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Eleytheria Journal: October 2005 to January 2006

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October 26, 2005: Road Trip to LA, San Diego and Las Vegas

We had tired to get a military hop from the East Coast to the West Coast (to see Abe's son, sisters, step mom and friends in Seattle and San Francisco) but after three days we gave up and I flew via Southwestern Airlines to Ontario where I rented a car and drove down to San Diego. I had been having chest muscle spasm when we started an exercise regiment in El Salvador. I didn't think it was anything serious, but I wanted to be sure my ticker was not missing beats. So I took a trip down to the Navy hospital in San Diego to get it checked out. After I was inspected, injected, rejected and just about every other ...ted you can imagine they gave me a clean bill of ticker health. Although I might have caught something from the Motel Six. While there I had a chance to visit West Marine, although I didn't spend too much money.

I finally made it to Ontario by that Friday evening. Between trying out new Sushi places, going to cool restaurants with Kat and my brother-in-law Mike, we had some great meals. We even had some hamburgers from In N Out.

Taking a trip to Reno or Vegas with my sister Kat has become a tradition (if doing it two times before can make it a tradition). Although my sister doesn't really like to play, she will watch all night long. I also enjoyed watching Mike get all excited at the blackjack tables. He has a more adventurous spirit than I and will make bigger bets. We could discuss excitedly about the evening's experiences at a particular table. While in Vegas, my sister was able to visit a Pro Bullriders mini convention. Afterwards we went to Toby Keith's bar and got her bull miniatures autographed by the Johnny Walker team members. Kat was so excited. I will try to put a video of how giddy she got at the signing.

I had a really great time watching my nephew and niece play soccer in their youth teams. It looks so cute to watch young boys and girls run and kick a soccer ball. Those little legs going 100 Mph and just barely getting to the ball.

Meanwhile, back on the ranch... Amy, sisters, niece, nephew, brother-in-law, Mom and Dad were having fun just being around each other. As usually happens, we help with projects that need more hands than Mom and Dad have. This usually means taking down dead trees or so that have been around for ages and are very large. There's something really sad about hearing the thud as each huge trunk hits the ground. But it's better to take it down safely than have it hit the house during a storm. Plus it provides logs for the wood-burning stove that is Mom and Dad's primary source of heat during the winter. Back to the top

 

November 9, 2005: The Oroses Reunion

After an uneventful trip from California to Tennessee, I returned to Maryville only find that Amy's Dad wanted to cut half the trees in his 25 acres and Amy and I would be his slave labor to do it. When Amy and the McCown clan got to Tennessee, Steven was instrumental in assembling the wood splitter we would be using to split all the trees that we would be cutting. Did I mention that Amy and I were the slave labor in cutting, and later splitting, the wood while Amy's Mom and Dad enjoyed some nice warm tea by the warmth of their wood burning stove? We would start early in the morning and finish almost in the dark. Our hands would be bloody, and after weeks of this routine heavily calloused.

We didn't dare complain. We were afraid that they would not feed us or would make us sleep in the barn. So we get up before sunrise, grab our tools, and go down to the field. Bob would be having breakfast while we waited for him to come down with the truck so we could load the wood we had finished cutting. Sometimes he would forget about us until after lunch and that would mean we had two or three truck loads of wood to load up. The only reprieve was that sometimes, if we were sure Bob couldn't see us from the house, we would sit down and eat the stale bread we had snuck in our pockets before leaving the house.

After a couple of months, Bob must have figured he had enough wood for the winter. After this I seem to have lost my memory. I can only imagine that the rest of our visit was too horrible and my mind has blocked it out.

In spite of the slave labor we did, we actually were able to get Dad to make us a new cover for one of our galley storage areas. After the last visit away from the boat, we came back to find the original one had fallen apart. The sides came unglued, and although I tried to fix it, I wasn't successful. We took home measurements of an odd-sized (off course) cover. We weren't able to find white Formica to replace the original, but other than that, you couldn't tell that what Dad made wasn't the original. What a man.

