Just my luck

How is it possible that twice in a row the elements have kept me from enjoying a Seahawks game when I have the rare opportunity to watch them?  First against San Francisco – thunderstorms at the stadium delayed the game to the point where halftime was finishing at 11pm, had to go home.  That entire game happened in the second half!  Today I’m at William’s house at 1pm, in time for kick off, but I have to help him with some computer stuff.  I get to watch maybe a half hour and thunderstorms start HERE.  Cable goes out.  Comes back on RIGHT after game ends.  Blast.

Yesterday I got shocked by lightning.  Twice.  Sitting in my humble abode, strategically placing plastic containers under the many drips coming through my roof, periodically mopping up the small river streaming under back door, I was attempting to make a phone call through the computer to my brother.  The sky had been lighting up for a while now, but there was no electricity, so I figured I was safe just working off the battery.  I was wrong.

I saw it strike off in the distance and felt a small shock through my ear buds (can’t hear much through laptop speakers when rain drops are pounding your tin roof), but still a very noticeable.  I took them out in a flash and thought it’d make for a humorous post on good ol’ Facebook.  As I was just finishing typing the status update, another bolt struck, MUCH closer.  I felt it enter through my fingertips touching the computer and my entire body clenched up followed by an involuntary shout.  It wasn’t a short shout, or a shriek; it was a sustained, uncontrolled release of sound from my face hole for almost 2 seconds I’d say.  Hairs on end, sitting wearing nothing but my boxers in a plastic chair with rubber flip-flops on, I checked my heart beat.  Not too fast.  I looked around, wondering what it would have been like without the flip-flops on, or touching one of the many puddles forming on my cement floor.  I wondered how my computer refrained from exploding.  But mostly I warily shut the computer and sat back down to think about what had just happened.

This morning I went to nearby property for sale to take pictures for William and send them to a friend who is interested.  Very secluded, off the main highway, through my community and down a long, bumpy dirt road, there is about 9 hectares of land including a big house with separate kitchen and recreation area for about $70,000.  The house is extremely nice by Dominican Standards, but would be quite a project for an American buyer.  Planted on the land are hundreds if not thousands of plantains, lime, avocado, corn, cacao and more.  Needless to say I am very interested. 

It’s the perfect vacation and early retirement home.  Sure it would require work and management of the land, but that’s the fun part.  Not only is it a vacation home, but also it has the potential to create income, and very few expenses (no property tax, maintenance fees, none of that garbage).  Just outfit it with solar panels and it’s good to go.  It’s wishful thinking at a time in my life when a move like that would be next to impossible, but it’s a good glimpse into the future about what I might be interested in.