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suffering from blogger block.

We are in the middle of finals and and some kids are realizing Mr. Ray really means what he says.
Work is due on the day it's due and I don't give extra credit.
They think I'm mean and unfair.
I try not to smile as I tell them, "that is why I get upset when you don't do you work. I saw this coming, and there is nothing I can do. You should have been mad when you didn't do your work.

So far I got 20% from 1st period not graduating and 32% from 2nd period. I informed the administration and the assistant principal is behind me, but the guidance counselors are probably hating me.

SO! for the weekend I go to places like this:



or this:



this boat can just flat out scat. And it's scary too!

Where to begin

Do I talk about the dog who is possessed by the ball even when exhausted?

or the flood after the hurricane

or my friends boat hitting the reef?

The Boat Race! too cool>100 mph on water

the hanging of the Hummocks?

or Do I start with the Great Escape of Bob and Mike?

thanksgiving

still no internet

I'm at school so this will be short.

We still will not be able to get internet until the end of the month, so I'll have to keep everyone posted through phone call.

Andrew's boat is still on the reef. He did manage to go aboard and get some things, but not without some bangs and cuts. He did it while it was still getting pounded on the reef! I don't think I would have.

I could barely stay above water in my boat, but I made it. It was a good lesson for me, because I was getting way to confident motoring around.

I had a couple of waves to break over the bow, and that is when I left. I was going with the waves when I was heading back to shore and had to be really careful because the wave behind me was about 2 feet over the back of my boat. I had to maintain the right speed and angle to make it back or I would be swamped from the rear. I'm real glad nobody was with me, because they would have been a little freaked. I was completely unnerved by the time I got to shore. The pictures do it no justice as usual.

I'll try to bring them to school and upload them.

Boat Sunk

Free day

Well I'm at school right now, during 2nd period. Key West got flooded by rain this morning so nobody can really make it to school.

We still don't have internet service at the house, so I guess I'll keep up the audio blogs for a while. If you can't hear them I'm sorry. The only thing I can tell you is you have got to have speakers and they have to work with regular computer sounds.

We are just about settled in and are absolutely loving it! The house is great and our neighbors are funny and easy to talk to. We sat under their house and talked while a few kids came by to get candy.

The weather is great and the porch is very comfortable. With the time change we won't be able to get home until right before dark, so we really won't miss being on the water until the time changes again.

I'm going to try to trade somebody the deep freezer I picked up "for free" for a boat trailer. I'll have greater mobility to explore all the spots, if I take advantage of the roads and boat ramps that are up and down the keys.

I must admit I'm having a hard time passing by all the stuff people are throwing away. Most of it is junk, but some of it is good, like solid wood tables, pontoons from boats that have a couple of dents, not to mention all the 2x6 boards that could be used to build anything I want. My wife is keeping me under control though.

We went out on the boat to the south side of Big Pine the other day. There are a couple of islands that have beaches and they were littered with stuff. There was a 2" diameter nylon rope that was 50'long. I couldn't pass it up. That is like Gold to the kid in me. We found some cool shells and some hermit crabs that we now have on our porch in a bowl. Bob, Mike, and Larry, short for big, medium, and little. Those are the unofficial names until the keeper of the 'terrain-a-rare-re-um' decides on some "good" names. They are kinda neat to watch while relaxing.

Enough rambling.

hurricane Prep Pics

Joe's boat


Steve's boat


Our Movie theater, that came with the house. Christine thinks it's neat. She wasn't real happy about it until we watched You've got mail.


Brittan is ready for someone to throw the ball. hurricane or not the ball has to be retrieved! period!

Our boat without the motor; concrete blocks are in the bottom. I'm going to fill it with water so hopefully the surge will go right over it.
Finally! the hurricane steak prep.
And our Motor without the boat.

This is what I'm thinking

here is the "official" 1st edition of the "We might ride this thing out" action board. this could change in a moments notice.I also forgot to add we have a place for the vehicles that are about 15' above the sea level.

Fixed it!

As usual it is something simple and you just don't think about.

Some how?!?!?!? The settings in my web browser was set so that the pages I went to did not update from the last time I was there. Has anybody ever heard of the refresh button. It's the button that looks like you want to rotate the page. As soon as I pushed it I saw the changes, which I'm sure every body else in the whole world saw before me. Anyway, back to life, which is probably 2 days shorter after that little episode.

Hurricane update!

We will make a decision after we move everything into the new house, which isn't actually going to close until Wednesday. I didn't ask if we could go ahead and move everything in, we are just doing it. My wife doesn't feel good about it. I'm just not thinking about it. They can come tell me I can't do it. Probably the same attitude that keeps me in trouble.

Comments are welcome if you have an opinion about it. What would you do if you lived in a 1970's mobile home that is located on the water in the Keys with a Category 1, 2, 3, or 4 hurricane coming in on a "short and final". You don't have flood insurance on the mobile home, but you are fully covered in your "soon to own" 180 mph "wind proof" house built on a total of 18, 16" solid concrete pillars, that is 15.6' above sea level. The lines are now open.

