Rincon Bike Parade II

Here is a prize winning Chopper style bike built by Boi Anthony and his son. They built in on Saturday, painted it Sunday morning, and rode it that afternoon. Boi says they already have a design in mind for next year.


There was one two year old rider and a couple three year olds. We covered a little over three miles in about 45 minutes.


Boi Anthony's son on the chopper bike. This photo and the one above are from Bob Lassiter.


Another shot of the adult part of the group. The kids section has already turned the corner in the distance.

You can click on the pictures to see them bigger. There were door prizes, prizes for bike decoration and design, as well as for the oldest and youngest riders.


Me on my new bike, in a shot by Jon Savage. I've put over 1500 miles on it so far. This bike is not designed for going slowly, but I got a lot of good practice that afternoon.

Name this Picture II

Here's another shot of one of the members of our home security team that needs a caption. Any ideas?


You can click on the picture to see it bigger, and use the comments section to post a caption.

Sammi Salvage

The plucky little TWR Suzuki Samurai work beast has suffered a couple broken leaf springs during its first year of service. Makes me wonder about our two trusty Samurai(s). We've been all over the place with them but haven't broken any springs yet, gulp.

Rich West happened to spot a couple Samurai at the dump (land fill) this week while he was disposing of some old junk. He told Udo, who went and got permission to go glean parts off of them and we zoomed out to see what we could salvage. The cars were pretty much picked bare, but Rich did get a few springs. Hooray.

Here we see Rich using his handy-dandy, one size fits all, salvage tool to remove the leaf springs from an old Suzuki Samurai.

You can click on the picture to see the junk better. :)

What's Wrong With this Picture?

It's time once again for you to try to figure out what is wrong with this tranquil Bonaire waterfront scene.

You can click on this picture to see it bigger.


You can use the comments feature to post your answers.

Rainy Winter Revisited

It's been windy and dry on Bonaire for a while now, but if you were reading my blog this past winter, you will remember that we had especially heavy rains.

The countries in northern South America had heavier than usual rains too, with much more serious results. There was widespread flooding, mudslides, and many casualties.

Here is a letter from one of our listeners in Guyana. It took 6 weeks to get here, so I'm sure things are drying out down there too by now. But rebuilding the damage, both physical and personal will take much longer.

We experienced a devastating flood here in Guyana. This was due to a breach of the water conservancy dam and at the same time, we experienced heavy rainfall. There wasn’t an inch of land visible. There was water everywhere. Homes were flooded. In the lower flat of our home, there was 18 inches of water and in some parts of our yard, there was approximately 36 inches of water. The streets were literally turned into rivers and the only means of transportation was by boat.
On Sunday, Jan. 16th, at 11 pm, it began to rain. I was listening to TWR.
On Monday, Jan. 17th, it was still raining and we woke up about 4:30 am and the water was at the edge of our house foundation. We started to prepare to set up our sandbags at the 2 doors to the lower flat. We started to place everything as high as we possibly could. We worked 17 hours straight, stopping just to take a snack at midday. While my parents baled the water from the doors, my brother and I were moving everything higher. It rained continuously.
On Jan. 18th, when we awoke early in the morning, we noticed the water in the lower flat was getting higher. It took us 12 hours to take our things to the upper flat and at the same time, make stands for things we could not take up. Thanks be to God, that was only after we had moved our things to safety that the water started to gush in the lower flat and it became completely flooded.
We were unable to leave our home. It is only now that the water has receded and we are able to get out. My brother was traumatized by the amount of water he saw, so please pray for him. My mom lost a few plants. We suffered no more losses. It would take us approximately 2-3 months for us to really get back to normal living. Right now we are in the process of cleaning up and it is extremely hectic and stressful.
There aren’t words to express what we went through. I would never like to experience something like this in my life again. I don’t even like to remember it.
It was TWR that helped me through that difficult time. It is our deep faith in our Lord and Savior that has helped us to cope in these tough times. We were able to praise Him even in our storms. Please ask your listeners to pray for me and my family and the people in my country.

Washington Park I

As we began our tour through Washington Park, one of the first stops was at Playa Chikitu. The waves were really rolling in that day. Back in the late 70's, when I worked nights, I used to body surf here twice a week. It was great, but one had to know what one was doing, because of the power of the waves and the weird currents and rips generated in this small inlet.

The park strongly recommends that one not go swimming here, and I agree. You could be in serious trouble before you even knew what hit you.



There seemed to be a lot more sand on the beach and behind the beach than there has been at some times in the past. It was really beautiful, and of course, we had it all to ourselves.

You can click on these pictures to see them bigger.

