Snorkeling at Eden Rock

Katie and I had not been out snorkeling in several weeks and so this morning we decided to head over to Eden Rock and check out what we had been told was one of the top snorkeling sites on the Island. Eden Rock is just below the George Town Harbor as you come into town on South Church street which is what South Sound road becomes after you turn north at the southwestern edge of the Island. The entrance is at a dive shop. The diving costs money though it is cheap for locals, the snorkeling free if you bring your own gear. We walked out over the black coral shore on a concrete path to a ladder that we climbed down into the water. The water was already 4 or 5 feet at the edge of the rocks and a kick away from the ladder saw the depth drop to at least ten feet. Of course with the clear water you have no sense of the depth and it looks like the bottom is just below you when in fact it is several feet.

The species of fish we saw were incredible. There were a ton of Sergeant Majors and Blue fins and some other species we didn't recognize. One fish had a turquoise body with pink spots, bright blue spots above its eyes, little yellow streaks on its belly and an orange streak on its tail that was absolutely incredible. Our friends were right this place is definitely the best snorkeling we have seen on the Island so far.

We spent about 45 minutes out in the water then headed back to the dive site. We are headed over to the college this afternoon to continue getting ready for the accrediting visit. We also got the news that the Governor of the Island is going to be a guest lecturer on Monday the 8th which ironically is also the first day of our accrediting team visit. Long week ahead.

We finally got cable TV yesterday though our ABC channel is from Tampa so the college football regional telecast was no help in watching Texas. A trip over to Davie Jones Sports Locker gave me the chance to watch the game of which we will speak no more. Katie and I have finished House season three and are now working our way through Desperate Housewives season three.

Article on Anniversary

The Cayman Compass ran a story on our anniversary ceremony and it is linked below.

http://www.caycompass.com/cgi-bin/CFPnews.cgi?ID=1025344

37th Anniversary Celebration for ICCI

Yesterday was the ceremony to celebrate the 37th anniversary of the college and to dedicate a plaque in honor of the students, faculty and staff from the fall of 2004 who kept the college open in the wake of Hurricane Ivan. There was a threat of rain all afternoon but it never came and so the outdoor ceremony in front of Friends Hall came off without a hitch.

Katie and I drove over to the college around 10:00 a.m to set up chairs under the tent that had been delivered on Friday (as had the chairs). We then stuck around to help the student activities committee set up the decorations. Around 1:15 we ran home to shower and get changed before the three o'clock ceremony. The ceremony didn't start until about 3:20 which we have discovered is the norm here on Cayman. It lasted about 45 minutes and as the master of ceremonies I had to introduce the speakers and even made my musical debut leading the singing of the National Anthem (that would be God Save the Queen down here). I sang the first line over the mike then smartly put the mike down and let the crowd pick up from there. Katie told me later that my first line was fine to get everyone started but she was really glad I put the mike down as my ability to carry a note doesn't last very long.

We got to see a movie made in 1973 about the college and it was nice to see the people in attendance recognize themselves from 30 plus years ago. The event was catered and I made the mistake of grazing too much. I say mistake because later Katie and I went to Yoshi's sushi for dinner and I was too stuffed to eat.

Didn't get to see any of the Texas game and by the time we got home from the sushi it was already the third quarter and Texas was winning 41-7 so I didn't head over to Davy Jones to watch the second half. Katie and I have been watching the third season of House that we picked up in Florida so we watched an episode then had some late night sushi that we had brought back.

This morning we went for a bike ride and the afternoon is a cleaning time as we do a couple of weeks of laundry and try to clean up the house. The accrediting visit looms in two weeks and that is pretty much all we are working on at the college (well that and trying to not mortgage the present to clean up the past).

Florida Getaway

When we first moved here, we got a magazine called New Resident. It had lots of helpful tips for getting drivers licenses, immigration paperwork, stores restaurants and activities on the Island. It also had a chapter on vacation trips off Island and pointedly said that most people after about three months of just Cayman will get Island fever and will need to go somewhere. That hit Katie and I almost on schedule a little over three months in, so this past weekend we got away to Florida for some shopping and relaxation.