Anyway we are keeping an eye on it. I would hate to drive to Orlando and get killed by a tornado, because the eye went right over the area. I know everybody is worried about us, but I promise everyone, that I am more concerned about my wife's safety than anybody. Well, maybe not more than her parents. I don't have a kid, so I'm not aware of that level of love. I know I don't like to think about life without her. I'm sure at this point she might feel a little different about me. Right now she is probably thinking about living a normal life in a normal place in a normal house.

I promised that I would always lover her, and her life will never be boring.

We will keep you updated.

blog problems

I'm trying to update the blog so you can select the archived writings. As of now still not successful. The frustration of ignorance in the computer programming area has taken a serious toll on the total years of my life.

I'm wondering what percentage of health problems is caused by these computers and our lack of understanding why the things just don't do what we think they should do. And how long is it going to be before we make it a part of the well rounded education package? Do we think it'll just get fixed?

I'm not going to rant about this because as of right now I can't even get my blog site to accept and show new blogs. so I could be talking into the great nothingness of the internet. Kinda like screaming in space.

So blah blah blah blah. I should write something really embaressing then it'll get posted to the desktop of every computer this side of the atlantic.

Wilma? or Won'tma?

Short and Sweet. We are closing on our house Tuesday. Everything we own is fully insured as long as it is in the new house. The insurance company thought we closed on the 15th. So we are going to try to move as much as we can into our new house before the red headed bombshell makes a visit.

We will make a call on our evacuation plans Friday. I'm hoping God just gave us two days off to move our stuff in to OUR NEW HOME!!!!! Hopefully we will have it for more than 3 days.

Besides all that boring situation stuff, I'm feeling a lot better about my job as a teacher. I'm realizing that God may be trying to correct a flaw in my thinking towards my work. I have always gotten my identity from the kind of work I do. I take a lot of pride in my work.

There is nothing wrong with doing the best you can at work. God honors that. But as a child of God my identity has to be through Him and Him only. Some of you who do not have a real close relationship with God probably won't understand. But if I identify myself as an Engineer instead of a child of God then my main job and purpose becomes making things better, instead of showing people the Glory of God through my life.

Since I have realized this truth about the kingdom of God, my attitude toward teaching has been great.

I started this blog to show people how the realization of God's love, wisdom, and power can bring peace into any situation. It has taken me 11 weeks of prayer to see what God is showing me, but now I see and the peace in my life is as He has always promised.

I believe that God designed Life to show us this 1 fact. That is why it's so hard. There is always something in our lives that is crap! A person can ignore it and try to make the best out of it, or learn to laugh about it, like I try to do. The problem with that is your missing the truth that will set you free.

A mentally strong person can be happy in a jail cell if that person simply entertains himself in his mind. But he is still not free. I am being set free from the identity of an Engineer. It does not sound like a bad thing to be set free from, but when your not working in an Engineering position it is just the worst feeling ever. Especially when you suffered through 7 years of school to be an Engineer.

Cancel the short and sweet, give me good and real.

just another weekend

We went out on the boat last sunday. We had planned to go to the coral heads which is about 5 miles around the south side of Big Pine. The wind was too bad and the chop made it a bumpy, bangy ride. So we just kinda snorkeled in the Atlantic. Its always nice to be on the water and in the water, but the snorkeling really depends on how clear the water is and if there are lots of fish to look at. The place we picked was cloudy and fishless.

Then to top it off the Sun went behind some clouds and judging the direction the clouds were blowing it was looking like it was going to be a sunless, windy, fishless, wavy day. Time to go home. But on the way lets stop by a few holes and see if we can scrownge up a few bugs.

Found a hole, which is really an old bomb crater from practice during WWII, jumped in and bingo! Lobster for an afternoon snack. I caught a bunch of them, but the heads have to be 3 inches long and most of them were too small. It's kinda embarrassing because when your underwater trying to pick out a big one, they appear 3 times larger. So you see one that gets you all excited, chase it down, dig it out of the rocks, come up for air 2 or 3 times trying to be dramatic like your fighting Orka, telling your wife your chasing a monster. You eventually get your loop around it and cinch it tight and surface with your prize, thinking we're going eat good today! Man provides food for Woman!

She looks at it and laughs while saying "your kidding??"

Its just plain embarrassing. Telling her they look bigger under water does not explain the roach size lobster your planning on feeding the family with.

I did manage to get four that were legal. We took them home and boiled 'em and ate 'em.

Also, that was our dogs last trip in the boat. Everytime she goes out she ends up puking in the boat, not the Quadrillion gallon toilet we're in, but the 14'x4' boat. Real messy. We've been patient while trying different techniques to solve the problem, but this last time she puked on our snorkel equipment. Wearing dog puke on your face is something you just can't wash off your mind. You can wash the mask clean, but the image is forever ingrained in the brain matter.

waffle house

I love waffle house. But being real cheap when it comes to dining out I'm always trying to get the most for the lease amount of money. So over the years I've come to the conclusion that the triple order hash browns with smothered, covered, diced, peppered, and toppedis the way to get the most bang for the buck, other than pancakes. Those are the least expensive toppings except for the chili. For those who haven't committed the waffle house lingo to heart this is the breakdown.

