Saturday, October 5, 2019 Sara and Katie's wedding

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Last weekend we made a flying trip to Michigan for our daughter Sara's wedding. (That's Sara on the right with her bride Katie.}

It was everything a wedding should be: fun, joyous, people coming together, full of laughter and love!

Aside from the beautiful wedding, the best thing for me was having all our kids together in one place  for the first time since our oldest, John David, graduated from high school. (he turned 40 earlier this week so you can do the math.)

 (Three important people are missing from this photo: the other bride, who was off doing something important, and William and Kai who were off playing and couldn't be bothered.)

Siblings were together for the first time in years.

Cousins met cousins they didn't know they had.

Kids (Kai and Kennedy) met uncles (Jason) and aunts (Hannah) they've never seen. And, we finally got to meet Hannah, our other soon-to-be daughter-in-law and soon-to-be mother of our newest grandchild.

Between travel, rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, the wedding, reception, and more travel, we manage short visits with our good friends Nancy and Gwen

and our "adopted" daughter Katie, her wife Elizabeth, and out "grandaughter" Emmory.

We missed so many people we'd hoped to see. Our original plan was to go to Cincinnati for my 50th high school reunion then on to Cleveland for a visit with Amy and the grands, then a leisurely tip to Michigan with lots of time for visits and finally a relaxed weekend at the wedding. That whole plan fell apart and turned into a flying five-day trip, with two of those being travel days. To all those we messed, we are so sorry. We'll try again next time.

All in all it was an amazing wonderful love-filled weekend. We are so grateful.

Congratulations Sara and Katie!

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Is this a great place to live or what?

For the last week, Mama Ocean has been in a mood, roiling, throwing wave after wave against the coast.

Last night we felt a M6.3 earthquake that was followed by M5.1, M4.7 and M4.5 aftershocks. In fact, according to earthquaketrack.com, we have had 33 earthquakes, ranging from M2.7, M3.2, M3.3 up to the M6.3, in the last 24 hours alone.

If that weren't enough, Tropical Storm Karen is about to hit the island. All indications are that Karen is pretty much a non-event as tropical storms go. Some wind - maybe 30 mph on the east end of the island, some rain -a couple of inches, again on the east side. The forecast for our side is 10 mph winds and scattered thunderstorms this afternoon.

I mean really - how many places can you get a magnitude 6+ earthquake and a tropical storm all in the same day?

And this morning Mama Ocean was the cleanest and calmest she's been in days. Coda and I went for our morning walk at Shacks Beach and it was flat enough to snorkel.

Go figure. It probably won't last long. Once Karen get past the island tonight she'll make some waves. The surfers will be happ.

Friday, September 20 2019 The second anniversary

Two years ago we were hunkered down riding out the first part of Hurricane Maria. We survived both the storm and its aftermath.

A couple of updates since the hurricane: Trump continues to lie about how much money was appropriated and sent to Puerto Rico to aid recovery. He continues to lie about what a great job FEMA did. You may have read that an assistant FEMA administrator and several other FEMA employees were indicted on corruption and bribery charges in connection with a $1.8 billion contract for the reconstruction of the island's electric grid. What you may not have read is that FEMA sent out letters to pretty much everyone who applied for Individual Assistance with FEMA since 2008 that they incorrectly shared personal addresses of 2.5 million people with private contractors. Of those 2.5 million, 1.8 million also had personal banking information shard with contractors. So pretty much everybody in Puerto Rico post-Maria has had their information shared. We applied for FEMA assistance. When we first applied, we didn't hear anything for a couple of months. We went to check on our application and were told they had no record of us ever applying. So, we applied all over again. (In a way this turned out to be a good thing because that's how we found out about the Small Business Administration's post disaster loans.) Several weeks later we received a letter telling us we were eligible for "Transitional Sheltering Assistance" (in a hotel in San Juan) because our house was damaged. One day later we received another letter from FEMA telling us our house was habitable and therefore we weren't eligible for any assistance. These are not uncommon stories.Yep, cheeto-in-chief, FEMA did a great job in Puerto Rico.