We flew up to Miami Friday afternoon and after picking up our rental drove down to Kendall a suburb where we were staying. We spent Friday night at an Amerisuites on Kendall Drive a main road with two shopping malls about three miles apart and every imaginable store and restaurant packed in between. We headed over to Staples first to recycle about a hundred printer cartridges from the college. You get a $3 store credit coupon for each one and we had high hopes of bringing $300 worth of office supplies back to the college. Unfortunately, the company policy (written on the coupons) was only to allow 3 coupons a day per person. So we each picked up nine dollars worth of office supplies and made plans to come back each of the next two days before we left. We then made a trip over to Toys R Us to pick up a gift a co-worker asked us to get her son and then to Best Buy for DVD's (House, Desperate Housewives and Friday Night Lights) and more gifts people asked us to pick up.

Coming out of Best Buy I had my first driving moment. I had gotten back into right side driving pretty easily but when you come up to entry and exit areas I had to rearrange my thinking and as I went to exit Best Buy I started to pull left and Katie had to remind me to go right. We had dinner at a Red Lobster which was across from the hotel and after an evening of eating and shopping went to sleep.

We slept in Saturday then had breakfast at the hotel and checked out. A quick trip over to Staples to spend 6 more coupons, some Starbucks for the first time in four months and then we drove over to Dadeland Mall near Highway One. Dadeland is definitely the Galleria of Malls in Miami and Katie was very happy to find an Aveda Salon so she could get her hair cut. While she was getting her hair done I wandered around and bought another Texas cap. After she finished her hair appointment we did some more clothing shopping and finally around 1 p.m. called a halt to the shopping part of the trip (at least until Sunday).

We drove down into the keys to our hotel in Key Largo a Holiday Inn resort just below Pennecamp State Park. Lunch at one of the restaurants in the resort was followed by me getting to watch the Texas-Central Florida game. Once again the Horns decided to play with my emotions keeping the game much closer than it should have been and almost giving it away at the end. However, a 35-32 win meant Saturday dinner wouldn't be ruined. Katie was craving Mexican food and Saturday night we went to a place called Señor Frijoles and had really good fajitas. We ended the night at the Tiki bar by the pool with a daiquiri and piña colada.

Sunday morning we had every intention of getting up real early and driving all the way to Key West. But the early wake up call was not to be as we both rolled over and went back to sleep. We did get up around nine and decided to drive a little south into the keys seeing Islamorada but then deciding to wander back slowly doing the last of the shopping we needed. We found a CVS pharmacy where Katie got a hairdryer and I got a two month supply of my acid reflux medicine which is now OTC, thank goodness, but is ridiculously expensive here in Cayman. We stopped at the Outlet mall in Florida City and Katie got some shoes while I picked up some more short sleeve button up shirts. Lunch at an Applebees was followed by another stop at Best Buy in Homestead for our birthday presents to each other and Anna's Linens to get some rugs for our bathroom. We then drove back into Miami and over to the Staples for one last run. We had been watching for Staples throughout our trip and though we saw many an Officemax and Office Depot we never came across another Staples. After a final stop at a Barnes and Noble we returned the car to Enterprise and headed to the airport. Our half empty bags on arrival now packed with stuff we had bought.

I panicked a little on our customs form returning to Cayman. You can bring back up to $350 CI per person without paying a duty and we had about $500 U.S. in stuff but only had one form. After two tries at estimating I pulled out the receipts and filled out the form coming in at over $350 U.S. We bravely went forward hoping that we didnt need two forms one for each of us. Surprisingly the flight was full of returning residents and status holders so the line at immigration for us was much longer than the visitors line. We cleared immigration and customs with no problem so my paranoia about properly filling out the form turned out to be just that, paranoia.

We arrived home safe and refreshed ready to start a long week that includes another round of comprehensive exams and culminates in the 37th Anniversary celebration for the college this Saturday where we dedicate the plaque to the 2004 class that survived Ivan.