1. smothered = onions = .25
2. covered = cheese = .30
3. chunked = ham = .50
4. topped = chili = .80
5. diced = tomatoes = .25
6. peppered = japs. = .25
7. capped = mushrooms = .65

Of course the prices vary from place to place and also the size of the servings, which is the most important thing. So you got to weigh a lot of things when ordering. Is the place crowded, is it a shift change, does the cook look friendly and in a good mood, have you made a good connection with the waitress, who controls the amount of chili. But the most important is location. Big city's are usually more stingy than small towns. Not a fact just a guideline.

So now I'm in Key West, a small expensive Island town. I have no idea how to play the variable into the equation, so I go for it. I'm just going to chalk it up as data collection, lesson learned, and just gaining experience to make a more information based judgment in the future. I'm going to enjoy what I get no matter what! After all I'm with my wife and we are enjoying ourselves.

This is what I get.

It doesn't even fill the plate! I was so shocked the pile was so small, that I took this picture. Usually its the whole plate. I told my wife no big deal, just a learning experience. Then the waitress brought another plate to us that looked like my triple order of hash browns.

I asked her what the small serving was for and she said it didn't fit on one plate!

I was flabbergasted. Then I told my wife "we are home". A moment I will never forget in my life. A real Kodak moment if there ever was a Kodak moment.

I couldn't eat it all! Which has never happened. Of course I was with my wife and we are working on portion control. Which I've equated to just being more efficient. But that's another story.

Then we got the bill. It was higher than it was suppose to be, so I asked.It turns out they triple the cost of the toppings when you order the triple. I've never seen that before. So all the others were wrong and this one is right or vice-versa. Doesn't matter because now I know what to ask next time I order the triple. A very valuable piece of information to throw into the equation. Money well spent; we had a great time; and I'm full.

Our New House (Maybe)

Evac!

We evacuated! Ran like chickens. Key refugee, I like the sound, screw politically correct.

Strange thing happened though, that made it a little interesting.

We actually have a contract on a house in Big Pine Key. "nobody buy's house's during hurricane season," my neighbor said. I't's a one year old modular home on concrete pillars. About 10 ft off the ground. It's rated up to 180 mph, 2 bed/2 baths.

I was getting everything ready for the storm at the mobile home and just wondered if the people we are buying from would let us hang out in there with some of our valuables until the storm blows by. We'll everybody thought no way, except the home owners who had moved out about a month ago. I told them I could put up the storm shutters.

I started grabbing everything I could and took it to the house. We had planned on staying in there. But, my wife was having a HORRIBLE! sinus infection and just wanted to die, and it was getting worse. We knew this place would not be fun without water and electrcity while your sick as a dog. I realized with a storm surge our vehicles will be swamped in salt water. don't need that at all.

So we decided to leave. We are staying with some friends of ours in Ft. Lauderdale, Burt and Glenna, they are real easy to stay with, so we'll have fun.

I'm real nervous about my boat and motor, which I pulled out of the water and put on blocks. I'm laughing at all the stupid stuff I grabbed, but I guess you can't grab it all. Hopefully my wife will be feeling better. She is excited about going to a bookstore. It was strange driving in all the hussle and bussle, I already want to get back to my hole in the water.

My wife told me that my spelling and grammer has been pretty bad. She volunteered to be the editor, but since the editor is asleep and I don't want to waste minutes calling everybody, I'm going strait to print.

Rita is still a Tropical storm, but the wind is going to be slamming the mobile head on at first because it faces due north on Big Pine. If it can hold on until the storm gets below us we'll be good.

We do take charity, being hurricane refugees and all, just kidding. We're just glad we don't have school until WEDS!!!! And you can't really do anything for 2 days, then another weekend!

911

09-11-2005
Starting week #7 at school, 2 full months in the keys.

09-17-2005
That's all I wrote last week. Writing is tough, when there is a lot of playing to do.

We bought a unused 1999 20 HP. Johnson motor for $1,000 and it came with a free 1954 Alumna Craft 14 ft Aluminum boat.

The motor itself is worth $3,000, I guess we were at the right place at the right time.

I'm beefing up the back end of the boat because it is only built for a 10 hp motor.

I actually got up to 30 mph the other day. I was using my 100 million dollar speed odometer (GPS).

I finally got with a guy to show me where the lobster are. We got 7, meaning I got 1 and he got 6. He gave me four.

Those things are fast, but Good!

1 year! I remember wondering where we would be in one year, but I don’t think I applied the correct amount of “!!!???!!!???*%#$@^!!!???”.

My wife happened to mention our anniversary to her interpreter for one of her classes one day. She was telling him that I was going to buy some tickets to go on a sunset cruise aboard the Western Union schooner. He said he would love to get us free tickets(he is a city commissioner in key west). $60/person free tickets. I said “sure, whatever” not expecting anything.