Washington Park II

Boka Kokalishi was really pretty, even with the hazy skies. The sand here is made up of crushed sea shells and has an interesting texture.

You can click on the picture to see it bigger.


The sand had moved around quite a bit, possibly due to big waves washing in, or more likely, from water runoff heading towards the sea from the super heavy rains we had a few months ago.

Friendly Flamingos

We visited Washington Park this past week. I didn't bother to bring my camera because the skies were hazy due to the high winds we've had for a few weeks. Our friend, Jim Ruskowsky, brought his and it is a good thing he did.

The flamingos were hanging out right by the road and were remarkably tolerant of our presence. Jim got a bunch of cool flamingo pictures. Here's one of them.


You can click on the picture to see it bigger.

Fresh Fish

We had dinner at Richard's restaurant the other night with Jim and MayAnn Ruskowsky. Here is the view from our table, thanks to Jim, who brought his camera along.



For those who were wondering just how fresh the famous grilled local fish is, Richard brought around an example. You can click on these pictures to see them bigger.

Name this Picture

For all you dog lovers, here is a shot of one the brave members of our home security team.


Ok, lets put the comments feature to good use. We need a CAPTION for this picture!

Solar Eclipse

It was cloudy and hazy, but we got to see some of the solar eclipse this afternoon. We saved our solar filter eclipse glasses from the total eclipse of 1998 (I think) so Sandra watched as much of the eclipse possible through gaps in the clouds.

I took pictures with my ETX 90 telescope and solar filter. Here are a few pictures. I have more pictures in my club photo photo album. Scroll down to the bottom of the club photo page to see today's eclipse photos. You can click on the thumbnails to see larger pictures.

You can click on these pictures to see them bigger too.

About 6:09 pm.


Around 6:21 pm.


Around 6:31 pm.

Dream Car arrives on Bonaire

There are some really amazing new mega high performance cars out there these days, according to what I read online from the auto shows etc. Of course, they all cost a zillion dollars.

This has been my favorite "bang for the buck, fun to drive, fast, yet pratical" dream car for the last few years. A couple of Richard's friends at Bucknell have them and he reports that they live up to their reputation. They are out of our price range, of course, but I freaked this week when I drove by the dealer on my way to the transmitter site and saw that one of them had actually landed on good old Bonaire.

So we stopped by our friendly Suzuki, Chevy, Isuzu, and Subaru dealer yesterday to check it out. Here Sandra gets as close as she probably ever will be. You can click on the picture to better see the drool marks I left all over fenders.

Actually to be my ultimate dream car, it would need to be Subaru Rally Team Blue. That color must evoke memories of the Sunoco Blue cars that Mark Donahue drove for Roger Penske back in my impressionable teen age years. But if one can't have Rally Team Blue, I guess Mid Life Crisis Red is a good alternative.

There is a Mitsubishi dealer right down the street, so now that an Impreza WRX has hit these shores, can a Lancer EVO 9 be far behind? I suspect not. These two performance car lines are as intensely competitive as the Mustang and Camaro were in the 60's.

However, since EVO stands for Evolution, this missionary can't very well lust after one of them can he? Did I just say "lust", yikes. I wonder which is worse, lusting after a WRX or actually driving a car named Evolution, heh-heh.

Google adds Maps and Satellite Images

We will be in the States later this year visiting our family, friends and ministry sponsors. So naturally my thoughts are turning towards travel logistics, as in "how do you get there from here?"

Well, Google has added Maps to its gaggle of services. I'm finding them pretty useful.

The really cool thing is that they now have satellite images tied in with the maps. It is simple to enter a town and state, zoom in on the map to an area of interest, and then click on the satellite image link and see the area for real.

You probably won't want to do this with a dial up internet connection, but on our meager 128k connection, it works pretty well. I found ok pictures of Bucknell University, and Willow Valley in Pennsylvania, and a truly amazing high resolution image of my old stomping grounds in Little Falls, NJ. I could easily idendify stuff like: individual houses, pools, driveways, the reservoir in Cedar Grove, Montclair State Univ., Mills Reservation, the Chapel on the Hill, all the new housing developments they built in the woods we used to play in, etc. etc.

If you don't already chew up too much time surfing the Net. This new Google service should help you max yourself out.

Mowing

Well, a nice packed down bare dirt yard with crushed rock accents is de rigueur here on Bonaire.
See my blog from Nov. 1. You can click the link and scroll down to the bottom of the page.

But we had a really long rainy season this past year and I got tired of hoeing the weeds. Pushing a mower is a LOT easier, so we bought a used mower the other day.

