Reunited and it Feels So Good

After a long 28-day absence, Amy and I are back together.  That's right, Amy and I both survived being apart for a month.  Although there was no doubt of Amy's success, being unsupervised for that long would usually end in jail, hospitalization, the morgue, or all three, for me.

All of this started because of Otto's failure to pass the international certification to get to TCI.  You think you have issues getting a passport?  Try being one of our four-legged friends.  At least they didn't give me a blood test- I would never have got in.  After a litany of tests, Otto's rabies antibodies were low.  Not to worry, he was given an booster and retested.  We await his results.  But in the meantime, we had to scrap all of our moving plans and juggle our schedules.  In short, between Amy coming down here and going back to Austin, and my going back to Chicago for some work, we missed each other for a month.

During that month, Amy went back to Austin and got Toby certified to come down here.  Toby is now an International Man of Mystery: registered with the World Health Organization; internationally chipped; and I'm not sure, but I think he can communicate with the local dogs in their native language.  Amy also cleaned and organized what is now our home, which used to be the dive shop office.  She also opened us up for business, renting our pool to a local swimming school and renting the property to a local church for its day classes.  #makethatmoney.

During that month, I finished up some work in Chicago, had great going-away nights with friends, and got a chance to say goodbye to the Brauhaus.  Also, Davin and I started our work on the place, which was documented previously.

But really during that month, I realized (again) how much I love my wife.  Every fun time, every laugh, every night- was not quite as good as if Amy was there.  Sharing your life with someone you love is truly magical, and I had to go it alone for a while.  I was a little out of place- I had given up my home in Chicago and moved to TCI, but I realized that my home is really wherever Amy is.  As such, when she came back to the island, I could finally say I was home.  As soon as Otto gets down here, our family, and our home, will be complete.  So far, so good.

We were then able to really start our new life together here in TCI.  First, Toby made friends with Leo, a local pot cake.  Pot cakes are wild dogs who generally live in the bush.  Nobody owns them and they run free, kind of like canine Han Solos.  The local government has a program where they catch the pot cakes, spade or neuter them (Bob Barker would be proud), give them their shots, and release them back into the wild.  Typically, someone "adopts" the pot cakes by giving them food and a place to stay.

Leo was adopted by the dive shop next door.  They give him food and water, and he generally roams the property and lives there.  However, when Toby arrived, Leo found a new buddy.  Leo and Toby are inseparable.  Toby teaches Leo the city-slicker chill vibe, fashion sense, and the best ways to beg treats from the newbies.  Leo, in return, teaches Toby the best ways in and out of the ocean, where to hide in the rain, and how to keep the local lizards- rock iguanas and bugwallis- out of your food dish.  I can't wait for Leo to meet Otto.

Our new home is pretty sweet.  Not sweet like in a luxurious place to live, but sweet like a summer camp where you can drink, swim in the ocean, and have sex with the hot girl camper from the girls' camp.  Since we don't have our stuff down yet, we re-positioned a couple of the bunk beds from the rooms in our bungalow.  (Sorry, but I can't stop answering the question, "Where do you live?" by saying "In a bungalow on the ocean.")  The beds are surprisingly comfortable, and since Amy put new screens on the windows and doors (#mywifeknowsherwayaroundahammer), mosquito-free.  You may notice there are no windows on the bungalow.  However, this is not a problem.  I have lived here for five weeks and never shut the wood shutters on the place.  The ocean breeze is our air-conditioning, we listen to the sounds of the sea when we go to bed, and the morning sun wakes us up every day.

Our bathroom, or as I should say my new office, at this point still lacks hot water.  I don't really miss hot water.  When you come in from a long day of machete-chopping, the last thing you want is hot water drizzling over your super-heated body.  Amy, however, insists that we have this luxury at some point.  #princess.  To keep her in the lifestyle she was accustomed to back home, in the next couple of days I am fixing the hot water system, wherein our water, taken freely from the sky, will be heated by the suns' rays.  #ecowarrior.

 All in all, we've made a pretty good home here.  We get up with the sunrise, work all day, and quit when the sun goes down.  We don't have many of the modern conveniences we had in Chicago, but have realized we really don't need them.  We have each other, our dream, and enough sunshine and music to enjoy every day.  So far so good.

Finally, if any of you wanted to know how I blog- drink it in.

Next up- New friends.