Well I met Mr. Menendez and you talk about an interesting “write a book about me" kind of guy. He was a stowaway from Cuba aboard a ship at the age of 10. WW2 rolled around so he lied about his age and joined the marines. 9 years later the war was over so the Government sent him to his home or as close as they could get, which meant Key West. He Hasn’t left. He has more stories than Hemingway if you simply ask him.

So! Dude man knows everybody and gave us tickets to everything. I eat lunch with him now, as a great reality check and just a healthy perspective of things. I’m hoping to bring the gospel into our conversation, but I’m probably just scared of the delivery and the follow up that usually follows the type of delivery you deliver.

Picture of cruise.

woman and I going out to partake in the sunset cruise. It was cool, but a 30 mph wind blowing from the captain's wheel would have been an evening to remember. We enjoyed it though, calm, no dramatic sunset, but just being on the water with each other was nice.

My woman did write me a note later that touched me in a big way. I wish I could have written something to remember the moment, but to be honest I'm just too emotional to put the last year into words.

I must say that I have been more proud of my wife than anyone else in my whole life. Simply because she has endured the torturous line that my life seems to follow. I don't know why, it's just the way God has made it. I guess it's like David's line verses Abraham's line, both equally important, but one has a tad more "Hollywood" type material, if you know what I mean. She has bent over backyards, to the point of complete sacrifice, to make me happy. Even beyond her own ability to recover completely.

So! I must allow the following to be stated as a complete understatement of how I feel about her. But! since she wrote it, I have to be aware of the fact that she is more aware of our situation than I am.
This is what she wrote:

”Though there are times when life seems more of a tortuous trek than an adventure, and though I seem to more often cry than smile, and though I feel as a stranger blindly traipsing across foreign terrain, there is a peace that wells up inside me that overwhelms my mind and soul when I see you – when I gaze upon your peaceful slumber. I have only to think about your brilliant blue eyes and happy, sheepish grin and I can’t help but know that this love we share is the very thread that, at this time in our lives, is holding us up. Jesus’ Spirit pulsates between us so that together our life is sustained, even when, perhaps one of us is down. Yes, I have known fainter hints of peace – but the gift of sharing peace with my love is so satisfying. And seeing peace on your countenance as you sleep there beside me fills me with a peace I only can know through you, because we are sharing this life – and this peace – between us. “

God has truly made our marriage a oneness through His Love, Wisdom and Power in all situations. At this moment in time we don't have a lot of peace. Just little moments with each other and God Himself. I can see Him in her and she can see Him in me, so we are literally drawn to each other by Him. We maybe in "paradise", but I'm realizing that peace only comes from the realization of a person's future.

Paradise without water to drink is the anticipation of hell with no end.

We have never realized the magnitude of our weakness until now. Yet at the same time we are finally understanding the magnitude of our strength, together in Christ. I want to say “Bring it on! Big Bad World of Crap!” but at the same time I know exactly what that means.

Speak softly, and carry a nuclear Jesus bomb in your heart.

Katrina damage in key west

The damage in key west was pretty bad.
"ME" got blown away and turn the family store into something a little less respectable.

Hurricane Pics

scared to death we're all going to die!


The coconut canon!


I tried to take a picture of a bird, but it blew away.



Notice the piece of sheet metal in the drive way?

It was protecting the windows on the other side of the house.

Quiet at last

We had loud wind for about 24 hours so now that its quiet it seems weird. The wind is still blowing when I go outside, but now you can't hear it or feel it's effect inside.

I have seen lighting in North Florida that made night seem like day. I have seen rain on the amazon that made me feel like our boat parked under a waterfall for 12 hours. And now I have seen wind blow so hard for so long it made me feel like the atmosphere got popped and the world was deflating.

Everything is fine except for a busted window and a carpet soaked dinning room. We are definitely going to try to move to a more solid house.

Sorry about the pictures, but the blog just isn't sucking them in.?

Hurricane!

05:45
Its really whipping out there! Right now!! As soon as daylight comes I'm going to snap some photos. The sound is what is really unnerving.

I've already had to go out and repair one of the "clam shells" that cover the windows!
cool.

10:54
The wind is still kicking around 30-40 with gust up to 50-70. A little unnerving at times especially when you feel the walls move. The sound of the wind is what is really unnerving still. I'm amazed that we still have power. The south side of the island is experiencing storm surge and power outage, because that side is getting hit by the wind.

It's pretty cool sitting on the back porch because all the wind blows away from you. It's still kinda wild watching the wind blow the water. It looks like somebody is blowing it with a high power blower. Pictures are coming.

14:45
We're still here and still getting pounded. the winds are slacking up finally after 10 solid hours. I'm thinking about venturing out in the jeep. That's kinda like saying "watch this"

18:02
It's amazing what you get use to. Just walked outside and watched all the commotion of a 30-40 mph wind like it was just another day in paradise. 13 hours of this crap will do this to a person. Our dog who had been cowering at our feet all day was out there wanting to jump in the water to fetch a ball. A ball that I tried to just toss in the yard, but the wind caught it and blew it in the water. I would normally let her get it, but the ball was drifting away faster than she could swim.Which would have been bad because she just doesn't stop when it comes to "getting the ball".The last thing I really want to do right now is go on a rescue mission, but it would have been fun.

