California 2 Puerto Rico

Summer and I both lived alone before we met each other. I lived in a little one bedroom cottage in La Jolla and she lived in a 3 bedroom house in Carlsbad. She worked from home (except when she and Kuta would go to the post office with the daily shipment) and I commuted to downtown San Diego to my office. So, when we moved in together, we both had to get used to having a roommate again. Of course, living with you significant other is different than a run of the mill roommate, but once the honeymoon stage is over you need to get used to each others domestic shortcomings and step up to pick up each others slack (For example: I hate doing laundry and summer hates doing the dishes).

Domestic routines and chores have never been my strong point. I am either OCD clean, or a complete slob. When Summer left for California, my plan was to organize, scrub and set up a routine for both of us to follow so we won’t constantly feel like we are living in a construction zone (with dirty dishes and dirty laundry).

But now that I am here alone, I am finding myself unmotivated to complete this monumental task (3,000 sqft of house, tools and supplies), but not because I don’t feel like doing it, but because I miss my girl. Back to paragraph one, it was nice to have some alone time at the house, but that only lasted about a day, and now I am aching to have my chick back in Rincon at my side. We are such a team. It is rare to see either of us outside of the house unless we are together (not counting my ridiculously early dawn patrol surf session that usually start around 5:15am).

Last night, on my way to the poker home game we love to play (Summer taught me how to play Texas Hold ‘Em Poker), I caught a glimpse of the sunset. It was the nicest sunset I have seen down here in a long time and I really wanted to share the moment with Summer. I pulled the car over, walked down to the beach and fired off a photo to send to my girl (Hallmark doesn’t have anything on the sunsets Rincon is privy to on the nightly basis) telling her that I was thinking about her (no need to dwell on the I miss you part, it makes it harder on both of us). Then it hit me, how selfish am I being? Summer knows I love and miss her, but you guys deserve to see the Caribbean Sunset as much as she does!

So, if it were normal to ‘toast’ to a sunset with our blog instead of a drink, this would be normal;

I toast this beautiful Caribbean sunset to everyone reading our California 2 Puerto Rico blog. I hope you have/will find a love in your life like I have found mine and that you work actively every day to make your wants/desires/dreams a reality!

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The tomatoes that Eddie planted in the cool garden beds that he made, are starting to get big. So Stefan and I decided it was time to make some tomato cages. Luckly(?) we have 6 big rolls of fencing left over from putting up the fence in the backyard, so we recycled one roll into tomato cages.

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As many of you know, there is not a whole lot to do in Rincon, Puerto Rico, once the sun goes down. Luckly there are many poker players in town, so we play home poker games 3 times a week. Mondays and Saturdays we play at Marks house and here are the official poker stats:

(You will notice that I am currently #1)

We are also going to try and set up a web cam so you can spy on us when we play. I’ll let you know once that is up and running…

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Does anyone know if Puerto Rico celebrates the ‘non-religious’ side of St. Patrick’s day? Just to clarify that, I know that it is celebrated in the churches here, but do local Puerto Rican bars (not tourist bars) dye the beer green, hang four leaf clovers and discount Bushmills and Jameson shots?

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Last week, I started feeling a little weak, it was getting harder and harder to get up early for surfing every morning, I had muscle and joint soreness and it felt like I had water in my ears all the time. It was throwing off my equilibrium, making be feel dizzy and all I really wanted to do was lay around an relax. It was not accompanied by anything else associated with being sick (vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, etc) For me, sitting around is a hard thing to do…even when I am exhausted, I do what needs to get done or my mind starts running through the list of things that need to get done like ticker tape and it ruins my relaxing moments.

Well, by Friday morning I realized that my body was going into shut-down mode. I was completely exhausted, was really achy, had a constant headache and felt dizzy. It was enough to retire to the couch and bed for the entire weekend. I didn’t sleep much more than normal on Saturday, just didn’t feel like moving. I drank tons of water/juice and watched movie after movie (Assassination of Jessee James, Two Days in the Valley, Death Sentence, He Was a Quiet Man) and read a junk food novel by John Grisham called “The Testament.”

Without ruining the book, one of the characters in The Testament got Dengue Fever while in South America…and it got me thinking. Hmmm…..symptoms of Dengue Fever; Headache, Joint Aches, Muscle Aches, Nausea, Swollen lymph nodes, Rash and vomiting. Dengue Fever is a disease similar to malaria as it is carried and transmitted by mosquitoes (Aedes Aegypti Mosquito: Only feed during the day) and it can be found in the tropics or tropical climates.

Instead of panicking or even caring at all (I am very melancholy when I am sick), I slept for about 18 hours yesterday. I woke up when Summer came to bed at about 1:30am and had a little trouble going back to sleep but woke up again this morning around 7:00am feeling pretty good. We’ll see how it goes today, hopefully I am on the road to recovery!

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Today I sent the check off to the Animal Rescue Foundation of Rincon. As promised, I matched any donations made and the total sent was $240. I know that ARF has been having problems staying open due to lack of funds, so hopefully this will help at least a little bit.

If you’d still like to donate to ARF of Rincon, you can send donations to:

ARF of Rincon
P.O. Box 592
Rincon, PR 00677

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I have been really busy over the past week or so. Without evening mentioning work (the kind that helps pay for all this), I have been digging holes, chipping away rock, hacking down jungle, planting and watering like a mad man. I mentioned this in another post, but landscaping is something I can just zone out to and not worry about it being ‘up to code’ as far as construction goes. Dig it, plant it, water it, watch it grow.

