A bit of follow up in Paradox

Running life backward pictorally and amendment wise...this morning's dawn is brought to you by the color Pink.


Next. I was telling a fellow popcorn lover (though I must say, I pale in comparison to her passion for popcorn) that I am going to tell people coming from the states who ask if they can bring me anything to bring along plain old popcorn. It cannot be bought on Culebra and isn't easy to find on the big island either. I guess manually shaking a pan back and forth has just become too big an effort for the mainstream consumer. But nothing is as good as freshly popped popcorn that you do yourself, melting the butter in the still hot pan, mixinig it with salt and then pouring it over the popcorn...yum! So, this friend says, oh...I have some I can share with you, I got a rather huge bag of it recently (had to be recently or it would all be gone). So she did share it with me and it is worth a picture and another thank you! It's the little things, dear hearts.


And now to a bit more serious. When I wrote yesterday (actually, the day before yesterday now) about the company that doesn't care about Culebra, I should have made something much more clear. There are layers of companies working on the sewer project. There is the company who makes the sewer system itself (pretty interesting, really, but don't worry, I'll keep it to myself...sort of). There is the environmental guy, overseeing the installation. There is the engineer, applying engineering concepts in the installation, such as degree of slant needed for the vacuum process to work properly, testing along the way, etc.

And then...there is the construction company, that is supposed to have an overseer making sure all of the above is implemented by communication with the environmental and engineering side.

Of course, that is where things break down. There is a reason we've had so many leaks, re-digs, shoddy road repairs and more, and that can be laid directly at the construction company's feet. They have consistently ignored the instructions of both the environmental and engineering side, resulting in the mess we have now. They have been fined, repeatedly, because of this. A project that should have been finished last fall, BEFORE season started is still plodding along, making our island filthy and difficult to negotiate with the end in sight somewhere but no where obvious to most of us.

I'm explaining this because it's the fair thing to do and I know some on this project that, despite appearances, are fighting as hard as they can for it to be done right. An example was yesterday. I was walking home and looking at the mess still in front of Casa Ensenada when looking a few feet further on I saw this. It's not easy to tell in the photo, but the concrete is still wet and already cracking... I stopped to take a photo and then walked on...a few more feet. I was in front of the trailer office of the project (one office, they have more) and out came the engineer (bad timing on his part, sorry, amigo). Truthfully, he looks like hell. He came here an upbeat, good looking young guy eager to do a good job on an interesting project for the betterment of Culebra. I think he's lost about 15 pounds that he couldn't afford to lose and I haven't seen him smile in a long time. So what do I do? I add to his burden. He shook my hand and asked "What?" to the look on my face. I took him the few feet over and showed him this mess while asking..."Is this a joke?" He looked down, immediately started pressing in a phone number as he turned back to the office. I walked on. What more was there to say?

Down the road, from one end of the airport to the other (on the water side), the same sort of 'concrete work' had been done. All wet, all cracked, all put on like a five year old having a blast with mud pies. It was too discouraging to photograph; no doubt it will be seen today.

Next, in relation to the Terruno project meeting yesterday. Designed to be a community forum so people could express how they felt about the project, it turned into (this is second hand, but I'd guess pretty accurate) a verbal sparring match with the project owners seemingly utterly bewildered at why residents do not want a 223 unit, mountain covering monstrosity in their neighborhoods or on their island. This is 223 units on 15 acres in an area that is (was? whose pocket is more full now?) designated as one unit per acre. Hmm.

Apparently one of the most outrageous comments of the meeting was made by the owners stating "We're doing this for Culebra!" I wonder if that line was used by the Costa Bonita group too. Let's see, for Culebra? Multiply the units times people, cars, utilities, trash pick up, police and fire protection, clinic capacity, road usage, gas consumption, etc...and tell me what is good for Culebra about this? Six units, I'd buy it. Not 223.

And now, to get the taste of all of that out of your mental mouth and eyes, here are two of the most beautiful things I saw yesterday. This cactus in town blooms every year, getting bigger and more lovely. It's easy to forget the bright vividness of its blossoms when the slightly dull grayish green plant itself is what is seen most of the year... but then comes magic time!


Which brings us to the second most beautiful thing but not necessarily in that order. Anyone who tries to fix something around here can relate to a day spent on the big island frustratedly searching for that elusive part that no one has. Such was the day for Sean and Paul, traipsing around all day and no joy for an engine part.

Yesterday, with more tinkering, reading schematics, making do and appealing to the god of engines, I was, on my arrival at the dock, treated to the sweet sound of Sean's engine putt putt putting along, with he and Bobby grinning like boys that just won a go-cart race. Good work, well done! Now it's time to go sailing!