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November to December, 2005: Amy buys stock in Yarn

As the youngest sibling you are expected to mimic your older sisters, but when you get to be 30 plus years old, you would assume that the mimicking stops. Wrong answer, sheep's breath! Amy's older sister Jill (middle sibling) has been very involved in knitting, spinning, felting and just about anything to do with yarn for the last couple of years. Well, now Amy has gotten into the game. While in the Tennessee, Jill taught Amy how to do some knitting and felting. Amy jumped into the yarn, as Amy usually does with anything that interests her, with both arms (I would say legs, but I haven't seen her knit with her legs yet). So far she has done several wash cloths, felted bags for carrying stuff, bird houses and her pride and joy, Farley the Pink Flamingo.

I'm so very proud of this bird. And it was so fun to make. It's huge before you stick it in the washing machine, and then it comes out like this. And it's so cute. Look at the knees!

In order to keep her knitting mania going while sailing, she bought most of the yarn in the Knoxville area. At first I thought that she was trying to corner the yarn market, but then she told me it was for her projects. If you have noticed a shortage of knitting materials in the last month, you can blame it on Amy. We had to take a small business loan to pay for all the yarn she bought and I had a heck of a time trying to pack the two pallets full of yarn for our trip back to El Salvador. I still don't know where we are going to pack it on the boat. As I write this, Amy is trying to vacuum seal the yarn to try to reduce the volume. I fear that we might have to tow the yarn on the dinghy behind us.

And the needles! She has aluminum, wood, steel, glass, plastic, rubber, Plexiglas, ivory, gold and platinum needles. She even made a special bag just for her needles (in my defense, JoAnns in Maryville was going out of business and I got most of them 1/2 off. I needed to be prepared for the different projects. I have to keep myself entertained since Abe is so humorless and refuses to make jokes to make me laugh). Yeah, Right!

According to Amy it's a good thing she got into knitting and not into iron sculptures.

We must confess to a crazy, totally unlike us thing that we did on Friday, November 25. This is the infamous day after Thanksgiving shopping fiesta. I have never in my life gone out shopping, nor have I wanted to on that day. Mom was looking through the adds in the paper that came on Thursday (or maybe it was Wednesday's paper). I happened to pick one up and casually glance through it. Next thing you know, we were planning on where to send Dad and Abe on Friday morning at 5:30, and where Mom and I would go and in what order. We had lists, we were excited (about shopping??!?!?! I know. How unlike us), we planned on how to call each other if needed. The big impetus for this all was an add in the Target flyer about the Millennium Falcon Lego set. Great price and we happen to have a niece and nephew who love that kind of thing. So there you have it.

Abe and Dad went to Staples and Office Depot (they actually seemed quite willing to go), Mom and I to Target. At 5:30 in the morning (they were to open at 6) the line was already hundreds long. I started sweating that there wouldn't be any more Millennium Falcons left when we would get in the door. I wanted to find out what others in line were hoping to buy to see if I needed to kick them in the shins to get them out of my way. Most were in line it seemed for other than what we wanted. I went to the front of the line to poll them. It was a couple of kids (teenage or early twenties) hoping to get the new X-Box system. They'd been in line since midnight. I'm not that bad!!!

All in all, Mom and I went out and came home 3 times that day. I don't even remember now what the 2nd and 3rd trips were for, but there you have it. Abe and I were also fortunate to get some more movies for our growing collection at some good prices. As sick as it sounds, it was kind of fun. I told Abe when we outfit our new house whenever we get to land, we'll do it on the Friday after Thanksgiving. I never knew the deals were so incredible. No wonder people go shopping then.