Since there hasn’t been any surf this month, I have pretty much been working 7 days a week (why not?) on the property and this week I decided I needed a break. So I took a vacation and relaxed in the hammock for a few minutes. Laying there, i watched a little storm come in offering my new plants a much needed break from the sun and a bit of moisture.

Rincon Puerto Rico Vacation - For 3 Minutes

Instead of dozing off (like I would have done if we were simply renting a house in Puerto Rico), I fast forwarded myself 3 months to the start of the rainy season. I could only think of one thing; “I need to install our rain gutters.” My little Puerto Rico vacation was all over.

For those of you that don’t know, Puerto Rico doesn’t have a seasonal climate change similar to the North East (where I grew up). Puerto Rico pretty much has three seasons as far as i am concerned.

1. Dry Season (November - May)
2. Wet Season (June - November)
3. Hurricane Season (June 1st - November 30th)

When it rains, it really comes down. My little Puerto Rico vacation was over because i was starting to day dream about the damage all of the moisture could do to our offices if I didn’t do something about the water run off from our roof. So, I went to Hojalateria Hipolito Rosa, INC (a metal shop/factory) in Aguada and made a custom rain gutter order.

I ordered about 272 feet of 6” deep X 6″ wide corrugated steel rain gutters. They slide under neath the existing corrugated steel roof and will have to be fastened to the house from the top down…which is going to give me more work to do (sealing up all of the screws to ensure those holes won’t leak water into the soffits). Looks like it’s back to construction work! How do i do this again?

This is definitely a DIY (Do it yourselfer) special!

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It’s weird for me to go from working out in a gym 4 times a week, to not really knowing what to do with myself, since we moved to Puerto Rico. I guess it’s just transitioning from Southern California to Puerto Rico, but I certainly got a workout today, while working in the backyard. Killing two birds with one stone!

Here is what went down…

First, grab a cinderblock from the cinderblock pile:

Run the cinderblock 100 yards to the other side of the house (and place in line):

Repeat 15 times.

Run down to the dirt pile and shovel dirt into the wheelbarrow:

Run the wheelbarrow up the hill:

Shovel dirt into cinderblock “planter”:

Repeat steps 3 - 5 ten times.

Everything was fairly easy, except for running the wheelbarrow up the hill. That was HARD. I had to get a running start at the bottom, which would get me half way up. Then I would have to set down the wheelbarrow, (so it wouldn’t slide back down) and reposition my feet. Then I would literally have to inch up the rest of the way. I’m sure my neighbors probably were watching me and laughing their butts off.

Nonetheless, we got a nice temporary planter around the backside of the house so we can start growing out our jungle

After planting some ginger, birds of paradise, etc.

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So I was was reading a trashy celebrity gossip magazine today (I have to catch up when I’m off the island ;)…), and there was an article about Martha Stewart and her pet miniature donkeys…

MIniature donkeys?!? What?! Awesome!!!

I have never heard of miniature donkeys before, but that is EXACTLY what Stefan and I need! We have gone back and forth on what sort of animals/pets we want to have for the property, in order to keep the jungle growth in check. First we thought we wanted goats (or a small flock of pigmy goats), but goats eat EVERYTHING, including the young trees we have planted, gardens, palms, laundry, shoes, the house, etc. Then we thought that perhaps we should get a horse or a cow, since they are good mowers, but won’t eat our trees, but I think Stefan and I are both intimidated by having such a big and powerful animal such as a horse or cow (I was leaning more towards a cow…ha). So, how perfect would a pair of mini donkeys be?! Look at how cute the little beasts are!

Couldn’t you imagine Monkey and Cheech riding Buck Rogers (the mini donkey) around the property while Kuta is herding them all?!?

I am SO looking into how much it would be to buy and fly a pair of mini donkeys to Puerto Rico…

p.s. I’ve always wanted to be Pippy Longstockings, so I am going to carpe diam, damn it!

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I am officially living in Puerto Rico full time now, and since I don’t have any property or assets on the mainland, I decided to take advantage of the very generous tax breaks both the federal U.S. government and Puerto Rico give to businesses that move their mainland companies to Puerto Rico. I am currently in the research stage and will be hiring a firm out of San Juan that has both Certified Public Accountants and Lawyers that will graciously help me through the entire process of setting up a Puerto Rico Corporation, filing for tax exemption, showing my business history and appearing with me in front of a committee that will question my business and its move to Puerto Rico (for a fee). I don’t think it is as easy as setting up an S-Corp back on the mainland.

It is my understanding, that because I am in the service industry (Marketing) and that 90% of my clients are not in Puerto Rico, if I employee 5 residents of Puerto Rico (can be gringo or Puerto Rican as long as they live here) I can qualify for a Tax Exemption. This tax exemption will completely relieve me from having to pay Federal Taxes and will reduce my state taxes to 7% after all of my deductions. I also we will not be double taxed. I only pay taxes on my business once, then all the profits are mine at the end of the year. If I pay myself a salary, I will have to pay taxes on that (but I can write that off as a PO) Now, 5 employees is about all I would like to have (I used to have almost 40), but it would be worth bringing them on just for the tax break!

The problem with having employees is that you have to work harder. You need to have a plan for them everyday and most of all, you need to make sure they don’t all asleep on your desk. Cheech’s first and last day on the job:

Cheech, you’re fired!

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