Wednesday Morning Bike Ride

This morning Katie and I broke out the bikes and for the first time in a long while went for a bike ride. We headed west from our house down south sound road toward George Town. We had forgotten how refreshing going for a ride was and as we biked along the shore a real sense of calm struck us. We made it all the way to the southern end of the George Town Harbor to the Eden Rock dive point. It is supposed to be one of the best snorkel places on the Island and we definitely need to get back there to snorkel. The ride out seemed very easy and we thought that we were just getting right back into riding no big deal. Then on the way back we realized that the ride out was mostly downhill and that tailwind which made for an easy ride out was now a headwind and sometimes crosswind making our 25 minute ride out an almost 45 minute ride home. Still it was great to be back out on the road and it helps us reconnect with the fact that our lives are not all work. Speaking of work, Caribcert went well and the college is getting into its fall routine. Two days to our Florida excursion and we cant wait to get away.

Watching College Football in Cayman

After spending another afternoon at the college catching up on work that never seems to end, Katie and I headed over to Davy Jones Locker a sports bar in Grand Harbour about a 2/3rds of a mile from our place. Many of the major US colleges were represented as ex pats wearing shirts from Michigan, Florida, Florida State, Alabama, Texas (that was me) and Texas A&M gathered to watch football. Katie was the only female in the bar for a good hour plus after we arrived except for the waitress, a fact she pointed out to me several times.

The Texas game didn't come on until the second quarter as the early game went to triple OT which would have been really cool to watch except I knew the longer that it went on the less of the Texas game I would get to see. When the Texas game did come on, Katie who had already eaten her nachos and finished a margarita decided to abandon me and go home to talk to her sister on windows live. With only one vehicle that meant I got to walk home after the game. As soon as she left, Texas fell behind 10-0 on two interceptions and I was convinced she had jinxed us by leaving. That 10-0 halftime deficit had me considering thoughts of just how much alcohol I could imbibe and still safely walk home. Fortunately the second half saw Texas actually show up and make plays outscoring the Horned Frogs 34-3 to win 34-13.

This will be an easier week for my former law partner Jerry Bullard in Fort Worth, home of TCU. Gary sold my ticket to this game for a profit and I might actually make money on my Texas season tickets this year if he continues to be able to sell them at the pace he is going (no pressure Gary but keep up the good work). I am loosely planning to try and get back to the Texas Tech game in November which falls on a holiday weekend here on the Island, if my wife will let me and if our budget isn't too strained.

When the game ended I started my walk home. It had rained so there were a lot of puddles and Cayman is not big on sidewalks outside of George Town. I maneuvered around the water and watched for traffic walking on the main road then turning up Selkirk. I got about halfway up Selkirk, when Katie drove up and took me the rest of the way home. She said she saw on the Internet that the game was over and thought she would drive to the bar and give me a ride home (I have an awesome wife).

Davy Jones was not a bad place to watch but the quality of the big screens was pretty poor and the food from the Black Pearl Galley next door was just OK. In a few weeks for the Rice game we will try Lone Star in town. Of course next weekend we will be in Florida so if I get to see the Texas game against Central Florida at all it will be at a US sports bar in the keys.

Tomorrow we start our Caribcert program. We have 20 apprentices who come to the International College two days a week for classes this fall. The Orientation and pictures with the Minister of Tourism are at 8:30 a.m. That means a long day for Katie and I because our normal classes also meet until 10:30 at night. Once the program gets going it wont be as big a deal because I teach at 1:00 p.m. on Mondays and Tuesdays so I will still have my normal work days but tomorrow will just end up being a full day. Katie draws the black bean because she will be working on our Annual Institutional Report all day which is much harder than what I have to do. We are really excited about the tourism program because it is the first partnership with the other college on the Island and the government and because it is obvious the University College and the government didn't want us involved and thought we would drop out, but we never have and now it is actually happening.

The other big looming event is our 37th anniversary celebration on September 22nd. We have the plaque and invitations are going out Monday. We need to finish the program and finalize the speakers but it should be a great PR event for the college. We have invited the Governor and most of the government and private industry big wigs to the college so if even a few show up it is good for the college.

We are both counting the days until Friday and our getaway weekend. Katie is furiously looking for a hairdresser place near our Miami hotel on Friday for an appointment and seems to be looking forward more to a vist to Target for clothes than Key West to watch the sunset. Beaches and sun lose their appeal when you live near them but cheap clothes that you cant get on Island grow in stature the less access you have to them.