Today is calm, quiet, hot, a bit muggy, and very still. Except for the ocean. The ocean is rockin' and churnin'! These were taken at Playa Pastillo yesterday.

It's bigger today. There are high surf, coastal flooding, and strong rip tide advisories up for today all along the coast.

Hurricane Jerry is spinning around out there almost due east of us in the Atlantic. It shouldn't be a problem; it is tracking well north of us and should pass us during the day tomorrow. We may get some rain - and more waves - but that should be it.

We are supposed to be in Ohio right now for my 50th (!) high school reunion. Between our nephew Ben still in the hospital in San Juan (many trips back and forth), ailing horses (nothing serious!), my sister and niece being here to be with Ben and no one available to care for the animals this weekend, we are sitting this one out. Maybe I will make the next one. (I've said that since the 40th). We will be in Michigan next weekend for our daughter's wedding though!

Unless there is a hurricane of course.

Sunday, September 8, 2019 A mixed bag

First back to Dorian: We are incredibly grateful that Hurricane Dorian missed us completely and only glanced off the Florida coast. That said, I can't even begin to talk about the destruction and heartbreak in the Bahamas. All I can say is I hope the Brits treat the Bahamas better than our government treated us. And last night Dorian moved on to Canada! One hundred mph hurricane winds hit Halifax.

It's been a pretty rocky week. Our nephew Ben was hospitalized in San Juan with what they originally thought was a badly infected abscessed tooth. After a over a week of ups-and-downs, it turns out it's not an abscessed tooth with a huge bacterial infection swelling. Nope. He has lymphoma. As of now we don't know exactly what kind or what stage. We will find that out later this week. So for the past week I've been driving back and forth to San Juan a lot. Ben's mother and sister - my sister and niece - are coming into San Juan tonight so I suspect I will be there even more this week.

On a totally different note yesterday was one of the best days in the young life of Elaine's non-profit Horses of Hope/Caballos de Esperanza.

Frank Perez, the president of the Puerto Rico Association for the Blind came to HoH to ride a horse!

Elaine met Frank several weeks ago at an event to showcase services for the blind island-wide. A friend of ours from a therapeutic riding center on the other side of the island was also presenting at the event and arranged for another mutual friend to bring a horse. At that event Frank touched a horse for the first time and admitted his life long dream was to ride a horse.

Elaine said, "We can make that happen!"

It took a couple of weeks and several contact to get him past his initial anxiety and to actually get him here to ride. Yesterday was the day.

Elaine had a brilliant lesson plan designed to introduce Frank step by step and to guide him through the process. His class, as do all classes, began with being introduced to "his" horse (in this case Chocolate) by grooming.

The last step is grooming usually cleaning the hooves. Elaine thought this would be just a cursory introduction. Frank was fascinated by Choco's hooves, how hard they are, the shape, the feel and the pattern of the underside of the hoof around the frog.

The next step was tacking up Chocolate, putting on his saddle and reins. Frank was more involved in the process than many of our other clients!

From there, with the aid of our volunteers Chris, Paola, and Michael, Elaine had Frank walk with Chocolate around the riding arena so he could get a sense of its size and shape.

Then (drumroll please) they all moved to the mounting block. Again, Elaine had Frank feel the block, its size and shape and height. She also had him feel how tall Chocolate was compared to the mounting block. He immediately understood that he would stand on the block to get on the horse.

With Elaine's guidance - and with a bit of rising anxiety - Frank climbed the stairs. With help from Elaine and his volunteers Frank got on a horse for the first time in his life.

After that, there was nothing to do but ride!

After his first ride this man who had been so anxious, so flat-out scared, realized he can ride! It is a possibility for him. Now he wants to take lessons. His new goal is to ride independently with no side walkers holding him, with the horse leader's lead rope unclipped. This is very realistic, very possible. We can make this happen!

Our whole team, starting with Chocolate and including our rockstar volunteers Chris, Paola, Michel, Eslyn, Gladys, and of course Elaine, created a calm, safe, secure atmosphere to help alleviate Frank's fears and made this dream come true. Now on to the next one!