I went to the grocery store in the jeep, which was pretty cool because water was pretty deep in a couple of spots. Didn't get a chance to pull anybody out of a puddle, but it was fun anyway.

2 weeks down 34 more to go

Things are getting better. My wife has accepted the fact that the 9th graders are insane and I believe her because my 7th period is 9th graders. Now she just looks at it as an intense human study. I just like stopping their butt.

My stage fight was at a controllable level Friday so it gave me hope. Someone suggested that I take drugs to cut the fear factor in half. I told them the fear factor is the most interesting thing about my job right now. I've been trying to kill myself my whole life to experience this level of fear. Its hard, but to honest I'm a little sadistic that way. I hate the fact that its only talking in front of people and not getting shot at by an overwhelming force of communist pinkos or maybe some terrorist.

I'm beginning to see my kids a little different now. At first I thought it was just flat out disrespect or challenge of authority. I'm beginning to think they are just bored to death. They haven't done anything but sit in a class room or play on the water. They don't know what is important and they are tired of people telling them their opinions about life.

I think high school should last until your old enough to drive a car. Driving a 4,000 lb. mass at 75 mph is about as much responsibility anyone can have at any given time. Every time you drive down town it is like walking into a mall with 100 people with loaded pistols and no safety.

9th grade they are insane and can't drive for a good reason. 10th grade their learning how to drive so why not learn how to take responsibility for yourself and either go to school to make a lot of money or go to work and start saving money for toys.

11th and 12th grade is simple to make sports more interesting for the home town. You could eliminate 2 grades, get the best teachers and pay them what they are worth. Improve community college with technical education and core classes so the kids can decide what they want to do. If they are stupid then they need to learn how to be tough or learn how to be smart.

I'm a mechanical Engineer just trying to make things more efficient.

Ticket for Survival

Get home throw Kayak in the front water with mask and snorkel.


try not to run over our dog which loves to go with me, but I just like to act like I'm going to leave her
After a little warm up swim I wait for her.
Then I yank in the boat with all the grace of a 400lb. ballerina
Turn sideway for a Kodak moment!

Bam! God knows how to balance the Good with the Bad. Go swimming for about an hour and I'm good to go.

thanks for every body's prayers. We have found a great church that feeds the people real food at every service, good music and solid "on my level" preaching/ teaching.

School Day +8

Where are those hurricanes!? We could really use a monster Cat.5 NOW!

"Spare the Rod! Spoil the Child!" constantly rings in my head.

They have dropped us into the meat grinder.

I think my wife has sent over 10 kids to detention already and the class is still not under control.

I'm suffering from stage fright! I can't breath and try my hardest not to shake visible. I have always hated talking in front of people, but talking infront of a bunch of people who don't want to be there is worse. Not to mention I can't think. So far I've tried to do 2 simple example's and my brain froze. Lucky for me the class just stops paying attention and I'm able to move on without them noticing I didn't finish. That's what I'm telling myself anyway.

We have found HELL in Paradise.

The job itself is relatively easy. No pressure from the Boss to make big plays. I feel like they are just seeing if we make it through the year. I knew something was fishy when they said they had to replace 50% of the teachers last year and was thankful of only replacing 35% this year.

One teacher said she has taught all over Fla. for 17 years and these kids are by far the worse, because of a lack of discipline. "Mommy will let me do what I want!"

One of the new teachers volunteered to help with the volleyball team. She got in trouble for making then do 1 wind-sprint. "That was way too mean!"

I'm stomping the crap out of my kids with notes. I'm trying not to let my enjoyment show from being sadistic with them. I have mostly 12 graders so most of them will work. My wife has 9th graders and they won't do anything. I think they gave her all the kids everybody didn't want.

Anyway! we are constantly in prayer and Our hope is in Jesus. His Love, Wisdom, and Power is in our situation and we will be O.k.! That is the only peace we have, but it's enough. It doesn't feel like it, but we know it is.

school day -1

a picture is worth a billion words, but being a fly on the wall tomorrow.... priceless.

Pictures

the front view


kitchen
land of Joe
and our back yard
walk area

Lobster Season

Monday and Tuesday we had survival training for teachers. It was good information, but real boring. It reminded me of how much I hated being in school. We went by the school Tuesday and got the keys to our classroom. The reality of the situation scared me to death. It's a big room and has a projector and computer so that's cool and the view of the baseball field and the Atlantic ocean took some of the sting out. But it was still difficult to breathe.

I borrowed a tank from my neighbor and he told me a place to go get lobster on Wednesday. About 200 yards from the house. I loaded up the Kayak and paddled over to where the place was suppose to be. It was big concrete slabs just on the other side of the channel in about 10ft of water. To make a long embarrassing story short, I didn't find the structure or see any lobster.

