"Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain"

 You can only visit so many gorgeous beaches and stunning land formations, on a vacation to a tropical island. We did have some down time, suitable for a couple of house-bound activities, and a good rule of thumb for hosting is to ALWAYS provide house guests with a choice of activities.

Our first 4 guests this year, in the Dominican Republic, were Domino Players. They play together, regularly at the Y, near their homes. While staying with us, if they had a couple of non-touristy hours to spare, they spent it playing Mexican Train Dominoes, on the patio of the Villa. (BTW...Mexican Train Dominoes has nothing to connect it to trains or Mexicans. )

Dominoes is played avidly, in all Caribbean Nations. It's probably one of the few things the feuding Dominicans and Haitians, have in common. Our guests were excited to observe Dominican locals playing Dominoes. The intensity of the play...slamming down tiles to complete your turn, was a little frighting for the four friendly-lady Domino players from Kansas. Turns out we have a outdoor Domino Pavillion, on the beach next to our house, and our snorkeling guests regularly find discarded Domino Tiles, along with sea glass and shells, in the surf. (Dealt you a couple of game terms, in that paragraph ;)

Then, on a whim, I decided to pack a 1000 piece Jig-saw puzzle, in my checked bag. All four groups of our guests, worked on the "Wizard of Oz Puzzle", completing it three time, during the vacation. It was a fun activity to discover pieces and parts of Four separate Dorothys, both the good and the bad witch, other characters and a plethora of yellow bricks.

BTW...I did look up the spelling of Domino....and the plural can be either an added e or es. Also, it seems that you may still win the Spelling Bee is you spell the singular, with a final E or not.  

.......................................................................................................................................................................... 

 Dear God. Your world is a wondrous place. There is so much to see and do. We are grateful for the opportunities that we have been given. Remind us to look at the whole picture and the whole world. We are blessed.

 

 

 

 

Todo bien.

 Spending a month in a foreign country, where the spoken language is not your native tongue, is a challenge. When folks say..."Everybody everywhere knows enough English, to communicate.", they are wrong. More correctly....."Most Americans know just enough Spanish, to make them look stupid and get them in trouble." And, I'm absolutely, one of those Americans.

No hablo Espanol.  Well, actually, I know a lot of nouns in Spanish. I proudly have the vocabulary of a 2 year-old Spanish speaker. I can read and order most anything, from a restaurant menu. I have a few road signs down pat and most of the time I can tell you what types of stores we are passing. I can say Hello and Goodbye.

But, I understand very little conversation-wise. The two years of French, that I took in high school, were wasted time and effort. Beyond parlez-vous, francaise...It's all been long forgotten.

My recent time in the Dominican Republic (native language Spanish), and my pitiful attempts to communicate, reminded me of the time, years ago, that I was asked to teach foreign language classes in a Middle School. To my credit, I did okay, while teaching the beginning French classes, but I hit the wall when I tried to teach those wise 7th graders to ask...."How old are you?" in Spanish? Immediately after pronouncing the phrase, in my best fake-Spanish, I was corrected by Jose', who sat in the last row of the classroom. Jose' said, "Teacherlady. You say ass-hole, instead of years." 

Well, there you go. Proof of just enough knowledge to get you in trouble. 

......................................................................................................................................................................... 

 Kind and Gracious Lord. Forgive our errors. Lead us "in the path of righteousness". Remind us that we are not all-knowing and humble us enough to make us palatable to others.

"Somewhere Over the Rainbow"

 A tropical vacation. Ocean sunrises, waves lapping and crashing against the sand and coral. A new variety of tropical fruit every day. We are home from our month in the tropics. The memories are fresh and will continue to bring smiles of recognition, for weeks to come.

As you might expect, I wrote every day in a journal to preserve those memories. Someday, we won't be making this annual trek, and I'll have it all on paper. We truly enjoy our days in the Dominican Republic. There are new discoveries every day and as I kept repeating to our guests (half of whom happened to be Kansans)....."we're not in Kansas, anymore."

