Many Firsts This Year

Well, I'm back and want to report on the several "Firsts" of 2015.

I AM A GREAT-GRANDMOTHER!

My Grandson, Joshua, and his wife, Brandi, were delivered of their first child on February 23, 2015 and, according to the doctors, Charlotte Rose was 9 weeks early.  If one checks weight charts she came in at 13 inches long and 1 lb. 9 oz. which is weight for a child 11 weeks early.  Either way, overall she was and is a healthy baby.  She is off a ventilator and breathing on her own with occasional help from oxygen.  She took her first bottle today and as of this writing she is now up to a whopping 2 lbs.!  She continues to be a little fighter and, hopefully, in a couple of months will be able to go home with her parents.
Congratulations to Joshua and Brandi!

Another first on the island, a movie was filmed here.  It was a sequel to a movie made a year or two ago and is a comedy.   The title is "Un Loco Verano Catracho" or A Crazy Summer in Honduras - or something close to that.  Filming was done in various spots around the island depicting underwater scenes, beach scenes, and the various adventures of a "farmer" taking a vacation with his city cousin on the island of Guanaja.  It will be shown in theaters in Honduras this summer from what we understand.

Naturally this caused a lot of excitement around here.  Since we have limited extra curricular activities anything new always brings out the islanders.  One portion of the filming was done at Graham's Cay and so that day was a party day for all who wanted to attend  The weather cooperated and many islanders turned out to be part of the filming or just to observe.

Next, the first cruise ship in a long time docked at Guanaja.  The Ms. Serenissima docked just off the town of Bonacca on Feb. 10, 2015.  The less than 100 passengers (it was a small cruise ship) were greeted by the Mayor, a band and guides to take them touring on the Cay, on hikes, snorkeling and a visit to Graham's Cay for relaxation.  The Cay was spruced up, decorated and tables set out offering many items made locally for purchase.  Due to the diligence of our Mayor, Surgeon Miller, Guanaja saw its first cruise ship with hopes that similar, smaller ships will grace our port.

Next, after a lot of work and a long time coming, Guanaja has their very own Library and Learning Center.  Located near the Post Office on Bonacca, the new library opened with fan fare just a couple weeks ago.  Many people have worked hard to make this library a success and I wish I had the names of all the people involved to share with you.  Either way, good job folks and great to see a project like this get going on the island.

Of course this is the time of year to pay your property taxes as a 10% discount is offered for people paying early in the year.  As taxes have increased the 10% savings should help out.

Next, the lion fish that have invaded our waters around the Bay Islands are turning out to be beneficial in that they are an excellent eating fish.  While these fish are native to the Pacific and have no natural enemies they have proven not to be a good thing for our waters.  With no predators they have the capability of destroying the fish life we have in our waters.  They are very territorial and prolific.  They can only be caught by spearing and there is an annual Lion Fish Festival held on Roatan for catching the most or biggest fish.  Meanwhile on Guanaja, I have discovered the light, pleasant taste of these fish and if history repeats itself - we may eliminate this fish from our waters!

Lastly, this year has not been the best one for my husband and I.  First our 18 year old inverter starting sparking and eventually went out.  It did not go down alone however.  It took our MAC hard drive, our laptop and my KichenAid mixer with it.  The one thing we do not want to be without on the island is a computer.  So, I contacted TechnoComp on the coast and with the aid of Joel we purchased a new Toshiba.  Our new hard drive for the MAC arrives the first of April with friends returning to the island to spend a month of relaxation.  Meanwhile, I am going through the stress of re-acquainting myself with the World of MicroSoft.  I have found there is a lot of unnecessary icons on the 8.1 version which we do not need because of where we are located.  This means these programs are running in the background taking up a lot of my limited bandwidth.  So I am working on eliminating those programs that are of no use to us and streamlining the computer.  Of course this is not without problems which in turn cause a great deal of stress when one has no one to turn too!

Our new inverter arrived and has since been installed.  We luckily had a back-up inverter so no cease in sun shine electric power!

Finally, I don't remember if I had blogged that I became a Grandmother last Sept. 10, 2014 when my son, Randy, and his wife, Gina, brought into this world my darling Holly Juno.....my little Berry!  Because they live in South Korea sending gifts is difficult at best from Guanaja.  I did manage, however, to made the sweater and flip flops for my little girl and, hopefully, they will arrive within the month....maybe even before she out grows them!

Also, our Mayor is dedicated to developing tourism for the island.  Last year a dive convention was held in Las Vegas and the Mayor and his wife, along with George of Clearwater Paradise Resort went and manned a booth dedicated to diving Guanaja.  George did a bang up job on the booth and dedicated many hours promoting the pleasures of diving on our island.  Lately the effort is bearing fruit as George and Ginger have seen a slight increase in their clientele.  We just hope that this upswing continues to benefit everyone on the island.

So, although I haven't been blogging lately, I hope this brings some of you up to date on the activities of this year thus far.