I had grabbed the wrong fins, so my feet went numb. I wanted to get out of the Kayak where I could stand up so I could get my gear on without drowning or loosing the net, a tickle stick, bags, paddle and everything else that didn't need to be in a small kayak. The current and wind was going the opposite way that I needed to go. So everytime I let go of the Kayak it was blown out of reach, so I had to swim it down. I had to sit my scuba gear on the bottom to get the rope to tie the kayak to me , but by the time I was able to tie the kayak to me, it had floated away twice and then I had to go back to find my SCUBA gear, which then I was thankful for the bubbles coming from all my leaks in my equipment. My scuba gear was leaking in multiple places, due to the lack of use.

The visibility was less than 5ft in that area due to boat traffic and silt still coming out of the canals because of Dennis. So I swam for about 30 minutes thinking about the Bull shark staring at me 6 ft. away, watching huge dive boats speeding by with 20 people on board watching me swimming against the current on top of the water wearing dive gear pulling a kayak and a dive flag. I finally stopped in fear of the possibility of amputating some toes because of my wife's fins. I threw everything in the Kayak and started paddling home acting like a local who got his limit to all the dive boats passing by at that time.

And that's that.

I did meet Joe. The guy that lives behind me on the other side of the canal. Very interesting fellow. He's got a flats boat and a deep sea fishing boat. He took me out to find some "bugs" Lobster, which we proceeded to go to the slabs of concrete. I didn't tell him anything about my previous excursion. He couldn't find it either. Too cloudy. He hated all the people and raid we could get some bugs when everybody clears out. He has a lot of money and was showing me his trolling motor on his boat. It could be controlled by a remote control that he wore on his wrist. I thought that was cool. Then he told me that the best thing about it was when he falls off the back platform into the water he can drive the boat around to pick him up. His already done it twice. I can tell he is going to provide good blog material.

Key Day +9

Drove into Key West to get a TB shot for work, which took an hour to wait for and 15-seconds to get. Went for a bike ride down to Mallory square and watched a cruise ship leaving. I think that says a great deal when you live in a place where cruise ships stop.We also looked at a house for rent for $1,400 it war nice, but very very small. When we drove back to Big Pine Key we jumped in the canoe and paddled out to a sand bar that is a few 1,000 ft from the house. We sat in the water and played with our dog, it was a nice day in the front water.

The next day we got our vehicles registered and I got my fishing license:) I wasn't suppose to get it until after 6 months, but I guess something happened and they gave me mine. We had to go buy me some shorts for school, because my wife doesn't want me to wear my shorts, which are all board shorts. Even though the lady at the Monroe Education place said we can wear anything we want. She might not have known who she was talking to.

I also talked to our neighbor who has a 14ft row boat from the 50's, all aluminum, with a 20 hp Johnson on the back with less than 20 hrs. Our other neighbor said he probably wanted to sell it for a $1000.The guy really was wanting more, but he said he will think about it. Both guys are nice and easy to talk to. One is married and the other has a girl friend.

My wife really hasn't fallen in love with Kayaking so we might need a motor if we want to explore. But we are at about -$3,000 after the move down.

key Day +7

This is catch up day on the computer. We are going to get internet today between 8-10 AM so I’m chilling.except for finishing transmission fluid in Nissan.

+2: Went Kayaking to Yacht Basin that was close by with my woman, water was real muddy there and iguanas were all over the place. Locals call it Jurassic park. It’s an abandoned yacht resort. Our dog joined us when we came back by our place again and she would ride with me and jump out to go swimming and then I would pull her back in. Tough on a tipsy sit on top. We came back to our house through the canal, which is on the back side, and it was really disgusting from the storm. Drank too may Margaritas because of my birthday and then went out in the canoe with Britain ,but she didn’t go swimming. My wife cooked Salmon, corn, and sweet Potatoes and it was the best. Then watched the movie Heat and fell asleep.

+3: Drove to Key West to check in with the board of Education and bought a water hose for the house. Continued to unpack.

+4: I went Kayaking over to no name key, which is in front of our place, saw some fish, not a lot though while snorkeling. I saw a 4 ft nurse shark while paddling, it was cool. Then paddled to big mangrove key and came home. Went to the store and bought weather stripping and Transmission fluid and came back to seal some big gaps in the back door. Sealed those and then felt a lot of cold air blowing out from under the house. Crawled under there and found some major leaks in the duct work. I fixed with Duct tape and sheet metal screws. Our Air conditioner was not turning off and we had it on 80.Then we rode our bikes down long beach road looking for a beach, didn’t find one.

+5: Started changing automatic Transmission fluid for Nissan and they didn’t have the gasket so that was on hold until Monday at 2pm (+7). Then we drove to Bahia Honda and paid $91 to go year round to all the State parks. The Beaches were great, we think it’ll be worth it.

+6: Went to church, made Brunswick stew, went fishing on no name bridge caught small snapper and jack, bought the movie hostage and smoothie mix.