Follow Horses of Hope/Caballos de Esperanza on Facebook and on our website. 

Wednesday, August 28, 2019 TS Dorian

These were the clouds this morning as we began the day waiting for TS Dorian. Overnight, the predicted track changed for going south then west of us through the Mona Passage to going right across the island, aiming right at us. By this afternoon, when Dorian should have made landfall, the track had shifted again farther east and north. Dorian just clipped the very eastern edge of the island. The eye is now north and east of San Juan, almost due north of Fajardo. There is still some lingering light rain and we could get a little rain later tonight as Dorian spins but we're pretty much out of danger.

Whew! Dodged another one!

Dorian appears to have intensified into a Cat 1 hurricane just as it passed Puerto Rico. Now it looks like it's on the Bahamas Express and is forecast to be a Cat 3 when a passes over the Bahamas on its way to Florida. It could even cross Florida into the Gulf of Mexico and threaten the Gulf coast.

This is sunset tonight at the end of what was supposed to be a hurricane day:

Those of you still in Dorian's path in the Bahamas and Florida, please be safe.

Wednesday, August 28, 2019 Tropical Storm Dorian

So here we go. Dorian took a little turn to the north and is heading right at us. The National Hurricane Center actually shows the worst of Dorian passing east and north of us before turning west and heading for the Bahamas and Florida. Until this morning all the tracks show the storm going a little south and west, then up through the Mona Passage (the passage from the Atlantic to the Caribbean between Puerto Rico and Hispanola). Some reports are saying maybe a weak Cat 1 hurricane but most likely still a tropical storm With winds under 74 mph, probably in the 40-50  mph range for us.

So what does this all mean? We are going to get strong winds starting this afternoon or early evening. There are predictions of 4"-6" of rain, especially on south facing slopes. (Fortunately, we're on the north side.) That could be devastating because so many areas are still unstable since the loss of trees in Maria.

Dorian is a small-ish compact storm which apparently makes it track more difficult to predict. Puerto Rico is a smallish island, The difference of a few miles either way can make a huge difference the impact. We're as prepared as we can be for whatever comes. If the electric goes out - which is likely - we'll get back on to let y'all know we're safe. Til then, we got this.

(The twitter-in-chief is already bitching about recovery aid to Puerto Rico!)

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

I've know for a long time there are two caves at the west end of Play Pastillo, one a big one you can walk into and smaller one a little further on you have to swim into .

Until this week, I've never seen either of them.

The sand shifts constantly on the beaches, sometimes filling in one place and leaving another bare and then shifting back again. Since Hurricane Maria, there has been no sand at the west end of the beach. Until this past week, the ocean, water and waves, came right up to these rocks, leaving no safe way around.

Now, almost literally overnight, there is sand, lots of it, a nice wide path to get to the big cave. With the ocean quiet and the waves down, you can walk right to the entrance of the small cave. (I had Coda with me this morning so we didn't go quite all the way.)

The whole area - the rocks, the caves, the pools between them is so cool. There is so much I want to photograph there. I just hope Dorian doesn't mess up access too much. 

Monday, August 26, 2019

Well, people here we go. It looks like TS Dorian will strengthen to a Cat 1 hurricane. Current tracking has it headed right for us. Hope they are wrong.

Stay tuned.

About an hour later: I just realized I am unexpectedly apprehensive about this.

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

I went diving at Crashboat Sunday with our friends Heidi and Hernan. Mostly it was a beautiful dive. Heidi and Hernan had not been to Crashboat for a while and wanted to see all the new fish.

The one downer -

This was one of four or five - I lost count - massive fishhook and line mess we picked up. It's hard to tell from the photo, but that's a 2" hook. That's not even the biggest one we found! I can't for the life of me understand what the idiots who leave this stuff on reefs and crowded popular swimming areas like Crashboat think they are going to catch with a hook like that. I've been out there - a lot! There is nothing around those piers that could even take a hook like that. Then the hooks are just left there to  snag divers, swimmers, snorkelers, and small fish.