First Week of Fall Quarter

This past week has seemed like a whirlwind. We started the Fall Quarter on Monday (there is no Labor Day Holiday in Cayman) and as we wrapped up almost all of the registrations were happy to discover that we will have the largest student population for a quarter since Hurricane Ivan. While it is still well below where the college was pre-Ivan and significantly below where it was at its peak, we feel like it is a great step and that there is movement. The students seem more energized and the faculty is more enthusiastic. Although we still have a lot of work to go it feels like the momentum is moving in a positive direction.

I am teaching two law courses one on General Principles (UK based) and one on Business Law (US based). The General Principles class is unusual in that I really don't know English procedure so while I can teach all the elements of the different actions almost all of which are similar or the same to US law, I am having to learn the legal procedure as we go. I am lining up several guest speakers on procedure so that they can answer any of questions my students might have on Cayman procedure. I am also doing a class for the Caribcert program we are involved in with the Department of Tourism and the University College. We have 20 apprentices on Mondays and Tuesdays for 6 hours during the day and I am teaching Business Communication and Writing. Katie is not teaching this quarter as the registrar job of getting all the records ready for the ACICS visit and for future ease of use is a full time job. She is working on our Annual Institutional Report right now and that is a monumental task.

We got our first electric bill for 20 days in August and almost fell over. The rates here are much higher than the US. Our bill was more than any bill I ever got for my place on McCart and it was only for 20 days in August we didn't have AC for a week. Price of living in paradise. The water bill should be a similar sobering experience. We have to budget for utilities much higher than we thought at least during the summer months. We are told that the winter bills go down dramatically.

Our mornings this week were spent running errands and getting the small jobs done that we need for the house. We still haven't fixed the kitchen sink and that is my job for this morning. We did have to run over to immigration to get a special stamp for Katie. Her work permit application is still pending and her temporary has expired. She can continue to work as long as the permit application is pending but if we want to leave Island we need a special stamp. We have both been feeling a little burned out and suffering the normal three month cases of Island fever so we are doing a getaway weekend next weekend to the Florida Keys. We got Katie's passport stamped so she can leave Island and return for the next two weeks.

The trip to Florida will be multi purpose. We fly to Miami Friday night and will spend that night in Kendall a suburb with a shopping mall. Katie wants to find a Tony & Guy to get her hair cut and a Walmart and Target for some clothes, shoes and other items that are too expensive here in the Island (I want to find sunflower seeds and cornnuts). We also need to go to a Bank of America to make a deposit. So Saturday morning in Miami will be for running all those errands. But in the late morning we will head down to the keys and get some relaxation before heading back to Cayman Sunday late afternoon.

We haven't had a chance to go snorkeling in two weeks and no bike riding either. Last Sunday was rainy and wet which didn't give us a chance to go out and do something, and our mornings always seem full of little things that need to get done. We are hoping to get out tomorrow and do some though with Caribcert starting Monday we may have to spend some time on that. We are headed over to college to get some work done this morning. Tonight we are going to a sports bar called Davy Jones Locker in Grand Harbour to watch the Texas-TCU football game.

We realize we dodged another bullet with Felix. That is one of the strange things about living here, every morning, every afternoon and every evening we check the National Hurricane Center website. Based on the experience from hurricane Dean we drafted a preparedness plan which starts from the time a storm is first identified (hopefully up to five days before it would impact us) and follows right through the post storm cleanup. What that means is following on the web any systems that could be of concern.

First Day of Football Season

We awoke this morning to the strains of the Eyes of Texas. My awesome most wonderful wife had set the I-home to play that song as our alarm music. She also had hung our Texas Flag in our front window so when I came downstairs you could see the sun streaming in through the flag. First day of football season had arrived.

The day began with us headed to the college for a faculty meeting at 10:30 and to proctor a couple of final exams for the summer quarter which ended this week. At the beginning of the day I thought I would be headed home and listening to the game on the Internet. But after the faculty meeting I checked my personal email and I had gotten an invitation from another Texas Ex here on the Island to a game watching party at his house where he was getting the game off a satellite. I had emailed him earlier in the week to see if there was going to be a game watching party and hadn't heard anything and all but given up. We headed home from the college at 2 after a couple of hours of meetings, paperwork and file work.

