The other day I stuck a stalk of over ripe bananas out in the yard for our resident possum and coati as well as all the birds to enjoy. Now that everyone has had their fill the remainder are pretty decayed . . . and I found this beautiful moth enjoying the decaying bananas! I couldn’t get a shot of him with wings open, but he had a beautiful cream band and an iridescent blue band inside. He had about a 6″ wingspread, really beautiful.
Bananas really are a perfect fruit! They are healthy and delicious and we have loads of them, both at our farm and surrounding our house in Valle Escondido. My wife, Nikki, likes them when they are in my humble opinion still green. I like them when they are ripe but still firm. The dogs love them when they are getting soft. The possum, coati and birds love them when they are overripe, and now a beautiful moth loves them when they are rotten. Nice!
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Building frustrations. My advice: don’t. Buy something already built and live with it. The frustration level is getting pretty high, but if I swear at the builder in English he won’t understand, so what’s the point? Yesterday I had to explain that a 60 pound ceiling fan can NOT hang from drywall unsupported. If it weren’t for my motley collection of tools there wouldn’t be any tools on the job. Yesterday I tried to explain that if you are a construction worker in the US you have your own tools including, at a minimum, Skill saw, electric drill and electric screw driver. And if you are a contractor . . . we won’t go there. I also tried to explain “backassward” . . . not easy.
To give you an idea . . . I herewith present the electrical plan . . . what everyone is working from, if and when they can find it! HELP!!
To say nothing of the Burmese cherry cabinets from China. Beautiful . . . at least they were, and I hope they will still be when I’m done with them. Putting the drawers in is an insane operation. It’s like mastering a complex Chinese computer game without any directions . . . yet everything must be done in a very precise sequence, which, by the time I’ve installed about 30 drawers, I will, hopefully, have some clue of understanding. And then there are the cheap Chinese screws that have flooded the market and are all you can find in Panama.
I’ve shifted from rum and Coke to straight scotch.
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My wife is getting ready to head off to Russia with our daughter Rebecca, so this is my last shot at posting house construction pictures for her approval.
A Dutch door! The door can be open, but the dogs can’t come in.
Another sink.
I bought three of these sinks when I was on the VOLENDAM in April and carried them home in my luggage. We needed two more so I found them on eBay. A local forwarding company, “Pakya”, lets you have stuff sent to Miami and then they forward it to Boquete. They advertise $2 a pound, plus some customs and clearing charges. The sinks weigh less than 10 pounds each, so I figured it couldn’t be that expensive. A lot of folks have stuff sent in all the time. Wrong!! $185 for three small boxes!!!!! Well, that will be the last stuff we ship in! Live and learn.
Well, it’s light out, and it’s time for the dogs and I to hike up to Alto Boquete to retrieve my truck from “Click and Clack” – photos tomorrow.
1 response so far ↓
Melodye // July 17, 2008 at 12:21 pm
Hello Richard, I found this blog where Pakya Panama was mentioned and spent some time looking up your shipment. I have the explaination of the charges for you if you want them. It is difficult to determine what something might cost to ship to Panama sometimes, but you can always call us and ask for help with that before you buy. Your situation was like many, where the sizes of the boxes was greater than the weight. Very nice blog and I love that Dutch door! …. Melodye