About Us

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Indiana, United States
Empty nesters...ready to stretch our wings. Life is good and we plan on making it even better. This blog is mostly about our trips to Vieques Puerto Rico, with a few odds and ends thrown in about our life after the mortgage.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

November trip....

Less than two weeks out from our November trip now and we are

 SO EXCITED TO GET BACK!!!!




This trip Lorrie and I are going to try and focus on grocery options and costs. So many people on TA have asked about if they should bring food from the main island. We plan on getting some video of Morales and some of the other places we shop in an effort to share with others just what Vieques has to offer. This trip is the first one in which we've been able to spend a full two weeks in one rental, so that is going to be a real treat (or at least we hope so). Up to this point we've always had to work out the logistics of moving from one place to the other mid-vacation.

We've not bought many new items for this trip, just new snorkel masks and some swimming goggles..oh we bought new fins too. Part of our morning ritual on Playa la Plata is to do some morning yoga on the beach to greet the day and  welcome the rising sun, then we swim over to the rock art gallery.

:-)

Sunday, October 21, 2012

...to stand and stare

Lorrie and I had been gone most of the day...being Saturday we were both in a rush to get home and head back to the cabin to spend the night and unwind a little. After we had gathered the necessary supplies  and I was about to open the front door to the house Lorrie yelled from the kitchen "Curt...we can't go yet...the deer are playing..there's 10 of them". That jolt was enough to freeze time for a few minutes. Made me think of this:

"LEISURE"

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

By Wm. Henry Davies.


Here's a video of what caused Lorrie and I to "stand and stare":


:-)

Sunday, October 14, 2012

This blog just saved me $400....

But let me explain...it was NOT because of some advertising or other gimmick connected with blogging. Nope...you see Lorrie and I purchased new chairs for the cabin (which I will talk about and show you some pictures of in a moment) yesterday. Trying to find furniture is an exhausting exercise for us. We finally ended up back at one of the first stores we had visited, Sofa Mart, and bought 2 recliners. They were $400 a piece, more money that what we were really wanting to pay for cabin furniture but like Lorrie said "Curt, think about how much time we'll spend sitting in them. We should get something comfortable since it'll be the only furniture in the place". She was right and I bit the bullet and bought the chairs. Sofa Mart told us they would call us in about two weeks when the came in. Total bill was somewhere around $850.



That was yesterday and today, being a beautiful fall day and having my daughter home from college for a quick visit (and a "home-cooked" meal), we decided to take some pictures of the cabin and show her the progress we've made. We had a nice visit hanging out in the cabin. I took pictures while we were over there.

  After she left, headed back to her dorm to study,  I began creating this blog entry. One of the first things I was going to talk about was the new chairs we bought yesterday. Thing is...I didn't have any pictures of them. So...I did some searching on the Internet to find them.  The first picture I found was at Overstock.com and the chairs were $223 with free shipping!!! The same chair we had just paid $400 for the day before!!! I yelled at Lorrie and showed her what I had just found. She grabbed the receipt for the chairs, called Sofa Mart and cancelled the order..which they said wouldn't hit my card until 2 weeks from now? I  then placed the order for the chairs with Overstock and paid a grand total of $449 for the exact some chairs. That was $400 I just saved because I was looking for a picture of the chairs. Howz them apples! Lorrie gave me a "high-five" and said "Good job Curtis!".  I guess I should always search the web to cross-check pricing.  So...without further adieu:



When we were first looking at these we didn't realize that they reclined, but the do. They're simple and not too large. Space is a real premium in 220 sq ft.

With only 3 weeks left until we leave for Vieques it's crunch time on the cabin project, but we've come a long way. I managed to finish laying the flooring  just this past week. It's a cherry floor that we really like:


There was this wonderful golden color streaming into the cabin this afternoon, I tried to capture it.



This bedspread on the bed (in the picture below)  is just temporary, I'm suppose to mention that in this post according to Lorrie. She's still looking for the right one along with the accent pillows.



In this picture you can see I've got the cabinets installed along with the counter top. I still have to get the sink and the cook top stove cut in. You can see in the picture below that we've installed an LP heater on the wall. While it's rather institutional looking it really suited our needs of requiring very little space and needing very little clearance. It more than can handle our little place and will allow me to keep the temperature well above freezing throughout the winter. Difficult to see but the area on the wall next to the mattress is covered in aromatic cedar. Smells great when you lie in the bed.



There are things about the space we've created that really can't be captured in pictures, nor can I accurately quantify them in words. But it's the shadows created by all the windows we have. The different framed vistas of the woods. We are very happy with the way things are turning  out.





On the way back to the house I grabbed this shot of Lorrie and Jessica walking in front of me. It really was a beautiful day.




:-)