The A/C guy arrived around 3:30 and fixed our air conditioning which had made this week a tough one at the house. The machine was in desperate need of freon and the filters were filthy. When he finished we headed out to buy some new air filters and then on up to West Bay to watch the game. Texas did not play well and almost tried to give away the game at the end but held on for a way too close for comfort 21-13 win over a team they should have beat by 40 points. The house we went to to watch the game was incredible. The TV room was a huge big screen with surround sound and speakers throughout the house so you could hear the game wherever you were. The main house was two stories with a widows peak third level. The guest house was bigger than our place. The property sits on two full plots and faces the water with bed rooms for the kids bigger than our living room. The folks we watched with were awesome and so down to earth you would never know they were obviously multi multi multi millionaires (he is a land developer here with his father and they own several huge commercial properties). Katie even said she had fun and you all know how she feels about football.

We start the fall quarter Monday which isn't a holiday here. One month to our accreditation visit and things that were already crazy busy are about to be ramped up even more. We are keeping an eye on Hurricane Felix way to our south but he looks like he will not be an issue for Cayman and lets hope it stays that way.

Sunday Snorkeling Tour

Things are much quieter here this weekend. This afternoon we went on a snorkeling tour to three different beaches to see how the surge had affected them.

We started out in East End at a beach near Colliers Bay that we hadn't been to before. The water was murky and even with a lot of sea weed there weren't many fish around. After swimming out to the open water and not seeing anything we headed back in got in the car and drove across the north side of the Island to Cayman Kai.

The public beach at Cayman Kai was still in good shape but like all the beaches we have seen this past week, a lot of rocks had washed up with the surge. While walking along the beach we did have a humorous moment. Some American tourists had obviously just moved in to one of the beach front houses and I guess they weren't told all beaches on Cayman are public so when we walked by and right onto their "part" of the beach to get in the water they reacted huffily. Other people were coming in the same way and at some point they must have realized they did not in fact have a private beach. American concepts of private beach property don't apply down here and I found myself enjoying their discomfort, "sorry folks gonna have to mix with the locals whether you like it or not." Too bad for them, they will be in for a long week as the snorkeling at that beach is still some of the best we have seen on Cayman and many people know it.

We ended up at Beach Bay and it was the most changed. The surge blew in many of the rocks in the carefully created pool area. The snorkeling was almost dangerous with huge boulders and rebar sticking up throughout the swimming area. The waves now came in largely unobstructed so the current and water levels were not the easy pool like quality that existed pre-storm. The beach itself was packed with rocks and getting to the water was even more of a chore than it had been in the past.

It was great to get out and go snorkeling. It is really the best part about living down here.

On Friday we returned the kitties. It was tough but the right decision. We may get some cats in the spring but right now we aren't home enough and want to do some traveling this fall.

Our air conditioning is on the fritz so we are getting to know Cayman in August with just fans. Yesterday a huge storm blew through and the septic tank backed up filling our down stairs tub with some foul smelling liquid. A lot of bleach and cleaning later the tub is clean. It affected all the units on our complex and a truck was out last night to drain the tank some. We also are dealing with some kitchen sink issues so by golly its just like being homeowners again. Will be dealing with our landlord on this no doubt in the next couple of days.

Getting Back to a Normal Life

By Scott:

It is very strange going about the normal day to day activities after an experience like we just went through. Tuesday was basically a clean up day around the Island but by that afternoon the stores had reopened and everyone was getting back to their regular lives. We cancelled classes Tuesday to let everyone who had evacuated have enough time to get back on Island. Yesterday we went in early and basically unpacked the college. The TV appearance about our tourism program is back on for tomorrow and its back to budgets and textbook orders and academic advising and registration. I asked some of our students how they do it, come down from such an adrenaline rush, and they said after a while you just get used to it.

