Yesterday was the 31st of July, which was the last day of our original car rental. We had planned to have a car for all of July, but then be carless for the two weeks of August that we'll be here. And when I say "we", I mean "Janneke", who had been concerned about the cost of renting a car, back in the planning stages. As well she might be - it ain't cheap. But as we've seen over the course of July, we get so much out of it, that it's absolutely worth it. We have the entire city - Nay! The entire ISLAND! - at our fingertips with a car, whereas without it, we're crippled and hobbled and stranded.
Case in point: I drove out yesterday to Enterprise Rent-a-Car, which is past the airport. It took me probably ten or eleven minutes to get there. Knew exactly where to go: it's in Isla Verde, a sector of town with lots of hotels and casinos and long, sandy beaches. Four years ago, during one of the three out of four weeks when we didn't have a car, we had tried to get to Isla Verde to check out the beaches by using the bus system. You can look up the post if you like (here), and learn just how frustrating it can be to try to get out to where a car can get you as if via Star Trek transporter beam. We may head out there tomorrow - we've bumped into several Puerto Ricans who say that we just must see Piñones, home of a long, protected beach, and a large population of Afro-Puerto Ricans, with lots of food kiosks and hospitality galore. I saw the exact exit with the highway that they told us we should follow. It'll be like taking candy from a baby.
Dropped in to Enterprise, where I'd been told we wouldn't have to change cars; I had a reservation number from the lady on the phone, and would just have to get the new paperwork and drive home again. They didn't tell us that they would inspect the car prior to signing it out again; had they told me that, I'd have had a different attitude about the whole business. Because there is a scratch on the car.
Now, before you faint, hear me out: We have rental car insurance through our credit card. I'm not sure how it works, exactly, but I'm told we have it. The lady at Enterprise said they have to charge the deductible, and then they start haggling with the credit card company. I tried once to get hold of someone at Visa (and I'll try it again today), but after half an hour at $.10/minute, I'd given up. So I wound up having to transfer everything from the old car to the new one (snorkeling gear, Q's scooter, all the recycling we've been saving up). Bother.
But a nice car.
Drove home again, to find he fam making lunch. Partook thereof, and then we worked on the jigsaw puzzle a while. Janneke had purchased a thousand-piece one at Borders the other day, and it has been an absolute hoot. It's some shclocky scene of nighttime parks with fall foliage and city lights glistening through the trees. Hideous. And hard. But we're managing - the kids are very much better at it than I am. More patience, more methodical piece-sorting, I don't know. But they're good.
Janneke decided that with all the laundry she has to do, she won't have time to make supper, so she suggested we hit Bebo's, the kids' favorite restaurant here. We all heartily agreed.
Thence to the beach, which was absolutely jammed. We took Clarabelle, and did our trick of heading left to the rocky portion to avoid the crowds. Worked like a charm, and Q, with his new water shoes, was walking across the rocks (with me, I must admit), when he stumbled and caught himself with his hand - and filled the end of one finger with sea urchin spines. Just can't win, this kid, where sea urchins are concerned. He and I walked back to the apartment to try to get some of them out - we got maybe two of the six or seven out of there. He decreed the rest not to be very painful, and we returned to the beach.
Janneke did a good long walk up and down the beach, then we switched off, and I went home, left Clarabelle (it's a bit of a drag to be on the beach alone with her and the kids; hard to pay enough attention to either), and went out for a run.
Early on, there was a couple coming the opposite direction on the sidewalk, who were portly and stiff and seemed flabbergasted about what to do when faced with a jogger. Fine, I thought: I'm young(er), quick(er), and considerate(r): I'll jump off into this patch of long grass and jog through that so they can continue to waddle along in their current formation. What could possibly go wrong?
"Clang!" The grass is six or eight inches high, and hidden among its blades is a steel post, about four inches high. I caught it with the inside edge of my foot, just where the big toe meets the ball of the foot. No blood, but a lot of soreness. Onward!
I ran my route quickly and happily, and then went back to the beach, where Janneke and the kids had moved. I knew this; when I took Clarabelle home, I'd taken the keys, and then jogged back to find them so I could leave the keys with them, and had found them a hundred and fifty yards farther east, where the water's rock-free and it doesn't matter how many people are around because they no longer had Clarabelle. But when I finished the run, somehow it seemed to me that they would be to the right of the culvert that drains rainwater into the sea. I looked and looked among the bikini-clad hordes, and looked and looked and looked, and looked, but couldn't find them. So I looked some more, and then concluded that they'd gone back to the apartment.
While looking, I'd been soaking in the sea, and my heart beat had been returning to normal, my muscles cooling down, my adrenaline draining out of my system. And when I decided to walk to the apartment and left the water, my right foot, where I'd hit the post, was throbbing. It was along walk - felt that way, with my foot, though it was a block and a half - to the apartment, where I got no answer. So I trudged sorely back to the beach - my foot was purple where I'd hit it - and found them, not twenty yards to the EAST of where the street enters the beach. Duh.
Back to the healing waters, and then me back to the apartment to start the showering process; kids and Janneke followed soon thereafter. Once we'd all gotten tidied up, we headed to Bebo's, a two-minute walk away.
The place was jammed, which we expected, but we did not expect to wait 25 minutes to be served our drinks. It didn't get much better form there, service-wise; she seemed attentive, our waitress did, when she was around, but every one of the tables around us - all four of them - had people arrive after us, get served, pay, and leave before our oddyssey ended. The food was great, but we decided we definitely needed to send a message with the tip. Which got a bit awkward - or could have - when she pesented us with the bill, and asked quite up-front, "Are you going to put in the suggested gratuity?" "No," I said, "we'll take care of that in cash." This seemed to set her aback a bit, which is the point. Lady, we aren't blind. Put a wiggle in it next time.
Home and to bed. The whole family these days piles into our room before bed to read in the air-conditioning. It's a nice time. No pictures, though; considerable percentages of the family usually participate in their underway. And some of us have a love-handle problem we're trying to work through.
And now it's Monday morning. Janneke's taking the morning to do work, and I'm going out in the afternoon to visit the market again; the kids are breakfasted and are currently doing this:
The U-shape in the middle of the pieces is a strategy Q came up with last night: When there's a particularly odd-shaped piece that you can't seem to see, but you know must be in the mess somewhere, you slide them all over one by one, thus sorting them into a "searched" area and a "not yet searched" area. And the piece just can't escape.
T asked me to take one just of her, so here it is:
And, in the interest of fairness:
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