I had to try it out on what is left of the weeds in our back yard.
The mower buzzed the weeds down nicely, but raised a huge cloud of dust as well.


Sandra snapped a picture. It was getting dark and the flash lit up the dust particles, but didn't reach me. Kind of like driving in a snowstorm...... really. :)

Here is the original picture. You can probably download it and have a go at it with your favorite photo editor. It would be good practice, in case you ever take a one of a kind, but really dark, picture.


You can click on the pictures to see them bigger, heh-heh.

Zensens visit Bonaire

George and Joan Zensen, accompanied by their youngest offspring and two of their numerous grand- offspring, have been exploring their old stomping grounds here on Bonaire for the last couple weeks.

I won't name names here on the big bad Internet, 'cause family tree type relationships are still used all too often for identity verification purposes. Wouldn't want to assist any would be identity thieves.

You can click the picture to see it bigger.


We had a fun pizza feed and astronomy session with them.

Happy Easter

For some people Maundy Thursday kicks off the Easter weekend. I've always wondered what that ment, but learned a little about it today from the Slice of Infinity daily devotional email from the Ravi Zacarias ministry.

Here's an excerpt; Today we observe Maundy Thursday. We remember both Jesus's intentional act of love in washing his disciples' feet and his mandate ("Maundy" is the Middle English for "mandate") to "love one another as I have loved you" (John 13:34).

Sandra was at one of the supermarkets yesterday and noticed that they were closed on Good Friday and on Easter Monday, but open on Easter Sunday!

On Sunday, we'll be having a sunrise service on Seroe Largu and an international breakfast at the church before the regular morning service. All of our food fests here have an international "flavor" due to the cross section of nationalities and cultures represented.

Most years, I get in a number of long road bike rides over the Easter weekend, because there aren't many cars on the roads. But the tradewinds have been "nuking" here the last couple days. That makes bike riding pretty difficult. A 25 to 30 mph. wind can pretty much stop you dead in your tracks when you swing into it on your bike. I've been riding my mtn. bike in the hills north of us the last few days. The hills block the wind some and my speeds are pretty low anyway.

Awana Grand Prix

After two Saturday car construction workshops, we held the Awana Grand Prix this past Saturday. Lots of kids and parents came and everyone seemed to have a wonderful time.

More pix of the cars, kids, and race action are on my club photo site. The link will take you to the thumbnails page. Clicking on a thumbnail will get you a bigger picture. Clicking on the bigger picture will get you the full 800x600 image.
Photos from the workshops are at the top of the page, followed by photos from the Grand Prix.


We sang some of the kids favorite songs at the start of the meeting. You can click on these pictures to see them bigger.


Sandra's elephant and my Toblerone bar car can be seen in this shot of the leaders' cars.

Spring has Sprung - New Life in more ways than one

According to Sky and Telescope dot com, Spring arrived at 7:33 am. Eastern Standard Time on Sunday! Does it feel like spring where you live? We can sure tell here on Bonaire.

The heavy rains have stopped, the tradewinds are blowing, and the sun is getting noticeably hotter. I guess those massless photons really do have momentum. One can almost feel the pressure when one steps from the shade into the direct Bonaire sun. Actually, that's not how it really works, but it is what pops into my mind when I step out into the sun without my official missionary pith helmet.

The seasonal changes also mean that there is some dust in the air, so the night sky is not the deep inky black that we've enjoyed for the last few months. But it is still fun to go out after dark and check out the stars, planets, satellites, etc. We saw a mind boggling "fizzy" meteor a week or so ago.

I just came across a letter that was written to one of our cooperating broadcasters, from a fellow stargazer living in a Persian Gulf state. It hit me like a ton of bricks. Darkness can take many forms, as can new life in the Spring.

One night a while ago when I was looking into the heavens and praying to God, my heart was enlightened when I heard your radio program that talked about the true love of God. This was the exact thing that my spirit was searching for. I did not even know that was what I longed for.

For 24 years I was living in darkness and I wasted my life in anger and hatred. Emotionally I was depressed, so when I heard you message about love I could not believe it. Your program showed me that my cold empty heart needs Jesus. Why has no one told me about Jesus before? Now I say, "Dear Jesus, you are my precious one. Without you I am dying. Living Jesus Christ, I know I am a sinner and that you paid the sacrifice to pay for my sin. I accept you as my savior. Please come into my heart now and reveal your truth to me, oh Jesus."

After hearing your program, I went all over to find some christian literature but could not find any. I only found anti-christian literature. Finally I received a page from the Holy Bible from somebody and it brought me much joy. Now my only source of teaching is your program. I need your help. Please guide me and tell me how I can become a Christian and a servant for Jesus Christ. I pray that God will give you strength so you can continue to share the Gospel with us. My depression is gone. Jesus has healed me.

