Throwing In The Towel

Sorry for the long delay. This is my post from last Sunday:

Now, those of you who know me know that I'm not a man that gives up easily. However, there is a line that stands between “defeatist” and “fool” and at this moment I am standing on that line. This morning at roughly 6:15AM our DSL router was struck by lighting. I know, both because I recognize the signs (bright flash of light followed by powerful ozone smell) and because I opened the router and looked at the blown up chip inside it. So, after five days of slow Internet followed by two and a half days of no Internet we got a day and a half of fair Internet and are now back to no Internet.


This is something I can't work with. We moved out to the countryside to get to where it was cool and peaceful, but now we can't get to town and only have the Internet on and off. I now know there are two realistic options for my family. We can be near town with an A/C unit or in the countryside with a vehicle. There are also a number of spare parts and pieces I need to have down here before we come back. A couple of routers, a handful of wireless adapters, networking tools, a spare computer, a hard drive or two, SURGE PROTECTROS, etc, etc, etc. The good news is that these things are easy to get at home and will pack up nicely into a barrel. When we return to Dominica I plan to be more prepared.


Still, that's not really the point at the moment. The point right now on September 1st 2013 at 8:03AM is that I have decided to get us home as quickly as I can. Why? Well, I stood at a crossroads. I could either hitch a ride into town tomorrow, shell out a few hundred dollars for a new modem and a surge protector and then pray nothing else crazy happened for the next seven weeks OR I could use that energy to try to get home. Given the insane series of events that have befallen us since we got here I've decided to go.


Sadly I've spent almost the maximum amount of money I could to get as little as possible out of it. There are times when I seem to have a gift for that. I buy tickets I can't use, sign a lease for a house I can't live in, etc, etc, etc. It's like something out of a comedy. In fact, if I think about it enough even I laugh. I am a very blessed man and it's not like one pile of money is going to make or break me either way. The Lord has given to me greatly. Sometimes he lets me loose some of what I've got. I try to learn from it. I think the lesson here is to try to seriously consider the question “What could possibly go wrong?” and then plan accordingly.


That may seem like a cynical way to look at it, but it's not really. I now know that you have to have A/C or a car to live the way we want to here. When I come back I plan to have the A/C here waiting on me and I hope to have enough money to buy a car. It's all about planing ahead. Now, for those of you who may be thinking “Why didn't you plan ahead to begin with?” I'll say this: How? How could we truly plan ahead with the little bit of data we could get from home? We did our research, made friends here before we came and found out as much as we could. However, there were a number of little things we couldn't find out, including just how much we were going to miss our families.


All things considered we've done pretty well. In fact, most of our plan changes in future are going to revolve around ticket dates and one or two barrels full of goodies. So, although this hasn't gone exactly according to plan I think we've done good for a vanguard unit with seven to nine children in tow. When we come back I plan to be really ready. We should have three months in the sun and then head back to the US to all our friends and family. Anyways, this is just the morning part of my post. I'll try to update this as the day progresses.


OK, so it looks like we're going to get home in three days for around US$6,000... Haste makes waste I guess, lol. Once we get back to the states I'm going to stop working on the blog for a while. My days are going to revolve around getting this game finished and getting us moved into a new house and what have you. It won't be of any great interest to anyone that isn't directly involved in it and those that are involved won't need to be told about it.


I have no idea what the eventual upshot of all this is going to be. At least from a financial point of view. I still have to pay the lease on this house until October, unless the owner is gracious enough to let me out of it early. I have thousands of dollars worth of deposits spread around the island that I hope to get back at some point. I have no idea how any of this is going to turn out.


It's been a pretty big aggravation for everyone involved. I had really hoped to be able to ride out a few more weeks and really enjoy myself before we needed to go. Instead I've lost several thousand dollars and the trip is going to be something out of a comedy, lol. Still, to be frank, “and then I lost several thousand dollars...” is a recurring line in my life story. I hope someday to be able to break the chain. I think this does prove that getting a boat will be cheaper for us in the long run. I have no interest in going back to the US and climbing back into the same old routine, but I don't want to constantly live from paycheck to paycheck either. I'm hoping and praying this game will come through and that I'll finally hit the big time.


That's all I have time for tonight. I'm going to take a few minutes break and then pull this computer equipment apart and pack it all up. So, probably for the last time for many months, goodnight from Dominica!