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December 25, 2005: Second Christmas

When we first arrived in Florida we had not expected to stay in the States through Christmas and so we had an early Christmas with the McCowns in October. Well due to various factors we decided to stay until just after Christmas we piled into the Brandsborg's luxurious coach (full with bed, kitchen and bathroom) and drove down to Florida to spend Christmas with the McCown family. Christmas has always been a very special time for all the Brandsborgs to reunite. Jill was the only one not able to make it this year, but at least she had been home for Bob's surprise 70th birthday. Even Echo made the trip to Florida. She was not a happy puppy. Abe and I had been trying to train her to like vehicles - what Labrador doesn't? - by taking her in the back of the truck with us when we went on our slave labor expeditions to cut wood. We took her to town a couple of times in Mom's new car (don't tell her). Echo just isn't a car dog. She didn't use the bathroom the entire 15 hours we were on the road down to Florida because she was so freaked out. I wish I had a bladder like that! I can't believe Dad let me get away with it, but I let Echo sit in my lap in the front seat with the window open (freezing us out, but anything for the dog) because she seemed to be better about riding that way.

Echo was so happy to have fresh air. And I like a lap dog every now and then.

Lisa and Jeff were so gracious to let us stay at their house one again. We had six adults, two children and three dogs in the house. Lisa and Jeff handled it like real troopers.

For some reason my biological clock was really messed up. Regardless of what I did, I was not able to fall asleep until three or four in the morning throughout my entire stay in the States. This problem continued in Florida and would be a real killer on the morning of the 25th. I had only gotten about three hours sleep when Stacy and Steven decided it was time to open presents. I could easily have slept another ten hours or so. If you look at the pictures of our opening presents you will readily notice that I am half asleep. But, if the family was going to open presents, I was going to be in the middle of it all as well.

Since Amy and I are so serious most of the time, we thought that we would try to be a little more lighthearted. We re-wrapped Steven and Stacy presents (the ones we had already given them back in October), and re-wrapped their presents to us so that we could all open more presents that morning.

Incredible how many presents were given, received, opened and thoroughly enjoyed. I would not want to tell you folks that although I enjoyed all the presents I received, my favorite ones were the chocolate bars I received. I must make an admission here that I am an addict. Hello, my name is Abe and I am a chocoholic. Amy unwrapped gifts that she had bought with me - more computer games to go along with her Age of Empires One and Two. What a surprise, yeah, right! And I opened up gifts that I had bought with her. No surprises here.

All joking aside, Amy had a great time being with her parents and sister and sister's family for Christmas. It's always been a magical place and time of year for the Brandsborgs. It's fun to be a part of it all. Back to the top.


December 31, 2005 / January 1, 2006: Dancing the Year Away

Bob and Diane returned to Tennessee a couple of days before New Year's. That meant that Jeff and Lisa had to entertain us. Lisa helped Amy finish some sewing. I think it was a pants pattern, but don't quote me on that. (It was another set of new sheets for our weird-shaped bed. The Day After Thanksgiving shopping excursion that I can't believe we went for and I found cheap sheets. Couldn't pass it up). Jeff was more creative. Stacy, Jeff and I went sailing on their 16 foot sailboat. It was such a neat thing to do. After sailing on a slow, heavy cruiser, a small sailboat was a great treat. We sailed up and down the inner coast. The boat was surprisingly fast for such a small boat and the wind was not that strong.

On another day we took a trip to the driving range. I had not touched a golf club in more than a year. I duffed a few balls, but after a few swings I started to hit the ball fairly well. I got the bug to play golf, but just never got the chance to get on a course. We also got on the McCown driving range (a net that was really useful to practice your swing). Steven and Stacy also had the chance to tryout their swings. If you have ever seen that commercial about people doing stupid things, you could have made bets that we would end up in that commercial. We decided to practice our chipping and put a small trampoline about forty feet away and started to chip. To make things interesting, one of us would get on the trampoline daring the person chipping to hit them. Although we never really came close we kept on laughing about how stupid we were acting. Yeah, even Jeff and I took our turns at the trampoline. Steven made it complete by singing that song that accompanies the new commercials of people doing stupid things.

Happy New Year! Well not quite. On New Year's Eve Jeff set up their Dance pads and started to make fools of ourselves, at least Amy and I. Surprising how well Steven and Stacy move on them. Jeff was the Dance Master! Stacy was not too far behind, and then Steven and Lisa. Amy, Diane and I trailed behind. Way behind. Jeff and Stacy seemed to handle the half beats pretty well, but the rest of us displayed our blatant lacking sense of rhythm on the half, and quarter beats.