Right off the plane, it's clear that unlike Kansas, there appear to be no traffic rules and regulations. Hundreds of single, triple, quadruple and even 6 rider motor scooters weave in and out of the car, truck and tour bus traffic. One guest called in chaotic, but most of us just remark....On my God!

The food is great. We ate fresh fruit every. Bananas and pineapple are particularly tasty and more flavorful than the imported ones, in our Midwest. I have learned to eat fresh caught fish and shrimp, prepared with the heads still attached. Ever had fresh Chinola juice, or Guava? Yummy. And, mangu, for breakfast, was a hit with just about everyone.

Of course our Kansas guests enjoyed walking on the beaches and swimming in the salty waters of the Atlantic. We enjoyed Pina Coladas, served in fresh pineapples, while sitting with our toes in the white sand. Everyone toured the "Bridge to Nowhere" in downtown Samana. They had to walk it, to accept that it actually goes "Nowhere".

Now, we are back home and trying to get caught up with the laundry from the trip and the stacks of mail that have accumulated during our absence. Remember what the most famous (excluding me, of course) girl from Kansas said......"there's no place like home."

......................................................................................................................................................................

Gracious God: We are blessed. Thank You for guiding us as we make our life's journey. Thank You for bringing us home. 

 

 

 

 

"Whale of a Tale"

 The other day, I said to a acquaintance, "We have whales breaching in our backyard." My listener made a bit of a face, in disbelief, so I had to qualify my slight inaccuracy. My next statement was, "We have whales, breaching IN THE OCEAN, directly off our back patio, during whale season." The season for whale migration in the Caribbean, is from January to March. That's when we choose to travel South.

It's true. Whales are amazing. They are, of course, big. Really big. They can weigh up to 40 tons, as adults, and they are typically 14-17 meters in length. And they do make quite a show, when they flip-up and out of the ocean (breaching).

They travel slowly, usually in groups. Average speed in 5-10 mph. With a pair of binoculars. or the naked eye, it's possible to see them travel across the horizon, or closer, just swimming and breaching, swimming and breaching. They seem to be enjoying their travels, and they can live up to 90 years.....traveling the same route.

For some bizarre reason, this whale information reminds me of a Kermit the Frog song, "Caribbean Amphibian", about a frog in a coconut tree. There are lizzardy and froggy things running around on our back patio, too. You may look up the words, to this ditty, but for now, just be assured those lyrics will be running around in my head, for the next day or two.

Via con dios.

...................................................................................................................................................................... 

Creator of all things, tame and wild. We are thankful for the immense beauty of this world. We appreciate Your creatures, both great and small.

Hasta la vista, Frosty.

On my honor, I promise that this will be my last post about SNOW, this winter. Oh yes, we had a snowstorm this weekend. The headlines were:

             SNOWMAGEDDON......SNOWCASTROPHY...........SNOWPOCALYPSE........... 

We had a total of 4.5 inches of the fluffy white stuff. Woo-Hoo. It wasn't even enough to cover my boot tops. Today, one day after the snow ceased to fall, our street is cleared. The major street down the hill is snow free and the sun is shining. Except for the bitterly cold temps, it's a beautiful day. 

I'm betting all of that hoarded White Bread, Milk and Toilet paper wasn't even touched, let alone used up. It's over. Stick a big unused snow shovel in it. It was, as usual, "Much Ado About Nothing", or at least much ado about very little.

But, by golly, we were prepared here in Middle America. Being prepared is a good thing. Boy and Girl Scouts have been prepared, for over a hundred years.  I'm in favor of being prepared, but stripping the grocery aisle of essentials (as if white bread is essential), for 2 days of "staying home" is freaking crazy. That's just what we all do.

Tomorrow, will probably be a No-school Snow Day, due to the single digit temperatures. It would be extremely cold for those kids, who wait at the bus stops. Most kids, out here in the burbs, are personally driven to school by parents. And, we all know that the walk, from the car to the front door of school, is pretty brutal ;). And, all of us old folks walked miles to and from school, in several feet of snow,...uphill both ways.

But, here's the deal. I don't really care. Because, tomorrow I start my packing for the tropics. In a little over a week, I will be watching the surf and sitting in a deck chair on a sandy beach. No more snow storms for me.

