Earthquake!

Just a short note to let everyone know that we are fine. The earthquake was a 7.7 quake about 77 miles NNW of us. It shook the house, but not hard enough to do any damage. A novel experience - neither of us had ever felt a significant earthquake before - but not one I'd want to do on a regular basis!

Rain, Fireworks, and on into 2020

At about 10 PM on December 23 the rain started. By 6 AM Christmas Eve, 6 inches of rain had come down. In the years that I have been tracking rainfall, the previous high for a 24 hour period had been 3.5". The good news was that our water tanks were topped up, the bad news was that the power was out. It finally came back on about 7 PM that evening. Christmas Day was pleasant and we had a nice Christmas dinner with Bob.

Our resident cat Stripey has a kitten! We have named her (him?) Fluff. Fluff is still very unsure about us, so this photo was taken through the window screen, making it a bit blurry. We're sure Fluff will get to trust us before we leave.

Bill and Lisa Turner and Bob's friend Al all arrived in Jamaica after Christmas, completing the "Bomb Squad", as Bob's house crew call us.  Bill and Lisa stayed a few days with us at Valley View, and Lisa began work on a tile piece she has designed.

Tom and Binghi have also been working on tile, with Tom continuing with his Alice in Wonderland theme and Binghi doing a dramatic sunset depiction.

New Year's Eve arrived and we were all off to our respective fireworks shows. Bill was back at Tryall golf resort, Bob at the Round Hill resort, Al working with Alfred in Negril, and Tom celebrated his 71st birthday doing the show at the Grand Palladium resort.

The shows all went very well, and we all gathered at Alfred's on New Years Day to share stories.

Alfred has that great big grin on his face because with Al's help he had put on his biggest show ever, an 11-minute extravaganza. Then it was back up to Valley View to begin 2020. Work on Bob's house has been proceeding at a rapid pace, and Al was put to work fabricating grills for the windows.

Lisa tore herself away from the beach to come back up and work some more, finishing her field of daisies. Tom has the Queen of Hearts almost ready for grout.

And of course, we finish each day with another fantastic sunset!

Have a great New Year!