September 25, was my 57th birthday. David arrived home on Friday with a lovely bouquet of roses. The 25th was on a Sunday and was a very quiet, uneventful day. So very unlike my birthdays of the past. However, it was a nice and relaxing day. I relaxed, had some phone calls from family and friends, received a ton of birthday blessings on Facebook and enjoyed reading the book “The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest” by Stieg Larsson. As most of you know, David helps me celebrate my birthday in a big way…… over the past 10 years, we have had trips to Italy, Ireland, Japan and Wisconsin to visit with my brother, Perry. So, once in awhile celebrating my birthday in a quiet way is quite OK with me.
The reason I was alone, was because David had flown on Saturday, Sept 24 to what I jokingly call “Big Boy Camp”. He spent the week with Robert Gradous, a gunsmith, building a long distance target shooting rifle. He had been planning to build this gun for over a year and it just happened that the best time for him to get away from work was the week of my birthday. It was so much fun to see David so excited about this trip.
Robert’s shop is located in Hepzibah, Georgia outside of Augusta. He opens up his shop to people who are interested in building a rifle. Over the year, David had ordered the various parts and had them shipped to Robert’s shop. It took a couple days to build it. David called every night just full of excitement as he related the days activities to me. He spent his nights at a small cabin that Robert has on his property. It sounded idyllic as it was right next to a pond. One afternoon, David went fishing and caught several fish.
After finishing at Big Boy Camp, David drove to Mt Vernon, Ga and visited our dear friends, Charlie and Shirley. They are friends that we met while traveling and working with TIC. Charlie was David’s project manager on a couple of projects. They built a beautiful log cabin home on 15 acres of land.
For me, my week went on as usual. I visited with some Dominican friends, attended spinning classes, walked the beach, worked out to my exercise DVDs, read, studied Spanish, practiced my guitar and played with and fed the beach dogs. My days are full and pass quickly.
Saturday, I went with my cleaning lady, Joannie to her home in Sabaneta to see where she lived and to go visit my other cleaning lady, Josie, who has been out on maternity leave. Joannie’s oldest daughter just had a baby girl last week. She is a beautiful but very, very tiny baby. She only weighed 5 pounds at birth. After visiting with her family and meeting some of her neighbors, we walked over to Josie’s house.
Josie had a beautiful baby boy in July and what a contrast to the tiny newborn I had just seen. As you can see in the picture, he is a bruiser!!! From Josie’s house, we walked to visit her sister Angelica, who used to help me with my Spanish. It was a fun, Dominican, Spanish speaking day!!!
Sunday, Oct 2, David flew back to the Dominican Republic. I drove the company truck to the airport to meet him. This was big!!!! The driving down here is atrocious and I purposely have not driven or had any desire to drive. However, I wanted to go shopping in Puerto Plata as he arrived and me driving to get him was the best alternative. I must say, the Universe was smiling on me as there was absolutely no traffic!!! When I arrived at the entrance to the airport, I looked up to the heavens and thanked my guardian angels for watching over me.
So, life is back to normal….whatever normal is. David left for the mine early Monday morning. I am back to my various activities. I have signed up, once again, for kite surfing lessons and have had one. The next and final step is attempting to get on the board. The delay is the wind, which this time of year can be very unpredictable. We are looking forward to a long weekend in San Juan, Puerto Rico on October 13th!!!