We had house guests Tuesday night as April and her family arrived on Island and still didn't have power at their new place. Rather than having them stay at the apartment in the college we offered our two guest rooms. The kitties are with us for one more day before going back to the Humane society tomorrow. After much thought we decided we really don't have the ability or time to take care of cats right now and will wait until the spring to get some so Dean, Nick, Princess and Josie will be headed back to go up for adoption.

With only a week and two days left in the quarter we will be having Friday and Saturday classes to make up missed time so this will be a working weekend. We do want to get out and do some snorkeling as well and some bike riding so it should be an active weekend.

All Clear and the Return of Andreas

At 4:30 p.m. the Cayman government officially issued the all clear. They had lifted the curfew two and a half hours earlier and all electric and water is back up and running. There are still high winds buffeting the island and rain will be a fact of life for the next couple of days but the storm itself has now moved on. Our neighbor Keith drove me over to the sports complex and I retrieved our car. With the battery reattached the engine started right up and our newly named Andreas (Katie always names our cars) ran just fine. From there, I drove over to the college using the main road that runs along the southern coast. The waves were huge and people were everywhere stopping to look. The surge had obviously come in because you can see flooding all along the coast. Hirst road also had some high water points and I had to drive in the wrong lane a couple of times to avoid it as I headed up to the college. Once there I confirmed that ICCI came through just fine and headed over to Elsa's to check on her and Mr. Keith. They are both well and we agreed to resume classes on Wednesday to give everyone who evacuated time to get back to the Island.

Everyone is out now clearing debris and talking with each other. The maximum winds were 64 miles an hour here and there are downed tree's and flooding in low lying areas but I didn't see anything major even in the complexes right along the coast. The radio is reporting no deaths and only minor injuries so it seems everyone rode it out in security. There is a heavy police presence which means the lesson of all the looting post-Ivan seems to have been learned. Tomorrow will be a day to get our house back to normal, take down the plywood off the patio and clean up. I think we will leave the plywood up on the upstairs window for the next several weeks in case we have to do this again. That is the hardest piece to attach and while it means darkness in the bedroom and not the prettiest outside aesthetic it makes sense with hurricane season just now starting. long term we need to get Hurricane shutters but that could take a while with our landlord so plywood will be our option for the remainder of this season.

The cats are doing fine and we dont know how much longer we will have them though we will be asking about adoption of Dean and Nick. We are making dinner now and will have a quiet evening and an early bed time. The first really peaceful sleep in five days.

Back on the air

No sooner had we written about how lucky we were to not have lost power then right at 10:00 a.m. we lost power. It was out until about 2:20 and has just come back on. In the interim around 10:45 we got a knock on our door. Keith and Kathleen were out cleaning up debris. The winds were still howling and there was a slight rain falling but the worst was clearly over. Throughout the neighborhood people were out on their porch or walking around. I went out to talk while Katie stayed in (not a good time of the month for her). About 11:15 I went for a walk and got the following pictures of the trees and wind. We only lost one tree in the neighborhood and no one lost any windows. Everyone was remarking how lucky we all are.

The curfew was officially lifted at 2:00 p.m. though they are encouraging people to not go out for long. We are doing a caravan for everyone to go get their cars here in a little while. Hope ours made it, if so Andreas it is.

Wind is still blowing pretty strong and you can see rain showers on their way. We are safe and all is well. Of course the weather channel is already talking about an area of concern off the coast of Africa. We have taken down the plywood from the front window to let some light in. You would be amazed how much you lose perspective in a boarded up house. Letting the light in was a pretty amazing thing. Will update after we check on the car. Thanks again for all your prayers they definitely made a difference and were a great comfort to us as well. There is flooding in Savannah and some other parts of the Island especially along the southern coast got hit harder than we did. The surge never got to us but did to some others so keep them in your thoughts and prayers and even as we ponder how lucky we were we sympathize with those who had to face this monster head on and not the glancing blow we took.