For years I've wanted to respect the local fisherman but they make it pretty much impossible. They don't respect the environment or other people. At Crashboat and on pretty much every near-shore reef and rock formation we find hooks, fishing line, spark plugs they use as sinkers. Fishermen at Crashboat even yelled at friends of mine who were going in to dive. Yesterday Coda found a barracuda head just left to rot on the beach. The fishermen don't deserve our respect.

 I cannot understand how people whose livelihood depends on the ocean can have so little regard for it. How can they so wantonly participate in its destruction? I would think fishermen would be at the forefront of ocean conservation efforts. Instead they are at the leading edge of destroying it. The "culture" is "I take what I want and to hell with the rest."

It's so sad. I try to imagine what it could be like if we all worked together to protect the ocean. fishermen and boaters have opposed every conservation proposal put forth in the nearly 13 years we've been here.

So we just keep keepin' on, doing what we can to clean up other people's messes.

Wednesday, August 14, 2019

This week was not only about politics. I actually managed to get in the water - twice.

Our friend Jim Tagg was on the island for a few days and wanted to do a bunch of diving. Unfortunately for me, his first day here I wrenched my knee and could barely walk, let alone carry scuba gear.

By Sunday the knee was solid enough and we dove Crashboat.

Almost exactly two years after Hurricane Maria, I think there are more fish there now than there were before the hurricane. I'm not the only one; Ive heard other divers say that too. There are definitely more species of fish. Lots more big-eyes like these and the ones in the video above.

I think there are several factors at play here. One, since all the piers are now wrecks, there are lots more protected places for fish to hide. For another, there are fewer fishermen. The long pier was broken in half and erosion during the storm surge essentially cut the beach in half. The now-sunken piers are much farther out from the usable beach. With less beach - and less parking - there may actually be fewer people there. Whatever the reasons, I love it!

Back at the beginning of summer our friend Carole and I decided we would try to snorkel somewhere at least once a week. Through July, we had our employees every morning and Carole had a household full of guest. So we missed the entire month of July. Tuesday we started back at it. Carole wanted to snorkel at Playa Borinquen so that's where we went.

The Borinquen is a beutiful beach in and of itself and the water has the most incredible colors of anywhere on the island.

 

I swam out with my two beautiful mermaids looking for adventure.

Among other things we found this:

a huge school of baitfish. I'm not sure what kind but I think they're mackeral scad. Out on the edges of the school Elaine saw a huge barracuda and a shark, probably a lemon shark others have reported in the area. I missed the shark, damnit! Oh, well there will be other days. 

This Saturday I'm planning to go back to Crashboat with friends. Hoping for lots more great photos then.

Wednesday, August 14, 2019

Well, we've made it two whole weeks without a new governor. The conspiracy between the presidents of the House and the Senate to oust Wanda Vasquez may be real, but so far has come to naught. Wanda is still there and shows every sign of staying.

I was all set to write that Wanda is doing some things and saying things that at least sound right. She said she will review all contracts Rossello signed in the last two weeks he was in office as well as some before that. She said she "may" declare a state of emergency to deal with domestic violence on the island. She expects and will demand transparency in all her administration's dealings.

Sounds good.

Then I came across this article on Buzz Flash, written by Nelson Denis, author of The War Against All Puerto Ricans. He, as might be expected, has a different take on Wanda's first two weeks as governor.

Basically Denis says that Wanda is blowing smoke. She cancelled a $450,000 dollar electric grid reconstruction contract between the Puerto Rico Electric Authority (PREPA) and a Canadian company, minuscule compared to the $1.8 billion contract with a company called Cobra Acquisitions which is a subsidiary of Mammoth Energy Services, both of which are under Federal investigation.

Did Wanda investigate the Cobra deal as Secretary of Justice? No. Is Wanda investigating the Cobra contract as Governor? No. She promised a "in-depth review" of all PREPA reconstruction contracts, none of which she investigated as Secretary of Justice.

Denis says the "state of emergency" on domestic violence is similarly made of smoke. It's an easy target but with no chance of new resources being allocated because of the Financial Control Board, the Federal oversight board appointed to regulate PR's finances in the face of $73 billion in public debt.

