California 2 Puerto Rico

Hopefully by the end of today, I will have a lot more done than everyone is predicting. I am leaving Rincon in a few minutes to travel to Aguadilla to do two things. That is my goal for today…simply two things.

• Get ARPE paperwork
• Transfer the water into my name from the previous owner of the house

The ARPE paperwork is apparently an official issue of building code etc that my plumbers and electricians will have to certify (down here, the inspectors are the contractors that do the job..but not all contractors can certify…so you need to find the right ones) when they are complete the job. My plumber already said that the house is good and that he’ll certify it as soon as I get the ARPE paperwork. My electrician is from Florida (thanks Brian!) but I will get a local contractor that is certified to come in and run the main hook up from my property line down to the house. I will have to notify the bank when I am ready for the electrical inspection…they will send over their own henchman for that job.

I will update you on how today goes.

Check out the map below, I will be heading to the Aguadilla ARPE office on the far left side.

Spanish is the native language in Puerto Rico, although I think Spanglish is a better description of the type of Spanish spoken in PR. Spanglish is a way to describe a language that consists of both English and Spanish mixed together. For example, on my 1st day in Puerto Rico, there was a huge beer billboard on the side of the freeway that said “Este Cool” (Translation: “That’s cool”).

Stefan and I have both taken college Spanish courses, so l’m sure that we’ll be able to pick up Spanish pretty quickly, but I know it’s going to take some effort on my part to become fluent (which is my goal). I made some flashcards today of the 100 most common Spanish verbs and I’ve found this website to be very helpful. They even have internet terms in Spanish and English, which I’ll probably work on next.

Since Stefan and I both post on this blog, I made a widget to keep me up to date on what’s happening with the house while I’m still in San Diego.

Any one can use/post the widget on their websites, blogs, myspace pages etc. if you want to keep up with our blog.

Everything is happening much faster then we expected! Stefan has found out how we are going to fly Kuta and Monkey to Puerto Rico, so now I’m working on getting them ready to go.

- Get your pets spayed/neutered. There are lots of intacted male dogs in Puerto Rico, and you do not want to have to deal with twenty horny dogs on your property everytime your bitch goes into heat.

- Get your pets used to the crate that they are going to fly in. Stefan has done a great job getting Kuta used to his crate by feeding him in it and now he even sleeps in there on his own.

- Get a bill of health from your vet within 10 days that they are scheduled to fly

- Put your pets on heart worm medication, preferably 1 month in advance. This is recommended for any pets that live in a tropical climate.

This morning I am returning to Puerto Rico via Newark from San Diego. I have really been packing things up and trying to think about what I need down there, that I have here…so I don’t have to spend any money on unnecessary things (like food). I had quite a long list of things I wanted to bring down, none of which I NEED, but they are all things that I wanted down there. The one thing I didn’t get a chance to do was take out the stereo from the van so I could put it in the Bronco down there. It’s nice to have tunes.

A few of the items that I squeezed into my bags last night are:

• Lantern (no power at the house yet)
• Hand Pump for 5 gallon water containers (tap water is not potable)
• Camping mattress (the Coleman Blowup queen sizers suck)
• Stereo for my new office (see above)
• Pillows
• Blankets (I know it’s 95 degrees every day)
• UPS Battery Back up (to recharge electronics at the house w/out electricity(53lb)
• Box of Tropical Sticky Bumps Surf Wax (17lb)
• Laptop
• Deed, mortgage paperwork
• iPod
• PSP
• All the plugs etc that go along with the above

Well, Continental Airlines only allows 50lbs per bag, 2 bags checked, one carry-on and a purse (aka; personal bag). If you are an “ELITE FIRST CLASS MEMBER” you can have 3 checked bags up to 70lbs each. Upon Shawn’s suggestion (thanks for the UPS), I wrapped up the UPS unit (53.5lbs) in a thick blanket and boxed it…taped it up and checked it as one of my bags. It looks so small; they didn’t even weigh it, although I wrapped it with Fragile and Heavy stickers. When they got to my other bag I ran into some problems. Actual, 16 problems. The bag was sixteen pounds overweight. I tried greasing the curb check guy…but to no avail. He said he was either going to charge me $50 or I had to loose 16 pounds to my carry on.

I don’t know if this was the best idea, but I knew the box of wax weighed 17 pounds. It put my one-pound under the limit. I pulled out the wax, reshuffled my single carry-on to a back pack and a purse (that corny Mortgage company gift bag I got finally paid off) which contained my laptop, paperwork, a couple of books and a 17lb box of Sticky Bumps Surf Wax.



Everything was going just fine (between the curb check and security) until I got to the x-ray machine. First my computer went through, then belt and shoes and then my backpack started and the security person stopped the machine. She looked close at the screen, pushed a button and within 5 seconds there were security guards everywhere and I was pulled out of line and brought to secondary…away from my bag. I watched from a far as the security guards faces turned white with fear. I was questioned in detail about the contents of my bag, which was still on the conveyer belt unmoved. After I gave them the list of contents, they asked me if it was safe to move the bag and was there anything in there that could harm someone.
I told them “No.”



They proceeded to, very carefully, bring my bag over to secondary where I was standing. They swabbed my entire bag before opening it, they didn’t detect anything dangerous…so they made the next move; open the bag. They pulled out all of my stuff, except for the box of sticky bumps and the four airport security people stared at the box…faces blank, aside from the fear.

I was asked again; “Is there anything in that box that could harm others or us?”
I said “NO, it’s just surf wax.”

It didn’t look like they believed me…they very slowly pulled the box out and started swabbing the outside of the box extensively. When they felt it was safe, they opened the box and inspected every single bar of wax separately (96 bars). They were nice enough to re-pack the box for me and help me tape it back up. I hustled on over to the gate, with my wax, and made my plane by about 3 minutes.

I am glad I got to the airport an hour and a half early…the San Diego Airport Security took me over an hour. Maybe I’ll ship the wax next time.