Kralendijk Waterfront

I shot this picture of beautiful downtown Kralendijk last week, when we flew to Curacao for some medical testing. Click on the picture to see it bigger.

Bonaire Visitors

The Hixons were visiting here on Bonaire recently. It was good to see them and they had a great time tracking down all their friends here. But I didn't have my camera around at the right time, so there are no pix for the blog. grrr

Janet Ludlam also came for a visit. She exercised good timing and was able to enjoy a food and fun night at the church. Here we see Sue Felix and Janet digging in.

You can click on the picture to get a better look at that yummy egg roll on Janet's plate.

Awana Update

We had our second Awana Grand Prix car building workshop last Saturday. Many of the cars were at that all important, "get as close to 5 oz. as possible" stage. The races and judging are this coming Saturday.


You can click on the picture to see it bigger.
We drilled lots of holes and glued in lots of lead weights. I learned that glue-gun glue stays hot for a long time when one uses it to fill up a hole in a model car.

Antenna Testing

The tower painting is finished for now. We're thankful for perfect painting weather and for the safe completion of the first tower and part of a second one.

On Friday, we ran the transmitter at low power and took signal strength readings in a big circle around the antenna array. I would find our pre-determined test locations with a GPS receiver and Rich, Jon, and Bob took readings. Another Rich was inside with the transmitter and switched the antenna from North, to South, to Non-Directional; at each test spot. We took readings every five degrees around the circle.

Here is our intrepid crew out in the field. You can click on the picture to see the guys bigger.
This spot was under water a couple months ago!


We had to snake our way through some brush to find the test spots, but fortunately, it was the non-thorny variety. We've gotten pretty scratched up on earlier ventures into the wilds of Bonaire.

AWANA Grand Prix

It's Awana Grand Prix season again here on Bonaire. It is a three week event, with model car building workshops for two saturdays and then the actual races on the third saturday.

We had the first car construction workshop with the kids on Saturday.


The kids are cute and have a great time designing and working on their cars.


We had some parents come with their kids this year, which is a nice change. More parents will join us on race day.

I've posted lots more pictures on my club photo site. You can click the pictures here as well as the ones on club photo to see them bigger.

Bonaire Electricity Update

The WEB power plant by our house has a bunch of new generators to fill in for the ones that burned up on Feb. 7. You can see them in the containers in the foreground.

According to the Bonaire Reporter, each of the units can generate a megawatt. Four of the units are running now, and we can hear them quite clearly from our house. But the are running smoothly and are nowhere near as obnoxious as the big old ones the burned up.

There should be enough power now, to meet Bonaire's peak demand, so hopefully scheduled power outages will be a thing of the past. These rented generators, from www.aggreko.com, will be used until the main power plant can be repaired.

The Bonaire Reporter also reported that one of the burned diesels has been written off as a total loss by the insurance company, but that the second one should be usable after extensive repairs.


We certainly enjoyed the peace and quiet while the plant was out of operation, but appreciate the hard work that WEB has done to restore full power to the island.

I have set up our TV room / home theater with a third-octave sound analyzer (one of the perks of being a recording engineer) and there used to be a HUGE peak of ambient noise from the power plant at 45 to 50 hz. It actually caused the cement walls to vibrate in one of our rooms, where some sort of resonance was set up. It also pretty much drowned out the subwoofer unless we turned it waaaaay up, which hurt our ears.

These new generators produce background noise centered at about 90 hz and "only" 18 dB above the sound level for the rest of the spectrum. That is still a lot of bass energy, but it is a big improvement, and we are hearing the soudtrack of movies as never before. We just watched The Hunt for Red October, which has lots of low frequency "ambiance" inside the subs etc.

Brazil Monitoring Trip

A TWR team with members from the US, Europe and South America is in the Amazon region of Brazil right now. They'll be traveling around and checking the signal strength of our broadcasts.

They are especially interested in the signal in the north west corner of the Amazon area, because that is were the Ticuna tribal group is located. We hope to begin broadcasting to them soon.

We'll be transmitting test broadcasts between midnight and 3 am, in addition to our regularly scheduled broadcasts from 6 pm to midnight and from 3 am to 8:15 am. The first test is tonight and they will continue until Thursday morning.

Please remember this test and the soon to be sleep deprived team in your prayers.
Thank you.

New Improved Comments Feature

Blogger has recently improved the way the comments feature works. So if you've tried to leave a comment on my blog in the past, and found it to be too much hassel, it might be better now.