9:40 update

We have spoken with Kelly, the ICCI librarian in Miami and the folks who stayed at her place have lost power. That was going to be our backup if Lonny hadn't gotten all the plywood up and given us the OK on our place's structural soundness. Kelly's place is about a mile down the road from us. Our lights have flickered twice but no outage. We also spoke with Elsa and Keith by cell phone at around 9:00 a.m. They are riding it out at their home near the college. They are OK. They too have lost power but Keith has a generator up and running. The winds are really howling again now as we get to experience the back end of the storm. We already felt incredibly lucky but now hearing that others have lost power while we haven't, as of yet knock on wood, makes us feel all the more fortunate. Will be making a late breakfast now and trying to pass the time on the net or watching DVD's. Keep the prayers going because they are working. Katie and I are now adding our own for the rescue and police workers who even now are out and about on Cayman and for the folks now in the path of the storm. We all need to remember them in our thoughts as well.

Wind Track

This is the best representation I have found of the winds we are experiencing. We are the Island directly above the Hurricane. As you can see we are getting only tropical storm winds and were spared what passed right off the coast of Jamaica. Katie has gone back to sleep I suspect that tonight I will crash hard after an up and down night last night. The kitties are doing well this morning too, I expect new addition(s) to our household before they leave. Winds are still loud but somehow don't seem as threatening as the gray light of a cloudy day peeks in from under and over the plywood.

7:35 Monday Morning

We are both awake now after a brief nap from 5:30 to now. It is a virtual certainty at this point that by the grace of God Cayman has been spared what pounded Jamaica. The winds continue to be heavy, the best description I can give is from earlier it sounds like an airplane taking off, but right now the rain has stopped and there is no flooding in our parking lot so not even a threat at present to the home. The NOAA site says a storm surge of 5 to 7 feet which doesn't appear to have reached our home at all. The eye is directly south of us now and moving at a good 21 mph so in theory we should have already seen the surge and had to deal with any flooding. God Bless the poor people on the Yucatan, while we were spared they are in for a pounding. If you know of any organizations that provide supplies or relief for the people of Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic who got hit so much worse than we did and who don't have the economic or government infrastructure of Cayman, now would be a good time to make a donation. I know Katie and I will be making one as a show of thanks.

There will still be very high winds all morning and a lot more heavy rain throughout the day so we cant venture out until late and may not be able to go for our car until tomorrow though depending on conditions we may try later tonight. We never lost power the entire night and are hoping they turn the water back on soon after the storm completely passes. We will start moving everything in the house back to normal later this afternoon and then finally give you a picture tour that is not hurricane prep. Though as our neighbor Kathleen pointed out to us last night on her porch they call this Hurricane "season" and this wont be the last time we have to do this.

We feel incredibly lucky and very grateful for all your prayers. While this isn't over yet it is certainly safe to say that the worst has not happened and in every respect the best possible has. The Hurricane literally took the best possible path it could for us overnight and this morning. We will update throughout day and keep the computer on we will sign back in to windows live shortly.

4:50 a.m. Monday Morning

I woke up from a particularly loud wind gust and decided that I wanted to check the latest track. What a beautiful sight. The track has Dean south of us and moving quickly. I cant imagine what it must be like for one that is close. The sound right now is like airplanes taking off right outside our house as the wind howls. Katie must have a supernatural ability to sleep because she is sleeping right through this while I wake up with every loud howl. I peered out from under the plywood in the downstairs living room and the rain I could see on the parking lot is like sheets I have never before experienced. If this is tropical storm winds and rain I cant even imagine what hurricane force winds and rain are like. We are just about to start getting the worst of it here in about an hour and a half and at 20 miles an hour will feel it for most of the rest of the morning with the aftereffects lasting through Tuesday plus. We still have never lost power which speaks well for CUC. We are hanging in and hanging on, me a little more unable to sleep than Katie but still here, still dry and still able to get on net. God Bless and Be safe.

Scott and Katie

Monday 2:00 a.m. Status

Back on air much earlier than we anticipated. The sound of wind and rain woke me up at about 1:45 a.m. Since we had power I pulled the Internet receiver tower out of the tub to see if it was still receiving and with three bars I decided to try plugging in the computer and checking the NOAA website. The track continues to be south of us for the eye which is great news. We are in for a rough couple of hours but hopefully are escaping what pounded Jamaica. Someday I will be able to tell our children that their Mom can literally sleep through anything.

