Stars in LA

'Well, we didn't see any movie stars during our time in Los Angeles. But we did check out the Griffith Observatory and my favorite type of stars, the ones in the night sky. On the other hand, Amazon has a list of fifteen movies that were partly filmed on the grounds of the observatory so the Tinseltown connection isn't entirely lacking.

The lights of LA were quite impressive, although smog limited the visibility somewhat.

We shivered in line as we waited for the 7:45 pm planetarium show. After the show, we could have observed Saturn through the observatories 12" refractor. But the line was loooong, it was already midnight on our east coast body clocks, and also a little on the cool side for Caribbean sensibilities. Of course, if it had just been me... no line would have been too long and I would have courted pneumonia to see Saturn in that scope, but there were others to think of.

LA = Car Heaven

There sure were a lot of shiny cars in Los Angeles. The Bonaire sun and salt makes short work of that shiny new car appearance. One doesn't notice it that much until one goes some place where even old cars look like new.

And then there was the airport lot at Hertz. Chevrolet has built 500 of a special edition of the Corvette called the GHZ. They looked great, but I am admittedly partial to shiny yellow cars.

I counted at least ten of these babies in the lot when we were there and two of they were driven away by beaming customers while our son was inside renting our normal type car. :)

TWR Partners Meetings

Our Bonaire station director, Joe Barker, was in Bogota, Colombia last week for the TWR Latin American partner's conference known as CRAL 2009. CRAL is an acronym for CONSEJO REGIONAL PARA AMERICA LATINA. Joe can be seen smack in the middle of the last row is this group photo.

Representatives from 14 TWR partnering countries in the Americas region took part in the sessions which featured reports and training. This was also the first opportunity for most of these people to meet Lauren Libby, the new President of TWR international.

More CRAL photos can be found on Georgina Thompson's blog.

bye bye Venus

Venus has been shining brightly in the evening sky for quite some time now, but it will be gone from the Bonaire skies any day now. If you live further to the north, like 40 degrees for example, you can spot Venus in both the evening and in the morning sky from March 21 to March 25. I took the above picture back on February 27. It was on the blog together with the Moon, which was nearby at the time.

Here is how Venus looked last night, March 19.

Spring Has Sprung

Well, actually I'm jumping the gun on this. Spring won't sproing for ten more minutes, as I type this at 07:34 eastern standard time.
Let's see, I think I'll give the dogs each a doggy treat to celebrate.
It is all very unsettling to Sandra, who learned a cute poem in French school about Spring starting on the 21st.

Store Sightings

Burbank, California may have its "Buy More" where our favorite nerd, Chuck, works. We'll have to look for it when we are out there for my niece's wedding, ha-ha.

But Curacao is right up there with its Cost-U-Less warehouse store.

We were just in Curacao on Tuesday, visiting Sandra's doctor. The Cost-U-Less is on our must see list, along with the zoo, and foreign to Bonaire food places like Burger King and Pizza Hut.

Friends from the Frozen North

We had some long time friends from New Jersey visit us on Friday. Roger and Maryann Jacobsen were on a one week cruise, starting and ending in Panama, and stopped here for a day.

We visited all the usual spots, had a yummy Bonarian lunch at Antriol Catering, and visited the TWR studio and TX sites as well.

If you look closely, you can see the tower painting crew about half way up the left hand tower.

Dog Days of Winter

It has been quite cool and cloudy here this weekend. It's been very windy too, which makes it feel even colder.

Two of our friends independently recorded night time temperatures in the high 60's (F) last night.

Just check out this picture of our poor little pooch all curled up to keep warm.

So So

Sandra has been on a reupholstering kick lately. Right now she is re-doing the dining room chairs. Recently she made a slip cover for the dog's sofa bed. You see, from time to time, they decide to play with and/or chew on the cushions.... so Sandra thought that if the whole thing was covered over, the cushions would be safe.

So far so good. Maybe leaving that cardboard around for them to chew on helps too..

Tower Time

It is tower painting time again here on Bonaire. It was cloudy and not that rainy last week, perfect weather for working on the tower. It has been very windy this weekend, which isn't so good for tower painting. The paint blows around to the back side of the tower legs before it has a chance to dry. Oh, and it was about 69 degrees F. this morning when we woke up, brrrrrr. While Benny is on the tower, Ivan is working at clearing some of the bushes that are growing in the antenna field and interfering with the radial wires that extend radially (duh) from the base of each tower.

Benny is checking the structural integrity of one of the towers a week or two before the painting crew got started. I don't have any painting pictures from this year, yet. I may get some on Friday.

More Feedback from Cuba

Yesterday we heard from Alberto, our TWR partner in Cuba, who produces the new program, Mensajes de Fe y Esperance there. It is on the air from Bonaire Monday through Friday nights.

He is excited, and I think somewhat surprised, that during the first eight weeks that this new program has been on the air, he has received 276 listener responses. The map shows where the listeners are located.

Representatives from our 12 TWR partners in Latin America and the Caribbean will all be meeting in Bogota soon, so Alberto concludes, "Looking forward to seeing you soon. I have amazing histories about TWR ministry in Cuba. You have done a wonderful job in Bonaire and God has blessed your ministry here in Cuba."