Key day +1

Woke up with one thing in mind, turn power on. Called at 8:00am and Arleen said it should have been turned on yesterday, so she would call back when she found out the problem. It turns out the meters were mixed up and the wrong meter was with the wrong address or something, but it was going to be turned on today. I felt better because I thought it was my fault and I had let down my family with a very very important task. Then went into Marathon and got Drivers License and looked around. Came home and continued to unpack.

key Day

We left Pompano Beach about 0600 After looking for my sunglasses for an hour. My wife found them in the back yard with the flashlight. Great Start to a big hard long day. We got our storage on BPK and unloaded half our stuff and it fit with room to spare. We had it unloaded by about 10:00 and it was already hot and humid. We dropped the truck off at our place ready to unload and then went to get a bite to eat. It was the waitresses first day, but we finally got something to eat after an hour, 3 order confirmations, conversation with Dave the marine biologist who came ordered, waited, and left, got the wrong orders, they didn’t have what we ordered and finally just ate what they brought us.

Started unloading and realized that the water was turned off. The power was off too because of hurricane Dennis, but I knew that because FPL came and took the transformer. I told my wife to go find the water company and get us water. She jumped at the chance to sit in the air conditioned car. It was hot and humid and I was pumping about a quart of water through my skin every 30 minutes. Water man came and turned on the water, thanks to my wife. She returned and we made the final push to finish around 6:00 pm.

We took the truck and trailer to the chop of place and went to grocery store and was seriously hoping for power when we got home. The transformer was up and there were no generators running at our neighbors so we were happy. It lasted until we but the light switch and nothing happened. No power! So we lit the letters and watched the sunset and hated the hot sticky night that laid ahead.
My wife had been suffering from a sinus cold all day and had taken some medication that made her completely restless, so after about an hour of sweating and bouncing around she dozed off from exhaustion and I went and laid down on the porch to take advantage of a cool breeze that blew every now and then.

events of 2005 part 3

Honduras was a nice break from our uncertain reality, but as soon as we came back we realized that we were not returning to our own place, but staying with my parents, it was tough. My parents did a great job making us feel at home and were great host, it was just tough because we were newly weds and successful engineers who found their independence hammered.

I was getting a lot of calls about engineering jobs, but none of them were in Florida. We were getting a little impatient and nervous about running out of money, so we thought it best to start listening to what recruiters had to say if they were located in a reasonable place. We went to the beach with my parents at the end of May for a week. Trying to save as much money as possible.

While I was at the beach a company from Florida wanted to interview me, but first I had to take a problem solving test. A headhunter also had a great slot for me with an aircraft company in Georgia that I was very excited about, but I wasn't hearing anything from them. As soon as I got back from the beach I went to the library to take a 12 minute problem solving test, which I completely bombed. I just simply didn't think about it correctly and had the wrong approach. So that job lead and hope was slammed along with a chunk of confidence.

My wife had gone back home to see her friends and family for a week. She was having a tough time dealing with the uncertainty and the lack of direction on what to do; because she really couldn't look or pursue a teaching career until I found a job, which wasn't happening. The longer I was out of a job the more questions the head hunters asked about why. So the longer I was out of a job the more stress was added because I became less and less desirable. When ever I mentioned my arms or that I had to use a tablet P.C. they became very cold.

By the middle of June I was beginning to look at the job fair in Orlando Fl. as the deadline for looking for an engineering job and start pressing hard to find a teaching job. My wife still had not recieved her eligibility letter to teach in Fl., which I had received mine by the end of May. This added to the frustration because she had sent all the information for both of us back in April. I really didn't even want to teach, I was doing it as a contingency plan.

We went down to Tallahassee, fl. a week before the job fair to try to find out what the problem was. We discovered that her transcript didn't have her social security number on it and her name had been changed because of our marriage, so her transcript got put in the don't know pile and was pretty much lost. We finally got them to locate it and tried to get them to get it done before the job fair, but the paper pushers weren't and didn't care.

So we were now going to the job fair without her eligibility letter, which was highly recommended to have before you went. There were several counties that would not even interview you unless you had it, so it was really discouraging. We both had interviews scheduled with Monroe county though. Mine was as 10:00 and hers was at 4:00.

When I interviewed at 10:00 the guy told me I qualified for Principals of technology and offered me a contract. This was incredible because this was similar to the course that was offered to my wife in Georgia, and I wished I was teaching it. I told them I had a wife that wanted to teach and if they wanted me they had to find a job for my wife. They only had an opening in Marathon, teaching Math. My job was in Key West 50 miles away so it created a dilemma that we needed to think about.

We talked to some other counties and nothing really seemed better or more exciting than living in the Keys. We ended up signing the contracts with Monroe County and was hoping they would be able to move my wife to Key West high School before school started. So we left that day to find a place to live somewhere between Marathon and Key West.move to the Keys

050709KeyWest

Hurricane Dennis is about 125 miles west of Key West and we are staying with Drew in Pompano Beach at Burt and Glenna's house. We were suppose to move in today, but it is raining and blowing about 36 mph down there, so we are going to wait until Sunday (10th) to go down there and move in our stuff.

It is suppose to still be raining and windy, but hopefully not too bad.We currently have a storage rental on Key largo so we will have to unhitch the trailer and load the storage and then chive to Bpk. which is about 75 miles away. after hooking the trailer back on.