At 10:00 p.m. we closed up the computer and Internet tower and stowed them in the tub. We blasted the A/C to get the place as cold as possible for the expected power loss. We let Josie out for a little alone time with us but then put her back in with the kittens and finished an episode of Scrubs after which we turned out the lights and got some sleep. I woke up around Midnight but was able to go back to sleep until the most recent round of noise led me to wander downstairs and check on whether there was any flooding. Right now just a lot of wind and rain. Thank God for the plywood as there must be a lot of debris flying around out there. Anything not tied down or really heavy is on its way to Mexico.

Katie is on me to go back to sleep and put away the computer but I have way too much nervous energy. Unlike dealing with a Tornado such as the ones we have been through in Fort Worth this is not a hunker down in your bathtub until it passes over kind of thing. You can walk around your house etc. which just seems weird. So long as the roof holds, one room is no different than another. We are riding it out in the master bedroom upstairs on the back of the house which all our neighbors said was the safest room if the eye was south of Cayman as it is.

They did cut the water so we are flushing with the water we filled the tub with. The tub wouldn't hold water so we ended up bailing that water into our trashcans and buckets and will use it as our potable water until they get the water back on. We know that we haven't even begun to feel the real effects of the storm. That will come later this morning between 5 a.m. and 10 a.m. with after effects well into the late afternoon. Don't know if Cayman has been spared but the early signs are all good.

With plywood up and no way to see out I cant give you any kind of description except for the sounds. The rain is constant and the wind must be strong as you can hear it pounding into the walls. Our antenna is still hanging on as I can hear it banging away outside our bedroom window. The radio stations are all still transmitting which is another good sign.

Signing off again and putting everything away again. Depending on power and my ability to sleep may try and get everything back on again later this morning.

We love you all, so far your prayers are doing phenomenal work so please keep them going.

God Bless and Be Safe.

Scott and Katie

Sunday final update

Its approaching 10 p.m. and we expect them to cut the power soon so we are unplugging the computer and packing it away. We are both tired enough that we are hoping we might actually sleep for a little while tonight. Nothing much new to add from the last several posts. We have put down towels and old sheets across the bottom of the patio doors and the front door, a last defense against the expected flooding. We are watching Scrubs episodes on the portable DVD and will use the computer's battery tomorrow during the storm to watch some episodes and pass the time. You can hear some of the howling wind as it moves our antenna around outside the bedroom window. Don't hold much hope we will still have an antenna tomorrow afternoon. We will call my Mother and Father and Katie's parents when the storm passes and they will call everyone else to let you all know. Signing off now until the storm is over and we get back power. We will write a journal while the computer is off and God willing will have some great entries when this is all over.

God Bless, Be safe and Goodnight.

Love Scott and Katie

Nameless No More

The kitty above has been named Dean, for obvious reasons but also because he is the wild one of the bunch. His almost twin brother has been named Nick, because we needed something to go with Dean and Nick just fit :). Their sister has been named Princess, since we live just off Princess street and she is definitely more timid and prissy than her brothers. You can tell Dean because he is looking at the camera in the shot with Josie, and in the one with the two "twins", Dean is on the left and Nick is on the right.

Sunday 8:40 update

The winds have really picked up. We spent about an hour on the front porch of Kathleen and Keith as it got dark and watched the last three planes take off. The news says that they are down to only 1500 tourists now so the shelters wont be as full of them as it was looking earlier.

The whole neighborhood was out watching the clouds roll in a huge band winding from north to south. There were conversations across streets and everyone seemed to know this was the last time we will be out for the next 12-15 hours. Everyone is ready and resigned to what is about to happen. The storm is the size of Texas and no matter what we are going to be pounded and pounded for a good long while. We are completely done with preparations and our neighbors have given us really good words of encouragement. They are a good grounding for us; our imagination has tended to run away today with things like panicking over the small rain shower early in the afternoon. They reminded us everyone has done everything we can do and now it is in God's hands.

We have gotten to talk tonight on windows live with a lot of family and thank you all for your prayers and good wishes. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers. We will continue to post until we lose power or feel like we have to disconnect.

Goodbye, God Bless, and Be Safe.

Scott and Katie