Unfortunately Stacy felt ill before the midnight hour and missed the midnight hugs. The rest of us just literally danced the New Year away! Back to the top.

 

January 2-3, 2006: Back to El Salvador

We finally started on our trip back to El Salvador on the second of January (Happy Birthday Abe!). We had postponed the return long enough. Jeff was "eager!" (although he hid it well) to take us to the airport to pick up the rental car. We had a nice easy drive to Charleston, except for the thunderstorm near our destination. We had made reservations at the military hotel a couple of days earlier. Originally the terminal informed us that show time was five AM on Tuesday, but when we checked on Monday, the airman told us that there would be a flight to Honduras (you can't always be sure of that) and that show time would be at three AM and no, the terminal would not be open until then. We made the decision to make our final dinner at Hooters either before or after a movie. We were just trying to squeeze the final fun in the last hours of our stay in the States.

A final trip to Home Depot, Barns and Noble, Best Buy was absolutely necessary. We went to watch Fun with Dick and Jane. A funny movie would not be the complete if Amy didn't let everyone know she was laughing. There was one particularly funny scene where Jane has a swollen lip. Amy could not stop laughing. (It's just one of those things that struck me as funny. And I couldn't stop laughing. Every time I almost got it under control, they'd show Jane again with her swollen lip, and it would start all over again. Had to be there.) Everyone at the theater could hear her and would start laughing. What a novel situation!

We decided to get a couple hours sleep before going to the terminal at 2:30. We made it to bed at about midnight. When we arrived at the terminal we were told that there was only one space left on the flight. All the other seats were reserved for people with military orders. Fortunately we were at the top of the list for retired people. The chance of our getting on the flight would not be great and that they were expecting the same for the next couple of weeks. I tried to hurry to return the rental car and get back before 3:45 when they would announce if seats were available. This was a huge change from the other flights that had been going to and coming from Honduras. They'd moved most of the passenger seats out, and the plane now only accommodated about 15 people, down from the previous 60.

I made it back just a little after 3:45, but they had not called for anyone yet. We waited anxiously for the bad news. At about four they called me and the guy behind us on the list to tell us that there would only be one seat. The sergeant asked if I wanted it, and even though I thought about leaving Amy behind with her yarn, I told him to give it to the next guy. I started to think that at least we would be able to buy the movie The Wedding Crashers (it was released today). As I started to walk away to tell Amy, although she nodded that she had heard the bad news, the sergeant called me back and told me the crew had released the jump seat with two more spaces for us. Although we didn't jump for joy we were relieved that we would not have to make another trip to and from Tennessee. We were still a bit anxious since one guy (active duty) had not shown and we could still get bumped off the flight. Fortunately they made the boarding call and then we knew we would get on the plane. Actually Amy kept on saying that she would not celebrate until the wheels were up on take-off. The moment we heard the wheels starting up we looked at each other and gave a slight sigh of relief. I think we both partially were sad to be leaving the Good ol' U. S. of A. We have come to realize just how much we do love our country and what great things we have there. Not that we didn't appreciate it earlier, but since we don't see our home every day any longer, it makes coming back that much sweeter.

Our arrival to Honduras was uneventful. Seemed that all the personnel at the terminal recognized us from previous trips. We picked up our luggage and tried to organize ourselves for the short walk to the bus stop. I must admit that lugging two pallets full of yarn was a bit of a hassle. When we got to the bus station (about 100 yards from the terminal) Amy and I looked at each other and decided to take the more expensive busses back to El Salvador with all the luggage. We both knew that we would minimize handling the luggage if we took the luxury bus. The chicken busses would save us about forty dollars, but the hassle of trying to load it on and off the busses and lug it across the border of Honduras and El Salvador (a total of 1/4 mile walk on both sides of the border), was just not worth it.

When we got on the military bus, we expected to get off at the gate and take another bus to Tegucigalpa, but to our surprise this bus was going to the Tegucigalpa Airport. We would be saving ourselves one load and unload. We got really cheery! To make a long story short, one night's stay at the Marriott hotel, one luxury bus ride, one taxi ride in San Salvador, one chicken bus ride to Usulatan, one taxi ride to the Marina, and a short panga ride, we were home.