Denis concludes by writing, "The people of Puerto Rico are desperate for new solutions and a new destiny. But in the end, after weeks of demonstrations and millions of people marching, they ended up with the same old politics: a career hack with no intention of discussing, let alone challenging, the deeper economic and political issues that have plagued their island for over a century.

That would require a leader."

Stay tuned. The revolution ain't over and it will be televised.

Wednesday, August 7, 2019 What's new?

So to recap: after two weeks of peaceful demonstrations, Governor Ricky Rossello resigned in disgrace. Because of the line of succession, his Secretary of State should have become the new governor. But the Sec. of State resigned before the Governor, caught in the same scandal. That would have put Wanda Vásquez, the Secretary of Justice in the governor's chair.

Just before leaving office on Friday, Rossello nominated Pedro Pierluisi to be the new Sec. of State and de facto the new governor. Pierluisi was confirmed by the island House of Representatives but not by the Senate on Friday. On Sunday, in a controversial move, Pierluisi was sworn in as governor with the expectation of being confirmed by the Senate on Monday.

Ha! Ha, I say. The Senate, led by Tomás Rivera Schatz, a political enemy of Pierluisi, refused to confirm him. The whole thing wound up in the island's Supreme court yesterday.

Today, the Supreme Court ruled that the law under which Pierluisi was sworn in is unconstitutional. Today Pierluisi is out and Wanda Vasquez was sworn in as the new governor. So far we've had three governors in five days. As one meme on Facebook put it, "Every time I refresh my network, there is a different governor in Puerto Rico."

Wanda Vásquez is herself under investigation for various misuses of her office of Sec. of Justice. She said from the outset she did not want the job as governor but would take it.

But wait - there's more! El Nuevo Dia, an island newspaper, is reporting that deal has be reached between Rivera Schatz, the president of the House of Representatives Carlos Johnny Mendez and Wanda Vásquez. Under this scenario, in the next few day, Wanda Vazquez will nominate Jenniffer González, our "Resident Commissioner" - essentially our elected lobbyist - in the U.S. House of Representatives, as Secretary of State. Both the House and the Senate will approve Gonzálex, Vásquez will then resign, and González will become governor.

In the famous words of Samuel L. Jackson, "Hold on to your butts!" This ride ain't over yet.

Sunday, August 4, 2019

What a party! Stephanie and Jordan threw a great party and pig roast to celebrate their one-year anniversary at Ola Lola's.

I just want to say Elaine and I could not be happier with Stephanie and Jordan. When you work hard to build something, you worry sometimes about the legacy when you pass it on, not there is anything you really can - or should - do about it. Stephanie and Jordan have done us proud! They've accomplished something very difficult: They've kept the vibe, the feel, the atmosphere of the Ola Lola's we created and they made the vibe and the place their own. They are not copying or imitating us. It's still the same comfortable welcoming place but it's all theirs.

We are so proud of what Stephanie and Jordan have done. We are so grateful the universe brought us all together.

Congratulations on the great success of your first year! May you have many many more!

Sunday, August 4, 2019 Update

So we have a new governor. Pedro Pierluisi was sworn in late Friday after Rossello officially resigned. Of course, it was not without controversy. Rossello nominated Pierluisi to be Secretary of State putting him next in line to be governor. (Puerto Rico does not have a Vice Governor so the Secretary of State, an appointed not elected office, is first in the line of succession.) Pierluisi was confirmed by the island House of Representatives, but had not yet been confirmed by the Senate. Senate leaders said they wouldn't even take up the question of confirmation until next week. (Senate leader Tomas Rivera Schatz is adamantly opposed to Pierluisi.) So here's the controversy: Pierluisi's camp said, according to their reading of the law, Pierluisi could take office as Sec. of State and then move to the Governorship with just confirmation by the House, that confirmation by the Senate was not required in advance. Others, led by Rivera Schatz, believe prior Senate conformation is required.

Apparently, the Pierluisi camp prevailed. That does not mean it's over. There may still be lawsuits.

Stay tuned.