....................................................................................................................................................................

We all have many blessings. God is Good.

 

REBOOT

 By Golly, it's winter in Kansas City. The weather forecasters are predicting anywhere from2-145 inches of snow, over the weekend. We don't expect more than 5-6 inches, at most. That counts as a big snowfall here. Anyway, I came across this really old post and thought (since I am getting ready to go and "stock up" for the oncoming weather), you all might enjoy the recollection.

 Saturday, January 23, 2016

The Big Three

Storms are coming. Everyone in town has been or is planning to rush to the grocery store and buy these items. Yes, everyone stocks up on the big three in preparation for an up-coming "snowed in".
Why do we (yes, my family is guilty, also) choose these items?
Who knows? Maybe it's inbred, pun intended, or perhaps we are all just a tiny bit crazy.
But folks, this tee pee, moo juice and sliced bread tradition is senseless.
First of all, most of us desperate grocery store looters live in cities. City ordinances say.....the roads must be plowed, in a timely manner. No one is truly "snowed in" for days, anymore. Hours maybe, but certainly not days. So, if we are in possession of only one extra roll of toilet paper, we're going to be fine. And, who doesn't have some extra magazine pages taking up space?
Now then, there's milk. How much milk do we need? Milk for dry cereal, I suppose. Well, did we buy cereal? Didn't think about that, did we? And, if our power goes out, the milk is going to go bad pretty fast. A better buy would have been canned tuna, peanut butter, canned soup, chili or even canned or powdered milk. Best choice of all would have been bottled water.
Now, how about that white bread, the squishier the better. We all know that whole wheat is better for us, but we're going to get what we like, when we're faced with carbo-starvation. What are we going to do with three or four loaves of white bread? And, of course, we forgot to get anything to eat with it. Plain bread, folks, is not very filling, healthy or appetizing. And, it gets moldy pretty fast.
Planning for an emergency is wise. Running out to the grocery store, in the wee hours of the morning or late at night, to stock up on the big three, is pretty silly.
I need to stop doing it.

Well, Lord, here we are again. We are allowing our lack of Faith and common sense to get the better of us. We know better.You have given us great biblical examples of both preparedness and trust.
Help us to get our lives on the right track. Help us to remember that your way is the best way. Remind us to get ready, to trust and  to obey.

"Clowns on the left of me, jokers on the right"

I have a friend, who occasionally signs his notes, using only his middle name. It's unusual enough that we all know the identity of Overton  And, for absolutely no reason at all, it got me thinking about middle names.

Names have always been an interesting subject, to me. My middle name is the same as many of my aging female contemporaries, and I rarely use it. Instead of using Nancy Ann, as my given name, I have opted for using my maiden name initial K., in my signature. My mother elected to name me Nancy Ann, because she thought NAK would look good on luggage. Strange, I know. And stranger yet, my married name also begins with a K. (I have been told "to change the name and not the letter, is a change for the worse, not the better.) Oh, well.

And, speaking of strange, the 1960s diplomat, Robert McNamara, was legally Robert Strange McNamara. 

Royalty has been using Middle Names, since the 1700s. According to Wikipedia, they were first used in the US, in the early 1800's. Well, think about it. George Washington has no recorded Middle Name.

In my generation, girls were generally given the Middle Name of Ann, Sue, Mary or Rae. Guys were given something equally as short and easy to remember. Sometimes Middle Names honor relatives or families. And, if you are of some historical importance, folks are going to write down your WHOLE name......for posterity. John Wilkes Booth and Robert Lewis Stevenson are excellent examples. 

Honestly, as most of my readers will acknowledge, Middle names...except as legal signatures or in obituaries, are rarely used.  When it came to naming my four children, I thought long and hard about the final choices. But, the bottom line is none of them go by their complete (3-word name). Just like their mother, the only use of both of their given names was in an urgent request....."Nancy Ann. Come in here, right now."

.......................................................................................................................................................................

 Dear Lord. Whatever we are called, You know who we are. We praise Your Holy Name.