We unpacked our luggage and started to put our stuff away (except for the two pallets of yarn).

A few small projects and we will continue our trek via water to Costa Rica. But then, I am sure, that is another story. Back to the top.

 

January 4 - 16, 2005: Back to our routine

Back at the boat we've settled back into our routine. We're able to work more each day on the boat because it's not so hot. It is breaking 90 degrees each day, but not much more. It's manageable at least. I had to make some slight alterations to our new awning (the one I made in April 2005 has started to disintegrate)

It took almost a week to get the boat's mildew wiped down and washed and livable again. It's amazing how much being off the boat is hard on the boat. We've found some cracked wood (guessing from the heat?), lots of spider webs (but thankfully no flies any longer), and a general mustiness that took some days to air out. And we've been doing a lot of work to get the pictures and journal ready for the website. It's amazing how much time that takes. And of course, we've been watching the playoffs. Poor Indianapolis. I'm so sad.

Abe's been working on getting our refrigerator insulated and up and running again. It's not an easy thing to fix, and it's not an easy place to work.

What a view! I leave the boat when I start to hear the curse words arising from the depths of the fridge.

Laundry has also been calling my name. It takes about 4 hours for me to do the equivalent of 1 and a half loads of laundry. I have to carry water to the boat in the solar shower. Once it's heated to 120 + degrees, I use two water bags and my WonderWash to soak the clothes in detergent, OxyClean and hot water over night. Then I carry it all to shore to rinse and wring three times. Then back to the boat to hang it on the lifelines. Fortunately, we're wearing bathing suits and shorts most days, and can get multiple days out of one pair of shorts. It's not too much, but I have to keep on top of it before it gets massive and overwhelming.

Some new boats came and went since we've been back. It's nice to have some new faces and folks to chat with. We had a nice pot luck barbecue. We also finally went to see the monkeys. There's about 15 or 20 monkeys about a 15 minute walk from the main gate. Apparently one of the families keeps and cares for the monkeys. I'm not sure if it's just for the pure enjoyment of visitors or what, but it was neat. The caretaker called them as soon as we arrived, and we could hear the rustling of the trees as the monkeys swung from branch to branch, ever closer to food. Of course we went armed with bananas. There were two carrying babies on their backs. They were very friendly, of course having been trained over the years that when they're called, it means food!

The caretaker told us that there were only 3 monkeys here after the war ended in 1990. He said that they'd been hunted, the adults killed off so that soldiers could take the babies home for pets. He was very proud of his current clan, as he should be. They all looked very healthy and content.

This pregnant female is due in 4 or 5 more months.

The big excitement in our lives lately, however, was Abe's shot in the rump from Dr. Amy. We have no idea what caused a major allergic reaction, but 20 minutes after we went to bed last Saturday night, Abe started itching around the waist and leg band of his underwear as well as on his scalp. There were welts, redness and swelling. At first he thought it might have been bugs or something even though there was no evidence of any. I gave him two Benedryl pills and he went to shore to shower to see if it would help (in case it was bugs). When he returned, I had changed the sheets, and pulled out our medical book from Dr. Dickie Hill. I had a plan of action. An hour after it started he was almost completely covered from head to knee in redness, swelling and terrible itchiness. I was so excited that I was going to get to jab Abe with a needle! We have injectable Benedryl exactly for moments like these. Abe took it like a man (although he was not impressed that Dr. Amy wanted to confirm just exactly where in the rump the shot was supposed to go), and fell asleep almost immediately. I wish I'd gotten a picture of THAT! I stayed awake reading for awhile longer, checking periodically to make sure he was still breathing. He said he could feel an almost immediate relief of the itching, so I was breathing easier myself. I was worried. We don't know what he reacted to, but he spent most of Sunday dozing while watching Indianapolis lose. He took one pill Sunday morning and another Sunday night, and hasn't seen a rash since. Thank you, Dr. Dickie! Back to the top.

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