Once on BPK we will have unhitch, then unload, then rehitch, then take truck and trailer to Key West to turn in Sunday night or Monday morning

events of 2005 part 2

The other thing that was going on after they offered me the job and before they withdrew the offer was my wife's job. She had not been happy with it for some time and was wanting to quit and be a teacher. So when I was offered the job she volunteered to be laid of at work before they had a big cut back. The timing seemed perfect because she was going to get 3 months pay with severance pay.

She set up an interview with a high-school and we went and she loved it. It was really great because everything seemed to be falling into place. We were looking into buying a house and the whole 9 yards. So! when they withdrew the offer we were looking at both of being unemployed. The place we were moving to was not really where we were excited about living, so we decided not to pursue her job. I have always wanted to live in Florida, so we decided to focus our effort there.

So now we are both going to be out of work by the end of March and I'm unable to use my hands to operate a computer. I decide to go down to Florida to work for my brother-in-law who owns his own business. He runs underground power lines from the street to new houses. I was hoping I would be able to dig with a shovel since strength and major hand and arm motion was not causing a great deal of pain.

So I went down there and worked for less than half of what I was going to be getting paid at my engineering job. I was able to do it for 2 weeks, but there were times when I had to slam the shovel into hard dirt and it would really kill my hands.So I came back home and tried to think of something else I could do for the rest of my life.

Then one day I realized that I might be able to use one of those tablet PCs and I would not have to type or use a mouse. So I started looking around and found one for about a thousand bucks. It was a nerve racking purchase because if it didn't work I would want to take it back, but I bought one and it worked. The computer was really crappy though, so I started looking for another one with a better quality.

During this same time period my parents were down in Honduras running a girls home for a ministry until they could find someone to run it full time. They asked us to come down and help, they would pay for everything. We had to wait until my wife had finished her psychology class that she signed up for in January. It placed us going down there around April 29 and come back May 16th.

We also had to go to a friends wedding in Austin, Texas in April. So now not only do we not have jobs we are spending a lot of money. On the way to Austin we looked around Atlanta for a Tablet P.C. and find one that cost about $2,000 when it is all said and done. So now! we are spending money that we don't have in hopes of me getting an Engineering job. The tablet P.C. gave me the confidence I needed to really pursue my engineering career, which was great, because now I can work on a computer, it just has to be on a Tablet.

At the end of April we moved out of our house and we put all of our stuff in storage. We then drove to Moultrie Ga., where my parents and other family members live, to drop off the rest of our stuff that we were going to need until we found a place to live. Then we drove to Miami to fly to Honduras.

fair or unfair

In light of the fact that God created everything and is in charge of everything. His children has to accept the fact that fair and unfair should not be apart of their vocabulary. If our situation has worked it's way into being through the Love, Wisdom, and Power of God then it is the absolutely best thing for us at this particular time. No matter how crappy it seems.

I believe everything should be viewed as righteousness and unrighteousness in our own acts. We try to be Christ like and most of the time it would seem unfair because that is grace.

050629key West

Went to the Great fl. Teach in in orlando fl. on the 23rd. Monroe county offered me a job. It felt good because every body really wanted co and I because we were Engineers. Monroe county tried to get us into Key West high.There was not a Math position for Co so she would have to work in Marathon about 50 miles North of key West. I had a job in key West to teach Principals of Technology. We wanted to think about it, so we went back to Sanford, where my brother has a bussiness and a house. We got on the internet and started looking at the keys.

We really wanted to go to the keys, but was trying to be responsible about it, so we decided to let Volusia and St. Lucie County talk us out of it. On the way back to the job fair the next morning we decided to go to the keys. Christine didn't want to buy a house right away so we would rent wherever we went and the extra pay offered in Monroe County would counter balance the rent. Plus in the Keys we knew we would be close to the water.

We signed the contract and drove to the keys to find a place to live. Stopped for the night in Pompano and stayed with Drew & Christine, Then got up early and drove down. We stopped in Big Pine key about 8:30 and decided to look there first because it was between both schools. 30 from KW and 20 from Marathon. Called the first place (3b/1.5b openwater, canal) he said come on over andwe went. It was a small single wide with an extension right on the water. He wanted$1,800 a month, so we had to think about it.



I was sold because of the location, but Christine didn't like how small the place was. We called a lot of other places, but no luck. We went to key West opened a PO.Box and looked around. We saw some nice places for $1600, but it was either not good for our dog (Brittan) or a crappy view. I was still star struck from the first place. To make a long, painful, argument filled, name calling story short and sweet, we rented the place that night after we got a motel room to stay for another day of looking.

It was a good deal for us because he was nice enough to let us go month to month in case it was beyond our teaching salary and spending habits. So we drove back to Moultrie Ga. where we have been living with my parents for a couple of months.

So in 3 days we went from not knowing anything to 2 jobs and a place to live in a water park. God is good enough to give us the desires of our heart, we just have to understand he wants to do the absolute best thing for us, not what we think is the best for us.