views are spectacular and I wake to the sound of roosters, cows and goats in the mornings. Pictures coming.
